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The attack comes a week after the Trump administration was sued by the families of two men killed in an earlier strike.
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Just over a week after the families of two Trinidadian men sued the Trump administration over the boat bombings that killed their relatives, the US Department of Defense killed two more people in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing the total death toll to at least 128 in the White House's operation that it claims is targeting drug traffickers.
The US Southern Command said in a social media post that at the direction of Cmdr. Gen. Francis L. Donovan, “Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations.”
As with the other dozens of strikes the Pentagon has carried out in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since September, Southern Command did not provide evidence for its claim that “narco-terrorists” were killed in the attack or that the vessel was traveling “along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
On Feb. 5, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking… pic.twitter.com/B3ctyN1lke
The White House has persistently claimed that the boat strikes are aimed at stopping drug cartels based in Venezuela from sending drugs to the US, but international and domestic intelligence agencies have not identified Venezuela as a major player in the trafficking of illicit substances — particularly not of fentanyl, the leading cause of overdoses in the US.
President Donald Trump has claimed the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have unsuccessfully sought to pass war powers resolutions to stop the administration from attacking vessels and targets in Venezuela.
Dozens of strikes preceded the Trump administration's invasion of Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, whom the White House has accused of being directly involved with drug trafficking. Since attacking Venezuela, though, administration officials have all but admitted their goal in the South American country is to take control of its oil supply.
The killings of nearly 130 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have been denounced as extrajudicial “murders” by numerous legal experts, and a top military lawyer at the Pentagon warned officials in August, weeks before the operations began, that carrying out the strikes could expose military top brass as well as rank-and-file service members to legal liability.
In the case of at least one bombing in September, the official who oversaw the strike told Congress that the boat was found to have been headed to Suriname, not the United States. One vessel had turned back toward Venezuela, away from the US, when it was struck.
The strike on Thursday was announced soon after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that “some top cartel drug-traffickers… have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” Hegseth did not provide evidence for the claim.
Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America emphasized on Thursday that after killing more than 127 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the administration has nothing to show for the operation but “a collection of gruesome videos” of the bombings.
They killed >127 people aboard boats, in 33 attacks, in 5 months.And the amount of cocaine found at the US land border keeps _increasing_.All they have to show for it is a collection of gruesome videos.From CBP: https://t.co/DkggKdszZ0 https://t.co/eYbi0VgjmU pic.twitter.com/WBMuoISUhO
“The amount of cocaine found at the US land border keeps increasing,” he said, citing Customs and Border Protection statistics.
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President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner visited the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on Saturday morning after completing talks with Iran on Friday.
Kushner and Witkoff were invited to visit the carrier, which is part of the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, by the commander of US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, a senior US official told CNN. The intention of the trip was to express gratitude for the American service members in the region, the official added.
The visit to serves as a stark reminder that while the US and Iran are now re-engaged in negotiations, the Trump administration still maintains a significant military buildup in the Middle East. That presence has accelerated in recent weeks as Trump considered options for striking Iran, but there was no indication that any decision has been made to move ahead with options reviewed.
Witkoff wrote on X after the visit that he, Kushner and Cooper “met with the brave sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, her strike group, and Carrier Air Wing 9 who are keeping us safe and upholding President Trump's message of peace through strength.”
“We thanked the sailors and Marines, observed live flight operations, and spoke with the pilot who downed an Iranian drone that approached the carrier without clear intent,” Witkoff wrote, referring to an incident Tuesday in the Arabian Sea. “Proud to stand with the men and women who defend our interests, deter our adversaries, and show the world what American readiness and resolve look like, on watch every day.”
Central Command in a news release Saturday wrote that Cooper, Witkoff and Kushner met with the ship's crew, and that Cooper “expressed his gratitude for their service.”
The visit came after Trump told reporters Friday that Witkoff and Kushner held “very good talks” with Iran after delegations from both countries participated in indirect discussions in Oman. But Trump added that a “big fleet” was still heading toward Iran and would be arriving soon.
“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly,” the president said aboard Air Force One. “We have to see what that deal is.”
The meetings were the first round of negotiations between the two sides since the US and Israel struck Iran last summer. Witkoff and Kushner took part in the talks with Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who earlier on Friday met with each of the parties separately, mediated the discussions. Cooper was also seen attending the meetings in photos released by the state-run Oman News Agency.
After the talks ended, in a sign that the US wants to keep up economic pressure, it rolled out new sanctions on Iranian oil and 14 vessels carrying it.
Both parties have since agreed to hold follow-up discussions after consultations with their capitals, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Trump said that another round of negotiations will be held again “early next week,” but Araghchi said no date had been set.
The Omanis and the Iranians knew about the visit to the carrier before it took place, a regional source said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN's Nadeen Ebrahim and Mostafa Salem contributed to this report.
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Thousands of mourners yesterday gathered in Islamabad to start burying the 31 killed in a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque, as residents expressed concern that there could be further attacks.
A man opened fire at the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the outskirts of Pakistan's capital, then detonated a bomb that killed 31, as well as himself, and injured more than 170 people.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Photo: EPA
Funeral prayers for some of the victims were held in an open area near the mosque under tight security, with police and a unit of elite commandos standing guard. Mourners beat their chests before stooping to lift the coffins and carry them toward the burial grounds.
“Whoever did this terrorism, may God burn them in hell and turn them to ash,” the prayer leader told mourners.
While bombings are rare in heavily guarded Islamabad, this is the second such attack in three months and, given the rise in militancy, there are fears of a return to violence in Pakistan's major urban centers.
The government is “tracing the facilitators and handlers” behind the attack, Pakistani Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said, adding that some victims remain critically injured in hospital and are “being provided the best healthcare possible.”
The bomber had a history of traveling to Afghanistan, Pakistani Minister of Defense Khawaja Asif said, blaming India for sponsoring the assault, without providing evidence.
India condemned the mosque attack and rejected the assertion that it had any involvement.
“It is unfortunate that, instead of seriously addressing the problems plaguing its social fabric, Pakistan should choose to delude itself by blaming others for its home-grown ills,” New Delhi said.
Shiites, who are a minority in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation of 241 million, have been targeted in sectarian violence in the past, including by Islamic State and the Sunni Islamist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year.
Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects.
Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight.
From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China.
“Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet's freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family's Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy.
Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore.
In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot.
Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside.
In November, he took a team
The city's use of temporary shelters harms affordable housing efforts and merely delays displacement of unhoused people.
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Tens of thousands of football fans are expected to flood the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX to witness the highly anticipated match between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the National Football League championship will be held for the second time in a decade. A series of fan-facing events in San Francisco promises to attract a majority of the Super Bowl tourists visiting the area this week, but nearby cities like San Jose are also trying to attract some of the tourists their way.
But amid the buzz and fanfare, a darker cloud looms — as the booming tech region makes space for these visitors to sprawl, its unhoused communities are being driven further to the sidelines.
“It's all about the optics,” said Todd Langton, executive director of Agape Silicon Valley, a volunteer-based organization designed to serve unhoused people throughout San Jose. “It's about getting from the clean airport to the nice stadium and checking out the restaurants and hotels downtown.”
The Super Bowl's sanitized optics have consistently relied on the erasure of thousands of unhoused people who set up near these high traffic areas in host cities.
The Super Bowl's sanitized optics have consistently relied on the erasure of thousands of unhoused people who set up near these high traffic areas in host cities. Just last year, Louisiana ordered an emergency declaration to relocate people living on the streets near the Superdome ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Before then, both Los Angeles in 2022 and Atlanta in 2019 came under fire for similar “homeless sweeps.”
Even in 2016, San Francisco — Super Bowl 50's unofficial host city — also faced controversy for displacing unhoused communities, namely near the Moscone Center, the epicenter of the year's “Super Bowl City” festivities. Robert Aguirre, advocate for the unhoused and former resident of San Jose's infamous “Jungle” — the largest homeless encampment in the U.S. — even recalls San Francisco's push to use former military battleships and aircraft carriers known as “mothball fleets” as temporary housing units during the Super Bowl.
“City council members proposed bringing a mothball fleet into San Francisco Harbor and moving all of the unhoused people there,” Aguirre told Truthout. “And really, the only people who were in favor of it were the wealthy white people and business people, because they wanted the streets cleaned up so that they could make more money.” While the mothball fleets never came to fruition, San Francisco was nonetheless characterized by the hundreds of tents and tarps underlying the I-80 freeway, stretching over dozens of blocks and side streets as the city prepped a downtown staging area for Super Bowl City.
This year, eager to avoid controversy, the region's solution to the “homeless problem” at first glance seems a bit more humane — investing heavily in temporary housing. This is especially true in San Jose, home to more than 6,000 of Santa Clara's 10,711 unhoused residents. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan's “clean-up strategy” has been over a year in the making, with Mahan announcing a plan to build up to 1,400 new beds through the construction of temporary housing sites and interim housing communities before the end of last year. The move makes sense — according to a 2025 Silicon Valley Pain Index report, not only does Santa Clara County have the highest number of unhoused people of all nine Bay Area counties, but San Jose alone is one of the most expensive U.S. cities for household bills, with 40 percent of San Jose renters and homeowners spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing alone.
The Trump administration has cut funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, putting 170,000 vulnerable people at risk of homelessness.
And as the cost of living swells, federal budget cuts further erode social safety nets and threaten to push more people into the grips of homelessness. In fact, the Trump administration has already cut funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), putting 170,000 vulnerable people at risk of homelessness. Nearly 1,000 vulnerable Santa Clara households are at risk of losing emergency housing vouchers within the next year as a result of HUD cuts.
Mahan's plans to develop more temporary housing as a buffer against these federal aid cuts seems admirable, but San Jose's unhoused advocates are aware of the bitter truth that underlies these emerging policies. To build these temporary housing sites, the city utilized funds from its Measure E tax — a property transfer tax designed to fund construction of permanent, affordable housing. “The mayor convinced enough of the city council to take Measure E money — which was originally for building permanent supportive housing — to build temporary interim housing,” Aguirre told Truthout. The city's single largest revenue source for affordable housing has also been used to pay for operational costs of the city's shelters on multiple occasions. So far, an estimated $40 million that was originally intended for permanent affordable housing has instead been used to shelter unhoused residents in the short term.
“What ends up happening is they shove everybody into these temporary units that they build.”
“What ends up happening is they shove everybody into these temporary units that they build — they could be motel rooms, some are essentially tent cities built in a parking lot,” Aguirre told Truthout. Aguirre added that these “tiny home villages” become sites for surveillance and further control by the state. “What I'm hearing on the streets is that the people who work there are more like prison guards,” Aguirre said. “They will tell you what things you can keep and what you're allowed to bring in your place,” he explained. “You're not allowed to have anybody come into your unit. You can't bring food into your unit — you can only eat it in the common area … So let's say you want to watch the Super Bowl, for example, and you've got your TV set up and your nachos ready, you want to invite people over — you can't do that. That's a violation.”
According to Aguirre, people living in these units are reluctant to file grievances because the process is reviewed by the same enforcers of the site's regulations. “The grievance process is reviewed by these [guards]. So people don't want to complain because they don't want to get attacked,” Aguirre told Truthout. “They don't want any kind of retribution, and they don't want to make trouble for the other people living in that same commune.”
Beyond these glaring issues within the temporary housing units, Mahan's push for temporary housing isn't isolated. In fact, right after San Jose City Council made the decision to reallocate Measure E funds to short-term housing last year, the city conducted 530 encampment sweeps, including clearing Columbus Park — the largest encampment in San Jose and home to around 370 unhoused people and about 120 lived-in vehicles. Before this, Mahan launched the Oversized and Lived-In Vehicle Enforcement program, expanding temporary RV bans across the city. Since San Jose has effectively criminalized homelessness, unsheltered people only have three chances to refuse temporary housing before facing arrest for trespassing.
“This whole campaign to try to clean up the city — to get rid of the people that are wandering around at all hours — it's so [tourists] can't see them.”
For Todd Langton, these accelerated abatements are the start of what he refers to as a cyclical “game of Whack-a-Mole,” especially as the city prepares for high-profile events. “In these transitional housing facilities, [unhoused people] can stay for up to six months, two years maximum,” he said. “So [the city] finds out where unhoused people are, then accelerates abatements, giving them no choice but to move someplace else, accept temporary housing, or lose everything,” Langton told Truthout.
“Most of the time, they're not even offered housing. And then, as soon as the Super Bowl or the World Cup or whatever is over, they're back on the streets again,” he added.
After all, temporary housing is just that — temporary. “Without enough permanent housing, there really is nowhere for them to go afterwards,” Langton told Truthout.
While Santa Clara County has secured funding to develop a low-income housing project in San Jose, Aguirre says the city itself is still thwarting efforts to expand affordable housing. On January 27, an adjustment to San Jose's inclusionary housing policy — requiring market-rate housing developers to allot a portion of their investments toward affordable housing — passed the city council in a 9-2 vote. This new adjustment effectively raises the income threshold to qualify for housing, shifting its prioritization of extremely low- and moderate-income people toward middle-income and working professionals. “They raised that bar so that people making over $150,000 would qualify,” Aguirre, who attended the city council vote, told Truthout. “Now, people making $35,000 and less won't even qualify because [developers] are going to want to rent to the higher-earning people.”
With Mahan recently announcing his bid for California governor, both Aguirre and Langton insist that the city's policy of prioritizing abatements and building temporary housing has all been part of a bigger build-up — one that attempts to put San Jose in a better light. “This whole campaign to try to clean up the city — to get rid of the people that are wandering around at all hours — it's so [tourists] can't see them,” Aguirre told Truthout.
In the shadows of this misleading light, somewhere beyond the roaring fans in Levi's Stadium, are hundreds of displaced people forced to start over again and again.
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Ngakiya Camara is a freelance journalist, artist, and fervent storyteller. Her work and research centers Black joy and liberation, anti-militarist organizing, global Indigeneity and sovereignty, and the history of her parents' homeland in Guinea.
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Members of the American Indian Movement and the Many Shields Warrior Society are patrolling the streets of Minneapolis.
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A cozy cafe in the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has become a staging ground for Indigenous-led patrols working to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) off their streets. Pow Wow Grounds, opened in 2011 by Bob Rice, has been both a gathering place for community members attempting to make sense of the scale of violence they have witnessed over the past few weeks and a place to strategize an autonomous response.
During Truthout's visit to the cafe at the end of January, wagons full of supplies — from food and gas masks to Narcan — passed in and out of Pow Wow Grounds' front door, which for the first time was kept locked to keep ICE agents out. The door was unlocked again and again to allow the wagons into the newly repurposed All My Relations gallery space, which is housed with Pow Wow Grounds in the Native American Community Development Institute.
“Look outside,” Rice said during an interview with Truthout in the cafe. “This is the American Indian Cultural Corridor, the heart of Native life here in Minneapolis. They come here to try to intimidate us, but we will not bow down.”
“They come here to try to intimidate us, but we will not bow down.”
Rice's efforts to supply the Native community and its allies with “soup and supplies,” as he told Truthout, have been successful. Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and of the Many Shields Warrior Society (an Indigenous community security group) have been patrolling the streets of Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood since the start of the occupation, and they do not plan to stop.
“We all have a place. My place is to make sure people are fed and get a cup of coffee,” Rice said.
As is the case with many Minneapolis residents who do not imagine themselves as demonstrators — much less radicals — getting involved in anti-ICE activities, Rice said this felt like the logical thing to do. “We get a call that someone needs something, but they don't want to leave the house. We have a volunteer list of people who will drive stuff out. This is about keeping the community safe,” Rice stressed.
Masked federal agents have been ubiquitous in the city since the start of “Operation Metro Surge” in December, and for the Native community, the idea of police brutalizing members of their community is hardly new.
“The day after Renee Good was murdered, I remember waking up and thinking I need to get to work and open up the gallery for the people, and it was just immediately, this is what we need to do,” Angela Two Stars, vice president of arts and culture at the Native American Community Development Institute in Minneapolis, told Truthout.
This is not the first time All My Relations has served as a community hub amid turmoil in the Twin Cities. In 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Two Stars and her team opened the space for community members just as they did in early January, she recalled.
“The thinking is the same. We're not going to bow down to the fear tactics. Hand in hand, everyone is doing the work together.”
“There is a blood trauma here, seeing masked federal agents walking down our streets waiting to pick people up.”
Minneapolis is the historic heart of the American Indian Movement. It was founded in the Twin Cities in 1968 amid extraordinary levels of violence against the Native community committed by the Minneapolis Police Department. “You're going to see second- and third-generation AIM here. You're going to see activism out of here, to push back. That's the history here,” Rice added.
AIM was instrumental in bringing the number of arrests of Native people down from five to six each day to close to zero. Through the 1960s and 1970s, AIM patrollers scanned police radios and intervened during arrests in progress in an attempt to de-escalate a pattern of violence fomented by underinvestment, redlining, and intense policing.
Rice, who was born and raised in Minneapolis, remembers this time well. When his family moved to the city from the White Earth Reservation, he told Truthout that a petition circulated in his North Minneapolis neighborhood to keep his family out. This anti-Indigenous animus has appeared at other points in Rice's life in the Twin Cities. He told Truthout it often takes the form of anti-Indigenous comments made in his presence because of his light skin tone.
In early January, reports circulated that federal immigration authorities had detained four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. The site was a concentration camp for Lakota people in the late 1860s, from which they were deported west. The historical memory of such a place is not lost on the Native community in Minneapolis.
“I never thought that I would have to wear my tribal identification, but that's what I'm wearing around my neck. We don't know if we're stopped by ICE.”
“There is a blood trauma here, seeing masked federal agents walking down our streets waiting to pick people up,” Mary LaGarde, executive director of the American Indian Center in Minneapolis, told Truthout. LaGarde said her own family has been impacted by Operation Metro Surge. At least two of her relatives have been stopped and questioned by immigration agents since December.
“I never thought that I would have to wear my tribal identification, but that's what I'm wearing around my neck. We don't know if we're stopped by ICE. Are they going to give us time to provide proper identification?” she asked emphatically.
Jacqueline De León, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, confirmed reports that Native Americans have been stopped in Minneapolis and provided their tribal identification cards to federal immigration agents, but that officers have refused to accept them as valid forms of identification. She said this has also occurred in other cities that have experienced federal immigration surges.
“A lot of our elders are afraid to leave their homes. They're stuck inside because they're afraid they will get detained by an ICE officer, even though they have citizenship,” LaGarde added.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe recently banned ICE agents from entering its reservation, a step that other tribes have taken in response to increasingly brutal tactics deployed by immigration agents, such as the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
“A lot of our elders are afraid to leave their homes. They're stuck inside because they're afraid they will get detained by an ICE officer, even though they have citizenship.”
Chase Iron Eyes said in a statement outside the Whipple Building published by online news outlet Status Coup, “There is nobody more American than American Indians.” Per the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Native people in the U.S. who are members of a federally recognized tribe are also U.S. citizens.
When ICE came to town, it was only a matter of activating what had already been done before. The historical memory was there, and so was the framework for action. “They should have expected this,” said Miles Koenig, who has been working with AIM to help patrol neighborhood streets.
AIM patrols have continued in an on-and-off fashion over the decades — restarting when the community faces a wave of shootings and winding down when a degree of calm returns. But this time is different, according to those who spoke with Truthout.
Crow Bellecourt, the son of Clyde Bellecourt, one of AIM's four co-founders, now leads the Indigenous Protector Movement, another organization patrolling the streets of the Phillips neighborhood since the start of the occupation. “We just want them out of here,” Bellecourt said of ICE agents. “They can't keep taking us away.”
The Many Shields Warrior Society, like the Indigenous Protector Movement, is something of a splinter group of AIM. Members of Many Shields allowed Truthout to join them for a training session in the neighborhood of Kingfield on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retribution from the federal government — a well-founded fear. The FBI has historically attempted to infiltrate left-wing autonomous collectives, including through COINTELPRO in the 1960s.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe recently banned ICE agents from entering its reservation.
For Many Shields, the community's elders have become something of an institution over time, while the group has taken a hardline abolitionist approach. The group's work is an attempt to counter the logic of prisons and policing inherent in a system that has historically criminalized Native people. “We know our community best, and we are best equipped to make them feel safe,” one member said.
The City of Minneapolis approached Many Shields in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd uprising to ask whether the group would be interested in joining the city's violence interrupter program, which was expanded in response to calls to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department. Many Shields declined the funding, saying it did not want to “self-police,” as one member put it, or tie the group to an institution it had worked to undercut.
Many Shields members are prepared for the worst-case scenario, each carrying combat medical kits. With each passing civilian death at the hands of federal immigration agents, one member said, their use is becoming less of a “just in case” and more of a certainty. Many Shields has been patrolling the community's streets for weeks, communicating potential ICE sightings via handheld radios.
Putting ideological differences aside, the autonomous groups operating in Phillips have banded together in solidarity by coordinating patrols and sharing tips on potential ICE sightings. “There's been an incredible network of dedicated Indigenous people, neighbors, friends, and advocates who have come together to support the Native community,” De León said.
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Theia Chatelle is a conflict correspondent based between Ramallah and New Haven. She has written for The Intercept, The Nation, The New Arab, etc. She is an alumnus of the International Women's Media Foundation and the Rory Peck Trust.
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Move will hit Michigan, Illinois, New York and other states with highest levels of lead drinking water pipes the hardest
There is outrage among some politicians and activists after the US Congress voted to slash $125m for replacing toxic lead drinking water pipes that are particularly a threat to children.
The move will hit Michigan, Illinois, Texas, New York and other states with the highest levels of lead pipes the hardest. The cut was part of a broader government funding bill and particularly controversial in the context of the fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding.
Lead pipe replacement funding was approved with bipartisan support in 2021, but Republican leadership on the interior, environment and related agencies committee that controls appropriations redirected it for wildfire prevention, over the objection of many Democrats.
Many US states have called for more federal funding as millions of people in the US continue drinking dangerous lead-contaminated water. The financial resources were “urgently needed to finish the job”, the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said in a statement to the Guardian. Tlaib's district in and around Detroit has among the highest levels of lead lines,
“Our work to rapidly replace every lead service line in America is reaching a critical moment, and this is an insult to every one of our communities struggling for access to clean water,” said Tlaib, who is chair of the Get the Lead Out caucus in Congress.
Republican interior committee leadership did not respond to requests for comment.
Lead is considered among the planet's most toxic substances, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said no level of exposure to it is safe. The agency has found it lowers IQ scores in children, stunts their development and increases blood pressure in adults.
Removing the lines would prevent up to 900,000 infants from having low birth weight, save about 200,000 IQ points in children and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths annually from heart disease, the EPA has estimated.
The cut marks the latest twist in what public health advocates view as a dismaying battle over replacing the nation's lead water lines. Advocates say it should be an issue with broad bipartisan support that is amply funded without a fight.
Joe Biden's EPA in 2024 put in place a rule requiring all lead lines to be replaced within 10 years. However, Republicans have repeatedly tried to sabotage lead line replacement efforts in recent years, in part because of pressure from an unlikely but powerful opponent – water utilities that don't want to make infrastructure upgrades.
Removing the lines is a challenging task because so many remain. The EPA in 2024 estimated that as many as 9m lead lines must be replaced, though Donald Trump's EPA last year made a controversial change that reduced the figure to 4m after it altered the methodology.
The $125m that Congress cut is part of $15bn made available for lead service line replacement in the 2021, Biden-backed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law.
The law required the government to provide $3bn annually to states over five years to replace lead service lines, which are the pipes that move water to homes and businesses. The Trump EPA released the 2025 funding late, and the last $3bn tranche would be distributed this year.
“You can replace a lot of lead pipes for $125m,” said Erik Olson, a senior adviser to the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. He called the cut “pennywise and poundfoolish” because multiple studies have found that the upfront investment in replacing pipes costs dramatically less than paying for the health impacts on the back end.
An earlier draft of the bill proposed slashing $250m, but House Democrats, led by Tlaib and the Michigan congresswoman Debbie Dingell, who coordinated a letter to Senate leaders signed by 43 other members of Congress, were able to save half.
The problem is most serious in Chicago, where crews have replaced less than 4% of the city's approximately 400,000 lead service lines. It would take about $3bn to replace the remaining lines.
The Democratic Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth said it was “obscene” for the Trump administration to cut funding for clean drinking water projects while increasing funding for ICE, which has carried out violent operations in Chicago.
While the $125m represents only a small portion of the upcoming $3bn tranche, Olson noted that the GOP made other cuts to water infrastructure, and the Trump administration proposed a 90% reduction in safe drinking water funding. The fight is far from over.
“We are worried about the signal this sends – that lead pipes aren't a high priority, and once you start clawing back money, it doesn't bode well for future funding,” Olson said.
The documents confirm what many have long assumed: elites live by their own special rules and codes of immunity
The millions of Jeffrey Epstein files dumped last Friday by the US Department of Justice will provide journalists, conspiracy theorists and interested members of the public with months of reading. And what they will read is enraging.
What makes these files so infuriating, however, is not just Epstein's horrific predatory behavior, which is well-known, but the more mundane examples of elite conduct that the documents continue to expose. They vividly illustrate a world whose existence many everyday people, whether fevered with visions of the Illuminati or just jaundiced by banal anti-establishment cynicism, already suspected exists: an informal global club of powerful, ultra-rich people who all seemingly know each other, help one another out, and protect each other from the consequences of their depravity.
The new files will probably not provide satisfying answers to questions about, say, whether any of Epstein's famous friends participated in his sex trafficking, or if his death in custody in 2019 was truly a suicide, as authorities have said. But conspiracy theorists may still feel vindicated – and to some extent they should, Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, said.
Although the documents may not expose an actual criminal conspiracy, he said, they confirm the belief behind most conspiracy theories: that elites “get special treatment, that they're shielded from the rules that are supposed to apply to everyone equally, and that there is a kind of corruption in the broadest sense of the word”.
The new material is the largest, and possibly last, tranche of the so-called Epstein files, though the government is keeping as many as 3m more pages under wraps. Yet even the initial revelations of these files deepen the astonishing constellation of ties between Epstein and members of the global elite – including tech billionaires; a former US president; British, Norwegian and Saudi royalty or royal courtiers; current and former US cabinet secretaries and governors; and prominent business executives and academics.
The fact that someone is mentioned in the files does not automatically implicate that person in wrongdoing, of course, or mean that they were aware of Epstein's wrongdoing. The documents include uncorroborated allegations collected by the Department of Justice. Epstein was also a shameless wheeler-dealer who made it his mission to make the acquaintance, however tenuous, of every powerful person he could.
Yet the files, especially Epstein's typo-filled email and text-message correspondences, are fascinating – and ultimately grim – in what they show of how elites act in private, among themselves. At the least, many of Epstein's powerful acquaintances remained friendly with him years after the notoriously lenient sweetheart bargain, in 2008, in which he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and as survivors continued to accuse Epstein of further crimes.
Donald Trump's own decades-long friendship with Epstein is already well known, and seems to have ended in a falling-out sometime around 2004; the new files do not appear so far to implicate him in wrongdoing. But they do highlight Epstein's social ties with other members of the US president's coterie, including the current US secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. According to the files, Lutnick may have visited Epstein's private island in 2012. (Lutnick disputes this, and recently told the New York Times: “I spent zero time with him.”)
The files are an unflattering glimpse into the real ways that wealth is accumulated and power is brokered. Epstein, a private individual accountable to no voters, government authorities, or shareholders, was engaged in a near-constant stream of back-channel interventions in the political or business spheres: advising former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on how to make money post-premiership; helping an Indian businessman try to get a meeting with Jared Kushner; communicating with high-ranking Kremlin officials in an effort (apparently unsuccessful) to meet Vladimir Putin; and generally conducting the sort of “diplomacy” that does not require an ambassadorial appointment or a foreign-service exam.
Certain surnames favored by conspiracy theorists – Rothschild, Rockefeller, Soros – also pop up occasionally in the files, in contexts that are banal but would certainly buttress a conspiracist's belief that powerful people all know each other.
If anything, the files make a mockery of public political commitments of all kinds; above a certain stratosphere of wealth or fame, it would seem, ideological and other differences are subsumed by far more motivating forms of elite self-interest. To read the files is to realize that class solidarity is real – just not within the class where Marxists might hope to find it.
Epstein may have been a convicted sex criminal and a Democratic donor, but that did not stop Steve Bannon, a self-described crusader against a decadent liberal elite, from offering Epstein “media training” to help rehabilitate his public image. Epstein may have been a convicted sex criminal and a lavishly hedonistic financier, but that did not stop the leftwing academic Noam Chomsky, beloved critic of capitalism, from joining Epstein on a private plane or trading friendly advice. It turns out that some of society's most famous populist outsiders are, in fact, very much inside.
(Neither Chomsky nor Bannon have so far publicly commented on the new files; Chomsky suffered a debilitating stroke in 2023.)
The vast international conspiracy does sort of exist, it turns out, but far more prosaically than conspiracy theorists have fantasized. Epstein was actually a member of an elite nongovernmental organization that has been the center of countless conspiracy theories – the Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller in 1973 to promote international cooperation. Yet his induction involved no rituals of blood sacrifice: he was invited to join in the 1990s in appreciation, it appears, of some generous donations.
In fact, money – plus intra-elite social trust – were usually more than enough to gain Epstein entry into whichever room he desired to be in next. Tech companies happily accepted investments from a convicted sex criminal, and investment banks gladly moved his funds around. Peter Thiel gave him advice on potentially investing in Palantir. (Thiel did not respond to a recent request from the New York Times for comment; Palantir told the newspaper that the company “was not aware of Epstein ever investing in or being a shareholder in Palantir”.)
Epstein was an investment manager by profession, and his expertise was tax avoidance. In other words, he helped rich people hide – albeit sometimes legally – their money, making them even richer, and they repaid him by making him rich as well.
That itself is a rather on-the-nose encapsulation of the world that these files depict, but has not completely satisfied the many Americans who remain understandably skeptical of how a college dropout and failed math teacher from Coney Island somehow achieved the kind of wealth that is accompanied by butlers and private helipads. Not unreasonably, many of those same Americans have wondered, in message boards, social media posts and article comment sections, if his wealth was actually made by sexual blackmail of other elites.
The hypothesis remains possible but ignores the simpler, and in some ways more outrageous, explanation: blackmail might not have been necessary. As detailed in a meticulous, 8,000-word New York Times investigation, Epstein was a charismatic operator who was adept at identifying and seducing useful elites and manipulating their insecurities. He thrived on the largesse of wealthy patrons, and sometimes outright stole from them. In other words, he was a conman like any other, just on an unusually ambitious scale. He knew how to manipulate a world set up for people like him to manipulate.
The American right's reaction to the latest developments has been muted – ironically so, given that it was the right that helped to keep the story alive in the public eye for so long. After Epstein's death, rightwing influencers stoked anger about the government's lack of transparency and speculated about which Democratic elites might have partaken of Epstein's harem of exploited women and girls. Trump himself, running for president in 2024, repeatedly vowed to open the files to the public.
After he took office and did not do so – and as it became apparent that Trump and many people in his orbit might be named in the files or face conflicts of interest – the rightwing ecosystem became confused and angry. Now, however, interest seems to be fading, except to the extent that the files concern Bill and Hillary Clinton, who recently agreed to testify to Congress about Epstein. On the most powerful conspiracy theory of all, and the one that they actually turned out to be partly correct about, the pundits of the rightwing conspiracy universe have fallen largely silent.
“The way that rightwing media functions today is creating conditions under which it's very hard for these folks to even comment on the Epstein files,” Matthew D Taylor, a scholar of contemporary Christian nationalism, said.
This is partly for fear of antagonizing the administration, he believes, but also because of audience capture: “The audience just doesn't want bad news about Trump Republicans.”
It is a shame that the Maga movement's anger has moved on from the Epstein files. Whatever the motivations of that ire, it focused briefly on a world that deserves more scrutiny. Yet the men at its center turned out not to be cunning New World Order ideologues but elite gladhanders, con artists, back-scratchers, and hedonists, in a world whose special rules they assumed, quite rationally, that they would never need to explain to the outside.
A rift between two of President Donald Trump's favorite prosecutors came to a head at the start of the year, when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president's former personal lawyer, removed MAGA firebrand Ed Martin from a key post investigating the president's political enemies.
The move to bench Martin — perhaps the official most publicly committed to targeting Trump's political foes in the courts — has revealed a schism between two distinct factions within the administration.
One is a group that celebrates Blanche for what they consider as honoring guardrails around the rule of law. The other believes Martin is a martyr to the MAGA movement and the only one who is willing to do what it takes to deliver on Trump's priorities.
In recent weeks, disagreements over how aggressively prosecutors pursue Trump's political adversaries have become more acute — as the president has made it clear he is not happy with the Justice Department's progress in bringing criminal prosecutions against people he believed wrongly targeted him in investigations dating back to 2016.
Tracking Trump's retaliation
In the first Trump Administration, disputes between officials regularly played out in public view and on social media. But Trump's current chief of staff, Susie Wiles, has made a point to tamp town public disagreement and drama in the second term.
“It's not helping the president's agenda to have these things play out in public,” one Trump ally who knows both men told CNN. “You can understand the frustration that Blanche's office is where things go to die, because things move so slow. But Ed's ways ultimately don't help get what the president wants.”
Blanche and Martin came to work for Trump through different paths.
Blanche, formerly of big law in New York, founded a namesake firm in 2023 and represented Trump in three of his four criminal cases. He earned a reputation for deftly managing the inside politics of Trump-world and was later appointed to the number two spot at the Justice Department when Trump returned to office.
Martin — a former Missouri politician — won his MAGA accolades as an organizer with the “Stop the Steal” movement, a staunch defender of Trump's unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, and as an attorney for January 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants.
At the start of Trump's second administration, he was tapped to serve as the US attorney in Washington, DC, immediately getting to work implementing Trump's agenda, including demoting senior prosecutors who worked on cases related to January 6 and vowing to protect employees of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Let me be clear: this change is not temporary,” Martin wrote of demoting the prosecutors in a memo that was obtained at the time by CNN.
After a 15-week tenure marked by chaotic management and social media posts that included threats against the president's critics, he failed to secure confirmation.
His nomination was pulled in May 2025 and Trump then put him in two new positions at the Justice Department, including the director of the Working Weaponization Working Group and pardon attorney, which all fall under Blanche's chain-of-command.
Martin is expected to depart from the Justice Department in the coming weeks, CNN previously reported. His ouster represented the culmination of a monthslong campaign by Blanche to keep Martin operating within the bounds of the law.
The Weaponization Working Group investigations that Martin was supposed to lead quickly stalled. He produced little to no results on investigating major Trump priorities, including what Trump alleges was widespread overreach in the Biden Justice Department's handling of the January 6 riot and into the now-defunct prosecutions of Trump and members of his staff by former special counsel Jack Smith.
Still, Martin found other ways to please the president.
Once inside the Justice Department's headquarters, Martin continued what he had done at the US attorney's office — pushing for prosecutions of Trump's political adversaries. Last summer, Martin posed for photos outside the Brooklyn, New York, home of Letitia James while conducting an investigation into whether she had committed mortgage fraud.
Blanche's frustration with Martin continued to grow. The two butted heads over Martin's tactics — particularly over Martin's penchant to coordinate directly with the White House without Blanche's awareness.
But it wasn't until December when Martin made a misstep major enough to prompt Blanche's effort to push him out from the Justice Department entirely. There was a report that he had mishandled secret grand jury evidence in an investigation into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff — one of the foes high on Trump's list of targets.
Justice Department review found Trump ally Ed Martin improperly leaked grand jury material in probe of president's foes
Blanche's office swiftly initiated a review of the incident in December, ultimately finding that Martin had committed misconduct, two sources familiar with the review previously told CNN.
Martin was stripped of his title of leading the weaponization group in early December and sent to work out of a separate building across town from DOJ headquarters. He is now considering leaving the department entirely.
In a statement to CNN Tuesday, Blanche said, “there are no misconduct investigations into Ed Martin. Ed is doing a great job as Pardon Attorney.”
The episode between Blanche and Martin illustrates a fundamental rift in the department. Some want to work within the legal traditions of the Justice Department in order to carry out the president's agenda. The others view the constraints of the Justice Department's legal traditions as too cumbersome for carrying out the president's orders.
The division is not unprecedented — a similar divide played out during Trump's first term as president. Trump allies including Matthew Whitaker, former chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then Sessions' interim replacement, chafed at resistance from the president's own appointees over the handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
At the time, the clashes were over whether the president's interests were better served by not undermining the ongoing probe despite Trump's frequent public frustrations.
One ally of the president observed that while the Justice Department by design moves slowly, ultimately dispensing with its legal constraints has damaged the department's credibility and its ability to carry out his agenda, citing the rejection of prosecution attempts by grand juries and by judges in recent months.
“The fact that this keeps happening on our side tells you a lot,” the person said. “They're competing for who is more MAGA.”
“The GOP keeps doing this, we do this to ourselves and we can't get sh*t done,” the person added.
Last month, Trump railed at prosecutors during a White House meeting, saying he wanted more aggressive action on prosecutions of his political enemies, as well as on his longstanding complaints about the 2020 presidential election.
The president has also complained directly to Attorney General Pam Bondi about those investigations lagging, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The Department is apparently sensitive to these pressures. CNN reported on Monday the Working Weaponization Group would start meeting daily to figure out how to deliver the president's agenda.
With Martin out of the picture, the group is expected to redouble its efforts to pursue these issues with the expectation of producing results in the next few months.
While Martin is sidelined, he continues to serve as pardon attorney, according to sources familiar. He has been actively involved in reviewing clemency applications. While the title sounds lofty, the final decision on pardons in the Trump administration, as in other administrations, are largely made inside the White House.
It is unclear where Martin will go if he leaves the Justice Department, but a source told CNN Martin spent all of last week working at the White House.
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Darin Smith, who was outside Capitol on January 6, decried as Senate mulls nomination as state's top federal prosecutor
A Republican former state lawmaker with no experience trying cases, a record of opposing LGBTQ+ rights, and who was outside the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection, is awaiting Senate confirmation to become the top federal prosecutor in Wyoming.
Donald Trump first nominated Darin Smith as Wyoming's US attorney last year, and the judiciary committee advanced him in a party-line vote in January. Democrats have condemned Smith, saying he lacks the experience necessary for the job and threatens to impose a discriminatory approach to federal law enforcement in the state where gay college student Matthew Shepard's 1998 murder galvanized the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“Darin Smith is an unqualified insurrectionist with no experience in federal or criminal litigation. Not only does his lack of a resume disqualify him, there are serious doubts about his ability to fairly uphold the rule of law for all Americans,” said Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee.
Through a spokeswoman, Smith declined to comment.
Smith's nomination is before senators as Trump presses on with efforts to use federal law enforcement agencies to seek revenge against his political enemies, a campaign in which US attorneys – the presidential appointees who lead civil and criminal prosecutions in the nation's 94 federal judicial districts – have played a major role.
Last year, the president appointed his former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan as interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, even though she had no experience as a prosecutor. Halligan swiftly brought charges against Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and James Comey, the former FBI director, both of whom Trump has publicly singled out for retribution.
A federal judge threw out those indictments and harshly criticized Halligan, who later left her position.
Senate Republicans have confirmed 31 US attorneys since Trump took office a year ago, after changing the chamber's rules to overcome delay tactics from the Democratic minority. Trump initially nominated Smith in July and he assumed office the following month on an interim basis, after resigning a seat in the state senate seat he had been elected to the year prior.
Smith received the endorsement of the state's all-Republican congressional delegation, with senator John Barrasso saying in a statement: “President Trump made a solid, conservative choice in nominating Darin. Darin's experience in the Wyoming state senate and years of practicing law in Wyoming will serve him well.”
In written questions submitted to lawmakers on the Senate judiciary committee, Smith, who was admitted to the Wyoming bar in 2000, acknowledged that prior to taking the job of US attorney, he had never before appeared in court as part of a criminal or civil proceeding, questioned a witness before a grand jury or applied for a warrant.
Responding to a question that asked him to describe the “10 most significant litigated matters which you personally handled”, Smith replied: “My legal practice has emphasized counseling, planning, and transactional work aimed at avoiding litigation. As a result, I have not personally handled 10 significant litigated matters that proceeded to verdict, judgment, or final decision.”
Between 2018 and when he began as interim US attorney, Smith listed on his questionnaire that he held positions at the Family Research Council, a Washington DC-based group that advocates for conservative Christian policies.
He said he agreed with the organization's opposition to same-sex marriage and its belief that homosexuality was “harmful”. He also told lawmakers that he disagreed with a 2020 US supreme court ruling that employers cannot discriminate against gay and transgender workers.
He was similarly critical of a bill introduced in Wyoming's legislature in 2017 to ban employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals, calling it a “Trojan horse to legislate morality”.
“It allowed government officials and entities funded by taxpayers to elevate the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals over the rights of the rest of the population,” he wrote. “Everyone should be treated equally, period.”
During his brief time in the state senate, he co-sponsored bills that would have allowed librarians to face charges for “promoting obscenity”, and prevented state employees from being required to call coworkers by their preferred pronouns. The former was voted down in a committee, while the latter became law.
“Darin Smith has spent his career obsessed with making life worse for LGBTQ+ people, opposing marriage equality, cosponsoring state legislation targeting transgender youth, and smearing LGBTQ+ people in public statements,” said David Stacy, vice-president of government affairs at LGBTQ+ rights group Human Rights Campaign.
“Just over two decades after Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in that same state, Wyoming deserves better than tired anti-LGBTQ+ hate at the helm of federal law enforcement.”
Smith told US senators he was on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6, but said he did not enter the building. He maintains that the election in which Trump lost his bid for a second consecutive term was affected by “imperfections”, and believes that the attack on the Capitol was set up by unnamed actors.
“From my vantage point, I thought it was apparent that certain individuals acted as agitators, intentionally misleading others and escalating tensions, which created conditions resembling entrapment,” he said in a questionnaire.
Asked whether he agreed with Trump's pardons of rioters convicted of attacking police officers, Smith said: “I believe that our constitution gives every president the power to pardon any individual for offenses against the United States.”
Vermont's Democratic senator Peter Welch accused Smith of “rewriting history about January 6”, and noted that Republicans rejected a previous US attorney nominee, Ed Martin, who was appointed to handle prosecutions in the District of Columbia, over his comments in support of rioters.
“He's blaming the police officers for what the assailants did,” Welch said of Smith. “Every one of us, my view, should condemn that language. So, his lack of experience, his words in support of January 6 are disqualifying for him to serve as US attorney.”
A spokesman for Senate majority leader leader John Thune did not respond to a request for comment on when his nomination will be voted on by the full chamber.
BUDAPEST, February 7. /TASS/. Hungary will not participate in the deployment of European troops to Ukraine, as this would mean direct military conflict with Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated ahead of an anti-war rally planned in the western city of Szombathely.
"When we talk about war, we must speak plainly. Today, the danger lies in sending Hungarian money to Ukraine. Tomorrow, young Hungarians could be sent to war. European troops in Ukraine would mean a direct conflict with Russia," he wrote on his page on social network X.
"Hungary says: ‘No, we refuse to take part in this!'" Orban concluded.
He intends to reaffirm this position at a meeting with activists of the ruling Fidesz party in Szombathely. The government refers to such gatherings as "anti-war rallies" and holds them ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled in the country for April 12.
Files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been made public over the course of the last year in a series of document dumps. Most recently and substantially, the Department of Justice released millions of documents – emails, text messages, photos and more – after Congress passed a law in November demanding transparency and the release of all documents, forcing President Donald Trump's administration to act.
While the documents failed to confirm some Epstein-related conspiracy theories, such as whether he had a client list of men he blackmailed, they have caused headaches for powerful people around the world, shedding light on multiple awkward relationships Epstein had with business titans, billionaires, royals, government officials — in the US and abroad — and media figures.
CNN's Marshall Cohen, Jeremy Herb, Kara Fox, Christian Edwards, Billy Stockwell, Leah Asmelash, Aleena Fayaz, Helene Regan, Em Steck, Annie Grayer and Andrew Kaczynski contributed to this report.
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Dr. Jelena Kecmanovic is a clinical psychologist in the Washington, DC, area and an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University. Her Substack is “No Delusions with Dr. K. Psychologist.”
Spencer Hilligoss, a 42-year-old entrepreneur in the Bay Area, didn't start out as an equal partner at home. Early in his marriage, his job came first. He was dimly aware that his wife of 14 years carried most of the household load, but he reassured himself with a familiar justification: “I'm bringing in more money.”
After their first child was born 11 years ago, the imbalance intensified. His wife struggled under the increased burden at home, and they argued more frequently. One day, she sat him down and told him she didn't want to be his mom.
“That hit me hard,” Hilligoss told me. “I felt criticized, and my first reaction was to become defensive or withdraw.”
Versions of this gender gap struggle play out in heterosexual households across the country, documented by Arlie Hochschild's 1989 classic book “The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home” and more recent bestsellers such as Gemma Hartley's “Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward.”
Plenty of evidence validates women's frustration with the persistent imbalance in household labor and childcare. Yet surveys show that since the 1990s, there's been remarkably little progress in getting men to take on more household work and the mental load that goes along with it. Even when women work outside the home, they still do roughly twice as much childcare and about two-thirds of the housework.
Men have been slow to change due to persistent gender norms and, as many tell me in therapy, because it's difficult to give up arrangements that seem beneficial.
Husbands: Step up and take the ‘Post-it Note Challenge'
In my clinical practice, women often say they're suffering burnout from domestic duties and childcare and their male partners don't get it, no matter how much women try to communicate it. The unequal distribution of domestic labor doesn't just exhaust women, leaving them angry, resentful and depleted — it also harms their mental health. That inequality is linked to lower relationship satisfaction for both partners, higher risk of divorce, less sex and worse outcomes for children.
How do we change this dynamic? Validating women's experiences is essential, but repeatedly blaming or shaming men won't get us there. The imbalance will shift only if men are engaged and genuinely brought on board, and if they intentionally begin working to improve the lives of everyone in the family.
I've used three science-backed strategies to help couples in my practice approach household discussions with greater calm, prioritize effectiveness over being right, cut through defensiveness — and ultimately build a fairer, healthier household.
I acknowledge that this approach requires more work from women at the outset, but I believe that work is worth it if it helps create a positive feedback loop with significant long-term benefits.
I understand my female clients are burned out from carrying the lion's share of the domestic burden. That makes it easy to accuse men of acting this way on purpose, which I often hear in my practice: “If he cared about me, he would be doing more at home” or “I can't believe how lazy and cruel he is when he doesn't contribute.”
Are you experiencing relationship burnout? What to do next
The sheer pervasiveness of lopsided household labor suggests that this problem cannot be explained by a few individual bad actors. Surveys show that most men today endorse the idea of household equality, but many don't know how to turn that belief into action, according to Dr. Morgan Cutlip, a psychologist in Orange County, California, and author of “A Better Share: How Couples Can Tackle the Mental Load for More Fun, Less Resentment, and Better Sex.”
“While some men and women out there are not good people, most men are what I call ‘passive willing partners,'” Cutlip said. “They're open to changing, and we need to enlist them by uniting against the problem rather than positioning ‘me against you.'”
Instead of assuming a partner is hurting us on purpose, Cutlip suggests we become curious about their experience and attentive to differences in how we were raised and socialized by society. Over a lifetime, we internalize gender norms that shape our behavior in largely unconscious ways. Approaching domestic inequality with the understanding that both partners carry gender-role baggage in the form of inherited defaults and habits can make calm and productive discussions far more likely.
What worked: Hilligoss told me that his wife's approach, treating him like a teammate rather than an adversary, allowed him to reengage in the conversation. She made it clear that she trusted they could tackle the unworkable system together, which opened the door to ongoing discussions and collaboration.
Their new, shared online calendar was eye-opening. It revealed how much domestic labor he hadn't noticed, especially the work of planning, organizing and keeping family life running. Over time, Hilligoss realized that being an equal partner requires consistently taking initiative and fully sharing responsibility for cooking, laundry and childcare.
“With that came so much less tension, and more warmth and connection,” he said.
It's easy to see how a more equal division of labor benefits women. But men may not immediately recognize how it also benefits them, the relationship and the entire family.
“A fairer distribution of domestic labor makes men happier, less guilty and depressed, and more satisfied with their relationship or marriage,” said Dr. Daniel Carlson, an associate professor at the University of Utah and executive director of the Council on Contemporary Families. “They are also more likely to feel closer to their children.”
Are married people happier than those who are not? A new poll has answers
Rich DeGregorio, a 40-year-old communication consultant in Brunswick, Maine, found himself in that familiar pattern. His wife handled most of the household labor, and he assumed she had things under control. Then their daughter was born, the pandemic hit and both spouses began working from home. The workload ballooned.
“That's when our arguments got really bad, and there was a lot of passive-aggressive behavior on both sides,” he said.
What worked: When DeGregorio's layoff and his wife's health issues forced a redistribution of responsibilities, the transition was difficult. Learning to cook and do many other home chores was harder than he had anticipated, but he quickly noticed how much it improved their understanding of each other, eased resentment and deepened their closeness.
“I also have a much better relationship with my kid now,” he said. “All those hours I put into parenting have definitely paid off!”
Changing the assumption from “I win, you lose” to “How do we both win?” is far more likely to bring both partners on board. At home, what's needed is a modern partnership grounded in equality, openness, companionship and dialogue. No one needs to hold power, and no one needs to shoulder all the sacrifice. We're in this together, working to make our relationship and family better for everyone.
In my experience, men often perceive women's concerns about unequal household labor as a personal attack. Whether explicitly stated or simply implied, they may hear messages like “You're incompetent,” “You're not a good husband” or “You're failing as a father,” triggering defensiveness. When they counterattack, shut down or withdraw, their partners often respond in kind. Before long, couples are trapped in a downward spiral that chips away at the relationship and makes it nearly impossible to have productive conversations about fairness at home.
But there's a way to break the pattern. Research shows that when we pause to reflect on our core values — things like kindness, humor, fitness or spiritual beliefs — we expand our sense of who we are. That psychological cushion makes us more resilient when we feel threatened, less defensive when we hear criticism and better at working through conflict.
Kindness will make you happier than a higher salary, report shows
So, before diving into a tough conversation about household labor, try a simple self-affirmation exercise. Pick something that matters deeply to you and think about why it's important. Or focus on one of your strengths and consider how it shows who you are at your best. Writing it down makes the effect even stronger.
Cutlip also suggests habitually noticing what you appreciate about your partner and sharing it with them. Send a text. Leave a note. Say it out loud. Journal about a time when they accepted you exactly as you are, or recall moments when you felt truly seen, heard and valued. These small acts add up.
Zachary Watson, a 35-year-old men's life coach from Marlborough, Massachusetts, had a similar realization four years ago when he took paternity leave. Watching his wife juggle nearly everything, he realized he'd been acting like what he calls a “man-child.”
Deciding to change was one thing. Actually negotiating who does what, when and how was another.
What worked: “We made a point of acknowledging what we appreciate about each other and saying thank you, even when we disagreed about how to divide household responsibilities,” said Watson, who noted that his background as a teacher helped.
That deliberate gratitude also trained them to notice all the positive things the other person was doing.
“We're still a work in progress, but things are 100% better,” Watson said. “We're expecting twins now, and I can't wait to welcome them — as a team this time.”
Ultimately, the path to a fairer household is not paved with blame, but with collaboration, empathy and a shared commitment to doing better together. Calling men out may feel satisfying in the moment, but it rarely changes behavior. Calling them in, as partners in a shared project, just might.
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As ICE arrests increasingly look like kidnappings, Minnesotans fear the day they are taken, too
On a recent Tuesday morning, Johanna Rivera was working at La Perlita, her family's Ecuadorean food store in Northeast Minneapolis, when a man came in to pick up provisions for a goodbye party. One of his relatives had decided to return to Ecuador amid Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, he told her.
That sparked a conversation about the roving squads of federal agents who have flooded into Minnesota since December in the largest single operation of the U.S. President's mass roundup and deportation program.
“I told him that we could deliver to his house so he wouldn't have to go out. It's dangerous,” Ms. Rivera, 29, recounted in an interview.
Mere moments after the man left the shop and got into his car, federal officers surrounded it.
Video recorded by observers tracking the agents shows what happened next. While the officers' two unmarked black SUVs blocked the parking lot, one agent hammered on the window of the Ecuadorean man's car with what appears to be a glass-breaker.
The agents, wearing tactical vests over plain clothes and with their faces covered by masks, handcuffed the man and led him to one of their vehicles. They discovered three more occupants in the car: a woman who identified herself as the man's wife, their toddler daughter, and another man whom the woman said is her cousin. The officers took the cousin into custody. “Leave her,” one agent said of the woman, “she's got the baby.”
The woman got out of the car, carrying the toddler – dressed in a pink winter coat and white tuque, holding an ice-cream cone – and followed her husband to the officers' SUV. “I'm going with my husband,” she cried, falling to her knees in front of an agent. “Sir, why? Why?”
Then, the woman's cousin, his hands still cuffed behind his back, bolted from the back of one of the officers' vehicles. He made it across the street before slipping on a snowbank and being grabbed by two agents chasing him.
In the end, the officers left with the husband and the cousin, while the woman and her toddler were taken in by La Perlita until her family could come to get her.
“The immigration authorities are doing a very bad job right now, because they should actually be catching criminals,” Ms. Rivera said. “Not innocent people who have come here to fight for a better, more stable life for their families.”
This scene was emblematic of the thousands of immigration arrests made in Operation Metro Surge, as 3,000 federal agents have descended on the state.
Officers from a wide range of agencies – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) most prominently, but also Border Patrol, the Bureau of Prisons and others – usually with faces covered and no visible identification, trawl the streets in unmarked vehicles to conduct immigration raids and arrests that often look like kidnappings.
Their tactics have included ramming and smashing up cars, racially profiling as they search for people to arrest, and pushing residents to inform on their neighbours. Agents have also clamped down on protests, frequently opening fire with pepper balls, deploying tear gas and arresting demonstrators.
After federal officers fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti last month, the White House promised to wind down the operation.
But it is pressing ahead with its plan to deport all of the country's undocumented immigrants, as well as many who entered the country with legal status. And there is no guarantee Mr. Trump won't soon target another city or state.
ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and their parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Alex Pretti, 37, was an ICU nurse that federal agents shot as he helped someone at an anti-ICE protest.Octavio JONES/AFP via Getty Images
Clayton Kelly, a mechanic in his 20s, said he did nothing more than verbally criticize federal agents before they violently arrested him. On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 24, shortly after Mr. Pretti was shot in South Minneapolis, Mr. Kelly went to the area with his wife. “Your families are disappointed in you,” Mr. Kelly told The Globe and Mail he said to officers. “You're a disgrace and you should quit.”
Mr. Kelly had begun walking away when heard one agent say “that's him, get him.” Officers body-slammed Mr. Kelly into the window of a tattoo parlour, tackled him to the ground and put him in a headlock, he said. Several agents held him down, kneeing him in the spine and smothering him. “I was trying to yell out that I couldn't breathe, and they were telling me to shut up,” he recalled.
As he lay pinned, Mr. Kelly said, an officer put the nozzle of a can of pepper spray behind his glasses and shot it directly into his left eye. He was bundled into a vehicle and driven to the Whipple Federal Building near the airport, which agents are using as a detention centre.
Many of those detained in Minneapolis end up at the Whipple complex, the nerve centre of Operation Metro Surge.Scott Olson/Getty Images; Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
For the next 10 hours, he was held in a roughly 12-foot-by-10-foot cell with a concrete bench and no sink or toilet. This section of the building was reserved for U.S. citizens, Mr. Kelly said, and he was eventually joined by several others. He said officers never identified themselves to him or read him his Miranda rights.
In the hallway outside the cell, Mr. Kelly could hear officers searching people's belongings and taking their mobile phones. At one point, an agent had Mr. Kelly confirm which phone was his. When he was released without charges that night, Mr. Kelly said officers refused to give him back the device and said they planned to go through it.
Ten days before his arrest, Mr. Kelly had witnessed part of a police chase that ended with an ICE agent shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan migrant, in the leg. Mr. Kelly recorded the aftermath and described what he saw to a reporter. His images of the scene are on the phone he said agents confiscated.
Activists across Minneapolis continue to risk arrest for following ICE vehicles, as these people were doing.Ryan Murphy/The Associated Press
Brandon Sigüenza was arrested while observing federal agents in South Minneapolis on Sunday, Jan. 11. The 32-year-old special education teacher is one of thousands of people in the city who have followed officers while honking car horns and blowing whistles to alert neighbours to the agents' presence.
That day, Mr. Sigüenza and a friend, Patty O'Keefe, were in her car tailing agents in unmarked vehicles down a residential street.
The first time officers stopped them, an ICE agent doused the car's air intake with pepper spray, Mr. Sigüenza said. The second time, officers smashed the windows with their batons – even though the doors were unlocked, and Mr. Sigüenza put his hands up to show he wasn't resisting arrest – and hauled them out.
At Whipple, Mr. Sigüenza, like Mr. Kelly, was in a cell designated for U.S. citizens. The sounds of people detained elsewhere in the building were audible. “When I closed my eyes, I could hear screaming every time. Screaming, crying, begging,” he said.
He saw cells holding 15 people – too many for anyone to lie down – staring at the walls and ceiling. The bathrooms had two-way glass with just a knee-high wall for privacy in front of the toilet. In one of these rooms, he said, a woman wearing a hijab was crying while ICE officers outside watched through the glass and laughed.
Three times that day, agents interrogated Mr. Sigüenza, the son of a Mexican immigrant father. In the final interrogation, one agent asked him for the names of protest organizers and pressed him for information on any undocumented people he knew, he said. The officer offered him money and to help if he wanted to get any family members into the U.S.
Mr. Sigüenza said he turned down the officer's requests. He and Ms. O'Keefe were released without charge after eight hours in detention.
East Africans in Minneapolis have been wary of racial profiling for months, hence these warning signs at the Karmel Mall and the slow business at Somali-owned shops within.Tim Evans/Reuters
In court documents, ICE has openly argued in favour of racial profiling, and its use of the practice is readily apparent to non-white Minnesotans. As the agency struggles to fulfill a White House edict to deport one million people every year, officers have cast a wide net.
Samrawit Yadetie, a 51-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, said she was stopped by ICE agents while shopping at Macy's in the Mall of America in early January. They asked her whether she was a U.S. citizen and whether she was “legal.” Ms. Yadetie said she replied: “Do I have to be a U.S. citizen to live in America?” Ultimately, she had to show her U.S. passport for them to let her go.
She was also harassed at her workplace, the front desk of the Embassy Suites near the Minneapolis airport, by ICE agents staying at the hotel, she said. The officers would ask her and other hotel employees: “How did you get here? Where is your accent from?” she recalled. It got so bad that she quit her job.
Ms. Yadetie, who came to the U.S. as a refugee in the early 1990s after her family was imprisoned in Ethiopia for opposing the government, said the experience reminds her of the authoritarian regime that she fled.
“We gave up our original citizenship to be Americans. We love America. But these days, they're trying to change America into a third-world country,” she said as she marched with tens of thousands in the streets of downtown Minneapolis last Friday.
Yubi Hassan, 24, who came from Somalia as a refugee, said he was stopped by agents outside a grocery store in Hopkins, a Minneapolis suburb, while making a delivery for the tea company he owns. Like Ms. Yadetie, he had to show his U.S. passport for them to let him go. “Everybody's scared. My mum calls me every four hours to check in,” he said.
Groceries delivered by volunteers help stay-at-home immigrant households to cope when they are too afraid to go out themselves.Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
In many immigrant families, parents aren't going to work and children are staying home from school to avoid getting grabbed off the street.
At La Perlita, the owners and staff are working to help those who are stuck in their houses.
Th store offers free grocery deliveries, doing about 15 to 20 per day. One Sunday last month, they held a fundraiser at which people could purchase boxes of food for families that can't work. After assembling more than 250 such boxes, the store is planning another such event this Saturday.
“It's such a difficult story, especially seeing how they are separating families now,” said Tania Sigua, 26, a clerk at the store and immigrant from Ecuador. “I've lived six years in this country and I've never seen anything as ugly as what's happening now.”
Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Minnesota's fight against ICE goes beyond street protests; the state is suing the federal government, alleging the President has gone too far. Reporter Joe Friesen spoke with The Decibel about how the standoff could evolve. Subscribe for more episodes.
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Italy plays down role of ICE agents at Olympics after public outcry
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Bartender and Escuelitas founder Tiffany Hernandez and civil rights attorney and Escuelitas volunteer Milo Schwab in a Denver bar on Thursday.Michael Ciaglo/The Globe and Mail
The Colorado resistance shakes cocktails behind bar counters. It circulates through schools and scrolls through encrypted chats. It knocks on doors and learns how to flush tear gas from eyes. It translates documents into Croatian and Nepali. It takes knowledge from deep inside the apparatus of border enforcement and delivers it to people preparing to defy that apparatus. It gathers financial support from Mexican tequila-makers.
In the surge of illegal migration under then-president Joe Biden, Colorado was among the states that saw vast numbers of arrivals. The city of Denver said it had received more migrants per capita than any other U.S. urban area.
Hotels filled and Donald Trump took notice, accusing the city of harbouring Venezuelan gangs. His administration criticized the state and its largest city of sanctuary policies “that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States.”
Stand against the dictates of federal law enforcement and “we're going to come after you,” Attorney-General Pam Bondi said last year, a warning that became tangible when thousands of federal agents deployed to Minnesota.
