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Editor's Note: The story was updated to include the most recent statement from the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces.
Ukrainian air strikes have damaged a key hub for Russia's intercontinental ballistic missiles over the past month, officials say, damaging a hangar and other infrastructure.
The General Staff wrote in a Feb. 5 post on Telegram that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had inflicted a series of strikes on the Kapustin Yar airfield in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast over the course of January.
"Based on current information, on the territory of the testing ground a part of the buildings have taken on various degrees of damage, one of the hangars was significantly damaged, and part of the personnel was evacuated from the territory," the post reads.
On Feb. 8, the General Staff released further details, confirming damage to a technical facility used for servicing medium-range ballistic missiles, an assembly building, and a logistics warehouse.
Kapustin Yar is a Soviet-built airfield that has long served as hub for Russia's ballistic missile program.
The Oreshnik is a much-ballyhooed intermediate-range ballistic missile that seems to be a modification of the surface-to-surface Rubezh missile, itself a modification of various ballistic weapons designed by the Soviet Union.
Russia first used an Oreshnik in Ukraine on the city of Dnipro in Nov. 2024. As far as public information goes, Russia most recently used an Oreshnik to hit Lviv Oblast in Western Ukraine on Jan. 9. It remains a largely experimental weapon, with Russia's stockpiles the subject of much speculation, though certainly limited.
Russia's rare deployments of Oreshniks typically accentuate political statements. British intelligence referred to the Lviv strike as retaliation for alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence, and that Russia "highly likely only has a handful of Oreshnik missiles."
The General Staff attributed Ukraine's January strikes to "using long-range strike weapons of Ukrainian production, particularly the FP-5 'Flamingo.'"
The Flamingo is a cruise missile advertised as having a distance of some 3,000 kilometers, capable of carrying a 1,000 kilogram warhead, and being manufactured within Ukraine at a rate of up to eight daily. Fire Point, the missile maker, said in August that the missile was already in mass production.
The General Staff has noted a handful of strikes on Russian-held territory as being the work of the Flamingo. Fire Point has also been a major recipient of funding from European benefactors, and is currently trying to kick off production of its own rocket fuel at a plant in Denmark.
Evidence of successful strikes have been relatively scarce, however, leaving manufacturer Fire Point under persistent scrutiny. As the Kyiv Independent first reported, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine was investigating Fire Point when President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to pass legislation that would put the bureau under the control of his appointed prosecutor general.
Defense Industry Reporter
Kollen Post is the defense industry reporter at the Kyiv Independent. Based in Kyiv, he covers weapons production and defense tech. Originally from western Michigan, he speaks Russian and Ukrainian. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Fortune, Breaking Defense, the Cipher Brief, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, FT's Sifted, and Science Magazine. He holds a BA from Vanderbilt University.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv around 5:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 8 amid a ballistic missile threat, The Kyiv Independent's journalists on the ground reported.
Zelensky also announced the upcoming production of Ukrainian drones in Germany.
“We don't know what happened with that particular general — maybe it was their own internal Russian infighting,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Ukraine's energy system remains under severe strain, and nuclear plants are still partially discharged as of Feb. 8 following Russia's mass attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight on Feb. 7.
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent's Anna Belokur examines SpaceX's move to curb Russia's illegal use of Starlink satellite internet — a technology that has been vital to Ukraine's defense since 2022.
The General Staff attributed the strikes to "using long-range strike weapons of Ukrainian production, particularly the FP-5 'Flamingo.'"
Those targeted include are citizens and residents of Russia, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Russian forces launched 101 drones at Ukrainian cities overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
The number includes 1,040 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"An agent of our movement set fire to a hardware module at the base of a communication tower. As a result of the destruction of the ground equipment, all the infrastructure installed on the mast was completely de-energized and put out of action," the Atesh partisan group announced.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked our region using long-range Neptune missiles and HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems," Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomaz claimed. "As a result of the attack, power supply was disrupted in seven municipalities."
Blackouts and heating outages were reported in the Russian city of Belgorod on Feb. 7 after alleged attacks on a local thermal power plant and electrical substation.
"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.
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Valeria Chomsky says Epstein had deceived them and they were ‘careless' not to thoroughly research his background
Noam Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, made a “grave mistake” and were “careless” not to thoroughly research the background of Jeffrey Epstein, Valeria Chomsky said in a lengthy statement on Saturday, adding also that Epstein had deceived them.
The relationship between Noam Chomsky, the 97-year-old linguist and philosopher, and Epstein has been under scrutiny after documents released by the justice department shed light on their friendship. As Epstein came under scrutiny for sex trafficking allegations in 2019, he asked Chomsky for advice on how to respond. “I've watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It's painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it,” Chomsky wrote in a message signed “Noam” that Epstein shared in email with an associate.
“What the vultures dearly want is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts,” Noam Chomsky wrote in the message. “That's particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.”
Noam Chomsky is one of several prominent people who were revealed to be in friendly communication with Epstein even after his 2008 guilty plea. Many now face renewed scrutiny over their ties to the disgraced financier.
Some of Noam Chomsky's communications with Epstein took place after the Miami Herald published a bombshell story in 2018 detailing how Epstein preyed on underage girls and received an unusually lenient plea deal in 2008. On Saturday, Valeria Chomsky acknowledged the couple had read that story, but said the couple wasn't aware of the extent of Epstein's crimes until after his second arrest in July 2019.
“We were careless in not thoroughly researching his background. This was a grave mistake, and for that lapse in judgment, I apologize on behalf of both of us. Noam shared with me, before his stroke, that he felt the same way,” she said (Chomsky suffered a massive stroke in 2023). “It was deeply disturbing for both of us to realize we had engaged with someone who presented as a helpful friend but led a hidden life of criminal, inhumane, and perverted acts.”
Valeria Chomsky is the linguist's second wife; they married in 2014.
She said Chomsky's 2019 advice to Epstein on rehabilitating his image should be understood “in context”.
“Epstein had claimed to Noam that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted, and Noam spoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media. Epstein created a manipulative narrative about his case, which Noam, in good faith, believed in,” she said in her statement. “It is now clear that it was all orchestrated, having as, at least, one of Epstein's intentions to try to have someone like Noam repairing Epstein's reputation by association.
“Noam's criticism was never directed at the women's movement; on the contrary, he has always supported gender equity and women's rights. What happened was that Epstein took advantage of Noam's public criticism towards what came to be known as ‘cancelling culture' to present himself as a victim of it,” she added.
Another message from Noam Chomsky released by the House oversight committee last year showed Chomsky saying it was a “most valuable experience” to have “regular contact” with Epstein (it's unclear if the message was ever sent to anyone). Other messages released by the justice department show Epstein sharing a phallic joke with Chomsky, and Chomsky “fantasizing about the Caribbean island”.
Valeria Chomsky said that the couple attended dinners at Epstein's townhouse in New York City, stayed at his apartments there and in Paris, had dinner at his ranch in New Mexico, and attended multiple academic gatherings with him. She said they “never went to his island or knew about anything that happened there”.
Noam and Epstein were introduced in 2015 and that the couple was unaware of Epstein 2008 guilty plea to solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18, Valeria Chomsky said. She said Epstein presented himself as a philanthropist interested in science.
“By presenting himself this way, Epstein gained Noam's attention, and they began corresponding. Unknowingly, we opened a door to a Trojan horse,” she said. “Epstein began to encircle Noam, sending gifts and creating opportunities for interesting discussions in areas Noam has been working on extensively. We regret that we did not perceive this as a strategy to ensnare us and to try to undermine the causes Noam stands for.”
Valeria Chomsky also clarified the basis for two financial transactions between Chomsky and Epstein. On one occasion, Epstein sent Noam Chomsky a $20,000 check as part of a linguistic challenge Chomsky developed, she said. She also said Epstein helped Noam recover $270,000. Epstein helped after Noam Chomsky discovered “inconsistencies in his retirement resources that threatened his economic independence and caused him great distress”.
Epstein offered to help and did so “likely as part of a machination to gain greater access to Noam. Epstein acted solely as a financial advisor for this specific matter. To the best of my knowledge, Epstein never had access to our bank or investment accounts.” She said neither of them – individually or as a couple – had investments with Epstein's office.
Jeff Bezos's axing of more than 300 jobs at the storied newspaper has renewed fears about the resilience of America's democracy to withstand Trump's attacks
The email landed in Lizzie Johnson's in-tray in Ukraine just before 4pm local time. It came at a tough time for the reporter: Russia had been repeatedly striking the country's power grid, and just days before she had been forced to work out of her car without heat, power or running water, writing in pencil because pen ink freezes too readily.
“Difficult news,” was the subject line. The body text said: “Your position is eliminated as part of today's organizational changes,” explaining that it was necessary to get rid of her to meet the “evolving needs of our business”.
Johnson's response may go down in the annals of American media history. “I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone,” she wrote on X. “I have no words.”
The Washington Post's Ukraine correspondent may have been rendered speechless over Wednesday's move by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire and Post owner, to cut more than 300 newsroom jobs. The bloodletting, which has raised renewed fears about the resilience of America's democracy to withstand Donald Trump's attacks, swept away the paper's entire sports department, much of its culture and local staff and all of its journalists in such arid news zones as Ukraine and the Middle East.
Others, though, managed to find their tongues. “It's a bad day,” said Don Graham, son of the Post's legendary Watergate-era owner Katharine Graham, breaking the silence he has maintained since selling the paper to Bezos for $250m in 2013.
“I am crushed,” was the lament of Bob Woodward, one-half of the paper's double act with Carl Bernstein that exposed Watergate.
“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations,” said Marty Baron, the Post's lionised former executive editor. Not one to mince his words, Baron castigated Bezos for his “sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump”, saying it left an especially “ugly stain” on the paper's standing.
Several hundred people rallied in front of the Post's offices on Thursday, voicing support for their laid-off colleagues. “It's disappointing on an immense scale. They don't seem to give a damn about this institution and the people that make it run,” said Patrick Nielsen, an engineer at the paper.
Howls of dismay were also uttered by prominent Post alumni in interviews with the Guardian. Robert McCartney, a 39-year veteran of the Post until he retired five years ago, said it was a “tragedy and an outrage”.
Like many Post insiders, McCartney has been astonished by the stark contrast between Bezos's handling of the newspaper during Donald Trump's first term in office and his conduct now in Trump 2.0.
McCartney was a senior journalist on the paper during Bezos's initial eight years of ownership, through Trump's first presidency. Back then, he, like many others, was grateful for Bezos's tutelage.
“We saw him as a savior. He pumped money into the Post, didn't meddle in the newsroom and stood up to Trump,” he said.
Fast-forward to 2026, and a very different Bezos has emerged. In 2017, soon after Trump's first inauguration, the Post introduced its new strapline: “Democracy dies in darkness.”
That wording still runs proudly beneath the masthead. At the end of a week like this one, though, America looks a notable shade darker.
Marcus Brauchli, the Post's executive editor until 2012 who now runs investment firm North Base Media, said that this was a terrible moment to be hammering one of the country's great custodians of public accountability: “These are historic times, given the cyclone bearing down on the world order and American system of government. This is when journalism matters most. I mean, laying off reporters in Ukraine, now.”
It is not as though Bezos needs the money. He is the fourth-richest person on the planet, according to Forbes, with a $245bn fortune.
As Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, pointed out, Bezos could cover five years of the Post's $100m annual losses by dipping into his earnings from a single week.
The optics of Wednesday's train wreck of an announcement were also diabolical: the job of facing the distraught staff on Zoom was delegated to the Post's beleaguered current executive editor, Matt Murray.
Bezos was nowhere to be seen. Yet there he was, earlier in the week, beaming broadly as he welcomed Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to the Florida headquarters of his space company, Blue Origin.
Nor did Will Lewis, Bezos's consigliere as publisher of the Post, have the courage to present himself as the guillotine came down. A day after he had presided over the evisceration of the paper's sports department, he was spotted attending the red carpet at an NFL Super Bowl event in San Francisco.
On Saturday night, however, Lewis abruptly resigned, acknowledging “difficult decisions” as he praised Bezos's leadership of the paper.
The lay-offs came just five days after the launch of the first lady documentary, Melania, bankrolled by Amazon MGM Studios. Bezos sank $75m into that pile of “gilded trash” yet, unlike the Post, seems unfazed by the film's paltry return on investment.
“What Bezos did for Melania while gutting his own newspaper,” wrote the historian Simon Schama, will come to be seen “as the most glaring symptom of cultural collapse in a democracy hanging on to truth by the barest of threads”.
This fateful juncture has been looming for a while. The first warning signs came in October 2024, when Bezos yanked the Post's planned endorsement of Trump's Democratic rival Kamala Harris just 11 days before the presidential election.
A wave of public revulsion ensued, leading to the cancellation of at least 250,000 Post subscriptions.
Soon after, the billionaire unilaterally imposed new strictures on the paper's opinion content. He introduced what he called his “two pillars”: “personal liberties and free markets.”
That drove many of the paper's top commentators rushing for the exit, among them the economics columnist Eduardo Porter, who now writes for the Guardian. “This layering of dogma undermined critical thinking,” Porter recalled. “It turned the Post into something more akin to a church, with tight constraints on thought.”
This week's day of the long knives has left many people desperately seeking explanations. There were clearly business motives at play: you don't get to be a gazillionaire like Bezos without caring about profit lines, and the Post has been battered in recent years by harsh industry headwinds.
But there are other, more sinister, interpretations. McCartney thinks back to 2019 when Amazon lost a $10bn Pentagon cloud-computing contract during Trump's first term.
Amazon complained in a lawsuit that this was a blatant act of retaliation by Trump, punishing Bezos for the Washington Post's piercing coverage of his administration. Could it be that the bruising experience led Bezos to change tack, concluding that shining a light in defense of American democracy came at too high a price for the jewels in his business empire, Amazon and Blue Origin?
“It's very likely that the desire to appease Trump, to placate him, is playing a role in these decisions,” McCartney said.
That's a chilling thought for such a beacon of accountability journalism as the Washington Post. And it is set against the already parlous state of US media.
Since 2000, some 3,500 newspapers have closed shop, abandoning one in four Americans who now live in news deserts with no local newspaper. The most recent casualty was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which will publish its final edition in May. It was founded in 1786, three years before George Washington donned the mantle of first president.
While many papers have been folding, others have fallen into the hands of a new breed of super-wealthy tech and venture capitalist owners who, like Bezos, see journalism as an asset to monetize: the Los Angeles Times was acquired in 2018 by a biotech billionaire, Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Like Bezos, Soon-Shiong has displayed symptoms of Trump Appeasement Syndrome. He too refused to allow his paper to endorse Harris days before the 2024 election.
Historic newspapers brought low, news deserts proliferating: this is fertile ground on which misinformation and the Maga pestilence can grow. Trump has cultivated it relentlessly to his advantage.
Long hostile towards what he calls the “fake news media”, Trump has taken his vendetta against truth-seekers to a new level. He has stripped public media channels NPR and PBS of more than $1bn in federal funding, launched full-frontal attacks on individual journalists and outlets exposing his corruption and lies and sustained a bullying campaign against corporate owners designed to browbeat them into subservience.
CBS News is the consummate example. Trump leaned on Paramount, which owned the news network, with a $10bn lawsuit over a 60 Minutes pre-election interview with Harris. Paramount settled for $16m, even though the suit was widely ridiculed as spurious.
Front of Paramount's mind, no doubt, was its upcoming merger with Skydance Media that required federal – ie Trump's – approval.
Following the merger, David Ellison became CEO of Paramount Skydance. He is son of the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is a close friend and adviser of Trump's.
The younger Ellison went ahead and appointed the anti-woke commentator Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News, sending shockwaves through the storied network's dazed and demoralised staff. Weiss, who came to the job with no TV industry experience, has swiftly confirmed their fears.
She pulled a 60 Minutes segment on the notorious Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador to which the Trump administration had been deporting immigrants. Among her early hires as CBS News contributors are a Trump loyalist and former US marine, a prominent vaccine skeptic buddy of the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, and fellow anti-woke firebrand Niall Ferguson.
The cumulative malaise that is descending over US media leaves the country's democratic institutions vulnerable to attack. It can't be exclusively blamed for Trump's excesses.
There are plenty of other willing accomplices and capitulators, including universities like Columbia, corporate law firms and the gung-ho conservative activists who now control the supreme court.
But from Trump's perspective, a media on its knees surely helps. The results are present everywhere you look.
Trump is unleashed, unchained. He feels so comfortable in his regal skin that he can berate a respected female CNN reporter questioning him on the Epstein files for never smiling.
He can peddle unashamedly in racism, posting a video depicting the first Black president and his first lady as monkeys.
He can send a masked paramilitary into the streets of Minneapolis, resulting in Americans getting killed for exercising their first amendment rights. And when the polls for November's midterm elections look challenging for him, he can prepare for another blitzkrieg on the very foundations of American democracy: the ballot box.
There's a paradox in all this. Many of the democratic norms that Trump is obliterating – take for example his destruction of the norm of Department of Justice independence in his persecution of his political opponents – were laid down in the 1970s in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
That's the same Watergate scandal that was brought into the light by that pair of courageous reporters at a newspaper called the Washington Post.
The chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned on Sunday over the scandal around Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US, despite his links to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” Morgan McSweeney said in a statement to reporters on Sunday.
The Downing Street chief of staff is the most senior political adviser to the UK prime minister.
McSweeney said he took “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to make the appointment last year, adding “in the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.”
“While I did not oversee the due diligence and vetting process, I believe that process must now be fundamentally overhauled. This cannot simply be a gesture but a safeguard for the future,” McSweeney said.
Starmer thanked the outgoing chief of staff for his service and commitment to the Labour Party. “It is largely thanks to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we won a landslide majority and have the chance to change the country,” the prime minister said in a statement.
The most recent tranche of Epstein files released by the US Justice Department triggered a police investigation into Mandelson, who has been accused of passing on market-sensitive government information that was of clear financial interest to Epstein following the 2008 financial crisis. Police raided two of Mandelson's properties on Friday as part of their investigation into misconduct in public office.
Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party last Sunday and quit the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain's parliament, on Wednesday. CNN has been unable to contact Mandelson this week.
The Mandelson scandal has plunged Keir Starmer's government into crisis and raised questions about the prime minister's political judgment. Starmer appointed Mandelson as ambassador last year, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued after the financier was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
CNN's Christian Edwards contributed reporting.
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Demonstrators clash with police during a protest against the environmental, economic and social impact of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics Games in Milan on Saturday.PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP/Getty Images
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni condemned recent anti-Olympics protests in Milan and alleged sabotage of train infrastructure, calling those responsible “enemies of Italy and Italians” early Sunday.
The protesters “demonstrate ‘against the Olympics,' causing these images to end up on televisions around the world. After others cut the railway cables to prevent the trains from leaving,” Meloni said in a statement on Facebook, adding that thousands of Italians are working to keep the Games running smoothly, many of whom are volunteers.
“Solidarity, once again, with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals,” she said.
Italy's transport ministry said it has opened a terrorism investigation into the synchronized sabotage of railway lines in northern Italy on Saturday, the first day of the Games.
No one has claimed responsibility, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Protesters rally in Milan against U.S. ICE presence ahead of opening ceremony
The alleged sabotage first hit the central Bologna hub, which governs rail traffic between northern and southern Italy, around 6 a.m. Saturday when it was still dark out, ANSA reported. It then struck Pesaro-area trains along the Adriatic coast.
Infrastructure was burned or cut to cause the sabotage in both cases, the news agency said.
The transport ministry didn't provide details, but said it would seek millions of euros in compensation from the perpetrators. Thousands of passengers were impacted by the hourslong delays.
In Milan, Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon on Saturday evening at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue. The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of U.S. agents in Italy.
The skirmish comes days after Meloni's government approved a security decree that allows police to detain people for up to 12 hours when there are reasonable grounds to believe they may act as agitators and disrupt peaceful protests. Opposition lawmakers criticized the measure as an attack on freedom of expression.
Peaceful protest is legitimate, but “we draw a line at violence,” International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said during the IOC's daily media briefing. “That has no place at the Olympic Games.”
Police on Saturday held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
At the earlier, larger demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anthem against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Beforehand, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 metres from the Olympic Village that's housing around 1,500 athletes.
The demonstration coincided with U.S. Vice President JD Vance's visit to Milan as head of the American delegation. Vance and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci's “The Last Supper” closer to the city centre, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of ICE agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
The demonstration on Saturday followed another one last week, when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents' presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in U.S. diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
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The Yomiuri Shimbun
21:35 JST, February 8, 2026
The Liberal Democratic Party looked certain to secure a single-party majority in the 51st House of Representatives election on Sunday, according to exit polls jointly conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun, NHK and Nippon TV-affiliated stations.
The LDP appeared set to take the majority, which is 233 seats of the 465-seat chamber, garnering more than the 198 seats it held before the lower house was dissolved. The ruling coalition of the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party was poised to secure more than 300 seats.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is also LDP president, had aimed to win a majority for the ruling coalition. With the election victory, Takaichi is expected to advance policies that she touted in the election campaign, such as measures for “responsible and proactive public finances,” claiming that her administration has obtained a public mandate. The ruling coalition is also likely to strengthen its control over the operation of the Diet.
LDP Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki expressed the party's intention on Sunday night to advance discussions on reducing the consumption tax on food and beverages for a limited period of two years, as pledged in its campaign promises.
Suzuki made the statement on a TV Tokyo program on the day.
Also, regarding reports of the LDP's projected landslide victory in the election, Suzuki analyzed the situation as follows. “I believe we received support due to expectations for the responsible proactive fiscal policy that Prime Minister Takaichi aims to pursue, as well as for strengthening defense and diplomatic capabilities.”
Yoshihiko Noda, coleader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, was asked about stepping down. “I have made up my mind, but I will talk to other party executives as the results are not all out yet,” he said.
This was the first lower house election after Komeito left the ruling coalition with the LDP in October last year and then the JIP joined hands with the LDP. This was also the first national election for Takaichi since taking office. Takaichi made whether the public would endorse her as the prime minister a key issue in the election.
In the opposition camp, the CRA — a new party formed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito and now the largest opposition party — seemed likely to fall significantly short of the 167 seats its members held before the lower house was dissolved.
Sanseito and Team Mirai were projected to make gains. Sanseito held two lower house seats before the chamber's dissolution. Mirai was expected to win its first seats in the lower house.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya said that support for the party in Sunday's election was not likely to surpass that in last year's House of Councillors election.
“I gave the previous [national] election a score of about 120 points, but compared to that, I think our score this time is around 75 points,” Kamiya said Sunday night in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.
Team Mirai's leader Takahiro Anno credited his party's stance on the consumption tax for its projected strong showing in the election.
“On the key issue of consumption tax cuts, we took a different stance from other parties,” Anno said at a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday night. “I believe we may have become the only option for voters [who are against the tax cuts].”
Other parties called for reducing the consumption tax in their campaigns, but Mirai did not include such tax cuts in its platform.
The lower house election was held about one year and three months after the previous election, with a total of 465 seats contested: 289 in single-seat constituencies and 176 in the proportional representation segment. The period from the lower house's dissolution to the voting and counting was 16 days, the shortest since the end of World War II.
A total of 1,284 candidates ran in the House of Representatives election on Sunday. In single-seat constituencies, 1,119 people competed for 289 seats, while the proportional representation segment was contested by 914 candidates.
There were 749 candidates who were registered in both a constituency and the proportional representation race.
By winning 243 seats, which is called a “stable majority,” the ruling bloc will be able to hold half of all seats in the lower house's 17 standing committees and also dominate chairperson posts in all committees.
Before the dissolution of the lower house, the opposition camp had the post of chairperson of the Budget Committee, where battles of words between ruling and opposition parties occur most often.
During street campaign speeches, the prime minister emphasized, “Other parties hold [chairperson posts] in all key committees [in the lower house].”
Winning 261 seats or more would enable the ruling bloc to dominate all committee chairperson posts and also have a majority in all standing committees. This situation is dubbed an “absolute majority.”
Most recently, the LDP under the leadership of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida realized an absolute majority in the 2021 lower house election.
If the ruling bloc increases the number of seats by 78, the total will reach 310, which is enough for the two-thirds vote needed for initiating amendments to the Constitution in the lower house.
When the upper house votes down or does not vote on a bill within 60 days after it has been passed by the lower house, the bill can be passed by two-thirds or more ballots among attending members in a second vote in the lower house.
Heavy snow changed the operating hours at voting stations for the House of Representatives election in Shimane and Tottori prefectures.
The opening of a voting station in Daisen, Tottori Prefecture, was delayed by two hours to 9 a.m. because officials in charge of it could not get there on time.
In Shimane Prefecture, 14 voting stations in Ama and 16 in Okinoshima — both located on remote islands — closed three hours early at 5 p.m.
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Top Senate Republicans are ratcheting up pressure on President Donald Trump to pick a side in the party's nastiest primary battles before it's too late, with anxiety spiking as the midterm cycle threatens to turn sour for the GOP.
GOP leaders are making a last-ditch push for Trump — who has relished his status as kingmaker for nearly a decade — to get off the sidelines and save potentially hundreds of millions of dollars set to be spent on a mission to save Sen. John Cornyn in Texas and to help clear the field in Georgia, according to a half-dozen Republican lawmakers and campaign operatives. The fear: The money will drain critical resources that could be spent elsewhere as Democrats now see a narrow but clear path to net the four seats they need to win the majority.
The rising concerns come as Republicans stare down mounting midterm problems across their Senate map, with the party now forced to defend traditionally red turf in states like Alaska and even Iowa. Meanwhile, the party has watched Trump pick sides in other contested primaries that have caused internal tensions, like in Louisiana, where he endorsed against the Senate GOP incumbent over a personal grudge.
The GOP's primary problem is felt most acutely in Texas, where Cornyn is just over a month out from a three-way primary race that seems destined to head to a costly two-month-long runoff. And if he loses, senior Republicans fear it could cost at least $200 million to defend the seat in Texas if state Attorney General Ken Paxton emerges as the party's nominee, according to multiple GOP sources.
“It's a very difficult race, and one that's going to be a lot more expensive to hold the seat,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN about the impact of Trump remaining neutral. Asked why Trump is ignoring the pleas, Thune said: “I'm probably not the right person to answer that question.”
But there's also growing concern over Georgia, where Republicans at all levels have privately urged Trump to defuse a three-way battle to take on Jon Ossoff, the lone Senate Democrat running in a state Trump won in 2024. Even in Kentucky, several GOP candidates are urging the president to weigh in on a race they fear could, with the wrong candidate, elect a second statewide Democrat.
The fight over a Trump endorsement for marquee races has gotten so intense that one House Republican running to become Tennessee's next governor threatened to prolong last week's government shutdown to receive a personal assurance that the president would not publicly back his GOP opponent.
The concerted push to unsnarl the GOP's toughest primaries has intensified since this month's Texas special election scare, and as the third contender in the Senate GOP race, Rep. Wesley Hunt, has tried to climb into the two-person runoff there.