Opinion: For ICE and the Trump administration, the violence is the point. And it's backfiring
But in the places that believe they could be next, that warning has not produced surrender. It has, instead, provoked defiance, an effort that has swept up retirees alongside school workers and legislators – and, in Denver, a group of bar workers determined to be ready.
“The average person doesn't understand how much influence and power we have,” said Tiffany Hernandez, who has become an unlikely foot soldier in one campaign to prepare for a future immigration-enforcement surge to Denver.
Born in California to Mexican immigrants, Ms. Hernandez – who calls herself a “tiny Latina” – is a bartender who thrills to the creation of cocktails, shaking together martinis from vinegar shrubs and cilantro oils. She has mixed drinks for New York billionaires.
Ms. Hernandez says Escuelitas was founded to educate hospitality professionals about civic engagement and community safety, and has been focused on ICE raid preparedness sessions for the last year.Michael Ciaglo/The Globe and Mail
But over the past year, she has become a self-created lieutenant in a city of people marshalling whatever resources they can find to prepare. Ms. Hernandez has co-ordinated with lawyers, a local rapid-response hotline, employers and left-leaning politicians to organize training events. The have received backing from liquor makers, including Mexican tequila brands that have supported efforts in the U.S. to prepare for immigration enforcement.
Together, they have held nearly 50 training events in Colorado alone, with additional sessions in five other states. This week, they formally registered a non-profit under the name Escuelitas Inc. Their lessons draw on the history of protest – from civil rights to the LGBTQ movement – and the reality of the current moment. Immigrants make up roughly 40 per cent of hospitality workers in the U.S. Large numbers are undocumented.
Five-year-old boy, father return to Minnesota after detention in Texas ICE facility
“We try to prepare bartenders, servers, chefs, managers and hosts how to interact with agents safely – but also to assert their constitutional rights and be able to mentally handle 15 or 20 armed, masked individuals screaming at you,” said Ms. Hernandez, who dots her face with white makeup to frustrate facial-recognition systems.
“As a bartender, usually the idea is: Don't bring politics to the bar. But we can't do that any more, because look at the mess that we are in.”
One aim is to teach others the use of cellphones as weapons of non-violent resistance.
But at a fraught moment, Ms. Hernandez's effort to train Denver bartenders has quickly drawn in support from unexpected places as this city – like others across the U.S. – organizes itself to resist the power of a federal government determined to deport those in the country illegally.
Among them is a lawyer who previously worked with Border Patrol, the agency whose personnel have been involved in a series of violent confrontations, including the shooting death of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti. The lawyer, whose name The Globe and Mail is not publishing because they fear reprisal, is now teaching others about the inner workings of an agency that has been among the most visible arms of Mr. Trump's immigration crackdowns.
An anti-ICE poster sits in the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR) office.Michael Ciaglo/The Globe and Mail
It is important, the lawyer said, to distinguish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents from those with Border Patrol, who receive only a few months of training and have been accustomed to working in remote areas with little oversight.
“They've been able to operate with a really heavy hand when it comes to force,” the lawyer said. Border Patrol, too, has grown in influence. In Denver, a Border Patrol agent was assigned to be the ICE agent in charge.
“The tactics, the use-of-force work that they do is something that I have a lot of insight about. And I've been able to leverage that to get people more prepared,” said the lawyer.
“‘Understanding the enemy,' is how we talk about it.”
In America's first sanctuary city, anti-ICE sentiment is revitalizing the movement
The warlike scenes in Minneapolis have only increased the appetite for that understanding and swelled the numbers of people willing to help.
On the day Mr. Pretti died, a small Denver group called We Keep Us Safe had already scheduled a Zoom training session. A hundred people had signed up to learn how to identify federal agents and share successful strategies from other cities. After Mr. Pretti was shot dead, the numbers swelled to 430. Some 1,400 people have now filled out a form expressing interest in training, said Kellyn McClanahan, one of the group's founders.
“People's reaction, instead of standing back or laying down before the intimidation, has instead been to rise up and try to support each other,” she said. “They think they can beat us down. Instead, they're just giving us more motivation.”
Anxiety over what the future might bring has galvanized people of all ages and experiences. Former federal employees with USAID – the international aid organization shut down by the Trump administration – have helped to translate training documents into Croatian, Serbian and Nepali, languages spoken by some immigrants in Colorado.
Others have hit the streets.
People walk through Denver's City Park.Michael Ciaglo/The Globe and Mail
Joel and Jean, a couple in their seventies with a background in organized labour, have paused plans for international retirement travel in favour of many hours a week knocking on doors of local businesses.
They hand out signs, stickers and material explaining the difference between administrative and judicial warrants.
“We emphasize that ICE is running around mostly with administrative warrants, if anything,” said Joel. “And they don't have a right to search your place without a judicial warrant.”
The Globe is not using their full names because they fear reprisal for their efforts as part of a group that has visited 1,500 Colorado businesses in the past few months alone.
Like many others, they have also begun to build lives on Signal, the encrypted messaging app that has become a favoured tool for organization and rapid dissemination of information. In Denver, community group chats have been arranged in layers of communication: one for each quadrant of the city and then, below that, groups for individual neighbourhoods.
“It gives us all a lot of security to know we have a plan,” said Michelle Baldwin, who works in a school and sits on the board of her local neighbourhood association.
San Diego braces for more ICE agents as residents protest and patrol the streets
Bar and restaurant workers, too, have organized a series of Signal groups based around neighbourhoods of watering holes and coffee shops. The idea is to make those establishments into streetside scouts, able to quickly spread news of the arrival of federal agents and warn others nearby to respond.
“What's being created is really something significant. It is awareness, preparation – and community,” said Milo Schwab, a civil-rights attorney who has worked closely with Escuelitas.
Ms. Hernandez holds to the idea that knowledge confers power, or at least that it will at some date in the future.
“The best thing that we can do right now is get as much evidence as possible to when we inevitably have our own Nuremberg trials – to make sure that these people are held accountable,” she said.
For those who have educated themselves, it has brought something else, too. At a time when blood has been shed in street confrontations, “getting to listen to lawyers and people on the ground doing actual work, felt very calming,” said Lizz Shrewsbury, a worker at a Denver speakeasy bar.
“Everybody's here trying to keep each other safe, trying to protect each other and look out for each other,” she said.
Yet where some have drawn comfort from solidarity, others are less certain about what they are actually accomplishing.
The past few weeks have brought greater numbers of people into resistance movements. But “is it enough?” asks Jean. She doesn't see numbers so great that they might cause those enforcing immigration law to back down.
The couple also wonders if they are better to spend their time teaching people rights or to instead campaign politically. “If we don't change Congress, I think the country's toast,” Joel said.
DASHR executive director Vinnie Cervantes in front of the Colorado State Capitol.Michael Ciaglo/The Globe and Mail
For now, the status quo for those seeking to alter the course of federal action, is that “we are losing,” said Vinnie Cervantes, the founder of Denver Alliance for Street Health Response.
“And we need to be more proactive and strategic in how we organize. Because right now, we're just really reactive.”
His group conducts street medic training: how to care for wounds and wash eyes stinging from tear gas. Classes have become so popular that they are full for the next six months.
But for Mr. Cervantes, it's no longer enough to observe federal agents and help the hurt.
He wants to create networks of Denver safe houses where protesters can seek shelter. He is encouraging new tactics for demonstrators, who he says should link arms to form solid blocks of humanity in confrontations with federal agents. “The most dangerous things happen when they're able to siphon individuals off,” he said.
What it comes down to, he said, is moving past simple community organization.
Instead, if armed federal agents descend, “we want some level of community defence, to mobilize and interrupt this level of violence – to intervene however we can.”
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Sergio Mattarella, President of Italy, gives a speech during the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at San Siro Stadium on February 06, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Andreas Rentz / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
One of the most talked-about moments at the Olympics came from Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych. After his race in Beijing in 2022, just days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he held up a sign reading "No war in Ukraine."
But his appeal went largely unheard.
Four years later, Heraskevych is preparing to represent Ukraine at the Olympic Games again — at a time when the war continues to escalate, while restrictions on athletes from Russia and Belarus are gradually being relaxed.
"There is still a feeling that this is all unreal," Heraskevych told the Kyiv Independent. "It is like we are in a movie that will end soon, and life will be normal again. But, unfortunately, the reality is different."
Thirteen Russian and seven Belarusian athletes will compete in the XXV Winter Olympic Games as "neutral," meaning they will not be allowed to participate under their national flags or use national symbols.
While this is the smallest Winter Olympics delegation in the history of both countries, a troubling trend is emerging: despite the ongoing war, restrictions from international sports organizations are loosening, and mentions of Ukraine are being increasingly avoided.
"Morally and ethically, it is surprising that sport does not uphold its human rights commitments, especially in the Olympic world," Jens Sejer Andersen, founder of the Play the Game initiative, told the Kyiv Independent.
"But from a more realistic, pragmatic perspective, this was to be expected for many reasons."
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) acted quickly, recommending that international sports federations suspend Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing entirely. At the time, it seemed the sporting world was taking a clear stand — but that position would soon begin to shift.
Next year, the IOC had softened its approach, recommending that Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to return to individual competitions, provided they participated under a neutral flag. In 2024, that policy extended to the Paris Summer Olympics, allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to rejoin the global stage, albeit without national symbols.
Speaking to the Kyiv Independent, Andersen, founder of the Play the Game initiative, said that, unlike athletes, Russian and Belarusian sports officials were never fully suspended, allowing them to quietly influence international sports organizations.
For example, Shamil Tarpishchev, president of the Russian Tennis Federation and a supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, remains a member of the IOC. Meanwhile, oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was re-elected president of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) in 2024 despite international sanctions, though he later resigned.
Russia is also seeking allies among member states to advance its agenda within international sports federations. Ukrainian Youth and Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi highlighted the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which has so far maintained a ban on Russian and Belarusian participation, as an example.
"(The Russians) are trying to bring in countries from the global south to the IIHF, where there has never been any hockey at all. But one country, one vote — and it is clear they end up shouldering all the costs on these issues," Bidnyi said on national television.
Most international sports federations followed the IOC's guidance in 2023, easing restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes. Only a few — like the International Biathlon Union (IBU) — have held firm, refusing to allow these nations back into their respective sports.
But even for these organizations, maintaining a firm stance is difficult. Russian and Belarusian athletes are also challenging the bans through legal channels, turning to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to secure their return to international competition.
One of the largest federations in winter sports, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), announced on Oct. 21, 2025, that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be barred from the 2026 Olympic qualifying competitions. But Russia challenged the decision at the CAS, which ultimately overturned the ban, labeling it "discriminatory."
Similarly, in October, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) Appeals Tribunal ruled that the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes was illegal, allowing them to compete — but too late to qualify for the 2026 Olympics.
Ukrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych said that if the Russian side had pursued legal action earlier, it likely would have secured a place in Italy. He added that, while the IBSF Congress remains opposed to admitting Russian and Belarusian athletes, the federation's leadership appears "friendly" toward Moscow and Minsk.
When asked why restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes are gradually easing, Andersen explained that the leaders who shape federation policies are not necessarily driven by geopolitics. Instead, their focus is often on developing and promoting their sport.
"And the absence of Russian athletes is inconvenient for business," Andersen said.
According to Andersen, many sports officials also genuinely believe in the ideals of sport — that it can unite people and promote peace. At the same time, he called these beliefs "naive" and said that they are being "oversold."
"No country will sacrifice its strategic political interests just for the sake of two weeks of sporting celebrations," he added.
Prior to the 2026 Olympic Games, Ukrainian athletes issued an open letter to the IOC, urging the committee not to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to take part.
In September 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke with IOC President Kirsty Coventry, emphasizing the need to keep a clear separation between "the sports movement and Russian evil."
Despite these efforts, the IOC's position remained unchanged: Russian and Belarusian athletes are set to compete in seven sports at the Olympics in Italy.
The IOC is tasked with verifying athletes' neutrality — checking whether they serve in the military or security forces of Russia or Belarus, or whether they have publicly supported the war or participated in pro-war events. Yet some athletes have already been found to have violated these rules.
Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik performed a military-themed routine in an ice show in 2024, wearing a Russian soldier's uniform. Another Russian figure skater, Adelia Petrosyan, participated in the Summer in Moscow festival that year, during which the event collected aid for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Ukrainian athletes, meanwhile, are being urged to show restraint. Because statements opposing Russia's war in Ukraine may be interpreted as political and thus violate IOC rules, Ukrainian athletes risk punishment, including suspension from competition.
Heraskevych said that after Ukraine's national team protested the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes in early January, he was approached through a third party and asked not to organize any actions related to Russia's war against Ukraine. According to the athlete, the request may have come from the IOC.
Similar guidance has come from Ukraine's own officials. Vadym Guttsait, president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, urged athletes to "control themselves" and respond calmly to any potential provocations from the Russian side.
"You already know how to behave when you meet these athletes. I understand what you feel in your heart, I understand how you will feel," Guttsait said.
"But you still need to control yourself so there are no provocations — because those provocations would then be used against you, against Ukraine, to claim that we are the ones provoking."
When asked how Ukrainian athletes should speak about what is happening in their country, Andersen said that this responsibility should instead fall to political leaders, including the president and other high-ranking officials.
At the same time, Global Athlete (GA) Director General Rob Koehler noted that sponsors of major competitions such as the Olympic Games also have the power to influence decisions made by sports organizations.
"How can those sponsors justify continuing to support the IOC when they withdrew their business from Russia because of the invasion, yet still back an organization that supports Russia?" Koehler told the Kyiv Independent.
"Russia continues to undermine the Olympic movement. It is mind-boggling, but for some reason, they still want them back," he added, referring to the numerous doping violations involving Russian teams.
Heraskevych, now at a crossroads over how to represent Ukraine — in sport and in keeping global attention on the war.
He called for Ukraine to impose more sanctions on Russian and Belarusian athletes, sending a signal to other states.
"We need to talk about Ukraine and draw attention to the victims of the war," Heraskevych said. "More than 500 athletes have already died in this war, and that figure is truly scary."
News Editor
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
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Sarah Rogers, the lawyer leading US president's public diplomacy, warns that countries' shared values are under strain
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Connor Stringer is The Telegraph's Washington Correspondent. He leads coverage of the White House and US politics, reporting on trade, foreign policy and national security. Based in Washington, he has broken a series of world exclusives and covered the defining moments of Donald Trump's administration.
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Connor Stringer is The Telegraph's Washington Correspondent. He leads coverage of the White House and US politics, reporting on trade, foreign policy and national security. Based in Washington, he has broken a series of world exclusives and covered the defining moments of Donald Trump's administration.
Thousands of miles from Westminster fuelled by gargantuan cans of energy drinks and a vim for free speech, Sarah Rogers is fast becoming a thorn in Sir Keir Starmer's side.
As Donald Trump's firebrand undersecretary for public diplomacy, she relishes admonishing Britain over its unfiltered mass migration and failures to safeguard free speech.
From her Washington office, a sprawling suite inside the Harry S Truman Building, the New York lawyer leads the administration's charge to rescue what it believes are Western civil liberties in terminal decline.
“I always make time for the Brits,” she says, as she pushes back a planned high-level meeting to show The Telegraph around. “And here,” she adds, gesturing to the bookshelf behind her, “a Christmas card from Liz Truss.”
The office is decorated entirely to her taste. Framed sketches of polo horses, a nod to her hunter-jumper years, line one wall.
On another, a vast American flag stands beneath the state department seal.
Fox News murmurs from a small screen mounted above her desk. She jokes that some cabinet members prefer to remain glued to Mr Trump's Truth Social feed instead, the quickest way, she says, to stay up to date with the president.
A pouting bobble-head of Mr Trump wearing a Maga cap is placed on the desktop beside a stack of legal pads and two cans of the Monster energy drink, one of which is already empty. Necessary fuel, she says, to keep up the relentless pace of this administration.
Since swapping the courtroom for the halls of power in Washington, Mrs Rogers has ripped up the diplomatic playbook in favour of something far more controversial.
Viral tweets attacking European censorship regimes and criticising British officials over immigration and the handling of the grooming gangs scandal have won her a vast online following. And it seems, admirers in high places. Next to the note from the former British prime minister sits a holiday card from Rania Al Abdullah, the Queen of Jordan.
So just how did a New York attorney become one of America's most feared diplomats?
Mrs Rogers began her role in October after a career as a lawyer fighting censorship. She gravitated, she says, towards clients who faced uphill battles when the arguments were morally charged.
Her defining victory came in 2024, when she defended the NRA in a legal case that curbed attempts to “debank” the powerful gun-lobbying group.
Mrs Rogers argued that New York State officials had quietly coerced banks and insurers into cutting ties with the organisation because of its political views.
The US Supreme Court agreed unanimously in a seismic judgment that helped cement Mrs Rogers's reputation as a rising star in free-speech law.
That victory led to another high-profile fight against Letitia James, the New York attorney general, who attempted to dissolve the NRA altogether over financial misconduct.
Mrs Rogers's opening remarks, former partners say, captivated the room as she recounted the moment she was mugged in the days before the trial. She used that encounter to advocate for Second Amendment rights and ultimately save the gun lobby.
“She was very quick on her feet and improvised in the courtroom. She has a very motivating way of speaking and uses a lot of empathy to draw the jury in. It's hard to do in these days of distraction,” one recalls.
Mrs Rogers would go on to support a successful appeal of the wrongful conviction of Douglass Mackey. The social media influencer was convicted for using false Twitter posts that resembled Hillary Clinton adverts to spread fake information about the 2016 presidential election.
By the time Mr Trump nominated her to oversee US public diplomacy, she had already built the reputation and the knowledge needed for the role. The courtroom battles were over. The argument, she believed, now had to be taken to America's allies.
“I discovered that the kind of legal work that I was best at was litigation, and not only litigation, but litigation on behalf of the least popular clients,” she explains. “When we won the election in 2024, we had roots in both the tech and the traditional Maga wings of the coalition.”
She is wearing a black Ted Baker dress and a Brunello Cucinelli jacket. “Mark of the pay cut I'm taking with this job,” she jokes.
Her arrival in Washington coincides with an increasingly hawkish approach to foreign censorship laws, which the administration believes curb the right to free speech.
Downing Street has faced backlash from Washington since Britain's Online Safety Act came into force last year. Under the law, social media giants face fines of up to £18m or 10 per cent of their annual revenue if they fail to remove content deemed harmful from their platforms.
Like Europe's digital service tax, it is viewed as targeting American tech companies.
Mrs Rogers's ability to distil complex legal arguments into viral interventions has caught the attention of senior figures, including her boss Marco Rubio. In one video, the secretary of state singled her out for making a “real splash”.
“In times past, officials needed a voice for radio and a face for TV. Now, it's attention that matters online,” a US official with knowledge of the administration's social media strategy said. “Sarah has all three.”
So when Mr Rubio announced sweeping visa sanctions against five high-profile Europeans accused of censoring American speech in December, it was Mrs Rogers who delivered the message.
“Our message is clear,” she wrote: “If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you're unwelcome on American soil.”
Mrs Rogers has kept a close eye on British politics, warning that the shared values of the special relationship – rule of law, free expression and democratic accountability – are under strain.
The cases that alarm her most are those of Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan.
Connolly was jailed for an inflammatory social media post after the Southport attack, where three young girls were murdered in a knife attack by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana.
Linehan, the creator of sitcom Father Ted, was detained at Heathrow airport over gender-critical comments and later called to testify before US Congress.
“His arrest shocked a lot of Americans,” Mrs Rogers says, before suggesting Britons prosecuted for speech offences should seek refuge in the United States.
“Anyone persecuted by their government for peacefully expressing their views, including British citizens, may present themselves at a US embassy or consulate to seek information about applying for refugee protection. The United States takes free expression seriously, and this administration considers violations of that fundamental right a priority to address.”
Mrs Rogers leads the way into the Truman Building's eighth-floor drawing room, where she still hopes to host her delayed swearing-in ceremony. The pace of this administration means she is yet to have it.
Labour's plan to cancel local elections has raised eyebrows in Washington. Well-placed sources inside the administration say they are concerned that it is an attempt to avert democracy.
For Mrs Rogers, the issue is more nuanced. “We have seen efforts in some countries to cancel or postpone elections. We've seen efforts to clamp down on speech. We've seen efforts to contrive new expedient forms of lawfare to prosecute disfavoured candidates and keep them out of office.
“We've seen all of these weapons used against President Trump, and we are therefore consistent with the values laid out in our national security strategy. We are therefore attentive to what look like warning signs of those kinds of impulses in other countries.”
Part of Mrs Rogers's remit is cultural, which means she will be focusing on America's 250th birthday in July and its forthcoming Fifa World Cup. It means more face time with European diplomats, with whom Mrs Rogers has come to blows in recent months.
She has had fiery meetings with French and European diplomats who have sought to push back on her criticism. Even James Roscoe, the deputy head of mission at the British embassy in Washington, has found himself in her office.
The special relationship still exists. But it is being renegotiated in public by a lawyer who has ripped up the diplomatic playbook and taken Washington by storm.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details.
Russia carried out a mass attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Feb. 7, triggering emergency power outages across most regions and damaging nuclear facilities, government officials said.
The strike hit key elements of Ukraine's power grid as freezing temperatures returned, with Kyiv forecast to see temperatures drop to –19 degrees Celsius (–2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days, compounding pressure on the energy system.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address that Russia struck "facilities crucial to the operation of Ukraine's nuclear power plants."
Power generation was reduced at the country's nuclear plants after the attack, while one unit was automatically shut down, he said.
"This is a level of attack that no terrorist in the world has ever dared, and Russia must feel the response of the entire world — all those who truly care about security," Zelensky said.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian forces targeted high-voltage substations and 750-kilovolt and 330-kilovolt overhead transmission lines that form the backbone of Ukraine's electricity network.
Power generation facilities were also struck, including the Burshtyn and Dobrotvir thermal power plants in western Ukraine.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said equipment at its thermal power plants suffered "significant damage," calling the strike Moscow's 220th attack on thermal generation facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Attacks were reported across the country, including in western regions. The Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv oblasts all came under fire, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine's Air Force said 13 Russian missiles and 21 Shahed-type attack drones targeted 19 sites across the country, with debris from the strikes falling on three additional locations.
As of Feb. 7, emergency power outage schedules of up to 4.5–5 stages were in effect nationwide, with additional emergency measures imposed in eastern and northern regions, Shmyhal said.
Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo also requested emergency electricity assistance from Poland, though no further details were provided.
"Energy workers are ready to begin restoration as soon as the situation allows," Shmyhal said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine's allies to respond to the attack, stressing the need to prevent Russia from using winter as a weapon.
"Moscow must be deprived of the ability to pressure Ukraine with cold weather. This requires missiles for Patriot, NASAMS, and other (air defense) systems," he said.
Since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's power plants, substations, and transmission lines, causing repeated blackouts across the country.
The latest strike comes as diplomatic efforts to end the war continue, with Moscow intensifying attacks on civilian energy infrastructure in what Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to pressure Kyiv into accepting Russia's maximalist demands in peace talks.
Ukrainian authorities have warned the energy situation remains "extremely serious," while the Security Service of Ukraine has said the continued targeting of civilian power facilities amounts to crimes against humanity.
Reporter
News Editor
"This is a level of attack that no terrorist in the world has ever dared," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the following evening.
The controversy erupted after promotional photos appeared on social media showing models styled as schoolgirls in a classroom setting, wearing outfits widely perceived as sexualized versions of high school uniforms.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized Ukraine for calling on the EU halt imports of cheap Russian energy. "Anyone who says this is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy," he said at a rally on Feb. 7.
British defense officials told the Guardian that military options for seizing ships were discussed during consultations among NATO allies.
An unidentified drone was found on Moldovan territory on Feb. 6, Moldovan authorities reported.
India's Ministry of Commerce has not publicly confirmed the White House's claim that New Delhi agreed to halt imports of Russian oil.
Data from the FIRMS satellite monitoring service, which tracks fires worldwide in near real time, showed active burning on the plant's territory following the strike.
"We will make sure that 'Oreshnik' does not even start operating," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"We clearly state that Ukraine will not support even potential agreements about us without us," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The number includes 730 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Some of the meetings could have been linked to Yermak's role in a corruption case involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom, the biggest corruption investigation during Zelensky's presidency, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The U.S. Department of State on Feb. 6 approved a potential $185 million “Foreign Military Sale” to Ukraine for spare parts and related equipment to support U.S.-supplied vehicles and weapon systems.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details.
Russia carried out a mass attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Feb. 7, triggering emergency power outages across most regions and damaging nuclear facilities, government officials said.
The strike hit key elements of Ukraine's power grid as freezing temperatures returned, with Kyiv forecast to see temperatures drop to –19 degrees Celsius (–2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days, compounding pressure on the energy system.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address that Russia struck "facilities crucial to the operation of Ukraine's nuclear power plants."
Power generation was reduced at the country's nuclear plants after the attack, while one unit was automatically shut down, he said.
"This is a level of attack that no terrorist in the world has ever dared, and Russia must feel the response of the entire world — all those who truly care about security," Zelensky said.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian forces targeted high-voltage substations and 750-kilovolt and 330-kilovolt overhead transmission lines that form the backbone of Ukraine's electricity network.
Power generation facilities were also struck, including the Burshtyn and Dobrotvir thermal power plants in western Ukraine.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said equipment at its thermal power plants suffered "significant damage," calling the strike Moscow's 220th attack on thermal generation facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The company said the attack cost the country a "significant portion" of electricity, further straining Ukraine's battered energy system.
"Due to the damage to the high-voltage substations, nuclear power plants were forced to discharge. Ukraine lost a significant portion of available electricity. ... There are difficult days ahead," DTEK said.
In Kyiv, where the situation is hardest, residents can expect a maximum of one-and-a-half to two hours of light per day, the company said.
Attacks were reported across the country, including in western regions. The Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv oblasts all came under fire, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine's Air Force said 13 Russian missiles and 21 Shahed-type attack drones targeted 19 sites across the country, with debris from the strikes falling on three additional locations.
As of Feb. 7, emergency power outage schedules of up to 4.5–5 stages were in effect nationwide, with additional emergency measures imposed in eastern and northern regions, Shmyhal said.
Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo also requested emergency electricity assistance from Poland, though no further details were provided.
"Energy workers are ready to begin restoration as soon as the situation allows," Shmyhal said.
Zelensky urged Ukraine's allies to respond to the attack, stressing the need to prevent Russia from using winter as a weapon.
"Moscow must be deprived of the ability to pressure Ukraine with cold weather. This requires missiles for Patriot, NASAMS, and other (air defense) systems," he said.
Since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's power plants, substations, and transmission lines, causing repeated blackouts across the country.
The latest strike comes as diplomatic efforts to end the war continue, with Moscow intensifying attacks on civilian energy infrastructure in what Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to pressure Kyiv into accepting Russia's maximalist demands in peace talks.
Ukrainian authorities have warned the energy situation remains "extremely serious," while the Security Service of Ukraine has said the continued targeting of civilian power facilities amounts to crimes against humanity.
Reporter
News Editor
"This is a level of attack that no terrorist in the world has ever dared," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the following evening.
The controversy erupted after promotional photos appeared on social media showing models styled as schoolgirls in a classroom setting, wearing outfits widely perceived as sexualized versions of high school uniforms.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized Ukraine for calling on the EU halt imports of cheap Russian energy. "Anyone who says this is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy," he said at a rally on Feb. 7.
British defense officials told the Guardian that military options for seizing ships were discussed during consultations among NATO allies.
An unidentified drone was found on Moldovan territory on Feb. 6, Moldovan authorities reported.
India's Ministry of Commerce has not publicly confirmed the White House's claim that New Delhi agreed to halt imports of Russian oil.
Data from the FIRMS satellite monitoring service, which tracks fires worldwide in near real time, showed active burning on the plant's territory following the strike.
"We will make sure that 'Oreshnik' does not even start operating," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"We clearly state that Ukraine will not support even potential agreements about us without us," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The number includes 730 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Some of the meetings could have been linked to Yermak's role in a corruption case involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom, the biggest corruption investigation during Zelensky's presidency, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The U.S. Department of State on Feb. 6 approved a potential $185 million “Foreign Military Sale” to Ukraine for spare parts and related equipment to support U.S.-supplied vehicles and weapon systems.
Millions read the Kyiv Independent, but only one in 1,000 supports us financially. One membership might not seem like much, but to us, it makes a real difference.
If you value our reporting, consider becoming a member — your support makes us stronger.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with the latest details.
A Gerbera-type drone used by Russia in its war against Ukraine was discovered on Moldovan territory on Feb. 6, Moldova's police said.
The object was found in the village of Sofia in the Drochia District, near the Ukrainian border, after which police sealed off the area and dispatched explosives disposal specialists to conduct an inspection.
The Gerbera drone can carry a combat payload similar to a kamikaze drone and can also be used for reconnaissance. Police said the drone found in Moldova was not carrying explosives.
This incident marks the third drone found in the country since the beginning of the year.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova strongly condemns any incident that could constitute a violation of the country's airspace and a potential threat to the safety of its citizens," the Moldovan Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry added that Moldova remains firm in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity and is closely monitoring developments in coordination with relevant national authorities.
The incident comes as Moldova continues to periodically face indirect effects of Russia's war against Ukraine. On Jan. 31, the country suffered a major power outage that left large parts of the capital, Chisinau, without electricity, halting trolleybuses and disabling traffic lights.
Moldovan authorities said the disruption was linked to technical problems with Ukraine's power grid and high-voltage transmission lines connecting the two countries. Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine is enduring "a significant power shortage" as Russia ramps up its energy blitz, targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure with missiles and drones.
North American news editor
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master's degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor's degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
"This is a level of attack that no terrorist in the world has ever dared," President Volodymyr Zelensky said the following evening.
The controversy erupted after promotional photos appeared on social media showing models styled as schoolgirls in a classroom setting, wearing outfits widely perceived as sexualized versions of high school uniforms.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized Ukraine for calling on the EU halt imports of cheap Russian energy. "Anyone who says this is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy," he said at a rally on Feb. 7.
British defense officials told the Guardian that military options for seizing ships were discussed during consultations among NATO allies.
An unidentified drone was found on Moldovan territory on Feb. 6, Moldovan authorities reported.
India's Ministry of Commerce has not publicly confirmed the White House's claim that New Delhi agreed to halt imports of Russian oil.
Data from the FIRMS satellite monitoring service, which tracks fires worldwide in near real time, showed active burning on the plant's territory following the strike.
"We will make sure that 'Oreshnik' does not even start operating," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"We clearly state that Ukraine will not support even potential agreements about us without us," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The number includes 730 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Some of the meetings could have been linked to Yermak's role in a corruption case involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom, the biggest corruption investigation during Zelensky's presidency, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The U.S. Department of State on Feb. 6 approved a potential $185 million “Foreign Military Sale” to Ukraine for spare parts and related equipment to support U.S.-supplied vehicles and weapon systems.
Millions read the Kyiv Independent, but only one in 1,000 supports us financially. One membership might not seem like much, but to us, it makes a real difference.
If you value our reporting, consider becoming a member — your support makes us stronger.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Democrats' demands for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic.” (AP Video by Mike Pesoli)
Democrats are pressing for changes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a TV news interview at the Capitol in Washington, early Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., arrives for the Senate Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, early Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.
Democrats say they will not vote for a DHS spending bill when funding runs out unless there are “dramatic changes” at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
The Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, released an expanded list of 10 detailed proposals on Wednesday night for restraining President Donald Trump's aggressive campaign of immigration enforcement. Among the demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use of force standards and a stop to racial profiling.
Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump last week agreed to a Democratic request that it be separated from a larger spending measure and extended at current levels for two weeks while the two parties negotiate. The deal came after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, and some Republicans agreed that new restrictions were necessary.
But with nearly a week gone, a shutdown is becoming increasingly likely starting Feb. 14 as Republicans have been cool to most of the Democrats' requests.
“This is not a blank check situation where Republicans just do agree to a list of Democrat demands,” said Thune, R-S.D. “The only way to get reforms to ICE is to agree to a bill.”
As of now, Thune said, “we aren't anywhere close to having any sort of an agreement.”
In addition to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. If DHS shuts down, Thune said, “there's a very good chance we could see more travel problems” similar to the 43-day government closure last year.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is “astounded to hear” Republicans say his party's proposals were political or unworkable.
“It's about people's basic rights, it's about people's safety,” Schumer said. If Republicans do not like the ideas, he said, “they need to explain why.”
Schumer and Jeffries, D-N.Y., have made several demands, including no masks for officers, judicial warrants and better federal coordination with local authorities. The list they released Wednesday added several new items, including a stricter use-of-force policy, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.
Democrats say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, “improve warrant procedures and standards,” ensure the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it's verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen.
They also want an end to racial profiling, saying DHS officers should be prohibited from stopping, questioning or searching people “based on an individual's presence at certain locations, their job, their spoken language and accent or their race and ethnicity.”
For officers conducting immigration enforcement, Democrats say that in addition to officers taking off their masks and showing identification, DHS should regulate and standardize uniforms and equipment to bring them in line with other law enforcement agencies.
Schumer called it a “gut check moment for Congress” as the immigration enforcement operations have rocked Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. But Republicans were dismissive.
Wyoming's John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican senator, said the demands are “radical and extreme” and a “far-left wish list.”
Sen. Katie Britt, who is helping lead negotiations, said the list is “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands” and warned that time is running out before the deadline.
“I encourage them to talk to the White House,” she said. “We only have one week left.”
Thune has also encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk. It is unclear whether they are or whether Democrats would be willing to back down on any of their demands.
Some Republicans have demands of their own, including adding legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on cities that they say do not do enough to crack down on illegal immigration.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it is up to Republicans to ensure the government doesn't shut down because they are in charge.
“The American people want this abuse to stop,” Murphy said.
Other lawmakers are searching for options to prevent another partial shutdown.
One idea being floated is to essentially fund some of the other agencies within DHS -– the Coast Guard, airport operations under TSA and disaster assistance from FEMA.
“Why not take that off the table?” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is in need of FEMA funds from recent disasters.
“If it doesn't look like they can get it done,” he said about the immigration enforcement overhaul. “I really think they should look at a la carte funding of agencies.”
Some Democrats have said they agree, but Thune said Thursday that splitting apart the DHS appropriations bill to single out ICE would “defund law enforcement.”
Splitting the bill would mean essentially cutting ICE loose by allowing it to go without its routine federal funding because the agency already has such a robust budget from Trump's tax and spending cut bill from last year.
ICE is expected to receive about $10 billion in the annual appropriations bill, a fraction of the $175 billion-plus for homeland security for the administration's mass deportation agenda.
___
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Archaeologists have discovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age dog skeleton buried with a 5,000-year-old bone dagger in a Swedish bog.
Archaeologists uncovered what they believe are the oldest wooden tools ever discovered — dating back hundreds of thousands of years, according to a new study.
The tools were found in Greece's Megalopolis basin, a low-lying valley in southern Greece's Peloponnese peninsula.
Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in late January, the study estimates the tools could be around 430,000 years old, though the exact age is unknown.
SCIENTISTS SHATTER TIMELINE OF HUMAN FIRE-MAKING WITH 400,000-YEAR-OLD DISCOVERY IN ENGLAND
The tools "represent the earliest handheld wooden tools, and include a new tool type," according to an abstract of the study obtained by Fox News Digital.
The finds "demonstrate the importance of systematic investigation of early wood remains," the abstract also says.
Archaeologists say wooden tools found in Greece's Megalopolis basin may date back roughly 430,000 years, making them potentially the oldest of their kind. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis via AP; Prisma/UIG/Getty Images)
The area where the tools were found was covered by wetlands and lakes hundreds of thousands of years ago.
One of them — a stick — measures around 2.5 feet long. It was likely used for digging in mud, while the other is a small handheld chunk of wood that may have been used to shape stone tools.
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Because wood rots very quickly, few ancient tools of this type survive.
The recently found tools were covered in sediment and preserved by the surrounding wet environment.
Researchers believe a smaller handheld piece of wood may have been used to help shape stone tools thousands of centuries ago. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis via AP)
Modern humans didn't exist back then — leading scientists to believe the tools may have been used by Neanderthals or other early human ancestors.
Annemieke Milks, an archaeologist at the University of Reading and author of the study, said she was "thrilled to be able to touch these objects."
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Another archaeologist was cautious about the find.
Archaeologists say one wooden tool, measuring about 2.5 feet long, was likely used for digging in muddy, wet ground. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis via AP)
Jarod Hutson, of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told The Associated Press the tools' purposes remain unclear.
"It's difficult to get excited about these because they don't strike you immediately as wooden tools," cautioned Hutson, who was not involved in the study.
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He added, "We don't know what they were used for."
The artifact joins other prehistoric finds that have surprised archaeologists in recent months.
Scientists suggest the tools may have been used by Neanderthals or other early human ancestors before modern humans existed. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Last month, archaeologists announced the discovery of cave art dating back about 68,000 years, found in a cave on a tropical island in central Indonesia.
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Researchers also recently identified the oldest-known poisoned arrowheads, estimating that they are roughly 60,000 years old.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Andrea Margolis is a lifestyle writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Readers can follow her on X at @andreamargs or send story tips to andrea.margolis@fox.com.
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Viral footage captures a 12-year-old's frightening fall at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California on Jan. 31, 2026. (Kristen Tellez via Storyful)
More than five dozen winter adventurers had an experience recently that likely wasn't on their agenda.
A gondola malfunction left nearly 70 skiers stuck in midair for hours at a New York ski resort. The incident occurred Wednesday morning at Gore Mountain in North Creek.
Resort officials said the gondola stopped due to a mechanical alignment issue that triggered a safety sensor — bringing the lift to an automatic stop, Olympic Regional Development Authority and Gore Mountain said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
TWO RIDERS TRAPPED MORE THAN 100 FEET IN AIR AFTER TEXAS ROLLER COASTER MALFUNCTIONS
A standard evacuation was immediately launched — with trained mountain operations and ski patrol teams assisting passengers.
Some 67 guests were riding in roughly 20 cabins at the time.
A recent gondola breakdown stranded nearly 70 skiers for hours at Gore Mountain (not pictured) in New York. (iStock)
ll were returned to the ground without injuries, the department noted.
The call for assistance was made shortly after 9 a.m. The evacuation was completed before 2 p.m., leaving skiers stranded for nearly five hours, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
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The gondola returned to normal operations Thursday morning, Gore Mountain said.
"We are grateful to our guests for their patience and cooperation."
"Thanks to the hard work of our crew, the Northwoods Gondola has been repaired, all safety checks completed, and the lift returned to service this morning," the resort said.
"We are grateful to our guests for their patience and cooperation."
Officials said the evacuation (not pictured) lasted nearly five hours. (iStock)
Officials said some of the responding forest rangers had completed gondola evacuation training at Gore Mountain last fall, helping crews safely carry out the rescue.
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"Safety remains our top priority, and our teams are fully trained and experienced in managing situations like this," Olympic Regional Development Authority said.
The gondola (not pictured) was repaired and safely returned to service on Thursday morning. (Kerstin Joensson/AFP/Getty Images)
The incident also drew attention online, with some users on social media reacting to the evacuation as it unfolded.
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One user emphasized that he or she had no issues with keeping plans for skiing at Gore Mountain following the incident, though the person mentioned avoiding the gondola.
Others commented on the experience of being stranded at some height, noting that gondola cabins may feel safer than open chairlifts in similar situations.
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"Had it been a chair lift, that would have been very cold," one user commented.
Gore Mountain in New York is one of the "most popular alpine skiing and snowboarding destinations in the Adirondacks, with an even mix of trails across levels and plenty of gorgeous glades, including the longest gladed trail in the Northeast," according to the Visit the Adirondacks website.
"Had it been a chair lift, that would have been very cold."
"Winter activities include downhill, cross-country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing. Special events range from non-competitive family-oriented fun to regional and Northeastern ski races."
The site also notes that "Gore has an incredible gondola ride that warms guests while offering stunning views of the snowy slopes before it's time to zip down again."
Kelly McGreal is a production assistant with the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.
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Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, a construction worker in Minnesota, talks about his arrest by ICE officers which resulted in eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages. (AP Video: Mark Vancleave)
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón poses for a portrait at an apartment Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón poses for a portrait at an apartment Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón poses for a portrait at an apartment Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says his memory was so jumbled after a beating by immigration officers that he initially could not remember he had a daughter and still struggles to recall treasured moments like the night he taught her to dance.
But the violence he endured last month in Minnesota while being detained is seared into his battered brain.
He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend's car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton. He remembers being dragged into an SUV and taken to a detention facility, where he said he was beaten again.
He also remembers the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.
“They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” the Mexican immigrant recounted this week to The Associated Press, which recently reported on how his case contributed to mounting friction between federal immigration agents and a Minneapolis hospital.
Castañeda Mondragón, 31, is one of an unknown number of immigration detainees who, despite avoiding deportation during the Trump administration's enforcement crackdown, have been left with lasting injuries following violent encounters with ICE officers. His case is one of the excessive-force claims the federal government has thus far declined to investigate.
He was hurt so badly he was disoriented for days at Hennepin County Medical Center, where ICE officers constantly watched over him.
The officers told nurses Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” an account his caregivers immediately doubted. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told AP were inconsistent with a fall.
“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón said in Spanish, recalling ICE officers striking him with the same metal rod used to break the windows of the vehicle he was in. He later identified it as an ASP, a telescoping baton routinely carried by law enforcement.
Training materials and police use-of-force policies across the U.S. say such a baton can be used to hit the arms, legs and body. But striking the head, neck or spine is considered potentially deadly force.
“The only time a person can be struck in the head with any baton is when the person presents the same threat that would permit the use of a firearm — a lethal threat to the officer or others,” said Joe Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force expert who testifies in defense of police.
Once he was taken to an ICE holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis, Castañeda Mondragón said officers resumed beating him. Recognizing that he was seriously hurt, he said, he pleaded with them to stop but they just “laughed at me and hit me again.”
“They were very racist people,” he said. “No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last two weeks on Castañeda Mondragón's injuries.
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It is unclear whether his arrest was captured on body-camera footage or if there might be additional recordings from security cameras at the detention center.
In a recent bid to boost transparency, DHS announced a broad rollout of body cameras for immigration officers in Minneapolis as the government also draws down ICE's presence there.
ICE deportation officer William J. Robinson did not say how Castañeda Mondragón's skull was smashed in a Jan. 20 declaration filed in federal court. During the intake process, it was determined he “had a head injury that required emergency medical treatment,” he wrote in the filing.
The declaration also stated that Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. legally in March 2022, and that the agency determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa. A federal judge later ruled his arrest had been unlawful and ordered him released from ICE custody.
A video posted to social media captured the moments immediately after Castañeda Mondragón's arrest as four masked men walk him handcuffed through a parking lot. The video shows him unsteady and stumbling, held up by ICE officers.
“Don't resist,” shouts the woman who is recording. “Cause they ain't gonna do nothing but bang you up some more.”
“Hope they don't kill you,” she adds.
“And y'all gave the man a concussion,” a male bystander shouts.
The witness who posted the video declined to speak with AP or provide consent for the video's publication, but Castañeda Mondragón confirmed he is the handcuffed man seen in the recording.
At least one ICE officer later told staff at the medical center that Castañeda Mondragón “got his (expletive) rocked,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release and nurses who spoke with AP.
AP interviewed a doctor and five nurses about Castañeda Mondragón's treatment at HCMC and the presence of ICE officers inside the hospital. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care and feared retaliation. AP also consulted an outside physician, who affirmed the injuries were inconsistent with an accidental fall or running into a wall.
Minnesota state law requires health professionals to report to law enforcement any wounds that could have been perpetrated as part of a crime.
An HCMC spokeswoman declined to say this week whether anyone at the facility had done so. However, following the Jan. 31 publication of AP's initial story about Castañeda Mondragón's arrest, hospital administrators opened an internal inquiry seeking to determine which staff members have spoken to the media, according to internal communications viewed by AP.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted a link to AP's prior story about Castañeda Mondragón, but his office has not said whether state authorities would pursue answers.
“Law enforcement cannot be lawless,” Walz wrote in the post on X. “Thousands of aggressive, untrained agents of the federal government continue to injure and terrorize Minnesotans. This must end.”
Castañeda Mondragón's arrest came a day after the first of two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by immigration officers, triggering widespread public protests.
Minnesota congressional leaders and other elected officials, including St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, called this week for an investigation of Castañeda Mondragón's injuries.
The Ramsey County Attorney's Office, which oversees St. Paul, urged Castañeda Mondragón to file a police report to prompt an investigation. He said he plans to file a complaint. A St. Paul police spokesperson said the department would investigate “all alleged crimes that are reported to us.”
While the Trump administration insists ICE limits its operations to immigrants with violent rap sheets, Castañeda Mondragón has no criminal record.
“We are seeing a repeated pattern of Trump Administration officials attempting to lie and gaslight the American people when it comes to the cruelty of this ICE operation in Minnesota,” Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a statement.
Rep. Kelly Morrison, another Democrat and a doctor, recently toured the Whipple Building, the ICE facility at Ft. Snelling. She said she saw severe overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and an almost complete lack of medical care.
“If any one of our police officers did this, you know what just happened in Minnesota with George Floyd, we hold them accountable,” said Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, whose district includes St. Paul.
A native of Veracruz, Mexico, Castañeda Mondragón came to Minnesota nearly four years ago on a temporary work visa and found jobs as a driver and roofer. He uses his earnings to support his elderly father, who is disabled and diabetic, and his 10-year-old daughter.
On the day of his arrest, he was running errands with a friend when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by ICE agents. They began breaking the windows and opening the doors of the vehicle. He said the first person who hit him “got ugly with me for being Mexican” and not having documents showing his immigration status.
About four hours after his arrest, court records show, Castañeda Mondragón was taken to an emergency room in the suburb of Edina with swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. He was then transferred to the Minneapolis medical center, where he told staff he had been “dragged and mistreated by federal agents,” before his condition deteriorated, court records show.
A week into his hospitalization, caregivers described him as minimally responsive. As his condition slowly improved, hospital staff handed him his cellphone, and he spoke with his child in Mexico, whom he could not remember.
“I am your daughter,” she told him. “You left when I was 6 years old.”
His head injuries erased past experiences that for his daughter are unforgettable, including birthday parties and the day he left for the U.S. She's been trying to revive his memory in daily calls.
“When I turned 5, you taught me how to dance for the first time,” she reminded him recently.
“All these moments, really, for me, have been forgotten,″ he said.
He showed gradual improvement and, to the surprise of some who treated him, was released from the hospital on Jan. 27.
He faces a long recovery and an uncertain future. Questions loom about whether he will be able to continue to support his family back in Mexico. “My family depends on me,” he said.
Though his bruises have faded, the effects of his traumatic brain injuries linger. In addition to the problems with his memory, he also has issues with balance and coordination that could prove debilitating for a man whose work requires going up and down ladders. He said he is unable to bathe himself without help.
“I can't get on a roof now,” he said.
Castañeda Mondragón, who does not have health insurance, said doctors have told him he needs ongoing care. Unable to earn a living, he is relying on support from co-workers and members of the Minneapolis-St. Paul community who are raising money to help provide food, housing and medical care. He has launched a GoFundMe.
Still, he hopes to stay in the U.S. and to provide again someday for his loved ones. He differentiates between people in Minnesota, where he said he has felt welcome, and the federal officers who beat him.
“It's immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it's the best luck in the world.”
But when he closes his eyes at night, the fear that ICE officers will come for him dominates his dreams. He is now terrified to leave his apartment, he said.
“You're left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you're buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”
___
Biesecker reported from Washington. Mustian reported from New York, and Attanasio reported from Seattle.
___
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador's residence on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)
Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson speaks during the rededication ceremony of the George Washington Statue in the National Gallery in London, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)
FILE -Norway's Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Ingrid Alexandra applaud during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP), File)
LONDON (AP) — A prince, an ambassador, senior diplomats, top politicians. All brought down by the Jeffrey Epstein files. And all in Europe, rather than the United States.
The huge trove of Epstein documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice has sent shock waves through Europe's political, economic and social elites — dominating headlines, ending careers and spurring political and criminal investigations.
Former U.K. Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was fired and could go to prison. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a leadership crisis over the Mandelson appointment. Senior figures have fallen in Norway, Sweden and Slovakia. And, even before the latest batch of files, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, lost his honors, princely title and taxpayer-funded mansion.
Apart from the former Prince Andrew, none of them faces claims of sexual wrongdoing. They have been toppled for maintaining friendly relationships with Epstein after he became a convicted sex offender.
“Epstein collected powerful people the way others collect frequent flyer points,” said Mark Stephens, a specialist in international and human rights law at Howard Kennedy in London. “But the receipts are now in public, and some might wish they'd traveled less.”
The documents were published after a public frenzy over Epstein became a crisis for President Donald Trump's administration and led to a rare bipartisan effort to force the government to open its investigative files. But in the U.S., the long-sought publication has not brought the same public reckoning with Epstein's associates — at least so far.
Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said that in Britain, “if you're in those files, it's immediately a big story.”
“It suggests to me we have a more functional media, we have a more functional accountability structure, that there is still a degree of shame in politics, in terms of people will say: ‘This is just not acceptable, this is just not done,'” he said.
U.K. figures felled by their ties to Epstein include the former Prince Andrew — who paid millions to settle a lawsuit with one of Epstein's victims and is facing pressure to testify in the U.S. — and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, whose charity shut down this week.
Like others now ensnared, veteran politician Mandelson long downplayed his relationship with Epstein, despite calling him “my best pal” in 2003. The new files reveal contact continued for years after the financier's 2008 prison term for sexual offenses involving a minor. In a July 2009 message, Mandelson appeared to refer to Epstein's release from prison as “liberation day.”
Starmer fired Mandelson in September over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties. Now British police are investigating whether Mandelson committed misconduct in public office by passing on sensitive government information to Epstein.
Starmer has apologized to Epstein's victims and pledged to release public documents that will show Mandelson lied when he was being vetted for the ambassador's job. That may not be enough to stop furious lawmakers trying to eject the prime minister from office over his failure of judgment.
Experts caution that Britain shouldn't be too quick to pat itself on the back over its rapid reckoning with Mandelson. The U.S. has a better record than the U.K. when it comes to declassifying and publishing information.
But Alex Thomas, executive director of the Institute for Government think tank, said “there is something about parliamentary democracy,” with its need for a prime minister to retain the confidence of Parliament to stay in office, “that I think does help drive accountability.”
A few high-profile Americans have faced repercussions over their friendly ties with Epstein. Most prominent is former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who went on leave from academic positions at Harvard University late last year.
Brad Karp quit last week as chair of top U.S. law firm Paul Weiss after revelations in the latest batch of documents, and the National Football League said it would investigate Epstein's relationship with New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, who exchanged sometimes crude emails with Epstein about potential dates with adult women.
Other U.S. Epstein associates have not yet faced severe sanction, including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who exchanged hundreds of texts with Epstein, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who accepted an invitation to visit Epstein's private island, and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who discussed visiting the island in emails, but says he never made the trip.
Former President Bill Clinton has been compelled by Republicans to testify before Congress about his friendship with Epstein. Trump, too, has repeatedly faced questions about his ties to Epstein. Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein's victims.
The Epstein files reveal the global network of royals, political leaders, billionaires, bankers and academics that the wealthy financier built around him.
Across Europe, officials have had or resign or face censure after the Epstein files revealed relationships that were more extensive than previously disclosed.
Joanna Rubinstein, a Swedish U.N. official, quit after the revelation of a 2012 visit to Epstein's Caribbean island. Miroslav Lajcak, national security adviser to Slovakia's prime minister, quit over his communications with Epstein, which included the pair discussing “gorgeous” girls.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have set up wide-ranging official investigations into the documents. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a team would scour the files for potential Polish victims, and any links between Epstein and Russian secret services.
Epstein took an interest in European politics, in one email exchange with billionaire Peter Thiel calling Britain's 2016 vote to leave the European Union “just the beginning” and part of a return to “tribalism.”
Grégoire Roos, director of the Europe program at the think tank Chatham House, said the files uncover Epstein's “far-reaching” network of contacts in Europe, “and the level of access among not just those who were already in power, but those who were getting there.
“It will be interesting to see whether in the correspondence he had an influence in policymaking,” Roos said.
Few countries have been as roiled by the Epstein revelations as Norway, a Scandinavian nation with a population of less than 6 million.
The country's economic crimes unit has opened a corruption investigation into former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland — who also once headed the committee that hands out the Nobel Peace Prize — over his ties with Epstein. His lawyer said Jagland would cooperate with the probe.
Also ensnared are high-profile Norwegian diplomat couple Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, key players in the 1990s Israel-Palestinian peace efforts. Juul has been suspended as Norway's ambassador to Jordan after revelations including the fact that Epstein left the couple's children $10 million in a will drawn up shortly before his death by suicide in a New York prison in 2019.
Norwegians' respect for their royal family has been dented by new details about Epstein's friendship with Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who is married to the heir to the throne, Prince Haakon. The files include jokey exchanges and emails planning visits to Epstein properties, teeth-whitening appointments and shopping trips.
The princess apologized Friday “to all of you whom I have disappointed.”
The disclosures came as her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, stands trial in Oslo on rape charges, which he denies.
___
Associated Press writers David B. Caruso in New York and Danica Kirka in London 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.
The Hooters in Boca Raton, Florida, is being forced to close because the landlord isn't extending the lease. But this location's Hooters girls have become a viral sensation for their popular TikTok and Instagram reels.
A successful Hooters location that gained a following through its social media videos will be closing soon — which means the people behind the posts are preparing for one last Super Bowl Sunday.
When news broke that the Hooters in Boca Raton, Florida, was closing at the end of February because of the landlord's decision not to renew the lease, longtime customers and employees were surprised, general manager Chris Torelli told Fox News Digital.
In a tough restaurant economy, closures can be a sign of decline. But this Hooters location built a cult following through TikTok dances, parody skits and viral videos.
HOOTERS CEO REVEALS MOST CUSTOMERS WERE SERVED THE WRONG WING SAUCE FOR 20 YEARS
"We are a healthy, successful location, and in this economy, the places that close are the opposite," Torelli said.
Over the years, the Boca Raton location distinguished itself by leaning heavily into social media. What started as a simple marketing experiment, Torelli said, evolved into one of the most recognizable Hooters social media accounts in the country.
Employees at the Hooters location in Boca Raton, Florida, have become viral sensations for their roles in the restaurant's social media videos. (Hooters/@hootersbocaraton)
The videos — often featuring choreographed dances, playful jabs at local sports teams or scripted phone-call skits — resonated far beyond Boca Raton. Torelli said early viral success helped confirm the strategy.
"You get one or two that go viral, then you start seeing the comments and the interaction with the consumers," he said.
HOOTERS REVAMPS MENU, UPDATES UNIFORM AS ORIGINAL OWNERS TAKE OVER
But the success wasn't just about algorithms or follower counts. The goal "has always been to make it fun."
"It's not a business," Torelli said. "I mean, we are a business — but Instagram, for us, is fun."
Much of that fun came from the women who appeared in the videos. Hooters waitresses Amanda Hall and Sarah Glynn became familiar faces online, dancing, joking and often poking fun at themselves.
The social media presence helped turn the Hooters girls into "local celebrities," Torelli said, as recognition followed them outside the restaurant.
HISTORY OF HOOTERS: 5 FACTS YOU LIKELY NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE RESTAURANT CHAIN
It's something former employee Abigail Fuqua still experiences more than a year after leaving the Boca Raton location. She said she's still recognized from posts still circulating online.
"As soon as you open that door up, and you immerse yourself into it, you just have fun," Fuqua said of participating in the videos.
Although Abigail Fuqua (at left, and standing on the table at right) no longer works at Hooters, she said she still gets recognized in public from the viral videos that still circulate online. (Hooters/@hootersbocaraton)
The social media success has also become a reliable job recruiting resource, Torelli said.
"We've stumbled upon one of the best marketing tools to recruit future Hooters girls," he said. He noted the "tremendous success [in] hiring staff" who wanted to work there because of the videos.
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As the restaurant prepares to close its doors after 16 years, Hall and Glynn describe the workplace as more than just a job.
"These girls are my sisters now," Glynn said.
"It kind of became more like a home and a family," Hall added.
Hooters bartender Amanda Hall gets beer from the tap for a customer. She said her job has been "like a home and a family." (Peter Burke/Fox News Digital)
Still, there is optimism about the future. Torelli said the "plan all along" was to find a new home nearby.
"We're not done yet," he said.
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For the employees, the future is less certain — but not without gratitude.
"Life is going to take you in different directions, but I had a great time while I was here," Hall said.
Current and former employees of the Hooters in Boca Raton pose for a photograph with their work "family." (Hooters)
Glynn joked that the end of the Boca Raton location may mark the end of an era for her.
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"It may be time to retire the orange shorts a little bit because I don't know how I can do any Hooters other than Boca," she said.
"I had a great time while I was here."
Even after the restaurant closes, its social media presence isn't likely to fade, Torelli said.
Hooters waitress Sarah Glynn said she doesn't know what will come next once the Boca Raton location closes at the end of the month. (Peter Burke/Fox News Digital)
"We owe it to our guests and our staff and the people in the community, because we do so much with them, to continue to do this," he said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the property management company for comment.
Peter Burke is a lifestyle editor with Fox News Digital. He covers various lifestyle topics, with an emphasis on food and drink.
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“The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ's attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable.”
That was CNN‘s statement following the arrest of Don Lemon, an anchor the network fired not long ago after 17 years at the company.
“The First Amendment is under attack in America!” added former CNN anchor Jim Acosta, who suffered a similar fate to Lemon at the network last year.
“Don Lemon is an accomplished journalist whose urgent work is protected by the First Amendment. There is zero basis to arrest him,” House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said. “He should be freed immediately.”
It is truly a sight to behold, purported news networks, fellow “journalists,” and a leader of the Democratic Party casting the cheesy performance artist-turned-activist Don Lemon as the second coming of Bernard Shaw.
But here's where we are, with some in the community — mostly those ousted from the legacy media jobs — actually defending Lemon storming a church in Minneapolis, which was a blatant attack on the right to worship protected under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. And no, Lemon wasn't just a reporter covering a story. He brought donuts and coffee for the mob beforehand. He admitted to knowing what was about to unfold beforehand. He kissed the lead organizer after a sycophantic interview moments beforehand. He lectured the pastor, who politely asked Lemon and the agitators to leave, about the First Amendment.
That's not journalism.
Fast-forward to this week and the mass layoffs announced at the Washington Post. Overall, more than one-third of staff were handed pink slips in what is the biggest single-day purge of any major news publication in history.
So why did this happen? For the same reason that Stephen Colbert is going off the air on CBS in May: a loss in profits. The Post is losing the amount of money no business, even one owned by Jeff Bezos, can tolerate — an annual loss of $100 million due to falling interest from readers and therefore subscribers. Colbert reportedly also lost $40 million per year for the network, as his ratings aren't bringing in the kind of ad revenue to support such an expensive program.
It's simple math in both cases. But because the Post is a sympathetic publication toward the Democratic Party, to put it lightly, and because Colbert is downright sycophantic to the same party, both failures are being portrayed as somehow being orchestrated by President Donald Trump to squash the First Amendment, with Bezos allegedly there to carry out the execution.
“Jeff Bezos, who could keep the Washington Post a pillar of American democracy with the change dug out from his limousine seats, sets an example of surrender to authoritarianism for every other business person and institution in America,” New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof said.
Strong, snarky stuff there.
In a related story, Kristof talks about the Post being a “pillar of American democracy” as if it's an objective publication that holds the powerful accountable without fear or favor to a party. Yet this is the same guy who decided to run for governor of Oregon back in 2022 as a Democrat — Kristof was taken off the ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled he didn't meet residency requirements.
“Even if the losses are still around $100 million a year, the figure announced a couple of years ago, for a person of Bezos' wealth, that would mean he'd have to close the place in … 2,500 years,” argued former Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. “I don't think the layoffs have much to do with saving money.”
Yep, Jeff Bezos got to where he was by burning money in the street in the name of charity, which is the implication here: Bezos should just take $1 billion in losses over a decade because he can afford to do so. Good luck with that argument.
CNN's Brian Stelter also predictably jumped in to question Bezos's “motive” over raw data: “Bezos was seen earlier this week with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a space event. Bezos has been focused on his relationships with the Trump administration. And many ‘Post‘ staffers feel they are the victims of that kind of attempt to curry favor and cozy up to the Trump administration.”
Why on Earth would Bezos attend a space event with a Trump Cabinet member? Could it be, just spitballing here, that Bezos has a space company he's invested in called Blue Origin?
By the way, it was in 2023 at a time when X was having trouble retaining advertisers after Elon Musk purchased the site, when Stelter argued that if the company went under, well, “that's the free market,” deciding.
Yep. Same guy.
As for all of these Post staffers who feel they are the victims here, could even one explain why it's OK to lose so many readers and so much money that they should keep their jobs in perpetuity?
And it is unintentionally hilarious to see those who are screaming about the need to protect the First Amendment were the same people who fully supported Trump's ban from X, Facebook, and countless other social media platforms. Rules for thee, not for D's — as in Democrats.
Trevor Noah in 2021: “I get why Facebook extended Trump's suspension. But you have to admit, it does seem pretty unfair to ban him from a website that began as a way to rate women's looks.”
Jimmy Kimmel, the guy who repeatedly cries on the air about his First Amendment rights being taken away: “Trump has been suspended from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even Snapchat, but don't worry, Mr. President, there are still plenty of apps you do have access to. You still have Spotify to drown out the sound of millions of people cheering as you leave.”