The warnings have been a topic in multiple meetings with top Republicans in Washington since then, including one in which the Senate GOP's campaign chief, Sen. Tim Scott, laid out national headwinds across the map, according to an attendee. He also presented internal polling to stress that Cornyn needed to win the primary in Texas or risk costing the party gobs of cash.
Scott, Thune and other top senators have repeatedly warned the president, both publicly and privately, about what could happen if he stays out, multiple sources told CNN.
Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, added that Trump is “considering making a decision” after the fierce lobbying push from the Senate GOP top brass.
“The issue of a runoff is more money that's spent there is money that's not spent in other places, which is why I'm supporting Sen. Cornyn and plan to see him win on the first ballot,” Barrasso told CNN.
Cornyn himself said he approached Trump again last week about an endorsement, after that Democratic upset in a deep-red slice of Texas that sent shockwaves through Washington.
In an interview with CNN, Cornyn warned that Democrats could win the seat if the wrong Republican — namely, his chief opponent, Paxton — makes it to the general election.
“I think if Republicans nominate the attorney general, I think they absolutely do,” Cornyn said when asked whether Democrats had a chance of flipping the seat. “At minimum … we'd have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to salvage that seat that could be used in places like Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire and elsewhere.”
In response to Cornyn's remarks, Paxton adviser Nick Maddux told CNN that the Texas attorney general won statewide by 10 points in 2022 despite heavy spending against him “and the same thing is going to happen in 2026 because Republican voters are fired up to go to the polls and support him.”
“We must be laser-focused on turning out low-propensity, Trump-supporting America First voters. John Cornyn is the worst possible choice on that front,” Maddux said, arguing that “$50+ million's been lit on fire to help” Cornyn instead of going to battleground races.
Trump has helped avoid Republican infighting in other key races this cycle. That includes the president's move in recent days to formally back former Sen. John E. Sununu in his comeback bid in New Hampshire over his own former ambassador to New Zealand, Scott Brown.
He also helped out the House GOP by weighing in for an establishment-approved candidate in a crowded Georgia special election next month — where many feared a pugnacious hardliner named Colton Moore could win the seat and cause huge problems for leadership.
But Trump has privately suggested he will not endorse in Georgia's Senate race — one of the GOP's biggest pickup opportunities in a state he won in 2024.
Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter, one of those three GOP candidates, pulled aside the president last week after a bill signing at the White House to speak about his race, telling CNN he made his case to Trump.
Asked by CNN whether he sought the president's endorsement, Carter said: “You bet I did.” But in that 20-minute conversation, Carter said Trump suggested he didn't want to choose between Carter and fellow GOP Rep. Mike Collins — whose votes Trump needs to advance his agenda in the narrowly divided House.
“He likes both of us,” Carter said. “I think he's gonna sit this one out.”
Carter suggested Trump can't risk alienating any House member with each vote in the chamber needed to pass legislation.
Asked whether a contested primary — and possibly a runoff — made it harder for Republicans to beat Ossoff, Carter said: “You can make that argument, but you can't make that argument to a majority of one.”
Collins, when asked about Carter's personal appeal to Trump, said he didn't fault his opponent for trying.
“He's a Republican. Ain't he? I mean, anybody that's smart is gonna want the president's endorsement,” Collins quipped.
Asked whether he believed that Trump would endorse in the race, Collins added: “President Trump always has a knack for endorsing people at the right time.” (Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is also running in the GOP primary and has the support of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.)
But Trump has contributed to other headaches for the GOP.
Last month, Trump went against Thune's wishes and helped coax a GOP challenger into the race against Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. The president backed Rep. Julia Letlow over Cassidy, who once voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial after the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. (Cassidy allies insist the fight isn't over. The incumbent has a huge cash advantage, with more than $10 million through the end of last year.)
Cassidy is running aggressively on his legislative record, including bringing back money to his home state by supporting a Biden-era infrastructure bill — which Trump sought to sabotage and Letlow voted against.
“I brought over $13 billion in infrastructure, much of which my opponents either opposed or voted against,” Cassidy said. “Much of that $13 billion, my opponents either opposed or criticized me for. Now they like to take credit.”
But Letlow, in a statement to CNN, gave a response that highlighted a different vote Cassidy took — his decision to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.
“President Trump endorsed me because I've worked with him to advance an America First agenda, including delivering real infrastructure dollars for my district. Meanwhile Bill Cassidy worked with President Biden to pass an infrastructure bill full of Green New Deal Mandates — in the same year he voted to impeach President Trump.”
Pressed by CNN on whether he regretted that vote, Cassidy said: “I'm commonly asked by reporters, how do I feel, and how do I regret? And all I can say, brother is, you live your life forward.”
CNN's Ted Barrett, Alison Main, Ellis Kim, Dalia Abdelwahab and Rebecca Legato contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. On Saturday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the Emirati assistance in detaining a suspect in a recent attempt on the life of a senior Russian general, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"President Putin held a phone call with President of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan yesterday evening. President Putin thanked his Emirati counterpart for the fruitful cooperation between special services and the Emirati assistance in detaining a suspect in the terror attack on General [Vladimir] Alekseyev," Peskov said. According to him, the two leaders continued the discussion of issues that were raised during Al Nahyan's recent visit to Moscow.
Exit polls point to public endorsement of new prime minister on day of blizzards and freezing conditions
Japan's conservative governing party is on course to dramatically strengthen its grip on power after exit polls predicted a landslide victory in Sunday's elections, in what will be seen as an early public endorsement of the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.
The Liberal Democratic party (LDP) was projected to win between 274 and 328 seats out of a total of 465, according to an exit poll by the public broadcaster NHK, well above the 233 it needed to regain the majority it lost in 2024. NHK projected a supermajority for the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation party, which will ease Takaichi's legislative agenda.
The elections for the lower house of parliament were held on a freezing day when many parts of the country were again hit by heavy snow.
Takaichi, who called the snap election soon after becoming Japan's first female prime minister last autumn, had vowed to resign if her coalition failed to secure a simple majority.
She will not have long to savour her party's victory, however. There are concerns over her management of Japan's public finances and her ability to defuse a bitter row with China over the future of Taiwan.
Takaichi sought to appeal to voters with a $135bn stimulus package aimed at easing the cost-of-living crisis, later promising to suspend the 8% consumption (sales) tax on food for two years – a ¥5tn ($30bn) hit to annual revenue.
Her spending plans have rattled financial markets and caused currency volatility, prompting some commentators to question her approach given that Japan's debt is more than twice the size of its GDP – the heaviest debt burden of any advanced economy.
Speaking as exit polls showed her party cruising to victory, Takaichi said: “We have consistently stressed the importance of responsible and proactive fiscal policy. We will prioritise the sustainability of fiscal policy. We will ensure necessary investments. Public and private sectors must invest. We will build a strong and resilient economy.”
After a whirlwind introduction to diplomacy – including meetings with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping late last year – Takaichi sparked a row with Beijing in November when she suggested that Japan could become involved militarily in the event of a Chinese attempt to invade Taiwan.
China urged tourists not to visit Japan – advice they have heeded – and young people not to study there, citing “safety concerns”. The dispute has disrupted cultural exchanges, and even brought an end to decades of “panda diplomacy”.
Takaichi's refusal to withdraw her remarks may have angered Beijing, but it has played well with many voters.
Margarita Estévez-Abe, an associate professor of political science at Syracuse University, said Sunday's election victory could give Takaichi room to repair the damage to Sino-Japanese ties.
“Now she doesn't have to worry about any elections until 2028, when the next upper house elections will take place,” Estévez-Abe said. “So the best scenario for Japan is that Takaichi kind of takes a deep breath and focuses on amending the relationship with China.”
But if she follows through with the consumption tax cut, the market reaction could be swift and hostile, according to some analysts.
If Takaichi won big, she would have more political room to follow through on key commitments, including on consumption-tax cuts,” said Seiji Inada, the managing director at the consultancy FGS Global. “Markets could react in the following days, and the yen could come under renewed pressure.”
Blizzard conditions in some regions made visiting a polling station in Sunday's election, the first held in mid-winter for 35 years, a test of endurance for many voters.
Kazushige Cho, a 54-year-old teacher, said he had been determined to vote for the LDP despite the atrocious weather. “She has shown strong leadership and pushes various policies forward,” Cho said outside a polling station in a small town in Niigata prefecture where the snow had reached a depth of more than 2 metres. “I think things could turn out quite well.”
The weather, which is expected to contribute to a low turnout, caused widespread disruption on Sunday, halting services on dozens of train lines and forcing the cancellation of 230 domestic flights, according to the transport ministry.
Turnout stood at 21.6% with four hours left before polls closed – 2.65 percentage points lower than at the same time in the 2024 lower house election, the Nikkei business newspaper said, citing the internal affairs ministry.
Takaichi's personal popularity – particularly with younger voters – has transformed the LDP's fortunes since winning the race to succeed Shigeru Ishiba as the party's president in October.
Under Ishiba, the LDP and its then coalition partner Komeito lost their majorities in both houses of parliament amid public anger over a slush fund scandal and the rising cost of food and other basics.
The party, which has governed Japan for most of the past 70 years, was helped, as in previous elections, by a fractured and uninspiring opposition.
The main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance – formed weeks before by two existing parties – was expected to suffer heavy losses on Sunday, leaving questions hanging over its future.
The final count will not be known until late on Sunday. If the Takaichi-led coalition achieves an absolute majority of 261 seats, it will control parliamentary committees, making it easier to pass budget and other legislation.
A super-majority of 310 seats would allow the coalition to override the upper house, where the LDP-led alliance lost its majority in July last year.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's high-stakes gamble on a snap election has paid off, with voters handing her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a majority Sunday, according to public broadcaster NHK.
After an election framed as a referendum on Takaichi herself, her ruling coalition secured more than two-thirds of the 465 seats in Japan's lower house, the latest count showed. And her LDP party itself had already cleared the 233-seat threshold to command a majority on its own.
In an interview with NHK, Takaichi thanked those who “braved the cold and walked through the snowy roads to cast their votes.”
“I wanted the voters to give me a mandate because I advocated for responsible, proactive fiscal policy that would significantly shift economic and fiscal policy,” she added.
The hardline conservative, who enjoys US President Donald Trump's endorsement, has seen high approval ratings since she was elected less than four months ago, making history as the first woman to lead Japan.
She has won over the public with her strong work ethic, savvy social media game and charisma, marked in viral moments such as a recent impromptu drum session to K-pop hits with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
In calling an early election, she hoped to translate her own popularity into a stronger mandate for her party, which has been weakened in recent years by a scandal involving the misuse of political funds. She had asked the Japanese electorate for a fresh mandate to push through her fiscal expansion agenda for the world's fourth-largest economy.
Writing on X Sunday, Takaichi thanked Trump for his endorsement earlier this month and said the potential of the US-Japan alliance was “LIMITLESS.”
Sunday's remarkable result means Takaichi's party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, will have the numbers to chair all lower house committees.
The largest opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, was on track to lose more than half of the 167 seats it currently holds.
The election outcome will give Takaichi a fresh mandate to tackle challenges such as Japan's rapidly aging population, the rising cost of living, a weak yen, and soured relations with China.
Takaichi, a longtime lawmaker, rose to the top of Japanese politics last fall after her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba resigned amid pressure from his own party following a series of bruising defeats for the LDP.
She won the LDP presidency on October 4, her third attempt at the job, and was elected prime minister on October 21 – a surprising triumph in Japan's deeply patriarchal political system.
Her decision to dissolve parliament three months later, she said in a January 19 press conference, was a “profoundly weighty decision,” adding that “by doing so, I am also putting my position as prime minister on the line.”
Takaichi has enjoyed unusually high approval ratings during her short tenure, in which she has made waves for her relaxed, friendly interactions with other world leaders.
During a meeting with the US president just one week into her term, Trump and Takaichi looked more like old friends than world leaders.
“She is a delight,” Trump told business leaders after they met. “I got to know her pretty well in a short period of time.”
Days before the election, Trump gave his “total endorsement” of Takaichi, writing in a post to Truth Social that she “has already proven to be a strong, powerful, and wise Leader, and one that truly loves her Country.” He added he plans to welcome Takaichi to Washington in March.
Trump also enjoyed a close bond with Takaichi's mentor, the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Takaichi's decisive leadership style and support for traditional values have drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, whom she cites as inspiration.
But it hasn't all been sunny for Japan's first woman leader. She has been scrutinized for her relentless work schedule, which included calling a 3 a.m. meeting with aides.
Comments she made about Taiwan, the democratic island claimed by China, also cratered Tokyo's relationship with Beijing.
Takaichi broke Japan's long tradition of ambiguity on Taiwan when she told parliament in November that a Chinese attack on the island – which lies just 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Japanese territory – could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
China retaliated by canceling flights, restricting imports of Japanese seafood and ramping up military patrols, among other measures.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery and Sophie Tanno contributed reporting.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during the women's downhill race on Sunday.Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press
On a dramatic day in the women's downhill event at the Milano Cortina Olympics, Lindsey Vonn suffered a grizzly crash, while fellow American Breezy Johnson earned the gold medal.
Vonn's fifth Olympics ended as many feared it would when she said she would race on a torn ACL – with the star American alpine ski racer being airlifted off the mountain on Sunday after a gruesome fall.
Just 13.4 seconds into her run, Vonn's legs failed her on the Olympic course in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Wearing the No.13 bib, Vonn rolled and twisted into a sideways crash with a burst of screams.
The atmosphere at the famous Olimpia delle Tofane where Vonn has amassed 12 World Cup victories fell silent, from fans to media, and the other skiers in the event. Medics rushed to help Vonn before a lengthy delay in the event for a helicopter to fly her off the mountain. It was one of a few crashes in Sunday's event.
Vonn's American teammate Johnson, who had already put down the blistering run of one minute and 36.10 seconds while racing in the No.6 bib that would earn her Olympic Gold, watched from the leader's seat.
American Breezy Johnson (center) with silver medallist Emma Aicher of Germany (L) and bronze medallist Sofia Goggia of Italy (R). Johnson said her 'heart aches' for teammate Vonn.Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
Germany's Emma Aicher earned the silver medal (1:36.14), while Italian Sophia Goggia took bronze (1:36.69). But Vonn's accident subdued the celebratory emotions.
The three-time Olympic medalist was trying to make a comeback at age 41, after a retirement of some six years.
She'd been having a dream season until she torn her anterior cruciate ligament racing in a World Cup event in Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Jan. 30, less than two weeks out from the Winter Games. She had insisted she would race on it, vowing her Olympic dream was not over. She was willing to gamble, and she lost.
“The work that we put in, the career, obviously my heart aches for her,” said Johnson. “It's a tough road, and it's a tough sport, and I think that's the beauty and the madness of it: that it can hurt you so badly, but you keep coming back for more.”
Andorra's Cande Moreno and Austria's Nina Ortlieb also crashed during their runs. Ortlieb was able to stand up and walk off the course, while Moreno needed to be airlifted.
It was Vonn who dominated the attention. She'd been one of the marquee names in these Winter Games. On Sunday, media buses were heaving with reporters and photographers from all over the world, winding the tree and mountain-lined roads into Cortina d'Ampezzo, and crawling up to the fashionable 2026 Olympics winter resort nestled in the Italian Dolomites.
Spectators react to Vonn's accident.Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters
The fog of the past few days at Tofane Alpine Ski Centre had passed, and it was an idyllic sunny setting. The grandstands were jammed. A DJ was pumping dance music. Snoop Dogg was in the crowd. It was billed as one of the most competitive Olympic women's downhill races ever.
The crash is likely to end Vonn's Olympic campaign in Italy, and it was possibly the last race of her storied career.
“My heart is just hurting for her, because I grew up watching her, and I'm such a fan, and I really was rooting for her,” said Canadian skier Cassidy Grey of Calgary, who finished 26th on Sunday and was in the chairlift traveling to the start gate when she looked down and saw Vonn with the medical team.
The other Canadian in Sunday's downhill, Ottawa's Valerie Grenier, 29 was disqualified from the event after a fluke mishap with one of her pole straps right before her race caused a late push out of the start gate.
She did the race anyway, but Grenier knew the whole time she was likely to be disqualified for the late exit.
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The Yomiuri Shimbun
20:00 JST, February 8, 2026
The Liberal Democratic Party is set to win over 233 seats to gain a majority on its own in Sunday's House of Representatives election, according to exit polls by The Yomiuri Shimbun and others.
The ruling coalition of the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party is expected to win over 300 seats.
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MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Lyubomir Korba, a native of Ukraine's Ternopol Region, who attempted to kill a senior Russian general earlier this week acted on instructions from Ukrainian special services as he arrived in Moscow in December to carry out the attack, Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
"It was determined that Korba arrived in Moscow in late December on instructions from Ukrainian special services to carry out the terror attack," she said.
According to Petrenko, the gunman flew from Russia to the UAE hours after the attempt on the life of Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev. He was detained in Dubai and extradited to Russia.
The pro-Ukrainian Atesh partisan group disabled communication infrastructure in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, the group claimed early on Feb. 8.
"An agent of our movement set fire to a hardware module at the base of a communication tower. As a result of the destruction of the ground equipment, all the infrastructure installed on the mast was completely de-energized and put out of action," the Atesh group announced.
The act of sabotage was conducted near Ukraine's border with Russia and "effectively blinded the enemy in this sector," the group said in a Telegram post.
Meanwhile, with control equipment disabled, the front line in the area has created an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to circumvent signal jamming, Atesh claimed.
"The tower served as a platform for electronic warfare antennas that suppressed drone signals. The destruction of this technical post opened a 'window' for the unimpeded operation of Ukrainian" drones, the group said.
On Feb. 5, Russian forces were cut off from access to Starlink satellite internet across the front line with the introduction of a new "white list."
Ukraine and SpaceX worked to block Russian access to the Starlink service within Ukraine using a mass registration scheme on the government services application Diia.
News Editor
Volodymyr Ivanyshyn is a news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He is pursuing an Honors Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto, majoring in political science with a minor in anthropology and human geography. Volodymyr holds a Certificate in Business Fundamentals from Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto. He previously completed an internship with The Kyiv Independent.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv around 5:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 8 amid a ballistic missile threat, The Kyiv Independent's journalists on the ground reported.
Zelensky also announced the upcoming production of Ukrainian drones in Germany.
“We don't know what happened with that particular general — maybe it was their own internal Russian infighting,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Ukraine's energy system remains under severe strain, and nuclear plants are still partially discharged as of Feb. 8 following Russia's mass attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight on Feb. 7.
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent's Anna Belokur examines SpaceX's move to curb Russia's illegal use of Starlink satellite internet — a technology that has been vital to Ukraine's defense since 2022.
The General Staff attributed the strikes to "using long-range strike weapons of Ukrainian production, particularly the FP-5 'Flamingo.'"
Those targeted include are citizens and residents of Russia, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Russian forces launched 101 drones at Ukrainian cities overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
The number includes 1,040 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"An agent of our movement set fire to a hardware module at the base of a communication tower. As a result of the destruction of the ground equipment, all the infrastructure installed on the mast was completely de-energized and put out of action," the Atesh partisan group announced.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked our region using long-range Neptune missiles and HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems," Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomaz claimed. "As a result of the attack, power supply was disrupted in seven municipalities."
Blackouts and heating outages were reported in the Russian city of Belgorod on Feb. 7 after alleged attacks on a local thermal power plant and electrical substation.
"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.
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President Donald Trump announced Friday nearly $100 million in aid for Tennessee and Mississippi, following a series of severe winter storms that swept across large swathes of the country.
The icy weather has persisted for many states since Winter Storm Fern hit the central and eastern portions of the United States in late January, with recovery efforts still ongoing in many areas after heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain knocked out power for more than 1 million people and canceled tens of thousands of flights.
By Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retired), an Indian Air Force veteran fighter test pilot and is the former Director-General of the Center for Air Power Studies in New Delhi.
By Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retired), an Indian Air Force veteran fighter test pilot and is the former Director-General of the Center for Air Power Studies in New Delhi.
Russia recently unveiled the Superjet SJ‑100 and the turboprop Il‑114‑300 at the Wings India 2026 airshow in Hyderabad. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), India's state‑run defence‑aerospace company, had earlier signed an agreement with United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) to potentially manufacture the SJ‑100 jets in India.
The agreement was reaffirmed and clarified during the Wing India airshow. At the same event, UAC signed a deal to supply six Ilyushin Il‑114‑300 aircraft to Indian regional carrier Flamingo Aerospace.
Both developments signal a new chapter in India‑Russia cooperation, now extending into civilian aircraft manufacturing – a sector that was not even on the agenda a few years ago.
Wings India is a premier industrial biennial India and is considered Asia's largest event on civil aviation. An array of 34 aircraft were showcased at the event, which was inaugurated by India's civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, who said that the government was keen on boosting the aviation manufacturing sector in the country.
Regular passenger planes, VIP planes, corporate helicopters and ambulances were among the planes on display. The models showcased were Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Boeing 737 Max, Dhruv ALH-NG helicopter, A321 Neo, A220, Aurus Business Jet, Hindustan 228 aircraft, Diamond Da40NG Tecnam P 2006 and Tecnam P2010.
Visitors thronged to see the two Russian regional airliners on static display. Both the Il-114-300 and the SJ-100 are equipped exclusively with Russian produced systems and components, including Russian-made TV7-117ST-01 and PD-8 engines manufactured by Russia's United Engine Corporation. Both aircraft are presented with fully fitted interiors and passenger cabins.
Russian officials and diplomats, including Ambassador to India Denis Alipov, attended the airshow and witnessed the signing of the UAC‑India agreement, underscoring Russia's keen interest in the growing Indian market.
UAC's and HAL's presence at Wings India 2026 was beyond symbolism. The companies showcased their full civil aircraft portfolios, signalling readiness to compete with global American and European giants that currently dominate the civil aircraft market.
India today has the fastest-growing civil aviation sector, with the third-largest global air passenger market in 2025. Aviation contributes 5% of national GDP. It also greatly promotes tourism and cargo movement. India currently has 160 airports with scheduled flights, compared to 74 in 2014.
Over 161.3 million domestic air passengers travelled in India in 2025, up 6.12% from the year before. The current airliner fleet of around 800 aircraft will more than double in five years, and is projected to reach 2,250 by 2035. After reforms in the sector were introduced, India allowed 100% foreign direct investment in most sectors of civil aviation. The two largest Indian airlines, IndiGo and Air India, have announced plans to acquire over 500 aircraft each in the coming decade.
HAL has been making the HS-748 ‘Avro' and Dornier D-228 aircraft in India under licensed production. Both have also been used for civil aviation. Also, National Aeronautics Laboratory has designed and test-flown the ‘Saras' small transport aircraft. This work is still in slow progress.
The Tata Group companies are already building aero-structures for many helicopters and also C-130J transport aircraft for global customers. Meanwhile, a Tata consortium is building 40 Airbus C-295(formerly EADS CASA), twin-turboprop tactical military transport aircraft, as well as significant numbers of its sub-systems in India. The first Made-in-India C-295 aircraft will roll out of the new facility in September 2026. The indigenous content will be the highest ever in India, with 96% of the work that Airbus does in Spain gradually being done in India.
There are more than 125 domestic MSME suppliers spread across different states supporting the project which is expected to also held the South Asian nation in pushing the development of its own its commuter aircraft. Tata Group is also working with GE to manufacture CFM International LEAP engine components in India.
To collaborate on opportunities in aircraft manufacturing, supply chain, aftermarket services and pilot training, global aerospace leader
Adani Defence & Aerospace, a defense wing of Adani conglomerate, has recently signed a memorandum with global aerospace leader Embraer to develop an integrated regional transport aircraft ecosystem in India. The potential partnership will leverage Embraer's deep engineering and aircraft manufacturing expertise alongside Adani's aviation value-chain footprint.
India's HAL and Russia's UAC had signed a MoU on October 27, 2025, in Moscow to manufacture SJ-100 regional passenger jets in India. This partnership aims to produce the 103-seater twin-engine aircraft for domestic, short-haul routes under India's regional airport development initiative UDAN.
India has been wanting to have its own Indian regional jet airliner program for some time. New Delhi finally found a partner in Russia's UAC to make the SJ-100 in India. HAL will initially have the right to produce the aircraft for domestic customers in India. HAL estimates that there is a market for over 200 regional jets in India over the next decade, with a further 350 required by the Indian Ocean Region countries. The move is seen as a pivotal step toward self-reliance in civil aviation, potentially injecting competition into a market long monopolized by Boeing and Airbus, and to some extent by Embraer.
UAC is currently under US, UK, and EU sanctions. India has said it does not subscribe to unilateral sanctions and has criticized the targeting of its ties with Moscow as unjustified and unfair, while accusing the West of double standards because the EU and US still buy billions of dollars' worth of Russian goods.
In due course, the sanctions will be over. Regional jets have yet to make significant inroads in the Indian market, with carriers preferring larger narrow-body aircraft. India's major regional jet operator is Star Air, which operates seven Embraer E175s and two ERJ-145s.
The SJ-100 currently has 71 firm orders, all from Russian carriers. UAC is meanwhile conducting certification tests of the SJ-100, with Russian Aviadvigatel PD-8 engines. Some airlines have been attracted by its low introductory price. The later variants will have winglets, and cabin density up to 108 seats.
Undoubtedly, the SJ-100 has had its teething supply-chain troubles. But that is true for many airliners including the Boeing 737 Max. Western sanctions have made things more complex. China remains dependent on Western aero-engines for its home-grown C919 and C929 airliners. India will have to negotiate with its partners to get appropriate aero-engines for its own aircraft, the international certification will need to be renegotiated as well. However, overall, SJ-100 could be win-win for India and Russia.
India is a rising economic power with soon-to-be the world's third largest economy. It also has the largest population with growing consumption. Russia, which is currently under heavy sanctions, and facing manpower shortages, remains a tried and tested friend. While Russia can bring in technology, India could set-up the manufacturing hub with local skilled-manpower, software, private sector strengths, bring in funding, and also global business best-practices. The civil aircraft production can be oriented for both Indian and Russian market as well as for rest of the world
While 100% foreign direct investment has been cleared in most sectors of civil aviation, India has not yet leveraged large airliner orders. The country does have manufacturing and assembly skills, but lacks original design capabilities.
The narrow-body airliner market is huge. India is now insisting that foreign OEMs set up assembly lines in India and give component orders to local manufacturers.
India has a huge maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) market for civil and military aircraft and engines. Local MRO services currently only handle 15-20% of demand, according to industry data, with 80-85% outsourced, highlighting significant potential for domestic growth.
A 2023 CRISIL report states that India's MRO sector still faces obstacles such as difficulty obtaining credit, inadequate infrastructure, high taxes, licensing and certification issues, and high rental costs. But the Indian government has introduced several policies to support making the country a global MRO hub. These include reducing taxes on MRO services from 18% to 5%, land lease policies for longer durations to lower rental costs, and discontinuing the 13% government-charged royalty on revenue. These should reduce costs by 10–20%.
Setting up an MRO is highly capital intensive, with a long break-even time. It requires continuously reskilled manpower and repeat investments in tooling, and certification from safety regulators and global OEMs such as Airbus, Boeing, and many others.