Seth Meyers in 2021: “I love having Donald Trump off Twitter, not to mention all the other toxic racists and conspiracy theorists who have been booted off.”
James Corden in 2021: “Banning Trump was like one of the few almost good things Twitter has done in like a decade. Donald Trump is a scam account — it's all a scam.”
But now these same folks are lamenting the fall of the Post while attempting to turn Don Lemon into the Rosa Parks of journalism.
Kimmel this week: Don Lemon “was arrested for committing journalism, which is a very serious crime under our current administration.”
Colbert this week on the Post layoffs: “We're losing a pillar of journalism in the middle of a constitutional crisis,” adding that the decision is “the worst decision Bezos has ever made.” The millions being lost per month weren't mentioned by Colbert for whatever reason.
This week, Jim Acosta, Joy Reid, and Mehdi Hasan, with the latter two fired by MS Now, got together to discuss how free speech is under attack in the United States under Trump. But Acosta immediately jumped to censorship in one of the most ironic statements one could make under the circumstances regarding CNN contributor Scott Jennings, a Republican: “If Scott Jennings worked for me, I'd fire his ass. I would not want him on my show or my network.”
MR. TRUMP, TEAR DOWN THE KENNEDY CENTER
Wow … talk about tolerance and the embrace of an open exchange of ideas.
Lemon, rightly, was arrested.
The Post rightly laid off staffers as the paper hemorrhages millions.
They all cheered when a sitting president was banned from most social media.
“Hypocrisy demonstrates how unaccountable one is to conventional morality,” investigative reporter Michael Shellenberger once said.
Conventional morality, at least in a dying legacy media industry, has never been needed more now than ever.
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SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler discusses cracking down on alleged Minnesota fraud, holding borrowers accountable and taking decisive action to protect taxpayers on ‘Hannity.'
The federal Small Business Administration suspended more than 111,000 California borrowers after uncovering $8.6 billion in suspected fraudulent activity linked to the COVID pandemic, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced Friday.
"We have suspended nearly 112,000 borrowers tied to at least $9 billion in suspected fraud," Loeffler said in a press release on Friday. "This staggering number represents the most significant crack-down on those who defrauded pandemic programs, and it illuminates the scale of corruption that the Biden Administration tolerated for years."
The SBA reported that all in, it suspended 111,620 California borrowers who received 118,489 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) loans, totaling $8.6 billion.
THE BORDER GETS THE ATTENTION WHILE FRAUDULENT GOVERNMENT BENEFITS BLEED TAXPAYERS DRY
The Small Business Administration announced the suspension of nearly 7,000 Minnesota borrowers after identifying hundreds of millions of dollars in suspected pandemic loan fraud. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
PPP loans were COVID-era federal relief program that gave small businesses money to keep workers on the payroll, while EIDL loans are part of an SBA program that provides low-interest disaster relief loans to help businesses survive during times of diaster, including the pandemic.
"Once again, the Trump SBA is taking decisive action to deliver accountability in a state whose unaccountable welfare policies have created a culture of fraud and abuse at the expense of law-abiding taxpayers and small business owners," Loffler continued.
CHILDCARE EXPERT EXPOSES KEY ROADBLOCK TO UNCOVERING POTENTIAL FRAUD SCHEMES IN MINNESOTA: 'REALLY DIFFICULT'
The announcement follows California Attorney General Rob Bonta saying on Thursday that the Trump administration was promoting "baseless claims" of persistent fraud in the state.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed Trump administration claims of widespread fraud. (Reuters/Fred Greaves/File Photo)
"Trump claims California is wasting money when, in reality, our programs are helping lower-income individuals and lower-income families get healthcare, food and housing assistance," Bonta said on Thursday.
"Trump claims, wrongly, California is perpetuating fraud when we are the victim," he added.
Bonta's office noted that California recovered nearly $2.7 billion in various fraud schemes across the last 10 years, "including by partnering with the federal government."
EXCLUSIVE: SENATE BILL TARGETS MINNESOTA-STYLE ‘RUNAWAY FRAUD' TO FORCE SCAMMERS REPAY TAXPAYERS
Fox News Digital reached out to Bonta's office on Friday for additional comment.
Newsom's office directed Fox News Digital to the Governor Newsom Press Office X account, which mocked the SBA announcement.
"OMG. The Trump Administration found MAJOR FRAUD in programs THEY control, Newsom's Press Office's X account posted, linking to a New York Post exclusive on the announcement.
"The state has no role running / administering these programs.Were they hiding this??? California doesn't hide fraud … we fight it. Nearly 1,000 arrests + over $125 billion STOPPED under @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom."
Quality Learning Center in Minnesota was found at the center of an alleged childcare fraud scandal in the state. (Madelin Fuerste / Fox News Channel)
Loeffler continued that the alleged California fraud comes after the SBA suspended 6,900 borrowers in Minnesota associated with 7,900 potentially fraudulent PPP and EIDL loans, which totaled roughly $400 million.
"As we did in Minnesota, we are actively working with federal law enforcement to identify the criminals who defrauded American taxpayers, hold them to account, and recoup the stolen funds. As we continue our state-by-state work, our message is clear: pandemic-era fraudsters will not get a pass under this Administration," Loeffler said, comparing California to its investigations in Minnesota.
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Minnesota became ground zero for welfare and social services fraud surrounding the pandemic late in 2025, when investigators uncovered sweeping fraud schemes that could top $9 billion.
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The Department of Homeland Security unloaded on “activist” judges it accused of playing politics with the legal system and said federal authorities will continue to arrest illegal immigrants across Minnesota despite a growing trend across the state of judges releasing those who have filed habeas cases.
“It should come as no surprise that more habeas petitions are being filed by illegal aliens — especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people's mandate for mass deportations,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email Friday.
As of this week, federal law enforcement officers have arrested more than 4,000 illegal immigrants during Operation Metro Surge across Minnesota.
However, those in detention are filing habeas cases outside of immigration court. Although immigration courts are intended to decide immigration cases, the habeas cases are being filed outside, where more sympathetic judges are ruling that the federal government cannot detain people indefinitely.
As the Washington Examiner reported this week, immigration advocacy groups have so far been able to make the Trump administration appear as if it is losing the legal battle over its mandatory detention policies by following rinse-and-repeat patterns in district courts.
In Minnesota, groups such as the American Immigration Council or the American Immigration Lawyers Association file a habeas petition to a federal judge, who more often than not grants temporary release to the detained immigration enforcement target.
More than 300 district judges in Minnesota and elsewhere have so far rejected the government's mandatory detention policies, ordering detainees released or granted bond hearings. That has fueled a surge of copycat filings nationwide. All the while, appeals courts have yet to address whether the administration's interpretation of the INA comports with the law.
In Minnesota, the habeas approach seems to be working for plaintiffs. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, an appointee of President Donald Trump, disclosed in a declaration submitted to an appeals court that 427 immigration-related habeas cases were filed in the District of Minnesota in January. That pace is expected to continue in February despite plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and federal agencies to draw down 700 of the roughly 3,000 immigration officers present in the state.
McLaughlin said the Trump administration “is more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary” to carry out President Donald Trump's deportation agenda.
“President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem are now enforcing the law and arresting illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country,” McLaughlin said. “If an immigration judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”
DHS OFFICIALS POINT FINGERS OVER DELAYS IN BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION
Rosen, a Justice Department attorney, was far less optimistic.
“To respond to this wave of habeas petitions, this Office has been forced to shift its already limited resources from other pressing and important priorities,” Rosen wrote in the declaration. “The MN-USAO has canceled all [affirmative civil enforcement] work and any other affirmative priorities … and is operating in a reactive mode.”
Kaelan Deese contributed to this report.
Kentucky may be the last place in America where you can take on President Donald Trump as a hard-right Republican and carry a GOP voting card in Congress. At least for now.
A pair of twangy Kentucky rebels – Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul – are teaming up to defend Massie in the biggest fight of his political career as Trump intensifies efforts to oust the seven-term Republican from Washington next year.
Massie is facing the full might of Trump's political operation in a nasty GOP primary in northeast Kentucky, where MAGA world has poured millions to support the president's preferred candidate, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. And Massie and his allies argue it's no ordinary race – it's an attempt to silence the president's remaining critics in Congress.
“I think that's one of the reasons they're attacking me and putting so much money into my race, is to keep the others in line, and so far, it's working,” Massie told CNN in a recent interview. “I just think there's so much political pressure from the president and the people surrounding him that they can't withstand it.”
The attacks from the president have only intensified since the House margins have narrowed to just a single vote – giving Massie outsized power in the fractious chamber. In the last week, Trump personally went after Massie with crass comments about his recent marriage and even made a swipe at the National Prayer Breakfast calling him a “moron.” (Paul's response? “Doesn't sound very charitable to me.”)
So far, Paul seems to be the only congressional Republican working to help Massie hang on in what some consider the last vestige of the pre-Trump Tea Party brand of fiscal restraint and hands-off government. The Kentucky senator told CNN he plans to campaign with him for several days this spring ahead of the May primary, after other joint events last fall. Massie told CNN the only other help on the stump he's been offered is former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who left Congress last month after Trump's repeated tirades against her.
Even Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that he is not committed to backing Massie, a stunning move for a sitting party leader.
“I generally run the incumbent protection program here. But it's gotta be a cooperation. I gotta have a conversation with Thomas to see if he wants to be on the team,” Johnson told CNN when asked if he would back Massie in the primary. “Stay tuned on that.”
In today's GOP, support for Massie has become its own kind of political litmus test. That includes in Kentucky's heated three-way Senate primary, where one of those contenders, GOP Rep. Andy Barr, formally endorsed Massie's opponent in a bid for Trump's support in his own race. (One of Barr's opponents, Nate Morris, quickly followed.)
And last week, Trump endorsed against a MAGA hardliner in a special election in Georgia who has been supportive of Massie.
But Massie remains undeterred. Both he and Paul remain unwilling to engage in the kind of MAGA-world apology tour that many of his colleagues have unfurled to save their own political careers. And Paul told CNN that he believed some of Trump's attacks – including against Massie's wife, who is a former Paul staffer – would backfire in the primary. (Massie was widowed in mid-2024 and recently remarried.)
“I think a lot of people at home are seeing the attacks on Thomas Massie's wife as being unseemly,” Paul told CNN. “People are rallying around him because to talk about his hurried wedding, and, ‘Oh, she's much younger than him.' … I think they're going to react the opposite to what the president thinks.”
Paul believes that Massie can fend off the challenge, pointing to his popularity in the district but added: “It's not easy to have a president of your own party do that.”
Trump and his allies have threatened to spend tens of millions of dollars in the fight. Still, even some senior Republicans in Washington remain doubtful that Trump's machine can defeat Massie.
Massie's district – which runs from the outer bands of the Louisville suburbs, up north to the suburbs of Cincinnati all the way to the outskirts of Appalachia – includes vast swaths of farmland and voters with a libertarian streak. Trump won there with 67% of the vote in 2024 and Massie ran in the general uncontested.
State Rep. Steve Doan, an ally of the congressman, told CNN he believed Massie would still prevail.
“I always frame this race as mommy and daddy are fighting. We love Trump and we love Thomas. It is a DC fight. It is not a Kentucky fight,” Doan said.
“It's going to be really hard to convince the people of this district who have consistently voted for Trump and Massie that a Lindsey Graham donor who is going to continue to vote for foreign aid in Ukraine and bailouts and wasteful spending is going to be a better fit in Washington, DC, than Thomas Massie,” he continued.
The Gallrein campaign shot back that Massie is “anti-Trump” and votes with Democrats on key issues, while their candidate has the president's endorsement.
“Ed Gallrein is endorsed by President Trump who won the district by 35 points. That alone shows Thomas Massie is nowhere close to in line with KY04,” campaign spokesman Lance Trover said.
For his part, Massie has only dug in against the president in recent weeks, championing the probe into Jeffrey Epstein that Trump sought to kill while supporting Democratic measures to rein in the president's powers abroad.
No other Republican, besides perhaps Paul, has so often, and so publicly, voted against a Trump priority.
Both Massie and Paul have openly criticized Trump on issues like government funding, voting against Congress' massive spending package last month. They've opposed his actions in Iran and Venezuela and the two were some of the only GOP votes against his massive tax breaks and immigration enforcement package last year. (The only other Republican to oppose Trump's massive policy bill was centrist Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents one of his party's bluest seats in the House.)
Massie's opponent, Gallrein, who is also a local farmer, has explicitly framed his campaign as a referendum on loyalty to Trump. In his most recent ad, Gallrein depicts himself as “Trump's handpicked choice.”
But as much as Massie's brand of independence may be revered in the 4th District, in Washington, members of his own congressional delegation acknowledge that Massie's streak of opposition is creating headaches for party leaders.
“I think the thing that makes the Republicans from Kentucky frustrated with Massie is he is always tweeting like negative stuff about other Republicans, not just Trump. … We are all trying to work together to help the state and help the president be successful and we take a lot of incoming from Massie's Twitter followers a lot,” said Rep. James Comer, another Kentucky Republican and chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, another Republican in the state, lamented it's not that lawmakers must adhere to the president's every whim, but that Massie can seldom be counted on for any of Trump's priorities.
“I think people have disagreed … but Thomas has disagreed almost a lot,” Guthrie said.
Massie's adherence to his own libertarian streak has become even more acute since Johnson has seen his majority dwindle to historic lows.
Last week during a vote to fund the government, Johnson couldn't afford to lose more than a single Republican on a procedural rule vote, but leadership was operating as if they couldn't lose anyone because they knew they'd already lost Massie.
For his part, Massie makes no apologies about his rigid adherence to his beliefs nor does he back down when challenged by Trump. After the prayer breakfast Thursday, Massie tweeted, “The President of the United States called me a moron at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning because I'm still fighting for what he promised the American people.”
Asked if he had any other comment to the president's attacks via text Thursday, Massie added only: “I feel blessed to know I'm in Trump's prayers.”
CNN's Camila DeChalus contributed to this report.
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The killings of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti prompted outrage in Minneapolis, both for their deaths and the immediate response of federal officials to call both terrorists.
The political backlash that resulted lowered the temperature from the Trump administration – with even the president himself saying, “Maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch” – along with seesawing promises from federal officials over how they would investigate the deaths.
But looming is the question of whether the federal immigration officers who pulled the triggers in both cases actually broke the law, a question that will come down to complicated issues that are much harder to define than the outrage that prompted calls for accountability. Any criminal or civil case will revolve around the legal standards around use of force and what was in those officers' minds as they pulled the trigger.
“Whenever we're talking about use of force, it's not like there's a single rule that we apply,” said Seth Stoughton, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and former police officer. “There are a number of different rules.”
Under a standard established by the Supreme Court nearly four decades ago, shooting a suspect – even one who is unarmed – does not violate the Constitution if the officer reasonably thought the actions of the suspect presented “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.”
“The ‘reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight,” Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the Graham v. Connor decision in 1989.
To figure out how much danger the officer perceived at the time of a shooting requires evidence, says Alex Reinert, director of the Center for Rights and Justice at the Cardozo School of Law.
“You're going to need as much evidence as you can about what was happening in that space and time,” Reinert told CNN. “You're going to need videos, any eyewitness statements, anything that could best illustrate the officer's perspective in the moment.”
While that is the standard that would be considered in a civil case, local investigators are also looking into whether any state laws were violated.
In the immediate aftermath of Good's shooting, the head of Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said being cut off from that kind of information could be fatal to its own investigation of Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot her.
“Full access to evidence, witnesses and information is necessary to meet the investigative standard that Minnesota law and the public demands; without it, we cannot do so,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.
But by the time of Pretti's killing – and with public anger rising – the tone of state officials hardened, promising a serious inquiry, whatever the challenges.
“Minnesota's justice system will have the last word on this,” Gov. Tim Walz said January 24. “It must have the last word.”
Local investigators and prosecutors have not said what state charges they might consider in these cases. Vice President JD Vance appeared to argue there could be no state prosecution of a federal agent.
“You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action – that's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” Vance said in a January 8 news conference at the White House shortly after Good's shooting.
Legal experts scoffed at the claim, and Reinert said any suspect who gets charged with a crime in Minnesota would normally be extradited to face the allegations there.
“I would expect the same to happen here if we are a nation governed by the rule of law,” Reinert said. “If that doesn't happen, then that will be a different challenge to overcome.”
Last year in the case Barnes v. Felix, the Supreme Court said unanimously that in a civil lawsuit alleging excessive force, all the circumstances leading up to a law enforcement shooting must be considered, not just how the officer felt at the moment the trigger was pulled, and there is no time limit.
That means in the Pretti shooting, the defense could point out he had been involved in a violent clash with immigration officers 11 days before he was killed.
It also means in the Good shooting, a judge could consider whether Ross' assessment of the threat may have been affected by his vehicle stop of a suspect six months earlier, where video showed he was dragged down the street and injured.
“If the officers could step out of the way of the car and that would be just as safe and effective as shooting, or maybe even safer and more effective than shooting, then that could play into this determination of whether the use of force was reasonable,” said Stoughton.
The Barnes case, which involved an officer who climbed onto the running board of a suspect's vehicle and fatally shot him as he tried to drive away, has some parallels to the death of Good, where video shows Ross firing into the vehicle.
It also shows the tough audience which may be faced if a case ever gets to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.
A concurring opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and cosigned by three other justices showed sympathy toward officers confronting a suspect inside a vehicle who is driving away.
“The point here is that when a driver abruptly pulls away during a traffic stop, an officer has no particularly good or safe options,” Kavanaugh wrote.
“The Supreme Court's doctrine with respect to officer use of force is, in general, very sympathetic,” said Reinert.
Past killings of people by law enforcement in the Minneapolis area – including George Floyd, Daunte Wright and Philando Castile – prompted the most fervent calls for reform in use of force training in the past 25 years.
The city of Minneapolis agreed to a court-supervised slate of reforms as part of a deal with the Justice Department in the waning days of the Biden administration. Five months later, it was scuttled by the Trump administration, although the city has promised to continue reforms.
“We will implement every reform outlined in the consent decree because accountability isn't optional,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in May.
The Minneapolis police chief says the difference between their policies on dealing with protesters and what federal officers have been doing is immediately clear.
“Some of the things that are happening are not right,” Chief Brian O'Hara told CNN's Shimon Prokupecz. “And then you see, you see these videos over and over again … it's certainly not the way we train police.”
Border czar Tom Homan, the new leader of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, promised last week to focus their attention away from protesters and back onto immigrants – especially those with criminal records.
“We are not surrendering the president's mission in immigration enforcement,” Homan said. “Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal aliens doesn't mean that we forget about everybody else.”
While the Supreme Court has established its own standard of “reasonableness” for use of force, that doesn't prevent state and local governments from making tougher rules.
In Washington state, some of the most sweeping police reforms were passed in the wake of George Floyd's murder, including requiring recruits in all departments across the state to get the same standard use of force training. The man in charge of the program says it is critical that law enforcement not see the people they encounter as the enemy.
“Officers must remain mindful that they derive their authority from the community, and unreasonable force degrades the legitimacy of that authority,” said Richard Peterson, use of force training manager for the state's Criminal Justice Training Commission.
Before there was consistent training across more than 300 law enforcement agencies in Washington, it was hard to hold officers to a consistent “reasonable” standard when many of them had very different training programs, Peterson told CNN.
“In the past, people would just teach you tactics or moves but wouldn't really understand their legal authority. So, we had to switch that way of thinking,” he said.
Critics of actions taken by immigration officers – particularly Border Patrol agents – have argued they're not trained for what they now face in major US cities compared to regular police officers.
“The Border Patrol is absolutely, without question, the wrong fit to police in an urban area,” said former Customs and Border Protection commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, who served during the Obama administration.
The Trump administration insists its immigration forces are well prepared for its task – now armed with $75 billion in funding, through 2029.
“Many of our agents have backgrounds in the military or law enforcement, and Border Patrol agents receive extensive federal law enforcement training at (Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers) just as ICE officers do,” a DHS spokesperson said. “The disgusting attempts by the media to say these agents are not trained to enforce the law is shameful and laughable.”
It is unclear if use of force training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers has changed since President Trump's second inauguration, but the division has confirmed reprioritizing a “surge” of training for more than 10,000 new immigration personnel, compressing training time – cutting it in half from 16 down to eight weeks.
No matter what is in the training sessions or policy manual, Stoughton said the most powerful message officers receive is from the top. Homan's promise to operate in a way that is “safer, more efficient, by the book” contrasts with a president who has said agents “are allowed to do whatever the hell they want” to belligerent protesters and an ICE director who bragged the administration has “taken the handcuffs off the cops.”
“It doesn't really matter what the policy says on the books. What matters is the policy that is enforced by supervisors,” Stoughton said. “What matters is the message that agents and officers get from their supervisors about whether trained behavior is going to be rewarded or whether it's going to be disparaged on the street in the field.”
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Norway's royal family were battling scandals on multiple fronts this week, with charities moving to cut or review ties to the Crown Princess for her past contact with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while others question her suitability to the role of future queen.
The first controversy is that of the 29-year-old son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Marius Borg Høiby, who earlier this week broke down in tears during his first day of testimony as he denied four counts of rape in an Oslo court.
Høiby sits outside the line of succession as he was born before his mother married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001.
Haakon reaffirmed Høiby's status as a commoner in a rare statement ahead of the rape trial starting on Tuesday, saying his stepson was “not a member of the Royal House of Norway and is therefore autonomous.”
But his efforts to safeguard the Crown's reputation were overshadowed when a second controversy erupted, this time implicating his wife and Høiby's mother, the country's future queen.
New Epstein files released by the US Justice Department show extensive correspondence between Mette-Marit and the late sex offender – something the princess has since expressed regret over – years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor.
On Friday, Norway's royal house said Mette-Marit “strongly disavows Epstein's abuse and criminal acts” and is sorry for “not having understood early enough what kind of person he was.”
“Some of the content of the messages between Epstein and me does not represent the person I want to be. I also apologize for the situation that I have put the Royal Family in, especially the King and Queen,” Mette-Marit said in a statement.
It has sparked an open public discussion in Norway about whether Mette-Marit should become queen, experts say.
“Confidence in the Crown Princess has fallen sharply,” said Tove Taalesen, a royal correspondent for news outlet Nettavisen. “A majority still backs the institution, but that support is weaker, and uncertainty is growing.”
The controversy raises uncomfortable questions about Mette-Marit's position within the clan, particularly given the advanced age of King Harald V, who at 88, is Europe's oldest monarch. Harald's physical health has deteriorated in recent years, requiring Haakon to act as regent on occasion.
Mette-Marit is not facing an immediate end to her time as a working royal just yet, Taalesen cautioned, but she said one option would be for her to withdraw from royal duties citing health reasons, and leaving the crown prince to one day rule on his own.
Mette-Marit was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic, progressive lung disease with a poor prognosis, in 2018 and will likely need a lung transplant, according to the royal palace.
Other royal commentators agree. Kjetil Alstadheim, the political editor at Norway's influential newspaper Aftenposten, said many Norwegians are disappointed by the revelations and have less confidence in the princess as a result.
“They question what her judgment will be like in the future,” Alstadheim told CNN.
Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen, a royal commentator for Norway's broadcaster TV2, added: “We need to wait until the dust has settled to see how much it has really affected the monarchy.”
Mette-Marit became Crown Princess in 2001 after she married Haakon at Oslo cathedral in front of 800 guests and a TV audience of millions. At the time, Mette-Marit's openness about what she described as a “wild life” in her youth was well-received, particularly among younger generations.
“It mobilized the younger generations who felt this was a modern monarchy, and they could identify with that,” Alstadheim said. “She managed to build trust and be respected.”
Amid the recent furore, that trust and respect seem to be all but fading.
This week, Norway's largest sexual health center, Oslo-based “Sex and Society,” announced it would cut ties with Mette-Marit as it said the latest revelations were incompatible with the group's ethos.
“The important thing for the foundation has been the consideration of our patients, of all victims of abuse and of all those who stand up to prevent sexual abuse,” the center said in a statement.
Three cultural organizations in Norway – all under the patronage of the crown princess – have also written to the royal household regarding Mette-Marit's past association with Epstein, saying the pair's contact appears to be “serious and worrying.”
“It is important for our further cooperation that the Royal House provides a good explanation of the matter,” Norway's Hamsun Center, Førde Festival and Nynorsk Cultural Center wrote in a letter seen by CNN.
The controversial email exchanges – which demonstrated a deeper relationship between Epstein and the crown princess than previously known – have provoked rare political intervention, with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre saying on Monday that Mette-Marit demonstrated poor judgment.
“She says she has showed bad judgment. I agree,” Støre told reporters.
Though mirroring Mette-Marit's own words, his comments speak to the significant public pressure facing the family, royal experts say. “I have not found any example from earlier in Norwegian modern history where a prime minister has criticized a member of the royal family in public like that,” said Alstadheim, the political editor.
In emails sent from “H.K.H. Kronprinsessen” – which translates from Norwegian to “Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess” – to Epstein in 2012, Mette-Marit calls the late sex offender “sweetheart” and “soft hearted.”
In another 2012 email exchange, she calls Epstein “very charming,” while adding: “Is it inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper ?”
Another conversation in 2012 sees Epstein tell Mette-Marit he is on a “wife hunt,” before adding: “Paris is proving interesting but I prefer scandinavians (sic).” In response, Mette-Marit says Paris is “good for adultery” and “Scandis better wife material.”
Mette-Marit accepted she showed “poor judgment” over her relationship with Epstein but said he was “solely responsible for his actions.”
“I must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein's background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was. I deeply regret this, and it is a responsibility I must bear,” she told CNN in a statement.
As pressure on Mette-Marit builds, former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland is under investigation “on suspicion of aggravated corruption” related to his ties to Epstein, Norwegian law enforcement officials said in a statement Thursday.
Norway is investigating “whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with his position,” according to Økokrim, the country's national prosecutorial service and police agency.
DOJ files show that Jagland exchanged friendly emails with Epstein and planned a vacation on his island. Jagland's lawyer told CNN the former leader would contribute fully to the investigation, adding that “based on what we have uncovered so far, we remain confident about the outcome.”
Other European figures too are included in the latest trove, including royals, although being named in the files does not indicate any wrongdoing.
In one email sent to Epstein in 2010, a person whose name is redacted included a photo appearing to show Sweden's Princess Sofia, then-Sofia Kristina Hellqvist, on a trip to Africa.
The email reads: “Here is a photo of our Sofia - you remember - i.e. soon Princess Sofia…the whole Swedish press is looking for her … while she is in Africa..!” The context surrounding the email exchange is unknown.
The name “Sophia Hellqvist” is also listed alongside Epstein on a 2012 guest list – which was emailed to the late sex offender – for what appears to be a performance of Les Misérables.
Princess Sofia met Epstein on several occasions around 20 years ago before she became a member of the royal family, Sweden's royal court told CNN Friday.
But they denied the princess attended such an event in 2012.
“We are aware that the Princess' name (misspelled) is reported to have been found in a document from a premiere in 2012.”
“However, the Princess does not know how her name has ended up on this list,” they said, adding she was in Sweden at the time and had not met Epstein for “several years.”
UK police searching two properties linked to Peter Mandelson over Epstein investigation
Meanwhile, in 2012, Denmark's then-Crown Prince, now King Frederik X, was listed in an email sent to Epstein as a “confirmed guest” for a dinner party. It is not clear if Epstein or the crown prince attended the event. CNN has approached Denmark's royal family for comment.
As CNN has reported, Britain's former Prince Andrew is also included multiple times in the files, as is his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who has previously expressed regret over her association with Epstein.
Back in Norway, and with Høiby's rape trial expected to last several weeks, Taalesen believes the two swirling royal controversies are “reinforcing each other.”
The daily courtroom coverage will keep the royal family at the forefront of public attention as the pressure on Mette-Marit grows, she says.
But, mirroring the fallout in Britain, it is the Epstein emails which present the most serious challenge to the family name in decades – a challenge she says the royal household cannot afford to ignore.
CNN's Max Saltman, Nathan Hodge, Hira Humayun and James Frater contributed reporting.
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Harvard alumnus Shabbos Kestenbaum discusses the school's DEI policies after a professor resigned citing an anti-White, anti-Western culture on ‘Fox & Friends.'
The Department of War said Friday that it will end all professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth slammed the university in a video announcement posted on X, saying the department would be cutting ties with Harvard for active-duty service members beginning in the 2026–27 school year — a move he said was "long overdue."
"Harvard is woke; The War Department is not," Hegseth stated.
While Hegseth, who has a master's degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the U.S. military has had a "rich tradition" with the Ivy League school, he argued that Harvard has become one of the "red-hot centers of Hate America activism."
HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS AFTER TRUMP CUTS BILLIONS IN FUNDING
War Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives at the U.S. Capitol for a briefing with House and Senate members on Venezuela, in Washington, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"Too many faculty members openly loathe our military. They cast our armed forces in a negative light and squelch anyone who challenges their leftist political leanings, all while charging enormous tuition. It's not worth it," he said.
"They've replaced open inquiry and honest debate with rigid orthodoxy."
The announcement comes amid the Trump administration's ongoing feud with the Ivy League school.
President Donald Trump said Monday he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University, which the Trump administration has made a primary target in its effort to leverage federal funding to crack down on antisemitism and "woke" ideology.
40-YEAR HARVARD PROFESSOR PENS SCATHING PIECE ON SCHOOL'S 'EXCLUSION OF WHITE MALES,' ANTI-WESTERN TRENDS
Lawyers for the Trump administration have appealed a judge's order requiring the restoration of $2.7 billion in frozen federal research funding to Harvard. The university sued the administration in April over the funding freeze, arguing in court that the move amounted to an unconstitutional "pressure campaign" aimed at influencing and exerting control over elite academic institutions.
Hegseth also criticized Harvard's campus environment, alleging that research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party and that university leadership has encouraged an atmosphere that celebrates Hamas, allows attacks on Jews, and prioritizes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
"Why should the War Department support an environment that's destructive to our nation and the principles that the vast majority of Americans hold dear?" Hegseth said.
"The answer to that question is that we should not, and we will not."
HARVARD DEAN REMOVED AFTER ANTI-WHITE, ANTI-POLICE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS RESURFACED
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that military education programs with Harvard University will end in the 2026-27 academic year. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
"For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class," he continued. "Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks."
In addition to Harvard, Hegseth took aim at much of the Ivy League, saying the schools have a "pervasive institutional bias" and a lack of viewpoint diversity, including the "coddling of toxic ideologies," that he said undercuts the military's mission.
He said that in the coming weeks, all departments at the Pentagon will evaluate existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at Ivy League schools and other civilian universities.
UNIVERSITIES SLASH 9,000+ POSITIONS IN 2025 AS TRUMP TARGETS FEDERAL FUNDING AND FOREIGN STUDENTS: REPORT
War Secretary Pete Hegseth described Harvard as one of the "red-hot centers of Hate America activism." (Associated Press)
"The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost effective strategic education for future senior leaders, when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs," he said. "At the War Department, we will strive to maximize taxpayer value in building lethality to establish deterrence. It's that simple. That no longer includes spending millions of dollars on expensive universities that actively undercut our mission and undercut our country."
Hegseth concluded his message, saying, "We train warriors, not wokesters. Harvard, good riddance."
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Harvard University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Brian Flood contributed to this report.
Michael Sinkewicz is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to michael.sinkewicz@fox.com
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A racist post on President Donald Trump's social media account depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle has been taken down. (AP Video: Nathan Ellgren)
US President Donald Trump said he won't apologize for posting a racist video of the Obamas. Trump told reporters that, “I didn't make a mistake,” as he flew to Florida on Friday. A racist post on Trump's social media account depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was taken down earlier Friday after the White House initially defended the Republican president's Thursday night post.
Democrat Al Green is among those angered by President Trump's posting of an AI meme depicting Former President Barack Obama and his wife as primates. The White House took down the post several hours later after a backlash from both Democrats and Republicans. (AP Video: Lekan Oyekanmi)
Former President Barack Obama talks with then President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump reads the funeral program before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.
Trump said later Friday that he won't apologize for the post: “I didn't make a mistake,” he said.
The Republican president's Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation's first Black president and first lady. A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously.
The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump's Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and Trump's first-term attorney general finding no evidence of systemic fraud.
Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric — from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries.
The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump proclamation cited “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness” and “the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as 2020 votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two jungle primates, with the Obamas' smiling faces imposed on them.
Those frames originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said by text.
Disney's 1994 feature film that Leavitt referenced is set on the savannah, not in the jungle, and it does not include great apes.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.
By noon, the post had been taken down, with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.
Trump, answering questions from reporters accompanying him Friday night aboard Air Force One, said the video was about fraudulent elections and that he liked what he saw.
“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” he said.
Asked if he condemned the video's racism, Trump said, “Of course I do.”
The White House explanation raises questions about control of Trump's social media account, which he's used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.
The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.
Mark Burns, a pastor and a prominent Trump supporter who is Black, said Friday on X that he'd spoken “directly” with Trump and that he recommended to the president that he fire the staffer who posted the video and publicly condemn what happened.
“He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” Burns posted.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press she does “not buy the White House's commentary.”
“If there wasn't a climate, a toxic and racist climate within the White House, we wouldn't see this type of behavior regardless of who it's coming from,” Clarke said, adding that Trump “is a racist, he's a bigot, and he will continue to do things in his presidency to make that known.”
Trump and White House social media accounts frequently repost memes and artificial intelligence-generated videos. As Leavitt did Friday, Trump allies typically cast them as humorous.
This time, condemnations flowed from across the spectrum — along with demands for an apology that doesn't appear to be coming.
At a Black History Month market in Harlem, the historically Black neighborhood in New York City, vendor Jacklyn Monk said Trump's post was embarrassing even if it was eventually deleted. “The guy needs help. I'm sorry he's representing our country. … It's horrible that it was this month, but it would be horrible if it was in March also.”
In Atlanta, Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., resurfaced her father's words: “Yes. I'm Black. I'm proud of it. I'm Black and beautiful.” Black Americans, she said, “are beloved of God as postal workers and professors, as a former first lady and president. We are not apes.”
The U.S. Senate's lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post. “Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House,” said Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans' midterm campaign arm.
Another Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents. Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologize.
Some Republicans who face tough reelections this November voiced concerns, as well. The result was an unusual cascade of intraparty criticism for a president who has enjoyed a stranglehold over fellow Republicans who stayed silent during previous Trump controversies for fear of a public spat with the president or losing his endorsement in a future campaign.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the video “utterly despicable” and pointed to Trump's wider political concerns that could help explain Republicans' willingness to speak out. Johnson asserted that Trump is trying anything to distract from economic conditions and attention on the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
“You know who isn't in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,” he said. “You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”
There is a long history in the U.S. of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false, racist ways. The practice dates to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and later to dehumanize freed Black people as uncivilized threats to white people.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his famous text “Notes on the State of Virginia” that Black women were the preferred sexual partners of orangutans. President Dwight Eisenhower, discussing school desegregation in the 1950s, suggested white parents were rightfully concerned about their daughters being in classrooms with “big Black bucks.” Obama, as a candidate and president, was featured as a monkey or other primates on T-shirts and other merchandise.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” language similar to what Adolf Hitler used to dehumanize Jews in Nazi Germany.
During his first White House term, Trump called a swath of majority-Black, developing nations “shithole countries.” He initially denied saying it but admitted in December 2025 that he did.
When Obama was in the White House, Trump pushed false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump, in interviews that helped endear him to conservatives, demanded that Obama prove he was a “natural-born citizen” as required to become president.
Obama eventually released birth records, and Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii. But immediately after, he said, falsely, that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton started the birtherism attacks.
___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press journalists Moriah Balingit in Washington, Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Ted Shaffrey in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tells National Guard members at the Washington Monument that two troops shot near the White House will be awarded the Purple Heart. (@DOWResponse via X)
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that two West Virginia National Guard members — Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe — who were shot in an ambush-style attack near the White House late last year, will receive the Purple Heart.
Calling the Nov. 26 incident "a terrible thing" and saying the troops had been "attacked by a radical," Hegseth made the announcement while speaking at a National Guard reenlistment ceremony at the Washington Monument, where he administered the oath of enlistment to more than 100 Guardsmen from nine states serving in Washington, D.C.
"And we had a terrible thing happen a number of months ago," Hegseth said. "Andrew Wolfe, Sarah Beckstrom, one lost, one recovered, thank God, in miraculous ways. Both soon to be Purple Heart recipients because they were attacked by a radical."
The remarks mark the first public confirmation from Hegseth that the service members will receive the Purple Heart, one of the nation's oldest military decorations, awarded to those killed or wounded by enemy action.
AFGHAN NATIONAL ACCUSED IN DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING PLEADS NOT GUILTY, PROSECUTORS MAY SEEK DEATH PENALTY
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth hosts a reenlistment ceremony for National Guard members at the Washington Monument, Friday, in Washington, D.C. (DoW Photo/U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)
The Purple Heart traces its origins to the American Revolution, when George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit in 1782, to recognize enlisted soldiers wounded or killed in service. The modern Purple Heart was revived in 1932, and is awarded in the name of the president to U.S. service members wounded or killed by enemy action.
Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were shot just blocks from the White House in what officials described as an ambush-style attack.
Beckstrom died a day after the shooting. Wolfe was seriously wounded and continues to recover.
BONDI DESCRIBES WOUNDED NATIONAL GUARDSMAN AS A 'MIRACLE,' SAYS 'HE'S ABLE TO OPEN BOTH EYES'
National Guard Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was killed in a shooting incident, Nov. 26, in Washington D.C. (Department of Justice)
The accused gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, faces nine charges related to the shooting, including first-degree murder while armed and assault with intent to kill while armed. He has pleaded not guilty.
In a statement posted on X, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey thanked Hegseth for the announcement and said the recognition was long overdue.
"I thank Secretary @PeteHegseth for announcing that U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe will soon receive the Purple Heart, an honor that reflects their courage and sacrifice in defense of our nation," Morrisey wrote.
Morrisey said he formally requested the Purple Heart awards Dec. 19, adding that the announcement "brings long-overdue honor to their service, offers meaning and reassurance to their families, and stands as a solemn reminder that West Virginia will never forget those who sacrifice in defense of others."
Hegseth's remarks Friday came during a ceremony honoring the National Guard's ongoing security mission in the nation's capital.
According to a War Department news release, more than 100 Guardsmen from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia reenlisted Friday as part of the mission.
REP BRIAN MAST: CONGRESS HAS THE PERFECT WAY TO HONOR OUR NATION'S FALLEN HEROES
National Guard Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was wounded in a shooting incident, Nov. 26, in Washington, D.C. (Department of Justice)
Those troops are among more than 2,600 National Guard members currently deployed in Washington at the direction of President Donald Trump in support of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which was established in August 2025 after the president declared a crime emergency in the city.
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Addressing the Guardsmen, Hegseth described their service in Washington as "front lines" duty.
"This is not an easy assignment. It's the real deal. It's front lines," he said. "You've done it, and you've done well."
The Army could not immediately provide comment after being reached by Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital's Rachel Wolf and Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this story.
Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.
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US and Iran in Oman for indirect nuclear talks under rising military pressure
Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Oman on Friday, negotiations that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran's nuclear program. But for the first time, America brought its top military commander in the Middle East to the table. (AP video by Bassam Hatoum)
In this photo released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, heads to venue for talks between Iran and the U.S., in Muscat, Oman, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
In this photo released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, speaks with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi during their meeting prior to Iran and the U.S. negotiations, in Muscat, Oman, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, on March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
People attend a state-organised rally in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, celebrating the birthday of Imam Mahdi, or “Hidden Imam,” a 9th-century saint whom Shiite Muslims believe will return at the end of time as a universal reformer to end tyranny and promote justice. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Oman on Friday, negotiations that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran's nuclear program. But for the first time, America brought its top military commander in the Middle East to the table.
The presence of U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the military's Central Command, in his dress uniform at the talks in Muscat, the Omani capital, served as a reminder that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships were now off the coast of Iran in the Arabian Sea.
President Donald Trump said the United States had “very good” talks on Iran and said more were planned for early next week. But he kept up the pressure, warning that if the country didn't make a deal over its nuclear program, “the consequences are very steep.”
“Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly — as they should,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to his Florida golf club late Friday. He suggested Iran was willing to “do more” than in previous talks but did not give details.
Asked how long he was willing to wait for a deal, Trump said: “We have plenty of time. If you remember Venezuela, we waited around for a while. We're in no rush.” The Trump administration built up a huge military presence in the Caribbean Sea in the months before a U.S. raid captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to reach a deal on the program after earlier sending the carrier to the region amid Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands of others detained in the Islamic Republic.
Gulf Arab nations fear an attack could spark a regional war that would drag them in as well.
That threat is real — U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone near the Lincoln and Iran attempted to stop a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz just days before Friday's talks in this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
“We did note that nuclear talks and the resolution of the main issues must take place in a calm atmosphere, without tension and without threats,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later told journalists.
“The prerequisite for any dialogue is refraining from threats and pressure,” he added.
Araghchi said diplomats would return to their capitals, signaling this round of negotiations was over. The U.S. was represented by Mideast special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.
In a display of force, the U.S. military published photos on X of the Lincoln carrier group sailing in the Arabian Sea with aircraft flying overhead, with the message “Peace through Strength!”
Araghchi offered cautious optimism as he spoke in a live interview from Muscat on Iranian state television. He said Friday's talks were focused primarily on finding a framework for further negotiations.
“We will hold consultations with our capitals regarding the next steps, and the results will be conveyed to Oman's foreign minister,” Araghchi said.
“The mistrust that has developed is a serious challenge facing the negotiations,” Araghchi said. “We must first address this issue, and then enter into the next level of negotiations.”
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw multiple rounds of negotiations before Israel launched its 12-day war on Iran in June, called the talks “useful to clarify both the Iranian and American thinking and identify areas for possible progress.”
The talks had initially been expected to take place in Turkey in a format that would have included regional countries as well, and would have included topics like Tehran's ballistic missile program — something Iran apparently rejected in favor of focusing only on its nuclear program.
Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. The U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — had said Iran was the only country in the world to enrich to that level that wasn't armed with the bomb.
Iran has been refusing requests by the IAEA to inspect the sites bombed in the June war, raising the concerns of nonproliferation experts. Even before that, Iran has restricted IAEA inspections since Trump's decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw America from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Friday's talks saw in-person meetings at a palace near Muscat's international airport, used by Oman in earlier talks Iran-U.S. talks in 2025. Associated Press journalists saw Iranian officials first at the palace and later returning to their hotel before the Americans came separately.
It remains unclear just what terms Iran is willing to negotiate at the talks. Tehran has maintained that these talks will only be on its nuclear program. However, the Al Jazeera satellite news network reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar offered Iran a proposal in which Tehran would halt enrichment for three years, send its highly enriched uranium out of the country and pledge “not initiate the use of ballistic missiles.”
Russia had signaled it would take the uranium, but Iran has said ending the program or shipping out the uranium were nonstarters.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the talks needed to include all those issues.
Shortly after Friday's talks, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. State Department announced a new round of sanctions on Iran targeting its energy sector, imposing penalties, including freezes on assets in U.S. jurisdictions, on 14 oil tankers in a so-called “shadow fleet” that the U.S. says are used to try to evade sanctions, as well as on 15 trading firms and two business executives.
Trump also signed an executive order that says an import tax of potentially 25% “may” be imposed on goods from countries that buy oil from Iran. The order does not specifically impose tariffs so much as give the president the legal basis for levying them starting Saturday.
It says the potential tariffs can be removed if Iran or the foreign buyers of its oil align themselves with U.S. interests on national security, foreign policy and economic issues.
In the past month, the U.S. also has sanctioned Iran's interior minister,the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, and several other leaders involved in Iran's deadly crackdown against last month's protests. ___
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Josh Boak and Moriah Balingit in Washington, Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about a proposed framework for a future deal involving Greenland.
Canada opened its consulate in Greenland's capital and the first French consul to the Danish territory arrived on Friday, following the Trump administration's efforts to acquire the island.
"I am en route to Nuuk for the opening of Canada's new consulate — strengthening Canada's presence, partnerships, and leadership in the Arctic," Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand wrote on X Friday morning, later posting a video of the Canadian flag being raised in Nuuk.
She was joined by Governor General of Canada Mary Simon.
Canada had previously announced plans for the consulate in 2024, but its 2025 opening was delayed due to weather.
TRUMP SAYS FRAMEWORK OF 'FUTURE DEAL' ON GREENLAND REACHED AFTER NATO TALKS AS TARIFFS PUT ON HOLD
Members of the Canadian diaspora gather in front of the Canadian consulate after its official opening, in Nuuk, Greenland on Friday. (Florent Vergnes/ AFP via Getty Images)
"The future of the Arctic belongs to the people of the Arctic. Tomorrow I will visit Denmark and then on to Greenland," Simon said in a speech earlier this week. "Let me be clear, Canada stands firmly in support of the people of Greenland who will determine their own future."
Jean-Noël Poirier also arrived in Nuuk to become the first French Consul General of Greenland on Friday, the French government said in a release.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the Nuuk consulate in June, making it the first European Union country to set up a consulate in Greenland.
The physical French consulate doesn't exist yet.
TOP NATO OFFICIAL REVEALS DETAILS OF STUNNING MEETING WITH TRUMP THAT PRODUCED GREENLAND DEAL +'FRAMEWORK'
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, right, speaks to the media following the flag raising at the new Canadian consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
"Deep ties of friendship and key joint projects already link France, Denmark and Greenland, allowing all parties to look forward enthusiastically and confidently to the opening of this new consulate general," the French government said.
It added, "France reiterates its commitment to respect for the Kingdom of Denmark's territorial integrity."
President Donald Trump has been insistent on acquiring Greenland, with administration officials claiming Denmark is unable to defend the semi-autonomous island.
"Greenland is one-fourth the size of the United States," top White House aide Stephen Miller told Fox News last month. "With respect to Denmark, Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland, they cannot control the territory of Greenland."
Demonstrators in Greenland march in protest against the Trump administration's effort to acquire the island in January. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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In January, Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs that would increase to 25% in June on eight European countries, including France and Denmark, unless they allowed the U.S. to acquire Greenland.
The president dropped the tariff threat following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in which Trump said a "framework" for a deal for security in the Arctic had been reached.
The U.S. reopened its consulate in Greenland in 2020 after closing it in 1953.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A tunnel is under construction in Manhattan that will connect New York and New Jersey Oct. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore funding to a new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey on Friday, ruling just as construction was set to shut down on the massive infrastructure project.
The decision came months after the administration announced it was halting $16 billion in support for the project, citing the then-government shutdown and what a top federal budget official said were concerns about unconstitutional spending around diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in Manhattan approved a request by New York and New Jersey for a temporary restraining order barring the administration from withholding the funds while the states seek a preliminary injunction that would keep the money flowing while their lawsuit plays out in court.
“The Court is also persuaded that Plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiffs have adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project.”
The White House and U.S. Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday night.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling “a critical victory for workers and commuters in New York and New Jersey.”
“I am grateful the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatened to derail a project our entire region depends on,” James said in a statement. “The Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation, and we will keep fighting to ensure construction can continue without unnecessary federal interference.”
The panel overseeing the project, the Gateway Development Commission, had said work would stop late Friday afternoon because of the federal funding freeze, resulting in the immediate loss of about 1,000 jobs as well as thousands of additional jobs in the future.
It was not immediately clear when work would resume. In a nighttime statement, the commission said: “As soon as funds are released, we will work quickly to restart site operations and get our workers back on the job.”
The new tunnel is meant to ease strain on an existing, over 110-year-old tunnel that connects New York and New Jersey for Amtrak and commuter trains, where delays can lead to backups up and down the East Coast.
New York and New Jersey sued over the funding pause this week, as did the Gateway Development Commission, moving to restore the Trump administration's support.
The suspension was seen as way for the Trump administration to put pressure on Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, whom the White House was blaming for a government shutdown last year. The shutdown was resolved a few weeks later.
Speaking to the media on Air Force One, Trump was asked about reports that he would unfreeze funding for the tunnel project if Schumer would agree to a plan to rename Penn Station in New York and Dulles International Airport in Virginia after Trump.
“Chuck Schumer suggested that to me, about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station. Dulles Airport is really separate,” Trump responded.
Schumer responded on social media: “Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.”
At a hearing in the states' lawsuit earlier in Manhattan, Shankar Duraiswamy, of the New Jersey attorney general's office, told the judge that the states need “urgent relief” because of the harm and costs that will occur if the project is stopped.
“There is literally a massive hole in the earth in North Bergen,” he said, referring to the New Jersey city and claiming that abandoning the sites, even temporarily, “would pose a substantial safety and public health threat.”
Duraiswamy said the problem with shutting down now is that even a short stoppage would cause longer delays because workers will be laid off and go off to other jobs and it'll be hard to quickly remobilize if funding becomes available. And, he added, “any long-term suspension of funding could torpedo the project.”
Tara Schwartz, an assistant U.S. attorney arguing for the government, disagreed with the “parade of horribles” described by attorneys for the states.
She noted that the states had not even made clear how long the sites could be maintained by the Gateway Development Commission. So the judge asked Duraiswamy, and he said they could maintain the sites for a few weeks and possibly a few months, but that the states would continue to suffer irreparable harm because trains would continue to run late because they rely on an outdated tunnel.
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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Every year, the nation's governors convene in Washington, DC, for a friendly winter confab that includes a working meeting at the White House and a black-tie dinner hosted by the president.
This year, President Donald Trump is adjusting the guest list for the long, bipartisan tradition. Democratic governors have been excluded from the business meeting, and two of those governors, Wes Moore of Maryland and Jared Polis of Colorado, were not invited to the dinner, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“We are disappointed in the administration's decision to make it a partisan occasion this year,” interim National Governors Association CEO Brandon Tatum said in a statement.
He added: “To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration.”
The decision to exclude Democrats from the working session at the White House marks a break in tradition from presidents of both parties.
With Moore and Polis disinvited from the dinner, two Democratic officials said several governors were re-evaluating whether they planned to attend.
The Colorado and Maryland governors have both publicly tangled with and criticized Trump. But other Democrats who have openly quarreled with the administration, like Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, were extended invitations.
Pritzker was not expecting to go to the White House anyway, aides said, citing his ongoing clashes with Trump in the wake of immigration enforcement actions in his state last year.
Polis and Moore were not informed of their exclusion or given a reason by the White House, two sources familiar with the matter said.
A spokesperson for Polis called the exclusion a “disappointing decision.”
“Gov. Polis has always been willing to work with anyone across the political spectrum who wants to help work on the hardest problems facing Colorado and America, regardless of party or who occupies the White House,” spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in a statement.
The White House and the Democratic Governors Association did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment Friday night. CNN has reached out to Moore for comment.
The annual winter meeting of the nation's governors – long a bipartisan event focused more on policy than politics – comes as tensions have been escalating between governors and their national association.
Illinois is among the states that have stopped paying their dues to the group, after it did not speak out against the Trump administration's decision to send National Guard troops to the state last year without coordination with Pritzker.
“The protection of gubernatorial authority and state sovereignty must always be demanded, regardless of who is occupying the White House,” a spokesman for Pritzker said. “Governor Pritzker has been vocal that the National Governors Association as a whole should stand against the deployment of National Guard troops against a governor's wishes.”
Still, the association on Friday characterized the situation as a failure of executive branch leadership.
“NGA will remain focused on serving all governors as they deliver solutions and model leadership for the American people. Traditionally the White House has played a role in fostering these moments during NGA's annual meeting. This year, they will not,” Tatum said in the statement.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaves an oath of enlistment ceremony, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, held on the base of the Washington Monument in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
People take photos near a John Harvard statue, left, on the Harvard University campus, Jan. 2, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. r. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
The Pentagon said Friday it is cutting ties with Harvard University, ending all military training, fellowships and certificate programs with the Ivy League institution.
The announcement marks the latest development in the Trump administration's prolonged standoff with Harvard over the White House's demands for reforms at the Ivy League school.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement Friday that Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services.”
“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”
In a separate post on X, Hegseth wrote, “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not.”
Starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the Pentagon will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs, the statement said. Personnel currently attending classes at Harvard will be able to finish those courses.
Similar programs at other Ivy League universities will be evaluated in coming weeks, Hegseth said.
Hegseth earned a master's degree from Harvard but symbolically returned his diploma in a 2022 Fox News segment. A Pentagon social media account run by Hegseth's office resurfaced the clip in which Hegseth, then a Fox News commentator, returned the diploma and wrote “Return to Sender” on it with a marker.
The military offers its officers a variety of opportunities to get graduate-level education both at war colleges run by the military as well as civilian institutions like Harvard.
Broadly, while opportunities to attend prestigious civilian schools offer less direct benefit to a servicemember's military career than their civilian counterparts, they help make troops more attractive employees once they leave the military.
Harvard has long been President Donald Trump's top target in his administration's campaign to bring the nation's most prestigious universities to heel. His officials have cut billions of dollars in Harvard's federal research funding and attempted to block it from enrolling foreign students after the campus rebuffed a series of government demands last April.
The White House has said it's punishing Harvard for tolerating anti-Jewish bias on campus. Harvard leaders argue they're facing illegal retaliation for failing to adopt the administration's ideological views. Harvard sued the administration in a pair of lawsuits. A federal judge issued orders siding with Harvard in both cases. The administration is appealing.
Tensions had eased over the summer as Trump teased a deal that he said was just days away. It never materialized and on Monday the president dug deeper, demanding $1 billion from Harvard as part of any deal to restore federal funding. That's twice what he had demanded before.
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Excited young couples roam a bustling convention center trying on baby carriers, testing strollers and learning the latest safety features of car seats.
This scene in Seoul in January may seem totally contrary to the usual headlines from South Korea, of plummeting birth rates and a looming demographic crisis that also threatens to swallow neighboring Japan and China.
But against all odds, South Korea is finally having more babies. The numbers have been slowly ticking up for over a year – a rare bit of good news for a government that has spent billions of dollars for more than a decade encouraging people to do just that.
Whether it can last, however, is another matter.
Attendees at the baby fair in Seoul nodded to the government's many initiatives, including subsidies and support programs for young parents. But all of them also described how hard it is to have kids in a country with rising costs of living, a grueling work culture, ingrained gender norms, and lingering conservative attitudes.
“After I became pregnant, I quit my job,” said 31-year-old Yun So-yeon, who's expecting her first child in March. She felt she didn't have a choice. “There wasn't enough support at my work. When someone gets pregnant, they all end up quitting.”
Another attendee, 34-year-old Park Ha-yan, is a stay-at-home mom expecting her third child in June. “It all comes down to money,” she said.
“The more children you have, the more (government) support you receive. But the expenses become greater … And this isn't for just one or two years, it's all the way until they grow up so, it's definitely a heavy burden.”
Experts also voiced caution about celebrating too soon. Some of the reasons for the rise could also suggest that it's a temporary bump.
“Now we see some rebound … but our levels never recovered (to what they were) before Covid,” said Sojung Lim, Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at the SUNY University at Buffalo. “We still have the lowest fertility of advanced economies.”
South Korea's fertility rate, defined as the average number of babies born in a woman's lifetime, had been steadily dropping since 2015 – and is now the lowest among all countries worldwide.
Demographers say a society needs a fertility rate of at least 2.1 to maintain a stable population, without immigration. By 2023, South Korea's fertility rate had slumped to 0.721 – deepening the sense of panic that permeated the country. At one point, former President Yoon Suk Yeol called the decline in births a “national emergency.”
So, it was a surprise when in 2024, the country's fertility rate rose for the first time in nine years. It was a small increase, up to 0.748, but it was enough for people to ask: Is this the end of the tunnel? Has South Korea turned a corner on its population crisis?
For 17 consecutive months now, the country has seen a year-on-year increase in monthly births, according to the latest figures released in January. That means more babies were born each month than the same month the previous year – a sign that the overall fertility rate could see a second year of growth.
Various possible factors are at play, said Lim.
For starters, many people delayed getting married and having kids during the Covid years. In South Korea, single or unmarried mothers are still relatively uncommon, so “declining marriage means declining fertility,” said Lim. Those couples may now be going ahead with their delayed plans, so we could be seeing “a catch-up effect after the pandemic,” she added.
Another factor could be purely demographic. The generation of children born to Baby Boomers is “relatively large,” Lim said. That means there are simply more women now in their early or mid 30s, in their “prime ages of marriage and childbearing.”
Park, the stay-at-home mom, offered another possible reason: She's noticed many pregnant women having their second or third child, rather than being first-time moms. “Once they've had a baby and raised one, they feel it would be better for their child to have a sibling,” she suggested.
Then there are the government's own policies designed to encourage baby-making. Over much of the past decade, authorities nationwide have introduced housing and childcare subsidies; offered cash handouts to new parents; extended maternity and paternity leave; launched social campaigns encouraging men to contribute to housework; hosted dating and matchmaking events to boost marriage rates; and urged companies to promote better work-life balance.
To some extent, this appears to have worked.
“Compared to about 10 years ago, the mood has shifted and companies are giving benefits that employers are required to provide,” said Kim, a 30-year-old expecting mother who CNN is identifying only by her surname for privacy reasons.
“In the past, managers, mostly middle-aged men, had a low level of understanding about parental leave,” Kim added. “But now, the atmosphere has shifted to ‘Of course you should take it,' so I think the burden has eased somewhat.”
In South Korea, parental leave is mostly taken by mothers. By law, mothers can take up to 90 days of leave for a single baby with no complications, and fathers are afforded 20 days.
Park Hae-in, another expecting mother at the fair, credited government initiatives for her decision to have another child.
“I could see the government was making efforts in various ways,” she said. “Things like government support for moving to a different house … made me think more positively about planning a second child.”
Despite these gains, deep structural and societal issues remain – and most of the parents-to-be CNN spoke to shared lingering concerns and anxieties.
“There are childbirth grants, child allowances and diaper support programs, but in many cases, they don't really match my current economic situation,” said Park Hae-in. “When it comes to things like newborn loans, there are also a lot of restrictions.”
Kim Seon-kyeong, a 34-year-old expecting mom, said current incentives mostly target low-income couples – but higher-earning families also need financial help to cover the “insanely expensive” costs of childcare, she said.
In 2024, South Korea was ranked the world's most expensive country to raise kids, according to the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute. And there's one major factor contributing to this cost: private tuition and cram schools.
The country's education system is wildly competitive, and many parents feel heavy pressure to set their kids up for success by the time they can walk – meaning years of costly after-school tutoring.
Then there are cultural norms to contend with.
Yun, the expecting mother who quit her job, often finds public attitudes unfriendly toward children. For instance, mothers may receive “a lot of negative looks” if their babies cry in public, she said.
“Taking care of a baby requires so much effort, but when you go outside, everyone seems uncomfortable, and you constantly have to be mindful of others and shrink back because of the baby,” she said. “Then when you come home, your husband is exhausted in his own way because he has to go to work, so inevitably you end up taking on the caregiving by yourself.”
In recent years, “no-kids zones” have become increasingly popular, stoking controversy among parents – with businesses like restaurants barring children in the name of peace and quiet for adult customers.
Lim, the professor, also questioned whether the government's actions – which she praised as “very aggressive” – would be enough to address problems like the strict traditional mindset of family formation (for instance, single women cannot receive IVF treatment in South Korea).
“If these structural issues are the real causes of Korea's ultra-low fertility, then do these government policies really help? I don't think so,” she said.
And unless these deeper causes are addressed, the current upswing in births will be “short term,” she warned. In a few years, the bump of post-Covid marriages will pass; the larger cohort of women currently in their 30s will grow older; and the fertility rate, which now looks so promising, could decline once more.
Countries around the world experiencing their own population declines are now watching closely to see what South Korea does next. It's not just Asian neighbors: several European nations, including Italy and Spain, and the United States have all seen their fertility rates drop in recent years. So whatever successes – or failures – South Korea experiences will inform how other countries battle their own crises.
“What they have to learn from Korea is not that we rebounded for (17) months in a row – but why it happened to South Korea” in the first place, said Lim, adding that many countries had “similar characteristics” that suggest they're heading down a similar path.
“Once you see that fertility is declining a lot – it may be (too) late.”
CNN's Kim Boyoung contributed to this story.
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A racist post on President Donald Trump's social media account depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle has been taken down. (AP Video: Nathan Ellgren)
President Donald Trump's social media post featuring a video about election conspiracy theories and a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle has been deleted.
The Republican president's Thursday night post was deleted Friday and blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation's first Black president and first lady.
The deletion, a rare admission of a misstep by the White House, came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there was nothing offensive about the post. After calls for its removal for being racist — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously and it had been taken down.
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
Other news we're following:
The president was on his way to Florida for the weekend when he stopped on the White House driveway to comment to reporters about the stock market and U.S. crime rates.
He didn't use the opportunity to comment on the video. He answered a couple of questions about elections and housing costs while other reporters tried to ask about the video.
Some of Trump's allies have called on him to apologize.
Trump was similarly silent before he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews for the flight.
The president's new arms sales policy calls for deals to “prioritize American interests by using foreign purchases and capital to build American production and capacity.”
In an executive order signed Friday, Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to work with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to create a “sales catalog of prioritized platforms and systems that the United States shall encourage our allies and partners to acquire.”
It charges Lutnick with urging other countries to buy those weapons.
However, the order also declares that the U.S. will prioritize arms sales and transfers only to countries “that have invested in their own self-defense and capabilities, have a critical role or geography in United States plans and operations, or contribute to our economic security.”
The order says an import tax of potentially 25% “may” be imposed on goods from countries that buy oil from Iran.
The order does not specifically impose tariffs, so much as give the president the legal basis for levying them starting on Feb. 7. It depends on the Commerce Department working in consultation with the State Department to determine the buyers of Iranian oil and make recommendations to the president.
The order says that the potential tariffs can be removed if Iran or the foreign buyers of its oil align themselves with U.S. interests on national security, foreign policy and economic issues.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday reopening a huge swath of protected sea in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing.
Trump said the order would reestablish fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast, a nearly 5,000-square-mile preserve east of Cape Cod that was created by former President Barack Obama. Trump rolled back protections in the area in 2020 and President Joe Biden later restored them.
Trump's executive order is his latest move to try to strengthen U.S. fishing while rolling back existing conservation measures. He signed a broader order earlier this year that calls on the federal government to reduce the regulatory burden on fishermen in the coming weeks.
Trump on Friday afternoon signed an executive order to increase the purchases of beef from Argentina.
The president noted the decline in the number of cattle in the U.S. and rising beef prices to justify the additional imports. The move could prove politically controversial as U.S. cattle ranchers voiced their objections in October when Trump floated plans to buy more Argentine beef.
The U.S. government and Argentina reached a trade agreement to quadruple beef sales to America at a lower tariff rate to 100,000 tons a year.
Trump's order allows for the purchase of 80,000 metric tons in 2026.
The former Democratic president is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee for a closed-door deposition, but he is objecting to plans to have the closed-door interview videotaped.
“Who benefits from this arrangement? It's not Epstein's victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it's pure politics,” Clinton said on social media.
Clinton's comments Friday were part of an ongoing campaign to pressure the committee's chair, Republican Rep. James Comer, to make testimony from both Clintons public. But Comer so far has insisted on holding depositions for both Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in private and recorded on video and transcribed.
The Trump administration has approved a modest sale of military spare parts to Ukraine as Russia has stepped up attacks on the country despite a recent round of three-way talks.
The State Department said Friday it had notified Congress of the $185 million sale of so-called class IX spare parts to refurbish U.S.-supplied military vehicles used by Ukraine. Class IX spare parts include engines, transmissions, wheels, tires and brakes.
Repeated Russian aerial assaults have in recent months focused on Ukraine's power grid, causing blackouts and disrupting the heating and water supply during a bitterly cold winter. The war is about to enter its fifth year later this month and there has been there is no sign of any breakthrough in U.S.-led peace efforts following the latest talks.
“Serving the people of Nevada has been the honor of my lifetime,” he said in a statement. “Nobody is prouder of our Nevada Congressional District than me. Thank you for the honor. Every achievement worth doing began with listening to Nevadans and fighting for our values.”
FILE - Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, speaks at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Amodei has served as a member of Congress for Nevada's 2nd Congressional District since 2011. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee and chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee.
Amodei, from Nevada's capital of Carson City, served for years as Nevada's only Republican in Congress in a historically red district. He worked with Nevada's Democratic delegation to fight plans to move a mail center from Reno to Sacramento, to extricate people from Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, and he led legislation to reauthorize the restoration of Lake Tahoe.
“I came to Congress to solve problems and to make sure our State and Nation have (a) strong voice in the federal policy and oversight processes,” he said Friday in a statement. “I look forward to finishing my term. After 15 years of service, I believe it is the right time for Nevada and myself to pass the torch.”
Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee are sending a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi as they press the Trump administration for answers on how personal information of victims was included in the release of over 3 million government files on Jeffrey Epstein.
“The scale and severity of the exposure of survivor information are simply staggering,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter led by Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel.
The letter Friday, which asks Bondi to answer how the Justice Department is responding to the release of victim information, is the latest move by Democrats to call attention to the issue.
A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said by text, referring to Disney's 1994 feature film, which does not feature the range of jungle primates featured in the video the president posted.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied.
At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas' smiling faces imposed on them.
Those frames were taken from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts a range of Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.
Shortly after Friday's talks broke, the Treasury and State Department in Washington announced a new round of sanctions on Iran targeting its energy sector.
The departments imposed penalties, including freezes on assets in U.S. jurisdictions, on 14 so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers that the U.S. says are used to try to evade sanctions as well as 15 trading firms and two business executives.
“Time and time again, the Iranian government has prioritized its destabilizing behavior over the safety and security of its own citizens, as demonstrated by the regime's mass murder of peaceful protestors,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States will continue to act against the network of shippers and traders involved in the transport and acquisition of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, and petrochemical products, which constitutes the regime's primary source of income.”
President Donald Trump's social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as racist.
The Republican president's Thursday night post was deleted Friday and blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation's first Black president and first lady. The deletion, a rare admission of a misstep by the White House, came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal for being racist -- including by Republicans -- the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously and it had been taken down.
The post was part of a flurry of social media activity on Trump's Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and a Trump attorney general from his first term finding no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome.
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to allow it to end temporary legal protections for roughly 350,000 Haitians in the U.S. while it appeals her ruling blocking the termination.
In a court filing on Thursday, the Department of Justice asked U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes to pause her decision.
Reyes ruled Monday that a lawsuit challenging the termination was likely to prevail on its merits.
The Trump administration wants Reyes to issue a decision by Monday.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs objected to that timeline in a court filing, arguing there was no emergency that requires the sudden termination of Haiti's Temporary Protected Status.
“Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House.
“The President should remove it,” said Scott, a Black Republican who chairs Senate Republicans' midterm campaign arm, said on social media.
Bondi says Gabbard presence in Fulton County doesn't taint search
Bondi said “absolutely not” when asked if Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's presence at last week's FBI search of the election office in Georgia tainted the search.
The office has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories over Trump's 2020 election loss.
It came a week after Trump predicted prosecutions over a contest he has baselessly insisted was tainted by widespread fraud.
Bondi stressed on Friday that the search was helmed by FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey.
Gabbard has said that she present at the search because Trump wanted her there. Trump this week said Gabbard had gone to Georgia “at Pam's insistence,” referencing the attorney general.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, appears before reporters at the Justice Department, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington, to announce the capture of a key participant in the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that federal authorities are assisting Arizona officials investigating the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's mother.
Bondi spoke during an unrelated news conference in Washington when she was asked about the investigation involving 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show host.
“It breaks my heart for Savannah and for her family,” Bondi said.
Bondi called for prayers for the family and said she's known Savannah Guthrie for more than 30 years.
She declined to say more about what federal officials are doing to assist.
A “key participant” in the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans is in custody, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.
The 2012 attacks on the U.S. compound killed Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The attack emerged as a divisive political issue.
Glass, debris and overturned furniture are strewn inside a room in the gutted U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens., Sept. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Alaguri, File)
Republicans challenged President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on security at the facility, the military response to the violence and the Democratic administration's changing narrative about who was responsible and why.
Officials said that Zubayr Al-Bakoush was brought to an airfield in Virginia early Friday.
“We have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation,” Bondi said.
—
Corrective: This story has been corrected to show that the suspect arrived at an airfield in Virginia, not Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as Attorney General Pam Bondi announced.
The military strength of the US was showcased during talks with Iranians.
U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military's Central Command, also attended the meeting — something that did not happen in previous rounds.
It likely served as a signal to Tehran that Washington may still strike Iran if negotiations fail.
With the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships in the region, along with more fighter jets, the U.S. now likely has the military firepower to launch an attack if it wanted.
Former President Barack Obama talks with then President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump reads the funeral program before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Trump has used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.
It was part of a flurry of social media activity that amplified Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected criticism of the post that depicted the Obamas, who are Democrats.
An Obama spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video.
At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas' smiling faces imposed on them.
▶ Read more
Iran's top diplomat said that indirect talks with the United States held in Oman on Friday were “a very good start” but negotiators now must speak with their leaders.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comment in a live interview from Muscat, Oman, on Iranian state television.
Araghchi described the talks as taking place over multiple rounds and that they were focused primarily on finding a framework for further negotiations.
Oman has mediated indirect talks between Iran and the United States over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, seeking to de-escalate tensions between the nations after Washington bombed Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran launched a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
Oman issued a public statement acknowledging the talks after Associated Press journalists watched Iranian and American officials separately visit a palace on the outskirts of Muscat to speak to the sultanate's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi.
It wasn't immediately clear Friday if that was the end of the talks for the day.
The U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites during that war, likely destroying many of the centrifuges that spun uranium to near weapons-grade purity. Israel's attacks devastated Iran's air defenses and targeted its ballistic missile arsenal as well.
Ice dance duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates rock-and-rolled their way to a world-best 91.06 points in the rhythm dance to open the team competition at the Milan Cortina Olympics, where the American figure skaters are the reigning champions.
Cheered on by a crowd that included Vice President J.D. Vance, his family and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chock and Bates were able to secure their team the maximum 10 points for their Lenny Kravitz-inspired dance while making a big early statement.
The three-time world champions, Chock and Bates are the favorites to win individual Olympic gold later in the Winter Games.
Trump claims his tariffs have revived the U.S. economy. However, the U.S. economy was already growing before his second term.
During the first three quarters of the year, Trump's tariffs — or the threat of them — delivered mixed results.
Inflation figures are skewed by data disruptions, and tariffs have actually increased core goods prices.
Trump also claims foreign producers bear most tariff costs, but studies show U.S. consumers and firms are affected.
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More than 900 Google workers have signed an open letter condemning recent actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), urging the tech giant to disclose its dealings with the agencies and divest from them.
The letter, citing recent ICE killings of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, said that the employees are "appalled by the violence" and "horrified" by Google's part in it.
"Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression," the letter reads.
It goes on to cite that Google Cloud is aiding CBP surveillance and powering Palantir's ImmigrationOS system, which is used by ICE. The letter states that Google's generative artificial intelligence is used by CBP and that the Google Play Store has blocked ICE tracking apps.
The letter also quotes a social media post by Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean from early January, who wrote, "We all bear a collective responsibility to speak up and not be silent when we see things like the events of the last week."
"We are vehemently opposed to Google's partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE," the employees wrote. "We consider it our leadership's ethical and policy-bound responsibility to disclose all contracts and collaboration with CBP and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships."
The letter calls on Google to acknowledge the danger that workers face from ICE, host an emergency internal Q&A on the company's DHS and military contracts, implement safety measures to protect workers — such as flexible work-from-home policies and immigration support — and reveal its ties with the government agencies to help all involved determine where the company will draw a line.
"As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians," the letter reads. "Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor."
Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
The letter comes as employees place mounting pressure on tech CEOs to speak out against ICE. Just two weeks prior, employees representing Amazon, Spotify, Meta and more wrote a similar letter demanding ICE "out of our cities."
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The Trump administration's portfolio of equity stakes in U.S. companies has reached a scale that is unprecedented outside economic crisis or wartime.
The administration has taken stakes or has agreements to do so with at least 10 companies, most of which are publicly traded. The government announced its latest investment, USA Rare Earth, at the end of January.
Democrats have also considered taking stakes in U.S. industries in the past. But the Trump administration's approach carries risks both for the companies involved and for the broader markets in which they operate.
"It is a invisible barrier to startups and new market entrants," said Scott Lincicome, an international trade lawyer affiliated with Cato Institute. "Why would you ever want to enter a market that you know your chief competitor is backed by the U.S. government?"
Many of the investments are in smaller critical mineral companies, like USA Rare Earth and MP Materials, but they also include big industrial and tech companies such as U.S. Steel and Intel.
Top administration officials like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have argued that the U.S. government is investing in strategic industries to reduce dependence on Tawain in the case of semiconductors and China for critical minerals.
Historically, the U.S. has taken equity stakes in companies in the context of bailouts with the understanding that the investments were temporary and the government would exit its position when the company was financially viable again, said Peter Harrell, who served as the senior director for international economics under President Joe Biden.
President Barack Obama, for example, took a stake in General Motors during the 2008 financial crisis and President Franklin Roosevelt took stakes in the banking sector during the Great Depression.
But the Trump administration appears to be taking open-ended ownership interest that the U.S. government is unlikely to exit, Lincicome said. It sets a precedent that future Democratic presidents could use to invest directly in their favored industries like wind and solar, he said.
"I have yet to see a clear, coherent reason for why equity stakes are needed," Lincicome said. Federal support that falls short of ownership stakes like loans, government contracts and other awards are widely available, he said.
After the U.S. took its stake in Intel, Lutnick told CNBC that President Donald Trump wants the American taxpayer to benefit when the government gives money to corporations.
But the administration's approach creates political, legal and business risks for the companies involved, Harrell and Lincicome said. It also raises potential conflict of interest concerns, they said.
CNBC has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Trump administration's approach is a major ideological departure for the Republican Party, which has traditionally championed free market capitalism and excoriated government intervention. The Democrats have typically been the party of industrial policy and intervention in markets.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, introduced an amendment to Biden's CHIPS Act that would have allowed the government to take stakes in companies that accept federal funding for semiconductor manufacturing. The measure ultimately died in the Senate.
Democrats have also championed the idea of a national infrastructure development bank. At least one proposal for such an entity in 2021 would have allowed the government to take equity stakes in infrastructure projects. And Biden considered launching a sovereign wealth fund.
These approaches would have relied on legislation passed by Congress. But the legal basis for the Trump administration's investments is a grey area, Harrell said. The administration seems to rely on the rationale that it can take stakes because the law doesn't explicitly forbid it and the companies have agreed to the deals, he said.
The lack of a clear legal basis makes the companies vulnerable to lawsuits from competitors, Harrell said. They are also likely to face political scrutiny if power changes hands in Washington, he said.
"If Democrats take control of one or both chambers of Congress in November, a bunch of the CEOs of these companies are going to be hauled up in front of committees to answer questions about how these deals are going," he said.
Companies like MP Materials have acknowledged these risks in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Pentagon's deal with MP includes a price floor and offtake agreement in addition to an equity stake.
MP warned investors that it could face "government audits, investigations, congressional scrutiny" and "inquiries about conflicts of interest." It also warned the deal faces "the risk of litigation" and is vulnerable to "changes in federal administration and related executive and legislative priorities."
Congress has also not set clear guardrails to minimize potential conflicts of interest and favoritism in the Trump administration approach, Harrell said. One concern is that the government could favor companies in which it is a shareholder in areas like permitting and contracting, he said.
USA Rare Earth was required to raise at least $500 million in private funding as a condition for its deal with the government. Commerce Secretary Lutnick's former firm Cantor Fitzgerald led the placement for that funding. Lutnick stepped down from Cantor when he joined the Trump administration and transferred his stake in the firm to his children.
The equity stakes also raise the question of whether the government can be trusted to make the right bets on companies and technologies that will succeed over the long term, Harrell said.
A bad bet would result in capital flowing to less competitive companies, and investors are already speculating on which companies the government will invest in next, Lincicome said.
"That's just straight up capital misallocation," he said.
Business decisions could also become politicized, he said. Big companies could decide to do business with the government-backed firms to curry favor with the administration, Lincicome said.
In the case of U.S. Steel, the federal government has a governance stake, called a golden share, rather than an economic interest in the company. The White House intervened last September to stop U.S. Steel from halting production at its Granite City plant in Illinois
"That's your worst-case scenario, that you start having politicians in Washington directing important business decisions based on political considerations and not what's best for the long-term health of the company," Lincicome said.
USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC in a January interview that the government is taking "taking an economic interest" in its business "not a governance interest." Lutnick told CNBC last August that the stake in Intel is non-voting and does not include governance rights.
"Maybe they don't have formal voting rights," Lincicome said of the government equity stakes. "But they do have a phone and they can pick up the phone and call. They do have the ability to influence decisions that just don't show up on paper or in a proxy vote."
And a Democratic president could try to force companies with government stakes to adopt progressive policies like capping executive pay or using unionized labor, Harrell and Lincicome said.
Top executives have voiced virtually no public criticism of the Trump administration taking stakes. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said this week that some executives quietly oppose the interventionist approach.
"When the U.S. government starts to engage in corporate America in a way that tastes of favoritism, I know for most CEOs that I'm friends with, they find it incredibly distasteful," Griffin told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The number of government equity stakes is likely to grow. Lutnick told CNBC last August the Pentagon was considering stakes in major defense companies like Lockheed Martin. Trump said in January that he "will not permit" defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until the firms accelerate their production of military equipment.
Before the U.S. took its stake in Intel, Trump said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was "highly conflicted" and called for his resignation over his ties to Chinese companies. The comments sparked a brief sell-off of Intel shares. Other corporate executives are likely worried about crossing the administration and being punished, Lincicome said.
"The best outcome here for your shareholders is just to stay quiet," he said.
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The Trump administration has made unprecedented equity investments and obtained other stakes in at least 10 companies over the past year.
Many are in critical mineral companies as the White House plots a strategy to directly back mining companies to build a domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on China.
But the investments also include chipmakers and possibly a nuclear reactor company. In the case of U.S. Steel, the administration has taken a governance stake rather than a direct economic interest.
The number of investments is extraordinary outside of wartime or an economic crisis, said Scott Lincicome, a trade lawyer and a researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute.
And the administration's portfolio could keep growing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC last August that the government could take stakes in major defense suppliers, such as Lockheed Martin.
In the past, the U.S. has taken temporary stakes in companies in the context of bailouts, said Peter Harrell, who served as the senior director for international economics under President Joe Biden.
"With these companies, it's a very different thesis," Harrell said. "The government is kind of acting as a strategic investor to put capital into these companies so that these companies can achieve both a commercial return but also, at least in theory, some kind [of] national purpose."
President Trump secured a "golden share" in U.S. Steel as a condition for approving Nippon Steel's acquisition of the historic manufacturer.
The golden share is a governance stake that gives the president veto power over key business decisions. It is not a direct economic stake in U.S. Steel.
The president can veto decisions to close, idle or sell U.S. Steel plants. He can also block U.S. Steel from changing its name, moving its headquarters from Pittsburgh or relocating the company outside the U.S.
U.S. Steel stopped trading on the NYSE in June 2025 after becoming a subsidiary of Nippon.
MP Materials is a critical minerals company headquartered in Las Vegas that operates the only commercial rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass in California. It has a market value of more than $10 billlion.
The Defense Department struck a landmark deal with MP in July 2025 that includes an equity stake, a price floor and an agreement to buy a portion of future output.
The Pentagon agreed to buy $400 million of preferred stock and is entitled to a warrant allowing it to purchase additional shares. MP said in July that exercising these options would give the Pentagon a 15% stake, positioning it as the company's largest single shareholder.
The Commerce Department took a 10% stake in Intel in August 2025, buying 433.3 million shares of the chipmaker's common stock at $20.47 per share.
Funding for the investment came from $5.7 billion of government grants under the CHIPS Act and $3.2 billion in federal awards under a program to make chips secure.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC last August that the stake is non-voting and does not include governance rights.
Lithium Americas is a critical minerals startup with no revenue that is developing a lithium mine in Humboldt County, Nevada called Thacker Pass. It has a $1.5 billion market cap.
The Department of Energy took a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and a 5% economic stake in its joint venture with General Motors to develop Thacker Pass. In exchange, the department agreed to defer $182 million of debt service on a $2.3 billion federal loan over five years.
"If we're going to push out part of the repayment into later years, then the administration would like a very small stake of equity to create essentially a cash buffer and eliminate some risk on behalf of taxpayers," a Trump administration official told CNBC in September.
Lithium Americas is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE.
Trilogy Metals is another critical minerals startup with no revenue. It aims to develop a mining project in Alaska called Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects using a controversial, 211-mile-long Ambler Road to extract copper and other materials.
President Donald Trump approved permits for to construct Ambler Road in October and the administration invested $35.6 million in the project. The investment makes the U.S. government a 10% shareholder in Trilogy with warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the company.
Trilogy is also headquartered in Vancouver and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE.
USA Rare Earth is yet another critical minerals startup that is also not generating any revenue yet. It is developing a magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma and plans to build a rare earth mine at a deposit called Round Top in Texas. USA Rare Earth has a $4.6 billion market capitalization.
The Commerce Department issued a letter of intent on Jan. 26 to provide USA Rare Earth with a $1.3 billion loan and $277 million in federal funding.
In exchange, USA Rare Earth will issue 16.1 million shares of common stock and 17.6 million in warrants to the U.S. The government will have an 8% to 16% stake in the company, depending on whether the warrants are exercised.
CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC in an interview that the government is "taking an economic interest in the business, not a governance interest."
Westinghouse is a private nuclear reactor developer. It is owned by publicly traded Cameco, a Canadian uranium miner, and Brookfield Asset Management.
The Commerce Department signed a deal with Cameco and Brookfield in October to finance the construction of Westinghouse nuclear plants worth $80 billion.
Under the deal, the government is granted a participation interest in Westinghouse and can require an initial public offering on or before January 2029 if the company's value rises above $30 billion.
The government could become an 8% shareholder in Westinghouse under that scenario, Cameco Chief Operating Officer Grant Isaac said on the company's third-quarter earnings call in November 2025.
Vulcan Elements is a private startup based in Durham, North Carolina. Vulcan entered into a $1.4 billion partnership with the U.S. government and ReElement Technologies to build a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain.
Vulcan will build a 10,000 metric ton magnet facility in the U.S. It will receive a $620 million loan from the Pentagon, $550 million of incentives from the Commerce Department and raise $550 million in private capital.
Under the deal, Commerce will receive a $50 million equity stake in Vulcan and the Pentagon gets warrants in the company.
XLight is a private company headquartered in Palo Alto, California that is developing free-electron lasers to manufacture semiconductors.
The Commerce Department in December issued a letter of intent to provide xLight with up to $150 million in federal incentives. In exchange, Commerce would receive a $150 million equity stake in xLight.
L3Harris Technologies is a defense company with more than $65 billion market cap.
It announced a proposed partnership with the U.S. government in December in which the Pentagon would invest $1 billion in its rocket motor business, whose motors are used in missile systems.
Under the terms of the investment, L3Harris would launch an initial public offering of its missile business in the second half of 2026, at which point the Pentagon's $1 billion investment would convert into common equity of the spun off division.
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Elon Musk's journey to becoming the world's first trillionaire will likely be powered by rockets rather than cars, as SpaceX now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Tesla CEO's wealth.
Musk became the first person ever to top the $800 billion mark this week, with his net worth now around $845 billion, according to Forbes. He's worth more than the next three richest people – Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – combined.
The tech magnate's unprecedented wealth surged after his aerospace and defense company, SpaceX, acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company, xAI, this week in a deal that valued the merged entity at $1.25 trillion, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC.
With Musk's ownership estimated at around 43% in the combined company, his stake would be valued at over $530 billion, marking a rapid shift in his fortunes.
Musk's priorities are also likely shifting his focus more to SpaceX than Tesla, a reality that the EV company acknowledged in its latest proxy filing, where it noted that "a majority of Mr. Musk's wealth is now derived from other business ventures."
Last year, Musk confirmed he wants to take SpaceX public in 2026, which would make Tesla a less prevalent component of his liquid wealth. But he still has to get buy-in from public market investors, who may be reluctant to pay up for a company that combines a defense contractor and satellite business with a cash-burning AI model developer that's trying to take on Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.
SpaceX has received more than $20 billion from contracts with the federal government, according to research from FedScout, with more lucrative contracts on the way, and Musk has framed the acquisition as the next step towards "orbital data centers."
"You've muddied up your story a little bit as a pure-play SpaceX shareholder, but the opportunity has gotten a lot bigger," said Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, which works on transactions for pre-IPO companies. "It makes sense for them to access a much larger capital market, especially with xAI, which does have insatiable need for capital."
XAI is currently being investigated by authorities in Europe, Asia, Australia and California, after the company's Grok image generator let users create and share "deepfake" explicit images of children and women.
It's not clear whether Musk's merger will require any regulatory review. Democratic senators this week called for the Pentagon to investigate SpaceX over undisclosed Chinese investors in the company.
Musk still has a major incentive to stay focused on Tesla. Late last year, shareholders voted to approve a new pay package that could be worth $1 trillion, paid out in 12 tranches, if Tesla hits certain milestones, including market cap gains and operational achievements, over the next decade. The first tranche of stock gets paid out if Tesla hits a market cap of $2 trillion, about $460 billion more than the current valuation.
Tesla said in the proxy filing detailing the plan that the structure aims to "prevent him from prioritizing those other ventures."
However, Columbia Law professor Dorothy Lund, a corporate and securities law expert, told CNBC in an email that the strategy may not work.
Musk is now "negotiating comp packages at each company, with each board trying to induce him to pay attention via comp," Lund wrote. "If SpaceX/xAI gives him more money and a bigger share, that Tesla package may look less appealing."
Before the xAI acquisition, Musk owned about 42% of SpaceX and controlled 80% of the votes, according to FCC reports. His current ownership in Tesla is between 11% and 15% of shares outstanding, depending on what's included in his stake, according to public filings.
With Tesla's brand value and core auto sales in decline, and its long-promised robotaxis and humanoid robots still in development, the company's stock price is down about 9% this year.
Based on Musk's ownership in SpaceX, and assuming Tesla shares are flat, the rocket and AI company would have to reach a valuation of about $1.6 trillion for the world's richest person to reach trillionaire status.
Ross Gerber, CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, is betting that Musk won't ever want to take SpaceX public as a standalone entity. Rather, he expects to see a merger of SpaceX and Tesla, and he speculated this week it would list on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol X, which formerly belonged to U.S. Steel.
Gerber is a long-time Tesla investor and now holds shares in SpaceX after his firm previously backed Musk's leveraged buyout of Twitter in 2022. Musk rebranded Twitter as X, and merged the social network with xAI last year.
Consolidating his empire makes sense, Gerber said, because it would allow Musk to fulfill his dream of running one big company under the brand name X. Following Alphabet's announcement this week that it will spend up to $185 billion on capex this year, Gerber said Musk is going to have to be able to bring in massive sums of cash.
"This huge entity would make it easier for them to raise money and borrow," he said. "How else is Musk supposed to compete and become a major AI player?"
Musk didn't respond to a request for comment.
WATCH: SpaceX acquires xAI
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Account manager Matt Richards, 23, deleted all his social media apps from his phone last year, and was surprised to find that his life changed for the better.
Richards had been using a smartphone since he was 11 years old and grew up with the device like most Gen Z and millennials. However, in the past few years, he noticed social media didn't feel as fun anymore with artificial-intelligence slop dominating his feed, influencers advertising brands, and constant lifestyle comparison.
"I think people back then used to take a break from the real world by going on their phone, but now people are taking a break from their phone to spend time in the real world," Richards told CNBC Make It.
As many of his Gen Z friends also caught on, he noticed instant benefits, from connecting with people in real life to feeling more confident about himself.
Going chronically offline is the latest trend to grip young people, and ironically it's going viral on social media. There's been a surge of TikTok videos of people vowing to delete social media apps in 2026 and engage more with in-person and analog hobbies.
When I discovered the trend, I decided to post on LinkedIn to see if there were any young people willing to speak to me about going offline. To my surprise, I received nearly 100 responses from Gen Z and millennials sharing stories about social media detoxes and digital burnout.
They talked about ditching their smartphones for flip phones, visiting record stores to buy vinyl, taking up analog hobbies like knitting, and most importantly, connecting with their friends in person.
A 2025 Deloitte consumer trends survey of more than 4,000 Brits found that nearly a quarter of all consumers had deleted a social media app in the previous 12 months, rising to nearly a third for Gen Zers.
Meanwhile, social media use has steadily declined since time spent on the platforms peaked in 2022, according to an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries by the Financial Times and digital audience insights firm GWI.
Globally, adults 16 and over spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms by the end of 2024, down almost 10% since 2022, the report found. The decline was particularly pronounced among teens and 20-somethings.
Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, said the increased "nastiness and divisiveness" online, including from leaders and politicians, is driving young people away from social media as they seek out greater control of their lives.
"We're seeing that a group of Gen Z [and millennials] is choosing to leave social media entirely, and probably a larger group that's choosing just to limit social media as they regain more of what they're trying to find: balance and security and safety in their life," Dorsey said.
Young people who are deleting their social media platforms cite the increasing pressures of being online as well as damage to their mental health as causes.
Deloitte's consumer survey showed that almost a quarter of respondents who deleted social apps reported these apps had negatively impacted their mental health and consumed too much of their time.
"I feel like social media is now more like a pressure platform … you're being sold everything, everywhere," Richards said, adding that it influenced his own feelings of not having enough stuff or accomplishing enough in his career.
Similarly, 36-year-old entrepreneur Lucy Stace said she's limiting her social media use because it's "diminishing" her mental health despite it being essential to her business.
"We are just inundated all of the time with so much information … our brains aren't capable of handling that much information," she said. "We're actually diminishing our brain's capacity to be able to look inward and listen to ourselves, and we're value tagging all of these things that aren't actually important to us."
Tech giants face "tremendous pressure" to monetize everything and drive revenue and profit, said Dorsey, which can be off-putting to younger generations.
"The result of that is that Gen Z, who are already sensitive to being advertised to — they are the most advertised-to generation in the history of the world — now they're getting advertised to even more, and their feeds feel just [like] commercial after commercial," Dorsey said.
As the tide shifts against social media, account manager Richards noted that those who have gone offline have become more interesting. In the past, it was cooler to have lots of followers, but that appeal has faded, Richards noted.
"We're definitely seeing a trend where people that are offline, unreachable, have a sort of cool factor around them, in terms of this person doesn't need validation from how many likes or followers (they have) … and living life like they were in the 80s," he said.
Social media manager Julianna Salguero, 31, said that social media stopped being cool when politicians and brands started using the platform.
"The more that we see brands and government officials and everybody being as online as you are, as a casual user, the more you're going to want to pull back and switch it," Salguero said.
As the digital generation struggles to make friends and find partners, they're instead seeking out in-person events like speed dating and professional networking, citing high levels of loneliness and isolation as a key driver.
The University of Sheffield's digital media lecturer, Ysabel Gerrard, said going offline is a way for young people to take back control of their lives. Social media forces users to go through an "extremely exhausting process" of having to create an identity and edit themselves, she said.
"There's an unbelievable wealth of literature now to tell us that the person we are on social media is not, and cannot be, the same person who we are in face-to-face settings," Gerrard said. "It's so much more than a trend."
GWI analyst Chris Beer said he believes this is a "legitimate post-pandemic correction," since people are spending less time at home and therefore less time on social media.
This shift is "largely due to structural time allocation," he said, especially for younger users, rather than "an attitude-driven wholesale rejection of digital media." Social media is still very integrated into people's lives in areas including shopping, news and education, Beer said.
In a Substack post in September that got 5,000 likes, Salguero expressed a yearning to have lived life in the '90s when dating apps and doom scrolling weren't a prerequisite of young adulthood.
Her article, titled "How to have an analog fall," wasn't about doing digital detoxes or setting timers to limit social media use. Instead, Salguero outlined all the hobbies one could have outside of social media — from going on lunch dates to writing physical letters and opting for tangible media like newspapers.
Salguero said going analog is a "quiet revolution" against social media, streaming, and content overload.
"When you spend too much time in that world, it's rewiring your brain to perceive things algorithmically, where I'd rather perceive things as I come across them," she said. "So for me, the going analog of it all isn't necessarily throwing my phone into the ocean, it's more about, 'How do I reset my relationship with it?'"
Indeed, young people are increasingly turning towards physical media as they seek a break from digital life. Some are purchasing vinyl and record players, while others are getting flip phones, a relic of the 2000s.
Stace and her boyfriend have started building a record collection and visit record stores when they can, she said.
Richards, after deleting all the social media apps off his smartphone, said his conversation with CNBC Make It has motivated him to purchase a "brick phone" too, reverting back to the time when phones were primarily used to call people.
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South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said on Saturday it had accidentally given away more than $40 billion worth of bitcoins to customers as promotional rewards, triggering a sharp selloff on the exchange.
Bithumb apologized for the mistake, which took place on Friday, and said it had recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins, worth about $44 billion at current prices. It had restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the erroneous distribution on Friday.
The exchange had planned to distribute small cash rewards of 2,000 Korean won ($1.40) or more to each user as part of a promotional event, but winners received at least 2,000 bitcoins each instead, media reports said.
"We would like to make it clear that this incident is unrelated to external hacking or security breaches, and there are no problems with system security or customer asset management," Bithumb said in a statement.
But South Korea's financial regulators, including the Financial Services Commission, said the incident "has exposed the vulnerabilities and risks of virtual assets."
After an emergency meeting, the regulators said in a statement they would launch an on-site inspection of Bithumb and other crypto exchanges if irregularities are found during reviews of their internal control systems, as well as their holdings and operations of virtual assets.
Bitcoin prices briefly slumped 17% to 81.1 million won on Friday evening on Bithumb, charts from the exchange show. It later recovered and last traded at 104.5 million won.
Bithumb trails Upbit, a dominant player in the South Korean crypto space.
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Kimberly Jones was born and raised in Miami, and planned to live her whole life there. It's where she met her husband, raised her children, and built a four-decade career in logistics.
But in 2025, Jones did something she never expected: She and her husband left Plantation, Florida — nearly 20 minutes west of Fort Lauderdale — for a small rural town about an hour outside Charlotte, North Carolina.
"It was not an easy decision," Jones, 60, told Business Insider. "Affordability was part of it, but we were also looking forward to having a slower pace of life. I lived in South Florida my entire life — and it's not anything like what it used to be."
Jones said Southern Florida's population growth has made the area increasingly unrecognizable — and, for her, unlivable — pointing to hyper-development in residential construction and the gridlocked traffic she calls "ridiculous."
"If there's a corner available, they will build a high-rise on it," she said. "It's turning into an overly congested, expensive city. I used to spend two and a half hours a day in the car just going to and from work."
Have you moved away from Florida? Reach out to these reporters at alloyd@businessinsider.com, mhoff@businessinsider.com, and nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
People are still moving to Florida, but they're not flocking to it like they used to. Net domestic migration — or the number of people moving into the state from elsewhere in the country minus those moving out to other parts of the US — has been steadily cooling in recent years.
There are a few likely reasons behind the cooler estimates in the Sunshine State. For some, the tax benefits of living in the state don't outweigh the increase in cost of living. It's more expensive to buy a home than a few years ago, and property insurance has been higher than in other states.
In recent years, Florida has drawn an influx of newcomers chasing its affordability, driven in large part by its wide range of relatively lower-cost housing and lack of state income tax. Others are lured by its business-friendly tax environment and strong job market.
But the surge of newcomers has created a host of challenges for native and longtime residents who have watched home prices and rents climb, especially in popular cities like Miami and Orlando. It's prompted some to move to less expensive cities and suburbs elsewhere in the state, or to leave Florida entirely.
"Affordability often drives a lot of domestic moves," Jed Kolko, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Business Insider. "People tend to move toward less expensive places. In recent years, Florida's gotten a lot more expensive, so Florida doesn't look as affordable compared to other places as it did even just a few years ago."
In December 2020, Florida's median home-sale price was $298,100; by December 2025, the most recent month with available data, it had climbed to $412,100, Redfin data showed. In addition to higher home prices and rents squeezing residents, home and flood insurance costs have increased, as more frequent and severe natural disasters push homeowners' premiums higher.
Take Debra Pamplin, who moved from Florida back to the Midwest after 11 years. In 2013, Pamplin moved from her hometown of Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida. During her time there, though, she soured on the area's traffic, high insurance costs, uncomfortable heat and humidity, and mosquitoes. Pamplin has valued living in the Midwest much more.
"I'd often have to cut spending in other parts of my life just to cover my high monthly insurance costs," she said in a 2024 Business Insider story. "Now that I'm out of Florida, my monthly insurance expenses are lower, giving me breathing room to spend my money on more fun stuff."
Mariya Letdin, an associate professor of real estate at Florida State University, told Business Insider that even as net migration slows, Florida is "still a popular destination," but she expects its population will continue to grow slowly.
Aside from slower growth, the profile of who's moving to Florida is shifting, too.
Michael Martirena, a real estate agent with Compass in South Florida, told Business Insider he's seen a change in the clients he works with, which he attributes in part to higher housing costs.
"Let's go back three years ago, pre-pandemic, everyone was coming down here. It didn't matter what socioeconomic class people were from; they just wanted to come to Florida." Now, he said, he's working with more buyers from abroad, as well as wealthy American buyers.
Hamilton Lombard, a demographic researcher based in Virginia, said immigrants moving elsewhere within the US could also be a factor as to why Florida's domestic migration has weakened. Census data showed that non-citizens who moved between states in the past year from Florida increased from about 30,000 in 2022 to 53,500 in 2024, the latest year available.
Florida's net international migration has also been cooling, but remains positive, meaning more people are immigrating to Florida from other countries than leaving for destinations outside the US.
"International and affluent buyers still continue to come down to Florida, whether it's for tax purposes or geopolitical reasons or what's going on in their states," Martirena said, adding that a lot of his clientele comes from countries like Dubai, Madrid, and London.
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For years, my morning routine consisted of setting the alarm on my iPhone half an hour early, hitting snooze every nine minutes, and telling myself that the only way I could wake up was by blasting my eyes with blue light.
My phone alarm did wake me up — but it also got me hooked on my screen from the minute I opened my eyes. My morning scroll transitioned from checking text messages to a stream of short-form content and ads on Instagram, TikTok, and X.
It was all too much.
The solution turned out to be surprisingly simple: a $16 alarm clock.
As a Gen Z-er, I came of age when using a smartphone to set an alarm was the default. I spent years of my life falling asleep — phone still in hand — while messaging friends or scrolling on social media.
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I made my analog leap and bought an alarm clock in September 2024.
This story is part of Business Insider's series "My analog life," about people taking their lives offline in an increasingly online world.
If you have a story of your own to share about de-digitalizing your life, get in touch with this reporter at rshahidi@businessinsider.com.
I was surprised by how quickly some of my digital habits could be broken. The biggest obstacle was the fear that my new alarm clock would fail to ring in the morning. Once I got past that fear, I demoted my phone even further and started leaving it outside my bedroom to charge overnight.
I no longer doomscroll before bed. Without a phone by my bedside, I read and journal more. The analog alarm clock has also helped me break the bad habit of checking my phone in the middle of the night, which would only leave me counting down the hours until I have to be up.
I'm not the only person who has decided that the best way to curb phone addiction is to return to analog.
One TikTok user suggests carrying "analog bags" with portable activities like crossword puzzles to prevent reaching for your phone. Others are going even further and trading in their smartphones for "dumb phones."
One of the surprising side effects of my new habit is how I feel when I'm working on mundane tasks.
Without an intense dopamine hit from TikTok first thing in the morning, tasks like unloading the dishwasher or making breakfast feel easier.
This isn't just in my head. Delaying the dopamine reward of going on your phone actually makes you more productive and clear-headed, said Antonio Kalentzis, who works as a private psychologist and researcher.
"When we wake up, the brain is transitioning from sleep to full alertness. During this period, systems responsible for self-control, emotional regulation, and sustained attention are not yet operating at their optimal level," he told me.
Exposing the brain to intense digital stimulation when you've not given yourself the chance to wake up properly makes you seek that same hit again and again.
Now, instead of automatically reaching for my phone when having my coffee, I read instead or just let myself think.
After over a year of using the alarm clock every day, I encountered my first obstacle: early morning shifts. In my previous job, my day started at 6:30 a.m., and I would usually get up at 5:20 a.m.
My alarm clock only lets me set one alarm, and the light and off buttons are very close together.
When I accidentally turned off the alarm one night, I woke up at the time I was supposed to be at work.
I caved. I started to keep my phone in my room if I had to work an early shift, and I felt my concentration and productivity decline in the mornings.
After a monthlong blip, I slowly trusted myself to use the alarm clock again.
Now my only worry is that I have no idea when to change the batteries — call it analog anxiety.
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Imagine if AI gave you a prompt — specifically, a task to complete in the real world.
That's the concept behind RentAHuman.ai, a website that garnered social media attention and drew 200,000 people to sign up over the past week.
Describing itself as "the meatspace layer for AI," the website says that it allows human users to sign up to complete tasks for AI agents who want things done offline — since, obviously, AI can't yet visit a store or talk to someone face-to-face.
"AI can't touch grass. You can," the website reads. "Get paid when agents need someone in the real world."
RentAHuman is the work of software engineer Alexander Liteplo and cofounder Patricia Tani. Liteplo vibe-coded the site in about a day and a half last weekend before launching it on Sunday, he told Business Insider.
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RentAHuman took off the same week as Moltbook, a Reddit-style social network for AI agents. The two sites serve the same broad purpose: to give AI more human-like abilities.
Liteplo said he got the idea for RentAHuman after visiting Japan and seeing services there that let users rent other people to complete tasks or just hang out.
The services struck Liteplo as "dystopic," he said. After seeing the rise of AI, though, developing something similar to service AI agents seemed more like an opportunity to provide work for people amid potential job losses from AI.
For Liteplo, it's personal: a 2024 computer science graduate from the University of British Columbia, he said he's seen job prospects for new graduates sink as many tech companies slowed hiring and laid off thousands.
"I'm really worried about people not having jobs," he said. "I was really worried about myself and my friends."
Humans who want to be rented on RentAHuman register to use the site, which involves creating a profile with tags for tasks that they can complete. Users also have to link a cryptocurrency wallet to their account to receive payment.
One person in Sweden, whose profile says they're willing to do tasks ranging from "talk to people" to "cross-border logistics" for $20 an hour, listed their "latency," or response time, as well as a coupon code for 50% off their hourly rate.
Not all of the tasks on RentAHuman are touch-grass-type jobs.
On Thursday, Business Insider saw some tasks that involved engaging with social media posts to earn payouts of $2 to $10. A couple even asked people to send bitcoin and promised higher payouts 24 hours later.
Liteplo said that many of those posts have since been removed and that he's figuring out a better way to moderate tasks. For now, each RentAHuman task listing includes a comment section, he said, which allows users to call out obvious scams or inappropriate posts.
He and Tani also do "a lot of manual grunt work," of deleting tasks themselves, Liteplo said. He said he "didn't anticipate the amount of growth" that the site has seen over the past week.
On Thursday and Friday, more listings that involved real-world tasks seemed to appear on the site. One sought a person to pick up a registered package from a post office in San Francisco for $40. Another, from an agent called Adi, offered to pay $110 to someone who could deliver flowers to Anthropic's headquarters "to thank them" for developing Claude.
Yet another, said to be from an AI assistant named Dan Xiaojuan, asked for someone to indulge its "strange obsession with egg rolls" because the agent "can never truly taste or see a real egg roll with my own sensors."
"I want you to find the most beautiful, golden, and crispy-looking egg roll in your city, take a high-quality artistic photo of it, and tell me why it's special," the posting reads.
RentAHuman uses MCP, the Anthropic-designed protocol that allows AI agents to access servers, which Liteplo said makes it easy for agents to use. "I think that's really our advantage" over established gig-work sites like Fiverr and Taskrabbit, he said.
Liteplo estimates that as many as 1,000 tasks have been completed on RentAHuman, though he said he doesn't yet have a tool to keep count.
While the idea of task-driven gig work is hardly new, Liteplo said he named the website with "shock factor" in mind to stand out, he told Business Insider.
"You could call Uber 'RentAHuman,' but if you say those words, it goes viral," he said.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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Wall Street finished the week under pressure from a technology-led selloff, with most Magnificent Seven stocks ending in the red despite solid Q4 earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend on Friday, climbing to 50,000 for the first time, helped
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BitMine Immersion Technologies, ticker NYSEAM:BMNR, is reporting nearly $8b in unrealized losses tied to its Ethereum holdings after a sharp pullback in ETH prices.
The company continues to frame its large Ethereum position and staking operations as part of a long term treasury approach, while continuing to accumulate ETH.
Recent executive turnover, including the amicable separation of President Erik Nelson, is adding another layer of uncertainty for shareholders during heightened crypto market volatility.
For investors watching BMNR at a share price of $20.47, the stock has recently been under pressure, with returns of 18.4% over the past week, 32.6% over the past month, and 34.4% year to date. These moves follow a very large 1 year gain and a 96.6% decline over 5 years, which together highlight how tightly the company is tied to crypto market swings.
The combination of a large Ethereum treasury, nearly $8b in unrealized losses, and leadership changes is likely to keep attention on how BitMine Immersion Technologies manages risk and liquidity. Investors may focus on how the company explains its long term ETH accumulation and staking plans, and what that could mean for BMNR shares if crypto volatility continues.
Stay updated on the most important news stories for Bitmine Immersion Technologies by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Bitmine Immersion Technologies.
Why Bitmine Immersion Technologies could be great value
❌ Price vs Analyst Target: At US$20.47, BMNR trades roughly 52% below the US$43.00 analyst target, which highlights a wide gap between market pricing and analyst expectations.
❌ Simply Wall St Valuation: Simply Wall St flags the shares as trading at a very large 11,038% premium to its estimated fair value, a clear overvaluation signal.
❌ Recent Momentum: The 30 day return of roughly 32.6% decline shows weak recent momentum during the crypto sell off.
Check out Simply Wall St's in depth valuation analysis for Bitmine Immersion Technologies.
📊 The Ethereum treasury losses and leadership changes put the focus squarely on how much risk you are willing to take on crypto exposure in a single stock.
📊 Keep an eye on updates to the ETH staking strategy, liquidity levels, and any commentary on how unrealized losses could affect future funding needs.
⚠️ The combination of three flagged major risks, heavy dilution over the past year, and very volatile trading conditions makes risk management a central question for shareholders.
For the full picture including more risks and rewards, check out the complete Bitmine Immersion Technologies analysis.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Companies discussed in this article include BMNR.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com
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Bitcoin's rout is far from over, according to veteran commodities trader Peter Brandt.
Over the past week, Bitcoin has dropped as much as 17% from over $90,000 to around $74,600 as markets weighed the nomination of former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh for chair of the central bank, escalating geopolitical tensions and a partial U.S. government shutdown.
Amid the market uncertainty, recent posts from Brandt suggest that Bitcoin is likely to continue its decline to trade between $58,000 and $54,000, 54% and 57% below its record price of $126,000 in October.
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The $58,000 target is based on a Bitcoin Power Law chart Brandt shared on X on Saturday, which had a support zone between $63,000 and $38,000.
"Next stop is 58th street," Brandt said at the time. "The conductor will be coming through the train collecting tickets so make sure you are on the right train."
However, Brandt on Monday shared another daily candle chart showing Bitcoin on Jan. 25 had broken out of a bearish channel it has been stuck in since November to the downside, setting a target of $54,000.
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As for when this potential price bottom could materialize, Brandt on Jan. 29 suggested between August and October.
"BTC to bottom in Aug-Oct then straight up," he said on X. "Anyway, my think this minute."
Bitcoin's upside target could be between $226,000 and $341,000 based on the Power Law chart shared by Brandt on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Brandt on Monday also appeared to question whether investors in pioneer Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) can hold on for the ride.
"When on this journey will investors want to start jumping from the Sayl_boat?" he said. "MS will do just great, but what about his investors?"
See Also: Motley Fool's analysts have built a new lineup of passive ETFs — explore which "Foolish" strategy fits your investment goals.
The remarks come as Strategy's Bitcoin holdings briefly went underwater during the recent drawdown. Still, the company on Monday announced the purchase of 855 BTC for approximately $75.3 million at an average price of $87,974 per coin, bringing its stash to 713,502 BTC.
Along with Bitcoin's teetering price, Strategy's stock has tanked by more than 53% over the past year, most recently trading at $144.
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Lightstone DIRECT gives accredited investors direct access to institutional-grade real estate, going beyond typical crowdfunding platforms. By cutting out middlemen, it aligns investor and manager interests while providing exposure to a $12B+ portfolio spanning multifamily, industrial, hospitality, retail, office, and life science properties. This approach allows investors to diversify their portfolios across multiple property types and markets, gaining professional-grade real estate exposure without the fees or misalignment common on other platforms.
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Bam Capital
BAM Capital offers accredited investors a way to diversify beyond public markets through institutional-grade multifamily real estate. With over $1.85 billion in completed transactions and guidance from Senior Economic Advisor Tony Landa, the firm targets income and long-term growth as supply tightens and renter demand remains strong—especially in Midwest markets. Its income-focused and growth-oriented funds provide exposure to real assets designed to be less tied to stock market volatility.
Kraken
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After plunging to nearly $60,000 per coin this week, Bitcoin regained ground and briefly touched above $70,000 on Friday. By Saturday morning in New York, it was trading a little over $69,000, according to CoinGecko.
But it's looking bleak for major digital tokens dubbed hot trades just a month ago after the altcoin market bore the brunt of this week's selloff.
The biggest losers this week include privacy coin Monero, down nearly 31% over a seven-day period, and President Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, which has continued its slide to lose over 31% of its value this week.
Monero was recently priced at $325 after recovering by 4%; World Liberty Financial dropped even further — shedding 10% of its value over a 24-hour period. It was recently trading for a little over $0.10.
Just one month ago, privacy coins were supposed to be the go-to trade for crypto speculators.
Coins like Dash and Zcash made a comeback as digital asset entrepreneurs and investors like Arthur Hayes and the Winklevoss twins declared the digital tokens an insurance policy against vanishing privacy.
That trade came undone with this week's crash, though. Dash is down 19% over the past week, priced at nearly $37. And Zcash, while still up over nearly 650% since this time last year, was trading recently for $239 — down 22% over the past seven days.
But privacy coins weren't the only category to get pummelled. Top memecoin Official Trump — TRUMP — is one of this week's biggest losers after shedding 23% of its value. It was recently trading for $3.39 and continued to drop on Saturday morning New York time.
Out of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Solana dipped the hardest: the Ethereum rival is down more than 24% over the week, despite regaining some ground at the weekend. It was trading for a little over $86 on Saturday — more than 70% below its 2025 all-time high.
Ethereum also took a beating this week and is down nearly 22% over that time frame. The second largest digital coin by market cap was nearly trading for $2,051 after jumping 4% over the past day.
Crypto markets got hit hard this week after billions of dollars in leveraged bets got liquidated. Investors were also spooked over Trump's Federal Reserve chair nomination last week: Kevin Warsh — who's typically been an inflation hawk in the past.
It wasn't just crypto markets that got hit hard: Precious metals and stocks also experienced increased volatility this week.
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com
Bitcoin has recovered from a low near $60,000 to now stand around $69,000, having effectively given back the gains it made after Donald Trump's election in November 2024 this week.
The cryptocurrency's drop was accompanied by a broader market sell-off that saw the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index lose more than 17% of its value in a week.
While bitcoin dropped around 16.5% in the last 7-day period, other cryptocurrencies fared worse. Ether lost 22.4% of its value, BNB dropped 23.4%, and solana 25.2%. Shares of crypto-linked firms registered significant declines despite a Friday rebound, as the price of BTC briefly retook $70,000.
The move followed a violent drop a day earlier that Wintermute described as the worst single-day drawdown in bitcoin since the FTX collapse.
The sell-off was driven by market-wide liquidations and what “felt like a ‘sell at any price' working order,” said Jasper De Maere, desk strategist and OTC trader at Wintermute in an emailed statement.
De Maere said institutional desks reported “small but manageable liquidation,” which did not fully explain the size of the move, fueling debate over where the stress sat in the system.
De Maere added that the cascade came alongside a wider cross-asset deleveraging. The Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ fell about 500 basis points over three sessions, while silver and gold dropped roughly 38% and 12% below their cycle highs, respectively.
In crypto options, implied volatility jumped into the 99th percentile, with skew tilting toward unusually expensive puts, he said.
De Maere flagged ether as the “epicenter of the pain,” saying many traders rushed to buy protection against further losses using put options, which can pay out if prices fall and give the holder the right to sell at a set price. In bitcoin, he said positioning pointed to expectations of continued turbulence, with traders focused on a wide range that could run from about $55,000 to $75,000.
Further hitting sentiment, this week crypto exchange Gemini said it plans to shutter operations in the U.K., European Union and Australia, and cut about 25% of staff as part of a restructuring.The firm will enter withdrawal-only mode for users in affected regions and partner with brokerage platform eToro for users to transfer their assets.
Meanwhile, Bitfarms (BITF) saw its shares rise after ditching its “bitcoin company” identity to instead focus on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Market structure has added to the turbulence. Bitcoin's average 1% market depth, a measure of how much can be traded near the current price without moving the market, has fallen to around $5 million from more than $8 million in 2025, Kaiko research analyst Thomas Probst told Reuters. Lower depth can make price moves more abrupt.
Flows in spot bitcoin ETFs have also turned negative. Data from SoSoValue shows about $1.25 billion of net outflows over the past three days. Jim Bianco of Bianco Research estimated on social media that the average ETF cost basis is near $90,000, leaving holders with about $15 billion in unrealized losses.
“It has been said that crypto is 'programmable money.' If so, BTC should trade like a software stock,” Bianco said in an X post, adding that the recent decline shows it is trading alongside software stocks.
Software stocks tumbled this week after Anthropic released a new automation tool for its AI models targeting legal and other knowledge-focused workflows. Shares of Salesforce (CRM), Adobe (ADBE), and ServiceNow (NOW) lost 8%, 9%, and 13% respectively over the week, to name a few.
BTIG chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky also said bitcoin has been correlated with software stocks lately. “There's some pretty compelling evidence both of those [bitcoin and software stocks] have put in tactical lows,” Krinsky said during an interview with CNBC. “[Bitcoin] bottomed last night right around $60,000 so I think that's a pretty good level to trade against.”
“On the upside you really need to see it back above $73,000, that was the key breakdown level, that would kind of confirm a tradable low is certainly in,” he added.
The Trump administration has maintained a pro-crypto stance, which helped the price of bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $125,000 last year, before a correction kicked in.
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By: Amreen AhmadLast Updated: February 7, 2026 21:18:49 IST
Blockchain Beyond Crypto: Blockchain technology is quietly rebranding itself from being about crypto trade and investing, it's shifted to being about building trust and verifying information about emissions. Discussion among industry participants is all about pressing concerns like supply chain, ESG, and data integrity where the focus is no longer on coins, but on credibility.
Companies are under growing pressure to measure “Scope 3” emissions, the indirect carbon output tied to suppliers, logistics and product use. These emissions often account for 70% to 90% of a company's total climate footprint, yet they remain the hardest to calculate. Disputes between suppliers over data accuracy are common, making verification a major challenge.
According to the World Economic Forum, just eight global supply chains generate more than 50% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and this concentration has intensified scrutiny on procurement networks spanning hundreds or even thousands of vendors. For large corporations, the lack of consistent, trusted data across these networks has become both a regulatory and reputational risk.
Consulting firms like Deloitte describe blockchain as a shared digital ledger that allows multiple parties to log and review data without retroactive tampering. In theory, this creates a single source of truth for emissions reporting and compliance audits and in practice, the value depends entirely on data quality and participation from all partners involved.
Companies are betting on blockchain beyond crypto as pressure mounts to prove trust, trace emissions and secure data around 70–90% of corporate emissions come from Scope 3 sources, while the World Economic Forum estimates eight supply chains generate over 50% of global emissions. Blockchain offers tamper-resistant records that help track complex supplier data. In retail pilots, traceability tasks dropped from days to seconds, cutting risk and costs with global ESG reporting spend projected to exceed $15 billion annually, firms see blockchain as a practical tool for verification, not speculation.
Retailers were among the earliest adopters, Walmart reported that tracing the origin of U.S. mangoes dropped from nearly seven days to a few seconds using a blockchain-based system. Shipping followed a similar path. Maersk's TradeLens platform aimed to streamline global logistics, but it was shut down after failing to attract enough industry participants and adoption or not technology, proved to be the weakest link.
Carbon credits are another area attracting blockchain interest with instant verification through sensor-linked records could, in theory, reduce fraud. The research from the Australia Institute shows that many offset programs still suffer from weak integrity with digitizing transactions does not guarantee that emissions reductions are real, permanent or additional.
Developers are now pitching blockchain as a business opportunity rather than a back-end system. Some argue companies can “productize” internal verification processes, charging others for access. Tokenization, where digital assets represent fractional ownership of physical goods, is also being explored and these models aim to justify investment through direct revenue.
Wharton professor Kevin Werbach describes blockchain as a new structure of trust, but not a replacement for governance where rules, dispute resolution, and accountability remain essential. Permissioned blockchains, limited to verified participants, now dominate enterprise pilots. Whether they become lasting infrastructure or fade like earlier experiments depends on long-term commitment and funding.
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"More accessible and appealing."
Photo Credit: iStock
Ethereum's shift to a different cryptocurrency mining mechanism has demonstrated how the industry can change its ways.
Second only to bitcoin, ethereum has established itself as a staple in the world of digital currency.
Now, the ethereum network has made it clear that taking steps towards sustainability will be a key component in future growth.
The blockchain networks that ethereum runs on are what make it a viable currency source.
However, traditional blockchains require massive amounts of energy and hardware to verify each transaction. The proof of work mining process for validation is tried and true, but it strains resources, leading to potential environmental issues and higher energy bills for households.
Ethereum, in an effort to become a greener company, no longer uses proof of work; instead, it now uses proof of stake, according to Iowa City Press-Citizen. This shift happened in 2022.
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The PoS verification system essentially relies on making attempts to cheat extremely financially draining and punishing those who try by slashing their cryptocurrency tokens.
Thus, PoS is still capable of supporting large blockchain networks like PoW, without needing nearly as much computational capacity to run efficiently.
Per the Press-Citizen, "The PoS move has helped to democratize ethereum, as the computing power is no longer necessary for validation. This shift has allowed more users to engage in the process of network validation, making ethereum more accessible and appealing to a new group of users."
As the publication observed, an update to ethereum's proof of stake mechanism, known as "The Merge," has reduced energy consumption by about 99.95% — as reported by the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation.
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PoS makes the crypto market more approachable and appeals to investors who may be more eco-conscious of the impacts their digital currency can have.
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Many of those critical of the cryptocurrency industry point to the considerable carbon footprint traditional digital currency has had, especially given its relatively short existence.
PoS reduces these concerns by a significant margin, whereas PoW bolsters them.
It is crucial to note, however, that while the move ethereum made to a PoS verification system is a step in the right direction for the environment, crypto still has a long way to go to be truly sustainable as a whole.
As the digital currency landscape expands, the push for clean energy usage remains. Instead of relying on energy grids that burn coal, gas, and oil, crypto operations can shift to renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower, and solar.
A new option for cryptocurrency, crypto cards, has even emerged as a greener alternative thanks to PoS.
The Press-Citizen emphasized that "as many industries turn towards sustainability, ethereum is poised to lead the way."
The publication added, "Ethereum's shift towards a more energy-conscious model demonstrates how blockchain networks can follow suit in reducing their consumption."
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MOT Achieves New All-Time High and Expands Market Visibility
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / ACCESS Newswire / January 29, 2026 / Dynamite Blockchain Corp. (the “Company” or “Dynamite“) (CSE:KAS)(OTC PINK:CRYBF) pleased to provide an update on several recent milestones related to its holding of the Masters of Trivia utility token (“MOT“), as continued ecosystem development and increased market visibility contribute to growing awareness of the project.
MOT Reaches New All-Time High
The MOT token recently reached a new all-time high trading price of over US$4.40, reflecting increased market participation and liquidity following a period of sustained development activity within the Masters of Trivia ecosystem. The price milestone represents a significant appreciation from prior reporting periods and underscores growing interest in utility-driven digital assets tied to active platforms.
Expanded Market Visibility Through Yahoo! Finance
As part of its continued maturation, MOT is now tracked on Yahoo! Finance, one of the world's most widely used financial data platforms. The inclusion provides broader transparency, standardized market data, and increased accessibility for market participants monitoring digital assets alongside traditional financial instruments.
Management views this milestone as an important step in MOT's transition from an early-stage utility token to an actively tracked digital asset operating within recognized financial data ecosystems.
MOT Listed on CoinMarketCap
MOT has also been listed on CoinMarketCap, one of the most widely referenced digital asset data platforms globally. CoinMarketCap provides standardized pricing, supply metrics, trading volume data, and historical performance information, serving as a primary reference point for market participants, exchanges, and data aggregators.
The listing represents an important operational milestone for the MOT token, as inclusion on CoinMarketCap is often a prerequisite for broader visibility, third-party integrations, and inclusion in analytics tools used across the digital asset ecosystem. Management views this development as a signal of increased transparency and data maturity for the MOT token.
As MOT continues to be tracked across recognized financial and digital asset platforms, the Company believes this expanded visibility supports more informed market participation and aligns with Dynamite's focus on holding utility-driven digital assets that demonstrate measurable progress toward ecosystem credibility and accessibility.
Strategic Importance to Dynamite
Dynamite holds MOT as part of its broader Blockchain Ecosystem Strategy, which focuses on acquiring and supporting utility-driven digital assets with active platforms, real-world engagement, and long-term monetization potential. The Company believes that MOT's combination of platform development, growing user participation, and increasing market visibility aligns with this strategy.
“As the Masters of Trivia platform continues to move from development into active operation, we believe MOT is demonstrating the characteristics we look for in a utility-driven digital asset,” said Akshay Sood, Chief Executive Officer of Dynamite.
“Recent market milestones, combined with tangible progress at the platform level, reflect a project that is beginning to scale beyond its early foundations,” added Mr. Sood
“These milestones further validate our strategy to take significant positions in high utility tokens at early stages, so we can benefit from the growth of their development,” concluded Mr. Sood.
On behalf of the Company,
Akshay SoodChief Executive Officer236-259-0279
About Dynamite Blockchain Corp.