The Indian government's top think-tank, NITI Aayog, has recommended an incremental approach, by first setting up joint ventures in India with global players, and gradually ascending the work-value chain. Ultimately, India must aspire to be an international-class MRO hub like Singapore. A surge in local MRO facilities will be good for airline operations, safety, and costs. Russians would also have to set up MRO facilities for SJ-100 with Indian partners in India.
India also needs to set up an independent authority on the lines of the Aeronautical Development Agency to push the development of civil aviation aircraft. It should function under the prime minister's office as it would involve inter-ministerial support. It may subsume the transport aircraft building facilities of state-run giants and also be tasked to work on building the medium-airlift military transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The agency must also drive building MRO facilities.
India must insist on foreign OEMs to set up engine manufacturing through a joint-venture route. Aircraft avionics is another area where India is way behind.
The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016, and its later versions, aim to create an integrated ecosystem for the growth of the Indian civil aviation sector, making flying more affordable and accessible, while also enhancing safety, security, and sustainability. It focuses on regional connectivity, ease of doing business, and promoting tourism and employment. The policy must be updated to incorporate India's thrust for developing local manufacturing.
The West is moving out of China. Europe has a high cost of production. India is the next best destination for building and maintaining civil aircraft. India also has large land banks near airports, especially the newer greenfield ones. Government policies are becoming more attractive for promoting manufacture and shifting MRO to India. Finally, India has to invest much more in R&D. Developing your own designs and having your own patents is important. The Russia-India SJ-100 project could be great platform to make a beginning.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
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The family of Nancy Guthrie has offered to pay the alleged kidnapper or kidnappers to return their 84-year-old mother, who vanished from her home in the Tucson, Arizona area one week ago.
Live Updates
• DHS funding: Lawmakers will return to Washington on Monday with just days to find a funding solution on the Department of Homeland Security or see the agency shut down. Democrats are demanding reforms to federal immigration enforcement.
• Racist video: President Donald Trump has faced backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike over a since-deleted racist video depicting the Obamas as apes. The social media post, which Trump refused to apologize for sharing, was the latest in a long line of offensive messages amplified by the president's account.
• Epstein fallout: The Department of Justice's release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files is still producing major headlines in the US and around the world, with documents showing the extent to which the late sex offender tried to cozy up to Russian officials. Members of Congress can begin reviewing unredacted versions of the files tomorrow.
The nonprofit group leading the Trump administration's celebrations surrounding the US' 250 birthday is running a public service announcement during tonight's Super Bowl, with a message it says is meant to promote unity as the country hits a new milestone.
The 30-second spot by Freedom 250, first obtained by CNN, features iconic imagery from the nation's past, along with videos of modern Americans.
“Just as Super Bowl Sunday brings Americans together around a shared love of competition, tradition, and excellence, the 250th anniversary will unite our entire nation in celebration of the values and freedoms that make America exceptional,” said Keith Krach, Freedom 250 CEO. “This is our moment to come together as one country and honor the American story and celebrate the bright future ahead. “
The PSA was produced in a partnership with Angel Studios, a media company that's produced films, many with religious themes, that President Donald Trump and prominent conservatives have promoted.
“After 250 years, the American experiment still isn't finished. It's been built, tested, carried forward and fought for, and we passed it on, hand to hand, life to life,” says a voiceover in the video. “Generations ago, ordinary people risked everything to begin it – 250 years later, the work continues.”
Trump has long touted his desire to shape the nation's 250th celebrations. In the past few weeks, his administration has rolled out a slate of events that align with the president's call for programming that renews national pride.
Freedom 250 plans include an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout on the White House's South Lawn on the president's birthday, an IndyCar race near the National Mall in August, the “Patriot Games,” a competition with young athletes from across the country and the construction of a giant triumphal arch across from the Lincoln Memorial.
Correction: This post has been corrected to reflect that the spot is being run as a public service announcement. An earlier version of this post incorrectly indicated Freedom 250 bought the spot.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict President Donald Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, wouldn't say last week whether he regrets that vote, which has put him in Trump's crosshairs.
Trump successfully pushed Rep. Julia Letlow to challenge Cassidy in the Louisiana GOP primary this year, setting the stage for a potentially expensive primary battle for a safe Senate seat.
CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday chased Cassidy down in the halls of Congress, where the lawmaker declined to weigh in on why Trump appears to be angry with him.
“You're asking me the president's motivation. I can't comment on that. Frankly, I don't think you can either,” Cassidy said.
Pressed by Raju on how he looks back on his vote to convict Trump for his role in inciting the 2021 Capitol riot, Cassidy said he's “commonly asked by reporters how do I feel and how do I regret.”
“All I can say, brother, is you live your life forward,” Cassidy said.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's ability to lead the nation's intelligence community as lawmakers scrutinize a whistleblower complaint.
“I do not believe that Director Gabbard is competent for her position. I don't believe that she is making America safer by not following the rules and procedures on getting whistleblower complaints to the Congress in a timely fashion,” Warner said today on CBS' “Face the Nation.”
Gabbard accused Warner of “lying” yesterday after the Virginia Democrat expressed concerns about a delay in her office sharing information on a whistleblower complaint. The complaint includes claims that the distribution of a highly classified intelligence report had been “restricted for political purposes” and that an intelligence agency lawyer had failed to report a potential crime to the Justice Department.
Though Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, a Republican, has made clear he approves of how the whistleblower complaint has been handled, Warner said, “I'm not comfortable with the process, the timing, and I can't make a judgment about the credibility or the veracity, because it's been so heavily redacted.”
Asked whether the panel will be able to speak to the whistleblower, Warner said he understands the person “has been waiting for guidance, legal guidance, on how to approach the committee.”
President Donald Trump called Olympic skier Hunter Hess a “loser” today after the athlete expressed “mixed emotions representing the US right now” in the Winter Olympic Games.
“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn't represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning. “If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the Team, and it's too bad he's on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Hess, who hails from Bend, Oregon, said during a press availability last week that “just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the US.”
“It's a little hard; there's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't,” Hess said. “I think for me, it's more I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe that are good about the US. I just think, if it aligns with my moral values, I'm representing it.”
A number of conservatives have criticized Hess for his comments in recent days.
“If you can't say you love America while competing on behalf of our nation then you shouldn't be at the Olympics,” wrote Katie Miller, a Trump ally and the wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, on social media yesterday.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said today she does not plan on joining the open field in the race this year to be Alaska's next governor.
“Would I not consider returning back to the state that I love and working on hard problems and challenges? Absolutely,” Murkowski told CNN's Manu Raju this week, adding, “I also feel that the role that I'm playing here in the United States Senate is a particularly important one for our state and for the country.”
“So hard decisions, but you got to pick one, and I'm here and going to continue to serve Alaskans here,” she added.
The Alaska Republican has broken with President Donald Trump and many of her GOP colleagues on several key issues, including on the confirmations of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, said she's “not happily” ruling out a gubernatorial bid.
“The idea of being able to be home and shovel real snow instead of ice snow, big difference,” she said, referring to weather conditions in Washington, DC.
President Donald Trump is set to attend a Super Bowl watch party in Palm Beach, Florida, today.
The Seattle Seahawks will play the New England Patriots in Santa Clara, California, a place Trump previously said was “just too far away” for him to travel to in person.
Trump will attend the watch party at 6:30 p.m. ET, and return to the White House some time after this. The event is closed to the press.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defended his effort to redraw the Maryland congressional map as part of a push by Democratic-led states to respond to President Donald Trump's efforts to create more Republican seats throughout the country.
The proposed map would eliminate the only Republican-held seat in Maryland, currently occupied by conservative Rep. Andy Harris.
“This is about our democracy. This is about the fact that you know who started this. It wasn't (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom. It was Donald Trump. When Donald Trump first contacted Texas and said, I need you to find the additional congressional seats, and they went to a back room with a sharpie and started redrawing maps,” Moore told CNN's Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
The Maryland House approved the new congressional map last week, but leadership in the state Senate has said the bill doesn't have enough support to advance in that chamber — largely due to concerns it could backfire.
Moore called on his state's Senate to back the proposal, saying that Trump's racist post on social media on Friday, which depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, “highlights the kind of urgency that we have within this moment … we are watching a president who is just unchecked.”
“It's why I'm urging the Maryland Senate to let democracy not die in the free state and to let a vote to happen on the Maryland Senate,” Moore said.
Go deeper: Moore confronts limits of his power in clash with state Dems
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries demanded President Donald Trump apologize for the racist video depicting the Obamas as apes that was shared on his Truth Social account on Friday.
“He definitively needs to apologize. It was a disgusting video, and the president was rightly and appropriately and forcefully denounced by people all across the country, Democrats and even a handful of Republicans, who finally showed some backbone in pushing back against the president's malignant bottom feeder-like behavior,” Jeffries told CNN's Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
The post has since been deleted after several Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator and a close political ally of the president, expressed outrage. Trump has said he doesn't think he needs to apologize since the White House said it was a staffer who shared the content.
Jeffries also accused the president of “unlawfully withholding funds” from a major New York infrastructure project amid reports that Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last month that he would drop his freeze on billions of dollars in funding for a long-planned rail tunnel if Schumer agreed to rename New York's Penn Station and Washington's Dulles International Airport after Trump.
“It's another example of Donald Trump trying to force presidential graffiti down the throat of the American people. It's completely and totally unacceptable,” Jeffries said.
The administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services urged Americans to “please” take the measles vaccine, but denied that the fast-growing South Carolina outbreak of the disease is a consequence of the Trump administration undermining confidence in the vaccine.
“We've advocated for measles vaccines all along. Secretary Kennedy has been at the very front of this,” Mehmet Oz told CNN's Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “When the first outbreak happened in Texas, he said, ‘Get your vaccines for measles,' because that's an example of an ailment that you should get vaccinated against.”
While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. encouraged people to get their measles vaccines in April during a Texas outbreak, he advocated against government mandates for vaccines. Bash also pointed out how Children's Health Defense, which Kennedy founded and ran up until April 2023, posted on X, “Despite the media's scare tactics, there's no reason to fear measles.”
Asked by Bash if people should fear measles, Oz said, “Oh, for sure and we actually are pretty aggressive. CMS, we fund any vaccine you want to take. There will never be a barrier to Americans get access to the measles vaccine.”
“Take the vaccine, please,” Oz said. “We have a solution for a problem. Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people equally susceptible to those illnesses, but Measles is one you should get your vaccine,” Oz said.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie today said Trump should “absolutely apologize” for sharing a since-deleted racist post on his social media network that depicted former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
“He's gone too far,” Massie told CNN's Manu Raju on “Inside Politics.”
“He's attacked my wife recently online, and I do think there are limits. For a while it's kind of funny, but once pass certain guardrails like attacking a man's spouse or getting into racist tropes – I think somebody at the White House, maybe (Chief of Staff) Susie Wiles needs to go to the president and just ask him for his phone.”
Trump has for months attacked Massie, who has been among the lawmakers behind the push to compel the Department of Justice to release case files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, on social media. He recently suggested on Truth Social the lawmaker's wife was part of the “radical left.”
“It doesn't make me angry, but it's unfair to my spouse,” Massie told Raju today.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he's not willing to accept anything less than Democratic leaders' demands and cast blame on Republicans for stalled negotiations on a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security before a crucial deadline.
“Not at this point,” Jeffries told CNN's Dana Bash just days before DHS, which includes FEMA and TSA, will shutdown without a funding solution, declaring the top immigration enforcement agency is “completely and totally out of control.”
“The American people want them reined in, because immigration enforcement should be fair, it should be just and it should be humane. So dramatic changes are necessary to the manner in which the Department of Homeland Security officers are conducting themselves before any funding bill should move forward,” he said.
Democrats have put forward their list of requirements for a bill to fund DHS and reform ICE, including requiring immigration enforcement agents to wear body cameras and remove face masks and to use judicial warrants, an issue that has been a nonstarter for Republicans.
Jeffries said Democrats haven't heard back from the White House or GOP leaders on their “common sense” demands, adding, “in our view, the ball is in the court right now of the Republicans” ahead of the February 13 deadline.
“Either they're going to agree to dramatically reform the way in which ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies are conducting themselves, so that they're behaving like every other law enforcement agency in the country, or they're making the explicit decision to shut down the Coast Guard, shut down FEMA and shut down TSA,” he warned.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, a coauthor of the law that compelled the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, today called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign over his links to the late sex offender.
Asked on CNN's “Inside Politics” if Lutnick, who appeared to have corresponded with Epstein multiple times, should testify, Massie responded, “No, he should just resign. I mean, there are three people in Great Britain that have resigned in politics.”
Lutnick said in an interview last year that after a 2005 encounter at Epstein's home, he grew uncomfortable and vowed that he “will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.” But the documents reveal Lutnick sought to meet with or call Epstein several times since 2005, including after Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.
A Commerce Department spokesperson told CNN last month, “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Massie, who has been a thorn in President Donald Trump's side in large part because of his push to compel the Department of Justice to release the files, also told CNN it is too soon to say if Congress should call on Trump to testify on his own links to Epstein.
“The Democrats want to make this about Trump, and the Republicans want to make it about the Clintons. I want to make it about the survivors and getting them justice and transparency,” he later added.
If you missed it, here's a round-up of some of our reporting from Washington this past weekend.
CNN's Kit Maher, Devan Cole, Aleena Fayaz and Camila DeChalus contributed to this reporting.
US officials have held initial indirect talks with Iran over Tehran nuclear program, while President Donald Trump said he spoke with Honduran President Nasry Asfura.
See below for a round-up of our reporting on the Trump administration's latest foreign policy developments.
Talks between Greenland and the United States are not currently where Greenland would like them to be — and it is too early to say what the outcome will be, the Arctic island's foreign minister said yesterday.
“There is going to be a long track, so where we are going to land at the end, it's too early to say,” Vivian Motzfeldt said during a news conference in Nuuk alongside Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen.
On January 21, Trump announced he had reached a “framework of a future deal” regarding Greenland. The ongoing talks between the US, Greenland and Denmark are aimed at finalizing that deal.
Trump praised his Honduran counterpart, Nasry “Tito” Asfura, saying the pair held a “very important meeting” yesterday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
It was my Great Honor to support Tito's Campaign. Once I gave him my strong Endorsement, he won his Election! Tito and I share many of the same America First Values,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Asfura, a conservative, narrowly edged out right-leaning centrist Salvador Nasralla late last year.
Trump endorsed Asfura days before the election was held, warning that if he didn't win, “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.”
The US president yesterday touted the countries' “close partnership” on security, anti-drug-trafficking, and immigration issues. He said the two leaders “discussed many other issues,” including trade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is expected” to visit Washington to meet with Trump on Wednesday, “where he will discuss with him the negotiations with Iran,” the Prime Minister's office said in a statement yesterday.
“The Prime Minister believes that any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles and an end to support for the Iranian axis,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister said Sunday the country must uphold its right to continue uranium enrichment, after initial indirect talks with the United States over the country's nuclear progam. Abbas Araghchi described the program as a “sovereignty necessity.”
A key point of contention remains Iran's demand to enrich uranium – a nuclear fuel that can be used to make a bomb if purified to high levels – which the US and its allies reject.
CNN's Sophie Tanno, Isabelle D'Antonio, Eugenia Yosef, Max Saltman and Laura Sharma contributed to this post
President Donald Trump drew swift condemnation for a racist video posted to his Truth Social account last Thursday depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle.
Here's what you need to know about the situation:
The video Trump shared largely discussed false claims that voting machines helped to steal the 2020 election. As that section of the video ended, a separate clip showing the Obamas' faces superimposed on the bodies of apes played, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The post, which recalls the racist trope of comparing Black people with monkeys, prompted swift backlash. It was online for roughly 12 hours before it was deleted from Trump's feed.
The White House initially defended the post and downplayed the response to the video, calling it “fake outrage. Following a bipartisan backlash, the White House then told CNN a “staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the video in a post on X, writing: “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
GOP Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally, wrote on X that he was “praying (the video) was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Trump and Scott spoke about the video on Friday morning before it was deleted from the president's feed, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an Instagram video Friday that the “disgusting video, posted by the so-called president, was done intentionally,”
For his part, Trump said Friday evening that neither he nor his staff had seen all of the video before it was posted to Truth Social.
“I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, referring to the first part of the video that contained debunked claims about fraud in voting machines.
“It was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud,” he said. “Nobody knew that that was in the end. If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”
“Somebody slipped and missed a very small part,” he said, but when asked directly whether he would apologize, he declined.
CNN's Alayna Treene, Adam Cancryn and Ellis Kim contributed to this reporting.
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Lindsey Vonn, racing on a badly injured left knee, crashed early in the Olympic downhill Sunday and was taken off the course in a helicopter after the American received medical attention for several minutes.
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
In this image taken from video provided by Olympic Broadcasting Services, OBS, United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Olympic Broadcasting Services via AP)
A rescue helicopter arrives after United States' Lindsey Vonn crashed during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Spectators react after United States' Lindsey Vonn crashed during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn ‘s defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill at the age of 41, on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a frightening crash that saw her taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.
Vonn lost control within moments of leaving the start house, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out soon after medical personnel arrived. She was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line.
She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier's storied career. The U.S. Ski Team did not disclose details of her injury but said Vonn “is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”
“She'll be OK, but it's going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport's brutal and people need to remember when they're watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”
Breezy Johnson, Vonn's teammate, became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy's Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.
“I don't claim to know what she's going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die,” said Johnson, whose injury in Cortina in 2022 ruined her hopes of sking in the Beijing Olympics. “I can't imagine the pain that she's going through and it's not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else.”
Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.
This combination of images shows the United States' Lindsey Vonn crashing during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Vonn's crash was “tragic, but it's ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it's put our sport in the best possible light.”
All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee, too. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.
Still, no one counted her out even then. In truth, she has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she'd planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Cortina has had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.
“This would be the best comeback I've done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”
The drama was of a different sort this time. Not since perhaps Hermann Maier's cartwheeling crash at the 1998 Nagano Games had there been such a high-profile and spectacular fall in Alpine skiing at the Olympics.
“Dear Lindsey, we're all thinking of you. You are an incredible inspiration, and will always be an Olympic champion,” International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry said.
News of the crash spread quickly, including to the fan zone down the mountain in Cortina.
“It's such a huge loss and bummer,” American Megan Gunyou said. “I feel like hearing her story and just like the redemption of her first fall and like fighting to come back to the Olympics this year, I mean, I feel so sad for her.”
Dan Wilton of Vancouver, Canada, watched the race from the stands.
“It was frightening,” he said. “Really, your heart goes out for such a champion who is coming to the end of her career. Everyone wanted a successful finish.”
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The governing coalition of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is almost certain to win a single-party majority in a key parliamentary election Sunday, NHK public television and other major networks say, citing their exit polls.
Sanae Takaichi, Japan's prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), puts pins marking the names of candidates who won lower house elections at the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo. (Keisuke Hosojima/Kyodo News via AP)
Sanae Takaichi, Japan's prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), receives an interview at the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo, (Keisuke Hosojima/Kyodo News via AP)
TV staff members gesture in the direction of the camera as Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), gives an interview with local media in front of a board displaying the names of LDP candidates, at the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
Yoshihiko Noda, left, and Kenta Saito, right, co-heads of the newly formed Japanese political party Centrist Reform Alliance, attend their press conference Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo, (Yohei Fukai/Kyodo News via AP)
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki and other lawmakers puts pins marking the names of candidates who won lower house elections at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Sunday Feb. 8, 2026. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
TOKYO (AP) — The governing party of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a two-thirds supermajority in a key parliamentary election Sunday, Japanese media reported citing preliminary results, earning a landslide victory thanks to her popularity.
Takaichi, in a televised interview with public television network NHK following her sweeping victory, said she is now ready to pursue policies that would make Japan strong and prosperous.
NHK, citing results of vote counts, said Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan's two-chamber parliament. That marks a record since the party's foundation in 1955 and surpasses the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 by late Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
A smiling Takaichi placed a big red ribbon above each winner's name on a signboard at the LDP's headquarters, as accompanying party executives applauded.
Despite the lack of a majority in the other chamber, the upper house, the huge jump from the preelection share in the superior lower house would allow Takaichi to make progress on a right-wing agenda that aims to boost Japan's economy and military capabilities as tensions grow with China and she tries to nurture ties with the United States.
Takaichi said that she would firmly push forward her policy goals while trying to gain support from the opposition.
“I will be flexible,” she said.
Takaichi is hugely popular, but the governing LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the last seven decades, has struggled with funding and religious scandals in recent years. She called Sunday's early election only after three months in office, hoping to turn that around while her popularity is high.
The ultraconservative Takaichi, who took office as Japan's first female leader in October, pledged to “work, work, work,” and her style, which is seen as both playful and tough, has resonated with younger fans who say they weren't previously interested in politics.
The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, was too splintered to be a real challenger. The new opposition alliance of LDP's former coalition partner, Buddhist-backed dovish Komeito, and the liberal-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is projected to sink to half of their combined preelection share of 167 seats.
Takaichi was betting with this election that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, would secure a majority.
Akihito Iwatake, a 53-year-old office worker, said he welcomed the big win by the LDP because he felt the party went too liberal in the past few years. “With Takaichi shifting things more toward the conservative side, I think that brought this positive result,” he said.
The prime minister wants to push forward a significant shift to the right in Japan's security, immigration and other policies. The LDP's right-wing partner, JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura, has said his party will serve as an “accelerator” for this push.
Japan has recently seen far-right populists gain ground, such as the anti-globalist and surging nationalist party Sanseito. Exit polls projected a big gain for Sanseito.
The first major task for Takaichi when the lower house reconvenes in mid-February is to work on a budget bill, delayed by the election, to fund economic measures that address rising costs and sluggish wages.
Takaichi has pledged to revise security and defense policies by December to bolster Japan's offensive military capabilities, lifting a ban on weapons exports and moving further away from the country's postwar pacifist principles.
She has been pushing for tougher policies on foreigners, anti-espionage and other measures that resonate with a far-right audience, but ones that experts say could undermine civil rights.
Takaichi also wants to increase defense spending in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure for Japan to loosen its purse strings.
She now has time to work on these policies, without an election until 2028.
Though Takaichi said that she's seeking to win support for policies seen as divisive in Japan, she largely avoided discussing ways to fund soaring military spending, how to fix diplomatic tension with China and other issues.
In her campaign speeches, Takaichi enthusiastically talked about the need for proactive government spending to fund “crisis management investment and growth,” such as measures to strengthen economic security, technology and other industries. Takaichi also seeks to push tougher measures on immigration, including stricter requirements for foreign property owners and a cap on foreign residents.
Sunday's election “underscores a problematic trend in Japanese politics in which political survival takes priority over substantive policy outcomes,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University politics professor. “Whenever the government attempts necessary but unpopular reforms ... the next election looms.”
Sunday's vote coincided with fresh snowfall across the country, including in Tokyo. Record snowfall in northern Japan over the past few weeks blocked roads and was blamed for dozens of deaths nationwide.
___
Associated Press writers Mayuko Ono and Hiromi Tanoue contributed to this report.
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R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss President Donald Trump's plan to import beef from Argentina as U.S. ranchers face rising bankruptcies and a shrinking domestic market.
President Donald Trump's beef import plan aims to cut prices, but cattle ranchers say it misses what's crushing them most — the power of meat packers.
"Meat packers have created a system where they win no matter what — at the cost of everyone else," said Will Harris, a fourth-generation cattleman and owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia.
Harris, who plans to hand off the operation to his children, said his farm handles every step of production, from raising cattle to processing and selling beef, giving him a clear view of how prices are set.
AMERICA'S SMALLEST CATTLE HERD IN 70 YEARS MEANS REBUILDING WILL TAKE YEARS AND BEEF PRICES COULD STAY HIGH
Sixth-generation cattle rancher Mark Kirkpatrick feeds heifers on the Stoker-Kirkpatrick Ranch in Post, Texas. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
At the center of that pricing power sit the "Big Four" — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — anchoring the U.S. beef supply chain from pasture to plate.
Together, the packing titans process about 85% of the grain-fattened cattle that become steaks, roasts and other supermarket cuts.
"The U.S. beef market is so highly concentrated that a small number of dominant packers control processing, distribution and pricing. This allows them to pay ranchers less for cattle while charging consumers more at the store. When cheap imported beef enters the system, it allows packers to increase their margins," Harris told Fox News Digital.
It's a concern echoed deep into cattle country.
Texas cattle rancher Cole Bolton said he sees the same problem in the Lone Star State.
IN TEXAS CATTLE COUNTRY, ONE RANCHER WELCOMES TRUMP'S FOCUS ON DECADES OF THIN MARGINS
Cattle rancher Cole Bolton and his wife in Texas. (Courtesy of Cole Bolton)
"What the real issue is, is the price differential between the big four packers and what they're paying us for the product," said Bolton, the owner of K&C Cattle Company.
Those margins, Bolton said, have been squeezed for decades. "Ranchers have dealt with such thin margins of profitability for the last 20 years."
While ranchers like Bolton and Harris say Trump's temporary expansion of U.S. beef imports from Argentina may help ease prices in the short term, both warn it is no substitute for rebuilding domestic production.
"Imports should be a bridge, not a long-term replacement," Harris said. "We must rebuild the American cattle herd, protect American farmers and ensure transparency, so consumers understand where their beef comes from. Long-term affordability depends on a healthy, resilient domestic cattle industry — not permanent dependence on foreign beef."
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Brad Randel rounds up some of his Black Angus cattle to sell at auction on Sept. 12, 2022, in McCook, Nebraska. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Years of drought, high feed costs and an aging ranching population have thinned herds, leaving the U.S. cattle supply at its lowest level in more than 70 years.
"I think it's going to take a while to fix this crisis that we're in with the cattle shortage. My message to consumers is simple: Folks, be patient. We've got to build back our herds," Bolton told Fox News Digital.
He noted that the cattle industry, over the last five years, has weathered one setback after another, from market turmoil to extreme weather conditions.
Amanda covers the intersection of business and politics for Fox News Digital.
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United States' Breezy Johnson shows her gold medal in the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Breezy Johnson of the United States reacts in the finish area of the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott, Keystone via AP)
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Breezy Johnson celebrates winning the gold medal in the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Breezy Johnson, center, gold medal in an alpine ski women's downhill race, celebrates on the podium with silver medalist Germany's Emma Aicher, left, and bronze medalist Italy's Sofia Goggia, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — For Breezy Johnson, the road to an Olympic gold medal was similar to the winning downhill run she turned in Sunday: It was full of jarring bumps that nearly knocked her off course, but not off target.
There was the knee injury here in Cortina during a training crash that ultimately kept the American from competing in the 2022 Beijing Games. There was the 14-month ban for violating “whereabouts” rules when it comes to testing for doping.
She kept a hard-charging attitude and that was on display in Cortina on a day marred by teammate Lindsey Vonn's crash and trip to a hospital. The 30-year-old Johnson joins Vonn, 41, as the only American women to win the Olympic downhill.
“People are jealous of people with Olympic gold medals. They're not necessarily jealous of the journey it took to get those medals,” said Johnson, who has never won a World Cup race. “I don't think my journey is something that many people are envious of and it's been a tough road, but sometimes you just have to keep going because that's the only option. If you're going through hell, you keep walking because you don't want to just sit around in hell.”