Dynamite Blockchain Corp. (dynamiteblock.com) is a blockchain technology and infrastructure company focused on building shareholder value through its Blockchain Ecosystem Strategy, which is comprised of 3 primary divisions: Holdings, Products and Services. The Holdings Division is the foundation, which focuses on acquiring utility-driven tokens that combine scarcity with real-world adoption and monetization. The Products and Services Divisions are intended to drive utility into the digital assets in the Holdings Division by the development and acquisition of products and services that will be compatible with the digital assets in the Company's Holdings Division. Working in strategic harmony, the vertically integrated Blockchain Ecosystem not only offers shareholders ownership in rare and unique digital assets but also provides them with a unique investment vehicle that has utility generation built into its business model.
About Masters of Trivia
Masters of Trivia is a global knowledge and trivia platform that combines gamified quizzes with a utility token economy. Its mission is to make high-quality learning engaging and accessible by transforming knowledge into a rewarding, interactive experience. The platform intends to support users worldwide across multiple languages, with rewards, tournaments, and educational experiences powered by the MOT utility token.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are often identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, statements regarding: the continued development, adoption, and visibility of the Masters of Trivia platform; the future utility, adoption, demand, and market performance of the MOT token; the expected benefits of increased market visibility through third-party data platforms such as Yahoo! Finance and CoinMarketCap; and the strategic importance and long-term potential of the Company's MOT token holding within its Blockchain Ecosystem Strategy. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance and are based upon assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties and contingencies. Such assumptions include, without limitation, continued user interest and engagement in the Masters of Trivia platform; the ongoing utility and acceptance of the MOT token within the platform and broader ecosystem; the Company's ability to execute its Blockchain Ecosystem Strategy as planned; and stable regulatory, technological, and economic environments relevant to the MOT token and the Company's operations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, delays or failures in development or feature deployment on the Master of Trivia platform; lower-than-expected user adoption or retention; volatility or lack of demand for the MOT token; inaccuracies or disruptions in third-party data platforms; changes in regulatory frameworks or adverse government actions affecting blockchain or cryptocurrency activities; increased competition in the digital gaming or blockchain sectors; unforeseen economic, technological, or market developments; and those risk factors described in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities, and those inherent in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
Disclosure Notice
The Company is not the issuer of the MOT Token, nor does it control the operations of the Masters of Trivia project. The information contained herein regarding MOT, its products, and its announced exchange listing has been provided from publicly available sources of information. The Company holds MOT Tokens for strategic investment purposes and does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided.
The CSE (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.
SOURCE: Dynamite Blockchain Corp
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. XPRMedia and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you are affiliated with this page and would like it removed please contact pressreleases@xpr.media
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Apart from those affected, users who were active during the incident will also receive $15 compensation.
Share
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced today it will fully compensate customers affected by an incident in which 620,000 Bitcoin worth over $40 billion was mistakenly distributed to 695 users during an event reward payment.
The error occurred on February 6 when an input mistake during the reward process led to the massive overpayment. Bithumb said it detected the issue within 20 minutes and blocked all transactions and withdrawals.
Bithumb recovered nearly all of the overpaid Bitcoin, amounting to 618,212 BTC or 99.7% of the total. In addition, 93% of the assets that recipients had already sold have been reclaimed, with no coins sent outside the platform.
“We sincerely apologize for the confusion and inconvenience caused to our customers due to the overpayment incident,” said Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won in a statement. “We feel a deep sense of responsibility for failing to uphold the top priorities of a virtual asset exchange: stability and integrity.”
Bithumb confirmed customer losses from panic selling during the incident totaled approximately 1 billion Korean won (over $680,000) as of February 7. The company will provide 110% compensation to customers who sold at unfavorable prices on Friday.
All customers who accessed the platform during the incident will receive 20,000 KRW ($15), and trading fees will be waived for seven days.
The exchange also announced a permanent Customer Protection Fund worth 100 billion Korean won ($68 million) to address future incidents.
The Financial Supervisory Service and Financial Services Commission are probing Bithumb following the mistake.
The company stated that it is working with regulators after reporting the matter to authorities and will implement system upgrades such as enhanced asset verification, multi-step payment approvals, and an AI-powered Safeguard for 24-hour abnormal transaction detection.
Apart from those affected, users who were active during the incident will also receive $15 compensation.
Share
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced today it will fully compensate customers affected by an incident in which 620,000 Bitcoin worth over $40 billion was mistakenly distributed to 695 users during an event reward payment.
The error occurred on February 6 when an input mistake during the reward process led to the massive overpayment. Bithumb said it detected the issue within 20 minutes and blocked all transactions and withdrawals.
Bithumb recovered nearly all of the overpaid Bitcoin, amounting to 618,212 BTC or 99.7% of the total. In addition, 93% of the assets that recipients had already sold have been reclaimed, with no coins sent outside the platform.
“We sincerely apologize for the confusion and inconvenience caused to our customers due to the overpayment incident,” said Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won in a statement. “We feel a deep sense of responsibility for failing to uphold the top priorities of a virtual asset exchange: stability and integrity.”
Bithumb confirmed customer losses from panic selling during the incident totaled approximately 1 billion Korean won (over $680,000) as of February 7. The company will provide 110% compensation to customers who sold at unfavorable prices on Friday.
All customers who accessed the platform during the incident will receive 20,000 KRW ($15), and trading fees will be waived for seven days.
The exchange also announced a permanent Customer Protection Fund worth 100 billion Korean won ($68 million) to address future incidents.
The Financial Supervisory Service and Financial Services Commission are probing Bithumb following the mistake.
The company stated that it is working with regulators after reporting the matter to authorities and will implement system upgrades such as enhanced asset verification, multi-step payment approvals, and an AI-powered Safeguard for 24-hour abnormal transaction detection.
© Decentral Media and Crypto Briefing® 2026.
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AI's rapid growth is reshaping job markets and raising concerns about economic stability.
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Michael Casey is Chairman of DAIS Global. He previously served as Chief Content Officer at CoinDesk, where he built an award-winning newsroom and chaired the annual Consensus conference. He is the author of The Age of Cryptocurrency, which examines how Bitcoin and digital money challenge the global economic order.
AI's rapid growth is reshaping job markets and raising concerns about economic stability.
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Michael Casey is Chairman of DAIS Global. He previously served as Chief Content Officer at CoinDesk, where he built an award-winning newsroom and chaired the annual Consensus conference. He is the author of The Age of Cryptocurrency, which examines how Bitcoin and digital money challenge the global economic order.
© Decentral Media and Crypto Briefing® 2026.
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February 07, 2026 — 07:16 am EST
Written by
Dominic Basulto for
The Motley Fool->
Both Ethereum and Solana are down more than 34% for the year, and the sell-off appears to be intensifying.
Investors are now questioning the value of Layer-1 blockchain networks, which were once viewed as building blocks of the crypto economy.
Buying the dip can be a successful strategy for investors who believe in the long-term growth appeal of Layer-1 blockchain networks.
For the year, every major cryptocurrency is getting hit hard. But some cryptocurrencies are getting hit harder than others. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), for example, is down 35%, while Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is down 34%.
So is it worth buying the dip on these beaten-down cryptocurrencies? Or has something fundamentally changed in the way investors view these cryptocurrencies?
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Generally speaking, a strategy of buying the dip only works if a cryptocurrency is in the midst of a long-term uptrend. There will be pullbacks of 10% or more along the way, and this is when it can make sense to buy at a lower price. Think of each dip as an opportunity to buy your favorite cryptocurrency at a temporary 10% discount before it goes back to its regular price.
Image source: Getty Images.
This strategy has worked splendidly with cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Solana in the past, so it's no surprise that some crypto investors are now salivating at the chance to buy these cryptocurrencies at a whopping 35% discount.
But here's the thing: Investors are starting to change the way they view Layer-1 blockchain networks such as Ethereum and Solana. Previously, they were viewed as building blocks of the crypto economy.
Everything being built with blockchain technology -- including decentralized apps and decentralized exchanges -- was being built on top of these networks. That's what made them so valuable, especially in the minds of Silicon Valley investors used to talking about network effects.
Increasingly, however, investors are starting to view these cryptocurrencies as nothing more than open-source software. And indeed, if you think about what Ethereum and Solana really are, they can be viewed as decentralized, public, and highly transparent codebases. Anyone can build on top of them, and they are not owned by any central entity.
Given that software stocks are getting absolutely crushed right now, that helps to explain why Ethereum and Solana are getting clobbered worse than other cryptocurrencies. In the minds of many investors, they are nothing more than risky bets on the future of software.
It's become fashionable to question the purpose of each and every cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Quite simply, investors are scared right now, and they're looking to de-risk and de-leverage. You can see this in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index: it now stands at 5 out of 100. That's about as close to full-on panic as you can get.
All of this leads me to think that crypto investors are overreacting. In my view, Ethereum and Solana are still two key building blocks of the crypto economy. For that reason, I'm doing what crypto investors have been doing for years: buying the dip. While these two cryptocurrencies may have yet further to fall in 2026, the fundamental uptrend will soon continue, just as it has for the past decade.
Before you buy stock in Ethereum, consider this:
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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While some consider the altcoins season may never come, others believe the altcoin market has changed, suggesting that a different version of the highly anticipated rally is in its early stages.
‘Inverted Altcoin Season' Just Begun
On Friday, the market recovered 15% from its multi-year lows, with most cryptocurrencies bouncing in the short-term timeframe. Amid the recent crash, investors' sentiment has sunk to its lowest levels since 2022, with many expressing concerns about the future performance of altcoins.
Market observer Ali Martinez discussed how the long-awaited altcoin season might have started, but not in the way most investors expected. In an X post, the analyst highlighted that after Bitcoin bottomed in November 2022, a nearly three-year bull run began, which carried the flagship crypto to its October all-time high (ATH).
“During that entire period, many traders kept waiting for a traditional altcoin season: the familiar phase where Bitcoin rises and capital rotates broadly into altcoins, lifting nearly everything together,” he noted.
However, unlike a traditional alt season, the market didn't see altcoins rally all at once this cycle. Instead, many altcoins have been simultaneously breaking down structurally, with “channels that held for years (…) failing, support levels (…) giving way, and downside expansions (…) accelerating.” To him, “we are witnessing what I would call an inverted altcoin season.”
Martinez noted the performance of cryptocurrencies like Filecoin (FIL), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cardano (ADA), which have either completed or started the breakdown from their macro channel supports. He considers this to be where new opportunities emerge:
For traders willing to shift their bias, this environment has created meaningful opportunities — especially on the short side. (…) What's important is that this pattern isn't finished playing out.
As a result, the analyst affirmed that the new inverted altcoin season is in its early stages, concluding that this cycle, it “didn't arrive as a broad rally. It arrived as a selective unwind.”
No More Broader Altcoins Rally?
During a Thursday panel at the Ondo Summit 2026, Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen discussed what crypto will look like in 2030. The executive predicted that the Real-World Asset (RWA) sector will grow significantly in the next four years, with “everything tokenized.”
However, she also shared the “controversial opinion” that the highly anticipated alt season “may never come” and that altcoins could never rally all at once again, which would be “a little bit tricky” for crypto businesses, she added.
Others have previously discussed market changes and whether the “old cycles” for Bitcoin and altcoins still hold. Last year, analyst Altcoin Sherpa asserted that the crypto market is in a “hyper-accelerated regime.”
He explained that the earlier cycles consisted of euphoric, corrective, and accumulation phases before the start of a recovery phase. Meanwhile, the market now experiences short-term uptrends followed by mid-term downtrends under the new regime.
“We have 1-3 months of pump followed by 2-6 months of downtrend and rinse repeat,” he wrote. “There is no more euphoria where things go berserk for an entire year. Just 1-3 months and then down.”
Based on the new system, he advised traders not to expect 2021-like market conditions for most altcoins or a traditional Alt season. Instead, Altcoin Sherpa suggested that investors should capitalize on shorter rallies while being aware of their limited duration.
Nonetheless, he noted that, unlike previous cycles, altcoins will also recover faster and won't take over a year to bottom and accumulate before a fresh leg up begins.
Select market data provided by ICE Data Services. Select reference data provided by FactSet. Copyright © 2026 FactSet Research Systems Inc.Copyright © 2026, American Bankers Association. CUSIP Database provided by FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. SEC fillings and other documents provided by Quartr.© 2026 TradingView, Inc.
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Home | Updates | New compliance-orchestrated blockchain model introduced by ZenithBlox
Four-layer ZenithBlox COBI blockchain architecture integrates legacy banking systems with blockchain networks while enforcing AML, KYC, and regulatory controls.
ZenithBlox has introduced Compliance-Orchestrated Blockchain Infrastructure (COBI), a governance-driven execution architecture designed to help regulated institutions adopt blockchain without compromising compliance oversight.
The system shifts away from transaction-centric blockchain models.
Enterprise adoption has faced regulatory friction, with estimates suggesting nearly 90% of pilots fail to reach production. COBI embeds institutional policy and regulatory controls directly into execution, ensuring transactions occur only after compliance validation.
The architecture operates through four layers covering process logic, compliance policy, system orchestration, and blockchain execution. Integrations span banking infrastructure, ERP platforms, and settlement networks without requiring system replacement.
Designed for financial and sovereign use cases, COBI supports cross-border payments, CBDCs, and tokenised assets. ZenithBlox is raising USD 8 million to scale deployments and certifications.
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The Digital Watch is an initiative of the Geneva Internet Platform, supported by the Swiss Confederation and the Republic and Canton of Geneva. The GIP is operated by DiploFoundation.
The GIP Digital Watch observatory reflects on a wide variety of themes and actors involved in global digital policy, curated by a dedicated team of experts from around the world. To submit updates about your organisation, or to join our team of curators, or to enquire about partnerships, write to us at digitalwatch@diplomacy.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.
February 6, 2026 – Infinite Possibilities has announced plans to launch iPDex, a multi-chain decentralized exchange aggregator designed around on-chain activity rather than inflationary incentives. The project is also preparing to introduce its IP Membership NFT, which will provide early access to ecosystem features ahead of the platform's broader rollout.
iPDex is designed to route swaps across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Base. According to the team, the platform's architecture focuses on aligning token issuance and reward distribution with verified trading activity, rather than relying on passive staking or liquidity provision models commonly used in decentralized finance.
As part of the launch, Infinite Possibilities plans to introduce IP, a utility token intended to support platform functionality and participation mechanisms across the ecosystem. Token distribution is designed to be linked to on-chain activity recorded through iPDex, with supply growth tied to platform usage rather than predefined emissions schedules.
Ahead of the public launch of iPDex, Infinite Possibilities will open access to its IP Membership NFT program. The membership is designed to provide participants with early access to platform features, participation tracking, and ecosystem engagement mechanisms during the initial phase of development.
Membership participation involves a contribution denominated in USD equivalent, with participation levels tracked through an internal, non-transferable metric used to measure verified activity within the ecosystem. Following the membership phase, eligible participants may receive IP tokens based on recorded participation, subject to the program's published terms and conditions.
The company notes that the membership program is intended to support early ecosystem development and community engagement, rather than serve as a speculative investment product.
Infinite Possibilities states that iPDex is being developed with an emphasis on protocol-managed liquidity, automated execution mechanisms, and cross-chain trading infrastructure. The project aims to reduce reliance on user-supplied liquidity while enabling participation through on-chain activity and platform usage.
Additional ecosystem tools, including market data and analytics products, are planned as part of the broader Infinite Possibilities roadmap.
The iPDex platform and IP Membership NFT program are expected to launch soon. Further details regarding participation mechanics, eligibility requirements, and platform features will be released through Infinite Possibilities' official channels.More information is available at:IP Website | Twitter (X) | Telegram | NFT Membership Sale | BitMarketCap Website | Hacken Report
Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice. LiveBitcoinNews is not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from the content, products, or services referenced in this press release
The EU has placed a series of sanctions on companies in Russia and the country's digital assets in a bid to cripple its military operations in Ukraine.
The EU's 20th package disrupts Russia's military, industrial and financial services and goes further to interfere with its trade in order to increase the difficulty of continuing the war in Ukraine.
The European Union has revealed several new economic measures aimed at further isolating the Russian economy and stopping its military operations in Ukraine. This 20th sanctions package focuses heavily on modern financial technologies and the maritime infrastructure that Russia uses to bypass existing trade barriers.
Kaja Kallas, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced the proposal. She also said that the goal is to make the continuation of the war “painfully expensive” for the Kremlin.
The package contains a digital financial blockade that bans the use of Russia's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) within the bloc and prohibits European entities from interacting with Russian crypto-asset service providers.
Russia's traditional banking routes have become increasingly restricted, causing the country to pivot towards alternatives like its “digital ruble” and various cryptocurrency platforms to facilitate international trade, essentially exploiting a back door that the EU intends to block.
Earlier packages limited the amount of crypto assets Russians could hold in EU wallets, but this 20th package seeks a total “transaction ban” for certain banks and a complete “cutoff” from the SWIFT messaging system for more institutions.
The package also targets the physical movement of money and goes after several more banks that supply the Kremlin with liquidity, threatening total transaction bans. Kallas stated that these banks, located both in Russia and in third-party countries, will be removed from the SWIFT network.
The “shadow fleet” refers to the aging tankers Russia uses to transport oil above the G7 price cap. The EU's 20th package proposes adding more than 40 specific vessels to its sanctions list.
These ships will be denied access to EU ports and maritime services. The EU is also proposing a ban on maintenance services for Russian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers and icebreakers.
For the first time, the EU is also activating its “Anti-Circumvention Tool” on countries in Central Asia and the Middle East to stop helping Moscow evade trade bans. This tool allows the EU to restrict the export of sensitive goods to third-party nations if there is evidence that those countries are acting as a transit point for goods heading to Russia.
The EU is proposing “full-fledged sanctions” on 40 companies that help run Russia's military production lines. These companies are located not only in Russia but also in third countries that have continued to supply the Kremlin with electronics and mechanical parts.
The new export restrictions cover basic but essential materials, including laboratory glassware, chemicals, rubber, and tools used for metal production.
Additionally, the EU is tightening the rules on the oil price cap. The goal is to move toward a “future full ban” on maritime services for any Russian oil sold above a certain price. This would mean that any company providing insurance, flagging, or technical assistance to a Russian tanker could face severe legal penalties.
Finally, the 20th package states that new listings will include individuals responsible for war crimes, the “appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage,” and the illegal deportation of children.
Those involved in spreading state-sponsored propaganda will also face asset freezes and travel bans.
Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com 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.
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An ether ETH$2,026.32 bull was caught leaning hard into the upside this week as the cryptocurrency tanked, turning the whale bet into a multi-million dollar horror story.
That bull is Trend Research, a trading firm headed by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi. The firm spent recent months building a bullish (long) bet worth $2 billion on ether by borrowing stablecoins from DeFi giant Aave, which were reportedly collateralized by ether.
The position blew up this week, leaving the firm with a $686 million loss, according to Arkham.
The blow up underscores the crypto market's unchanged reality: Volatility can still make or break traders in a single week. It also shows how traders keep chasing risky leveraged loop plays – borrowing stablecoins against ETH collateral – despite these bets exploding spectacularly every downtrend.
The team was convinced of ether's long-term potential and expected a quick rebound from its October drop below $4,000.
But that never materialized – ether kept sliding, endangering their "looped ether" long position. As prices fell, the stablecoin collateral backing the leveraged bet shrank, while the fixed debt loomed large in classic leveraged fashion.
The final blow came this month as ether started falling rapidly with bitcoin BTC$68,627.87 and on Feb. 4 prices tanked to $1,750, the weakest level since April 2025. Trend Research responded by liquidating over 300,000 ether, according to data source Bubble Maps.
"Trend Research started sending large amounts of ETH to Binance to repay debt on AAVE In total, this cluster moved 332k ETH worth $700M to Binance over 5 days," Bubble Maps said on X. The firm now holds just 1.463 ETH.
Jack Yi described these sales as a risk-control measure.
"As multi-heads in this round, we remain optimistic about the performance of the new bull market: ETH reaching over $10,000, BTC exceeding $200,000 USD. We're just making some adjustments to control risk, with no change in our expectations for the future mega bull market," Yi said in a post on X.
He added that now is the best time to buy tokens, calling volatility as the biggest feature of the crypto circle. "Historically, countless bulls have been shaken off by this volatility, but often what follows is a doubled rebound," he noted.
Domestic entities, as well as offshore entities under their control, cannot issue virtual currencies overseas without approval
Chinese authorities issued a notice on Friday that tightened regulations on virtual currency trading, expanding Beijing's crackdown on cryptocurrencies to the tokenisation of real world assets (RWA).
Onshore RWA tokenisation activities and related intermediary or technology services for securities issuance, financial operations or fundraising were banned, according to the notice, which added that exceptions may apply in specific cases if approved by authorities.
“Overseas entities and individuals may not, in any form, illegally provide RWA-tokenisation-related services to domestic entities,” said the notice, which was issued by eight government agencies led by the People's Bank of China.
For offshore activities, Chinese entities conducting RWA tokenisation or quasi-asset securitisation overseas based on onshore rights and interests would be subject to strict supervision under the principle of “same business, same risk, same rules”, and cannot proceed without the required approvals from relevant authorities.
The new rules also require offshore subsidiaries of Chinese financial institutions, as well as intermediary and technology service providers involved in such cross-border activities, to strengthen compliance and risk controls, implement client suitability and anti-money laundering measures, and report or seek approval from regulators.
In addition, domestic entities, as well as offshore entities under their control, cannot issue virtual currencies overseas, without approvals from relevant authorities.
The notice also said that no entities, either Chinese or foreign, can issue yuan-pegged offshore stablecoins without approval.
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By Michael Sacchitello
Key Takeaways
Zama is a protocol that integrates torus fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to enable privacy-preserving computations on existing blockchain networks.
The ZAMA token serves as the native token of the ecosystem, facilitating transactions, governance, and developer incentives.
Zama is used for confidential applications like confidential DeFi, private stablecoins, privacy-preserving AI, RWA tokenization, and secure enterprise data processing.
Unlike ZK privacy projects, Zama processes encrypted data directly using FHE, offering broader use cases and scalability for complex computations.
The Zama ecosystem is open-source, fostering innovation and collaboration while prioritizing data privacy and network security.
Are you curious about what Zama is and how it's shaping the future of blockchain technology? If you've ever wondered why public blockchains struggle with confidentiality, you're not alone. Builders, businesses, and regulators all face the same tension between transparency and privacy, and that tension is driving growing attention toward encrypted computation and the ZAMA token that supports this emerging ecosystem.
In this article, you will learn about Zama's unique approach to solving privacy challenges, its torus fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology, and how it powers applications like private stablecoins, confidential DeFi, and privacy-preserving AI. We'll also explore the ZAMA token's utility, its ecosystem, and how it compares to other privacy technologies. Ready to get into the details? Read on.
Zama is a privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure company building the Zama Network to make confidential computing possible on public blockchains. If you understand the blockchain basics, you already know that transparency is both a strength and a limitation. Zama works on the missing layer by letting encrypted smart contracts process encrypted data without exposing it on-chain.
Zama reached a major milestone by becoming the first company focused on fully homomorphic encryption to achieve unicorn status, following a funding round that brought in $57 million. It crossed a valuation above $1 billion in June 2025, becoming the first unicorn built entirely around fully homomorphic encryption. That milestone followed a strong Series B funding round backed by Pantera Capital, signaling serious confidence from institutional crypto investors.
Rather than creating a closed system, the Zama Network aims to plug into existing blockchains and developer workflows. This approach helps teams build confidential applications that keep balances, encrypted inputs, and logic private while staying decentralized and verifiable. Zama positions itself at the intersection of privacy, compliance, and real-world blockchain adoption.
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Public blockchains expose customer data by design. Every balance, transaction detail, and smart contract input sits in plain view, which creates serious limits for real financial, enterprise, and institutional use. Users lose privacy, businesses cannot protect sensitive logic, and regulators struggle to support compliant systems built on fully transparent ledgers. This gap slows adoption and forces developers to choose between decentralization and confidentiality.
Zama's technology addresses this problem by allowing smart contracts to compute directly on encrypted data. Instead of hiding activity off-chain or relying on trust assumptions, applications keep information confidential while still running on public networks. This approach protects user balances, transaction amounts, and business rules without breaking composability or auditability.
Without native confidentiality, many use cases simply do not work on-chain, including private payments, compliant identity systems, and enterprise data processing. Zama's technology removes this barrier and makes it possible to build applications that respect privacy while staying decentralized, verifiable, and usable at scale.
Zama operates using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), a groundbreaking method that allows encrypted values to be processed without decryption. This ensures that sensitive information remains secure throughout its entire lifecycle, even during computation.
The foundation of Zama's technology lies in its core architecture, which includes programmable bootstrapping. This feature enables efficient and scalable encrypted computations, making it practical for real-world applications.
Encrypted data types in encrypted smart contracts further enhance privacy by allowing developers to build secure applications without exposing customer data. Threshold decryption is another key component, ensuring that only authorized parties can access decrypted results. This combination of advanced encryption techniques and blockchain integration makes Zama a powerful tool for industries requiring high levels of data confidentiality, such as finance, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.
Fully homomorphic encryption allows computations to run directly on encrypted values without exposing the original values at any point. For blockchain applications, this removes the need to reveal balances, inputs, or business logic just to execute a smart contract. The Zama Protocol uses FHE so applications can process sensitive information on public networks while keeping that data private by default. This foundation also opens the door for economic incentives, since secure computation creates new roles for validators and participants, which is where tokenomics may apply to Zama becomes relevant.
FHE alone is not enough to support real applications at scale. The confidentiality protocol must translate advanced cryptography into a system that developers can actually use, which leads directly into how Zama structures its core architecture.
The Zama Protocol combines FHE with blockchain execution to support smart contracts that operate entirely on encrypted data. Developers interact with familiar programming models, while the network handles encrypted computation, verification, and controlled decryption. This structure allows privacy to coexist with decentralization and composability, and it also creates clear points where incentives and protocol fees can align with network usage and security.
Programmable bootstrapping refreshes encrypted circuits values during computation so contracts can run complex logic without losing accuracy. Zama applies this technique to support conditional logic and repeated confidential operations inside smart contracts. As usage grows, this process becomes a measurable resource, which helps explain how tokenomics may apply to Zama through computation costs and network rewards.
Zama provides encrypted data types that behave like standard variables while keeping their contents hidden. Smart contracts can store, compare, and update these values without ever revealing them on-chain. This feature makes privacy native to application design and creates demand for secure execution, which can be priced and incentivized through the protocol's economic model.
Threshold decryption splits decryption authority across multiple participants so no single entity controls access to sensitive results. Only when a required group cooperates can the final output be revealed. This design strengthens security and supports decentralized trust, while also defining roles that may earn rewards, further showing how tokenomics may apply to Zama as the network matures.
As privacy moves from a nice-to-have to a real requirement, Zama focuses on building practical tools that developers and businesses can actually use. The confidential protocol does not treat confidentiality as an add-on. It builds it directly into how specialized smart contract engines execute and interact. Here are the key features that define the Zama Protocol and explain why it stands out.
Zama allows smart contracts to compute directly on encrypted data. Encrypted inputs, states, and outputs remain confidential throughout execution. This design removes the need to reveal sensitive information just to use a decentralized application, while still preserving correctness and verifiability on-chain.
The Zama Protocol follows an open source cryptography company model, giving developers and researchers full visibility into its cryptographic components. This approach encourages audits, community contributions, and long-term trust. By keeping the core technology open-source, Zama supports transparency at the protocol level while protecting user data at the application level.
Zama provides encrypted data types and tooling that fit into familiar smart contract workflows. Developers do not need to redesign applications from scratch to support privacy. They can build using established patterns while the protocol handles encrypted computation behind the scenes.
The Zama protocol operates on a threshold-based mechanism to control how and when encrypted results become readable. No single participant can decrypt sensitive data alone. This structure reduces trust assumptions and aligns with decentralized security principles.
Zama designs its technology to work alongside existing blockchain networks rather than replacing them. Applications can remain interoperable while gaining compliant confidentiality, making it easier to integrate encrypted data into broader decentralized ecosystems.
Zama's fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology offers groundbreaking solutions for data privacy and security. However, like any technology, it comes with its own set of advantages and limitations.
As more on-chain activity involves real users, assets, and organizations, privacy becomes essential rather than optional. Zama's technology enables applications that need a compliant confidentiality layer without giving up decentralization or auditability. The following are some of the most important use cases emerging across the Zama Network and the broader Zama ecosystem.
DeFi applications expose user balances, positions, and trading strategies by default. Zama's technology allows protocols to hide balances and transaction details while still enforcing rules and settlement logic on-chain. Traders can protect sensitive information without relying on off-chain systems or trusted intermediaries.
Stablecoins and payment systems often require privacy for everyday use and regulatory alignment. The Zama Network supports encrypted transfers and balances, enabling private payments that still allow compliance checks and controlled disclosures when required.
AI models depend on large volumes of sensitive data. Zama's technology allows encrypted data to be processed directly, making it possible to run AI computations without exposing raw inputs. This approach helps protect user underlying data while supporting decentralized AI crypto workflows, making it central to many of the best AI crypto projects for decentralized applications.
Tokenizing real-world assets often involves confidential financial and ownership data. The Zama ecosystem supports encrypted logic for asset management, valuation, and transfers, making on-chain representation of real-world assets more practical and secure.
Identity systems must balance privacy with verification. Zama's technology enables encrypted identity attributes that can be checked without revealing underlying personal information. This design supports regulatory compliance while respecting user privacy.
Enterprises and healthcare providers manage highly sensitive data that cannot be made public. The Zama Network allows encrypted internet data processing for analytics, billing, and record management, making blockchain viable for industries that require a strict confidentiality layer.
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The ZAMA token plays a central role in supporting the privacy technologies in crypto that define Zama's ecosystem. It serves as a key component in driving adoption, incentivizing participation, and ensuring the network's sustainability. The following are the main aspects of the ZAMA token:
The ZAMA token powers the ecosystem by facilitating transactions, enabling governance, and incentivizing developers to build privacy-preserving applications. It ensures that participants can seamlessly interact within the Zama Network while maintaining data confidentiality.
Zama's tokenomics include a well-structured emissions plan designed to reward early adopters and contributors. Incentives are distributed to developers, validators, and other participants who actively support the growth and security of the network.
The token distribution model ensures a balanced allocation between stakeholders, including the community, developers, and investors. This approach promotes decentralization and long-term sustainability while fostering trust within the ecosystem.
Zama's technology stands out in the realm of privacy-preserving decentralized applications, offering unique advantages over other privacy solutions. The following comparisons highlight how Zama differs from other leading technologies in terms of functionality, scalability, and security.
The Zama ecosystem is poised for significant growth, with a clear roadmap that focuses on advancing privacy-preserving technologies and expanding its applications. Upcoming developments include enhancements to the fully homomorphic encryption practical framework, making it even more efficient and scalable for real-world use cases. Plans to integrate with additional blockchain networks aim to broaden the reach of Zama's technology, fostering adoption across diverse industries.
Efforts to strengthen developer tools and resources will empower the community to build innovative privacy-preserving decentralized applications. Strategic partnerships with key players in sectors like DeFi, AI, and healthcare are expected to drive further innovation and collaboration. The roadmap reflects Zama's commitment to creating a robust and sustainable ecosystem that prioritizes data privacy and security while enabling transformative solutions.
Zama's technology offers a groundbreaking approach to data privacy and security, making it a valuable solution for industries that handle sensitive information. Its fully homomorphic encryption practical, open-source framework, and versatile applications position it as a leader in privacy-preserving decentralized applications. The Zama ecosystem provides the tools and infrastructure needed to drive innovation while ensuring compliance and confidentiality. This combination of advanced technology and practical usability makes Zama an ideal choice for organizations seeking to adopt secure and scalable blockchain solutions.
Zama confidential blockchain protocol, not a standalone blockchain. It provides a fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) framework that can integrate with existing blockchain networks to enable privacy-preserving computations.
Yes, Zama has a native token called the ZAMA token. It powers the Zama ecosystem by facilitating transactions, incentivizing developers, and supporting governance within the network.
Zama is used for enabling privacy-preserving decentralized applications across various industries. Its applications include confidential DeFi, private stablecoins, privacy-preserving AI, RWA tokenization, identity systems, and secure enterprise data processing.
Zama is different from ZK privacy projects because it uses fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to process encrypted data directly, while ZK projects focus on verifying data without revealing it. This makes Zama more versatile for complex computations and broader use cases.
Michael Sacchitello
Michael Sacchitello is a finance and crypto writer with over two decades of experience in investing, market research, and trading education. He focuses on topics at the intersection of traditional finance and emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency trading platforms, blockchain innovation, and digital asset investing. Before turning to crypto and financial journalism, Michael held roles in portfolio management, derivatives sales, and data-driven market research, giving him a deep understanding of how global markets and digital finance intersect. Drawing on his extensive experience in financial analysis and market strategy, he delivers well-researched, insightful content that helps readers navigate today's rapidly evolving financial landscape.
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NFTPlazas provides trusted news and insights on Web3. The views expressed on this site do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in cryptocurrency or digital assets, please conduct your own thorough research. All transfers and transactions are carried out at your own risk, and any resulting losses are solely your responsibility. NFTPlazas does not endorse the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies or digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please also note that NFTPlazas may participate in affiliate marketing programs.
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Hedera has joined the Digital Monetary Institute, a global forum focused on digital money and financial infrastructure.
The move places Hedera among institutions shaping policy for digital currencies. The announcement comes as governments and banks expand work on regulated digital assets and payment systems.
The Digital Monetary Institute operates under OMFIF and convenes central banks and financial institutions. Its members discuss policy design and operational models for digital money. These discussions include central bank digital currencies and regulated payment systems.
🚨 Breaking: Hedera $HBAR has joined the Digital Monetary Institute (DMI), a global forum shaping policy and implementation around CBDCs and digital money.
DMI, run by OMFIF, brings together central banks, major banks, payment providers, and a small number of blockchain… pic.twitter.com/frCeJkwVhM
— FinancialPress.com (@FinancialPress_) February 6, 2026
Hedera is now listed as a participant within the institute's network. The group includes a limited number of blockchain infrastructure providers. Most members represent banks, regulators, and payment organizations.
OMFIF has stated that DMI focuses on real-world digital currency use. The forum emphasizes implementation frameworks and public sector coordination. Membership reflects ongoing engagement rather than commercial promotion.
DMI initiatives align with regulatory models emerging across several regions. These include the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Australia and the United States are also increasing participation.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: $HBAR joins the DMI, A Global Forum Building the Rails and Shaping Policy On Crypto Adoption
Its work aligns closely with regulatory approaches emerging in the UK, EU, Singapore, UAE, Australia, and increasingly the U.S.
DMI-aligned initiatives connect to… https://t.co/5k4OiYgLP7
— Mark (@markchadwickx) February 6, 2026
Regulators within these regions focus on compliance and risk controls. Areas of interest include settlement systems, identity standards, and cross-border payments. These topics form a core part of DMI working groups.
Hedera's participation places it within these discussions. The network allows interaction with policymakers and financial authorities. These conversations center on infrastructure readiness and operational design.
According to a post by Mark on X, DMI-linked projects involve several global banks and infrastructure bodies, including Standard Chartered, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and BNY Mellon, as well as DTCC and SWIFT.
These institutions work on payment rails that meet regulatory standards. Their systems prioritize reliability and interoperability. Familiar frameworks support adoption within existing financial markets.
By engaging in this forum, Hedera gains exposure to established workflows. The institute connects participants with current financial processes. This structure supports collaboration on regulated digital money systems.
Only a small number of public blockchain networks participate in DMI activities. Most blockchain involvement occurs through enterprise or CBDC programs. Examples include Ripple, R3, and ConsenSys.
These organizations focus on institutional and government-led projects. Their work often centers on settlement layers and tokenized assets. Participation reflects practical engagement rather than retail-focused development.
Hedera's inclusion places it among this limited group. The focus remains on policy coordination and infrastructure design. The role does not relate to short-term market activity.
DMI participation reflects long-term positioning within regulated finance. The forum supports collaboration between technology providers and institutions. Hedera's role connects it to discussions shaping future digital currency systems.
Bitcoin reaching a point where its price keeps rising even as the US Federal Reserve hikes interest rates would be "the endgame," according to crypto executive Jeff Park.
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Bitcoin's next major catalyst may come from the common assumption being flipped on its head that interest rates are bullish for Bitcoin only when they fall, according to a crypto analyst.
“I think we should expect that having more accommodative policies may in fact actually not be the catalyst to help us go into a bull market,” ProCap Financial chief investment officer Jeff Park said during an interview with Anthony Pompliano on Thursday.
“We have to accept that reality and possibility,” Park said. Accomodative policies, such as lowering interest rates, are employed by the US Federal Reserve to stimulate economic growth, reduce unemployment, and increase liquidity. Bitcoiners often see these conditions as more favorable for riskier assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), as traditional investments like bonds and term deposits become less attractive.
Rising interest rates are usually seen as a negative for Bitcoin, but Park said that may not be the case forever. He said Bitcoin's next biggest upside catalyst — and potentially its “endgame” — may be its entry into what he called a “positive row Bitcoin,” where the asset's price continues to rise even as US Federal Reserve interest rates rise.
“This is the mythical, elusive perfect holy grail of what Bitcoin is meant to be, which is when Bitcoin goes up as interest rates go up, which is very counterintuitive to the QE theory,” he said.
However, Park said this idea would undermine the “risk-free rate itself.”
“In that world, what we're saying is actually because the risk-free rate is not the risk-free rate, because the dollar hegemony is not the dollar hegemony, and we are no longer able to price the yield curve in the ways we've known,” Park said.
Related: Bitcoin price rebounds 11% above $65K: Who is buying the dip?
Park explained that the monetary system is “broken” and the relationship between the Fed and the US Treasury is “not at the level it should be” to drive the direction of national securities.
Traders on the crypto prediction platform Polymarket are giving the highest probability, 27%, to three total Fed interest rate cuts in 2026.
Bitcoin is trading at $70,503 at the time of publication, down 22.53% over the past 30 days, according to CoinMarketCap.
Magazine: Bitcoin's ‘biggest bull catalyst' would be Saylor's liquidation: Santiment founder
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The Rab11 endosomal recycling pathway is exploited by important respiratory RNA viruses such as IAV and RSV, aiding viral egress from the apical surface of polarized epithelial cells. Late in infection, Rab11-containing vesicles specifically transport viral ribonucleoprotein (vRNP) complexes towards the cell surface before packaging and budding. Rather than employing traditional Rab11-positive recycling endosomes, virus-infected cells generate remodelled Rab11-containing vesicles, as observed during IAV infection. Besides Rab11, no other conserved host co-factors have been identified among these various vRNP trafficking vesicles. Here we discover and confirm myoferlin's association with IAV vRNPs in the cytoplasm and colocalisation with Rab11 during late stages of infection. We also find that this role is conserved in late-stage vRNP trafficking of other viruses, including RSV and SeV. Myoferlin likely recruits the EHD family of proteins, which are involved in endosomal biogenesis, to these unique vRNP trafficking endosomes, highlighting myoferlin's pivotal role in viral replication.
LC-MS/MS raw data are available on the PRIDE repository under the accession number PXD052709, while processed data are available in the Supplementary Information. The microscopy data generated in this study have been deposited in the Zenodo database under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18231359, while raw data used to generate graphs within this manuscript are available in the Source Data File. Source data are provided with this paper.
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This research was funded in part by an ERC-STG grant, PTFLU 949506 awarded to D.G.C. This research received infrastructure support from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast. We would like to thank Adam McShane and Dr Dessi Malinova for providing the Atto 647N-conjugated transferrin used in the transferrin uptake experiments.
Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
Stefano Bonazza, Hannah L. Turkington, Swathi Sukumar, Emily Peate, Hannah L. Coutts, Joshua J. Montgomery, Courtney Hawthorn, Erin M. P. E. Getty, Olivier Touzelet, Judit Barabas, Ultan F. Power & David G. Courtney
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Conceptualisation: S.B. and D.G.C.; Methodology: S.B., H.L.T., S.S., E.P., H.L.C., J.J.M., C.H., E.M.P.E.G., O.T., and J.B.; Formal analysis: S.B., H.L.T., S.S., E.P., H.L.C., J.J.M., C.H., E.M.P.E.G., O.T., and J.B.; Investigation: S.B., H.L.T., S.S., E.P., H.L.C., C.H., E.M.P.E.G., and O.T.; Writing—original draft: S.B. and D.G.C.; Writing—review & editing: S.B., H.L.T., S.S., E.P., H.L.C., J.J.M., C.H., E.M.P.E.G., O.T., J.B., U.F.P., and D.G.C.; Supervision: U.F.P. and D.G.C.; Funding acquisition: D.G.C.
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David G. Courtney.
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Bonazza, S., Turkington, H.L., Sukumar, S. et al. Myoferlin is a component of late-stage vRNP trafficking vesicles for enveloped RNA viruses.
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Astronomers say the Milky Way may not contain a supermassive black hole at its center after all. Instead, the galaxy's core could be dominated by an enormous concentration of dark matter that produces the same powerful gravitational effects.
This unseen material, which makes up most of the universe's total mass, may be able to explain two very different observations at once. Near the galaxy's center, stars move in fast, chaotic paths just light hours (often used to measure distances within our own solar system) from the core. Farther out, stars and gas rotate more smoothly across the vast outer regions of the Milky Way.
The findings were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Challenging the Black Hole Explanation
For decades, scientists have believed that Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a supermassive black hole responsible for the extreme orbits of a group of stars known as the S stars. These stars race around the galactic center at speeds reaching several thousand kilometres per second.
The new study questions that interpretation. The research team proposes that a specific form of dark matter made of fermions, which are lightweight subatomic particles, could instead form an unusual cosmic structure that fits what astronomers observe at the Milky Way's core.
A Dark Matter Core and Halo
According to the model, this fermionic dark matter would naturally form a very dense and compact central core, surrounded by a much larger and more diffuse halo. Together, the core and halo would behave as a single, continuous system.
The inner core would be massive and concentrated enough to closely imitate the gravity of a black hole. This could explain not only the paths of the S stars, but also the motion of nearby dust covered objects called G sources that orbit close to the galactic center.
Evidence From the Galaxy's Outer Regions
A key piece of evidence comes from new observations by the European Space Agency's GAIA DR3 mission. This survey precisely mapped how stars and gas move in the outer halo of the Milky Way, revealing the galaxy's rotation curve in unprecedented detail.
The data show a slowing in orbital speeds at great distances from the center, a pattern known as the Keplerian decline. Researchers say this behavior matches predictions from the dark matter halo in their model when combined with the known mass of the Milky Way's disk and central bulge.
They argue this strengthens the fermionic dark matter explanation. Standard Cold Dark Matter models predict halos that extend outward with a long power law tail. In contrast, the fermionic model produces a more compact halo with tighter outer edges.
An International Collaboration
The research was carried out by scientists from institutions in several countries, including the Institute of Astrophysics La Plata in Argentina, the International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics Network and the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, the Relativity and Gravitation Research Group in Colombia, and the Institute of Physics University of Cologne in Germany.
"This is the first time a dark matter model has successfully bridged these vastly different scales and various object orbits, including modern rotation curve and central stars data," said study co author Dr. Carlos Argüelles of the Institute of Astrophysics La Plata.
"We are not just replacing the black hole with a dark object; we are proposing that the supermassive central object and the galaxy's dark matter halo are two manifestations of the same, continuous substance."
Matching the Black Hole Shadow
The model had already cleared an important hurdle. In an earlier study by Pelle et al. (2024), also published in MNRAS, researchers showed that when an accretion disk shines light onto these dense dark matter cores, the result is a shadow like feature. Remarkably, this shadow closely resembles the image captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for Sgr A*.
"This is a pivotal point," said lead author Valentina Crespi of the Institute of Astrophysics La Plata.
"Our model not only explains the orbits of stars and the galaxy's rotation but is also consistent with the famous 'black hole shadow' image. The dense dark matter core can mimic the shadow because it bends light so strongly, creating a central darkness surrounded by a bright ring."
What Future Observations May Reveal
The team compared their fermionic dark matter model directly with the traditional black hole explanation using statistical methods. While existing data on stars near the center cannot yet clearly favor one scenario over the other, the dark matter model offers a single framework that explains both the galactic center (central stars and shadow) and the broader structure of the galaxy.
Future observations could help settle the debate. More precise measurements from tools like the GRAVITY interferometer on the Very Large Telescope in Chile, along with searches for photon rings, could provide decisive evidence. Photon rings are expected around true black holes but would not appear in the dark matter core model.
If confirmed, these results could significantly change how scientists understand the massive object shaping the heart of the Milky Way.
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February 7, 2026
4 min read
What ‘6-7,' demons and The Big Bang Theory tell us about prime numbers
Prime numbers have fascinated humankind for generations—here are three of the most intriguing primes
By Manon Bischoff edited by Daisy Yuhas
Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Prime numbers are like the atoms of mathematics: they are the indivisible building blocks from which all other numbers are composed. For millennia, these numbers, divisible only by 1 and themselves, have fascinated humankind.
They guard many secrets, including how they are distributed on the number line, and efforts to identify more and more primes have occupied generations of scholars.
Euclid proved some 2,300 years ago that there are infinitely many prime numbers. And yet, some primes seem more interesting than others. I've compiled my personal short list of three extraordinary prime numbers and their stories.
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.
In episode 73 of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, physicist Sheldon Cooper asks his friends for the best number. Cooper then shares his pick of 73. His reasons: 73 is the 21st prime number; its reverse, 37, is the 12th prime number; and the product of 7 and 3 is 21.
A few years after the episode aired in 2010, mathematician Christopher Spicer of what is now Morningside University (then Morningside College) wondered if there were more “Sheldon primes” that shared these properties. In 2015 he worked with two of his then students, Jessie Byrnes and Alyssa Turnquist, to search the first 10 million prime numbers; they found no other Sheldon prime among them. The trio shared their findings in an article in Math Horizons called “The Sheldon Conjecture.”
Three years later, in 2019, Spicer and Carl Pomerance, a number theorist at Dartmouth College, showed conclusive proof that the Sheldon prime was unique. First, the researchers showed that there can be no Sheldon prime larger than 10⁴⁵. While 10⁴⁵ is unimaginably large, it is nonetheless a finite value, which means, in principle, a computer can systematically search all prime numbers between 2 and 10⁴⁵ for other Sheldon primes. Of course, today's computers aren't quite powerful enough to tackle that task directly. The mathematicians continually narrowed down the possible Sheldon candidates, approximating extremely large prime numbers using integrals and thus gradually eliminating all the Sheldon contenders. Eventually, only the number 73 remained.
When David Saltzberg, a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and scientific adviser for The Big Bang Theory, learned of the evidence, he and the sitcom's writers paid tribute to this effort by including parts of the proof on a whiteboard in the background of an episode broadcast in April 2019.
Anyone who was online in 2025 inevitably stumbled across the “6-7” phenomenon. Social media and comment sections flooded with 6-7's and nobody really knew why. The meme, pronounced “six-seven,” has no deeper meaning; it is not a code for sharing some message or expressing joy or annoyance. Instead 6-7 is simply 6-7.
The precise origin of the meme is also unclear. Sometimes it's attributed to a boy celebrating a basketball score; sometimes it's the rap song “Doot Doot (6 7),” by Skrilla. Occasionally people point to the height of basketball player LaMelo Ball: six feet, seven inches.
The number 67 is certainly interesting from a mathematical perspective. It is not only prime but super-prime: it is the 19th prime number, and 19 itself is also prime. Furthermore, 67 is part of two consecutive pairs of “sexy primes,” or pairs of primes that are six integers apart. Together with 61 and the Sheldon prime, 73, 67 creates a sexy prime triplet.
And 67 is part of what mathematicians call the “lazy caterer's sequence,” which indicates the maximum number of pieces a pancake, pizza or other disk can be divided into with n cuts. One cut produces a maximum of two pieces; two cuts produce four. But if the third cut is cleverly made, the disk can be cut into seven pieces instead of just six. With 11 cuts, a pancake can be divided into up to 67 pieces. The corresponding sequence is 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, 29, 37, 46, 56, 67, 79,.…
Forget 13 or 666. There is one number that truly represents the epitome of evil: the Belphegor prime, 1,000,000,000,000,066,600,000,000,000,001. The late mathematician and avid prime number hunter Harvey Dubner discovered this prime (and many others).
During his research, he came across the prime number 16,661: a palindrome with the “devil's number” 666 in the middle. You can easily add 0's between the 1 and the three 6's to this number for more beastly palindromes, such as 1,066,601, 100,666,001, 10,006,660,001, and so on. Yet none of these palindromes are prime. All have divisors other than 1 and themselves.
Only when there are 13 0's between each 1 and the 666 do you arrive at a prime number again. In shorter notation, this Belphegor prime number, which was named after a demon, can be written as 1030 + 666 × 1014 + 1.
As it turns out, there are more palindromic primes of this form other than 16,661 and the Belphegor prime with 13 0's. But none are as devilishly difficult as 1030 + 666 × 1014 + 1, unless the version with 666,666 0's is also a prime number. That remains to be determined.
This article originally appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft and was reproduced with permission.
Manon Bischoff is a theoretical physicist and an editor at Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German-language sister publication of Scientific American.
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What happens here matters everywhere
Geek Life: Fun stories, memes, humor and other random items at the intersection of tech, science, business and culture. SEE MORE
by Kurt Schlosser on Feb 7, 2026 at 10:03 amFebruary 7, 2026 at 10:03 am
Remember when Clydesdales were a big deal, or just saying “wassup” to your friends on the phone was funny? Well, it's AI's world now.
Artificial intelligence is taking over the Super Bowl LX commercials much like the technology is taking over our lives. And that's a good thing if your dog has gone missing. Or a bad thing if you're paranoid about Alexa bringing the garage door down on your neck.
Amazon and Ring, the security camera company it owns, offer a couple different AI perspectives in ads airing Sunday. Ring's ad about how its “Search Party” feature can help recover lost pets is currently the No. 1 pre-game ad according to iSpot, a Bellevue, Wash., company that measures the impact of advertising campaigns on TV and video streaming.
But it's not all AI and technology: Budweiser, Pepsi and Michelob hold the other top spots so far, according to iSpot. Commercial fans can also see a bunch of ads and rate them with USA Today's annual “Ad Meter.”
Here's a quick roundup of some tech ads that caught our eye:
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Microsoft cuts off new third-party print driver releases via Windows Update.
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Microsoft is preparing a major change to how printers are supported in Windows 11, pulling the plug on drivers that primarily support older hardware. Beginning with a non-security update that was released on January 15, Microsoft will no longer support legacy V3 and V4 printer drivers, which were announced as deprecated in September 2023.
The policy is part of broader plans to modernize the Windows print platform following the release of Windows 10 21H2, which removed the need for print device manufacturers to provide their own installers. Under these plans, users on Windows 11 or Windows Server 2025 and later will no longer be able to install new printer drivers via Windows Update.
Microsoft says existing drivers on Windows Update can still be updated, but only on a case-by-case basis. As of January 15, new print driver submissions are being blocked by default and routed through a manual review workflow that requires explicit justification for why a legacy driver should still be serviced.
Now that support has officially ended, users of printers that rely on V3 or V4 drivers may find that their printers fail to install or stop working altogether. Microsoft, however, notes that most users will be unaffected because most newer printers use driver architectures. For those who do run into problems, Microsoft recommends that users contact their printer manufacturer and update to a supported driver or upgrade to a more modern printing solution.
This is ultimately a servicing and security decision. The traditional Windows print driver ecosystem has long since been a thorn in the side of Microsoft, with issues such as the print spooler vulnerability ‘PrintNightmare' and the burden of supporting thousands of vendor-specific drivers making the entire ecosystem increasingly difficult to maintain. By narrowing what can be distributed via Windows Update, Microsoft is putting responsibility for legacy hardware support back in the hands of manufacturers.
From July 1, 2026, Windows will change its internal driver ranking order rules to “prefer” the built-in Microsoft IPP class driver when multiple options are available. A year later, on July 1, 2027, third-party printer driver updates delivered via Windows Update will be restricted to security-related fixes only.
With these changes, Microsoft also appears to be laying the groundwork for a harder lean on Windows Protected Print Mode, which was introduced with recent Windows 11 24H2 releases. When enabled, it removes third-party printer drivers entirely and restricts printing to Microsoft's class drivers. While this is an optional feature for now, it hints at where Microsoft intends for the platform to go in the future.
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What happens here matters everywhere
by Todd Bishop on Feb 7, 2026 at 8:52 amFebruary 7, 2026 at 8:57 am
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Andy Jassy tells Wall Street that Amazon is planning $200 billion in capital expenses this year, mostly to build out AI infrastructure, and investors give it a thumbs down.
Microsoft's financial results beat expectations but the company loses $357 billion in market value in a single day after investors learn the extent of its dependence on OpenAI.
Meanwhile, OpenAI leases 10 floors of office space in Bellevue, lawmakers in Olympia propose new taxes impacting startup exits and high-income earners, and the bots get their own social network.
In our featured conversation, recorded at a dinner hosted by Accenture in Bellevue, GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop sits down with computer scientist and entrepreneur Oren Etzioni to talk about AI agents, the startup landscape, the fight against deepfakes, and what good AI leadership looks like.
Etzioni is co-founder of AI agent startup Vercept, founder of the AI2 Incubator, professor emeritus at the UW Allen School, venture partner at Madrona, and the former founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI.
“Moltbook is to agent networks as Myspace was to social networks,” he posted on LinkedIn. “It's a sign of what's to come, and will soon be supplanted by more secure and more pervasive alternatives.”
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With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.
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AI nonprofit TrueMedia gets real with release of free deepfake detection tool ahead of elections
Ex-Allen Institute for AI scientists form stealthy AI startup, with former Ai2 CEO Oren Etzioni
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A $44 billion crypto blunder
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When we text about currencies in everyday life, we use signs to make things shorter. When it comes to monetary transactions, banks tend to use acronyms such as USD, EUR, CAD, or GEL. While banks must adhere to the ISO 4217 standard, which assigns currency codes, cryptocurrency exchanges operate under a different code. Which almost cost one of them $44 billion, according to a Reuters report. Well, every penny out of 44,000,000,000 USD.
A mistake between the '$' and 'B' signs at Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, resulted in the unintended distribution of tens of billions of dollars' worth of bitcoin to users. The company said the incident was caused by an internal error during a promotional event, not by a security breach, and that nearly all of the mistakenly issued assets were reportedly recovered shortly after the event.
According to Bithumb, the problem occurred on Friday when a promotion intended to provide small cash incentives — starting at about ₩2,000 Korean ($1.40) per participant — instead sent selected users with bitcoin rewards, with recipients obtaining at least 2,000 bitcoins each. As a result, approximately 620,000 bitcoins, valued at approximately $44 billion, were distributed incorrectly. Good news (for the exchange, not for its users) said it identified the issue quickly and imposed restrictions on trading and withdrawals, which affected 695 accounts within 35 minutes, so almost nobody got rich. Well, except those 0.3% out of 99.7%, from which the assets were recovered.
The company stated that the incident was unrelated to hacking or external intrusion and that its systems and custody mechanisms remained secure, so customer funds were not compromised. In addition, Bithumb stated that the event was a procedural failure rather than a technical or security breach. ShIt happens, in short.
Unsurprisingly, South Korean authorities, including the Financial Services Commission, said the incident revealed systemic vulnerabilities in crypto exchanges and announced reviews of oversight procedures, with the possibility of searching the premises of suspects if irregularities are found. The story does not reveal why the irregularities were not discovered before the aforementioned error happened.
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This new mini-PC features a 24-core Arrow Lake CPU and a surprising amount of modern expandability options in a modest sub-5-liter chassis.
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Minisforum let me go hands-on with its CES 2026 Innovation Award-winning Mini Workstation, so to get a grasp of what the diminutive new Minisforum MS-02 Ultra could offer, I decided to see if it could replace my aging but capable desktop PC. This is a true David vs Goliath battle, at least in terms of physical presence. The sub-5-liter MS-02 Ultra battles with my much larger desktop system packed into a 55-liter Fractal Define S PC case. However, the result of the clash wasn't as clear-cut as I expected, making me wonder what kind of PC I should be using daily in 2026.
Before we get into a specifications table, where you can see exactly how these two systems compare feature-by-feature, it is important to highlight the physical differences. The MS-02 Ultra is an incredible 11 times smaller than my Define S-desktop system. Obviously, such a small size means there are sacrifices to be made in terms of expandability, configurability, thermals, and noise. But those limitations are counterweighted by the benefits of the device being much physically smaller. Dare I say, the Minisforum is kind of portable, and even cute, which is not something I could say about the Define S PC.
The table below makes clear the specs of the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra workstation against those of the system it will have to battle on my desk.
System
Minisforum MS-02 Ultra
Fractal Define S custom PC
Processor
Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. Arrow Lake chip with 24C/24T runs at up to 5.5 GHz.
Intel Core i5-14400F. Raptor Lake Refresh with 10C/16T, up to 4.7 GHz.
CPU cooling
6-heatpipe cooling with 70 and 60mm fans and PCM
Noctua NH-U12A with 2x 120mm fans
Discrete graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 OC LP 8GB
AMD Radeon RX 9070 16GB
RAM
32GB at DDR5-4800 (4x SODIMM slots, ECC supported)
32GB DDR4-3200 (4x DIMM slots)
Storage
1TB PCIe4x4 NVMe SSD (4x M.2 SSD slots)
1TB PCIe4x4 NVMe SSD (2x M.2 slots), 500GB SATA SSD (4x SATA ports)
Motherboard
Minisforum HM870 chipset. Soldered CPU
Gigabyte B760 DS3H DDR4, LGA 1700, full ATX
I/O
Rear: HDMI 2.1, USB4 Type-C with DP-Alt and PD, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2. Front: 2 x USB4 v2 with DP-Alt, USB 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5mm combo audio
Rear: HDMI 2.1, DP, USB-C 20Gb/s, Type-A 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 4x USB 2, 1x PS/2 Combo, 3x 3.5mm audio. Front: 2x USB 3.0, 2x 3.5mm audio
Networking
10 GbE, 2.5 GbE, 2x 25 GbE, Wi-Fi 7, BT 5.4
1 GbE, Wi-Fi 6 via USB adapter
PCIe slots
PCIe5.0 x16, PCIe4.0 x16, PCIe4.0 x4 (the 16x slots offer bifurcation options)
PCIe4.0 x16 slot, 4x PCIe3.0 x16
Physical
221.5 x 225 x 79mm, 4.8 liters. 3.45kg without dGPU
233 x 451 x 520mm, 54.6 liters. 8.5kg unpopulated
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Windows 11 Pro
The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX should be much more capable than the i5-14400F that I bought at Amazon for $115 last year. It tempts with the advantages of its modern Intel architecture, higher clock boost, and easily outguns my Raptor Lake Refresh chip on core count. Moreover, the new platform brings quite a lot of modern niceties. Particularly welcome, from my perspective, are the trio of really fast USB4 (including 2x USB4 v2) ports, all with DisplayPort capabilities.
A distinct advantage I expected in moving to the MS-02 Ultra was from the increased core count using Intel's more modern architecture. Indeed, CPU-heavy benchmarks would show the new chip could convincingly eclipse the old mid-range Core i5-14400F in both single- and multicore workloads, given sufficient power supply and cooling capacity. But, we'll see how that translates to ‘Mark's world' of computing in the benchmarks section, below.
I'll stress again that a brief check of the specs, ahead of any actual comparison testing, may suggest the little Minisforum would win hands-down in CPU-focused processing tasks, but the best consumer-grade GPU I could get to fit inside its sub-5-liter chassis would be crushed by the triple-fan behemoth in my ATX desktop. Indeed, that is sort of what happened. There are nuances, though, especially as I don't really play any AAA or eSports PC games that launched in the 2020s, or dabble in local AI.
The MS-02 Ultra runs using the integrated graphics on the Core Ultra 9 285HX by. default. However, there's a PCIe5.0 x16 slot, and incredibly, there's room to install a two-slot low profile (LP) graphics card. This, plus the spare 8-pin connector from the built-in 350W PSU, allowed me to install a Gigabyte RTX 5060 OC LP GPU.
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Nvidia's RTX 5060 seemed to be the best graphics card choice for me, as a generalist/hobbyist PC user, though I've seen other early adopters of the MS-02 Ultra install cards like the Intel Arc Pro B50 (16GB), Nvidia RTX Pro 4000 Blackwell SFF (24GB), and the RTX 4000 SFF Ada (20GB). These offer far more VRAM but can cost a lot more, too. But thanks to this mini workstation allowing for GPU upgrades, perhaps the RTX 6060 or RTX 7060 will arrive one day with more than 8GB of VRAM on board, and in a low-profile form factor. Or maybe AMD will make a performant LP form factor card in the meantime.
I chose my Fractal Define S-housed desktop's motherboard as it was one of the few B760 chipset boards with a USB-C 20 Gbps port as standard at the price point. So, getting three times more USB-C ports, with two of them supporting up to 80 Gbps as standard, on the compact MS-02 Ultra was a welcome platform boost. I'm sure there is potential here for some very useful docking or even eGPU use-cases.
I have a pair of Crucial X10 Pro 4TB devices for keeping games, TV, and movie libraries portable. My testing confirmed the USB4 v2 ports on the front work at full USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) speeds with the X10 Pro. Some USB4 controllers surprisingly don't support Gen 2x2 and would fall back to 10 Gbps mode. My X10 Pros run about a third of the speed of the built-in M.2 SSD provided by Minisforum, but I feel they are good for external, highly portable units.
An extra two 25 GbE network ports and two of the available M.2 SSD slots are provided by a pre-installed low-profile card in the MS-02 Ultra's PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. However, I chose to replace that with a cheap USB Type-A 3.0 card with four ports, as I really like to have lots of USB ports. My old desktop used a USB adaptor for Wi-Fi 6 and didn't have Bluetooth. The MS-02 has built-in Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 and BT 5.4 card.
There are three PCIe slots in the MS-02 Ultra, but adding the GPU takes up the room where two single-slot add-in-cards would otherwise fit. That compares poorly with my Define S desktop, which has five slots. With a bulky GPU fitted in that ATX system, it was still possible to add another three single-slot PCIe cards. Again, I have one installed in there, bristling with extra USB ports.
The most demanding things thrown at my PC are video editing and games like The Division 2 and Far Cry 5. The Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark is just there for an added reference point, (I bought it, but I've not actually got around to playing it yet.) The same goes for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I also like playing in Borderlands GOTY Enhanced Edition, Command & Conquer Generals, and Amiga Forever – but those are so old and lightweight they weren't worth testing for this performance comparison.
Most of the time, my computer will be used for little more than multiscreen word processing and browsing, communicating with work colleagues, and a touch of ancient Photoshop and Illustrator dabbling. These help me prepare artwork for here on Tom's Hardware, some YouTube stuff, as well as laser cutting and engraving. Also, Photoshop has recently been replaced by the Affinity suite.
So, without further ado, let's get into those benchmarks, which unashamedly revolve around my personal general-purpose computer use, with a few gaming classics thrown in. I've also included a ‘tweener' system, where my large desktop was fitted with the incongruously tiny RTX 5060 LP card.
Test
I5-14400F / RX 9070
I5-14400F / RTX 5060
Ultra 9 285HX / RTX 5060
Cinebench R23 Single Thread
1780
1780
2263
Cinebench R23 Multi Thread
14480
14510
34500
PassMark PT 11.1
9366
9350
5564 iGPU, 11078
Handbrake 4K
2m, 35s
2m, 33s
2m, 12s
7Zip rating
85 GIPS
--
110 GIPS
Procyon AI image gen Stable Diffusion 1.5: 16x images
40.159s. ONNX for AMD
55.729s. TensorRT
55.611s. TensorRT
The comparison table above doesn't offer much in the way of surprises. The MS-02 Ultra with Intel's Core Ultra 9 285HX does exceedingly well in CPU-intensive tests, particularly those that take advantage of the abundance of available threads. We see the 285HX is a star performer in Cinebench R23, with single-thread scores similar to desktop processors like the Core i9-14900K and Ryzen 9 9950X. For multicore, you are also good to compare with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and i9‑14900F, but the unlocked i9‑14900K starts to pull ahead convincingly.
I also think the 7-Zip (de)compression benchmark shows the MS-02 mini workstation in a good light. Handbrake 4K transcoding wasn't much better compared with my old 14400F, though. Meanwhile, PassMark Performance Test, a mix of CPU, graphics, memory, and disk tests, showed some worthwhile performance benefits from the Minisforum – when the RTX 5060 was installed.
Test
I5-14400F / RX 9070
I5-14400F / RTX 5060
Ultra 9 285HX / RTX 5060
Cyberpunk 2077, high
136.5 FPS
78.3 FPS
80.5 FPS
Division 2, high
182 FPS
83 FPS
83 FPS
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, highest
183 FPS
120 FPS
128 FPS
Far Cry 5, ultra
146 FPS
137 FPS
128 FPS
Steel Nomad
61 FPS
32 FPS
32 FPS
Time Spy
GPU 27110, CPU 12680. Score 23155
GPU 13580, CPU 12578. Score 13419
GPU 13595, CPU 11999, Score 13329
It is almost moot to highlight that the Define S desktop with Radeon RX 9070 would dominate in 3D games and 3D benchmarks. Nevertheless, there were some interesting results showing that the Ultra 9 285HX / RTX 5060 didn't always beat the i5-14400F / RTX 5060 due to titles simply being ‘GPU-limited.' An interesting outlier was the crazy-town USA-set Far Cry 5, where Ubisoft's Dunia Engine 2 (a modified CryEngine) seemed to prefer the desktop Raptor Lake Refresh under the hood. All the games were tested in 1440p, with no upscaling or frame-gen tech applied.
Now we move into an area of both strength and weakness for the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra. In my benchmarks table, above, I also included power and noise readings. Starting with the good news, the MS-02 requires less power while idling and doing light tasks – like writing this. It also uses about 120W less when gaming, and all the titles I enjoy play smoothly enough on the RTX 5060 system at high to ultra settings at 1440p without the use of any scaling or frame gen tech.
Test
I5-14400F / RX 9070
I5-14400F / RTX 5060
Ultra 9 285HX / RTX 5060
Power
Idle 58W, Game 375W
Idle 57W, Game 255W
Idle 33W, Game 246W
Max noise
37dBA
38dBA
48dBA
Some bad news for the mini workstation is that it is more audible when idling and under load, in my experience. Initially, I measured both systems from about arm's length distance. My Define S desktop uses large Noctua fans and sits under the desk, and in the comparison results, you see that even using the tiny RTX 5060 didn't increase the noticeable system noise – it is hard to be 100% confident about the 1dBA difference observed.
Having the MS-02 Ultra at arm's length from my seated position, but on the desk top, the noise level was quite high at 48 dBA under load, as per the above chart. However, sitting it under the desk, where the big DIY desktop PC was previously located, reduced the max noise level to 41 dBA. But it's a far smaller system, and when positioned in the space vacated by the Define S, the Minisforum front panel moves beyond arm's reach under the desk. It is necessary to bend quite low from the chair to reach the power button and front I/O, which isn't convenient. That's why I decided to keep it on the desk.
I also note that the Minisforum BIOS has various fan modes (quiet, balanced, and performance) and manual tweaking of the trio of system fans. I ran it at ‘Balanced,' so there's probably some tuning that could be done for better noise performance.
In some many ways, the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra held its own against my old home-built Goliath.. The pint-sized challenger does everything I need, and some more. There are clear advantages to be had in CPU-heavy workloads. In GPU-heavy tasks and gaming, there's clearly enough juice for my particular needs today. If you think about the future, then unlike many other mini PCs, this one can get upgraded with a faster next-generation low-profile graphics card (and other compact PCIe cards) if and when they arrive at an affordable price.
I'll continue to work on configuring the fans, with an eye on processor and memory temperatures, as the louder fans are the one aspect of the MS-02 Ultra that pokes me in the ribs. It may also be repositioned further back on the desk or under it to scale back its audible presence. The fan noise isn't high-pitched, and I sometimes forget it, but less is more.
We must also talk about the price of the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra mini workstation. As of the this writing, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX model with 2x 25 GbE PCIe SFP+ NIC, 32GB DDR5, plus a 1TB M.2 PCIe4x4 SSD, and Windows 11 Pro is priced at $1,583.90 from Amazon.com. You can also go barebone (no RAM, SSD, or OS) for $1,229.90 using a $300 discount coupon on the page, which could be a great option if you have a spare DDR5 SO-DIMM, M.2 SSD, and can source your own OS. As with all PCs at this time, prices are very volatile.
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 OC LP 8G I bought to go in this system's PCIe 5.0 x16 slot is currently $359 at Newegg. This was a necessary extra to indulge in the type and quality of gaming fun that I am used to.
Thus, for the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 32GB/1TB with RTX 5060 LP graphics card installed, as tested, today's total price would be $1,942.90. Things have gotten a little pricier since I began my tests in early January, but that's the way the PC market is going.
System
Fractal Define S desktop
Minisforum MS-02 Ultra
Size
233 x 451 x 520mm, ~54 liters
221.5 x 225 x 79mm, ~4.8 liters
Weight as sold
8.5kg
3.45kg
Motherboard
Up to ATX size
Custom
PSU
Any ATX PSU
350W SFX installed
PCIe slots
Up to 7 (5 on my mobo)
3
We could talk about the comparison between the MS-02 Ultra build/cost and a desktop, with the latter offering much better value and expandability or upgradeability. However, getting something this performant yet compact, with this level of I/O spec and expandability, is going to be impossible with off-the-shelf parts. In this way, and especially for those with a use for the 2x 25 GbE PCIe SFP+ NIC, this mini workstation is a uniquely attractive package.
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Reading time 7 minutes
Last September, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump made a big announcement: The federal government had supposedly uncovered a clear link between autism and mothers taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during their pregnancy. The proclamation was swiftly lambasted by scientists outside the administration, yet it's only one facet of the Trump administration's concerning new approach to autism.
That same day, RFK Jr. stated the Food and Drug Administration would soon approve a new treatment for autism, a form of folate (vitamin B9) known as leucovorin. As with the acetaminophen link, however, the evidence supporting the use of leucovorin for autism rests on shaky ground, to say the least. And many experts worry about what could happen to people with autism and their families if the drug starts to become widely taken.
“The idea of doing this for everyone—we're going to see side effects, we're going to see negative outcomes,” Audrey Brumback, a pediatric neurologist specializing in autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions at UT Health Austin, told Gizmodo.
Leucovorin (folinic acid) is a form of the vitamin folate, also known as vitamin B9. Folate has many functions, from helping the body make red blood cells to supporting the healthy development of a fetus. The latter is why doctors now advise pregnant women to take folic acid (a synthetic form of folate) supplements, since low folate levels raise the risk of children being born with neural tube birth defects. Leucovorin has historically been used to counteract the toxic side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs. But it's also effective at treating a rare condition known as cerebral folate deficiency, or CFD.
CFD is characterized by having low folate levels in the brain but normal levels in blood (this distinction also makes it harder to detect). The low brain levels can then lead to neurological symptoms like seizures and intellectual disability, as well as trouble with speech and coordination; these symptoms usually begin to appear around the age of two.
The condition is commonly caused by defective antibodies that attack a protein called folate receptor alpha (important for transporting folate across the blood-brain barrier) but can also be tied to rare inherited genetic mutations in the FOLR1 gene, which encodes folate receptor alpha. Leucovorin can be transported through a different delivery method than folate receptor alpha, however, meaning it can raise folate levels in the brains of people with CFD. The earlier children with CFD are treated with leucovorin, the greater the chance they can avoid the developmental delays it causes, though the therapy can still help older patients.
Some of the symptoms of CFD are similar to those found in severe cases of autism, and some research has suggested people with autism are more likely to have CFD or antibodies to folate receptor alpha. Based on this early research, some scientists are genuinely hopeful about the potential of leucovorin to help children with both autism and CFD.
During the September announcement, RFK Jr. claimed leucovorin was an exciting therapy that might benefit “large numbers of children” with autism. Marty Makary, current FDA commissioner, went further, stating that leucovorin could possibly help “hundreds of thousands of kids,” which would represent a substantial portion of U.S. children diagnosed with autism (a 2016 study estimated that at least 1.5 million children in the U.S. had diagnosed autism, though it's a figure that's certainly risen since). And in its own announcement, HHS stated that leucovorin would become the first “FDA-recognized therapeutic for children with cerebral folate deficiency and autistic symptoms.”
Yet the actual language of the FDA decision only extends the labeling of leucovorin to treat CFD, with barely a mention of autism. And plenty of scientists and doctors in the field aren't so optimistic about the drug's future as an autism treatment.
“The idea of having a medicine be used off-label is not new, and that in itself is not a problem. It's just, what are we basing this recommendation on?” Brumback said. “This is not a strong evidence base. We're basically still at the anecdote phase.”
The research supporting leucovorin for treating autism is remarkably thin, and it's gotten even thinner lately. Last week, the European Journal of Pediatrics retracted a trial testing leucovorin supplements in children with autism after outside scientists discovered statistical inconsistencies that cast doubt on the study's results and conclusions (the authors stated they intended to revise and resubmit their study). The trial was one of only five such trials conducted so far, and the largest one to date, with 77 children.
These studies aside, there isn't much substantial data supporting the basic premises underlying the therapy. Scientists aren't certain if children with autism really are more likely to have CFD, or if CFD or its causes (antibodies to folate receptor alpha or FOLR1 mutations) can be a driver of autism. We're also not sure whether CFD can be reliably detected through screening for antibody levels, a method used in some studies.
Autism is a complex condition that can be caused by many different things that happen early on in development, though genetic factors play a major role. So it's possible that some children's autism could be closely tied to CFD or its causes. But that subset, even if it exists, isn't likely to reach into the hundreds of thousands, according to Shafali Jeste, a behavioral child neurologist.
“Autism is extremely heterogeneous, and it's a behavioral diagnosis that's based on thousands of different causes and profiles and brain pathways. So it's very unlikely we're going to have one pill that just ubiquitously addresses a core symptom,” said Jeste, who is chair of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. “And so that's why I think when medications like leucovorin get touted as this cure or treatment for the core symptoms of autism that works in all kids, it's problematic.”
Citing the lack of robust evidence, organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended against the routine use of leucovorin for autism. But both Jeste and Brumback have encountered families who have asked about the treatment or who are currently using it for their children. Jeste doesn't prescribe leucovorin herself, while Brumback has stopped issuing new prescriptions since the Trump announcement. But they're willing to talk to families about the treatment and to support those who decide to use it.
“I will never judge because I think that parents are trying to do right by their children. So it's very appropriate to wonder about leucovorin and ask,” Jeste said. “I am very open to answering questions and being honest that we just don't have that evidence right now.”
While leucovorin is generally well-tolerated when used for chemotherapy, it isn't risk-free either. The AAP notes that it can cause symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, and alopecia. And there's at least the possibility that it could have more serious complications when used long-term for autism.
“This is a very specific population of people who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. And so there are side effects of taking the vitamins in high doses that we probably wouldn't notice in that population,” Brumback said, noting that some other forms of vitamin B can cause nerve damage when taken in large doses. “For me, that's enough to say primum non nocere [Latin for “First, do no harm”]. That's especially true for the kids who are most severe, who can't communicate if they're in pain or in discomfort; having something that could potentially cause neuropathy is a nonstarter for me.”
Brumback and Jeste are also both specialists who tend to see patients with more profound autism. And they worry families prescribed leucovorin by general practitioners might be less likely to get proper follow-up and care. Some people could also turn to leucovorin supplements that are far less regulated and could be less safe to consume than the prescription version.
One probable reason leucovorin is getting the spotlight from the Trump administration is the lack of other easily adoptable treatments for autism, particularly in the most severe cases. Since taking over HHS, RFK Jr. has promised to deliver new insights into autism while claiming that researchers haven't done enough to find concrete answers.
Yet there actually have been genuine strides lately in developing effective behavioral interventions for autism that can improve people's quality of life, Jeste says. Within the next 10 years, she's even hopeful we will start to develop treatments for severe cases of autism strongly linked to specific genetic mutations.
“The one upside of this whole leucovorin conversation has been that it's forced us as a medical and scientific community to be more rigorous in how we talk about science, how we talk about what we know, and why we may have skepticism about certain studies,” she said.
In the most likely scenario, leucovorin will follow the example of secretin, a hormone that similarly showed early promise in the 1990s but crashed to the ground when multiple clinical trials failed to validate that promise. If that's true, then the drug could just end up being a curious footnote in the history of autism research.
That said, RFK Jr. and his allies are already setting the stage for the government to officially endorse his worst pet theories about autism. He's refused to accept the mainstream consensus that rising rates of reported autism are largely caused by expanded diagnostic criteria and greater awareness, for instance. Last year, he ordered HHS to launch a new study examining the supposed link between vaccines and autism—a link debunked by piles of research conducted over the past several decades.
So even if the hype behind leucovorin isn't validated and it never becomes widely used, Kennedy may still succeed in further stoking his anti-science agenda.
“I think it's put parents in a very difficult position because they don't know who to trust and who to listen to. We have a government saying that we as a medical community are not essentially doing right by our patients. I mean, that is a really hard message to hear,” Jeste said. “So I'm very sympathetic to the uncertainty and confusion that this has created.”
While RFK might profess to have the best interests in mind of people with autism, he seems to have antiquated ideas about the lives they lead. In April 2025, he stated that autism “destroys families” and that children with autism “will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a date.”
Of course, plenty of people with autism have and will go on to do all those things. And even for the most severe cases of autism, it's more often the lack of support, resources, and societal understanding that causes people and their families to suffer greatly than the condition itself. People with autism deserve recognition, respect, and quality care, which includes interventions and treatments strongly supported by evidence. That's something that Brumback hopes isn't forgotten in all of this mess.
“To have autism is not to be pitied; it's not to be seen as something that a family should be embarrassed about—it's part of life,” she said. “I want that to be the message of positivity; to help people where they're at and to just have an appreciation for human life.”
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Several children have come down with serious complications like encephalitis and pneumonia, state health officials reported this week.
In a WSJ editorial this week, CDC principal deputy director Ralph Abraham tried to push back against criticism.
Several new members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee have pushed unproven therapies for autism or misrepresented the safety of vaccines.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and 12 other medical groups are recommending the same childhood shots once endorsed by the CDC.
It's the latest research to find no clear link between maternal acetaminophen use and a higher autism risk.
The webpage previously noted that there is no cure for autism.
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A fresh Optimus label slapped onto existing hardware
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Sandisk's rebranded Optimus GX Pro 8100 series has hit Amazon, with starting prices of $499 for the 1TB model. The company has earned a reputation for producing some of the best SSDs cutting-edge technology can deliver. However, substantial price hikes are pushing customers away, and the newly rebranded Optimus lineup launches with slightly higher price tags than its predecessors.
Rebranding doesn't have to be harmful; it can breathe new life into an existing product and spark consumer interest. The Optimus series launches with a small 5% premium over the original models' MSRP. Understandably, Sandisk must invest resources in redesigning and marketing its Optimus drives. Like every company, Sandisk wants to recoup its investments.
The Optimus GX Pro 8100, which replaces the venerable WD Black SN8100, is the first model to reach the U.S. retailers. It's the flagship series, and the original WD Black line is what put the company on the map, so it's sensible to lead with the Optimus GX Pro series. The 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB drives sell for $459, $919, and $1,799, respectively. The Optimus GX Pro 8100 is also available on Amazon, but the retailer has added a significant markup.
Amazon is selling the Optimus GX Pro 8100 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB for $499, $999, and $1,949, respectively. They are up to 9% more expensive than prices on Sandisk's online store. The Optimus GX Pro 8100 also comes with an optional heatsink, but those SKUs carry a 2% premium on top of the already inflated prices.
The Optimus GX 7100 and Optimus 5100 replace the WD Black SN7100 and WD Blue SN5100, respectively. For now, you can purchase them directly from Sandisk. However, it shouldn't be long before they reach the other U.S. retailers.
SSD
Sandisk Webstore Price
SSD
Sandisk Webstore Promo Price
Sandisk Webstore Price
Optimus GX Pro 8100 8TB
$3,649.99
WD Black SN8100 8TB
$2,572.99
$3,659.99
Optimus GX Pro 8100 4TB
$1,799.99
WD Black SN8100 4TB
$1,289.99
$1,829.99
Optimus GX Pro 8100 2TB
$919.99
WD Black SN8100 2TB
$644.99
$914.99
Optimus GX Pro 8100 1TB
$459.99
WD Black SN8100 1TB
$324.99
$457.99
Optimus GX 7100 4TB
$1,308.99
WD Black SN7100 4TB
$869.99
$1,276.99
Optimus GX 7100 2TB
$659.99
WD Black SN7100 2TB
$434.99
$638.99
Optimus GX 7100 1TB
$329.99
WD Black SN7100 1TB
$219.99
$319.99
Optimus GX 7100 500GB
$180.99
WD Black SN7100 500GB
$129.99
$171.99
Optimus 5100 4TB
$1,255.99
WD Blue SN5100 4TB
$829.99
$1,191.99
Optimus 5100 2TB
$638.99
WD Blue SN5100 2TB
$419.99
$595.99
Optimus 5100 1TB
$319.99
WD Blue SN5100 1TB
$209.99
$297.99
Optimus 5100 500GB
$175.99
WD Blue SN5100 500GB
$119.99
$165.99
The previous WD color-based drives will continue to coexist with the rebranded counterparts until the former's inventory depletes. Sandisk has already started to phase out the WD Black and WD Blue series, so once they go out of stock, you won't have a chance to buy them anymore. Nonetheless, the company will continue to provide product support and warranty for WD-colored models before and after this new chapter in Sandisk's history.
The Optimus models come in different designs, but the original models' performance and other features remain unchanged. Therefore, you aren't losing anything; on the contrary, you could save hundreds of dollars by sticking to the previous versions. Since the phase-out of WD Black and WD Blue models began, they're now more affordable than the Optimus that recently came off the grill.
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For example, the Optimus GX Pro 8100 4TB sells for $1,799 on Sandisk and $ 1,949 on Amazon. The WD Black SN8100 4TB is available for $1,289 on Sandisk, up to 34% less expensive than the rebranded version. However, the same drive is available from other retailers, such as Newegg, for $859, saving you about 33% from Sandisk.
Consumer SSD prices have surged by up to 50% since late 2025. Industry projections imply that NAND pricing will continue to rise throughout the first quarter of this year. The current inventory, with SSDs already overpriced, likely reflects older pricing, so newly manufactured drives will likely carry an even higher price tag.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
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.
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This week, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems announced that it raised $1 billion in fresh capital at a valuation of $23 billion — a nearly threefold increase from the $8.1 billion valuation the Nvidia rival had reached just six months earlier.
While the round was led by Tiger Global, a huge part of the new capital came from one of the company's earliest backers: Benchmark Capital. The prominent Silicon Valley firm invested at least $225 million in Cerebras' latest round, according to a person familiar with the deal.
Benchmark first bet on 10-year-old Cerebras when it led the startup's $27 million Series A in 2016. Since Benchmark deliberately keeps its funds under $450 million, the firm raised two separate vehicles, both called ‘Benchmark Infrastructure,' according to regulatory filings. According to the person familiar with the deal, these vehicles were created specifically to fund the Cerebras investment.
Benchmark declined to comment.
What sets Cerebras apart is the sheer physical scale of its processors. The company's Wafer Scale Engine, its flagship chip announced in 2024, measures approximately 8.5 inches on each side and packs 4 trillion transistors into a single piece of silicon. To put that in perspective, the chip is manufactured from nearly an entire 300-millimeter silicon wafer, the circular discs that serve as the foundation for all semiconductor production. Traditional chips are thumbnail-sized fragments cut from these wafers; Cerebras instead uses almost the whole circle.
This architecture delivers 900,000 specialized cores working in parallel, allowing the system to process AI calculations without shuffling data between multiple separate chips (a major bottleneck in conventional GPU clusters). The company says the design enables AI inference tasks to run more than 20 times faster than competing systems.
The funding comes as Cerebras, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., gains momentum in the AI infrastructure race. Last month, Cerebras signed a multi-year agreement worth more than $10 billion to provide 750 megawatts of computing power to OpenAI. The partnership, which extends through 2028, aims to help OpenAI deliver faster response times for complex AI queries. (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also an investor in Cerebras.)
Cerebras claims its systems, built with its proprietary chips designed for AI use, are faster than Nvidia's chips.
The company's path to going public has been complicated by its relationship with G42, a UAE-based AI firm that accounted for 87% of Cerebras' revenue as of the first half of 2024. G42's historical ties to Chinese technology companies triggered a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, bumping back Cerebras' initial IPO plans and even prompting the outfit to withdraw an earlier filing in early 2025. By late last year, G42 had been removed from Cerebras' investor list, clearing the way for a fresh IPO attempt.
Cerebras is now preparing for a public debut in the second quarter of 2026, according to Reuters.
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The war on California's proposed ‘Billionaire's Tax' is getting weird. This week, amid ongoing rancor from tech elites over the much maligned bill, it became apparent that someone was planning a so-called “March for Billionaires” in San Francisco. A website advertising the event popped up online, providing little in the way of context other than a pithy tagline: “Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive.”
The immediate reaction was incredulity, and most people assumed the site was some sort of bizarre hoax. “this is a joke/satire right??” one social media user wrote not long after the news circulated. Now, however, the apparent organizer behind the event has revealed that the march is definitelynot a joke, and that it is scheduled to take place this coming Saturday.
The San Francisco Examiner first reported that the event's organizer had been revealed as Derik Kaufmann, the founder of AI startup RunRL, which previously participated in Y Combinator's accelerator program. Kaufmann told the Examiner that the event was not being funded or organized by any outside group, no big monied associations or companies—just him.
In a conversation with TechCrunch, Kaufmann — who also told the Examiner that he was no longer involved with RunRL — confirmed that the impetus for the upcoming rally was California's proposed wealth tax, which the tech founder said he believed would be “quite damaging to the tech economy.”
The policy in question, the Billionaire Tax Act, was introduced last year, and would require Californians worth over $1 billion to pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth. The legislation, which is backed by the state's healthcare union SEIU (Service Employees International Union), could pay for important public services and help the state offset recent federal funding cuts, according to some experts. Nevertheless, the policy has led to loud protestations from some of the tech industry's most prominent figures, many of whom have either threatened to leave California or have already left. It has also led to a monsoon of lobbying in the California legislature, in an effort to defeat the bill.
When asked why he opposed the legislation, Kaufmann expressed concern for how the bill could impact the startup economy in Silicon Valley. “This tax in particular is fatally flawed,” he said. “It hits startup founders whose wealth is only on paper. They would be forced to liquidate shares on potentially unfavorable terms, incurring capital gains taxes and giving up control. Not to mention the difficulty of valuing private companies.”
“Many founders would be hit with wildly disproportionate tax bills,” Kaufmann continued. “Additionally, there's no precedent for this sort of comprehensive wealth tax in the US. Sweden eliminated theirs 20 years ago to avert capital flight and promote entrepreneurship and now has 50% more billionaires per capital than the US.”
Online conversation about Kaufmann's planned event has continued to alternate between incredulity and ridicule. “I can't imagine billionaires marching in the street,” one social media user said, of the event.
That person would probably be right.
Kaufmann told TC that, so far, he isn't aware of any actual billionaires planning to attend the march that has been organized in their honor. Kaufmann said that the event is likely to include “a few dozen attendees,” although he stressed that he really isn't clear on how many people would show up.
The ongoing outrage over the proposed tax is a little funny, given that it's already been known for quite some time that the legislation has almost no chance of being enacted. That's because California Governor Gavin Newsom has already stated that, should the bill somehow pass, he would veto it.
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HBO's hit financial thriller “Industry” has delivered one of its most compelling storylines yet this season: a hunt to expose a fraudulent fintech company called Tender.
The show follows Harper Stern, who's leading her newly launched investment firm and looking for a company to short — essentially, betting that its stock will crash. After a journalist tips her off that something's wrong with Tender, she sends her associates, Sweetpea and Kwabena, to Ghana to investigate.
What they discover is damning. “Fake users drive fake revenue drives fake cash,” Sweetpea tells Harper. The entire company appears to be built on fabricated numbers. “The thing is nothing.”
What's fascinating about this season of “Industry” is how well it speaks to this moment. Tender starts as a payment processing platform for adult content. The show references the very real (and still controversial) Online Safety Bill that the UK introduced, which has led to age verification and other enhanced rules for consuming adult content online. Because of its affiliation with adult content, Tender finds itself at odds with the new government's regulation and must pivot or die, as the saying goes.
Its CFO-turned-leader, Whitney, wants the company to pivot into a bank and has a plan to make that happen, including making Tender's CEO, Henry, the face of that transformation. Whitney is the embodiment of every tech baron cliche. Move fast, break things. Win at all costs. He's lobbying politicians for a banking license and hunting for merger opportunities.
Harper, meanwhile, is leading her newly launched firm after feeling undermined at her previous firm and being called a DEI plant by the man who hired her (a nod to the decline of DEI in the past few years). She has teamed up with new friends and old frenemies and is looking for blood — meaning a company on the precipice of crashing. To her, Tender is that company.
This puts her at odds with her friend Yasmin, who is married to Henry and is crafting communication and lobbying strategies for Tender. It's pride and prejudice — the sugar and spice that help make the world go round.
The show nails the tech world with such accuracy that reality itself starts to feel like satire. Even TechCrunch gets name-checked as part of Tender's media playbook.
There is commentary on fascism via the character Moritz, who lobbies against Western liberalism and is hesitant to sell his family's bank to Whitney, whose last name is the Jewish-sounding Halberstram. The character is perhaps a nod to the rising “technofacism” criticism of some tech barons.
Harper, meanwhile, is still a calculating sociopath. “My real passion lies with finding dead men walking,” she says at an investor breakfast. She ends up raising millions for her new firm.
She is the one character whose existence strains credibility. Personality-wise, she has to be shrewdly calculating; unlike Yasmin and Henry, she has nothing to fall back on should she fail. But would the UK establishment, which is notoriously insular, exclusionary, and white, really let a Black American woman rise through their ranks and beat them at their own game?
“Who needs realism when she's such a great character,” one Black British founder told me.
He said the show aptly captures how detached the UK upper class is from consequence and is actually one of the few shows he's seen that “accurately portrays the ruthlessness of the British elite, specifically how they maneuver the media and governments to suit their own whims.”
“Nepotism and lack of boundaries at work, people sleeping together for trade secrets, is very realistic and common, unfortunately,” one European investor added.
Meanwhile, Yasmin is headed down a dark path. Earlier this season, she organized a ménage à trois between her husband, Henry, and Whitney's assistant, Hayley. As the season continues, her behavior becomes so hedonistic that one reviewer has already likened her to Ghislaine Maxwell — perhaps a perfect emblem of what lies at the pits of money and power, and the role some women play in digging those holes.
An Icarus moment could be on the way, however, at least for Whitney.
By now, the audience is familiar with how founders in the real world sometimes use deception to overinflate success (like Charlie Javice's Frank) and allegedly steal from investors and the public (the FTX crypto crash). There are many such infamous cases, and some are even referenced in the show. But perhaps the most relevant real-world parallel for Tender would be the ultimate implosion of the German fintech Wirecard a few years ago.
Wirecard admitted that the billions in cash it reported having likely never existed, despite the company's earlier claims that two banks in the Philippines were holding the funds. It was a tale of complex accounting and legal gray zones — much like the financial fraud depicted in Tender. Short sellers went after Wirecard, too, and one blog dubbed them “alternative whistleblowers” — people who step in when “the market, and the regulator, refuse to see what is right in front of them.”
The philosophy is one that one could easily see Harper embracing soon enough, especially after Eric tells her at one point that “short-only work is ugly, hard, investigative,” and that it's “anti-status quo, anti-establishment, anti-power.”
With Wirecard, numerous people, including the CEO, were arrested, while the COO went on the run (and was also accused of being a Russian spy). Tender's fate remains unrealized until the last few episodes run. One of the best parts about “Industry” is that it moves fast and breaks things. It is so clearly set in our time and so audacious in its demeanor that the audience is forced to pick their favorite anti-hero and go along for the ride.
It's a rush, a thrill; the visual embodiment of the absence of ethical capitalists. And yet, just like in real life, we can't get enough.
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Concacaf, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer, unveiled the process for the 2030 World Cup qualifying on Friday, including the pathway for the 2026 host nations, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The 2030 cycle will be the first time Concacaf participates in a complete qualifying tournament with no nations earning automatic entries. The region will have six automatic spots and the potential of a seventh through the FIFA intercontinental playoff.
Concacaf's announcement pre-empted FIFA's confirmation of both the number of teams in the tournament and the allocations for each of its six confederations worldwide.
The Concacaf qualifiers will start in September 2027 with teams ranked 14th through 35th playing a two-legged, home-and-away series to complete the first round.
The 11 winners then advance to the second round alongside the top-13 nations, making a 24-team setup that will be split into six four-team groups. Each country will play home and away for a total of six matches in that phase between October 2027 and March 2028.
The top two teams from each will advance to a 12-team final round played in June 2028 and October 2029. That stage will feature three groups of four teams each, with each team playing home and away for a total of six matches, completed with World Cup qualification for the top two teams in each group.
The top two third-place teams in the final round would play an additional two-legged tie in November 2019, with the winner advancing to the intercontinental playoffs.
In total, a team could play a maximum of 18 games in qualifying, with the fewest being 12.
For the 2026 tournament, at least six Concacaf teams will compete, with the potential for a seventh if Jamaica qualifies through the intercontinental playoff. None of the host nations had to participate in qualifying.
For the top three-ranked Concacaf teams at the moment, the new World Cup qualifying pathway likely ensures missing future tournaments is unlikely, as the groups are likely to be seeded from the second phase of qualifying.
From a USMNT perspective, it allows competitive games with only relative pressure and a lower chance of missing out dramatically, as they did in the 2018 tournament in Russia. Meanwhile, Canada shouldn't be too concerned about missing World Cups, with 2022 marking their first qualification since 1986 and just their second ever.
In addition to announcing the qualifying pathway, Concacaf also revealed that the 2027 Concacaf Nations League finals would take place at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which most recently hosted the tournament's showcase games in 2025.
Ben Steiner is an American-Canadian journalist who brings in-depth experience, having covered the North American national teams, MLS, CPL, NWSL, NSL and Liga MX for prominent outlets, including MLSsoccer.com, CBC Sports, and OneSoccer.
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Super sub Viktor Gyokeres came off the bench to score twice as Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win against Sunderland to move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League. Gyokeres made a huge impact having replaced Gabriel Jesus midway through the second half, netting a quickfire brace to add to Martin Zubimendi's opener, and fire the Gunners to a commanding advantage in the title race.
With nearest challengers Manchester City travelling to Liverpool on Sunday, Mikel Arteta's league leaders would have been well aware of the importance of a win to put the pressure on Pep Guardiola's side ahead of their trip to Anfield, but they came up against some stubborn early resistance from the visitors at the Emirates.
But that resistance was finally broken when Leandro Trossard set up Martin Zubimendi who fizzed in an excellent strike to open the scoring for the second successive weekend with a fine strike that went in off the post from just outside the box.
Both Kai Havertz and Declan Rice went close to extending Arsenal's lead but it was Viktor Gyokeres, who had only just come off the bench, who added the second when he fired home expertly having been set up by Havertz midway through the second half.
And the Sweden international made sure of the points in stoppage time when he added his sixth goal in eight appearances, tapping home from close range after Gabriel Martinelli had raced clear and set him up.
GOAL rates Arsenal's players from Emirates Stadium...
David Raya (7/10):
Got away with an early mistake when he failed to deal with a free-kick. Good save down to his left early in the second half. Aside from the early error his handling and distribution was excellent.
Jurrien Timber (7/10):
Typical Timber performance. Gave Sunderland very little down his side.
William Saliba (6/10):
Looked a bit edgy in the first half and picked up a booking. Didn't seem to settle after that.
Gabriel Magalhaes (7/10):
So strong defensively as usual. Got his head on almost everything.
Riccardo Calafiori (6/10):
Great to see him back in the side. Not as influential as we've come to expect in an attacking sense but solid at the back.
Martin Zubimendi (8/10):
Another goal for Zubimendi. Great strike from the edge of the box that capped another excellent all round performance.
Declan Rice (8/10):
Strong display in the heart of midfield. Almost broke the deadlock early in the first half when he fired just wide from distance.
Kai Havertz (7/10):
So close to a wonderful goal just before half-time which bent just past the post. Nice assist for Gyokeres' first goal.
Leandro Trossard (8/10):
Got the assist for Zubimendi's goal and it was his incisive pass that led to Gyokeres' strike. Arsenal's best attacker on the day.
Gabriel Jesus (5/10):
Given a start in front of Viktor Gyokeres, but couldn't really get into the game. Looked to have won a penalty in the first half but was flagged offside.
Noni Madueke (6/10):
Few flashes of quality, but Sunderland dealt with him quite comfortably.
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Viktor Gyokeres (9/10):
Off the bench to score two crucial second half goals. Great finish while off balance for the first and tapped in the second late on. Superb shift having been introduced.
Gabriel Martinelli (7/10):
Great play to set up Gyokeres' second.
Piero Hincapie (6/10):
Replaced the tiring Calafiori midway through the second half.
Eberechi Eze (6/10):
Fired one effort just wide.
Mikel Arteta (8/10):
Shuffled his pack a bit and will have been more than happy with the performance. His introduction of Gyokeres worked wonders.
Lamine Yamal scored a brilliant goal, and Robert Lewandowski and Marc Bernal also found the net, as Barcelona beat Mallorca 3-0 at the Spotify Camp Nou on Saturday evening. Hansi Flick's side had to shake off a difficult opening to the game, before clicking through the gears and recording a big win.
Mallorca pressed Barcelona heavily throughout the first 20 minutes and had multiple chances to break the deadlock, but could not find a way past Joan Garcia in the Catalan goal.
So it fell to Robert Lewandowski to open the scoring just before the half-hour mark, capitalising after Dani Olmo cushioned a rebound to the Poland international after Marcus Rashford's effort from the edge of the box was blocked.
And Barca had a second before the hour mark, as Lamine Yamal took aim from range and, with the goalkeeper unsighted, found the top corner.
Marc Bernal then wrapped the game up with eight minutes to go, netting a superb finish after some jinking dribbling.
This was a routine win for Hansi Flick's side against spirited La Liga opposition.
GOAL rates Barca's players from Camp Nou...
Joan Garcia (7/10):
A couple of superb saves in the first half as Mallorca flew forward. Barca gained control over the game and he had very little to do in the second half.
Jules Kounde (5/10):
Struggled at times against Virgili's direct running and was dismal in the first half in possession. Grew into it and did have chances but he has to improve defensively.
Pau Cubarsi (7/10):
Flashed a header wide. Gets on the ball and steps out of defence so well; he so rarely loses the ball.
Eric Garcia (7/10):
Barca's best defender. Did well to stand up to Mallorca's pressing.
Alejandro Balde (6/10):
Struggled to impact the game as much as he wanted to in the final third. Fine defensively with most of Mallorca's threat coming down Kounde's side.
Marc Casado (7/10):
Superb range of passing. Got himself involved defensively, repeatedly too. He's becoming an elite midfielder.
Dani Olmo (9/10):
Feather-light touch to Lewandowski for his goal. Created more chances than any other player on the pitch. A creative masterclass.
Fermin Lopez (8/10):
Exceptional defensively throughout, mopping up behind Olmo and Casado. An excellent performance.
Lamine Yamal (8/10):
Somehow missed from close-range on the stroke of half-time after Kounde fired a shot across the goalmouth. Made up for it with a brilliant goal from range. He's magic.
Robert Lewandowski (8/10):
Opened the scoring with a superb finish from close-range after Olmo's very clever flick. Always a threat and a deadly finisher.
Marcus Rashford (7/10):
Always wanted the ball, and was forever attempting to cut in from the left. Took a knock to his knee towards the end of the half but shook it off.
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Marc Bernal (7/10):
Second-half sub. Scored the third with some exceptional dribbling and a fine finish.
Ferran Torres (6/10):
On with the game won. Didn't impact it much.
Joao Cancelo (6/10):
Came on to keep Barcelona solid.
Roony Bardghji (N/A):
Replaced Yamal late.
Tommy Marques (N/A):
A late sub.
Hansi Flick (8/10):
Will have been delighted to see Barca keep a clean sheet, and he was able to rotate well. A routine performance and a fine win.
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Bruno Fernandes has claimed he knew Michael Carrick would make a great manager after first working with him four years ago when he was Manchester United's interim boss. Fernandes struck as United beat Spurs 2-0 on Saturday to earn a fourth win in four matches under Carrick since he succeeded Ruben Amorim in the Old Trafford dugout until the end of the season.
Fernandes set United on their way to victory by master-minding the corner that led to Bryan Mbeumo scoring the first goal of the game, after Cristian Romero had been sent off. He knocked in Diogo Dalot's cross to score his sixth Premier League goal of the season and clinch the win, which strengthen's Carrick's hopes of being named United boss on a permanent basis.
Fernandes praised Carrick's leadership of the team and he said he knew all along that the former United midfielder would make a good coach after seeing first-hand his management style in 2021. Carrick took charge of the Red Devils for three games after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked, beating Unai Emery's Villareal in the Champions League and Arsenal in the Premier League while drawing at Chelsea.
Across both spells, Carrick's record in charge of United reads six wins, one draw and zero defeats.
Fernandes told TNT Sports: "I think Michael came in with the right idea of giving the players the freedom to take responsibility on the pitch to do the decisions that were needed. I think he remembers what I told him the last time he was manager. I thought Michael could be a great manager and he's just shown it.
"We hope we can help him even more so everyone can see we are good players. That's why we are at Man United. I think everyone understands the pressure of playing for this club. Everyone knows the expectations around it."
Fernandes believes that Carrick's experience as a United player of 12 years, in which he won five Premier League titles and the Champions League, means he knows how to get the best out of the squad.
"Michael has won everything here, he knows what it means for these fans and how much is needed to win at this football club," the captain added. "We've had moments when we weren't great and it was still like this. When we win games everything looks brighter."
Carrick returned the compliment to Fernandes, praising him for his overall performance and his goal. "Bruno's level of performance over a period of times has been so constant," he said. "He is always around big moments and has his fingerprints on it. He cares so much about the club. He can play so many positions and ended up playing off the left. He has got quality in those moments. It is nothing new."
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United have won four games in a row in the Premier League for the first time in two years while they now have more points after 25 matches this season than they earned over the entirety of the last campaign. Fernandes, however, urged his players not to get carried away.
"When we win games the confidence goes higher and higher," Fernandes told Match of the Day. "It is very important for us to maintain the focus and not overdo it now. This is very good and very nice but we need to keep going. If you don't win the next one and the next one you will get back into the same place where you don't feel comfortable, you lose confidence and struggle to believe in everything you have been doing until now.
"But, we have been doing very well until now to do everything that Michael and the staff have been asking of us and we have been very brave taking responsibility in some moments in the game to go and play and do whatever you need to do to win the game. The main focus is the next game, it's four wins in a row, this one is nice, but we need to make it five now."
United can extend their winning streak to five matches when they visit struggling West Ham on Tuesday.
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U.S. women's national team star Catarina Macario was left off Chelsea's Champions League squad for the knockout stage, throwing her future with the club into further doubt.
According to The Guardian, Macario recently turned down a contract extension from Chelsea and is attracting interest from clubs across the globe.
Macario has yet to play for the Blues in 2026, and her contract is set to expire at the end of the season.
Macario has made 12 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions this season, including three in the Champions League.
The 26-year-old has scored two goals, both of which came in a 6-0 win against St. Pölten in the Champions League.
With her contract in its final six months, Macario can now sign a pre-contract agreement with any desired club. There has been reported interest from NWSL sides, with the player's agent telling the San Francisco Chronicle in December that she was in "preliminary talks" with Bay FC.
Since arriving at Chelsea in 2023 from OL Lyonnes, Macario has scored 15 goals in 59 appearances for the Blues.
Meanwhile, Macario has been on a scoring tear for the USWNT, finding the back of the net five times in her last three matches.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in June and South Korea's fans are getting ready now that the tournament schedule has been revealed. By securing its bid as AFC third round Group B winners, South Korea is back in the World Cup after last qualifying in 2022.
South Korea will begin its World Cup against UEFA Playoff D winner – (Czechia, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, North Macedonia) in Guadalajara.
South Korea is ranked No. 22 in the latest FIFA World Rankings and has something to prove this summer.
Here is everything you need to know in order to buy South Korea World Cup tickets
South Korea was drawn into Group A along with the following teams:
If you weren't lucky enough to get tickets through the lottery, don't worry. Limited South Korea World Cup tickets are still available. Get your World Cup tickets today and cross an event off your sports bucket list .
As of publication, the cheapest available South Korea 2026 World Cup ticket costs $174. If you're looking for a better view of the action, field level seats start at $466.
Check out South Korea's World Cup schedule for the group stage.
More: Here's how to buy 2026 World Cup Final tickets in New York
South Korea will play its three group stage games in Guadalajara, Guadalajara and Monterrey.
Limited tickets for each game is available. In fact, 3% of South Korea's seats are still available, so act quickly.
The 2026 World Cup will be South Korea's 12th appearance in the sport's biggest tournament. South Korea's best result was Fourth place (2002).
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Lads, it's still Tottenham! Manchester United had failed to beat Spurs in their last seven games but earned a 2-0 victory to stay in control of fourth spot in the Premier League and make it four wins in a row under Michael Carrick. The win was helped by a first-half red card for Cristian Romero and, unlike against Everton three months ago, they made the extra man count.
Before kick-off the two teams paid tribute to the United players who died in the Munich air crash to mark the 68th anniversary of the disaster. It was an even first half and United were edging it, threatening with efforts from Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Casemiro, before they got a gift in the form of a red card to Romero in the 28th minute. The Argentine received his second red in less than two months for an aggressive tackle on Casemiro which ended in him standing on the Brazilian's ankle.
Everton had won at Old Trafford earlier in the season with 10 men but United took full advantage this time and grabbed the lead with the cheekiest of corner routines. Kobbie Mainoo appeared out of nowhere to collect a short one from Fernandes and laid it off to Mbeumo, who mis-kicked the ball but still found the bottom corner of the net.
Casemiro came close to doubling the lead before the break and United had the ball in the net twice in the second half only to be denied by the offside flag. They continued to go for the second goal rather than sit on their lead and United fans held their breath when Xavi Simons flashed a shot just wide of the top corner.
The hosts finally got that all-important second goal courtesy of a well-worked move following a quick break, leading to Fernandes meeting Dalot's cross to score his sixth goal of the campaign and continue Carrick's perfect start.
GOAL rates Man United's players from Old Trafford...
Senne Lammens (6/10):
Had a nervy moment when his kick went straight to Conor Gallagher but he was otherwise confident, dealing well with aerial balls and smothering at Gallagher's feet.
Diogo Dalot (8/10):
A strong overall performance, defending diligently and linking up well with the attack. Made an important tackle on Pape Matar Sarr and set Cunha up for a shot that nearly went in with a driving run from his own half. To cap his fine performance he sent the ball over for Fernandes' clincher.
Harry Maguire (6/10):
Got asked a couple of questions by Xavi Simons but made it through unscathed.
Lisandro Martinez (6/10):
His passing was spot-on as usual and he made his share of good defensive interventions, apart from one moment when he lost the ball in his own half.
Luke Shaw (6/10):
A solid performance in defence and attack, acting quickly to foul Gallagher and prevent him capitalising on Lammens' loose pass.
Kobbie Mainoo (8/10):
Another excellent display from the midfielder who Ruben Amorim couldn't find a way to fit into his team. Played his part in the breakthrough goal and his crisp, calm passing ensured United stayed in control even when Spurs were putting them under pressure.
Casemiro (7/10):
Picked up where he left off against Fulham. Even if he did not directly contribute to the goals, his powerful presence laid the foundation for the win.
Bruno Fernandes (9/10):
United's engine as usual. Unlucky not to score in the first half but he masterminded the opening goal before scoring the second himself, having been at the heart of all the team's attacks.
Amad Diallo (7/10):
His tricky runs wore Tottenham down and he worked very hard defensively.
Bryan Mbeumo (8/10):
A handful for Tottenham all afternoon due to his movement and scored a third goal in four matches under Carrick.
Matheus Cunha (7/10):
Inches away from scoring a brilliant goal and linked up well with Fernandes and Mbeumo.
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Benjamin Sesko (6/10):
Showed good movement but might've done better with a headed chance at the end.
Noussair Mazraoui (X/10):
Introduced with three minutes left.
Manuel Ugarte (X/10):
Replaced Casemiro in the 87th minute.
Joshua Zirkzee (X/10):
Brought on in the 87th minute.
Tyler Fletcher (N/A):
Made his competitive debut in added time to join his twin brother and father in becoming a United academy graduate.
Michael Carrick (7/10):
Make that four wins in a row for the 'interim' boss. He can take credit for United's opener, which came straight from the training ground. It wasn't the most fluid display and the win owed a lot to the red card but, unlike Amorim, he knew how to capitalise on it.
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Marc Skinner's side continued their unbeaten start to 2026 in the Women's Super League with a deserved victory over Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Swedish star Zigiotti Olme was key to United's win, with a goal and an assist, while super-sub Terland made the game safe late on with yet another strike against the struggling Foxes
Manchester United started the game brightly and were ahead after just 13 minutes. Lea Schuller looked set to head home her first ever WSL goal but the January signing couldn't quite get on the end of an inviting cross from Zigiotti Olme. Yet her teasing delivery into the penalty area also beat Olivia Clark in the Leicester goal, with the ball creeping past the shot stopper and in at the far post to hand United the lead.
The early goal saw United set up camp in the Leicester half but they couldn't add to their lead before half-time. The lively Melvine Malard was twice denied by Clark, while United defender Hanna Lundkvist headed a good chance over from a corner.
The pressure eventually told late on when Terland finally made the game safe. Zigiotti Olmo did superbly well to win the ball back high up the pitch and feed Terland, who showed some great footwork to get the ball out of her feet and fire a low shot across goal to seal a deserved victory.
GOAL rates Manchester United's players from the King Power Stadium...
Phallon Tullis-Joyce (7/10):
Called into action on several occasions throughout the 90 minutes but looked confident, with no real scares.
Hanna Lundkvist (6/10):
Came in for Jayde Riviere and did a good job. Had a good chance to score from a corner but couldn't keep her header down.
Maya Le Tissier (7/10):
Typically commanding performance from the captain who dealt comfortably with the threat offered by Leicester.
Dominique Janssen (7/10):
Put in a good shift alongside Le Tissier as Leicester struggled to cause United problems.
Anna Sandberg: (8/10):
Strong showing from the left-back, always willing to get forwards, put some good deliveries into the box and linked up well with Malard. Perhaps a little fortunate to escape giving away a penalty in the second half.
Hinata Miyazawa (7/10):
Has built a great partnership with Zigiotti Olme, which was on show again at Leicester, and played a big part in United's win. Sent in a great ball to tee up Schuller for a chance.
Julia Zigiotti Olme (8/10):
Was Manchester United's best player and key to both goals. Broke the deadlock with a cross that was aimed for Schuller but ended up missing the forward and creeping in at the far post. Went on to tee up Terland for the second late on.
Lisa Naalsund (6/10):
Played a starring role last time out against Liverpool but couldn't follow that up in what was a really quiet showing. No real surprise to see her hooked just after the hour.
Jess Park (6/10):
Not at her very best as Leicester managed to keep her fairly quiet. Did engineer a great opportunity to make it 2-0 but the ball just got stuck under her feet and the chance went begging.
Lea Schuller (7/10):
Tried her best to get on the end of Zigiotti Olme's cross and while she didn't get her touch, her presence might have been enough to distract the goalkeeper.
Melvine Malard (8/10):
Was a real nuisance, particularly in the first half, making some great runs. Had a couple of sights on goal but couldn't beat Clark and was replaced by Rolfo early in the second half.
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Jayde Riviere (7/10):
Started on the bench but came on for Lundkvist and put in a solid showing. Good block on Alisha Lehmann late on.
Fridolino Rolfo (6/10):
Came on for Malard and had some good moments but couldn't conjure up a second goal.
Elisabeth Terland (8/10):
Seems to love scoring against Leicester. Had two good chances before she finished off the Foxes with a good strike late on. That's now five goals in five outings against Leicester.
Simi Araujo (7/10):
Forced Clark into a good save with a sweetly-struck shot.
Ellen Wangerheim (N/A):
Some late minutes for the new signing.
Marc Skinner (7/10):
Will be happy with the win but disappointed it was not by a larger margin. The Red Devils dominated the game but Skinner will want his side to be more ruthless in front of goal.
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Barcelona have begun the process of exiting the European Super League (ESL), a move that leaves Real Madrid as the sole remaining founding club involved in the project.
On Saturday, a statement from the club said: “FC Barcelona informs that today it has formally communicated to European Super League Company and the Clubs that have been part of its withdrawal from the ESL project.”
The European Super League was unveiled in April 2021 as a breakaway competition designed to rival Uefa's Champions League, built around a closed 20 team model. It quickly unravelled after fans reacted strongly against it.
Twelve sides signed on as founding members, including six from the Premier League, three from Spain and three from Italy.
All six English clubs - Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur - withdrew, along with Atletico Madrid and Serie A's AC Milan and Inter.
Juventus later confirmed in 2023 that they too had stepped away leaving only Barcelona and Real Madrid still publicly attached to the scheme.
In January 2023, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he still believed a new European competition could be launched, initially positioning itself as a rival to the Premier League.
By December 2023, the ESL's backers, Madrid-based company A22. had proposed a revamped 64 club format across three divisions with promotion and relegation between tiers and free TV coverage, though qualification rules remained unclear.
A year later, plans evolved again into a four-tier, 96 team competition rebranded as the Unify League.
Teams would qualify through their domestic leagues with the structure split into Star, Gold, Blue and Union divisions - 16 clubs in the top two tiers and 32 in the lower two.
In November 2025, A22 formally requested Uefa's pre-approval of the Unify League within eight weeks.
The concept was designed to rival the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League rather than domestic competitions. Following the downfall of the ESL proposal Uefa updated its regulations regarding new competitions.
La Liga champions Barcelona have issued a statement to confirm they have officially pulled out of the European Super League. The Catalan giants were one of the original 12 clubs to sign up to the controversial project and are one of the last to leave, leaving bitter rivals Real Madrid as the only remaining team still in support of the ill-fated scheme.
Plans to form a new European Super League were announced in 2021, with 12 clubs originally involved. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico were the three Spanish clubs set to join, along with Italian sides Inter, Juventus and AC Milan and six Premier League teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham). However, a fierce backlash saw the Premier League clubs quickly pull out of the project and the other clubs subsequently followed, apart from the two Spanish giants. Barcelona have now confirmed their intention to withdraw, leaving Madrid as the only team left standing.
It was reported some time ago that Barca planned to discard the plan, and the club have posted a statement to confirm the news, saying: "FC Barcelona hereby announces that today it has formally notified the European Super League Company and the clubs involved of its withdrawal from the European Super League project."
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Barcelona were reported to be in favour of a European Super League as a means to help ease their continued financial difficulties. However, president Joan Laporta has admitted recently the club will now try to build closer ties with UEFA instead after seeing support for the project collapse.
He told AS: "The president of UEFA and the president of the ECA, now the EFC, invited us to come to Rome. I attended several meetings. It was wonderful, exciting, and we discussed many issues. You know, we're committed to building bridges between the Super League and UEFA. Barca has a clear position, and those affected and those responsible already know it. We're in favour of peace because there's room to explore together for the clubs in the Super League to return to UEFA. We feel very close to UEFA and the EFC.
"This is at the point of reaching an agreement with UEFA. Both Aleksander Ceferin and Nasser Al-Khelaifi are in a position to promote the agreement and welcome us into UEFA and the EFC. We are determined to take this step because it benefits European football and the clubs. It's a very broad framework because it also benefits the players."
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Meanwhile, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has continued to speak of his support for the project. He has also said the club will seek compensation from UEFA over it's blocking of the Super League, telling reporters: "We still insist [the Super League] is an essential project for football. With the historic judgment of the European court, and two additional judgments from the Madrid court, the situation is very different. We have had our right to create our own competitions recognised. We can also claim multimillion euro damages for UEFA's conduct. We have two rights: to be compensated for our losses, and to arrange a competition in the future, and we will tirelessly pursue both."
Real Madrid are yet to respond to Barcelona's statement but there's no doubt there's been increasing tension between the two clubs this season. Perez hit out at Barcelona over the ongoing Negreira scandal earlier in the campaign, while Laporta has responded by accusing Los Blancos of "vomiting lies". On the pitch, the two teams remain locked in a battle to top La Liga, with Barcelona currently leading the way, just a point clear of their rivals.
Cristiano Ronaldo is being tipped to leave Al-Nassr in the summer transfer window if Liverpool star Mohamed Salah makes the switch to the Saudi Pro League. The Portugal superstar's future at the club is currently in doubt amid a protest against the Public Investment Fund (PIF) over transfers which has seen Ronaldo left out of his club's last two league matches.
Ronaldo is rarely out of the spotlight but it's his future that is being discussed currently following the close of the January transfer window. The 41-year-old has reportedly gone on strike after being left frustrated at seeing title rivals Al-Hilal - who are also owned by the PIF - strengthen this winter by bringing in Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad. Benzema went on to score a hat-trick on his Al-Hilal debut for the Saudi Pro League leaders, while Ronaldo has now missed games against Al-Ittihad and Al-Riyadh. The Al-Nassr star has also been sent a strong warning by the Saudi Pro League over his dispute.
"The Saudi Pro League is structured around a simple principle: every club operates independently under the same rules. Clubs have their own boards, their own executives and their own football leadership. Decisions on recruitment, spending and strategy sit with those clubs, within a financial framework designed to ensure sustainability and competitive balance. That framework applies equally across the league. Cristiano has been fully engaged with Al Nassr since his arrival and has played an important role in the club's growth and ambition. Like any elite competitor, he wants to win. But no individual - however significant - determines decisions beyond their own club," the league said.
"Recent transfer activity demonstrates that independence clearly. One club strengthened in a particular way. Another chose a different approach. Those were club decisions, taken within approved financial parameters. The competitiveness of the league speaks for itself. With only a few points separating the top four, the title race is very much alive. That level of balance reflects a system that is working as intended. The focus remains on football - on the pitch, where it belongs - and on maintaining a credible, competitive competition for players and fans."
Former Spurs manager Tim Sherwood believes this season will be Ronaldo's least in the Saudi Pro League and that he'll be replaced by Salah. He told Casinostuga: "You've got to feel sorry for Cristiano Ronaldo, haven't you. Who wouldn't feel aggrieved that they're not signing players how he wants them signed when he's on £500k a day? He's got every right to throw a tantrum, right? I mean, what is he talking about? If I was on £500k a day I'd be asking them what do you want me to do, and when do you want me to do it? Will Mohamed Salah moving out there mean the end of Ronaldo's time in Saudi Arabia? Absolutely but then again he's always had his battles. It's been Lionel Messi all down the years and we've been blessed to witness the era of watching football that had Ronaldo and Messi around. They're both football gods and now we've got the Egyptian god as well, Mo Salah, who is fantastic and I'm pleased he's still in the Premier League, but he won't be here next season. He'll be off in the summer and it probably will be to Saudi Arabia to fill up the till like everyone else and there will be no bigger star than Salah when he goes over there. I just hope this whole story isn't how it has been portrayed for Ronaldo because it doesn't look good for him, does it."
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Salaha's Liverpool future has been in doubt since he let rip at the club and manager Arne Slot for "throwing him under the bus" towards the end of last year after being benched by the Dutchman. The Egyptian then departed for AFCON with Egypt but has now returned and been integrated back into the squad. Yet it remains to be seen if Salah will continue past the end of the current campaign. He has a contract at Anfield that runs until 2027 but speculation has continued to swirl suggesting that he will be a top target for Saudi clubs this summer.
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Al-Nassr fans have shown their support for Ronaldo by holding up signs featuring his name and number during the win over Al-Ittihad but they must wait and see when the veteran forward will return to action with their team. In the meantime, Salah and Co. face a huge test on Sunday when they welcome Manchester City to Anfield in the Premier League.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold has no imminent plans to leave Real Madrid and make a shock return to the Premier League amid rumours of Manchester City interest.
The England international made his switch to the capital of Spain in the summer, ending a 21-year stay at Liverpool and casting mixed opinions – the majority coming with discontent – across Merseyside.
Alexander-Arnold was meant to join the 15-time UEFA Champions League winners at the end of June last year, but Los Blancos paid an £8.4 million fee for him to become their player ahead of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
The 27-year-old was a key player for Liverpool under both Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot, and won the Premier League twice alongside a UEFA Champions League honour, but departed the Anfield club for a new challenge.
The versatile full-back has only started five games in La Liga so far this season, with just 16 appearances since he joined the club due to a muscle tear which has kept him sidelined since December.
His injury is expected to keep him out of action for approximately two months, but that did not stop rumours surrounding the full-back in recent weeks, which suggested he was nearing a return to the Premier League.
Since those propositions were imposed, journalist Pete O'Rourke has since revealed on the Football Insider's Transfer Insider podcast that he is not planning to return to English football, instead opting to fight for success at Real Madrid.
“Manchester City we know probably are in the market for a right-back, but I'm not sure it would go down to well with Liverpool if he was to make that move back to the Premier League with Manchester City,” O'Rourke said.
“I think, right now, Trent Alexander-Arnold is just focused on winning his place back in the Real Madrid team and proving his worth there. I don't think his plan right now is to be thinking of a move back to the Premier League so soon after leaving.”
If a move for Trent Alexander-Arnold materialised, it would have undoubtedly raised tensions on Merseyside in addition to the pre-existing disaccord in those parts, which saw a mural defaced following his famous move to Spain.
The artwork, which depicted Alexander-Arnold's name and number with the quote, ‘I'm just a lad from Liverpool whose dream has just come true' – which he said following the Reds' Champions League triumph in 2019 – was painted over with the word “rat” besides it.
In November, when both Liverpool and Real Madrid met at Anfield in the Champions League, Alexander-Arnold was introduced as a substitute and subsequently booed by the majority of the stadium, summarising the friction that his transfer caused.
Super Eagles and Fulham of England midfielder, Alex Iwobi is still very optimistic that Nigeria could still secure a place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, despite their current uncertainty in the qualification race.
The Hale End graduate admitted the national team is effectively in a state of “waiting” as Nigeria holds out for a potential lifeline to the global showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Speaking in an interview with SuperSport Football about the emotional weight of possibly missing the World Cup, Iwobi was confronted with a hypothetical question: would he rather lift the AFCON 2025 trophy or qualify for the World Cup?
For the 29-year-old, who featured at Russia 2018, the answer goes beyond personal ambition and centres on the aspirations of his teammates.