Johnson finished in 1 minute, 36.10 seconds to hold off Emma Aicher of Germany by just .04 seconds, securing the first medal for the United States at the Milan Cortina Games in the process. Italy's Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill winner and 2022 silver medalist, finished with the bronze.
The tears began welling in the eyes of Johnson as racer after racer couldn't top her time, wiping them away with a mitten.
Her long-awaited medal? That didn't hold up so well. The clasp holding the ribbon to the medal broke. She placed the pieces in her pocket.
“It's definitely heavier than I expected,” Johnson said of her new hardware. “I think that's maybe why it broke.”
Johnson was just the sixth racer of the day and found speed with a risk-taking trip along the iconic Olympia delle Tofana course on a sunny day in Cortina. She felt confident it was good enough for a medal, but not as sure if it would be gold.
“But I hoped that it would be enough,” she said. “I just tried to keep it rolling. I knew it was fast in some of the places where I made mistakes. I was like, ‘Did I just make a mistake or did I make a mistake because I was going fast?' That's the line that you're always trying to walk, and today was enough.”
She was in the leader's box when Vonn, the No. 13 racer, cut a corner too close and was spun around before crashing. The race was put on hold for more than 20 minutes.
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“I kind of wish the TV directors maybe wouldn't have replayed some of the crashes as much as they did,” Johnson said. “It's a little hard when you're surrounded by cameras and stuff, not wanting to watch that.”
It's certainly been a bumpy road to the top for Johnson, given the knee injury and a 14-month ban that expired in December 2024. She returned to win the world championship last February.
Now, she's an Olympic downhill gold medalist. Teammate Jacqueline Wiles finished just 0.27 seconds away from a medal in a tie for fourth place.
“I think that this was the best run Breezy's ever skied,” teammate Bella Wright said. “There was a lot of expectation, and she rose to the challenge.”
Johnson figures to have another shot at gold in the team event and could be paired with Mikaela Shiffrin.
Vonn's crash put a somber mood over the event. Vonn, who won the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games, was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland last week when she suffered a ruptured ACL for her latest major knee injury. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years and after receiving a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee.
“I hope it's not as bad as it looked,” Johnson said. “My heart just goes out to her.”
Like Vonn, Cande Moreno of Andorra also was taken away in a helicopter after a crash in which her left knee appeared to buckle while landing after a jump.
For Aicher, the silver medal pairs with the silver she earned as part of the team parallel event at the 2022 Games.
“At the third turn I thought, ”Oh (crap), what am I doing? Come on, Emma,'” she recounted. “But I managed to let the skis go pretty well.”
Both downhill golds this weekend were won by the reigning world champions after Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland won the men's race on Saturday. Both races also featured up-and-coming silver medalists (Aicher, Giovanni Franzoni of Italy) and Italian veterans in bronze position (Goggia, Dominik Paris).
With her bronze medal, Goggia now has an Olympic downhill medal of every color.
“So-so with my performance, but in the overall I got a medal again,” Goggia said. “It's a privilege.”
___
Graham contributed from Bormio, Italy.
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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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 Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks with members of the audience after delivering a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Peter Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer 's chief of staff resigned Sunday over the furor surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Morgan McSweeney said he took responsibility for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, 72, to Britain's most important diplomatic post in 2024.
“The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said in a statement. “When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
Starmer is facing a political storm and questions about his judgement after newly published documents, part of a huge trove of Epstein files made public in the United States, suggested that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the U.K. government's business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis.
Starmer's government has promised to release its own emails and other documentation related to Mandelson's appointment, which it says will show that Mandelson misled officials.
The prime minister apologized this week for “having believed Mandelson's lies.”
He acknowledged that when Mandelson was chosen for the top diplomat job in 2024, the vetting process had revealed that Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued after the latter's 2008 conviction. But Starmer maintained that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of that relationship at the time.
A number of lawmakers said Starmer is ultimately responsible for the scandal.
“Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party.
Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, has not been arrested or charged.
Metropolitan Police officers searched Mandelson's London home and another property linked to him on Friday. Police said the investigation is complex and will require “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis.”
The U.K. police investigation centers on potential misconduct in public office, and Mandelson is not accused of any sexual offenses.
Starmer had fired Mandelson in September from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties. But critics say the emails recently published by the U.S. Justice Department have brought serious concerns about Starmer's judgment to the fore. They argue that he should have known better than to appoint Mandelson in the first place.
The new revelations include documents suggesting Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis. They also include records of payments totaling $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 from Epstein to accounts linked to Mandelson or his husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Aside from his association with Epstein, Mandelson previously had to resign twice from senior government posts because of scandals over money or ethics.
Starmer had faced growing pressure over the past week to fire McSweeney, who is regarded as a key adviser in Downing Street and seen as a close ally of Mandelson.
Starmer on Sunday credited McSweeney as a central figure in running Labour's recent election campaign and the party's 2004 landslide victory. His statement did not mention the Mandelson scandal.
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SAN FRANCISCO – The Super Bowl marks the biggest gambling day of the year, and as it becomes more prevalent, there are plenty of more options.
DraftKings, of course, has taken notice of what fans may like, giving oddsmaker Johnny Avello quite the fun job for Super Bowl LX and the entire season leading up to it.
Bets simply used to be spreads, moneylines or over/unders, but Avello saw a trend and ran with it.
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The DraftKings Super Bowl LIX host committee float on Feb. 8, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for DraftKings)
"The props that really do write the most money over the last two, three years? That would be touchdown scorers," Avello told Fox News Digital on radio row.
"We started off three, four years ago with first touchdown scorer, and that was the bet: first touchdown scorer in every game. And now we're up to anytime scorer in every game, and then two touchdown scorers, three touchdown scorers, last touchdown scorer. That is the prop that has the most growth over the last two or three years."
Avello also said he enjoyed taking a deep dive into next-gen stats, including the fastest ball carrier, farthest thrown ball, and other similar wagers that cannot be determined simply from the box score.
The Super Bowl is also the king of the prop bet, including national anthem length, Gatorade color and other miscellaneous wagers. But Avello decided to give in to NFL history for one available bet.
The logo for DraftKings is displayed on a laptop computer in an arranged photograph taken in Little Falls, New Jersey, on Oct. 7, 2020. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
49ERS' CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY, BROCK PURDY TALK UP DIVISION RIVAL SEAHAWKS BEFORE SUPER BOWL: ‘HELL OF A TEAM'
"We put up a prop: Will the Seahawks have a one-yard passing attempt, and will they complete it?" Avello said, noting that it's a play on Super Bowl XLIX, which, like this year, featured the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. That game, of course, is best known for Russell Wilson's interception by Malcolm Butler on the 1-yard line with Marshawn Lynch in the backfield.
Avello said most of the spread bets are on the favored Seahawks to cover the 4.5-point spread, but lots of moneyline bets are on New England. And that would not be great for DraftKings.
"People who want to bet the Patriots say, "I don't need the 4.5 points. Patriots are gonna win straight up." That's the main reason for the Patriots taking the underdog on the moneyline, Avello said. "So we're kind of balanced out on the game."
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye celebrates with the AFC Championship trophy after beating the Broncos in Denver, Colorado, on Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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"We do have a little bit of hazard on the Patriots to win the whole thing. We opened them, like, 70-1 to win the Super Bowl, but we also opened the Seahawks high, too. But they haven't taken anywhere near the money that the Patriots did. So we're in a little bit of jeopardy there."
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Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein's bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world's most influential people.
But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.
Videos and photos seized from Epstein's homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn't depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.
An examination of Epstein's financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.
While one Epstein victim made highly public claims that he “lent her” to his rich friends, agents couldn't confirm that and found no other victims telling a similar story, the records said.
Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, there “was not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.”
The AP and other media organizations are still reviewing millions of pages of documents, many of them previously confidential, that the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and it is possible those records contain evidence overlooked by investigators.
But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture to date of the investigation — and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.
The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at the millionaire's home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Police would identify at least 35 girls with similar stories: Epstein was paying high school age students $200 or $300 to give him sexualized massages.
After the FBI joined the probe, federal prosecutors drafted indictments to charge Epstein and some personal assistants who had arranged the girls' visits and payments. But instead, then-Miami U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal letting Epstein plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Sentenced to 18 months in jail, Epstein was free by mid-2009.
In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted New York federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the accusations.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019. One month later, he killed himself in his jail cell.
A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein's longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she'd recruited several of his victims and sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term.
Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department's latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims, called in to tip lines, were examined.
Some allegations couldn't be verified, investigators wrote.
In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewed Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who in lawsuits and news interviews had accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain's former Prince Andrew.
Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.
Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also “lent out” to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.
“No other victim has described being expressly directed by either Maxwell or Epstein to engage in sexual activity with other men,” the memo said.
Giuffre acknowledged writing a partly fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein containing descriptions of things that didn't take place. She had also offered shifting accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote, and had “engaged in a continuous stream of public interviews about her allegations, many of which have included sensationalized if not demonstrably inaccurate characterizations of her experiences.” Those inaccuracies included false accounts of her interactions with the FBI, they said.
Still, U.S. prosecutors attempted to arrange an interview with Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He refused to make himself available. Giuffre settled a lawsuit with Mountbatten-Windsor in which she had accused him of sexual misconduct.
In a memoir published after she killed herself last year, Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told her they didn't include her in the case against Maxwell because they didn't want her allegations to distract the jury. She insisted her accounts of being trafficked to elite men were true.
Investigators seized a multitude of videos and photos from Epstein's electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of females, some of whom seemed as if they might be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sex abuse material — pictures investigators said Epstein obtained on the internet.
No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.
Had they existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”
Investigators who scoured Epstein's bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.
In 2019, prosecutors weighed the possibility of charging one of Epstein's longtime assistants but decided against it.
Prosecutors concluded that while the assistant was involved in helping Epstein pay girls for sex and may have been aware that some were underage, she herself was a victim of his sexual abuse and manipulation.
Investigators examined Epstein's relationship with the French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who once was involved in an agency with Epstein in the U.S., and who was accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting women in Europe. Brunel killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on a rape charge in France.
Prosecutors also weighed whether to charge one of Epstein's girlfriends who had participated in sexual acts with some of his victims. Investigators interviewed the girlfriend, who was 18 to 20 years old at the time, “but it was determined there was not enough evidence,” according to a summary given to FBI Director Kash Patel last July.
Days before Epstein's July 2019 arrest, the FBI strategized about sending agents to serve grand jury subpoenas on people close to Epstein, including his pilots and longtime business client, retail mogul Les Wexner.
Wexner's lawyers told investigators that neither he nor his wife had knowledge of Epstein's sexual misconduct. Epstein had managed Wexner's finances, but the couple's lawyers said they cut him off in 2007 after learning he'd stolen from them.
“There is limited evidence regarding his involvement,” an FBI agent wrote of Wexner in an Aug. 16, 2019, email.
In a statement to the AP, a legal representative for Wexner said prosecutors had informed him that he was “neither a coconspirator nor target in any respect,” and that Wexner had cooperated with investigators.
Prosecutors also examined accounts from women who said they'd given massages at Epstein's home to guests who'd tried to make the encounters sexual. One woman accused private equity investor Leon Black of initiating sexual contact during a massage in 2011 or 2012, causing her to flee the room.
The Manhattan district attorney's office subsequently investigated, but no charges were filed.
Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich, said he had paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice. She said in a statement that Black didn't engage in misconduct and had no awareness of Epstein's criminal activities. Lawsuits by two women who accused Black of sexual misconduct were dismissed or withdrawn. One is pending.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein's never-before-seen “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.” A few months later, she claimed the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn.”
But FBI agents wrote superiors saying the client list didn't exist.
On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through subordinates to ask “whether our investigation to date indicates the ‘client list,' often referred to in the media, does or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his query.
A day later, an FBI official replied that the case agent had confirmed no client list existed.
On Feb. 19, 2025, two days before Bondi's Fox News appearance, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: “While media coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case references a 'client list,' investigators did not locate such a list during the course of the investigation.”
___
Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
___ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
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James Pearce Jr., a rising star with the Atlanta Falcons who nearly won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award, was arrested near Miami on Saturday after allegedly fleeing officers and crashing his car following what police said was a domestic dispute with his WNBA girlfriend.
Pearce was booked into the Turner Guilford Correctional Center after Doral police were called to investigate a reported domestic dispute between a man and a woman.
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Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr. is interviewed after the New Orleans Saints game on Jan. 4, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Danny Karnik, File)
The 22-year-old is facing charges of two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon as well as aggravated stalking and fleeing or eluding police with lights or siren.
The Falcons said they were aware of the arrest.
FORMER JETS FIRST-ROUND PICK DARRON LEE CHARGED WITH MURDER IN GIRLFRIEND'S DEATH
Atlanta Falcons edge James Pearce Jr. reacts after a defensive stop against the Carolina Panthers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Nov. 16, 2025. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)
"We are aware of an incident involving James Pearce Jr. in Miami," the Falcons said in a statement. "We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time."
Atlanta selected Pearce with the No. 26 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Tennessee.
He played in 17 games for the Falcons during his rookie season. He recorded 10.5 sacks and 26 total tackles.
Atlanta Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr. against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on Dec. 21, 2025. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)
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Pearce finished third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting behind winner Carson Schwesinger, of the Cleveland Browns, and Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Folks in the U.S. are expected to spend about $129 per person on Super Bowl 60, which is less than last year.
Brandi Carlile will be among the artists who will be performing ahead of Super Bowl LX's kickoff on Sunday between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
Carlile is one of the performers who have been outspoken against President Donald Trump and his administration's policies going back to his first term in office. She will join Bad Bunny and Green Day as anti-Trump critics performing at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California.
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From left; Charlie Puth, Coco Jones and Brandi Carlile – who will perform the national anthem, "Lift Every Voice" and "America the Beautiful," respectively – speak during a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in San Francisco ahead of the Super Bowl LX. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
The singer will perform a rendition of "America the Beautiful" before the game kicks off. She suggested in an interview with Variety on Friday she's going into the performance with her "own moral code" in mind, adding that the performance was important to her as a member of the LGBT community.
"And I have my own moral code, my own moral imperative, that I have to answer to at the end of the day, as a wife and mother, and I believe in my ability and responsibility to do this, and that's why I'm here," she told the magazine. "And the throughline to being queer and being a representative of a marginalized community and being put on the largest stage in America to acknowledge the fraught and tender hope that this country is based on, it's something you don't say no to. You do it."
NFL LEGEND BLASTS LEAGUE FOR CHOOSING BAD BUNNY AS HALFTIME PERFORMER: 'ANYTHING FOR MONEY'
Brandi Carlile and Don Lemon arrive at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Super Bowl LX performers Bad Bunny and Green Day have been critical of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their operations against illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Variety said in its interview with Carlile that the song "America the Beautiful" may be heard in a different way in "calmer times." "But even without hearing every verse that was written, there may be something about it that, in a time of trouble and division, will be moving for people who are really tuned into it. You're feeling that."
Carlile responded, "Yeah. And I think if we're gonna save this country as a people, we have to be reminded on some level that deep down we love it."
Despite the criticism she may hear from her own fans, Carlile said she wasn't going to get into arguments about why she was singing the patriotic song.
"… I'm not gonna waste my time in the pit fights," Carlile said. "My activism isn't gonna be in the comments section. And, you know, I may not be everyone's kind of activist, but like I said, I have my own moral imperative that I have to go to sleep with at night."
Brandi Carlile arrives at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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Super Bowl LX is set to start at 6:30 p.m. ET.
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Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate, of Spain, performs during a figure skating training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Spain's Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate competes during the Men's Short Program on day two of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield, Thursday, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Adeliia Petrosian of Russia, competing as a neutral athlete, performs during the women's free skating program at the ISU Skate to Milano figure skating qualifier, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)
MILAN (AP) — Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik has been forced to change his short program music two days before the men's program at the Milan Cortina Olympics after joining a growing list of figure skaters dealing with copyright issues.
Gumennik, who is participating as a neutral athlete at the Winter Games, had been working all season to music from “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” a psychological thriller film. But the 23-year-old Russian national champion learned in the last few days that he did not have proper permission to perform to the music, leaving him in limbo as the Winter Games began.
Given such a tight timeframe, Gumennik also was unable to get clearance for his music from last season, which came from the space opera film “Dune.” So, he pivoted to “Waltz 1805” by Edgar Hakobyan, for which Gumennik was able to get permission.
The men's competition begins Tuesday night with the short program.
This past week, Spanish skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was forced to work feverishly to obtain approval for music to his short program, set to a medley from the animated comedy film “Minions.” Sabate had been performing the fan-favorite program all season, only to learn that Universal Studios was poised to reject the use of it during the Winter Games.
Sabate began to work on a backup program while getting approval for two cuts of music. He obtained the third by reaching out to the artist, a fellow Spaniard. And he was granted use of the final piece, “Freedom” by Pharrell Williams, on Friday.
“It hasn't been an easy process,” Sabate said, “but the support of everyone who has followed my case has been key to keeping me motivated and optimistic these past few days.”
Loena Hendrickx of Belgium also was concerned about copyright issues after having performed to “Ashes” by Celine Dion from the film “Deadpool 2.” She ended up switching to “I Surrender,” another song by Dion that was easy to get permission to use.
The copyright issue has become a big problem in figure skating in recent years. For decades, athletes could only use music without words, most of which was considered public domain. But when the International Skating Union relaxed its rules in 2014, and skaters began to use more modern music, some artists began to object to their work being used without permission.
The ISU has tried to develop systems to avoid copyright issues, but they continue to pop up with alarming frequency.
“It is a very, very, very serious problem,” ISU President Jae Youl Kim said. “We don't want athletes to be worried about the music.”
What may have worked against Gumennik is that Russian skaters have been barred from international competition since their nation's invasion of Ukraine, so few people have been able to see him skate — and hear his music — outside of his own country.
Last May, the ISU announced that Gumennik had been vetted for any ties to the Kremlin and cleared to compete as a neutral athlete should he qualify for the Winter Games. Gumennik wound up winning Skate to Milan, an event held in late September as a sort of last-chance qualifier, earning him a spot in his first Olympics.
Adeliia Petrosian, another Russian competing as a neutral athlete, will participate in the women's event in Milan.
Gumennik's free skate music is from “Onegin,” a Russian historical romance film, for which he has approval. Petrosian has not reported any issues with her music, a Michael Jackson medley for her short program and classical music for her free skate.
___
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CNN host Audie Cornish and New York Magazine's Will Leitch suggested during a recent podcast that the U.S. could become the "global villain" of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Mike Eruzione, an American Olympic gold medalist who played a major role in the team's "Miracle on Ice" moment in 1980, blasted Team USA skier Hunter Hess on Saturday.
Eruzione responded to Hess' controversial remarks about representing the U.S. on the world stage at this year's Olympic Games. Hess, and teammate Chris Lillis, expressed dismay about wearing the Stars and Stripes amid controversy over the Trump administration's use of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the country.
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Mike Eruzione of Team USA shakes hands with the Russian team during an 1980 exhibition game against the Soviet Union on Feb. 9, 1980, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)
"Hunter Hess US snowboarder saying he doesn't represent his country but his family and friends," Eruzione wrote on X. "Then don't put on the USA uniform maybe just put for family and friends. Some athletes just don't get it."
Eruzione later deleted the post.
Lillis and Hess' statements caused significant backlash on social media.
Lillis said that while he "would never" want to represent another country in the Games, he's "heartbroken" over the administration's actions.
"I love the USA. I would never want to represent a different country in the Olympics. With that being said, a lot of times, athletes are hesitant to talk about political views and how we feel about things.
From left, Team USA forward Auston Matthews, Mike Eruzione, Wayne Gretzky and Team Canada forward Sidney Crosby during the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game at TD Garden on Feb. 20, 2025. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)
NEW NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY EXPLORES HOW THE 'MIRACLE ON ICE' UNITED AMERICA IN 1980
"I feel heartbroken about what's happening in the United States. I'm pretty sure you're referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that," he continued. "I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect. I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that's the America we're trying to represent."
Hess echoed that sentiment but took it further, saying he has "mixed emotions" about representing the U.S. in these Games.
"It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.
"I think, for me, it's more I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.
Hunter Hess reacts during the men's ski halfpipe final at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen Snowmass Ski Resort in Colorado on Jan. 9, 2026. (Dustin Satloff/U.S. Ski and Snowboard/Getty Images)
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"I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here."
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
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The governing coalition of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is almost certain to win a single-party majority in a key parliamentary election Sunday, NHK public television and other major networks say, citing their exit polls.
Sanae Takaichi, center, Japan's prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), speaks during an interview at the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
Sanae Takaichi, center, Japan's prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), puts pins marking the names of candidates who won lower house elections, at the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo, (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
Election officials open ballot boxes as they prepare to count the votes in the lower house election in Tokyo, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Yoshihiko Noda, left, and Kenta Saito, right, co-heads of the newly formed Japanese political party Centrist Reform Alliance, attend their press conference Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo, (Yohei Fukai/Kyodo News via AP)
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki and other lawmakers puts pins marking the names of candidates who won lower house elections at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Sunday Feb. 8, 2026. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
TOKYO (AP) — The governing party of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a more than two-thirds majority in a key parliamentary election on Sunday, Japanese media reported, citing preliminary results.
Takaichi, in a televised interview with public television network NHK, said that after the sweeping victory she is now ready to pursue her policies.
NHK, citing results of vote counts, said Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan's two-chamber parliament. That marks a record since the party's foundation in 1955 and surpasses the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 by late Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
A smiling Takaichi placed a big red ribbon above each winner's name on a signboard at the LDP's headquarters, as accompanying party executives applauded.
Despite the lack of a majority in the other chamber, the upper house, the huge jump from the preelection share in the superior lower house would allow Takaichi to make progress on a right-wing agenda that aims to boost Japan's economy and military capabilities as tensions grow with China and she tries to nurture ties with the United States.
Takaichi said that she would firmly push forward her policy goals while trying to gain support from the opposition.
“I will be flexible,” she said.
Takaichi is hugely popular, but the governing LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the last seven decades, has struggled with funding and religious scandals in recent years. She called Sunday's early election only after three months in office, hoping to turn that around while her popularity is high.
The ultraconservative Takaichi, who took office as Japan's first female leader in October, pledged to “work, work, work,” and her style, which is seen as both playful and tough, has resonated with younger fans who say they weren't previously interested in politics.
The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, was too splintered to be a real challenger. The new opposition alliance of LDP's former coalition partner, Buddhist-backed dovish Komeito, and the liberal-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is projected to sink to half of their combined preelection share of 167 seats.
Takaichi was betting with this election that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, would secure a majority.
Akihito Iwatake, a 53-year-old office worker, said he welcomed the big win by the LDP because he felt the party went too liberal in the past few years. “With Takaichi shifting things more toward the conservative side, I think that brought this positive result,” he said.
The prime minister wants to push forward a significant shift to the right in Japan's security, immigration and other policies. The LDP's right-wing partner, JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura, has said his party will serve as an “accelerator” for this push.
Japan has recently seen far-right populists gain ground, such as the anti-globalist and surging nationalist party Sanseito. Exit polls projected a big gain for Sanseito.
Takaichi has pledged to revise security and defense policies by December to bolster Japan's offensive military capabilities, lifting a ban on weapons exports and moving further away from the country's postwar pacifist principles.
She has been pushing for tougher policies on foreigners, anti-espionage and other measures that resonate with a far-right audience, but ones that experts say could undermine civil rights.
Takaichi also wants to increase defense spending in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure for Japan to loosen its purse strings.
She now has time to work on these policies, without an election until 2028.
Though Takaichi said that she's seeking to win support for policies seen as divisive in Japan, she largely avoided discussing ways to fund soaring military spending, how to fix diplomatic tension with China and other issues.
In her campaign speeches, Takaichi enthusiastically talked about the need for proactive government spending to fund “crisis management investment and growth,” such as measures to strengthen economic security, technology and other industries. Takaichi also seeks to push tougher measures on immigration, including stricter requirements for foreign property owners and a cap on foreign residents.
Sunday's election “underscores a problematic trend in Japanese politics in which political survival takes priority over substantive policy outcomes,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University politics professor. “Whenever the government attempts necessary but unpopular reforms ... the next election looms.”
Sunday's vote coincided with fresh snowfall across the country, including in Tokyo. Record snowfall in northern Japan over the past few weeks blocked roads and was blamed for dozens of deaths nationwide.
___
Associated Press writers Mayuko Ono and Hiromi Tanoue contributed to this report.
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The decline of burglary and robbery, explained.
A few weeks back, in the run-up to Christmas, my family was doing what it always does during the holiday season: watching Home Alone. And, around the time that Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern's Wet Bandits began plotting their break-ins, I began wondering something: Were home robberies really so common in 1990, when the film was released, that audiences wouldn't blink at the idea of a comedy based around home burglary?
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In 1990, in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka where the film is set, there were 53 burglaries, the vast majority of which were in residences like the McAllisters' house in the movie. That adds up to a rate of 435 robberies per 100,000 people, which was actually fairly low for the time. But in nearby Chicago, there were more than 50,000 burglaries, or around 1,800 per 100,000 people, that year. The nationwide burglary rate was over 1,200 per 100,000 people — part of an overall property crime rate that was near the highest the US had ever recorded.
So, yes, the idea that a couple of bandits might break into your home while you were off on a Paris vacation wasn't far-fetched. (Although given that the McAllister family were so disorganized they twice lost one of their kids on Christmas vacation trips, I'm not all that confident about their home security approach.)
But when Home Alone is remade — as I'm certain a remake-obsessed Hollywood will do eventually — they might need to change up the premise. Nationwide, burglary rates have fallen by more than 80 percent since 1990. Chicago has seen rates fall by similar levels, a story that is all the more remarkable given just how high those rates were in the 1990s. Wealthy Winnetka had less far to drop, but it's still down by over 60 percent.
While the historic drop in violent crime in the United States has gotten a lot of attention recently, including in this newsletter, the dip in property crimes like robbery, burglary, and motor vehicle theft has gone under the radar. The overall property crime rate has fallen by 66 percent in the US since 1990, even steeper than the decline in violent crime, and the lowest level since national data began in 1976. And while this has largely been a steady, long-term trend, there was a 9 percent decline between 2023 and 2024 — the sharpest single-year decline on record.
For our stuff, as well as for our lives, there's an argument to be made that Americans are safer now than they have ever been.
To understand what's changed, it helps to remember what “normal” looked like at the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s. In that period in many cities, property crime was like background weather: something you planned around and simply had to live with, even if you didn't talk about it every day.
Nationally, the overall property crime rate was just over 5,000 incidents per 100,000 people each year around 1990. If you do the math, that means the country was recording roughly one property crime for every 20 residents on average. Of course, the average wasn't how people lived. Then, as now, crime could be highly concentrated in some neighborhoods and virtually absent in others. But that's still a staggering level of routine predation.
On a dollar level, the average residential burglary in 1990 resulted in a loss of around $2,800 to $3,400, while total losses for all property crime was nearly $40 billion. (Both numbers are adjusted for inflation.) But there was also a price on human lives. By one estimate, roughly one in four robberies — like your classic street mugging — resulted in some form of physical injury to the victim, while roughly one in 10 of all murders occurred in the course of a felony like robbery and burglary. Based on homicide numbers at the time, that meant as many as 2,500 people may have lost their lives due to incidents that began as simple thefts or robberies.
And these numbers may just touch the surface. Police-reported crime is partly a measure of crime and partly a measure of reporting crime. In a high-crime environment, people often stop calling the police for “smaller” thefts — because the expectation becomes that nothing will happen, or because the hassle isn't worth it. So even these ugly numbers likely understate how saturated daily life could feel with property crime.
All of which raises the question: What changed? It's probably not because Americans suddenly became nicer. Instead, it's due to a confluence of factors in how we police crime, how we protect ourselves from it — and even the kind of stuff we own now.
The bottom line is that we changed our environment in a way that made burglary and robbery harder to pull off, less profitable, and more likely to fail.
For one thing, homes and apartments are simply harder to burgle than they used to be. We have better door and window locks. Better frames. Better outdoor lighting. More apartment buildings have controlled entry, buzzer systems, and cameras. Alarms got cheaper. And now, in many neighborhoods, a kind of informal surveillance mesh exists: doorbell cameras like Amazon's Ring, building cameras, storefront cameras, even the scourge that is Nextdoor. The Wet Bandits wouldn't stand a chance today.
A paper published in 2021 directly links the startling drop in burglary to security improvements like the above, which helps explain why property crime kept dropping in diverse cities, across different presidencies, up and down economic cycles, almost without stopping. Burglary is an opportunity crime. If it takes longer to break in and burglars are more likely to be spotted, fewer people will try — and fewer will succeed. One nugget from the paper: The average age of burglars increased as younger people found it harder to do.
Second, stealing stuff got a lot less lucrative — and a lot more traceable. In 1990, a burglar who found a stack of home electronics could convert it to cash pretty quickly. Today, a lot of our most valuable consumer tech is easy to disable from a distance and track. Sometimes the math doesn't add up: Stolen tech often isn't worth that much on the resale market because products have gotten cheaper. One plus of living in a richer society — which America very much is compared to 1990 — is that the wages of crime pay less comparatively.
At the same time, there's the simple fact that people carry — both on themselves and at home — far less paper cash than they used to. For any would-be mugger, the expected take is lower and the expected risk is higher. Notably, one study on Missouri linked the state's shift from paper welfare checks to electronic benefit transfer led to a decline in crime. And that's true in commercial operations too, as customers today are far more likely to pay with credit cards or their phone.
Third, cameras and coordination changed the game. Doorbell cameras don't just ward off potential burglars — they provide far more specific identification if someone still tries. The same goes for ubiquitous smartphones, which enable people to instantly call for help, share a suspect's photo, and even ping a lost device. (Good luck doing any of that in 1990 — Kevin McAllister's land line didn't even work!) All of this raises the perceived chance of getting caught, even if actual police clearance rates for property crimes remain very low.
Of course, all of these changes have their downside. Ubiquitous cameras can bleed into a surveillance state, one whose negative effects we're seeing. The decline of cash reduces financial privacy and exacerbates social inequality. And the ubiquity of smartphones… well, you don't need me to tell you the downsides of that.
It's also true that some of what we used to think of as “property crime” didn't vanish so much as change form. The classic late-20th-century nightmare was physical — a smashed window, a missing car, a stranger in your house. A lot of modern predation is more virtual and more bureaucratic: scams, account takeovers, and worst of all, identity fraud, which costs Americans tens of billions of dollars. And some of the “new” street-level thefts are oddly specific, like taking e-commerce packages off your stoop, something that wasn't even conceivable in 1990.
The price tag is not small. In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged $16.6 billion in reported losses, while the Postal Service estimates at least 58 million packages were stolen in 2024, adding up to as much as $16 billion in losses.
None of this negates the good news about burglaries and robberies. It just updates the definition of what “safe property” means in 2026. Maybe in the next Home Alone, the Wet Bandits will be cyberfraudsters (though at least I hope the McAllisters put an AirTag on that kid).
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IMA president Jack Lang arrive before visiting the exhibition “Treasures rescued from Gaza” Monday, April 14, 2025 at the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool, File)
PARIS (AP) — France's former Culture Minister Jack Lang has resigned as head of a Paris cultural center over alleged past financial links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that prompted a tax investigation.
He is the highest-profile figure in France impacted by the release of Epstein files on Jan. 30 by the U.S. Department of Justice. He is known for his role as a culture minister under Socialist President François Mitterrand in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lang, 86, was summoned to appear at the French Foreign Ministry, which oversees the Arab World Institute, on Sunday, but he submitted his resignation.
He “is very sad and deeply hurt to be leaving a position he loves,” his lawyer Laurent Merlet said Sunday on RTL radio. “He put the interests of the Arab World Institute first,” Merlet said, adding that his client denied the allegations and called them inaccurate.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed his resignation Saturday evening.
The financial prosecutors' office said it had opened an investigation into Lang and his daughter, Caroline, over alleged “aggravated tax fraud laundering.”
French investigative news website Mediapart reported last week on alleged financial and business ties between the Lang family and Jeffrey Epstein through an offshore company based in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea.
Jack Lang's name was mentioned more than 600 times in the Epstein files, showing intermittent correspondence between 2012 and 2019. His daughter was also in the released files.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has “taken note” of Lang's resignation and began the process to look for his successor, the foreign ministry said.
Lang headed the Arab World Institute since 2013.
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Jeffrey Epstein had a message he wanted to get to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It was June 2018 – about a year after Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin had suddenly died. Churkin had been someone Epstein met with regularly in New York, according to new documents released by the Department of Justice, and Epstein had even offered to help Churkin's son, Maxim, get a job at a wealth management firm in New York.
Now Epstein was looking to talk with a different Russian official: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On June 24, 2018, Epstein emailed Norwegian politician Thorbjørn Jagland, then the secretary general of the Council of Europe, “I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get insight on talking to me. vitaly churkin used (to) but he died. ?!”
Jagland answered that he would meet with Lavrov's assistant the following Monday and suggest it.
Epstein replied: “churkin was great. he understood trump after [our] conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”
While Epstein's interest in scouting models from Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe had previously come to light, the latest release of documents related to the disgraced financier offers new insight into his attempts to draw closer to high-ranking Russian officials, including Putin, who Epstein tried to meet or speak with multiple times.
The new tranche of documents showing more of Epstein's communications with international politicians, including Russian officials, has led to more speculation about the billionaire's motives. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a cabinet meeting this week that his country will be launching an investigation into Epstein's possible ties with Russian intelligence.
“More and more leads, more and more information, and more and more commentary in the global press all relate to the suspicion that this unprecedented pedophilia scandal was co-organized by Russian intelligence services,” Tusk said.
“I don't need to tell you how serious the increasingly likely possibility that Russian intelligence services co-organized this operation is for the security of the Polish state,” Tusk added. “This can only mean that they also possess compromising materials against many leaders still active today.”
The Kremlin dismissed suggestions that Epstein was a spy for Russia.
“The theory that Epstein was controlled by Russian intelligence services can be taken in any way, but not seriously,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. Peskov added that reporters should “not waste time” looking into allegations Epstein had links to Russian intelligence.
Analysts cautioned to CNN that the documents suggest little more than Epstein trying to rub shoulders with influential figures and position himself as a sort of geopolitical power player.
The documents do not indicate whether Epstein ever succeeded in connecting with the Russian leader.
On May 9, 2013, according to the documents, Epstein wrote to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Jagland “is going to see putin in sochi ” on May 20 and that Jagland asked if Epstein would make himself available to meet with the Russian president “to explain how russia can structure deals in order to encourage western investment.”
“I never met him, wanted you to know,” Epstein added in his email to Barak.
A few days later, Jagland told Epstein on May 14, 2013, that he planned to pass a message to Putin on Epstein's behalf that Epstein could be useful. “I have a friend that can help you to take the necessary measures (and then present you) and ask [whether] it is interesting for him to meet with you,” Jagland wrote in an email to Epstein.
Epstein replied: “He is in a unique position to do something grand, like sputnik did for the space race, You can tell him that you and I are close , and that i advise Gates . this is confidential, . I would be happy to meet him , but for a minimum of two to three hours, not shorter.”
Through a spokesperson, billionaire Bill Gates has publicly described meeting with Epstein as a “serious error in judgment” but denied any improper conduct.
But in another email to Barak on May 21, 2013, Epstein claimed without providing evidence that he denied a request from Putin to meet during a Russian economic conference in St. Peterburg. Epstein said that if Putin wanted to meet with him, he would “need to set aside real time and privacy.” (It's unclear if Putin indeed ever requested to meet with Epstein.)
CNN has reached out to the Kremlin for comment on Epstein's correspondence with Barak.
More than a year later, in July 2014, an email to Epstein suggests that he had an upcoming scheduled meeting with Putin and had invited the LinkedIn founder to join. Joi Ito, then the director of the MIT Media Lab, wrote to Epstein, “I wasn't able to convince Reid to change his schedule to go to meet Putin with you. ;-)”
Ito previously issued an apology for his association with Epstein and for accepting funding for the MIT Media Lab.
Some of Epstein's communications with prominent Russians came at a sensitive time in US-Russia relations – after the US intelligence community accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election, which Donald Trump won.
In June 2018, Jagland emailed Epstein that he hoped to stay at his residence in Paris and that he would be coming from Moscow, where he planned to meet with Putin, Lavrov and Dmitry Medvedev, then the prime minister of Russia.
“i m just sorry im not with you to meet the Russians,” Epstein replied.
On Thursday, Norway's investigative unit Økokrim announced it had opened an investigation into Jagland based on information in the Epstein documents.
In a statement, Jagland's lawyer Anders Brosveet said his client would cooperate with the investigation and provide “key findings and the relevant documentation” to the agency. “Based on what we have uncovered so far, we remain confident about the outcome,” Brosveet said.
Jagland has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.
The documents suggest that Epstein had a close relationship with at least one Russian who had ties to the FSB – Russia's main security service and successor to the KGB. Epstein referred to Sergey Belyakov, who Russian state news agency TASS said graduated from the FSB Academy in Moscow in 1999, as “my very good friend” in a 2015 email to billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
The documents show Epstein had offered to introduce him to Belyakov, who was running the St. Petersburg Economic Forum Foundation at the time, responsible for organizing Russia's largest economic conference.
After attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in 2015, Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, reported back to Epstein that he'd met with several Russian officials, including Lavrov; the head of Russia's central bank, Elvira Nabiullina; and several other heads of Russian banks.
“Thx for (setting) the whole thing together,” Barak wrote in an email to Epstein.
Barak's office told CNN in a statement, the former Israeli prime minister's visits to SPIEF “were always under invitation” of Putin's office. The statement said Epstein was interested in Russian affairs and in meeting Putin but Barak “never raised” Epstein's name with the Kremlin but “occasionally discussed” world affairs with him and “mentioned some people he met.”
In a 2016 exchange between Belyakov and Epstein, Belyakov tells Epstein that he has started a new position with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) – the country's sovereign wealth fund – and that he was looking to attract investment for Russian projects.
“I will do anything [that] is helpful to you,” Epstein wrote to Belyakov in another email later that same week.
Epstein had also turned to Belyakov for help at least once. In a 2015 correspondence, Epstein wrote to Belyakov that a Russian “girl” from Moscow was attempting to blackmail a “group of powerful” businessmen in New York and “it is bad for business for everyone involved.” Epstein then told Belyakov when the woman arrived in New York and what hotel she was staying at, asking, “Suggestions?”.
CNN is attempting to contact Belyakov and has reached out to RDIF for comment.
Epstein also claimed to offer advice for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. In a 2018 email with Jide Zeitlin, the former CEO of Coach and a private investor, Zeitlin thanks Epstein for his “thoughts re Deripaska,” who had been sanctioned by the US just a month earlier. Epstein then forwarded the correspondence to Steve Bannon, formerly Trump's chief strategist.
“Just keeping you in the loop,” Epstein wrote to Bannon.
An email from November 2010 included in the files references an effort by someone claiming to be an assistant for Epstein attempting to set up a meeting between Epstein and someone referred to as “Oleg.”
“I'm writing to see what the possibilities are of =effrey and Oleg to meet in Moscow next week Tuesday or Wednesday? Or =ossibly Oleg has plans to be in Paris next week?” The person wrote. The names of both the sender and recipient are redacted in the released files.
It's unclear whether Epstein and Deripaska were ever in contact or ever met. Deripaska's spokesperson told Bloomberg he didn't personally know Epstein; CNN has reached out for a comment.
Another Russian in Epstein's orbit was Masha Drokova Bucher, a 37-year-old venture capitalist who was a publicist for Epstein in 2017, helping him in the wake of his 2008 conviction on solicitation of prostitution. Bucher was known in Russia as a member of Nashi, a pro-Putin youth group, where she even got her own TV show. She was featured in a 2012 documentary about the movement called Putin's Kiss, a reference to a famous moment when she kissed Putin on the cheek.
Bucher has since said she left the movement and gave up her Russian citizenship in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.
She and Epstein appeared to have a close relationship. In 2017, she asked Epstein in an email if he'd heard anything about potential sanctions on companies with research and development in Russia because it could affect “some good friends.” He then told her he'd introduce her to Thiel.
Bucher later sent Epstein videos of her singing and told him she was “recharged” from not “doing any substances for a while.” She credited Epstein for helping her establish her Day One Ventures fund in 2018.
“Been thinking about all good things you taught me,” she said in a 2019 text message to Epstein. “I would never create my fund without the ideas and knowledge you shared with me and I do much love my work. thank you for being such a great friend Jeffrey!”
In 2022, The Washington Post reported that Bucher's pitches to investors boasted of her connections to Russian oligarchs, but she has dismissed those allegations and denied having any Russian funding.
Bucher has not responded to CNN's request for comment on her connections to Epstein. Thiel did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
While it's not clear exactly how often Epstein traveled to Russia, flight logs analyzed by CNN and published by the Justice Department confirm he did visit the country. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell traveled to Russia between November 22 and 24 of 2002, flying from Copenhagen to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Epstein's personal aircraft, according to flight logs and a 2018 email published by the Justice Department. The pair then flew to St. Petersburg, landing at Pulkovo Airport the same day. Then, on November 24, the flight log shows that both departed on the same aircraft for Ireland.
A photo uploaded on Esther Dyson's Flickr account in 2005 shows Epstein in Sarov, Russia, standing in front of Andrei Sakharov's cottage. Sakharov worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb and later became known as a dissident. The photo geolocated by CNN is timestamped April 28, 1998, though CNN cannot independently verify the date it was captured.
Dyson, who was involved in startups in Eastern Europe and Russia at the time, confirmed the authenticity of the photo. Sarov is a Russian town housing a closed center for nuclear research – and Epstein was known to have had a keen interest in science and technology.
Epstein later reapplied for a Russian visa in 2018, according to emails released by the Justice Department. Another email indicates that his team asked about transferring his valid Russian visa to a new passport in March 2019, just months before his arrest on federal charges related to sex trafficking of minors.
CNN's Nathan Hodge and Farida Elsebai contributed to this report.
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Millions of Americans are expected to watch the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, but don't expect President Donald Trump to be one of them.
Instead, Trump and many conservatives are likely to tune out the official NFL performance in favor of Turning Point USA‘s alternative halftime show, featuring country music stars Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
The split reflects something bigger than musical taste. It's the latest sign Republicans aren't just fighting for votes — they're using their political might to create an alternative mainstream.
TRUMP ‘WOULD MUCH PREFER' TO WATCH TPUSA SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW INSTEAD OF BAD BUNNY
In recent weeks, Trump has snubbed society's tastemakers by adding his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and showcasing new MAGA surrogates such as rap queen Nicki Minaj. First lady Melania Trump, meanwhile, has released an eponymous documentary that is expanding into theaters across the country.
“You want to be everywhere all the time,” GOP strategist Ford O'Connell said. “That's the rule of politics. That's messaging one-on-one. You want to control the narrative.”
The Super Bowl is the largest sporting event in America, with more than 100 million people likely to tune into the Seattle Seahawks duke it out against the New England Patriots. It comes exactly one week after several musicians, including Bad Bunny, took to the Grammy stage to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minnesota.
“Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say, ICE out,” said Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who goes by the stage name Bad Bunny, while accepting the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album. “We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
Republicans say that Bad Bunny's flamboyant sartorial choices, along with his progressive views, created an opening for a counter-halftime program — one that could appeal to every segment of society.
MAGA QUEEN OF RAP: NICKI MINAJ BECOMES TRUMP'S NEWEST WHITE HOUSE SURROGATE
“The Super Bowl is almost like another holiday in our American society,” Florida-based Republican strategist Dewayne Moore said. “So one of the biggest, one of the biggest platforms, one of the biggest stages, on a Sunday that will bring 136 million viewers, we're going to put an individual, a man who will wear a dress, a man who will paint his fingernail. Is that what we're trying to do in our American society now, is to raise up young men that think it's OK to dress like a woman?”
Trump put it more succinctly when announcing he would not attend the game over the NFL's Bad Bunny pick.
“I think it's a terrible choice,” the president said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Yet, an alternative halftime show is a perfect opportunity for anyone who wants to get their message out, Republicans argue.
American conservatives have long been disaffected with the liberalization of American society and pushed to reshape culture to reflect a more traditional, Christian values-based society. Trump, who became a celebrity before he became a politician, was able to ride that dissatisfaction to the White House in 2016 and 2024. Both elections featured increasing defections of middle and working-class Americans from the Democratic Party over its embrace of “woke” politics.
In 2024, even Democrats admitted that Trump's most impactful ad was one lambasting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for being “for they/them.”
Yet, Trump is not the first president to capitalize on social issues to win political office. In 2004, then-President George W. Bush campaigned for reelection, in part, on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. That year, Bush won the popular vote, Republicans kept control of Congress, and 11 states voted to enshrine bans on the practice in their constitutions.
Jacob Neiheisel, an expert on political communication and campaigns at the University at Buffalo, said the difference was not in how Republicans campaigned but what they did when in office.
“They're using those levers for change in a way that we haven't seen conservative administrations do before,” Neiheisel added. “I think the Trump and the conservative movement more generally is a lot more comfortable using power to enact change.”
The results of trying to reshape culture have been mixed during Trump's second term.
Trump's controversial takeover of the Kennedy Center in 2025 and the later name change were met with fierce criticism from Democrats and a drop in subscription numbers. This month, the president announced the institution will close for renovations starting July 4 and lasting approximately two years.
The administration's handling of hot-button issues from immigration to the release of the Epstein files has also drawn criticism, even from cultural influencers once thought to be sympathetic, like the “podcast bros” who helped Trump expand his outreach to younger voters in 2024.
“He's doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for,” host Andrew Schulz said during a Flagrant podcast episode in July 2025.
There have also been unforced errors. A front-page Vanity Fair spread in December 2025 featuring several high-level members of the administration led to a full-out defense of chief of staff Susie Wiles after her candid remarks about the White House were published.
Scholar and right-leaning podcaster Steve Turley said the Trump administration does not just want cultural acceptance.
“I don't know if they're trying to crave approval as much as they're actually trying to conquer,” the Turley Talks host said. “They're not looking for approval. They're saying our team is bigger than yours. Your little Grammy get-together, bunch of people talking about stolen land, is nothing compared to what we can put together. That's the sense I get.”
The MAGA movement has twice propelled Trump to the White House. But with the midterm elections in November and in the 2028 presidential election, the movement will need a charismatic leader not named Trump who can help the GOP keep control of the White House and Congress. That leader will need to know how to control and dominate the cultural scene, similar to Trump's ability to capitalize on American backlash against Democrats in 2016 and 2024.
“What I do know is they recognize that culture is a legitimate place of contestation,” Turley said. “Culture is political. It's been politicized in every way imaginable today, and for right or for wrong.”
There are some Republicans who claim that trying to go tit-for-tat with the Left is a distraction and urge the White House to focus on its massive fundraising and media operations instead.
“At some point, this stops being cultural commentary and starts looking like insecurity,” said Hunter S. Gaylor, a former fundraiser for then-Sen. Marco Rubio. “The Super Bowl halftime show isn't Congress, it isn't a campaign stop, and it doesn't need a political counterprogram. Yes, the entertainment industry leans left — everyone knows that. But responding by turning a football game into a partisan split screen is exactly how everything gets dumbed down into theater. Conservatism isn't supposed to mirror the Left's obsession with politicizing every square inch of American life.” “Not every cultural moment needs to be conquered,” he added. “Some just need to be ignored.”
W. JAMES ANTLE III: CAN TRUMP STAY FOCUSED ON THE ECONOMY?
But ignoring is easier said than done. Despite skipping the Super Bowl over Bad Bunny's performance, the administration will still run an ad promoting its “Trump Accounts” initiative during the game. The ad, which will air after the national anthem, is financed by Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner and Dell CEO Michael Dell.
Trump Accounts is a federally backed investment account program that provides babies born between 2025 and 2028 with $1,000 at birth.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye waits to be in a group photo at their practice venue for the Super Bowl 60 NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) arrives during an NFL Super Bowl football practice on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, left, talks with team owner Robert Kraft at the practice venue for their Super Bowl 60 NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald walks the field during an NFL Super Bowl football practice on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — It's almost time to crown an NFL champion.
After two weeks of hype and anticipation, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will face off in Super Bowl 60 at Levi's Stadium on Sunday.
Will Drake Maye and the Patriots (17-3) capture their seventh Lombardi Trophy? Or will Sam Darnold and the Seahawks (16-3) earn their second?
The matchup features two stingy defenses, two balanced offenses and two quarterbacks who've taken vastly different routes to get here.
Led by defensive tackle Leonard Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and rookie safety Nick Emmanwori, the Seahawks allowed the fewest points in the NFL and have standout players at every level.
The Patriots advanced to a record 12th Super Bowl because their defense has been dominant in the playoffs, allowing only 8.7 points per game.
Darnold has All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, veteran wideout Cooper Kupp and running back Kenneth Walker around him.
Running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson and wide receiver Stefon Diggs give Maye plenty of support on New England's offense.
The 23-year old Maye will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl. He's aiming to become the youngest to win it.
The Patriots won six rings with coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. AP NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel, who was a linebacker on three of those teams, is seeking his first as a head coach.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald is only in his second season and first with Darnold, who's on his fifth team in eight years in the NFL. The 2018 No. 3 overall pick has finally found a home after bouncing around the league.
This is a rematch of the Super Bowl 11 years ago. Brady and the Patriots won that one, 28-24, after Russell Wilson's pass from the 1-yard line in the final minute was intercepted by Malcolm Butler.
According to BetMGM Sportsbook, the Patriots are 4 1/2-point underdogs against Seattle.
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Russia's Investigative Committee has accused Ukrainian intelligence of being behind the assassination attempt on a Russian general in Moscow on Friday – and says the alleged perpetrator was arrested in Dubai after fleeing Moscow.
One other suspect – described as an accomplice – was also detained, the Committee said. Another alleged accomplice escaped to Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee named the alleged assailant as a man in his mid-60s born in the Ternopil region of Ukraine. He had arrived in Russia in December “on the instructions of the Kyiv special services,” it said.
Early on Friday morning an attacker fired several shots at Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev in a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow and fled the scene.
Alekseyev had regained consciousness after surgery, TASS reported Saturday. “Doctors cautiously say that his life is not in danger,” it added, citing medical sources.
The Investigative Committee said a Makarov pistol with a silencer was discovered at the scene.
The Russian security service – the FSB – said Sunday that immediately after the shooting the suspect boarded a flight from Moscow to Dubai, where he was detained and returned to Russia.
The Kremlin said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and thanked him for assistance on apprehending the suspect.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told Reuters on Friday that Kyiv had nothing to do with the attack.
Alekseyev, 64, is the first deputy head of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU.
In 2023, Alekseyev was sent by the Russian military to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, during the Wagner group's mutiny. At the time, he called Prigozhin's actions a coup as well as “a stab in the back of the country and the president.”
He was one of several GRU officials sanctioned by the United States in 2016 for wide-ranging malicious cyber activity directed at undermining US democratic processes.
He was also sanctioned by the European Union in January 2019 following a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, which the British government said was carried out by GRU agents to poison a former Russian spy. The EU sanctions describe Alekseyev as “responsible for the possession, transport and use in Salisbury… of the toxic nerve agent ‘Novichok' by officers from the GRU,” along with sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
The attack on Alekseyev is the latest aimed at senior figures in the Russian military and security services.
In December, a Russian general was killed in a car bombing in Moscow, with officials also pointing the finger at Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who ran the armed forces operational training department, died after a device installed under the chassis of a car exploded, Russia's Investigative Committee said.
The 56-year-old had previously “carried out the tasks of organizing and conducting an operation in Syria,” when Russian forces were backing the Assad regime, TASS said.
Other senior Russian officers killed in Moscow have included Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, who was the victim of a car bomb attack near Moscow in April last year.
CNN's Lauren Kent and Anna Chernova contributed to this story
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The father of the teenager who allegedly killed four people at his Georgia high school in 2024 is set to stand trial on murder and manslaughter charges in the latest case testing the limits of who is responsible for a school shooting.
Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray, has pleaded not guilty to nearly 30 charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
The case stems from the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School, when then-14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly used an AR15-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers and injure nine others. He ultimately surrendered to police and has admitted to the shooting, according to authorities.
More than a year earlier, law enforcement had questioned the teen and father about “online threats to commit a school shooting,” though no charges were filed, authorities said. Even so, Colin Gray bought a firearm for his son as a Christmas present in December 2023 – the same firearm he used in the mass shooting, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
The indictment alleges Gray allowed his teenage son access to a firearm and ammunition after receiving “sufficient warning” that his son would harm and endanger others, actions that constitute “criminal negligence” by “consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk.”
A defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The trial is part of a broader push to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, a group that has grown to include parents and responding law enforcement officers. Testimony is also likely to include emotional stories from those who were in the school that day.
A girl dad, a patient teacher and a student brimming with dreams. These are the victims of the Apalachee High School shooting
This case bears similarities to the trials of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose then-15-year-old son killed four students in 2021 at his high school in Oxford, Michigan. Prosecutors accused the parents of allowing their son access to the firearm and ignoring warnings about his declining mental health and risk to others.
The Crumbleys were each convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison. That was believed to be just the first and second time that a parent was held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child.
Andrew Fleischman, a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta, said the jury's sympathy for the victims and desire to blame someone could make it a difficult case for Colin Gray's defense.
“The state is going to probably argue that, but for this father's negligence, these kids would all be alive,” he said. “That's very hard to get past.”
Still, the case could depend on what specific steps the father took to address the risks: Did he safely secure the firearm and ammunition? Did he take steps to address his son's mental health in therapy or in school?
“There are lots of ways that you can show that you are not being fully criminally negligent,” Fleischman said.
Colin Gray has remained behind bars since his arrest a day after the shooting. If convicted, he faces 10 to 30 years in prison on each murder charge and 1 to 10 years on each manslaughter charge.
The trial is set to begin with jury selection Monday and is expected to last about three weeks.