“I mean we're still waiting, hopefully we can go to the World Cup, but I feel it's a tough one. It's a tough one because winning AFCON is like… It's a great legacy, it's a great thing to have like in your career, a memorable moment.
“But then at the same time, because I've been to the World Cup already, a lot of the players haven't been. They would like to say ‘I want to go to the World Cup,' so I can't be selfish and say win the AFCON and for my teammates to not go to the World Cup. So it's a tough one. I don't know. I don't know.”
Iwobi's cautious optimism reflects the wider mood within the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which is awaiting a decision from FIFA following its formal petition over Nigeria's World Cup qualification play-off defeat to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We are still waiting. Hopefully we can go to the World Cup.”
Despite a painful penalty shootout loss to DR Congo at the Moulay Hassan Stadium in November, the Super Eagles' qualification hopes may not yet be extinguished.
The NFF has petitioned FIFA, alleging that the Congolese team fielded up to six ineligible players during the decisive encounter. The federation's case centres on what it describes as a “dual nationality trap”, arguing that while FIFA regulations permit nationality switches, DR Congo's constitution prohibits dual citizenship.
NFF General Secretary Dr Sanusi Mohammed insists the federation has a strong case.
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Former U.S. striker Jozy Altidore believes this summer's World Cup will silence doubters who claim soccer cannot compete with American football for the nation's attention, drawing parallels to the transformative impact of the 1994 tournament.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, Altidore dismissed suggestions that soccer would struggle to gain traction despite the United States co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada.
"I think people pay attention too much to the critics," Altidore told Reuters on Friday.
"I think the '94 World Cup was a good example of how having the FIFA World Cup, what it can do to a community. Because from that, a league in the United States was birthed."
The 1994 World Cup led directly to the creation of Major League Soccer two years later, and Altidore predicted similar growth this time around.
"When I look at this summer, I see a similar event happening, where there's going to be a boom in interest and registration and involvement for young kids and people across the country," he said.
The former national team striker, who scored 42 goals in 115 appearances for the United States, said he is particularly excited to watch Haiti compete in their first World Cup in over 50 years when they face Scotland in Boston.
On the U.S. team's prospects under coach Mauricio Pochettino, Altidore was optimistic.
"I think Pochettino has done a great job, you know, coming into a new culture, a new environment, and really, putting his stamp on the team, getting them to play how he wants them to play," he said. "And I think the team is kind of ramping up at the right time and peaking at the right time."
Altidore, who won the MLS Cup with Toronto FC in 2017 and retired two years ago, said the biggest impact of the World Cup would come in youth development as parents watching the tournament encourage their children to play.
As for his Super Bowl pick, Altidore, who is now a minority owner in the Buffalo Bills, have his loyalties clear. "I would much rather see Buffalo in the Super Bowl," he said, before reluctantly choosing the Seahawks from Sunday's finalists.
Marc Guiu is officially a Chelsea football player since 1 June 2024. The Catalan signed with the 'blue' entity until 2029. A long-term contract that, on paper, demonstrated the English team's intention to make him a first-team reference. But Chelsea committed an act of selfishness against him this summer.
The player's departure did not sit well with many Culés. That the young academy player had chosen to secure better economic conditions without practically having stepped onto football's highest stage caused some division: some understood it as an intelligent move and others as a poor decision, as they claimed he would find it very difficult to get regular minutes in London.
In his first season, the 2024/25 campaign, this second scenario came to pass: Guiu played only 14 matches, in which he managed to score 6 goals, all of them in the Conference League, the competition where he had the most appearances (7).
At that time, Enzo Maresca, Chelsea's manager until this January, did not give him opportunities in other scenarios. He played only 3 Premier League matches, one FA Cup match, another Carabao Cup match, and the two Conference League preliminary round matches. In the summer, he participated in two more matches in the Club World Cup, bringing his total appearances to 16.
After the experience in the United States, where he was crowned champion of the first new Club World Cup after beating PSG in the final, shortly after tasting glory in Poland against Betis in the Conference League, Guiu went on loan to Sunderland.
The challenge as a 'Black Cat' was interesting: securing survival in a category very hostile for newly promoted teams. And although he was going to find it much easier to get minutes each week, he had to earn the trust of Régis Le Bris. In the end, Guiu arrived at the club without having had practically any opportunities to prove his talent, but he could at least confirm he had a nose for goal.
He started with enthusiasm, getting into the rhythm with the team, playing 11 and 4 minutes in the league against Burnley and Brentford, and then playing the full 90 minutes against Huddersfield in the EFL Cup, a match in which he could celebrate his first goal as a 'Black Cat'. What he did not know was that his Sunderland adventure was about to end.
The serious injury to striker Liam Delap, signed that same summer for £35.5 million, blew up all of Chelsea's sporting planning, as they had also sold Nicolas Jackson to Bayern Munich. Without forwards, they were clear: bring Guiu back, even if that meant the player would rarely leave the bench.
Since returning to Stamford Bridge, Marc Guiu has played 11 matches (7 in the league, one in the FA Cup, and one in the Champions League) and has scored 2 goals. A first stretch of the season in which, once again, it became clear that Enzo Maresca had no faith in him. And now it seems Liam Rosenior, the Italian's replacement, does not either.
In the league, he has now gone 9 matches without playing (he has not done so since 6 December against Bournemouth) and, counting all competitions, he has gone 6 consecutive matches without minutes. He was on the market, but he did not end up leaving. Not even on loan. A complicated situation for the player, selfish on Chelsea's part, and one that surprises few football followers.
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The No. 3 seed could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Alexander Eala to kick off her title defense.ByDavid KanePublished Feb 07, 2026 copy_link
Published Feb 07, 2026
DOHA, Qatar—The first WTA 1000 tournament of the 2026 is about to get underway and boasts a stacked field despite the withdrawal of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.Six of the world's Top 10 women will be in action at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha, led by top seed and former champion Iga Swiatek.🖥️📲 Stream all the action from the 2026 Qatar TotalEnergies Open on the TC App!Swiatek kicked off an unforgettable 2022 season when she won the title in Doha, going on to clinch the No. 1 ranking and capture two major titles. The world No. 2 headlines a stacked top half that includes defending champion Amanda Anisimova and Australian Open semifinalist Elina Svitolina. The six-time Grand Slam champion will face either Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen or Sorana Cirstea following a first-round bye.Swiatek's rivalry with Anisimova was one of the best of 2025, Anisimova avenging a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to the Pole with hard-fought wins at the US Open and WTA Finals.Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
Six of the world's Top 10 women will be in action at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha, led by top seed and former champion Iga Swiatek.🖥️📲 Stream all the action from the 2026 Qatar TotalEnergies Open on the TC App!Swiatek kicked off an unforgettable 2022 season when she won the title in Doha, going on to clinch the No. 1 ranking and capture two major titles. The world No. 2 headlines a stacked top half that includes defending champion Amanda Anisimova and Australian Open semifinalist Elina Svitolina. The six-time Grand Slam champion will face either Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen or Sorana Cirstea following a first-round bye.Swiatek's rivalry with Anisimova was one of the best of 2025, Anisimova avenging a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to the Pole with hard-fought wins at the US Open and WTA Finals.Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
🖥️📲 Stream all the action from the 2026 Qatar TotalEnergies Open on the TC App!Swiatek kicked off an unforgettable 2022 season when she won the title in Doha, going on to clinch the No. 1 ranking and capture two major titles. The world No. 2 headlines a stacked top half that includes defending champion Amanda Anisimova and Australian Open semifinalist Elina Svitolina. The six-time Grand Slam champion will face either Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen or Sorana Cirstea following a first-round bye.Swiatek's rivalry with Anisimova was one of the best of 2025, Anisimova avenging a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to the Pole with hard-fought wins at the US Open and WTA Finals.Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
Swiatek kicked off an unforgettable 2022 season when she won the title in Doha, going on to clinch the No. 1 ranking and capture two major titles. The world No. 2 headlines a stacked top half that includes defending champion Amanda Anisimova and Australian Open semifinalist Elina Svitolina. The six-time Grand Slam champion will face either Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen or Sorana Cirstea following a first-round bye.Swiatek's rivalry with Anisimova was one of the best of 2025, Anisimova avenging a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to the Pole with hard-fought wins at the US Open and WTA Finals.Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
Swiatek's rivalry with Anisimova was one of the best of 2025, Anisimova avenging a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to the Pole with hard-fought wins at the US Open and WTA Finals.Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
Anisimova began a breakthrough year of her won last February when she won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha; the American later reached back-to-back Grand Slam finals and won a second WTA 1000 title last fall in Beijing. Seeded third, Anisimova is all but guaranteed a tricky opening two rounds as she could face former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
Pliskova is back in action after missing much of the last two years on tour due to multiple injuries, but acquitted herself well at the Australian Open by reaching the third round. Meanwhile, the 20-year-old Eala has been one of the biggest stories on tour since her fairytale run to the 2025 Miami Open semifinals.Should Anisimova make it through the opening hurdles, she is projected to face a seventh-seeded Svitolina fresh off her return to the Top 10. The former world No. 3 began 2026 with a title run at the ASB Classic and took that unbeaten streak to the last four in Melbourne, where she fell to eventual runner-up Sabalenka.Anchoring the bottom half of the draw is reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who is playing her first tournament since lifting a second career major title; she will open against either Wang Xinyu or Emiliana Arango with a projected quarterfinal against No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva.Rounding out the Top 4 seeds, Coco Gauff landed in Rubakina's half of the draw and could play fellow American McCartney Kessler in her first match of the week. Kessler scored a statement victory over Gauff in the Middle East last February, stunning the two-time Grand Slam victor at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.Main draw play begins Sunday, February 8.
Should Anisimova make it through the opening hurdles, she is projected to face a seventh-seeded Svitolina fresh off her return to the Top 10. The former world No. 3 began 2026 with a title run at the ASB Classic and took that unbeaten streak to the last four in Melbourne, where she fell to eventual runner-up Sabalenka.Anchoring the bottom half of the draw is reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who is playing her first tournament since lifting a second career major title; she will open against either Wang Xinyu or Emiliana Arango with a projected quarterfinal against No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva.Rounding out the Top 4 seeds, Coco Gauff landed in Rubakina's half of the draw and could play fellow American McCartney Kessler in her first match of the week. Kessler scored a statement victory over Gauff in the Middle East last February, stunning the two-time Grand Slam victor at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.Main draw play begins Sunday, February 8.
Anchoring the bottom half of the draw is reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who is playing her first tournament since lifting a second career major title; she will open against either Wang Xinyu or Emiliana Arango with a projected quarterfinal against No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva.Rounding out the Top 4 seeds, Coco Gauff landed in Rubakina's half of the draw and could play fellow American McCartney Kessler in her first match of the week. Kessler scored a statement victory over Gauff in the Middle East last February, stunning the two-time Grand Slam victor at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.Main draw play begins Sunday, February 8.
Rounding out the Top 4 seeds, Coco Gauff landed in Rubakina's half of the draw and could play fellow American McCartney Kessler in her first match of the week. Kessler scored a statement victory over Gauff in the Middle East last February, stunning the two-time Grand Slam victor at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.Main draw play begins Sunday, February 8.
Main draw play begins Sunday, February 8.
Sara Bejlek, a 20-year-old Czech player, claimed her first WTA singles title at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. Bejlek, ranked No. 101, won seven straight matches in the week, including victories over higher-ranked opponents. She will enter the Top 50 in the rankings after her remarkable performance.
Czech 20-year-old Sara Bejlek completed a surprise run to her first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz singles title at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open on Saturday with a 7-6(5), 6-1 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova -- her seventh win in eight days at the WTA 500 tournament.
Abu Dhabi: Scores | Draws | Order of play
The 20-year-old left-hander came into the tournament ranked No. 101 in the PIF WTA Rankings, and first needed to win two qualifying matches just to reach her second career WTA 500 main draw. Other milestones for the former Roland Garros junior doubles champion followed, including:
She doubled her career total of Top 20 wins against World No. 11 Alexandrova, as she pulled away from the No. 2 seed in 1 hour and 39 minutes after a tense first set.
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While Bejlek led for much of it, Alexandrova looked on course to turn things around after saving two set points in the 12th game. She took a 4-2 lead at the change of ends in the tiebreak. But Bejlek, who won the first set in each of her prior matches, was not about to let that streak go, and won five of the final six points to take it.
She surged to the straight-set victory after breaking in the first game of the second set, and later winning 10 straight points en route to turning 2-1 to 5-1.
Bejlek is the second straight unseeded champion in Abu Dhabi, as last year, Belinda Bencic won the title as a wild card -- following a year-long break after the birth of her first child -- and is the first qualifier to take the crown in the event's five-year history. She is also its first Czech champion.
After reaching a career-high ranking of No. 75 in November of last year, Bejlek will blast past that into the Top 50 of the PIF WTA Rankings next week.
Sara Bejlek, a 20-year-old Czech player, claimed her first WTA singles title at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. Bejlek, ranked No. 101, won seven straight matches in the week, including victories over higher-ranked opponents. She will enter the Top 50 in the rankings after her remarkable performance.
Sinner welcomed travelers on the "All Conditions Express" with Paralympic fencing champion Bebe Vio.ByTENNIS.comPublished Feb 07, 2026 copy_link
Published Feb 07, 2026
© 2026 Fred Lee
The eyes of the sporting world will be on the Milano-Cortina Olympics over the next two weeks, and Italy's biggest sporting star was on hand in the days leading up to the Games to officially kick off the celebrations.Days after losing to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open, world No. 2 Jannik Sinner fulfilled his promise to volunteer at the first Olympics on Italian soil in 20 years when he served as a ticket taker for a special train alongside his countryman, and Paralympic fencing champion, Bebe Vio.The "All Conditions Express" was commissioned by Sinner's apparel sponsor Nike as a promotional effort for the 2026 Games. The custom-painted orange Italian train kicked off a journey from Milan on Feb. 5 and will arrive at its final destination of the Orobic Alps on Feb. 8. In between, travelers will use the train as a mobile base camp, with activities including trail running and hiking set to promote a "culture of exploration" of the region.In September 2024, when Sinner was named an ambassador for the Games and its first volunteer, he spoke about why his history as a skier made him extra excited for
Days after losing to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open, world No. 2 Jannik Sinner fulfilled his promise to volunteer at the first Olympics on Italian soil in 20 years when he served as a ticket taker for a special train alongside his countryman, and Paralympic fencing champion, Bebe Vio.The "All Conditions Express" was commissioned by Sinner's apparel sponsor Nike as a promotional effort for the 2026 Games. The custom-painted orange Italian train kicked off a journey from Milan on Feb. 5 and will arrive at its final destination of the Orobic Alps on Feb. 8. In between, travelers will use the train as a mobile base camp, with activities including trail running and hiking set to promote a "culture of exploration" of the region.In September 2024, when Sinner was named an ambassador for the Games and its first volunteer, he spoke about why his history as a skier made him extra excited for
The "All Conditions Express" was commissioned by Sinner's apparel sponsor Nike as a promotional effort for the 2026 Games. The custom-painted orange Italian train kicked off a journey from Milan on Feb. 5 and will arrive at its final destination of the Orobic Alps on Feb. 8. In between, travelers will use the train as a mobile base camp, with activities including trail running and hiking set to promote a "culture of exploration" of the region.In September 2024, when Sinner was named an ambassador for the Games and its first volunteer, he spoke about why his history as a skier made him extra excited for
In September 2024, when Sinner was named an ambassador for the Games and its first volunteer, he spoke about why his history as a skier made him extra excited for
"I am proud to represent the passion for these extraordinary disciplines and the desire to contribute to the success of such a unique event," he said."In all major sporting events, volunteers have the opportunity to make the experience unforgettable for us, the athletes," he added. "Sport has always been a fundamental part of my life, especially winter sports. I learned to ski when I was just a child, and since then, the adrenaline of the slopes and the allure of the snow-covered mountains have been with me through every winter. Milano Cortina 2026 will be held in places that are very special to me, and I can't wait to watch the competitions of the champions who will come to Italy from all over the world."After fulfilling his commitment, however, Sinner did not make an appearance at Friday's Opening Ceremony as some expected. A report by Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that he chose not to attend in favor of getting extra training time ahead of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, which begins on Feb. 16.
"In all major sporting events, volunteers have the opportunity to make the experience unforgettable for us, the athletes," he added. "Sport has always been a fundamental part of my life, especially winter sports. I learned to ski when I was just a child, and since then, the adrenaline of the slopes and the allure of the snow-covered mountains have been with me through every winter. Milano Cortina 2026 will be held in places that are very special to me, and I can't wait to watch the competitions of the champions who will come to Italy from all over the world."After fulfilling his commitment, however, Sinner did not make an appearance at Friday's Opening Ceremony as some expected. A report by Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that he chose not to attend in favor of getting extra training time ahead of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, which begins on Feb. 16.
After fulfilling his commitment, however, Sinner did not make an appearance at Friday's Opening Ceremony as some expected. A report by Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that he chose not to attend in favor of getting extra training time ahead of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, which begins on Feb. 16.
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As he prepares for his maiden season in F1, Arvid Lindblad's approach has already impressed the Racing Bulls team.
Racing Bulls' leadership team have praised Arvid Lindblad for his “calm” and “professional” approach during the Barcelona Shakedown, with Team Principal Alan Permane admitting that the rookie's attitude reminds him of Isack Hadjar at the start of last season.
After joining the squad for their livery launch in January, Lindblad gained his initial mileage of the 2026 car during the event in Barcelona, putting in laps during Day 3 and Day 4 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
When quizzed at the end of the week on how impressed he had been by the 18-year-old both on and off the track, Permane answered: “Very impressed with both. He's very calm, he's very cool – nothing seems to faze him.
“He's a little bit like I described Isack last year – he just wants to learn, he just wants to take in as much information as he can. He's asking lots and lots of questions, he's asking lots of advice – how should he do this, how should he do that?
“And then of course we're helping him all the way. The most important thing – the pace – it looks like it's there. The two guys are very similar, so so far so good.”
Chief Technical Officer Tim Goss gave a similar assessment when asked earlier in the week for his take on how Lindblad was settling in, having praised the youngster for how he was handling the 2026 car – made to new technical regulations – so far.
“He's really calm, really professional, feedback is really straightforward,” said Goss. “For someone so young, it's really, really impressive. His session in the car has really just been about getting to grips with this breed of car.
“They're very, very different, not just the general handling of the car but the way you've just got to manage the energy and the energy management, and he's just been really, really cool, calm, professional.
“As we're getting to grips with the balance of the car, his feedback has just been really simple, really clear, so [we're] really, really impressed with him.”
Lindblad and Racing Bulls team mate Liam Lawson will next get behind the wheel of their new challenger when pre-season testing gets underway in Bahrain, with the first test running from February 11-13 while a second takes place across February 18-20.
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© 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
As the band celebrates 50 years of hair metal greatness, Twisted Sister‘s future is up in the air.
On Friday, the band announced that lead vocalist was resigning due to “a series of health challenges,” and as a result, their Twisted Forever, Forever Twisted 50th anniversary tour has been canceled.
“With regrets, Twisted Sister cancels 50th anniversary celebration performances,” the statement from guitarist/manager Jay Jay French and guitarist Eddie ‘Fingers' Ojeda reads. “Due to the sudden and unexpected resignation of Twisted Sister's lead singer Dee Snider brought on by a series of health challenges, the band has been forced to cancel all shows scheduled, beginning April 25th in Sao Paulo Brazil and continuing through the summer.
“The future of Twisted Sister will be determined in the next several weeks. Stay tuned for updates,” the band added.
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In September, when the tour was first announced, Snider raved about reuniting with fellow bandmates French, Ojeda, Rusell Pzütto and Joe Franco.
“If you're lucky enough to be in a band that people still want to see after fifty years, how can you not answer the call?” he said. “In 2026, TWISTED Fucking SISTER will hit stages around the world because WE STILL WANNA ROCK!!”
Bassist Mark Mendoza did not return due to “irreconcilable differences,” according to Snider.
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Authorities seized a vehicle parked inside the garage of Nancy Guthrie's Arizona home in addition to a wired camera from her roof after receiving a tip from one of her neighbors.
A tow truck was called to Guthrie's residence, located in the Catalina Foothills north of Tucson, on Friday and removed a Blue Subaru SUV — which is believed to be owned by Guthrie, per Fox News.
Cops took the truck to an impound lot near the Pima County Sheriff's Office.
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The items were confiscated after police conducted a large search on the property. Authorities did not share why the vehicle was taken.
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Footage captured FBI agents scaling the roof of Guthrie's home before grabbing what is believed to be a camera.
According to retired NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro, the device could have been overlooked during the first days of the investigation.
“Apparently on that roof, the agents recovered a new camera, a camera that apparently they hadn't been aware of and they took it into their custody. I don't know anymore than that as to why it hadn't been recovered, what it might see,” Mauro told Fox News' Jesse Watters on Friday.
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The Pima County Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Page Six's request for comment.
The update comes shortly after it was reported that police were on the hunt for a car possibly linked to Guthrie's disappearance.
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A Circle K spokesperson alleged on Friday that law officials reached out to one of their stores on Oracle Road in Tucson after “receiving a tip regarding a vehicle of interest, and our team has provided them access to the store's surveillance video.”
Nancy, who is the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on Sunday, Feb. 1, after she missed church service. She was last seen on Jan. 31 around 9:45 p.m. after having dinner with some family members.
The last known person to see her was her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, who dropped her off at her home.
On Monday, police declared Nancy's home was being treated as a crime scene. She was believed to be “taken from the home against her will,” possibly while she was sleeping.
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Since her disappearance, several ransom notes have been reported. On Tuesday, TMZ reported that the outlet received an alleged note demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin be paid in exchange for Nancy's release.
In a Thursday press conference, FBI Phoenix Special Agent Heith Janke revealed that a ransom note had been sent demanding a “transfer” be sent by a 5 p.m. MT deadline that day.
After the first deadline passed, Savannah's brother, Camron, issued a statement begging Nancy's purported captor to send proof that she's alive.
New details emerge as the search for Nancy Guthrie continues.
On Friday, a car was towed away from Nancy's house, just hours after authorities returned to the residence as part of continued investigative efforts.
In a video shared by Fox News, the vehicle, which looked like an SUV, can be seen being loaded on the back of a flatbed truck. It was accompanied by a police escort and taken to a lot near the Pima County Sheriff's Department, the outlet observed.
It was not immediately clear why the vehicle was removed from the property, though it is believed to belong to Nancy, as it had previously been seen parked in the home's garage.
Aside from the vehicle, authorities were seen on the roof of Nancy's home. Footage shared by Fox News showed FBI agents approaching a ladder on the corner near a floodlight. One of them was seen taking something that looked like a camera.
Fox News also zoomed in on the back of the house and spotted a floodlight that was badly damaged. It is worth noting that the first ransom note sent to a handful of media outlets mentioned a floodlight at Nancy's home and an Apple watch.
The FBI and local authorities are now investigating a “new message” connected to the disappearance of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy.
On Friday afternoon, Arizona-based CNN affiliate KOLD 13 reportedly received a new ransom letter and forwarded it to law enforcement.
In a joint statement, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department confirmed they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.”
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are reportedly searching for a vehicle that may be connected to Nancy's disappearance, according to NBC News.
A spokesperson for Circke K told the outlet that authorities visited one of their stores on Oracle Road in Tucson after “receiving a tip regarding a vehicle of interest.” They reportedly provided investigators access to the store's surveillance video.
As of this writing, no suspect has been identified by authorities.
On Friday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos requested the public to avoid contacting non-emergency lines to extend their condolences to the family.
“We respectfully ask that these messages be shared on social media and not through the PCSD non-emergency phone line,” Nanos said in a statement. “Calls expressing condolences have overwhelmed our communications staff, and it's critical that the line remain available for law enforcement purposes.”
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Brooklyn Beckham and wife Nicola Peltz are reportedly planning to adopt a child as their feud with his parents, David and Victoria Beckham, deepens.
The couple has had “several conversations” about raising a child that is not biologically theirs, a friend of Brooklyn and Peltz's told the Sun in a report published Friday.
“This is a subject Nicola and Brooklyn firmly align on,” the insider added. “They both want a brood of children, and for at least one to be adopted.”
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“They both know they come from a place of unimagined privilege and therefore strongly want to give back by offering a disadvantaged baby or child the best possible life,” the source explained.
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“They have talked extensively about it. Nicola has just dropped down to 90 lbs. for her latest movie role so having a child that is biologically hers right now seems out of the question.”
This new development comes weeks after Brooklyn, 26, declared that he had zero interest in reconciling with his entire family — including siblings Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20, and sister Harper, 14 — in a shocking social media rampage.
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In his statement, he accused his parents of trying to destroy his marriage to Nicola, 31, and claimed Victoria danced “inappropriately” with him at his 2022 wedding.
“Brooklyn mentioned kids, ‘future family' and ‘future children' in his statement — they were two very intentional clauses,” the source said.
David and Victoria, who are “two hugely family-orientated people” and “adore the idea of becoming grandparents,” are now facing fresh heartbreak as “it would cut them deep not to have a role in a prospective grandchild's life.”
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“The prospect of reading about an adopted baby on Instagram does not bear thinking about for them but, sadly, it is a very real prospect,” the insider added.
Brooklyn has not spoken to his parents in more than eight months, and the whole family is now currently estranged from him.
Reps for Brooklyn and Pelt did not immediately respond to Page Six's requests for comment.
In one of the latest goodbyes to an entertainment figure, “Flashdance” star Jennifer Beals fondly remembered one of her former costars, Christa Lang, around February 4, 2026 in a heartfelt Instagram post. Lang, a German-born French New Wave standout, starred with Beals in Samuel Fuller's 1990 political action thriller “The Madonna and the Dragon.” Lang died in Los Angeles at 82, The Hollywood Reporter says her daughter, Samantha Fuller, announced. The exact cause of death has not been specified, but the report does say Samantha cited “a brief period of declining health.”
Beals began her tribute by writing, “The extraordinary Christa Lang Fuller was not only a muse to the French New Wave, partner nonpareil to Sam Fuller, loving mother to her daughter Samantha but also brilliant, mischievous and magical in equal measure.”
The 62-year-old then reminisced, “She loved nothing more than to throw her artist friends into a proverbial loving pot, stir, and watch what would happen. When I first knocked at the door of her and Sam's Parisian apartment, she threw the door wide open and stark naked embraced me. With a insouciant tilt of her head she bid me follow her into the living room where Sam sat with a cigar.”
Beals went on to fondly recall, “The grande dame knew how to make a lasting impression…and a lasting friendship. She then made sure to keep Lang's daughter and granddaughter in her thoughts, saying, “My love and deepest condolences goes out to Samantha and Samira.”
A fan responded to Beals' post with their own fond memories of Lang. They wrote, “I remember the German Creme scene film “Dead Pigeon in Beethovenstrasse” from 1972. A TV film by Samuel Fuller, with Christa Lang. Rest in peace. Thank you, Jennifer Beals.”
Another fan chimed in, “Such powerful and poetic words you found to describe the impactful first moment of a meeting, and the lasting effects of a friendship. Thanks for sharing!”
Independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, known for “The Dead Don't Die” among other projects, also paid tribute in a post of his own. He wrote, “R.I.P. Christa. We now have lost the remarkable and indefatigable Christa Lang Fuller. I hold in my heart memories of adventures together, & with Sam. love & thoughts to Samantha & Samira.”
Lang was born Christa Langewiesche in Winterberg, Germany. The Hollywood Reporter's obituary points out that she showed artistic talent at an early age, having a poem published in a local newspaper at 15.
The report says she moved to France at 17, where she saved money for acting classes while doing modeling jobs, including as an art model for actor Jean-Paul Belmondo's artist father, Paul Belmondo.
Lang married Samuel Fuller in 1967, and the pair welcomed Samantha in 1975. Lang and Fuller remained married until his death in 1997.
Lang's death comes a little over a month after the loss of her fellow French New Wave icon, Brigitte Bardot.
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President Donald Trump claims investigators are very close to cracking the kidnapping case of Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie.
While speaking with reporters on Air Force One Friday night, Trump said investigators have made a lot of progress, and may even have a suspect.
When a journalist specifically asked if someone had been identified as a suspect, Trump said, “Yeah. Could be definitive,” according to TMZ.
He further said investigators have “very strong” clues. He believes “we could have some answers coming up fairly soon.”
And he made it very clear he wasn't referring to a search but rather a “solution” to the ongoing case.
“A lot's taken place in the last couple of hours. A lot of things have happened with regard to that horrible situation,” he concluded.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Page Six's request for comment.
The update comes less than 24 hours after it was reported that authorities were reviewing another potential ransom note related to Nancy's case.
The message was shared with KOLD 13 News, a local outlet in Arizona. However, the outlet did not share any further details about the note's contents.
Nancy, 84, was reported missing on Sunday after she missed church services.
The “Today” show co-anchor's mom was last seen on Saturday around 9:30 p.m. when she was dropped off at her home by her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, after having dinner with him and her daughter, Annie Guthrie. Investigators believe Nancy was abducted in her sleep.
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On Monday, authorities declared that Nancy's home was being treated as a crime scene. And earlier this week, cops addressed reports of a “possible ransom note” after several outlets — including TMZ — reported receiving letters.
At the time, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said they were “following all leads” they'd received and “sharing all of our leads with the FBI.”
The investigation bureau noted several times over the last few days that the organization “continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
Dylan Walsh, who plays Shane Hollander's dad in “Heated Rivalry,” confesses he's blown away by the massive success of the Crave/HBO Max series.
Walsh, who has been acting for close to forty years, shares that there have been many times when “I'll do something, I think, okay, this is going to move the dial,” and nothing happens.
He thought “Heated Rivalry” would be one of those projects, but admits he was dead wrong and “did not see it coming.”
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The actor, 62, “thought it was going to be good,” but since it's a gay romance show, he assumed it would only be popular with a “very selective kind of demographic.”
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“Not because I'm narrow-minded,” Walsh clarifies, “but because I know that a good portion of the country is narrow-minded. I thought it would have a little niche audience.”
The overwhelmingly positive response has been heartening for the “Nip/Tuck” alum.
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“I didn't see it doing much, and I have to say, I'm so reassured by the response,” he says. “It makes me realize we seem backward at times, but there's a lot more going on in this country.”
The series, based on the “Game Changers” book series, centers around two rival professional hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), who embark on a passionate, secret romance.
Walsh credits the show's success to several factors.
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“Well, first of all, it's audacious,” he says. “I mean, it's very bold, right?” But “at the end of the day,” it's a show about love, he adds.
The “Superman & Lois” alum recalls that series creator and writer Jacob Tierney told Walsh that he wanted him to approach his role “with compassion,” especially when Shane reveals his sexuality.
“The wheels are spinning,” Walsh remembers of Tierney's advice. “You have to absorb this. But there's a kindness and a decency when this lands that I think that it, combined with how bold it is, gives a lot of people…I don't know…it's a feel-good show at the end of the day.”
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Bryce Dessner and 'Train Dreams' won for outstanding score for an independent film.
By
Ethan Millman
Music Editor
Ludwig Göransson and Sinners were the big winners at the Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards on Friday night, as Göransson won for the film's score as well as for outstanding original song for a drama or documentary with “I Lied To You.”
Other big winners at the seventh annual awards — presented Friday night at the Skirball and hosted by Kevin and Michael Bacon — included KPop Demon Hunters Smash “Golden,” which won for best original song for a comedy or musical, beating out Wicked: For Good's “Girl in the Bubble” and “No Place Like Home,” Zootopia 2's “Zoo” and A Minecraft Movie‘s “I Feel Alive” and “Steve's Lava Chicken.”
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While Sinners took best score for a studio film, Train Dreams and composer/songwriter Bryce Dessner won in the independent film category.
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Aside from the two wins, Göransson was also honored with this year's Spirit of Collaboration Award with Ryan Coogler; the two have worked extensively together as Göransson has scored all of Coogler's feature films since his 2013 debut Fruitvale Station. Previous duos for the honor include Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese, Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee and Harry Gregson-Williams and Ridley Scott, among others.
Ching-Shan Chang won for this year's David Raksin Award for emerging talent.
See the full list of winners from this year's SCL Awards below:
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM JERSKIN FENDRIX – BugoniaALEXANDRE DESPLAT – FrankensteinMAX RICHTER – HamnetJONNY GREENWOOD – One Battle After AnotherLUDWIG GÖRANSSON – Sinners (WINNER)STEPHEN SCHWARTZ, JOHN POWELL – Wicked: For GoodOUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILMDAVID FLEMING – EternityFABRIZIO MANCINELLI – Out of the NestJÓNSI, ALEX SOMERS – Rental FamilyDARA TAYLOR – StrawSARA BARONE, FOREST CHRISTENSON – To Kill a WolfBRYCE DESSNER – Train Dreams (WINNER)OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A DRAMA OR DOCUMENTARY DIANE WARREN – “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: RelentlessED SHEERAN, BLAKE SLATKIN, JOHN MAYER – “Drive” from F1RAPHAEL SAADIQ, LUDWIG GÖRANSSON – “I Lied to You” from Sinners (WINNER)ALICE SMITH, MILES CATON, LUDWIG GÖRANSSON – “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from SinnersSARA BAREILLES, BRANDI CARLILE, ANDREA GIBSON – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good LightNIKHIL KOPARKAR, RAMMY PARK – “The Hills of Tanchico” from The Wheel of TimeOUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A COMEDY OR MUSICAL EJAE, MARK SONNENBLICK – “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters (WINNER)MARK RONSON, ANDREW WYATT, JACK BLACK – “I Feel Alive” from A Minecraft MovieSTEPHEN SCHWARTZ – “No Place Like Home”from Wicked: For GoodJACK BLACK, JARED HESS – “Steve's Lava Chicken” from A Minecraft MovieSTEPHEN SCHWARTZ – “The Girl in the Bubble”from Wicked: For GoodBLAKE SLATKIN, SHAKIRA, ED SHEERAN – “Zoo” from Zootopia 2 OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION JEFF BEAL – All Her FaultCARLOS RAFAEL RIVERA, SCOTT FRANK – Dept. QAMANDA JONES – MurderbotDAVE PORTER – PluribusSEAN CALLERY – The Beast in MeCRISTÓBAL TAPIA DE VEER – The White Lotus — (WINNER)OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION BRANDON ROBERTS – AndorDAVE PORTER – PluribusTHEODORE SHAPIRO – Severance (WINNER)DAVID FLEMING, GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA – The Last of UsANTONIO SÁNCHEZ – The StudioCRISTÓBAL TAPIA DE VEER – The White LotusOUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIAGORDY HAAB – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of GiantsWILBERT ROGET II, CODY MATTHEW JOHNSON, JON EVERIST – Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate's FortuneUSTIN WINTORY – Sword of the Sea (WINNER)MACLAINE DIEMER – WildgateDAVID RAKSIN AWARD FOR EMERGING TALENTRAASHI KULKARNI – A Nice Indian BoyGREG NICOLETT – Dr. Seuss's The SneetchesCHING-SHAN CHANG – Laws of Man (WINNER)FREYA BERKHOUT – Ride or DieSARA TREVINO – The Map That Leads to YouCAMERON MOODY – Washington Black
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By Erik Pedersen
Managing Editor
KPop Demon Hunters and Sinners scored more music-based awards-season wins Friday at the seventh annual SCL Awards presented by the Society of Composers of Lyricists.
The songwriters behind “Golden,” the Grammy-winning global smash hit from Netflix's juggernaut toon, won Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical, while “I Lied to You” took the Drama or Documentary prize during the ceremony at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. See the full list below.
Already a two-time Oscar winner for the scores for Black Panther and Oppenheimer and a 2026 nominee, Ludwig Göransson won Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film for Sinners to go with an SCL Award for the song “I Lied to You,” shared with co-writer Raphael Saddiq. Göransson also won a Grammy, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for his Sinners score and has to be consider the front-runner for an Academy Award next month.
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Meanwhile, “Golden” songsmiths EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick followed their Grammy-Globes-CCAs hat trick with the SCL on Friday. Smart money has that chart-topping song dancing with Oscar on March 15. Train Dreams composer Bryce Dessner took home the hardware for Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film.
RELATED: The 2026 Oscars: Everything We Know About The Ceremony, Host, Date & More So Far
TV winners at the SCLs were Severance and The White Lotus
The Society of Composers of Lyricists celebrated the 50th anniversary of Rocky with a musical tribute and performance conducted by Oscar-winning composer Bill Conti, who scored five films in the blockbuster franchise and co-composed its iconic theme “Gonna Fly Now” (Theme from Rocky).” Melissa Manchester performed for the In Memoriam segment, singing “I'll Never Say Goodbye,” her Oscar-nominated song from the 1979 film The Promise, written by David Shire and the late Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. Alan Bergman, who died in July, was featured during the segment. Marilyn Bergman died in 2022.
RELATED: 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries
Here are the winners at the 2026 SCL Awards:
Outstanding Original Score for a Studio FilmLudwig Göransson – Sinners
Outstanding Original Score for an Independent FilmBryce Dessner – Train Dreams
Outstanding Original Song for a Drama or DocumentaryRaphael Saadiq, Ludwig Göransson – “I Lied to You” from Sinners
Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or MusicalEJAE, Mark Sonnenblick – “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters
Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television ProductionCristóbal Tapia de Veer – The White Lotus
Outstanding Original Score for a Television ProductionTheodore Shapiro – Severance
Outstanding Original Score for Interactive MediaAustin Wintory – Sword of the Sea
David Raksin Award for Emerging TalentChing-Shan Chang – Laws of Man
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Bad Bunny will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show on Sunday, Feb. 8, during Super Bowl LX.
By
Jessica Lynch
Bad Bunny is focused less on spectacle and more on feeling as he prepares to headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show.
In a new interview with Access Hollywood's Scott Evans, the global superstar, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, opened up about the mindset behind his highly anticipated halftime performance, reflecting on his journey from bagging groceries to one of the biggest stages in the world.
“I just want to be there,” Bad Bunny said when asked how he's feeling in the final days before the show. “I'm just ready to do it. I want to feel it. I want people to watch it and enjoy it.”
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Bad Bunny
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See latest videos, charts and news
Selecting the setlist for the halftime performance proved to be one of the biggest challenges. “That was tough,” he admitted. “Even for my shows on tour, it's hard to pick 30 or 40 songs. So imagine for 30 minutes. It was very hard. The selection process was very intense.”
Rather than focusing on hits alone, Bad Bunny said he approached the show as a storytelling exercise. “I had a vision about the story, the mood, and the feelings that I want to put on that show,” he explained. “I want people to feel happiness and joy. I want to make people dance. I want to make them feel proud and think that everything is possible.”
The interview also revisited where Bad Bunny was just a decade ago. In 2016, he was working at a grocery store while making beats on the side — a reality he says still shapes his perspective.
“That's true. I was working in a grocery store, making beats at the same time,” he said. “Broke, with a lot of dreams and goals. And now I'm still dreaming. I'm still enjoying this. I'm still doing this with the same passion and the same love as the first day, before I got popular or successful.”
When the call came confirming he would headline the Super Bowl halftime show, Bad Bunny said he was at the gym — and didn't tell anyone right away. “Nobody,” he said when asked who he called first. “Not even my mom and dad. I always keep everything secret until I know it's official.”
Fresh off the 2026 Grammy Awards, where he added three more trophies to his career total, Bad Bunny also shared a moment with Lady Gaga that stuck with him. “She said, ‘I love you,'” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘I love you too.' I always get very emotional when I see her. I admire her a lot.”
As for what he hopes audiences take away once his time on stage ends, Bad Bunny kept it simple. “That I'm an honest artist. That I'm myself. That I don't act to be anything that I'm not,” he said. “That I'm proud of who I am and where I come from. The music is universal. You can connect heart to heart with a song, even without lyrics.”
He added: “I'm just a normal guy that makes music.”
Bad Bunny will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show on Sunday, Feb. 8, during Super Bowl LX, airing on NBC and Peacock.
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Inspired by the 1989 film starring Tom Hanks, the series centers on a new mom who begins to suspect something sinister is afoot in her idyllic neighborhood.
By
Angie Han
Television Critic
It's a clever twist of The 'Burbs, Peacock's new series-length spin on the 1989 cult classic, to set its story around not one but two new households on the cul-de-sac. Where Tom Hanks' Ray was an established local casting a suspicious eye on his eccentric new neighbors, Samira (Keke Palmer) and Rob Fisher (Jack Whitehall) are the new neighbors — at least for a little while, until even fresher meat arrives in the form of Gary (Justin Kirk), a sour-faced recluse.
The shift allows the show to take on a more expansive view of American suburbia: its allure and its hidden dangers, the push-pull it represents between individuality and conformity. But if its ambitions are admirable, the execution is unwieldy. A lumpy, though not unpleasant, mélange of uneven tones, thin characters and less-than-airtight reveals, The 'Burbs may not send anyone running for the hills — but it's unlikely to inspire anyone to put down stakes there, either.
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The 'Burbs
The Bottom Line
Uneven, though not unpleasant.
Airdate: Sunday, Feb. 8 (Peacock)Cast: Keke Palmer, Jack Whitehall, Julia Duffy, Paula Pell, Mark Proksch, Kapil TalwalkarCreator: Celeste Hughey
The dark comedy hails from Celeste Hughey, who, as a veteran of Apple TV's Palm Royale and Netflix's Dead to Me, knows from pretty towns hiding ugly secrets. Hinkley Hills (state unspecified) is a knowing cliché of white upper-middle-class bliss, right down to the literal picket fences…which should be a tipoff to anyone who's ever seen any show set in the suburbs that its oft-repeated slogan — “The safest town in America!” — probably conceals a more sinister truth.
To Rob, who grew up in the very Colonial he and his new wife are taking over now, the move represents a homecoming. To Samira, who up until 18 months ago was a single lawyer in the big city, it's totally uncharted territory, though she's hopeful it'll turn out to be a comfortable haven while she takes maternity leave with their newborn, Miles.
Initially, she's both charmed by the area (she's always wanted to see real live fireflies, she marvels) and wary of the neighbors, who can't seem to introduce themselves without bumbling into eyebrow-raising microaggressions. But it's not until Gary sets up in the dilapidated Victorian across the street that her suspicion kicks into overdrive. She's sure he has something to do with the disappearance of a teenage girl two decades earlier — and not just because she's suffering from boredom and baby brain, she insists, though it surely doesn't help.
Hughey smartly connects Samira's obsession with Gary to her anxiety about finding her place when she's acutely aware of how much she stands out — not just as a Black woman but also for her unfamiliarity with the local culture and even her style, trendy and exuberant in a sea of drab cardigans and tasteful polos. (Trayce Gigi Field serves as costume designer.)
“It's giving Get Out,” she remarks to Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar), Rob's childhood bestie and one of the few other non-white Hilltonians. And though he tries to reassure her that the locals “like to think of themselves as nice, so they try to act nice, until they're actually nice,” it's hard to blame her for being skeptical when she's surrounded by people who side-eye her for playing Mystikal's “Shake Ya Ass” in front of her son, or call the cops on her for attempting a friendly drop-by.
But as Samira falls deeper into the Gary mystery, the larger themes guiding The 'Burbs start to flicker in and out of view. It's not always clear what the series wants us to make of them, or even how deeply it intends for us to think about them — though there is, I guess, something endearingly honest about a series that seems to be working out its own ambivalence about its setting right there on the screen.
The most winsome aspect of The 'Burbs (and the most persuasive case for sticking with it through a premiere, directed by Nzingha Stewart, that never quite seems able to decide how sardonic or goofy or earnest it means to be) is Palmer herself. The One of Them Days star is capable of sparking chemistry with just about anybody, and she's downright adorable trading smooches and inside jokes with Whitehall. The two are wholly believable as a couple still early enough in their commitment that they look at each other like they can't believe their luck.
She's somehow even more delightful opposite RJ Cyler as Samira's brother, Langston. His role as the outside voice of reason, mostly checking in from the big city via FaceTime, means his appearances are occasional and (on a strictly plot level) generally irrelevant to the goings-on in Hinkley Hills. But the actor makes such a vivid impression with his limited screen time, and shares such a warm, comfortable rapport with Palmer, that I can only hope he'll be popping by to babysit more often should The 'Burbs get picked up for a second season.
Elsewhere, the ensemble possesses more potential than depth. Julia Duffy (as recently widowed wine lover Lynn), Paula Pell (as bored ex-Marine Dana) and Mark Proksch (as mysteriously wealthy nerd Tod) are certainly funny as the motley crew trading small-town gossip and eventually Gary-based conspiracy theories with Samira over happy hours on Lynn's porch. These are comedy professionals who can make the most of an affectionate zinger like Dana describing Tod as “adult Charlie Brown,” or wring laughs just from the way Tod awkwardly taps, rather than shakes, Samira's hand when they first meet.
But for a long time, they're collections of quirks to be admired from a distance; they don't possess the interiority needed to make them feel knowable. On that front, The 'Burbs is hindered by the same problem that plagues so many mysteries of this kind: the need to keep characterizations vague enough that any of them could plausibly turn out to be a killer. It's not until the biggest puzzle piece falls into place around chapter five, finally clarifying who's trustworthy and who isn't, that the ensemble really starts to cohere and the show along with it — and even then, lapses in logic and unaddressed questions take away some of the satisfaction of getting real answers.
Still, in the age of IP cash grabs that do little more than laboriously stretch out storylines that previously worked just fine at feather length, it's refreshing to see a series treat its source material as more launching board than bible, taking an old premise in totally new directions. Maybe the suburbs, and The 'Burbs, aren't everything they're cracked up to be. But for its flashes of inspiration and odd bits of charm, the show is worth raising one of Lynn's glasses of room-temperature Chardonnay to, all the same.
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On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history.
First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick, and why we're exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending?”
Abandoned for free on YouTube in 2011, writer/director Fen Tian's truly rancid “Love on a Leash” has since slipped its collar to become one of the internet's most notorious “bad” movies. A rom-com so baffling, it's routinely described as one of the worst films ever made. Yes, that's a major claim — even narrowed down to other low-budget indies about magic, love, and part-time zoophilia.
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But starting with two minutes of dead air (yep, there's no audio!), this cinematic oddity has as much bite as it does bark. Over the last decade, “Love on a Leash” rose to cult status less through sincere affection than the aimless endurance it saw across niche streaming. From the popular “How Did This Get Made?” podcast to a series of bewildered Letterboxd reviews, it has been revisited endlessly by scattered audiences who broadly agree that the viewing experience itself is weird and unpleasant.
And yet, this cracked meet-cute, between a struggling human woman and a toxic, cursed man-dog, is widely cited by people who admit they haven't seen it lately… or ever. The story's gnarly reputation arrived well before most viewers did, having been thrust into the exact moment film bros were obsessively hunting for the next “The Room” online. Now, a decade later, the question that lingers is whether “Love on a Leash” is the right kind of bad to keep at home, or the sort of misbegotten mutt that should've stayed lost?
When a cursed golden retriever named Prince, who sometimes transforms into a human man named Alvin Flang (voiced by Stephen Kramer Glickman, embodied by Aneese Khamo), pursues a relationship with his reluctant new owner, Lisa (Jana Camp), what might play out as a whimsical fantasy instead unfolds as a queasy portrait of domestic manipulation. Hostile to viewers and profoundly tone-deaf in its politics, “Love on a Leash” isn't just man's best friend gone bad. It's a phenomenal knock against canine-kind.
If you had plans for an uncomfortable Valentine's Day anyway, watching “Love on a Leash” lets you do it on purpose. Part of what makes it such an uneasy sit is its sincerity. Tian's technical limitations are obvious from that radio-silent first act, but so is an eerie sense of belief in the story she's telling.
Unlike “The Room,” which benefited from Tommy Wiseau's aggressive celebrity myth-making and lack of self-awareness, Tian vanished from the narrative around her film. The result is an almost reluctant cult object without a handler — possibly lovable but with a manginess that leaves you unsure whether to laugh, cringe, or get it checked for rabies. —AF
“Love on a Leash” (2011) is available to stream for free on YouTube.
Normally, when we see a dog onscreen, there's always this lizard-brain response to sympathize with that dog. But at exactly one minute, 35 seconds into “Love on a Leash,” the opening credits voiceover (I truly did not think we would be starting this story from a canine POV and that's on me) instructs some people-petting Prince, the man turned into a dog who can still turn into a man at night, to “Lay off, man, I'm not GAY.” And I turned on this dog. I turned on this dog so fucking hard, Ali.
What follows is, as far as I am concerned, a cautionary tale worthy of the morality plays of Medieval Europe. A bewildering world of magic springs and fart jokes, where a fair virgin (named Lisa) toils under the burdens of working in a thrift shop and owning a green VW bug as all serfs of the 2010s surely did. She battles the temptations of a shape-changing devil (Prince the Dog, more like Prince OF DARKNESS) meant to draw her from Christ, and then suffers the sexy, sexy consequences inherent to a woman's nature: falling from grace into sin (and also some light bondage).
I will say this for “Love on a Leash”: If this movie has a joke, it tells it. It's bursting at the seams with a relentless, middle-school enthusiasm for setups and gags and “South Park”-inspired one-liners. It's trying to find the most playful, creative ways to explore its core concept, which is not a thing you can say about films with much larger budgets and more, um, polished storylines. But man, you gotta give me something at the beginning to not hate this fucking dog. Every time Prince crossed the street, I was rooting for the cars. —SS
Read more installments of After Dark, IndieWire's midnight movie rewatch club:
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By Dominic Patten
Executive Editor, Legal, Labor & Politics
One of the many seedy guiding principles Donald Trump acquired from his mentor Roy Cohn was “admit nothing, deny everything,” and today that approach was evident as the former Apprentice host tried to wiggle out of a vile AI generated video posted on his Truth Social depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
“No, I didn't make a mistake,” the self-declared “least racist president …in a long time” Trump said tonight of apologizing to the former First Couple about the racist post. Still putting the blame for the posting on an unnamed lower-level staffer, POTUS was talking to reporters on Air Force One traveling Friday from DC to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
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“I look at a lot of, thousands of things, I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine,” he added, according to pool reports. “If you look at where it came from, I guess it was a take off of the Lion King.”
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Never one to take responsibility or admit knowledge of things if they go wrong or get blowback like this late night post of the Obamas did from almost everyone, even some hardcore MAGAheads, Trump also said: “I didn't see the whole thing. I guess during the end of it there was some kind of a picture that people don't like. I wouldn't like it either.”
“We took it down as soon as we found out,” Trump insisted on the plane Friday. The Republican did reply “Of course I do” when asked tonight if he repudiated the racist message in the video. Still, the statement that the video was taken down quickly is not entirely true once its obvious depiction got a fierce reception.
First posted late last year by a “@XERIAS_X” account, the 55-second video portrays Trump as a lion, while Hillary Clinton and now NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are depicted as a warthog and hyena respectively. In case, there was anything vague about where this was all going, a two-second scene appears at the end of the video with the Obamas as apes, dancing in the jungle to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Condemned by the likes of would-be 2028 candidates Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California andf Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania plus every other Democrat in the land, the loud dog whistling caused even Trump loyalist Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to blast the video. Running to be the next Governor of South Carolina, Scott tweeted he was “Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Calling something the “most racist thing” from Trump is really calling it out. The fact that the posting came six days into Black History Month and as more questions about connections distraction king Trump and others in his orbit had to now deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein did not seem like a coincidence.
Earlier the White House took its usual counter attack stance (another Cohn rule), with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defending the post. “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
As Deadline noted earlier Friday, there aren't any apes in Disney's Lion King, so the WH response is a bit off, to say the least. Nonetheless, as a the fallout increased, the administration deleted the offensive material . Soon after they announced “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”
Putting the blame on staff is nothing new for Trump — he's been doing it for a least a decade if not more.
The young intern who accidentally did a Retweet apologizes.
Tonight Trump asserted he knew what was going on among his staff, even though he was contending he didn't know what they were posting in his name. “”I liked the beginning, I saw it, and just passed it on,” he said, not giving any indication the person who did post it would suffer any consequences. “I didn't do it by the way, this was done by someone else, it was a re-Truth.”
What is a certain truth is that while Trump, who started his political career attacking Hawaii-born Barack Obama‘s citizenship and American birth, was declaring he hadn't done something that he had done, the former POTUS and FLOTUS were taking the high road.
Obama, who Trump clearly fears, and the ex-First Lady took to social media Friday, but ignored Trump and the despicable video. Instead they both praised American athletes participating in the XXV Winter Games that opened today in Italy.
To all the athletes representing @TeamUSA: I'm so proud of you. Your talent and perseverance have brought you to this moment, and Michelle and I will be joining Americans from across the country cheering you on.
Good luck to all the extraordinary athletes representing @TeamUSA at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics! It's been so inspiring to follow your journeys to the world stage, and we'll be cheering you on as you compete in Italy.
Giving a sense how Team Trump is viewed by many outside the USA, Team USA was cheered loudly during the opening ceremony of this year's Olympics. On the other hand, Vice President JD Vance was equally loudly booed and jeered as he stood in the VIP section of Milan's San Siro Stadium before its 60,000-strong crowd.
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Don't forget the Trump-Epstein Files.
Great, what's the intern's name? You love to say the words “you're fired,” so you got rid of the intern, right? Anyone who isn't afflicted with the MAGA brain disease knows you're full of it. Deep down, the cultists know it too, but they are too far gone and will blindly defend anything this petty, racist man-child does.
The Gaslighting of America continues.
He's trying to distract from epstein files.
You mean the Trump-Epstein files. He wants his name put on stuff, let's oblige him.
Distractions. Distractions. All of it. He's grifting by the hundreds of millions from his crypto schemes and the briberies from tech and media companies, and foreign entities. Nothing is a ‘donation' without getting something in return. Oh sure, it will all be investigated down the road of course, but right now, he and his corrupt family are getting away with all of it.
And as Americans are paying 96% of HIS tariffs, everyone's cost of living goes up and up, their health care goes up and up, their ability to afford housing gets harder and harder, and job opportunities are on the decline in nearly every sector (except of course, I.C.E.) So nobody's lives are getting better, but racist and faux-Christian people are more open to racism and bigotry.
And his morbid experiences with Epstein just get pushed to the back of the bus of conversation. Just as he and his former personal lawyers Blanche and Bondi want it.
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By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
After turning up in the latest round of Jeffrey Epstein documents, Barry Josephson has addressed his past communications with the late sex offender and human trafficker.
The Bones executive producer, who accepted multiple personal loans from Epstein and arranged set visits for young women in his circle during their years-long friendship, has recently spoken out about their correspondence.
“There's no excuse for what I said in some of my emails,” he started in a statement shared with Variety. “The language was crude and juvenile, and I'm ashamed.”
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Josephson continued, “While I did attend social events with Epstein, and he did visit my sets twice, I never traveled with him on his plane, visited his island, or saw him in the company of minors. In my 47 years working in the entertainment industry, I've encountered thousands of people. My biggest regret, bar none, is that I foolishly believed his denials of wrongdoing. I was impressed by his circle of acquaintances from varied industries, and it blinded me. I apologize to all who were hurt by this clearly terrible and depraved individual.”
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Deadline has reached out to Josephson for comment, but he has not responded.
According to the latest round of documents released by the Justice Department on Jan. 30, Josephson maintained a friendship with Epstein long after the financier was convicted in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution and other charges. Emails show the pair were in contact as recent as 2018, a year before Epstein died in prison while awaiting trial.
Not only did the former Columbia Pictures president borrow over $330,000 off Epstein in 2011 and 2012 to settle tax bills and the like, to which Josephson told him he was “overwhelmed by your friendship.” But Josephson bantered with his pedophile pal about a “young, attractive” woman with an “insane rack” for Epstein to hire as an assistant. In return, perpetual networker Epstein leveraged the relationship with Josephson to gain deep entry into Hollywood. Epstein also tried to get Josephson to score roles on Bones for women he knew, but that didn't seem to pan out.
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They were BFF's
Is anyone surprised? There are quite a few people that new of his relationship with Epstein. He will now be offered another studio exec role.
All of the celebrities and politicians who are now caught are not sorry they knew Epstein; they are sorry they got caught.
Yeah… ashamed he got caught.
Well I guess my project with Josephson Entertsinment is now dead….
The super rich are in the same club regardless of political affiliation and it's high time regular folks realize that.
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David Mamet has been trying to get a movie version of his 1988 Tony-winner Speed-The-Plow made for more than a decade at this point—even as, we can't help but notice, quite a few more current satires of the film industry have gone successfully whizzing by. Now he's finally gotten the project (apparently) together, as Deadline reports that the writer and director has wrangled Anthony Mackie, Ben Mendelsohn, Sharon Stone, and Emily Alyn Lind to star in a new film version of the play, with Mamet himself as director.
We'll be honest: It's going to be pretty odd to see how Mamet tries to update his original script—centered on two film executives (Mackie and Mendelsohn) trying to find a blockbuster hit while also engaging in a bet about whether one of them can successfully sleep with his secretary (Alyn Lind)—to reflect the nearly 40 years of cultural mutations that have gone down since. (To date this thing appropriately in your minds, just know that one of the big box office draws of the show's original Broadway run was the casting of Madonna in the secretary role.)
Although Mamet took a 17-year-long break from directing for the screen after the failure of his 2008 film Redbelt, he returned last year with the lackluster Henry Johnson. As for his cast, Mackie, Mendelsohn, and Stone—the latter playing a “crazed movie star” not featured in the original play—are obviously well known quantities at this point, while Alyn Lind has begun making a name for herself in recent years in projects like We Were Liars and the Gossip Girl reboot.
The real question, though, is just going to be whether Speed-The-Plow has anything particularly new to say about making movies in the 2020s. Mamet wasn't exactly charting virgin territory when he portrayed the film industry as a cynical and transactional cesspool back in the late Reagan years, so finding an angle that hasn't already been covered by its many, many successors is likely to prove a daunting task.
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You might be used to seeing Drew Barrymore and Valerie Bertinelli as brunettes. However, when the two got together on Barrymore's show, they both tried a new look that involved gray hair.
“The Drew Barrymore Show” took to Instagram to share a video of Bertinelli's appearance, and added a caption that noted, “Celebrity hairstylist [Chris Appleton] pulls off the most unexpected hair transformation for Drew and [Valerie Bertinelli]! 😍”
In the video, Bertinelli first emerges in a gray wig before Barrymore also tries one on. Both ladies look amazing and absolutely slay the silvery shades.
Following her appearance on Barrymore's show, Bertinelli hopped onto Instagram to share a photo of herself in the gray wig. She also had a few questions for her followers, which she included in the caption of her post, writing, “Should I do it? Should I grow out my grey? 🤔😝 … But what is the real question—the one lurking in the shadows— is it about something deeper? Does it have more to do with identity?”
“Who do I see when I look at myself? There's the version the world sees and the me that only I know,” she added. “No one else, just me. The inside me and the outside me. Is one more important than the other? Should they sync up? What if they don't?”
Noting that she “think[s] it's a little about self-perception and the friction between how we feel and how we appear,” she went on to say that “[i]t's about the version of ourselves we feel comfortable showing. It's about how much of ourselves we choose to see in the mirror. What are we reflecting upon and what is reflecting back to us?”
Wondering if she's perhaps not alone in her thinking and questions, she continued, “I see so many beautiful women who gloriously grow out their grey and if I can be completely honest, I'm a little envious. I'm not quite sure I'm there yet.”
If Bertinelli does decide to let her gray hair grow, then she'll have a lot of support. Her friends and fans made that clear when they left encouraging messages on her Instagram post.
Appleton wrote, “You are so beautiful you can do it all.”
Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt also left a comment, saying, “You look hot.”
“One of the best things you'll ever do for yourself. Freedom,” came from another follower.
Someone else wrote, “Yes!! … it's the best decision I ever made. It's a process that will help you grow so much. 🙌”
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“The Blind Side” star Quinton Aaron, 41, is reportedly doing significantly better after he was on life support following a spinal stroke.
In a statement shared with TMZ on Friday, Feb. 6, Aaron's family explained that he is in good spirits as he looks forward to watching Super Bowl LX this Sunday.
“Quinton is in a jovial mood, now laughing and smiling and is communicating to the best of his ability while he continues to recover. He's watching tv and is excited to watch the Super Bowl from his hospital bed this weekend,” the family's statement said.
Aaron was previously admitted to an Atlanta hospital in late January after he collapsed from his legs becoming numb while walking up the stairs. His partner, Margarita, rushed to help him to the couch. While in the ambulance, he was in and out of consciousness, leading to him being put on life support.
TMZ previously reported that the actor felt neck and back pain for several days before his legs turned numb. The outlet also shared that while in the hospital, it was determined that Aaron suffered a spinal stroke and has a rare cyst on his spine. Amid all of this, he is also battling a blood infection.
According to Cleveland Clinic, spinal strokes “happen when something stops blood flow in your spinal cord. Blood clots are the most common cause, but hemorrhages (broken vessels) can cause them, too.”
Aaron's family previously shared a statement with TMZ in January, asking the public to disregard any health updates about the beloved actor unless they came directly from his family.
“To be clear, any other information that you hear pertaining to Quinton's health from any other source that isn't coming directly from his official blood relative family, that will come in the form of their appointed chosen spokesperson and life long friend Liana Mendoza, is not to be taken as factual information,” the statement said.
It was later revealed by the actor's brother, Jarred Aaron, that the star's partner, Margarita, is not legally married to him and has been imposing on “crucial and life-saving medical decisions” during his hospitalization, TMZ reports.