Colt Gray, now 16, has been indicted on 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder, and will be tried as an adult, according to court documents. He has pleaded not guilty, although a defense attorney last year raised the possibility he may change his plea. A trial date has not been set.
The mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, began the morning of September 4, 2024.
Colt Gray had enrolled at the school on August 14 and had already missed nine days of classes leading up to the shooting, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Colt left Algebra class at 9:45 a.m., and gunshots were soon heard in a nearby classroom, a student told CNN at the time. The gun had been hidden in his backpack, authorities said.
The first report of an active shooter came in around 10:20 a.m., authorities said.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot,” said then-14-year-old student Macey Right. “And then people sitting beside me (were) just shaking and crying.”
A resource officer confronted the shooter, who immediately surrendered and was taken into custody, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said. The suspect told investigators, “I did it,” while being questioned, according to Smith.
Investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation allege the firearm used in the attack had been purchased by his father despite an earlier concern from law enforcement about the teen.
‘A rite of passage': Why some parents buy guns for their children
Colt Gray had been questioned by law enforcement in May 2023 regarding “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” according to a joint statement from FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. The online threats included photographs of guns, according to the statement.
The teen and his father were interviewed by the county sheriff's office, and Colt Gray denied making the threats online, the statement said. Jackson County alerted local schools to continue monitoring the issue, but law enforcement did not have probable cause to arrest or take other actions, according to the statement.
In video of the police interview, Colin Gray told officers that he had guns in the house and his son had access to them.
“We do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year,” he said. “I'm trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him interested in the outdoors.”
CNN's Devon M. Sayers contributed to this report.
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A chaotic scene unfolded in Milan Saturday as police deployed water cannons and tear gas against demonstrators just steps away from an Olympic ice hockey rink.
A group known as the Unsustainable Olympics Committee organized demonstrations highlighting concerns related to the environmental, economic and social impact of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Demonstrators also protested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Italy, The Associated Press reported.
The clash with police occurred near Milan's Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, a newly built venue that has faced scrutiny over construction delays and rink-size concerns.
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Fireworks explode during clashes between police officers and demonstrators trying to block a road leading to the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on the day of a protest against the environmental, economic and social impact of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics in Milan, Italy, Feb. 7, 2026. (Reuters/Claudia Greco
)
Global Guardian, an international security firm, issued a travel alert Saturday, according to AP.
"Anticipate heightened security and associated disruptions in the affected area over the next several hours," the security alert said. "Plot route bypasses. Avoid all protests."
The alert also said at least five individuals were taken into custody.
FEMALE NORDIC COMBINED ATHLETES PLAN PROTEST OVER OLYMPIC EXCLUSION: 'IT'S SO MESSED UP'
A group of masked protesters was seen setting off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site approximately half a mile from the Olympic Village. An estimated 1,500 athletes are being housed at the Olympic Village for this year's Games.
Fireworks explode near a police water cannon used against demonstrators who were trying to block a road leading to the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on the day of a protest against the environmental, economic and social impact of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Feb. 7, 2026. (Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane
)
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes' village, but the protesters veered away, continuing their apparent route toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
Police vehicles converge as fireworks go off Feb. 7, 2026, in Milan, Italy. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes' transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
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At a larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered about 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts representing trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to the beat of drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, including a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
"Let's take back the cities and free the mountains," a banner by the Unsustainable Olympic Committee said. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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President Donald Trump‘s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner boarded the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, just one day after high-stakes negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Witkoff, Kushner, and U.S. Central Command Cmdr. Bradley Cooper met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team in Oman on Friday for the nuclear talks, discussions that were inconclusive but were framed by principal figures as a positive step to reaching a deal. With more rounds expected, the three U.S. negotiators visited a U.S. aircraft carrier over the weekend that has been operating off Iran's coast for weeks as tensions remain high between the two nations.
The visit including the three observing “live flight operations,” as well as a discussion with the pilot who shot down an Iranian drone that was flying “aggressively” toward the ship on Tuesday.
“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,” Witkoff posted on X, along with multiple photos of him aboard the aircraft carrier.
While the timing of the trip is odd, especially given Trump has still not ruled out a military response to Iran's violent crackdown on protesters last month, the purpose of it was supposedly solely to express gratitude for the U.S. service members in the Middle East, according to CNN. A regional source also said both the Iranians and Omanis, who mediated the nuclear negotiations, knew of the visit ahead of time.
The USS Abraham Lincoln was originally deployed to the Indo-Pacific region late last year, but was redirected to the Middle East as tensions soared with Iran. It is part of a “massive” armada Trump has sent to the region in a show of force to the regime.
At least for now, Trump has signaled he wants to reach a deal with Iran rather than resort to military action, calling the Friday talks “very good” and even suggesting an “acceptable” deal is on the table.
WILL TRUMP FALL FOR IRAN'S NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS BLUFF
While it is unclear what that deal includes, the United States has expressed a desire for a more encompassing agreement that focuses on Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missile production, and support for terrorist proxies in the region.
Iran, however, has drawn a red line on the latter two, restricting negotiations to just its nuclear program, while also insisting it is not pursuing nuclear weapons despite ample evidence from nuclear watchdogs that it is.
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Thailand's ruling conservative party clinched a surprisingly solid election win Sunday night, marking the first victory this century for a party aligned with the country's royalist establishment and a clear defeat for an emerging progressive movement.
The Bhumjaithai Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, is set to secure 194 seats out of a possible 500 in the House of Representatives, according to preliminary results from the country's Election Commission, with votes from about 82% of the polling stations counted. The pro-democracy People's Party, which had been leading in the pre-poll surveys, was on track for 108.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer 's chief of staff resigned Sunday over the furor surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Morgan McSweeney said he took responsibility for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, 72, to Britain's most important diplomatic post in 2024.
"The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself," McSweeney said in a statement. "When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice."
Starmer is facing a political storm and questions about his judgment after newly published documents, part of a huge trove of Epstein files made public in the United States, suggested that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the U.K. government's business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis.
Starmer's government has promised to release its own emails and other documentation related to Mandelson's appointment, which it says will show that Mandelson misled officials.
The prime minister apologized this week for "having believed Mandelson's lies."
He acknowledged that when Mandelson was chosen for the top diplomat job in 2024, the vetting process had revealed that Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued after the latter's 2008 conviction. But Starmer maintained that "none of us knew the depth of the darkness" of that relationship at the time.
A number of lawmakers said Starmer is ultimately responsible for the scandal.
"Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions," said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party.
Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, has not been arrested or charged.
Metropolitan Police officers searched Mandelson's London home and another property linked to him on Friday. Police said the investigation is complex and will require "a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis."
The U.K. police investigation centers on potential misconduct in public office, and Mandelson is not accused of any sexual offenses.
Starmer had fired Mandelson in September from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties. But critics say the emails recently published by the U.S. Justice Department have brought serious concerns about Starmer's judgment to the fore. They argue that he should have known better than to appoint Mandelson in the first place.
The new revelations include documents suggesting Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis. They also include records of payments totaling $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 from Epstein to accounts linked to Mandelson or his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Aside from his association with Epstein, Mandelson previously had to resign twice from senior government posts because of scandals over money or ethics.
Starmer had faced growing pressure over the past week to fire McSweeney, who is regarded as a key adviser in Downing Street and seen as a close ally of Mandelson.
Starmer on Sunday credited McSweeney as a central figure in Labour's recent election campaign and its 2004 landslide victory. His statement did not mention the Mandelson scandal.
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, quit on Sunday, saying he took responsibility for advising Starmer to name Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the U.S. despite his known links to Jeffrey Epstein.
After new files revealed the depth of the Labour veteran's relationship with the late sex offender, Starmer is facing what is widely seen as the gravest crisis of his 18 months in power over his decision to send Mandelson to Washington in 2024.
The loss of McSweeney, 48, a strategist who was instrumental in Starmer's rise to power, is the latest in a series of setbacks, less than two years after the Labour Party won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern British history.
With polls showing Starmer is hugely unpopular with voters after a series of embarrassing U-turns, some in his own party are openly questioning his judgment and his future, and it remains to be seen whether McSweeney's exit will be enough to silence critics.
The files released in the U.S. on January 30 sparked a police investigation for misconduct in office over indications that Mandelson leaked market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was a government minister during the global financial crisis in 2009 and 2010.
In a statement, McSweeney said: "The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.
"When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice."
The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, said the resignation was overdue and that "Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions".
Nigel Farage, head of the populist Reform UK party, which is leading in the polls, said he believed Starmer's time would soon be up.
Starmer has spent the last week defending McSweeney, a strategy that could prompt further questions about his own judgment. In a statement on Sunday, Starmer said it had been "an honour" working with him.
Many Labour members of parliament had blamed McSweeney for the appointment of Mandelson and the damage caused by the publication of the exchanges between Epstein and Mandelson. Others have said Starmer must go.
One Labour lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said McSweeney's resignation had come too late: "It buys the PM time, but it's still the end of days."Starmer sacked Mandelson as ambassador in September over his links to Epstein.
The government agreed last week to release virtually all previously private communications between members of his government from the time when Mandelson was being appointed.
That release could come as early as this week, creating a new headache for Starmer just as he hopes to move on. If previously secret messages about how London planned to approach its relationship with Donald Trump are made public, it could damage Starmer's relationship with the U.S. president.
McSweeney had held the role of chief of staff since October 2024, when he was handed the job following the resignation of Sue Gray after a row over pay and donations.
Starmer on Sunday appointed his deputy chiefs of staff, Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson, to serve as joint acting chiefs of staff.
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Apple's Tim Cook.
Apple is going to begin a 2026 product blitz with the iPhone 17e, updated iPads and fresh Macs. Also: Here's exactly what CEO Tim Cook told employees about immigration, artificial intelligence and the company's 50th anniversary during an all-hands meeting. Lastly, the iPhone maker scales back plans for a major new health service.
Last week in Power On: Apple's historic quarter doesn't change the need for an AI reckoning.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has likely strengthened its majority in the country's Lower House, with the LDP capturing between 274 and 328 in the 465 seat chamber, according to an early projection by broadcaster NHK.
This was broadly in line with what polls had suggested, with Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun predicting that the LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party would secure more then 300 seats in the Lower House.
NHK projected the coalition would win up to 366 seats.
People trudged through heavy snow in several parts of the country to cast their votes.
Before parliament was dissolved, the LDP-JIP coalition held a combined 230 seats, and with three independents voting with the LDP, this effectively gave the ruling coalition a one seat majority in the chamber.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan's first female leader, dissolved the Lower House on Jan. 23, a move that was seen as an attempt to quickly strengthen the ruling coalition's position in the chamber by capitalizing on her high public approval ratings.
"Takaichi now has the LDP and the technocrats exactly where she always wanted them," economist Jesper Koll said in a Substack post.
"The LDP is now beholden to her; and the elite technocrats now know she'll be in power for at least two or three more years … so they have no choice but to invest their career in her success," Koll added.
Polls compiled by Japanese media outlet Nippon.com showed that Takaichi remained popular heading into the election, although her support had slipped slightly in the recent weeks.
The outlet reported that just one domestic poll in January indicated more than 70% support, compared to three in December, while six polls showed support in the 60% range, up from four in the previous month.
Meanwhile, the Central Reform Alliance, made up of the former Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, the LDP's former coalition partner, was likely to pick up between 37 and 91 seats.
The CDP was the largest opposition party before its merger with Komeito, holding 148 seats, while Komeito controlled 24 seats.
The election comes amid heightened tensions between Japan and China, as well as persistent concerns over the yen's weakness and inflation in the country.
Japan has endured inflation above the Bank of Japan's target for 45 consecutive months, declining real wages and persistent yen weakness.
The most recent inflation reading stood at 2.1%, while full-year inflation reached 3.2%. Real wages fell for 11 consecutive months year-on-year in 2025, and on a yearly basis, real wages have fallen every year since 2022.
The yen weakened further at the start of 2026, briefly approaching the 160 level against the U.S. dollar. While a weaker currency benefits exporters, it has also amplified imported inflation.
Takaichi had earlier laid out a record $783 billion budget for the next fiscal year starting April 1, on top of a $135 billion stimulus package introduced last year to help households with rising living costs.
"Watch for more state-directed initiatives to create 'national champions', levering the $550 [billion] U.S.-Japan investment deal to create a sense of urgency amongst reluctant CEOs," Koll said. "Japan's M&A boom will get turbo-charged to create greater economies of scale, and thus more credible global competitiveness — all this in the name of higher national economic security."
-- Azhar Sukri contributed to this story
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In this article
The latest earnings reports from major technology companies have revived investors' concerns about payoffs on elevated artificial intelligence (AI) spending.
While some companies failed to impress investors, others proved their ability to capitalize on solid growth opportunities offered by the ongoing AI boom.
With their expertise and in-depth analysis, top Wall Street analysts can help investors select stocks that can outperform the broader market and deliver impressive growth.
Here are three stocks favored by some of Wall Street's top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) is this week's first pick. In a recent research note, Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani reiterated a buy rating on Apple stock with a price target of $330. TipRanks' AI Analyst is also bullish on AAPL stock, with an "outperform" rating and a price target of $289.
The five-star analyst noted that Apple's January App Store revenue rose 7% year over year. However, Daryanani pointed out that Gaming revenues fell on a year-over-year basis for a third consecutive month, with January revenues down 3%. He explained that this weakness was due to tougher year-over-year comparisons. He expects Gaming revenues to see easier comparisons through the rest of the first half of calendar year 2026.
Daryanani highlighted that despite ongoing weakness in the Gaming category, revenues from the other five categories of App Store revenue grew by double digits, led by Music (up 21%), Other (21%), Photo and Video (18%), Social Networking (11%) and Entertainment (10%).
The analyst stated that Apple continues to deliver robust growth in Services revenue despite subdued App Store data, with the December quarter seeing 14% growth compared to the App Store's 6.5% growth. Daryanani also noted that Apple's recently reported revenue and EPS (earnings per share) for the December quarter exceeded expectations, with the company delivering better-than-expected gross margin, driven by limited memory impact and robust Services growth.
"We expect AAPL to continue to benefit from faster growing areas (Apple Pay, iCloud, Licensing, etc.), helping to offset <10% growth in App Store revs," said Daryanani.
Daryanani ranks No. 160 among more than 12,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 20.6%. See Apple Options Activity on TipRanks.
Database software provider MongoDB (MDB) is next on the list. Bank of America analyst Koji Ikeda is optimistic about the company's growth prospects. He recently reaffirmed a buy rating on MDB stock and raised his price forecast to $500 from $480. TipRanks' AI Analyst has an "outperform" rating on MongoDB stock with a price target of $380.
Commenting on concerns over whether MongoDB's Atlas revenue growth will keep accelerating, Ikeda sees the potential for continued strength. His optimism is backed by the success of the company's top-down enterprise and bottom-up product-led growth approach and an expanding product lineup for artificial intelligence (AI) and legacy app modernization. The analyst also expects MongoDB to gain from higher consumption, driven by rising enterprise workloads.
Ikeda highlighted the strengths of MongoDB database, saying it is fast, scalable and document-based, differentiating it from conventional relational databases like Oracle. The five-star analyst also noted the new features offered by the company, including vector search and application modernization capabilities, which bolster its position to win additional workloads.
While MDB stock is trading at a higher valuation compared to infrastructure software peers, Ikeda believes that a premium is justified, given the 30% Atlas growth compared to 11% for peers and MongoDB's leading position in the database market.
Ikeda ranks No. 689 among more than 12,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 57% of the time, delivering an average return of 11.7%. See MDB Ownership Structure on TipRanks.
Data storage company Western Digital (WDC) recently announced better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results and issued solid guidance. The robust demand for hard drives and flash storage amid the ongoing AI wave is boosting the company's business.
Following Western Digital's Innovation Day, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan reaffirmed a buy rating on WDC stock with a price target of $345. TipRanks' AI Analyst has an "outperform" rating on Western Digital with a price target of $285.
Mohan noted that Western Digital expects the AI and cloud storage market to grow exabytes (EB), a measure of data storage, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 25% through 2030. The five-star analyst also sees the possibility of hard disk drives (HDDs) gaining market share and accounting for more than 80% of storage in the cloud.
Additionally, Mohan emphasized Western Digital's revised long-term growth targets. Over the next three to five years, the company aims to grow its nearline exabytes at mid-20% CAGR, with overall revenue above 20% CAGR. Mohan highlighted that a favorable mix shift to higher capacity HDDs, stable pricing, and a focus on cost improvements could fuel gross margin above 50%, an operating margin of more than 40%, and EPS higher than $20.
Meanwhile, Western Digital is planning capital spending at 4% to 6% of annual revenue and a free cash flow margin of more than 30%. Overall, Mohan is bullish on WDC's prospects based on "secular growth of the HDD market," as well as further gross margin upside.
Mohan ranks No. 110 among more than 12,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 62% of the time, delivering an average return of 25.1%. See Western Digital Financials on TipRanks.
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When Lily Telloyan was in middle school, her household grew from two generations to four. Her grandparents and great-grandmother were getting older, so her parents moved the whole family under one roof in Lansing, Michigan.
Nearly 20 years later, four generations of the family are living together again.
After spending her college years in Indiana and then moving in with her husband, Alex, in Lansing, Lily started thinking about multigenerational living again. She hoped she could one day raise her own kids the way she'd been brought up.
"Even when I was dating my husband, I told him, this is my crazy dream," the 29-year-old said. "If he'd said that wasn't what he was into, I think I would have questioned the longevity of our relationship."
That dream became a reality when Lily, who's a remote special education teacher, got pregnant, and the couple faced the soaring costs of childcare and Lily's grandparents' growing needs. In November 2024, Lily and Alex moved in with Lily's parents, Naomi and Tim Van Loh, and her grandparents, Sam and Eva Telloyan. (Lily and Alex took Eva and Sam's last name when they married). Lily and Alex's son, Xander, was born in April 2025.
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They're just one of a growing share of American families moving back in together — or never separating in the first place. The number of people in the US living in multigenerational households — or those with two or more adult generations — quadrupled between 1971 and 2021, according to Pew Research. Cost savings are driving the trend. Families can split rent and mortgage payments, and save on childcare costs and long-term care costs for older relatives.
"When I considered how much I enjoyed my work and teaching and the level of care my grandparents were needing, and seeing the impacts of that on my mom as their primary caregiver, I became more and more convinced that the intergenerational model would be most beneficial for everybody in the family," Lily said.
Mornings in the Telloyan-Van Loh house start around 6:30 am, when Xander wakes up. Lily gets him dressed before her dad, a pastor at a local church, supervises morning playtime. Alex walks the family dog, Snoopy, while Naomi helps her parents get up and ready for the day. Lily and Naomi make breakfast as Alex, who works in cybersecurity, leaves for the office. Lily hands the baby to her mom when she starts her workday. All of that happens before 9:30 am.
Naomi, who also works part-time as a remote educator, takes care of her grandson and her parents while the other adults are working. The childcare arrangement has allowed Lily to keep her job, which she loves. "Running the numbers, it seems like a wash, honestly, to pay for childcare on a teacher's salary," she said.
Eva, who's 87, has dementia and needs constant attention. Professional long-term care, like assisted living, would strain the family's finances and wouldn't give Naomi the peace of mind she has with her parents under her roof, she said. She takes classes on caregiving at the local library.
"I don't know how we would do it the other way," said Naomi, 58, said of Eva's care. "And, for me, knowing that she's safe, knowing that she's comfortable, knowing that she's happy, and I can see her and hear her, and I take care of everything she needs — to me that's worth more than money in the bank."
All six adult members of the family contribute financially to the household. They split living expenses, including utilities, property taxes, and groceries, evenly, though Naomi and Tim bought the house for $420,000 in 2021 and have since paid off the mortgage. Between the four working adults and Eva and Sam's Social Security benefits, their household income is around $230,000.
They've divided up the house so each couple has their own space. Naomi and Tim have the primary bedroom, Lily and Alex have two bedrooms and small offices downstairs, and Sam and Eva have their own bedroom and sitting room. Alex renovated the downstairs
Caregiving responsibilities are harder to divide equally. "I had to learn really early on — and I'm still not great at that — that we shouldn't really keep a running record, or try to keep things even when it comes to workload, we just all chip in and do our best as we are able," Lily said.
Sam often tells Naomi he worries that he and Eva are a burden on her and the family. But Naomi insists that she wouldn't have it any other way. She says she enjoys taking care of her parents, despite the challenges.
"We have this kind of ongoing conversation, too, about the balance between duty and desire for motivation," Naomi said. "Some people think it's your duty, you have to do this."
Lily chimed in, "The best case scenario is when you desire to do your duty."
There are also more mundane challenges. Logistics get a bit complicated when it comes to entertaining friends. The family has a shared calendar they use to plan their social engagements and travel six months in advance. Small things like a messy closet can create tension, so they're quick to address even minor infractions.
"When I'm irritated, I think to myself, 'This is what I signed up for because I like all the benefits," Naomi said. "I mean, every life has irritation, right? Even if you live alone, you might irritate yourself."
While multigenerational living is increasingly common, four generations in one home is still unusual. Lily and Naomi said they sometimes feel misunderstood by friends.
"When my friends hear about our lifestyle, we get a lot of negative comments, like, 'Oh, you need to be more independent.' Or like, 'Oh, are you doing this for financial reasons? Or are you saving up for a house?'" Lily said. "It takes people a little bit of time to realize this was plan A."
For now, they're sticking with plan A.
"I said to everybody, this is the last move of my entire life," Lily said. "I think now we're in a pretty stable place."
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The cupcake boom, a twenty-year dessert trend that once captivated the nation, ended with a thunk. However, America's sweet tooth doesn't retire — it just hunts for its next obsession.
When all of Sprinkles' stores abruptly closed at the end of 2025, a curtain dropped on an era. Not because the dessert chain, cofounded by pastry chef and entrepreneur Candace Nelson in 2005, was the biggest, but because it was the name-brand symbol of the nation's cupcake years.
Timing matters. As restaurant chains face higher costs and more cautious consumers who have less patience for one-note indulgences, the sudden disappearance of a once-dominant dessert brand underscores how little room there is for concepts that don't necessarily drive frequent repeat visits.
Asit Sharma, a senior investing analyst at The Motley Fool, put it bluntly: "Sprinkles Cupcakes just punched way beyond its weight in the public imagination than it ever did on the ground."
At its peak, Sprinkles had fewer than 100 stores, and yet, Sharma added, the brand got a lot of great press and "sometimes the perception is larger than the business."
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Sprinkles is credited with being the world's first cupcake-only bakery, helping to popularize the craze that spawned dozens, if not hundreds, of copycats. Nelson, the founder, served as a permanent judge on the Food Network show "Cupcake Wars," further elevating her brand's status — and cementing her version of the handheld treats as the gold standard.
Still, the closure of Sprinkles, Sharma argued, wasn't shocking, since Nelson had sold her stake in the company to the private equity firm KarpReilly LLC in 2012.
"We know that expansion isn't always the first priority of a private equity firm when it takes over a chain; profits are, so that's not surprising," Sharma said.
The bigger takeaway for him wasn't just ownership — it was the cyclical fate of dessert fads.
"Dessert chains in particular are really prone to fads — frozen yogurt is a perfect example," Jonathan Maze, editor in chief of Restaurant Business, said.
"We've had two frozen yogurt booms, one in the 80s and 90s, and then one coming out of the Great Recession," Maze added. In the boom phase, he said, "You just get a lot of copycat concepts. They franchise. They start aggressively selling these locations."
Then the market turns, consumers move on to something else, and as quickly as they came, "they start declining." Gourmet doughnuts followed a similar trajectory in the late 2000s before cupcakes gained steam.
The cupcake trend, Maze said, although once promising, in part due to its early, pre-social media, viral appeal, "just didn't quite have the legs that people thought it did — but that happens fairly routinely."
Dessert spending remains significant. The $143.63 billion sweets market is projected to reach $193.56 billion by 2030, according to Research and Markets.
If Sprinkles' closing is a symbolic endpoint, the obvious question is what fills the gap. That question carries new weight in a tighter economy, where consumers are increasingly choosy about when — and how often — they treat themselves.
Sharma's immediate answer: "I think it's got to be the international bakery craze." He described noticing both Korean and Vietnamese concepts start to crop up across both coasts — with brands like Paris Baguette, 85°C Bakery Cafe, and Tous les Jours trending online and growing their footprints nationwide.
Nothing Bundt Cakes also shows promise as a contender to become the next "it" sweet after years of being a quiet hit. Maze described the Nothing Bundt Cakes as "one of the best-performing and most consistent restaurant chains in the country," having steadily grown to over 700 locations since its 1997 founding.
The company, which had the most positive review sentiment for quality and taste of all food brands on Yelp's "Most Loved Brands of 2025" list, is on track to open 1,000 units by 2027.
Maze, meanwhile, thinks cookies have an advantage that cupcakes and fro-yo never fully did: they're an everyday treat that doesn't require a dedicated occasion to enjoy. That accessibility has led to names like Crumbl, Insomnia Cookies, and Levain Bakery gaining momentum quickly.
"Cookies are actually pretty fascinating, to be perfectly honest," Maze said. The format, he argued, can be resilient, and crucially, "it's not a major investment to get yourself a cookie."
He also credited Insomnia Cookies' model for creating specific demand after the brand designed its own occasion — late-night cookie cravings — and answered the make-or-break question for any specialty dessert chain: how often will customers really show up?
"The biggest challenge with that sector by a long shot is that you only get a Blizzard or doughnuts so often," Maze said.
That constraint — how often people realistically want dessert — is what ultimately determines which chains endure and which burn out. When too many concepts flood the market offering the same product for the same narrow occasion, the model goes stale, no matter how beloved the brand once was.
That dynamic is what doomed frozen yogurt, dulled the cupcake boom, and now leaves the dessert category in a moment of reshuffling, as chains chase recipes that feel special enough to justify the splurge in a stretched economy. What comes next — cookies, international bakeries, bundt cakes, or something still incubating on TikTok — will face the same test.
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Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media said.
The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks.
Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.
Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.
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When the U.S. sneezes, it seems Europe may not catch its cold in the same way it used to.
The Stoxx 600 is sitting close to record highs after recording its 7th positive week in eight, despite the tech-led devastation around it.
It's been a different story across the pond. In a recent note, Deutsche Bank has started drawing comparisons to the dot-com bubble of 2000, and says the recent sell-off in AI and software-exposed stocks is showing no signs of easing. This week's declines leave the S&P 500 down almost 30 percent from their October 2025 peaks.
Broader European stocks meanwhile, are looking more resilient.
The spike in volatility comes at a sensitive time for the corporate world, with earnings season in full swing. The big-tech releases from last week did little to calm nerves stateside, while some of Europe's biggest names are preparing to report this week.
CNBC's Carolin Roth will breakdown UniCredit's results in Milan on Monday, speaking with the Italian bank's CEO Andrea Orcel. The lender remains a key M&A player in Europe, with its minority stakes in Commerzbank and Greece's Alpha Bank returning around 20 percent returns on investment, according to the bank.