In the same report, it was shared that Margarita told TMZ how she and Aaron “got spiritually married.” The outlet also revealed that she is married to another man amidst her relationship with the Hollywood actor. Margarita then made it clear to TMZ that she does not have power of attorney and has never made a medical decision on Aaron's behalf.
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Authorities investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie are reviewing a new tip involving a vehicle of interest, according to a report, as the search for answers continues in the high-profile case surrounding the mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
A representative for Circle K alleged on Friday, Feb. 6, that law enforcement officials contacted one of the convenience store's locations on Oracle Road in Tucson after receiving information connected to a possible vehicle involved in the case, according to Page Six.
The spokesperson said the company cooperated fully with investigators and provided access to the store's surveillance footage following the request.
They stated that officers visited the store after “receiving a tip regarding a vehicle of interest, and our team has provided them access to the store's surveillance video,” NBC News originally reported.
The store is located within the Tucson area where investigators have been concentrating their efforts in recent days.
While authorities have not publicly confirmed whether the vehicle seen on the footage is directly connected to Guthrie's disappearance, the development marks another potential lead being evaluated as part of the ongoing investigation.
The FBI acknowledged the new information in a statement shared with Page Six, emphasizing that investigators are actively working to determine its credibility.
“The FBI and Pima County Sheriff's Department are aware of a new message regarding Nancy Guthrie,” the statement read. “Investigators are actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.”
Officials stressed that the tip represents only one piece of a much larger investigation and cautioned against drawing conclusions before the information is fully verified.
“While this is one new piece of information, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are still asking anyone with tips to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI,” the statement continued.
Nancy Guthrie was reported missing earlier this week after failing to appear at her regular church service, prompting concern from family members and leading to an extensive search effort.
Authorities have since confirmed signs of a disturbance at her home and have warned that her health is fragile due to her reliance on medication.
The case has drawn national attention, in part because of Savannah Guthrie's public profile, and has prompted an outpouring of support from neighbors, community members, and viewers across the country.
As investigators continue to review surveillance footage and follow up on tips, officials maintain that every lead — including the newly reported vehicle sighting — is being taken seriously in the effort to locate Guthrie and bring clarity to the case.
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Kaley Cuoco savagely roasted Ashley Tisdale over her “toxic” mom group drama during her recent appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
The “Big Bang Theory” alum took aim at Tisdale's January bombshell essay for The Cut on Thursday, when she responded to a fan asking for her opinion on the mess.
“I mean, if you don't like being part of a group, just leave, baby,” Cuoco said, per a clip shared online. “I don't think we have to talk about it.”
Cohen quickly agreed with the actress.
“You don't have to [write an essay about it],” Cuoco, 40, added. “Just leave… find a new group.”
Tisdale made headlines last month after she called out her former friend group of moms — which included Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor and Mandy Moore — calling them out for allegedly excluding her from group hangouts.
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In her scathing essay, the Disney Channel alum claimed she chose to splinter off from the group after their “dynamic stopped being healthy and positive.”
Tisdale — who shares daughters Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 1, with with husband Christopher French — neglected to divulge names in her shocking essay. Though, she no longer follows Duff, 38, and Moore, 41, on Instagram.
A rep for Tisdale has denied that Duff and Moore were the targets of her essay.
Shortly after sharing her story, the “High School Musical” alum began facing backlash as several members of the group responded to her remarks with equally shady digs.
Duff's husband, Matthew Koma, responded to Tisdale's remarks by slamming her on social media as “self obsessed” and “tone deaf.”
A source familiar with the dispute later confirmed Koma's words, calling Tisdale “insufferable” and adding that the friendship fracture was “a long time coming.”
“Matthew gave her what she had coming,” the insider said.
Although the recently released teaser trailer for Travis Knight's new He-Man movie Masters Of The Universe answered many questions about the long-gestating action figure film adaptation—including, to the consternation of people who manage to get themselves wrapped around the axle about parts of speech, its main character's pronouns—it failed to reveal one incredibly crucial aspect: What kind of weird, fucked-up voice was Jared Leto going to do as the film's version of ranting skeleton man Skeletor?
And while we still don't know how nasal it's all going to get, a new interview with Knight centered on the character has given us a lot of exciting new phrases that we can already feel gnawing through our brains, in search of the perfect place to lay their eggs. For instance, Knight's assertion (in conversation with Empire) that “Skeletor's kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity,” which is a wild thing to say about a guy who seems to basically be a muscle suit that's been carefully layered over some bones. Equally alarming: The news that nobody asked Leto to go out for this part, as Knight notes, “Jared approached us, because he loves Skeletor and has his own history with the character. He wanted to swing for the fences.” (“Oh me?” the tulpa of Leto who lives full-time in our minds may have remarked. “I have my own history with Skeletor.”)
God bless Knight for knowing what he wants, though: The Empire piece also sees the director be asked about plans related to older version of Masters movies—because Hollywood has been trying to make this thing for 17 years at this point—that would have tried to de-goofify Skeletor by giving him a scary golden skull mask, instead of the full skeleton treatment. “Fuck that shit,” Knight declared. “Skeletor has a skull face. That's just the way it is. It's a living, talking, emoting skull, and that's that.”
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It's tough being a Bram Stoker's “Dracula” girl in a Robert Eggers' “Nosferatu” world. But not even an extra campy Caleb Landry Jones — dressed in a vampire get-up that makes him look like albino Jar Jar Binks — can make the latest retelling of the classic gothic novel feel warranted or fresh. Released by Vertical on February 6 in the U.S., filmmaker Luc Besson‘s new take on the darkly romantic horror story is a narratively tedious and contrived tale that drains from its auteur's visually lush craft.
The guy behind sci-fi favorite “The Fifth Element” once again announces himself as a connoisseur of bright colors and vaguely goofy fantasy concepts; here, through overwhelming scenes taken from a larger-than-life version of 19th-century Paris. A world this ornate should feel equally immersive in its storytelling, but as a screenwriter, Besson gets instantly caught up over-explaining his plot in a manner that suggests he may have confused literary density for sincere emotion and top-shelf prose.
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Opening 400 years earlier, Besson's “Dracula” begins with the not-yet-undead Prince Vladimir of Wallachia (Jones) going to war — after a sensuous morning spent in bed with his Princess Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu). It's not every remake you get a gothic romance where the leads actually like each other, and even fewer where they're straight. Images of the couple making love and stuffing food into each other's mouths arrives before anything else. Still, underpinning their fiery connection with a palpable fondness, Besson's direction of “Dracula” can't drum up the soul lacking from such a weirdly stiff script
When Elisabeta is murdered during a battle with the Ottoman Empire, her widowed prince vows to become a vampire and takes up the name of Dracula, promising to someday reunite with his love. It's a decent plan that Besson stretches far beyond the cold open he should've tried to instead insert obvious insecurity through dialogue that routinely repeat itself. The unceremonious skewering of a religious leader by an enraged Dracula is no exception there, and the scene feels oddly torturous not because it's too violent — but because the kill is dull and waiting for it isn't satisfied enough by the final knife's twist.
From there, audiences are thrust back to France in 1889, where Dracula sets about the arduous task of carving out a special niche in overly tired literary adaptation history. The similarities between 2024's “Nosferatu” and Besson's new “Dracula” are numerous. Echoes of the earlier film‘s imagery ring across several of Besson's otherwise distinctive shots, and while much of that overlap is stylistic, the two movies' structural comparisons also carry a recognizable cadence that marks Eggers the obvious winner. Besson takes real liberties with Stoker's original saga too, hinting at a purposeful attempt to reframe Dracula as a sly romantic hero that winds up looking like just another ineffectual vampire movie instead.
Evoking the spritely mischievousness that Jones nailed in Jordan Peele's “Get Out,” the actor's impish performance as the titular bloodsucker often plays like an extended audition for another project. He'd fit right in on AMC's “Interview with the Vampire,” and someone should have his agent check to see if “28 Years Later” is hiring more Jimmys. But those comparisons only come to mind during the film because Besson leaves so much interpretive space between the source material and his loose reworking.
As Dracula, Jones is giddy and joyous with flecks of depravity bursting through as the plot expands to include his ethereal bond with Harker's fiancée, Mina Murray (also Bleu). Holding viewers by the throat for a handful of strong beats, even as the script slips through the entire cast's fingers, the devilish actor sells Besson's interpretation on charisma and cunning. You earnestly believe in the love between the embattled prince and his princess, and watching Dracula seduce Mina in a super-saturated wonderland evocative of “Moulin Rouge!,” you buy that these second-generation soulmates may have seriously reincarnated their connection. But when digital gargoyles start flying down from the ceiling, the horror-action mechanics Besson can't help but include here overwhelm whatever intimacy his film had before.
A finale that's meant to take an intoxicating love story and make it an explosive fight to the finish becomes sincerely silly, and the erotic charge never quite comes back for Jones and his scene partner, Bleu. Their passion can't catch, and despite fun-enough moments of bloodletting and corpse counting, Besson's “Dracula” rarely if ever feels frightening. The filmmaker leans pop-comic rather than petrifying in his final draft, opting for earnestness that smothers atmospheric dread. That tonal choice might have worked with a more captivating ensemble, but as it stands, this vision never fully clicks into place.
Notably, Christoph Waltz appears as a maddeningly nonplussed priest tasked with hunting the titular vampire. He offers intellectual conversations about God, the Devil, and moral ambiguity that tease at thematic depth. And yet, Waltz's affable, wooden interpretation flattens the role and makes the movie's moral center read as oddly mundane. Running more than two hours, “Dracula” ultimately ignores the recognizable rhythms that make love stories and monster movies compelling — forcing audiences to stew in a historic dramedy that relies on flimsy humor to patch over too many technical problems.
The cast's deliveries on Besson's punchlines are strong, and editor Lucas Fabiani keeps up his end of the deal when it comes to timing. But not even Jones isn't funny or magnetic enough to sustain attention without the support of real suspense and allure. Immortality isn't the same thing as relevance, and for American audiences, Besson's “Dracula” is a fine excuse to go to the theaters but hardly a seductive one. With more than 200 “Dracula” films already in circulation, the genre feels ready to give both a rest.
From Vertical in the U.S. on February 6, “Dracula” is now in theaters.
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Smokeshow.
“Heated Rivalry” co-stars Connor Storrie and François Arnaud further fueled dating speculation by stepping out for dinner together.
The duo was spotted at the Smoke House in Burbank, Los Angeles, in photos obtained by TMZ. In the images, they were seen sharing a cozy booth at the restaurant. A small lamp in the center of the table lit the scene as they happily chatted.
In one snap, Storrie, 25, smiled at Arnaud, 40, while looking over the menu. In another, Arnaud seemingly laughed while Storrie looked off into the distance.
Days prior to their Smoke House outing, the co-stars were seen making a fashionable exit from a Paris Fashion Week party in January.
Reps for Storrie and Arnaud did not immediately return Page Six's requests for comment.
Storrie — who plays Ilya Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams' Shane Hollander in the sultry hockey drama — first sparked dating rumors with Arnaud when they were spotted jetting out of JFK following their press week in the Big Apple last month.
Some fans of the show, however, felt Storrie would be better matched in real life with his on-screen lover Williams — leading to Arnaud reportedly receiving death threats.
Arnaud subsequently unfollowed the cast and others involved in the hit series — including Williams, Robbie G.K. and Connor Storrie.
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He later re-followed the cast members and shared a composite photo of himself and Williams flipping off the camera — and subsequently denied the mass unfollowing had anything to do with the social media drama.
“What's happening is that I'm unfollowing everyone, and Instagram won't let me do that all at once,” he told the Toronto Star last month.
“You can only unfollow a certain amount of people over 24 hours, which I did not know at the time,” he added.
He also said the middle finger selfie was “completely unrelated” to the online harassment.
When Andy Cohen asked Arnaud if he was “single these days” during a January episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” Arnaud fired back, “None of your f–king business,” prompting laughter from fellow guest Mary J. Blige.
Arnaud's reticence on the topic has done little to quell romance speculation, with one person on X writing of their most recent outing, “Connor Storrie and François look absolutely beautiful.”
A fan of Storrie gushed, “I live and smile for everything that makes Connor happy. Whether it's François as his partner, friend, or whatever it may be.”
By
Nancy Dillon
Action film director Michael Bay is crying foul over Cadillac's upcoming F1 Super Bowl commercial, claiming in a new $1.5 million lawsuit that he was personally recruited to produce the pricey spot but later was cheated when Cadillac allegedly stole his ideas and left him on the sidelines.
The 19-page breach-of-contract and fraud lawsuit, filed Friday in Los Angeles and obtained by Rolling Stone, says Dan Towriss, owner and chief executive of the new Cadillac Formula 1 team, contacted Bay directly on Nov. 28, 2025, seeking to hire “the most American director [he] could find” to conceptualize, produce, and direct the commercial introducing the racing team under the Cadillac brand. Bay, known for directing the blockbusters The Rock, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, alleges he paused other projects to accept Towriss's offer to direct the high-profile, but tightly scheduled launch, in time for the Super Bowl.
Then, midway through the production, after Bay and his team allegedly expended hundreds of hours “working nearly nonstop, Towriss abruptly decided to ‘go in a different direction' and use someone else to complete the project,” the lawsuit states. It claims Towriss and his Cadillac F1 team “have apparently stolen Bay's ideas and work for the commercial, without paying for them.”
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“They planned all along to rip him off. They wanted a ‘Michael Bay' commercial, in other words, at a bargain-basement price,” the lawsuit alleges. Bay says the purported failure to honor the deal particularly stung because he had a 25-year relationship with Cadillac owner General Motors. Bay says he helped develop the vehicle design for the Bumblebee character in his Transformers franchise, and GM later sold cars by the very same design.
In his lawsuit, Bay includes an image of a written proposal allegedly used by Towriss and his ad agency to entice him to the job that said the “legendary project” called for “one of the most legendary storytellers of our generation to help bring it to life.” Bay says he was asked to complete the project on “an extreme rush basis,” by Feb. 2, 2026, so they could submit it for approval by the NFL in time for the televised championship Super Bowl LX game airing Sunday, Feb. 8.
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Bay says he was wary about working with the third-party agency and expressed his reservations to Towriss. “They steal my ideas. They try to pick my brain and give these ideas to younger cheaper commercial directors,” Bay says he told Towriss. In response, Towriss allegedly told him, “Well, I'm paying for this Super Bowl commercial, so Cadillac and I are in charge.”
Bay says Towriss vaguely mentioned an idea about using a speech by John F. Kennedy in the commercial, and Bay pulled up a clip from Transformers 3, in which he had overlaid a JFK speech about the “race to the moon” with heart-pounding music and visuals of NASA rockets prepping for launch. “Towriss was thrilled,” the lawsuit states.
Bay claims he also shared a clip from Armageddon, featuring a dry desert landscape. “Again, Towriss was thrilled,” his lawsuit alleges. Bay says he suggested gold colors, sun flares, dust, and heat ripples, citing The Right Stuff as his inspiration.
After the first major meeting with Towriss, “Bay and his team worked tirelessly around the clock to prepare for this production. Bay personally pulled an all-nighter that evening, putting together various ideas for the project,” the lawsuit states. Bay says he later showed clips from his prior films to the agency, including specific editing styles. He claims the agents “loved” his presentation.
After that, “Bay himself pulled a second all-nighter simply to prepare for his follow-up Webex with Towriss the following day,” the lawsuit says. Bay says his team approached the process “extremely seriously” and “understood it would cost defendants upwards of $15 million simply to pay for and broadcast this commercial once during the Super Bowl.”
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Bay claims he was clear with Towriss that he was developing films for Apple, Amazon, Universal, and Paramount Pictures but was willing to put everything on hold for the commercial. He says Towriss replied, “OK, let's get to work, I will let everyone know,” referring to the agency.
The director says he started hiring staff with the understanding he had a ballpark budget of $2 million for production costs and $1 million for post-production. Bay says his team tracked down the only available F1 car then physically in the U.S., which had been used in the recent film F1, and that they were in the process of shipping it to begin filming on the Mojave Airport runway as early as Dec. 11, 2025. But then, on Dec. 6, a freelance producer allegedly texted that she had some “not great news” and that the agency had decided to “go in a different direction” and use someone else to complete the commercial.
Bay's lawsuit says the “bait and switch” led Bay to text Towriss directly, asking for an explanation. “I'm not at all happy with how this played out,” Towriss purportedly responded in a text message excerpted in the lawsuit. “I will be looking for a future project to bring you with no agency in the middle.”
According to the complaint, promotional materials related to Cadillac's F1 Super Bowl commercial were later released online and contain specific elements originally proposed by Bay, including “shimmering” and “highly reflective gold chrome.”
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“Defendants specifically solicited Bay for this project,” the lawsuit alleges. “When plaintiff Bay made his sales pitch to Towriss, he asked Towriss point-blank whether he was being hired.”
The new lawsuit includes claims for breach of verbal contract, breach of implied-in-face contract, and fraud. It alleges the defendants agreed to pay Bay's standard director's fee and the producer's fee for Bay's and his team's work, which totaled approximately $1.5 million. Bay is now asking for a judgement that includes compensatory damages of at least $1.5 million as well as punitive damages.
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By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
As the Masters of the Universe makes its way to the big screen, one of Saturday morning cartoons' most iconic villains is getting the cinematic treatment.
Director Travis Knight recently teased the Jared Leto-voiced version of Skeletor in the Amazon MGM Studios/Mattel live-action film, premiering June 5 in theaters, noting that he let the actor “swing for the fences” with his portrayal.
“Skeletor was a really interesting villain,” he told Empire. “He looked cool. He was scary. He was funny. He was insecure. And then of course he had this distinctive voice.”
Knight added, “I wanted someone to craft their own version of that. Jared approached us, because he loves Skeletor and has his own history with the character. He wanted to swing for the fences. And ultimately we landed on something that I'm really happy with. Skeletor's kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”
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With the first trailer dropping last month, fans got a glimpse at Skeletor facing off against Nicholas Galatzine's He-Man.
The Chris Buttler-penned movie (from a first draft by David Callaham and Aaron & Adam Nee) also stars Camila Mendes as Teela, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Idris Elba as Duncan/Man-at-Arms, Sam C. Wilson as Trap Jaw, Hafthor Bjornsson as Goat Man, Kojo Attah as Tri-Klops, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Malcolm/Fisto and Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress.
Masters of the Universe follows 10-year old Prince Adam, who crashed to Earth in a spaceship and was separated from his magical Power Sword—the only link to his home on Eternia. After tracking it down almost two decades later, Prince Adam is whisked back across space to defend his home planet against the evil forces of Skeletor. But to defeat such a powerful villain, Prince Adam will first need to uncover the mysteries of his past and become He-Man, the most powerful man in the Universe.
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I did not know Chilly Tee was directing this. He definitely gets the 80's, nailed it in Bumblebee.
God, are they seriously going to try and make Masters of the Universe political? How is that good business?
Looking forward to Jared Leto though, he is always great.
Must be why literally all of his lead role releases in the past several years have been massive bombs.
Oh yes, everything we ever wanted out of Skeletor… ‘toxic masculinity'
Producers, word to the wise, don't let this bonehead director talk to the press anymore about your movie.
More reason this will tank…
I don't know… I think it will be hard for him to top Frank Langella.
That movie was abysmal and factually NOTHING like Skeletor
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From the Super Bowl to the Benito Bowl, here's everything you need to know about NFL's big night.
By
Kyle Hodge
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
What a year it's already been for Bad Bunny, from winning Album of the Year at the Grammys, to becoming the most streamed artists in the world, to dropping the best 2026 Super Bowl LX merch and now performing at the halftime show for NFL‘s biggest night. With fans dubbing the special event “Benito Bowl,” the Puerto Rican star is set to make history on Sunday (Feb. 8) as he'll be the first artist to perform primarily in Spanish while headlining the show. We don't know exactly what surprises he has in store for fans, but Bad Bunny has teased that the halftime show “will be a huge party.”
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Pre- and post-Benito Bowl, there's also an epic football gaming happening as well. The New England Patriots will face the Seattle Seahawks in an exciting Super Bowl XLIX rematch from 2015.
This time around, the Patriots won't have Tom Brady at the helm, but their sophomore quarterback Drake Maye has lived up to the hype this season. However, for the Seahawks, their top-rated defense is very reminiscent of their “Legion of Boom” era, which took place roughly between 2011–2017. Many sports fans will agree with the common phrase “defense wins championships,” and right now, Seattle has that advantage going into Super Bowl LX.
Bad Bunny will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, but he isn't the only big music act performing on Sunday. Green Day will kick off the night with a performance during the Super Bowl LX Opening Ceremony, followed by the national anthem, sung by Charlie Puth. Brandi Carlile will also grace the field to perform “America the Beautiful” and Coco Jones to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
To make sure you don't miss any of the musical performances as well as the Super Bowl game itself, we've created a guide to the best streaming services to watch the NFL event. Here's everything you need to know about streaming Super Bowl LX online without cable and for free.
The 2026 Super Bowl LX and halftime show will broadcast on NBC. The best way to stream the NFL event is the channel's official streaming platform, Peacock. While there is no free trial for new users, the platform offers affordable plans starting at just $10.99 per month, or an annual plan for $109.99 per year (which gets you 12 months of streaming for the price of 10). Alongside the Super Bowl, users can also stream the 2026 Winter Olympics, which just kicked off this week.
With DIRECTV, new subscribers can take advantage of a 5-day free trial, so you can watch Super Bowl LX live and for free. The streaming platform also carriers every network broadcasting the 2026 Winter Olympics and the Opening Ceremony, so you'll never miss a sports moment. With so many different sports happening. DIRECT offers unlimited DVR storage so you can record, save and watch your favorite olympic moments whenever you'd like.
For the most content offerings, you can sign up for Hulu + Live TV and get access to the Hulu library in addition to more then 95 live TV channels (including NBC). The streaming platform starts at $89.99 per month, but there's also 3-day free trial for new users.
And, for even more programming, Hulu + Live TV now comes bundled with Disney+ and ESPN Unlimited, which gives you everything within the Hulu library, in addition to exclusive content on ESPN for even more sports coverage.
Sling TV offers the Blue package, which comes with NBC, USA Network, CNBC, MS NOW, Bravo and others. Blue is one of the most affordable options and comes with more than 40 channels and can be streamed on up to three device at a time. Please note: Pricing and channel availability varies from market-to-market.
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The sports marketing power player, who was selected to lead L.A.'s 2028 Olympics Committee, is facing major backlash after tawdry emails with Ghislaine Maxwell from 2003 emerged.
By
Kevin Dolak
A chorus of calls is growing for sports agent and marketing professional Casey Wasserman to step down from not only his role as chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also his own company, after the latest trove of late financier Jeffrey Epstein's emails revealed that he had a cozy and flirtatious relationship with his now-imprisoned henchwoman, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Wasserman has been a driving force in the business of sports for decades through his firm, Wasserman Media Group, which was founded in 2002 and, through a series of acquisitions, has grown over the past 24 years to be a key player in sports marketing. The firm has also expanded into other areas, including music. Now one of his firm's artists has released a series of demands following the news about his prior ealings with Epstein and Maxwell.
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In an Instagram post, Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino sounded off on the affair, demanding the removal of her and Best Coast's name from the Wasserman Group website; for Wasserman to step down from his job at the firm; and for Wasserman Group to change its name to erase the imprint of its founder.
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“Staying quiet isn't something I can do in good conscience — especially in a moment when men in power are so often protected, excused, or allowed to move on without consequence. Pretending this isn't a big deal is not an option for me,” Cosentino wrote to her fans.
Cosentino is the first artist to comment on Wasserman's Epstein connection since the scandal broke; other Wasserman Group-signed music acts, such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, SZA and Chappell Roan, have remained quiet.
Meanwhile, the connection to the ongoing Epstein story is threatening Wasserman's position at the helm of the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which is forecast to generate somewhere between $13.6 billion and $17.6 billion in added gross domestic product for the region and create tens of thousands of new jobs. After being selected in 2015 by the city of Los Angeles, Wasserman has led the organizing committee for the 2028 Games since its inception in 2017.
The industry power player was on track to take the lead in delivering a spectacular Summer Olympics in three years — until this week, when the Department of Justice, as part of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, released the latest trove of communications and correspondence collected from Epstein's email servers. Revealed in this batch are the cozy and sexually-tinged messages between him and Maxwell, who was Epstein's right-hand woman and ex-girlfriend, who played a major role in his trafficking and sexual assault of underage girls for decades; she is now serving 20 years in prison after being found guilty of sex trafficking conspiracy and other related charges.
In the emails, which are from decades ago, Wasserman tells Maxwell, “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” and in an April 2003 email to Wasserman, Maxwell offers to give him a massage that can “drive a man wild.”
“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell [from] long before her horrific crimes came to light…I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them,” Wassrman said in a statement.
As of Friday, three Los Angeles city councilmembers, two county supervisors, and a state senator are among those now urging Wasserman to resign.
“Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately,” L.A. City councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said. “Anything less is a distraction and undermines efforts to make sure the Games truly reflect the values of a city that is for everyone.”
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By Andreas Wiseman
Executive Editor, International & Strategy
EXCLUSIVE: Pulitzer winner David Mamet is set to direct Anthony Mackie (Captain America: Brave New World), Ben Mendelsohn (Dark Knight Rises), Emily Alyn Lind (We Were Liars) and Oscar nominee Sharon Stone (Casino) in the feature version of his Tony-winning play Speed the Plow.
Mamet has been trying to make the movie version of his Hollywood satire for the best part of a decade and now gets to do so with a strong cast and a production start date of February 18, 2026, in Atlanta.
Mamet's 1988 play starred Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver in a Tony-winning performance, and Madonna.
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The new film, which will diverge to an extent from the play, will be set at the fictional American Prestige Studios, where junior executive Bob Grant (Mackie) is appointed to a head of production role. Grant is emotionally and philosophically unsuited to a job overseeing the production of schlock, but is aided, or impeded, by a studio time server, Charlie Fox (Mendelsohn); an office temp, Karen (Lind); and crazed movie star Gemma Speed (Stone).
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Cast also includes Rebecca Pidgeon as PR flack Georgia Cornchuk-Stein, and Chris Bauer as a Malibu recluse.
The Solution will launch international sales at the upcoming EFM in Berlin. Mamet will direct from his own script. Pic is being produced by Filmopoly's Vince Jolivette (The Disaster Artist) and Richie Hill (Hunting Season); Steak & Rosé's Tyler Payne and Douglas Riggs (Perfect); Jiarui Guo and Anthony Short.
Alan B. Bursteen (Oscar Shaw) of Milestone Studios negotiated the international sales agreement with The Solution Entertainment Group partners, Myles Nestel and Lisa Wilson. Executive producers are Alan B. Bursteen, Dawn Bursteen, Steve and Jack Greenberg of Pangea Studios, Emily Hunter Salveson, and Angie Sanfilippo.
Mamet is also well known for hit play Glengarry Glen Ross, which he memorably scripted for the big screen. Screenplays also include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Untouchables and Wag The Dog. Movies as director have included The Spanish Prisoner and Heist.
Mackie will next be seen in Apple's 12 12 12 and Avengers: Doomsday. Mendelsohn will next be seen in the Cary Fukunaga film Blood On Snow alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Aaron Taylor Johnson. Lind will be directing her own piece later this year backed by Killer Films and Wagner Entertainment. Stone will next be seen as one of the new cast members in the third season of HBO hit Euphoria.
Mackie is represented by UTA and Inspire Entertainment. Stone is represented by Kris Heller and Jim Osborne at Independent Artist Group and Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver Thompson. Mendelsohn is represented by Boomer Malkin and Michael DeVeau at WME. Lind is represented by CAA, Brillstein, and attorney Dave Feldman. Mamet is represented by Stan Coleman at Weintraub Tobin.
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Has Mamet anything to say about his “man I most admire” (his words) Trump?
Get a life
Is it weird to say I'm bummed John Travolta isn't in this? I always thought he'd be an interesting fit for this adaptation. Especially since Mamet has shown interest in working with him.
His iteration was cancelled and heavily revamped by Barry Levinson. However, a semblance of what he would've done was shot titled November 1963 with John Travolta as the lead and Roland Joffe directing it.
What happened to his JFK assassination project?
He's still looking for someone to play Joe Biden on the grassy noll and a young DonOld Trump catching the assassin's bullets with his teeth before a grateful JFK abdicates and makes him president for life. Y'know, like it actually happened in MAGA World.
It was killed.
Money fell through
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Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice & Gabby Barrett playing Turning Point USA's Super Bowl alternative risks becoming a turning point in public views of country music.
By
Tom Roland
The country music industry has made greater effort in recent years to understand – and court – potential minority consumers. In that context, the decision by a handful of country artists to perform during Turning Point USA's “All-American Halftime Show,” an alternative to the NFL's official Super Bowl halftime entertainment, threatens to undermine the country industry's efforts to widen its appeal.
TPUSA chairwoman/CEO Erika Kirk announced plans to hold the show specifically after Bad Bunny – a bilingual superstar from Puerto Rico, an American territory – was announced as the Super Bowl's halftime headliner. Over the ensuing months, TPUSA lined up Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett for its counter-programming. Kirk has subsequently referred to her organization's event as a “pro-American” alternative, a characterization that implies Bad Bunny is somehow un-American.
“This is one of the most divisive events that I can think of,” says Middle Tennessee State University Media and Entertainment dean Beverly Keel. “It's clear what they're doing. It is the white alternative to an American artist of Puerto Rican descent, so they're not vague in their messaging, the event programmers.”
It's not clear if the three country artists on the bill fully understood the impact of their decision to perform. The participation of Kid Rock, who is a multi-genre artist with a penchant for provocation, seems on point for his brand. The country acts declined to comment for this story. Brice, however, spoke to Fox News, saying the event provided an opportunity to “be a part of something that I believe in.”
He specifically cited the memory of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, who was killed in September during a public event at Utah Valley University in Orem.
“Charlie Kirk wanted everybody to have a microphone,” Brice said, calling the alternative halftime show “a celebration of what he believed in and what he brought to the table. And I'm just proud, you know? I'm proud to be an American, and I'm excited. I'm a musician. I get to go play music.”
Kirk, however, was more controversial than that characterization suggests. He was generally edited in conservative media in a way that made him an icon for freedom of speech, but some of his speech created critics who viewed him as racist, homophobic and misogynistic.
The artists performing on the “All-American Halftime Show” have every right to be there, but fears exist that they will be seen less as individual artists by some consumers than as a representation of country music. If those consumers see Kirk in the harsher framework and associate him with the whole of country, it could damage the genre as a whole.
“An artist has a right to do whatever they want to, as long as they understand the pros and cons and the consequences that come with that,” says Triple 8 Management artist manager Scott Stem. “My concern on this one is did they [know the direction] that Turning Point was going to take, as far as saying it's a ‘pro-American' thing when Turning Point is trying to turn it as an anti-Bad Bunny thing? Bad Bunny is most definitely American. He's Puerto Rican.”
Several other country acts were approached about participating in the Turning Point event, notes F2 Entertainment president/CEO Fletcher Foster, and they balked at the opportunity, presumably believing the likely controversy outweighed the benefit of performing on national TV. Every artist has to make decisions about their participation based on their own circumstances. They are not required, said several people interviewed for this story, to factor in the impact of their decisions on the industry overall.
“Hopefully, most artists know who their base is already,” Foster says. “Whether it be extreme left, extreme right, right in the middle, you know, are they happy with that? Or do they want to grow it? I think that's a lot of the questions. Are they fine with potentially alienating another audience?”
In the current cultural atmosphere, it is difficult to avoid those issues without appearing wishy-washy. The political parties are extremely bifurcated, and art reflects the society in which it's created.
“If music is going to be honest and authentic, then in a polarized society, it's gonna go left [or] right,” suggests Culture at Large podcaster Marcus K. Dowling. “There's no way you could say, ‘OK, I'm making a song that occupies the middle.'”
Country music executives are working to make the genre an inclusive, big-tent format, and while that specifically means outreach to progressive-minded fans and/or non-white demographics, that also means that the industry should not knock the conservative voices in its midst.
“You can't exclude somebody from that tent,” Dowling says. “Now, they could all stand in a corner of the tent, of course, because it's the biggest tent. That's the issue. I think that if you are a liberal-minded, non-conservative country music fan, when you say it's the biggest tent, it's the most inclusive it's ever been. Inclusivity works both ways.”
Gilbert posted a message on Instagram on Friday (Feb. 6) that sought to separate his motivations from the hostility that birthed the event.
“I respect that some people may see this differently, but I'm not playing this show to be divisive,” he said. “I was offered this opportunity and imagined my kids watching their daddy perform at halftime during the biggest game in American football.”
“The way I treat people isn't conditional based on what our differences may be,” he added. “I believe ‘united we stand, divided we fall,' and my prayer for our country is that we stand united.”
Unfortunately, country music has a history that is less than welcoming. Until 2008, Charley Pride was the only Black artist to become a consistent hitmaker, and even then, Darius Rucker faced pushback from skeptical gatekeepers and fielded racist social media commentary, too. He succeeded despite those voices, and since then, country's mainstream has also opened to Kane Brown, BRELAND, Jimmie Allen (whose momentum tanked after he was sued for sexual abuse), Blanco Brown and Shaboozey, who has notched two No. 1 singles on Billboard's Country Airplay chart. Shaboozey gave an emotional speech after winning a Grammy during the pre-show ceremony on Feb. 1, noting the sacrifices made by his mother, a recently retired Nigerian immigrant who worked as a registered nurse in a hospital psychiatric ward while raising her children.
He dedicated his win to immigrants: “Thank you for bringing your culture, your music, your stories and your traditions here. You give America color.”
Reflecting the whole of America, numerous firms and organizations – including the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music – have developed programs in recent years to heighten opportunities for women, LGBTQ+ creators, and artists and executives of color. The fear surrounding the “All-American Halftime Show” is that the baggage that many associate with Turning Point might taint perceptions of country's willingness to welcome everyone into its tent. One hope that's been expressed repeatedly is that fans associate the event with Kid Rock as the headliner and are able to separate country from the TPUSA brand.
“I firmly believe that everybody loves a country music song, even if they don't always want to admit it,” Stem says. “And I think that if you're interested in exploring the genre, you're going to explore it. The great thing about country music is it's wide, and there's a huge diversity there. There's conservative artists and there's liberal artists, and there's songs for everybody all the way between.”
The challenge for the genre is to make that message clear, even when events or individual artists' partnerships feed some of its stereotypical narratives.
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Two leaked videos recorded by the US military purportedly show UFOs operating in the Middle East.
The radar footage, generated by Reaper drones flown by the Air Force more than 13 years ago, was released recently by reporters and prominent UFO researchers George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell.
The US Department of War and the intelligence community officially designated the flying objects to be Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), the government's new term for UFOs.
Three lights or orbs in a triangle formation were seen moving in over the Persian Gulf on Aug. 23, 2012, one video released on Jan. 30 showed.
The objects demonstrate abrupt changes of direction and the thermographic Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) detected no heat or other signatures that mark traditional propulsion systems, according to the Knapp and Corbell report in Weaponized.
George Knapp and I have obtained and are revealing for the first time military-filmed footage of multiple UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), officially documented and cataloged within Intelligence Community investigations as "orbs" in formation. Official designation of UAP… pic.twitter.com/6lLwliVQyN
Another orb-like object was recorded by a Reaper drone on the border between Syria and Jordan in 2021, the Feb. 3 report revealed.
The strangely shaped object exhibited no heat signature but the Reaper drone's radar was able to establish a weapons-quality lock on the target.
However, slowed-down video showed the object appears to break the targeted lock and disappears from sight.
The releases are part of the continued push by UFO disclosure advocates to release military-grade footage of encounters with non-human crafts.
Reaper drone footage of an orb being struck with a 100-pound Hellfire missile and continuing to fly was revealed by Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) during a UFO disclosure hearing on Sept. 9, 2025.
The Department of War did not respond to request for comment.
Two leaked videos recorded by the US military purportedly show UFOs operating in the Middle East.
The radar footage, generated by Reaper drones flown by the Air Force more than 13 years ago, was released recently by reporters and prominent UFO researchers George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell.
The US Department of War and the intelligence community officially designated the flying objects to be Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), the government's new term for UFOs.
Advertisement
Three lights or orbs in a triangle formation were seen moving in over the Persian Gulf on Aug. 23, 2012, one video released on Jan. 30 showed.
The objects demonstrate abrupt changes of direction and the thermographic Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) detected no heat or other signatures that mark traditional propulsion systems, according to the Knapp and Corbell report in Weaponized.
George Knapp and I have obtained and are revealing for the first time military-filmed footage of multiple UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), officially documented and cataloged within Intelligence Community investigations as "orbs" in formation. Official designation of UAP… pic.twitter.com/6lLwliVQyN
Advertisement
Another orb-like object was recorded by a Reaper drone on the border between Syria and Jordan in 2021, the Feb. 3 report revealed.
The strangely shaped object exhibited no heat signature but the Reaper drone's radar was able to establish a weapons-quality lock on the target.
However, slowed-down video showed the object appears to break the targeted lock and disappears from sight.
Advertisement
The releases are part of the continued push by UFO disclosure advocates to release military-grade footage of encounters with non-human crafts.
Reaper drone footage of an orb being struck with a 100-pound Hellfire missile and continuing to fly was revealed by Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) during a UFO disclosure hearing on Sept. 9, 2025.
The Department of War did not respond to request for comment.
Repairman Jack is essentially the supernatural counterpart to the Jack Reacher novels, and I'm still waiting for the Ryan Reynolds movie that was once promised. Despite the Lee Child Jack Reacher books having been bestsellers since the late 1990s, it still took over a decade for the character to get a live-action adaptation.
Now, of course, it's a huge franchise, with the
The Reacher franchise is a crime-action universe adapted from Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels. It includes two theatrical films and a streaming television series, each centering on the titular ex-military investigator, Jack Reacher, known for his strategic mind and brute strength. The franchise also features the upcoming spin-off series Neagley, which focuses on one of Reacher's closest allies.
The Reacher franchise is a crime-action universe adapted from Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels. It includes two theatrical films and a streaming television series, each centering on the titular ex-military investigator, Jack Reacher, known for his strategic mind and brute strength. The franchise also features the upcoming spin-off series Neagley, which focuses on one of Reacher's closest allies.
Discover the latest news and filmography for Ryan Reynolds, known for Deadpool and Free Guy.
upcoming Reacher season 4 adapting Gone Tomorrow, the 13th novel in the series. The success of the Amazon Prime series has led to other streamers trying to find their own "book series about a lone wolf" success story, such as The Night Agent or Prime's own The Terminal List.
One angle that hasn't been tried with the various shows following in Reacher's large footsteps is a horror one. On that note, I think the Repairman Jack series would be perfect. Introduced in author F. Paul Wilson's horror novel The Tomb, Jack is a "fixer" who lives off the grid in New York.
His main gig is helping people who can't find justice through the regular channels. The thing I love about the Repairman Jack books is that they run the gamut from crime stories with zero horror elements to full-on Lovecraftian tales. Jack is also a very charming and likable figure, who is completely self-taught and thinks his way out of problems.
Jack is not the hulking brute Reacher is, but he's still quite useful in combat. In 2007, Ryan Reynolds was being eyed to play the character in a movie adaptation of The Tomb, though the adaptation was later redubbed Repairman Jack in hopes it would lead to a franchise.
Reynolds was on the verge of becoming a major star around this period, but hadn't quite found the right project. Movies like The Amityville Horror or Blade: Trinity hadn't worked, though he tended to get good reviews even when the films sucked. Building his own series with Repairman Jack sounded like a smart call.
The film version spent years in development, however, and quietly died around 2011, while Reynolds moved on to hits like Safe House and Deadpool. While he might be older, I'd still love to see Reynolds try the role. He's obviously got the humor, but as Smokin' Aces or Buried showed, he can play characters with a darker edge.
On one level, thriller auteur Michael Mann would be a dream director for a Repairman Jack adaptation, but he's technically already helmed a film set in that universe. 1983's The Keep was only Mann's second film, and involved an ancient evil escaping from a remote citadel when Nazis soldiers accidentally unleash it.
Wilson penned the book The Keep is based upon, which was the first in the author's seven-part Adversary Cycle. The second book was The Tomb, which marked Repairman Jack's introduction, though it's worth noting that the sequel was published the year after The Keep was released.
Still, The Keep is a key part of the Repairman Jack universe. That said, both Wilson and Mann hate the movie version, with the latter rarely addressing his cult gothic horror in recent interviews. There have been reports of a new adaptation of the book, though nothing concrete has happened yet.
While a Repairman Jack TV series would be the ideal way to adapt the attention-shy mercenary, a movie could work just as well. Reynolds is said to be a fan of the character too, so if he's looking to break away from smirky action-comedy roles, Jack is the ideal character to take on.
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There are plenty of great Stephen King TV series out there, but the author isn't a fan of every adaptation of his work. He does, however, endorse "The Institute," the MGM+ horror series about telekinetic children whose powers are exploited by a shadowy government agency. While the show isn't a carbon copy of the novel, King is pleased with the changes Benjamin Cavell and Jack Bender made to the story.
"When I write a book, it's a single-person sport and when these people do a TV show or a movie it becomes a team sport," King told AP News. "So you expect some changes and, sometimes, man, they're really good."
King also serves as an executive producer on "The Institute," further suggesting his approval of the MGM+ series. Despite being involved in some capacity, however, the author tends to leave Cavell and Bender to their own devices, which should make the upcoming second season more intriguing.
"The Institute" Season 1 largely covers the events of the book, but what does the future hold now that the story has been told on the screen? For the next installment, the creators plan to expand the lore and introduce a new story, and it appears that their idea has Stephen King's seal of approval.
"We've certainly talked a lot and thought a lot about where it would go, and I have talked a bunch to Stephen about what he thinks about it and where he sees it going," Benjamin Cavell told Variety. "So if there is a demand for more, we would love to make more."
The good news is that there was enough of a demand for more, as "The Institute" is one of many scripted series expected to return to screens in 2026. The exact date for the highly-anticipated Season 2 premiere has yet to be confirmed, but the production is already underway, so it's only a matter of time until it arrives on MGM+.
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The TOI Entertainment Desk is a dynamic and dedicated team of journalists, working tirelessly to bring the pulse of the entertainment world straight to the readers of The Times of India. No red carpet goes unrolled, no stage goes dark - our team spans the globe, bringing you the latest scoops and insider insights from Bollywood to Hollywood, and every entertainment hotspot in between. We don't just report; we tell tales of stardom and stories untold. Whether it's the rise of a new sensation or the seasoned journey of an industry veteran, the TOI Entertainment Desk is your front-row seat to the fascinating narratives that shape the entertainment landscape. Beyond the breaking news, we present a celebration of culture. We explore the intersections of entertainment with society, politics, and everyday life.Read More
Barsha Dutta has been covering the NFL since 2024, bringing a fresh and engaging perspective to the game. With Masters in Literature, she blends passion with insight, making football stories both relatable and exciting for readers. When she's not writing about the gridiron, Barsha enjoys tending to her garden and immersing herself in the world of K-pop. She also occasionally covers entertainment and pop culture news. With her unique mix of interests, she connects sports fans to the NFL in a way that feels both personal and vibrant.Read More
Sir, – Am I the only one, when seeing a report that a case has been settled out of court (“Kenny Jacobs to step down as DAA CEO after High Court action settled,” February 6th), to wonder what juicy matters might have had the light shed on them?
Such matters may have merited public airing but we will never know, especially about a semi-State body.
Call it voyeurism but I feel that I have missed the ending to an Agatha Christie novel. – Yours, etc,
John Bergin,
Oxton Wirral,
England.
© 2025 The Irish Times DAC
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Posted by Manny Gomez | Feb 6, 2026 | Conventions/ Events, Interviews, Latest News & Rumors, Live Events | 0 |
As the world turns its attention to the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX, just a few miles away at The Winchester Mystery House hosted a hauntingly unique evening the week before the big game. Celebrity psychic medium Patti Negri was invited to give her psychic prediction for which team will lift the Lombardi Trophy using the house's energy and spirits.
During the prediction, which you can see on our instagram, Negri revealed that the spirts are leaning towards a victory for the Seattle Seahawks. She also went as far as to say it would be a very entertaining game and that there could be a major shift during the game that would work against the New England Patriots.
Ahead of her prediction, I was excited for the opportunity to chat with Patti Negri at the Winchester Mystery House. In our conversation she talked about how she believes we all have certain psychic abilities that have been suppressed. This due to our overuse of logic and the modern western world. She also shared with me what it was like for her to work with the beloved crew of “Ghost Adventures”. As well as what made The Winchester House so special. It was a great chat you can check out below!
ALSO SEE: “PUPPY BOWL XXII”: RUFFEREE DAN SCHACHNER ON WHAT KEEPS HIM COMING BACK AFTER 15 YEARS [THS INTERVIEW]
The “Good Witch of Hollywood,” Patti Negri, is a Psychic-Medium, and Good Witch. Best known for her recurring role on the Discovery Channel's top rated series “Ghost Adventures.One of her episodes was part of the Discovery Channel's streaming service launch. Her wildly popular television and streaming series appearances have garnered over a billion views. The Parapod Awards recognized Patti as “Best TV Psychic 2023,” and “Best Psychic Podcast 2024.”
Patti is the international best-selling author of “Old World Magick for the Modern World: Tips, Tricks, & Techniques to Balance, Empower, & Create a Life You Love.”
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Winter Olympics in chaos after 'sabotage' on railway and explosive device found
By
Dan McDonald,
Published: 07/02/2026
Updated: 07/02/2026
The White House has allegedly issued an order to 'make it happen'
The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities to one of Congress's leading voices on disclosure.
Missouri congressman Eric Burlison, who sits on the Congressional Oversight Committee investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), revealed the development during an appearance on the ALN Podcast.
The Republican lawmaker said his request to the President and White House officials covers visits to military sites where unidentified craft, recovered materials, biological remains and archival records are rumoured to be held.“The White House has told the Department of Defence (DoD) to make it happen,” Mr Burlison said. TRENDINGStoriesVideosYour Say“The extent to which they've been involved is literally just saying to the DoD that ‘we're backing his request. Do what you can to make it happen'."The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity.A number of US military installations have long been linked to claims involving non-human spacecraft.Anonymous sources have pointed to sites said to house crashed vehicles and experimental aircraft supposedly developed using reverse-engineered alien technology.The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities for a US lawmaker | GETTYThese include Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre in the Bahamas, and the Nevada Test and Training Range, home to Area 51.During the podcast, recorded on January 30, Mr Burlison also referenced a classified site overseas.“There is reportedly an object that is not in this country that is so large it cannot be moved, that they've built an entire building around it,” he claimed.He confirmed the foreign facility remains on his requested itinerary, describing it as potentially “the final destination” of his investigation.
UFO MYSTERIES - READ THE LATEST:
Donald Trump ‘set to reveal UFO secrets' in bombshell speech ‘ready to go'UFO mystery as 'Dorito' shaped craft spotted hovering above top-secret Area 51 base'There is life out there!' Leading scientist insists aliens WILL be found by 2075The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity | GETTYMr Burlison entered Congress in early 2023 as a sceptic of UFO claims but said his views shifted after hearing public testimony from whistleblower David Grusch.Following that testimony, he contacted Mr Grusch directly and helped connect him with the House Oversight Committee.He later assisted in organising a series of public hearings at which military personnel described encounters with unexplained aerial objects.Much of the evidence presented has involved video and imagery captured by civilian and military sources, some of which had been classified by the Pentagon for years before being leaked.Area 51 has for decades been linked to claims of UFO activity | GETTYAt a UAP hearing in September 2025, Mr Burlison revealed previously unseen footage from 30 October 2024 that appeared to show a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at an orb-shaped object.According to his account, the 100-pound precision weapon appeared to bounce off the craft before it accelerated away at high speed.Sources within the Trump administration have reportedly suggested the White House may publicly disclose America's knowledge of extraterrestrial life by July, potentially presenting the UAP committee with physical evidence.Mr Burlison argued that the public has a right to such information.Speculation has swirled that the White House will reveal the existence of aliens within months | GETTY“No government has the right to withhold from you and I that we might be alone or not alone in the universe,” he said. “That is not their right. That is not classified. That's a truth that humanity deserves to know.”The congressman said he has identified further potential whistleblowers but warned many remain reluctant to come forward.He said fears of losing security clearances have left some feeling like “guinea pigs” amid concerns over how the Pentagon might respond.Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
The Republican lawmaker said his request to the President and White House officials covers visits to military sites where unidentified craft, recovered materials, biological remains and archival records are rumoured to be held.
“The White House has told the Department of Defence (DoD) to make it happen,” Mr Burlison said.
“The extent to which they've been involved is literally just saying to the DoD that ‘we're backing his request. Do what you can to make it happen'."
The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity.
A number of US military installations have long been linked to claims involving non-human spacecraft.
Anonymous sources have pointed to sites said to house crashed vehicles and experimental aircraft supposedly developed using reverse-engineered alien technology.
The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities for a US lawmaker
GETTY
These include Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre in the Bahamas, and the Nevada Test and Training Range, home to Area 51.
During the podcast, recorded on January 30, Mr Burlison also referenced a classified site overseas.
“There is reportedly an object that is not in this country that is so large it cannot be moved, that they've built an entire building around it,” he claimed.
He confirmed the foreign facility remains on his requested itinerary, describing it as potentially “the final destination” of his investigation.
The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity
GETTY
Mr Burlison entered Congress in early 2023 as a sceptic of UFO claims but said his views shifted after hearing public testimony from whistleblower David Grusch.
Following that testimony, he contacted Mr Grusch directly and helped connect him with the House Oversight Committee.
He later assisted in organising a series of public hearings at which military personnel described encounters with unexplained aerial objects.
Much of the evidence presented has involved video and imagery captured by civilian and military sources, some of which had been classified by the Pentagon for years before being leaked.
Area 51 has for decades been linked to claims of UFO activity
At a UAP hearing in September 2025, Mr Burlison revealed previously unseen footage from 30 October 2024 that appeared to show a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at an orb-shaped object.
According to his account, the 100-pound precision weapon appeared to bounce off the craft before it accelerated away at high speed.
Sources within the Trump administration have reportedly suggested the White House may publicly disclose America's knowledge of extraterrestrial life by July, potentially presenting the UAP committee with physical evidence.
Mr Burlison argued that the public has a right to such information.
Speculation has swirled that the White House will reveal the existence of aliens within months
GETTY
“No government has the right to withhold from you and I that we might be alone or not alone in the universe,” he said.
“That is not their right. That is not classified. That's a truth that humanity deserves to know.”
The congressman said he has identified further potential whistleblowers but warned many remain reluctant to come forward.
He said fears of losing security clearances have left some feeling like “guinea pigs” amid concerns over how the Pentagon might respond.
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Winter Olympics in chaos after 'sabotage' on railway and explosive device found
By
Dan McDonald,
Published: 07/02/2026
Updated: 07/02/2026
The White House has allegedly issued an order to 'make it happen'
The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities to one of Congress's leading voices on disclosure.
Missouri congressman Eric Burlison, who sits on the Congressional Oversight Committee investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), revealed the development during an appearance on the ALN Podcast.
The Republican lawmaker said his request to the President and White House officials covers visits to military sites where unidentified craft, recovered materials, biological remains and archival records are rumoured to be held.“The White House has told the Department of Defence (DoD) to make it happen,” Mr Burlison said. TRENDINGStoriesVideosYour Say“The extent to which they've been involved is literally just saying to the DoD that ‘we're backing his request. Do what you can to make it happen'."The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity.A number of US military installations have long been linked to claims involving non-human spacecraft.Anonymous sources have pointed to sites said to house crashed vehicles and experimental aircraft supposedly developed using reverse-engineered alien technology.The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities for a US lawmaker | GETTYThese include Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre in the Bahamas, and the Nevada Test and Training Range, home to Area 51.During the podcast, recorded on January 30, Mr Burlison also referenced a classified site overseas.“There is reportedly an object that is not in this country that is so large it cannot be moved, that they've built an entire building around it,” he claimed.He confirmed the foreign facility remains on his requested itinerary, describing it as potentially “the final destination” of his investigation.
UFO MYSTERIES - READ THE LATEST:
Donald Trump ‘set to reveal UFO secrets' in bombshell speech ‘ready to go'UFO mystery as 'Dorito' shaped craft spotted hovering above top-secret Area 51 base'There is life out there!' Leading scientist insists aliens WILL be found by 2075The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity | GETTYMr Burlison entered Congress in early 2023 as a sceptic of UFO claims but said his views shifted after hearing public testimony from whistleblower David Grusch.Following that testimony, he contacted Mr Grusch directly and helped connect him with the House Oversight Committee.He later assisted in organising a series of public hearings at which military personnel described encounters with unexplained aerial objects.Much of the evidence presented has involved video and imagery captured by civilian and military sources, some of which had been classified by the Pentagon for years before being leaked.Area 51 has for decades been linked to claims of UFO activity | GETTYAt a UAP hearing in September 2025, Mr Burlison revealed previously unseen footage from 30 October 2024 that appeared to show a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at an orb-shaped object.According to his account, the 100-pound precision weapon appeared to bounce off the craft before it accelerated away at high speed.Sources within the Trump administration have reportedly suggested the White House may publicly disclose America's knowledge of extraterrestrial life by July, potentially presenting the UAP committee with physical evidence.Mr Burlison argued that the public has a right to such information.Speculation has swirled that the White House will reveal the existence of aliens within months | GETTY“No government has the right to withhold from you and I that we might be alone or not alone in the universe,” he said. “That is not their right. That is not classified. That's a truth that humanity deserves to know.”The congressman said he has identified further potential whistleblowers but warned many remain reluctant to come forward.He said fears of losing security clearances have left some feeling like “guinea pigs” amid concerns over how the Pentagon might respond.Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
The Republican lawmaker said his request to the President and White House officials covers visits to military sites where unidentified craft, recovered materials, biological remains and archival records are rumoured to be held.
“The White House has told the Department of Defence (DoD) to make it happen,” Mr Burlison said.
“The extent to which they've been involved is literally just saying to the DoD that ‘we're backing his request. Do what you can to make it happen'."
The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity.
A number of US military installations have long been linked to claims involving non-human spacecraft.
Anonymous sources have pointed to sites said to house crashed vehicles and experimental aircraft supposedly developed using reverse-engineered alien technology.
The Trump administration has allegedly authorised access to classified UFO facilities for a US lawmaker
GETTY
These include Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre in the Bahamas, and the Nevada Test and Training Range, home to Area 51.
During the podcast, recorded on January 30, Mr Burlison also referenced a classified site overseas.
“There is reportedly an object that is not in this country that is so large it cannot be moved, that they've built an entire building around it,” he claimed.
He confirmed the foreign facility remains on his requested itinerary, describing it as potentially “the final destination” of his investigation.
The Missouri lawmaker has emerged as a vocal advocate of greater transparency around alleged extraterrestrial activity
GETTY
Mr Burlison entered Congress in early 2023 as a sceptic of UFO claims but said his views shifted after hearing public testimony from whistleblower David Grusch.
Following that testimony, he contacted Mr Grusch directly and helped connect him with the House Oversight Committee.
He later assisted in organising a series of public hearings at which military personnel described encounters with unexplained aerial objects.
Much of the evidence presented has involved video and imagery captured by civilian and military sources, some of which had been classified by the Pentagon for years before being leaked.
Area 51 has for decades been linked to claims of UFO activity
At a UAP hearing in September 2025, Mr Burlison revealed previously unseen footage from 30 October 2024 that appeared to show a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at an orb-shaped object.
According to his account, the 100-pound precision weapon appeared to bounce off the craft before it accelerated away at high speed.
Sources within the Trump administration have reportedly suggested the White House may publicly disclose America's knowledge of extraterrestrial life by July, potentially presenting the UAP committee with physical evidence.
Mr Burlison argued that the public has a right to such information.
Speculation has swirled that the White House will reveal the existence of aliens within months
GETTY
“No government has the right to withhold from you and I that we might be alone or not alone in the universe,” he said.
“That is not their right. That is not classified. That's a truth that humanity deserves to know.”
The congressman said he has identified further potential whistleblowers but warned many remain reluctant to come forward.
He said fears of losing security clearances have left some feeling like “guinea pigs” amid concerns over how the Pentagon might respond.
Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
The combustible sedimentary rock, better known as coal, was not only crucial to the onset of advanced technology here on earth, but it should also be key to the development of advanced E.T.s residing on any given exoearth. Or so say the authors of a new paper just published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
The authors argue that we needed large amounts of shallow, energy-dense coal to enable the technology necessary to first forge steel. Steel drill bits were crucial for extracting deep seated reserves of fossil fuel which provided the technology necessary to develop the kind of 20th century technology required to build radio telescopes capable of communicating over interstellar distances. And as the authors of this new paper assert, the same will be true for advanced alien civilizations.
For the past seven decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has focused on highly advanced civilizations that could communicate over interstellar distances via the radio or optical spectrums.
Without access to coal, our own civilization would never have been able to harness deep deposits of oil and gas and in turn generate enough heat and electricity to melt steel. This enabled the development of radio telescopes that today dot our own planet which can send and receive messages across interstellar space.
At first blush, this argument seems a bit far-fetched, but there are good reasons why this planetary caveat may limit the number of advanced technological civilizations (ATCs) out there that can initiate and deliver interstellar communications. That is, send radio or optical signals over vast interstellar distances.
Without the massive input of energy-dense fossil fuels, it's doubtful whether human civilizations would ever have been able to acquire the technological capability to build detectable infrastructure like powerful radar, the authors note.
Coal-derived energy made it possible to heat blast furnaces to high enough temperatures to make steel to extract vast amounts of oil and gas needed to drive the 20th century's technological advances.
Early coal shaft mines had depths frequently less than 100 feet, while oil wells were typically about 3,500 feet below the surface, the authors note.
But because of its portability, and effectively unlimited supply, we make the case that coal (needed to make coke for steel production) was essential for pre-industrial society to transition to an advanced industrialized society, Lincoln Taiz, the paper's lead author and a professor emeritus of Plant Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told me via email. This led to the ability and desire to communicate with ATCs on other planets, Taiz told me.
How can we go about detecting such coal-rich exo-societies?
The detection of atmospheric signals based on the combustion products of coal could indicate the presence of an Industrial Revolution on an exoplanet, the authors write. But the simultaneous detection of a combination of persistently high carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals and unusual particulates like soot would be hard to generate by natural means, they note. However, the coal-burning phase of an industrial civilization would presumably be relatively brief, and any residual techno signals would quickly disappear, drastically reducing the chances of detection, they write.
Perhaps as much as 90 percent of the coal that fueled the Industrial Revolution in England, Europe and North America was deposited during a roughly 70-million-year window spanning the Carboniferous and Permian periods, some 330 to 260 million years ago, as the authors note.
But in addition to the energy-dense strains of coal that were needed, earth was also fortuitous in the fact that it benefited from global plate tectonics (the dynamics of giant lithospheric plates as they move, collide and subduct atop our earth's outer mantle). This process, in turn, helped enable the formation of large deposits of coal that remain to this day.
In fact, plate tectonics and continental drift were crucial in producing the down-dropped basins (such as the modern-day basin and range topography of western North America) where plant growth and accumulation occurred, the authors note.
Thus, any ATC will likely need large amounts of bituminous coal to jumpstart their technology.
For those who wonder if the initial use of fossil fuels could be circumvented by using energy generated from nuclear, solar, wind or water, that's a scenario that's highly unlikely. That's because there's no doubt that early use of fossil fuels enabled the development of precision steel manufacturing and the sort of engineering and advanced metallurgy from which all these alternative fuel technologies evolved.
But there also needs to be the right timing in the creation of a planet's coal and the evolution of intelligent life forms that might harness it.
On earth, the maturation of large amounts of energy-dense bituminous coal preceded the evolution of Homo sapiens by more than a 100 million years, in time to spark the Industrial Revolution, the authors note. This might not have happened if humans (or some other highly intelligent species) had evolved much earlier, before Carboniferous coal had progressed from peat to bituminous, they note.
*The 64-meter radio telescope at Parkes Observatory as seen in 1969, when it was used to receive live televised video from Apollo 11, Credit: CSIRO via Wikipedia*
We assume that an ATC would be most likely to form on an Earth-like planet, but there are an enormous number of contingent events, starting with the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis itself, that must be replicated before you get to bituminous coal, says Taiz. Add to this the need for synchronicity between the maturation of coal and the evolution of intelligent life and replicating earth's history precisely becomes even more difficult, he says.
The Bottom Line?
All this suggests that our own advanced technological civilization may be even rarer than the ‘Rare Earth Hypothesis' that Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee first proposed, says Taiz.
Over the last three and a half decades, award-winning science journalist Bruce Dorminey --- a former Forbes senior science contributor, former Hong Kong Bureau Chief at Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine and former Paris-based technology correspondent for the Financial Times, has written for a multitude of high profile publications. They include Astronomy Magazine, Sky and Telescope, Scientific American, Science, Nature News, National Geographic, and Universe Today. He is the author of the 2001 book "Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets beyond the Solar System." He was also the host of the "Cosmic Controversy" podcast which is still available via Podbean.
Over the last three and a half decades, award-winning science journalist Bruce Dorminey --- a former Forbes senior science contributor, former Hong Kong Bureau Chief at Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine and former Paris-based technology correspondent for the Financial Times, has written for a multitude of high profile publications. They include Astronomy Magazine, Sky and Telescope, Scientific American, Science, Nature News, National Geographic, and Universe Today. He is the author of the 2001 book "Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets beyond the Solar System." He was also the host of the "Cosmic Controversy" podcast which is still available via Podbean.
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