In Frankfurt, we will hear from rival Commerzbank's CEO Bettina Orlopp on Wednesday, who told Squawk Box during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that a deal with UniCredit is "not sensible" given the German bank's high valuation.
Shares in financial stocks across Europe had a rollercoaster week, ending the week in the red.
Next week will also bring a fresh set of numbers from some of the biggest players in the European healthcare space, namely pharma giant AstraZeneca and Philips. The Dutch medical tech company will hope to continue a positive performance streak from the launch of new AI tools, while AstraZeneca is turning towards China in the hope that it can access this market for weight-loss drugs. However, there will be some warning bells following the sharp sell-off in Novo Nordisk's shares, after the Danish pharmaceutical rival disappointed investors with its sales projections. Executives from both Philips and AstraZeneca will join Squawk Box Europe on Tuesday.
For more on why AstraZeneca poured billions into China ahead of the trading debut of its shares in New York, read this.
On Thursday, CNBC's Charlotte Reed will be in Paris to speak with the CEO of L'Oreal, Nicolas Hieronimus, as the French beauty giant reports numbers. Last quarter, a recovery in both of its biggest markets, the U.S. and China failed to support the stock, which fell on a narrow sales miss. L'Oreal could also be on the acquisition hunt, after raising 3 billion euros for M&A financing towards the end of last year. The comapny recently doubled its stake in Swiss dermatology group Galderma, in a deal that is expected to close this quarter.
Monday: UniCredit
Tuesday: Philips, AstraZeneca, Barclays, Ferrari
Wednesday: TotalEnergies, Heineken, Commerzbank
Thursday: Mercedes, Siemens, L'Oreal
Friday: Natwest
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BEIJING — China's Luckin Coffee is taking direct aim at Starbucks' high-end roastery chain with a new flagship store in the country's south that sells premium drinks.
It's Luckin's first major departure from its original strategy of operating budget-priced coffee kiosks – a move that helped the company overtake Starbucks in terms of the number of storefronts in China.
Now, with the U.S. company selling off most of its struggling China business to a local investment firm, Luckin is proving it's more than made a comeback from fraud allegations in 2020 that forced it to delist from the Nasdaq.
The Chinese company on Sunday officially opened its two-floor Luckin Coffee Origin Flagship in Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong.
In contrast to Luckin's typical offerings priced at roughly $1 or $2 for an Americano or latte, the flagship store has nudged prices slightly higher for a range of pour-over and cold brew coffee drinks. Customers can choose beans from Brazil, Ethiopia or China's Yunnan province, as Luckin taps into the geographical sourcing "origin" theme popular with Starbucks and other coffee companies.
The new store also sells several specialty drinks such as a "tiramisu latte" with a pastry on top, according to posts on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. Users have started posting about 1 to 3 hour waits for the drinks since the store's soft launch on Jan. 20.
The 420-square-meter (4,521 square feet) store signals how intense the competition in China has become for Starbucks. Back in 2017, the U.S.-based coffee giant chose Shanghai for its second-ever Reserve Roastery "megastore," after launching the premium store concept in Seattle three years earlier.
But as coffee has taken off in China, traditionally a tea-drinking market, Starbucks has run into a slew of competitors from boutique cafes to chains such as Cotti Coffee and Manner — which often sell drinks at half the price as Starbucks.
Luckin reported revenue of $1.55 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2025, a nearly 48% increase from a year earlier.
That's just for the company's self-operated stores, which account for well over half of Luckin's China locations and most of its handful of overseas stores. The new Shenzhen location is billed as Luckin's 30,000th store. The company reported a total of 29,214 stores worldwide as at Sept. 30.
In contrast, Starbucks has just over 8,000 stores in China and around 16,900 in the U.S., its biggest market.
The Seattle-based coffee giant reported a 6% year-on-year increase in China net revenue to $831.6 million for the three months ended Sept. 28. Comparable same-store sales, a standard industry metric, was just 2%, but improved to 7% for the quarter ended Dec. 28.
Starbucks did not share China net revenue for the latest quarter. The company expects to close a deal in the spring to sell 60% of its China business to Boyu Capital, while retaining a 40% stake. When the deal was announced in November, Starbucks said it values its China business at $13 billion, including future licensing fees.
Luckin, whose shares still trade over-the-counter in the U.S., had a market value of around $10.46 billion as of Thursday.
Late last year, Luckin's CEO Jinyi Guo hinted at plans to re-list the company in the U.S. He did not specify a date. Founded in late 2017, the company achieved a $2.9 billion valuation just 18 months later and listed on the Nasdaq in May 2019. But about a year later, Luckin said it discovered much of its 2019 sales were fabricated, leading to the stock's delisting.
The Chinese coffee company continued to operate many of its stores — and kept its name and logo.
Luckin also jumped to attract consumers through a slew of timely collaborations — with premium spirits brand Moutai, the Minions cartoon characters and the hit video game Black Myth: Wukong just days after it surged in popularity.
What sets Luckin apart has been its ability to build a robust pool of private user traffic through its smartphone ordering app, said Mingchao Xiao, founder of Zhimeng Trends Consulting. Rather than placing orders with a counter clerk, Luckin customers select and pay for drinks directly through an app.
China's coffee market is still in a period of rapid change, Xiao said. He added that young consumers today are more willing to try different experiences, and seek emotional fulfillment, which can be met through cross-industry brand collaborations.
Like many Chinese companies, Luckin is also ramping up its global expansion.
Last summer, Luckin opened its first U.S. stores in New York City. It debuted its 10th store in the city on Feb. 6.
Luckin also has 68 stores in Singapore after it entered the market nearly three years ago, and 45 jointly operated locations in Malaysia.
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Will Lewis' two-year tenure as publisher of the Washington Post is over.
His time leading the nearly 150-year-old newspaper, which was bought by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2013, was marked by buyouts and shrinking coverage. Most recently, on Wednesday, the Post laid off hundreds of journalists, many of them covering foreign affairs.
"Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus," Bezos said in a statement on Saturday, his first public comments since the layoffs. "Jeff, along with Matt and Adam, are positioned to lead The Post into an exciting and thriving next chapter."
Below is the text of memos emailed to Post staff announcing Lewis' departure and the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Jeff D'Onofrio as acting publisher.
"All - after two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside. I want to thank Jeff Bezos for his support and leadership throughout my tenure as CEO and Publisher. The institution could not have a better owner.
During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day.
With gratitude, Will"
"The Washington Post is announcing Jeff D'Onofrio as its acting Publisher and CEO, effective immediately.
D'Onofrio, a strategic business leader and proven architect of the new media landscape, joined The Post in June 2025 as Chief Financial Officer following leadership roles across global companies including Raptive, Tumblr, Yahoo and Google. He succeeds William Lewis, who has served as Publisher and CEO for the past two years.
"The Post's resolute commitment to writing the first rough draft of history anchors and imprints its future," said D'Onofrio. "I am honored to become part of charting that future and to take the lead in securing both the legacy and business of this fierce, storied American institution."
"The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus," said Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post. "Jeff, along with Matt and Adam, are positioned to lead The Post into an exciting and thriving next chapter."
D'Onofrio served as Chief Financial Officer for Raptive, the largest digital ad management company serving over 6,000 creators and publishers. He oversaw the finance, human resources and data and analytics teams, while negotiating key partnerships and acquisitions that helped power Raptive to impressive revenue and profit growth.
Immediately prior to his role at Raptive, D'Onofrio was Chief Executive Officer at Tumblr and held other key leadership positions there including President, Chief Operating Officer, and CFO. His expert fluency in both today's media business landscape also grew from his leadership and management roles at Google, Zagat, Yahoo!, and Major League Baseball (MLB Advanced Media)."
Jump to
Pudgy Penguins Hit New York City With Valentine's Day Pop-Up Event
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The Pudgy Penguins team is helping fans celebrate Valentine's Day in the real world with Pudgy Petals, a three-day immersive pop-up event in New York City that highlights gifting and connection via its colorful characters.
Running February 12-14, the activation invites guests into the love story of Polly and Pengu (aka Pax), core characters in the Pudgy Penguins universe. The team told Decrypt that the brand—which has expanded from NFTs to games, real-world toys, and beyond—is using Valentine's Day as a cultural entry point to continue to translate its internet-native IP into a broader brand.
At the center of the pop-up is the Pudgy Penguins Plush Bouquet ($49.99), an alternative to traditional flowers. The bouquet features plush characters and soft textures designed to last well beyond the holiday. An online drop of the bouquet has already sold out, but it will also be available at the pop-up.
Pengu and Polly are taking over NYC this Valentine's Day!
Join us at our Pudgy Petals pop-up store from February 12-14 for a celebration of our Valentine's Day collection, love, and all things Pudgy. pic.twitter.com/EJUszK6jwb
— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) February 6, 2026
“The Plushie Bouquet marks our first Valentine's Day expression,” Pudgy Penguins Director of Business Development Steve Starobinsky told Decrypt. “The item is intentionally positioned as a long-lasting symbol of companionship designed to be kept and revisited rather than discarded after a few days like traditional flowers or candy. This item embodies our aim of creating new rituals of affection rooted in meaning rather than tradition.”
The event includes on-site bouquet customization with flash tattoos, free aura readings, and couples photo booths. There will also be pink and blue matcha drinks and treats outside the space.
The programming will shift slightly each day. Thursday, February 12, aligns with both New York Fashion Week and the New York Toy Fair, tapping into a creative crowd already circulating downtown Manhattan. Friday, February 13, is branded as Polly's Galentine's, with a focus on friendship and groups. And Saturday, February 14, centers on couples and classic Valentine's moments, leaning fully into the holiday vibe.
“Every detail of the pop-up is intentionally designed to encourage guests to linger, participate, document the experience, and share it socially,” Starobinsky said. “The space will be inviting and joyful, for all those who join the fun.”
Beyond the Valentine's theme, Pudgy Petals represents a broader brand evolution. Pudgy Penguins, which began as an internet-native phenomenon and NFT project, is continuing its shift into physical retail and experiential spaces that require no familiarity with crypto. The pop-up prioritizes emotional storytelling and accessibility, rather than technology.
“We are a four-quadrant brand appealing to adults and kids, women and men, with categories such as toys, gifting, lifestyle, and experiential retail drawing people in,” Starobinsky added.
The timing of the activation is equally strategic, with Starobinsky noting that the overlap with those other NYC events puts “Pudgy Penguins at the intersection of fashion, toys, pop culture, and retail innovation.” And it won't be the last V-Day event, he said.
“Pudgy Petals is not a one-time activation,” Starobinsky added. “We are going to expand this pop-up globally in 2027, leveraging it to launch more product capsules for this holiday.”
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The Vibes From the 'Davos for Degens' as Bitcoin and Ethereum Plummeted
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$0.157274
$0.00000779
$1.25
$0.817419
$0.999933
$0.330246
$0.02563391
$0.418446
$0.075199
$0.313518
$0.443672
$0.09802
$0.00161969
$0.282239
$1,095.47
$0.00441511
$0.270664
$4.61
$0.083051
$0.076514
$0.327744
$0.082754
$0.158344
$0.478162
$8.59
$1.94
$0.126945
$0.00246299
$0.13147
$0.207165
$1.28
$1.054
$0.126781
$1.003
$0.998093
$2.40
$0.03004017
$0.995343
$0.127289
$0.539336
$0.136455
$1.001
$1.061
By André Beganski
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Feb 8, 2026Feb 8, 2026
6 min read
If there's one thing that WallStreetBets loves to do, it's marvel at losses that other community members sustain when making outsized bets on stocks and crypto. But at a recent conference in Miami, not many degen traders were left standing by the conference's last day.
At [REDACTED] Live, a conference devoted to the most reckless traders in finance, dealers stood ready at blackjack and roulette tables, waiting for conference-goers to try their luck. They didn't have much to do, and all the while, Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged alongside precious metals, beginning a crypto market slide that would get much worse in the following days.
Despite a last-minute name change, the conference formerly known as WallStreetBets Live was still slated to host names like Jordan Belfort, the former stock broker who inspired a generation of so-called degens through his life's portrayal in the “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Ultimately, the character that became synonymous with charismatic persuasion and unapologetic greed in finance couldn't attend. Martin Shkreli's scheduled session also fell through, leaving attendees without the controversial investor known as the “Pharma Bro.”
In some ways, the conference's lack of attendees showed how niche a fandom toward the bombastic Reddit community had grown—and crypto by extension. Some attendees recalled how hard it was to navigate the floors of the Miami Beach Convention Center in 2021, when a Bitcoin conference made it feel like the industry was tipping into the mainstream.
By many measures, digital assets have become legitimized in traditional finance since then. But following a series of booms and busts in the cryptosphere—from NFTs to meme coins—digital assets haven't been embraced broadly by the general public yet.
An event organizer told Decrypt that around 1,300 attendees registered for [REDACTED] Live.
A few speakers that attended the conference portrayed a shift from speculation to tokenization, allowing people to access real-world assets as digital tokens in a way that dovetails with the community serving as a digital breeding ground for meme stocks.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said onstage that meme coins lack “fundamental value.” And although the Seychelles-based exchange has listed several popular meme coins, including Pepe and President Donald Trump's official token, she said that doesn't mean she's generally bullish on them.
Mezcal, the pseudonymous founder of token launchpad America.Fun, structured his presentation for the platform that lets users create and trade meme coins around the notion that Solana's so-called trenches are dead. But by charging users $200 per meme coin created, he argued that his platform is less likely to support a mix of low-quality tokens on similar platforms that essentially amount to spam.
According to its documentation, America.Fun solely uses World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin, and trading fees collected by the platform may be used for buybacks of WLFI, the token offered by the DeFi project backed by President Donald Trump and his sons.
Ogle, a pseudonymous advisor to World Liberty Financial, is an advisor to America.Fun as well, Mezcal told Decrypt. Mezcal added that it was his first time visiting the country.
Although enthusiasm toward assets that trade on vibes and bravado associated with WallStreetBets had dimmed, as far as the conference went, the same “us vs. them” mentally that defined the GameStop saga of 2021 still smoldered.
At least, that was from the perspective of WallStreetBets founder Jamie Rogozinski. Instead of waging war against Wall Street short sellers, he told Decrypt that his camp was now at odds with Reddit after it forced the event to change its name through a cease and desist letter.
With days to go, the conference went from “WallStreetBets Live” to “[REDACTED] Live.” Throughout the venue, all mentions of the name were patched over with new banners.
U.S. courts have ruled that Reddit owns the trademark to WallStreetBets, and in December, the Supreme Court declined to review a lawsuit brought by Rogozinski, per Bloomberg Law.
That didn't prevent Rogozinski from rolling with the title for months. And he argued that Reddit is mostly concerned with how WallStreetBets has expanded beyond its platform.
“There is a resounding demand for this collective mindset to be able to unite,” he said. “I believe that the reason why Reddit is doing what they are doing specifically against me is because they are afraid that precisely that is what's happening.”
A Reddit spokesperson told Decrypt that it “occasionally trademarks the names of certain communities to protect the creativity and interests of the users.”
Martin Masser, head of growth at TON Foundation, told Decrypt the outcome of Rogozinski's legal tussle with Reddit sets a “dangerous precedent” because it creates the perception that people aren't entitled the ownership of their data or the social media communities they create.
He pondered whether YouTube could try to assert ownership over Mr. Beast's media empire, for example. The sentiment was shared by AlphaTON Capital CEO and whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, who previously wrote amicus briefs to support Rogozinski's case.
“A lot of the people here used to be considered rebels, deviants, or people doing something that was niche,” she told Decrypt, noting that she had just returned stateside from her 12th trip to Davos, Switzerland. “Now what we're doing is not niche at all.”
For South Florida locals like Alex Hochberger, founder and CEO of crypto startup Web3 Enabler, [REDACTED] Live felt like a mixed bag.
The bar was open at 9 a.m., as it should be at any Miami gathering, he told Decrypt. But there was something about an “anti-establishment conference [being] priced for people with corporate credit cards” that didn't fully sit right with him.
Hochberger argued that general admission should've been free. Still, a couple dozen people had shown up early on the conference's final day to watch former White House Communications Director and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci kick things off.
Like Belfort and Shkreli, Scaramucci wasn't able to make an appearance in-person. Still, he offered wisdom via a pre-recorded video, including that “you got to get up.”
As Scaramucci recalled his life's biggest knockdowns—including losing his prominent White House gig after just 11 days—a brief clip of Sam Bankman-Fried shuffling in handcuffs played, depicting the former FTX CEO's arrest in 2022.
When FTX still had the naming rights to the arena where the Miami Heat play professional basketball, he was celebrated as someone that could turn the city into a major crypto hub. His conviction for orchestrating a massive, multibillion-dollar fraud would later stain the industry.
Scaramucci conceded that he let Bankman-Fried, who received a 25-year prison sentence for orchestrating a multi-billion fraud, acquire a 30% stake in Skybridge weeks before its collapse. But Scaramucci noted that setbacks can be temporary.
“It looked really bad for us,” he said. “But if you operate with integrity, even when you're having a bad situation happen to you, you can survive—and there's plenty of opportunities.”
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Front Office Sports caught up with Gary Vaynerchuk at Super Bowl Radio Row for a wide-ranging conversation on sports, media, NIL, NFTs, and ownership.
Gold is seen as a store of wealth, but what does Bitcoin offer?
Gold is a metal that has long been used as currency. At one point, paper currency was backed by a gold reserve. That's no longer the case, but gold is still seen as a store of wealth because it is a physical asset. In the digital world, things are different. Investors have taken to cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC +2.69%) as a store of wealth. Is that a good idea in light of recent divergent price moves in gold and Bitcoin?
Geopolitical and economic concerns have investors on edge. Sure, the S&P 500 is trading near all-time highs, but that hasn't stopped Wall Street from buying gold as a hedge against a market or economic crash. To be fair, gold has risen dramatically over the past year, though sometimes in a volatile fashion. As a commodity, gold is prone to material price swings. Given the emotionally driven price advance, the swing can be pretty large even on a day-to-day basis.
Image source: Getty Images.
Still, gold is a physical asset. If you buy a gold coin, it will still be a gold coin 100 years from now. That means you can use it to buy things in a worst-case scenario, no matter what happens on Wall Street or Main Street.
Bitcoin is a digital asset. The only value it has is the value that other owners of the asset assign to it. Like gold, Bitcoin is highly volatile. Also like gold, investors view it as a store of wealth because it exists outside government control. Unlike gold, however, Bitcoin isn't a physical asset. That limits its use in the worst scenarios, like a total economic collapse.
Such a dire outcome is unlikely. However, there's still a good reason to question Bitcoin's value as a store of wealth. This is evident in Bitcoin's price not always moving in the same direction as gold's. From a historical perspective, gold's role as a diversification tool and store of wealth is well established. Bitcoin has been around for a few years, but compared to gold, it is still a brand-new asset class. It's largely untested as a store of wealth.
Until Bitcoin has been through a deep bear market or recession, there's no way to know whether it will be a store of wealth like gold has historically been. Only the most aggressive investors should own Bitcoin, thinking that it is a store of wealth like gold.
Of course, it's also true that only the most aggressive investors should allocate more than a small portion of their assets to gold. Speculating on gold or Bitcoin price moves isn't for the faint of heart.
Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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This New Crypto Protocol Is Outperforming Top Altcoins, Experts Weigh In
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After a rocky week, the bitcoin price is trading above $71,000.
The Bitcoin price climbed back above $71,000 over the weekend, extending its rebound after one of the sharpest sell-offs of the cycle sent the price briefly plunging toward $60,000 earlier this week.
The recovery comes as institutional investors appear to be treating sub-$70,000 bitcoin as a renewed buying opportunity, even while retail traders search for signs the market has reached a bottom.
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said in a CNBC interview that bitcoin's pullback is landing differently with large investors than with long-time holders.
“I think long-time holders are feeling unsure,” Horsley said. “And I think the new investor set, institutions are sort of getting a new crack at the apple.”
Horsley added that some institutional buyers are now seeing price levels they believed they had permanently missed, as bitcoin gets “swept up” in a broader macro-driven selloff across liquid risk assets.
While institutions have been stepping in, retail participants have been scanning the market for confirmation that the sell-off has fully exhausted itself.
Sentiment platform Santiment said in a weekend report that retail traders are “meta-analyzing” the downturn, looking for proof that others are quitting before re-entering the market — behavior that often emerges near market lows.
“Retail traders are trying to meta-analyze the market, looking for signs of others quitting to time their own entries,” Santiment wrote.
Google Trends data reflects the spike in attention. Worldwide searches for “Bitcoin” hit a score of 100 for the week starting Feb. 1 — the highest level in the past 12 months — as bitcoin's price whipsawed from above $81,000 down to $60,000 before rebounding.
Searches for the term “crypto capitulation” also surged, rising from 11 to 58 in the week ending Feb. 8.
Adding to all this, ProCap Financial CIO Jeff Park suggested bitcoin price's next major bull-market catalyst may not come from Federal Reserve rate cuts — but from bitcoin's ability to rise even in a tightening environment.
Park described a scenario where the bitcoin price climbs alongside higher interest rates as the asset's “holy grail,” challenging traditional assumptions about liquidity and the global monetary system.
Last week, crypto exchange Bithumb said it accidentally sent out more than $40 billion worth of Bitcoin during a promotional rewards event after a payout error gave some users thousands of BTC instead of a small cash reward.
The exchange quickly restricted trading and withdrawals, recovering 99.7% of the excess Bitcoin and stressing the incident was not caused by hacking or a security breach.
A small amount — about 125 BTC worth roughly $9 million — remains unrecovered, and Bithumb said it will cover the losses with corporate funds.
Bitcoin price was trading above $71,400 at the time of publication, stabilizing after days of extreme volatility that rattled both crypto and broader financial markets.
Established in 2012, Bitcoin Magazine is the oldest and most established source of trustworthy news, information and thought leadership on Bitcoin.
© BTC Media, LLC 2025
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Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, suggested that institutional dealer hedging is exacerbating the recent downward pressure on Bitcoin prices.
In a February 7 post on X, Hayes pointed to structured financial products linked to BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
He argued that falling Bitcoin prices force financial institutions that issue these notes to sell the underlying asset to manage their risk exposure. Finance professionals refer to this process as delta hedging.
Hayes explained that these structured notes are often issued by major banks to provide institutional clients with exposure to Bitcoin. The products include specific risk-management features, such as principal-protection levels.
When market prices dip low enough to trigger these pre-determined levels, dealers must aggressively adjust their positions to remain risk-neutral.
While this mechanism is standard in traditional equity markets, Hayes noted that it creates a feedback loop in the crypto sector where selling begets further selling. This dynamic effectively accelerates the asset's price collapse.
“I will be compiling a complete list of all issued notes by the banks to better understand trigger points that could cause rapid price rises and falls,” Hayes wrote.
However, Hayes clarified that he does not believe there is a "secret plot" to crash the market.
He emphasized that these derivatives do not inherently instigate market movements but rather amplify volatility in both upward and downward directions.
He added that the market should be grateful for the absence of bailouts, which would allow leverage to unwind naturally.
The commentary comes amidst a turbulent week for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin recently recorded its worst single-day performance since the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022.
Meanwhile, other market participants have attributed the decline to broader macroeconomic headwinds and even quantum computing security concerns.
For context, Pantera Capital General Partner Franklin Bi pinned the volatility on a distressed non-crypto entity rather than a typical industry fund.
Bi posited that the seller was likely a large, Asia-based player. This entity reportedly evaded early detection by market watchers because it lacks deep ties to crypto-native counterparties.
According to Bi's theory, the entity was likely engaged in leveraged market-making strategies on Binance, funded by the Japanese yen carry trade.
These two analysis underscores a fundamental shift in the digital asset sector.
It shows that complex trading strategies, rather than retail sentiment alone, increasingly influence Bitcoin's price action.
Read original story Arthur Hayes Attributes Bitcoin Crash to ETF-Linked Dealer Hedging by Oluwapelumi Adejumo at beincrypto.com
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In the fast-moving world of tech, one thing never changes: waves of massive hype followed by harsh reality checks. From the promise of revolutionizing everything to the current frenzy around AI, the industry has a habit of selling dreams that often turn into nightmares. If you've been in tech for a while, you've seen it all – clouds that aren't clouds, services that lock you in, and coins that vanish overnight. This post dives deep into these , focusing on blockchain and crypto, and asks: when will the next bubble burst?
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, tech felt like steady progress. Hardware got faster, software got better, and open-source tools like Linux powered real innovation. But after the 2008 financial crash, things shifted. Companies needed quick wins to boost stock prices, and marketers stepped in with big promises.
A seasoned Linux developer at a recent conference nailed it: we've had over 15 years of non-stop hype cycles. These aren't just buzzwords – they cost businesses billions and waste developers' time. Let's count the major waves, starting with the early ones and building to blockchain and beyond.
It kicked off around 2002 with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The pitch? Spin up virtual machines on demand, no hardware hassles. Sounds great for startups. But dig deeper: the cloud is just servers in a data center run by a big company. You're trusting them with your data, paying premium prices, and locked into their ecosystem.
Remember: There is no cloud. It's somebody else's computer. For most businesses, buying your own servers or using private hosting works fine and cheaper.
By 2004, SaaS exploded with tools like Gmail and early Salesforce. Why install software when you can subscribe? Fast-forward, and it's Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) – all promising freedom from IT headaches.
Reality? You're renting access to your own data. No control over servers, updates, or storage. One outage, and your business stops. Classic pitfalls from network computing fallacies: assume networks are fast and reliable? They're not.
Lesson: If you care about your data, manage it yourself.
Containers started in 2008 with LXC on Linux, popularized by Docker in 2013. Handy for testing apps in isolation. Kubernetes (K8s) followed in 2014 – a tool to orchestrate containers at massive scale.
For 99% of companies? Total overkill. If you can run it in a container, run it on bare metal. Need K8s? Only if you're handling millions of users spiking at once – which won't happen for most.
Pro Tip: One Big Server approach often wins for simplicity and cost.
Enter 2008: Bitcoin's whitepaper drops amid the financial crisis. Satoshi Nakamoto promised decentralized money. By 2011, crypto hit mainstream radar. Then NFTs in 2021, Web3 everywhere.
Blockchain truth: It's a slow, energy-guzzling database that's super distributed – great for theory, terrible for speed. Need transactions per second? Visa laughs at it.
In blockchain and crypto, hype met reality hard. Early adopters made bank, but retail investors got wrecked. Real use? Supply chain tracking, maybe. But DeFi scams and 90% of tokens hitting zero? Pure BS.
SEO keywords like ‘blockchain myths' and ‘crypto bubble burst' trend because people are waking up. Invest wisely: DYOR, avoid FOMO.
2022: ChatGPT blows up. LLMs promise to code, write, create. But it's transformer models predicting next words – glorified autocomplete. Can't count past 10 reliably, hallucinates facts.
Blockchain parallel? Both sold as world-changers but deliver meh. AI needs massive data centers (hello, cloud hypocrisy), and outputs are ‘kinda true' slop. Gentoo and NetBSD banned it for code – smart move.
Coming crash? Billions poured in, returns? Hype deflation ahead.
That's 20+ years of cycles. Feels like a century.
1. Question the hype: If it sounds too good, test it yourself.
2. Own your stack: Bare metal > containers > cloud for most.
3. Crypto caveat: Blockchain shines in niches like secure ledgers, but avoid shiny tokens. Stick to Bitcoin or Ethereum for stores of value.
4. AI future: Tools, not magic. Use it for drafts, not decisions.
Other villains? Jira hell, Agile worship. What's your top tech BS?
The tech industry thrives on BS, but savvy pros see through it. In blockchain and crypto, we've learned: decentralization is hard, scams are easy. AI? Same story incoming. Build real value, ignore the noise.
Share your thoughts below – which wave hit you hardest? Subscribe for more no-BS takes on crypto and tech.
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Blockmanity is one of the leading sources of information and analysis on the digital assets market since its establishment in 2018. Our team is dedicated to providing comprehensive coverage of key developments. We focus on a range of topics, including Bitcoin, DeFi, NFTs, and web3, in order to offer a comprehensive overview of the crypto asset market.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged the cryptocurrency industry to resist drifting away from its foundational practices, arguing that innovation in blockchain technology should build on established principles rather than discard them in pursuit of short-term trends.
Buterin's remarks were shared in a recent public appearance and later highlighted by the X account Coinvo. Following verification of the source, hokanews cited the comments as part of its ongoing coverage of thought leadership and long-term vision within the digital asset industry.
The comments come amid rapid experimentation across the crypto sector, where new financial products, scaling solutions, and governance models are being introduced at an accelerating pace.
In his remarks, Buterin emphasized that many of crypto's early design choices were responses to real-world problems, not outdated habits that should be abandoned lightly. He warned that moving too far away from those practices risks undermining the values that originally made blockchain technology distinct.
According to Buterin, decentralization, transparency, and simplicity remain core strengths of crypto systems. While technological progress is essential, he argued that innovation should refine these concepts rather than replace them with opaque or overly centralized alternatives.
His comments appeared aimed at a growing segment of the industry focused on rapid product deployment and financialization.
Buterin clarified that “old habits” does not mean resisting change or rejecting new technology. Instead, he referred to long-standing practices such as open-source development, cautious protocol upgrades, and community-driven governance.
These practices, he said, help ensure that blockchain systems remain resilient and trustworthy over time.
Industry analysts note that these principles often slow development but reduce the risk of catastrophic failure, an increasingly relevant concern as blockchains handle larger volumes of value.
The crypto industry has evolved dramatically over the past decade, expanding from simple peer-to-peer transactions into complex ecosystems involving decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and institutional-grade infrastructure.
With that growth has come pressure to optimize for speed, scale, and profit. Buterin cautioned that such pressures can lead to shortcuts that compromise long-term security and decentralization.
His remarks reflect a broader debate within the industry about whether crypto should prioritize mainstream adoption or remain focused on its original mission.
The comments gained wider visibility after Coinvo shared excerpts of Buterin's remarks on X, prompting discussion across developer forums and social media platforms. After confirming the context of the statements, hokanews referenced them while presenting the remarks as part of an ongoing philosophical discussion rather than a critique of specific projects.
Mainstream coverage has similarly framed Buterin's message as guidance rather than condemnation.
Ethereum's own development path reflects the tension Buterin described. The network has undergone major upgrades to improve scalability and efficiency, while maintaining an emphasis on decentralization and open participation.
Supporters argue that Ethereum's cautious, research-driven approach has allowed it to adapt without sacrificing its core values. Critics contend that the pace of change has left room for faster-moving competitors.
Buterin's comments suggest that he views deliberate progress as a feature rather than a flaw.
For developers, Buterin's message reinforces the importance of thoughtful design and long-term thinking. For investors, it serves as a reminder that not all innovation is inherently positive, particularly when it prioritizes rapid gains over system integrity.
Market analysts note that projects grounded in foundational principles often demonstrate greater resilience during market downturns.
Buterin's remarks are part of a wider conversation about maturity in the crypto sector. As blockchain technology moves closer to mainstream finance, the question of how much to change and how much to preserve has become increasingly central.
The debate is likely to intensify as regulatory scrutiny grows and institutional participation increases.
While Buterin did not call for specific policy changes or technical rollbacks, his comments add weight to ongoing discussions about responsible innovation. Developers and community leaders are expected to continue debating how best to balance experimentation with stability.
hokanews will continue to monitor statements from industry leaders and provide updates as verified information becomes available.
hokanews.com – Not Just Crypto News. It's Crypto Culture.
Writer @Ethan
Ethan Collins is a passionate crypto journalist and blockchain enthusiast, always on the hunt for the latest trends shaking up the digital finance world. With a knack for turning complex blockchain developments into engaging, easy-to-understand stories, he keeps readers ahead of the curve in the fast-paced crypto universe. Whether it's Bitcoin, Ethereum, or emerging altcoins, Ethan dives deep into the markets to uncover insights, rumors, and opportunities that matter to crypto fans everywhere.
Disclaimer:
The articles on HOKANEWS are here to keep you updated on the latest buzz in crypto, tech, and beyond—but they're not financial advice. We're sharing info, trends, and insights, not telling you to buy, sell, or invest. Always do your own homework before making any money moves.
HOKANEWS isn't responsible for any losses, gains, or chaos that might happen if you act on what you read here. Investment decisions should come from your own research—and, ideally, guidance from a qualified financial advisor. Remember: crypto and tech move fast, info changes in a blink, and while we aim for accuracy, we can't promise it's 100% complete or up-to-date.
Bitcoin
BTC
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-0.37%
Ethereum
ETH
$2,097.35$2,097.35$2,097.35
-0.53%
Solana
SOL
$87.33$87.33$87.33
-0.51%
XRP
XRP
$1.4373$1.4373$1.4373
-0.22%
Cardano
ADA
$0.2715$0.2715$0.2715
-0.44%
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Key Takeaways
The “Bitcoin to $0” narrative is surging again.
Market sentiment has flipped decisively bearish.
Bullish credibility is weakening.
“Every time I ask a Bitcoin true believer to explain why they think it has any long-term value… I come away more certain that Bitcoin has no long-term value, and a floor price of zero.”
That was the verdict this week from Buck Sexton, a popular American talk show host, in a post that quickly spread across social media as Bitcoin's price fell over 20% in the past week.
Sexton's comments are the latest example of a narrative that has resurfaced fiercely during the most recent downturn.
Bitcoin's critics have always argued that its value depends on the next buyer paying more than the last — and that in a true confidence crisis, there is no “fundamental floor.”
That is the logic behind the zero-dollar thesis.
What has changed is that, amid another sharp downturn, the idea is no longer confined to a handful of gold advocates or ideological skeptics.
It now seems to be being repeated by media figures and even previously bullish traders, at a moment when the crypto market is already battling extreme fear.
But why has the idea that Bitcoin could ultimately be worth nothing become so popular?
Bitcoin has faced existential critiques since its earliest days, but the latest downturn seems to have spread further, fueling long-time skeptics and also those outside of the crypto space.
Richard Farr, chief market strategist and partner at Pivotus Partners, claimed on Wednesday that his firm's Bitcoin target is “$0.0.”
Farr argued that Bitcoin has failed as a hedge against the dollar, remains heavily correlated to the Nasdaq, and has not gained traction as a medium of exchange.
He also pointed to concerns around mining economics and energy consumption.
“The miners (who are the network) are bleeding cash,” Farr wrote, adding: “We think it's a zero.”
Peter Schiff, one of Bitcoin's most vocal opponents, argued that gold's value is rooted in physical utility, while Bitcoin's value is based purely on belief.
“Bitcoin's value is purely subjective, as it has no utility beyond belief,” Schiff said in a post.
Schiff also argued that Bitcoin offers limited practical function beyond storage and transfer.
“Bitcoin can't do anything. That's the problem,” he said. “Yes you can store and transfer your Bitcoin, but beyond that you can't do anything with it.”
Sexton, in a separate post, argued that the anger he receives from Bitcoin supporters is itself part of the problem.
He wrote that if Bitcoin's long-term case is truly as strong as believers claim, they should welcome price declines as an opportunity to buy.
“The people who get mad at me over this just prove the point further,” Sexton wrote.
Traders pushed back on this theory, with many explaining that Bitcoin's investor base is not a single bloc of patient “true believers.”
In 2026, a significant portion of demand comes from institutional investors involved in ETFs and leveraged long positions, meaning steep drops can quickly turn into an unwind rather than a discount-buying spree.
As a result, price weakness tends to feed anxiety of even the most “bullish” participants.
Another reason for the zero dollar theory taking such large prominence at the moment can also come down to social media sentiment.
Blockchain analytics firm Santiment said sentiment across the crypto market has turned decisively negative over the past week, with Bitcoin and Ethereum absorbing the brunt of trader pessimism following a steep downswing.
“Sentiment has turned extremely bearish toward Bitcoin and Ethereum following crypto's major downswing this past week,” the firm said.
The shift in sentiment has been reflected in widely watched market gauges.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell sharply recently, sliding from “Fear” to “Extreme Fear” and dropping to a reading of 14 — its lowest level in roughly six weeks.
As prices slide dramatically, the renewed talk of Bitcoin going to zero has been amplified by a collapse in confidence around the industry's most aggressive bullish forecasts.
In recent weeks, missed predictions from Fundstrat's Tom Lee and bullish comments from Michael Saylor have drawn skeptics to disown long-term forecasts.
On Jan. 30, 2026, a viral post from a social media figure branding himself as the “world's smartest man” declared: “Bitcoin about to pump hard.”
Instead, Bitcoin fell sharply the same day, dropping roughly 6% and triggering more than $1.6 billion in liquidations as leveraged long positions were wiped out.
In the days that followed, crypto traders pushed increased criticism at some of the industry's most loudest bullish voices — especially those with a rich history of missed forecasts.
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, became a focal point after he floated a scenario in a recent video in which Bitcoin could reach $10 million “tomorrow” if the world reached consensus on its value.
“If people in the rest of the world knew what I know, and they understood and they agreed with me, Bitcoin would go to $10 million tomorrow,” Saylor said.
Critics mocked the logic of Saylor's remarks, with one user comparing it to speculative manias of the past, writing: “At least tulips are beautiful.”
Others argued Saylor was ignoring structural pressures facing the Bitcoin ecosystem, including miner profitability, energy costs, and increasing centralization.
Despite the renewed wave of zero-dollar rhetoric, many investors say the selloff has not erased Bitcoin's long-term thesis — particularly among institutions and large asset managers.
In its “Big Ideas 2026” report released in January, ARK Invest said it expects the global cryptocurrency market to expand at a 61% compound annual growth rate to around $28 trillion by 2030.
ARK projected that Bitcoin could represent roughly 70% of that total market, and said the token's price could reach between about $950,000 and $1 million.
“Bitcoin is maturing as the leader of a new institutional asset class,” the firm said.
ARK's chief executive Cathie Wood also argued that improving macroeconomic conditions could provide support for Bitcoin and broader risk assets.
Wood said the economy has already absorbed a “rolling recession” across housing, manufacturing, small businesses and consumer sentiment, reducing the risk of a deeper downturn.
She also pointed to tax-related tailwinds, including refunds and corporate incentives, as potential drivers of a stronger investment cycle.
Finally, Wood said easing inflation, lower interest rates and deregulation could create a more supportive environment for financial markets.
Despite the renewed zero-dollar rhetoric, many market participants say Bitcoin collapsing to nothing remains improbable.
Major institutional allocators and long-term custodial vehicles now hold Bitcoin, unlike in earlier boom-and-bust cycles.
A collapse to zero would likely require not just a prolonged bear market, but a complete breakdown in custody, legality and long-term belief.
Much more than a simple crash.
The post Bitcoin Price To $0? Here's Why The Zero Dollar Bitcoin Narrative Is Growing — And Why It May Teach Us Something appeared first on ccn.com.
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Australian banks and super funds are taking their first tentative steps in the use of stablecoins, deploying the digital currency in trial capital market transactions to speed up settlement times and reduce costs.
Offshore, stablecoins are increasingly being used for payments – forcing banks to take notice amid industry concerns they may soon become an alternative venue for retail deposits.
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Ethereum isn't being recognized for the improvements it's making.
Most assets simply can't reinvent themselves every few quarters, but Ethereum (ETH +0.74%) arguably does just that. After pushing two major upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, in 2025, the chain has another two big improvements on the docket for 2026.
Nonetheless, the coin's price is down by 38% during the past three months alone, largely for macro reasons that are well beyond its control. Thus it's likely undervalued, and potentially by quite a lot. Does that make it a screaming buy with a hearty investment of $5,000?
Image source: Getty Images.
Ethereum's 2025 upgrades were a lot more than cosmetic improvements, and they laid the technical groundwork for a lot of the follow-on work that's going to happen this year. This stuff might sound boring (and it might actually be) but knowing what's going on with it is key to appreciating the chain's place in the crypto sector's competitive landscape, not to mention its future opportunities for growth.
The Pectra upgrade went live in May 2025, and it bundled changes aimed at providing better wallet UX, more efficient staking, and more throughput for Layer-2 (L2) chains. Fusaka followed on Dec. 3, and its headline feature, peer-to-peer data availability sampling (PeerDAS) is also a game changer for the chain's ability to provide rapid performance at scale, and substantially cheaper than before. Today, the chain's average transaction fees are roughly 75% lower than three years ago, with an average token swap now costing about $0.30, so these successive upgrades are definitely succeeding in making Ethereum a cheaper and easier technology to use.
For 2026, the next upgrade, Glamsterdam, will build on those past successes while also adding new censorship resistance features. But, if the coin's price performance after past updates is any indication, investors simply can't count on a boost.
There's not exactly a rush to buy Ethereum before Glamsterdam drops.
Ethereum's upside comes from being the settlement layer that L2s and on-chain finance route through. Given that its upgrades tend to reduce transaction costs rather than increase them, the coin's value capture from the traffic it supports is still very weak, and it would likely take a deluge of new traffic to move the needle for investors. Realistically, the new traffic will probably ramp up slowly over time, assuming it arrives at all, so buying the coin means getting exposure both to the value generated from the improvement of its underlying tech and also the value generated from people using it to pay for decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and services.
But it's still very much an asset worth owning, as it's one of the most important in the crypto sector. An investment of $5,000 buys roughly 2.5 coins, which is enough exposure in case 2026's development road map plays out such that the coin's price significantly rises, which is still possible.
Of course, if you're usually intolerant of risk, it's probably better to aim for a much smaller allocation.
Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Ethereum (ETH) has declined noticeably over the past week, with price data from CoinMarketCap reporting a net 14% decline within this period. At the time of the most recent data, ETH is trading around $2,000, significantly lower than the past week's level near $2,500.
ETH Funding Rates Signal A Bullish Turn
In a QuickTake post on the CryptoQuant platform, analyst Amr Taha draws attention to recent developments in ETH funding rates, a key sentiment indicator in perpetual futures. The funding rate shows the market sentiment, whether it's optimistic/greedy (positive) or fearful/cautious (negative).
Typically, when funding is highly positive or negative, it means that too many traders are on one side, positions are overleveraged, and then the market becomes unstable. At that point, even a small price move in the opposite direction can trigger liquidations, causing sharp and fast price moves.
Although Ethereum's funding rate was deeply negative over the week, analyst Amr Taha noted there has been a flip as ETH derivatives data shows a clear shift toward bullish positioning. Notably, Funding rates have turned strongly positive on BitMEX (Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange), reaching 0.049%, their highest level since October and well above the previous peak near 0.03. This signals aggressive leverage on the long side.
Extreme Optimism In ETH Could Spark Sharp Moves
At the same time, ETH funding on Binance has moved from deeply negative levels at -0.025% on February 5 back towards neutral, indicating that short positions are being replaced by new long exposure. In essence, the market has moved from fear to optimism.
While this shift reflects a rise in bullish sentiments, history shows that periods of extreme positive funding driven by leverage often increase the risk of liquidations and sharp corrective moves, rather than supporting sustained upside. In short, when everyone is bullish at the same time, the market becomes easier to knock over.
In all, Ethereum Derivatives traders have become aggressively bullish, and while that can push price higher in the short term, history shows it often increases the risk of sudden corrective moves rather than a sustained uptrend. At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $2,089 after a 14.9% decline in the past seven days. Meanwhile, the daily trading volume is down by 32.39% and valued at $37.39 billion.
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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In the aftermath of a huge decline, the cryptocurrency market rose 5.57% in the last 24 hours, raising its entire market value to $2.35 trillion. Although the mood is still staying in the extreme fear zone, it sees cautious optimism, as the crypto Fear & Greed Index increased to 8 from its previous low of 5, and Bitcoin's rebound to $70,000 from recent lows drove increases in the overall market.
The whole market's upward trend is majorly driven by Bitcoin's upswing, which contributes more than half, around 58.2%, to the overall crypto market cap. As it is currently trading at 67,978 with 4.74% high in the past 24 hours, before this, it had reached $71,605 earlier today. But, it is down by 19% over a week and 25% down over a month, which signals the broader downturn.
As per the Coinglass liquidation data, over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin short positions were liquidated for around $282 million, while longs were liquidated for $118 million, and the open interest has increased by around 2%.
Analysing the exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, as per SoSoValue data, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $330.67 million in inflows as of February 6, which shows the positive momentum of the institutional side, even though the spot price declined yesterday.
With that, seeing the 4-hour chart, the Bitcoin Relative Strength Index is currently at 40, suggesting the asset is approaching oversold territory but not yet fully reached that zone. The Bitcoin's MACD line remains above the signal line, indicating that bearish momentum may be easing. If it maintains the same momentum, it can attempt to retest resistance near $72,000 in the near term. But if it falls again, selling pressure can quickly reverse the recent gains.
Followed by Bitcoin rise, Ethereum saw 6.85% up in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,016, then, XRP surged by 9%, and Solana is trading up with 7.05%. While other major cryptos like Cardano and Chainlink all of them rebound, as of writing.According to CoinMarketCap, yesterday saw a large number of top losers, while gainers were few or none, but today, only three cryptocurrencies in the top 100 are recording losses, as of writing. While LEO led the top gainers with a 17.39% surge, followed by NIGHT and LIT tokens, this highlights the return of positive momentum among altcoins.
Highlighted Crypto News:
Binance Adds BTC to SAFU Fund, Gets Praise from Founder CZ
Coins
Bitcoin
$ 70.73K
Ethereum
$ 2.09K
XRP
$ 1.43
Cardano
$ 0.271
ChainLink
$ 8.80
Funds
Binance
Chainlink
Few
gets
Momentum
Share:
Coins
Bitcoin
$ 70.73K
Ethereum
$ 2.09K
XRP
$ 1.43
Cardano
$ 0.271
ChainLink
$ 8.80
Funds
Binance
Chainlink
Few
gets
Momentum
Share:
Read More
Share:
In the aftermath of a huge decline, the cryptocurrency market rose 5.57% in the last 24 hours, raising its entire market value to $2.35 trillion. Although the mood is still staying in the extreme fear zone, it sees cautious optimism, as the crypto Fear & Greed Index increased to 8 from its previous low of 5, and Bitcoin's rebound to $70,000 from recent lows drove increases in the overall market.
The whole market's upward trend is majorly driven by Bitcoin's upswing, which contributes more than half, around 58.2%, to the overall crypto market cap. As it is currently trading at 67,978 with 4.74% high in the past 24 hours, before this, it had reached $71,605 earlier today. But, it is down by 19% over a week and 25% down over a month, which signals the broader downturn.
As per the Coinglass liquidation data, over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin short positions were liquidated for around $282 million, while longs were liquidated for $118 million, and the open interest has increased by around 2%.
Analysing the exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, as per SoSoValue data, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $330.67 million in inflows as of February 6, which shows the positive momentum of the institutional side, even though the spot price declined yesterday.
With that, seeing the 4-hour chart, the Bitcoin Relative Strength Index is currently at 40, suggesting the asset is approaching oversold territory but not yet fully reached that zone. The Bitcoin's MACD line remains above the signal line, indicating that bearish momentum may be easing. If it maintains the same momentum, it can attempt to retest resistance near $72,000 in the near term. But if it falls again, selling pressure can quickly reverse the recent gains.
Followed by Bitcoin rise, Ethereum saw 6.85% up in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,016, then, XRP surged by 9%, and Solana is trading up with 7.05%. While other major cryptos like Cardano and Chainlink all of them rebound, as of writing.According to CoinMarketCap, yesterday saw a large number of top losers, while gainers were few or none, but today, only three cryptocurrencies in the top 100 are recording losses, as of writing. While LEO led the top gainers with a 17.39% surge, followed by NIGHT and LIT tokens, this highlights the return of positive momentum among altcoins.
Highlighted Crypto News:
Binance Adds BTC to SAFU Fund, Gets Praise from Founder CZ
Coins
Bitcoin
$ 70.73K
Ethereum
$ 2.09K
XRP
$ 1.43
Cardano
$ 0.271
ChainLink
$ 8.80
Funds
Binance
Chainlink
Few
gets
Momentum
Share:
Coins
Bitcoin
$ 70.73K
Ethereum
$ 2.09K
XRP
$ 1.43
Cardano
$ 0.271
ChainLink
$ 8.80
Funds
Binance
Chainlink
Few
gets
Momentum
Share:
Read More
Jakarta, Pintu News – The Crypto Clarity Act is a draft policy andregulatory framework that aims to provideregulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency industry. This initiative emerged as a response to the regulatory uncertainty that has overshadowed industry players, investors, and blockchain technology developers. With the Crypto Clarity Act, regulators are expected to have clearer boundaries of authority, while market participants gain legal certainty.
The Crypto Clarity Act refers to a legislative effort that regulates the classification of crypto assets more strictly. The main focus is to distinguish whether a crypto asset is categorized as a security, commodity, or another form of digital asset. This clarity of classification is a key foundation for supervision and enforcement.
Through this approach, the Crypto Clarity Act seeks to reduce overlapping authority between regulatory agencies. It also aims to create consistent standards so that technological innovation is not hampered by legal uncertainty.
Also Read: 5 BTC History Facts February often bounces back after January slump!
Over the years, the crypto industry has faced regulatory uncertainty that has led to legal disputes and market confusion. Many crypto projects struggled to determine legal obligations due to differing interpretations between regulators. This has resulted in slow institutional adoption and increased legal risks.
The Crypto Clarity Act was born in response to the market's need for certainty. With a clearer legal framework, regulators can focus on consumer protection, while industry players can operate with more stable regulatory certainty.
The main objective of the Crypto Clarity Act is to provide a clear legal definition of crypto assets. The regulation is designed to ensure that supervision is proportionate to the characteristics of each digital asset. Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach can be avoided.
In addition, the Crypto Clarity Act aims to encourage innovation in blockchain technology. Legal certainty is expected to create a more conducive investment climate, while increasing the competitiveness of the crypto industry at the global level.
The scope of the Crypto Clarity Act covers the classification of digital assets, token issuance governance, as well as crypto trading supervision mechanisms. This regulation also touches on aspects of consumer protection and information transparency. Businesses are required to provide adequate disclosure regarding the risks and structure of crypto products.
Additionally, the Crypto Clarity Act has the potential to regulate the relationship between developers, crypto exchanges, and investors. With this framework, the responsibilities of each party become more defined and measurable.
For investors, the Crypto Clarity Act provides stronger legal protection. Clarity on the status of crypto assets helps investors understand the risks and rights attached to each instrument. This is important for making more rational investment decisions.
With clearer regulations, the potential for gray and fraudulent practices is expected to be reduced. Investors also gain greater transparency regarding the obligations of market participants and applicable compliance standards.
For the industry, the Crypto Clarity Act has the potential to reduce the legal risks that have hindered the development of crypto products. Companies can design business models that are compliant with regulations from the start. This encourages healthier and more sustainable ecosystem growth.
On the other hand, overly strict regulation remains a concern. Therefore, the balance between supervision and innovation is a key factor in the implementation of the Crypto Clarity Act.
While it aims to provide clarity, the Crypto Clarity Act also faces challenges. One of them is the fast-evolving dynamics of crypto technology that is difficult to accommodate by static regulations. The risk of over-regulation can stifle innovation if not implemented adaptively.
In addition, differences in regulatory approaches between countries can create fragmentation of the global market. These challenges demand international coordination to keep crypto regulation relevant and effective.
The Crypto Clarity Act is an important step towards legal certainty in the cryptocurrency industry. With clearer definitions and classifications, it has the potential to enhance investor protection while encouraging innovation. Its success will largely depend on the balance between oversight and regulatory flexibility.
In the long run, the Crypto Clarity Act could lay the foundation for a more mature and sustainable crypto industry. For market participants, understanding these regulations is key to adapting to the increasingly structured crypto landscape.
Also Read: Michael Saylor aims to buy Bitcoin when BTC drops to USD 78,000!
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This content aims to enrich readers' information. Pintu collects this information from various relevant sources and is not influenced by outside parties. Note that an asset's past performance does not determine its projected future performance. Crypto trading activities are subject to high risk and volatility, always do your own research and use cold hard cash before investing. All activities of buying and selling Bitcoin and other crypto asset investments are the responsibility of the reader.
Ethereum's recent sell-off has weighed heavily on sentiment after the price fell below the $2,000 level and pulled much of the altcoin market lower alongside it. The move has caused sweeping fear and caution among Ethereum traders. However, some analysts are of the notion that a bullish upside will roll in soon.
In a post shared on X, crypto analyst ChainHub said the current conditions point more toward exhaustion, and after massive downside comes massive upside.
ETHBTC Structure Holds
ChainHub emphasized that the ETH/BTC pair is still technically valid and has not seen any structural invalidation despite the recent price crash. Although Ethereum's price fell much lower than many expected during the crash, it is not going to keep falling forever. He also pointed to fear levels that are now climbing to extremes rarely seen, noting that such environments always tend to appear near major turning points. “After massive fear and massive downside comes massive upside,” the analyst said.
On Ethereum itself, ChainHub acknowledged that losing the $2,000 handle was important, but he highlighted the next major area of interest near $1,700. This zone is technically consistent with a broader corrective structure, and it is possible that Ethereum might not even fall that far before it rebounds. However, even if Ethereum does fall to $1,700, price action reaching this area means Ethereum is finally at a region where buyers may begin to reassert control.
He linked this outlook to Bitcoin's recent behavior. Bitcoin's rejection at $72,000 opened the door to a retest of the upper portion of its summer 2024 demand range, which stretches from around $59,000 down to $49,000.
ChainHub pointed out that this is the first significant interaction with that demand area since 2025, with Fibonacci alignment clustering around $57,000 to $58,000. This increases the odds that Bitcoin is in the process of forming a base, and that is where it establishes a bottom.
Altcoins Touching Meaningful Demand Levels
ChainHub also noted that Ethereum is not alone in testing critical levels. Several major altcoins, including Solana and XRP, have moved into important demand zones. Many of these altcoins have revisited August 2024 lows or filled prior wicks, areas that have not yet been broken on an initial attempt.
Solana, for instance, has broken below $100 for the first time since January 2024 and recently traded at a low of $75. As noted by ChainHub, this move saw Solana finally touch meaningful demand for the first time in 2 years.
Dogecoin, Cardano, and Avalanche have also all filled the downward wicks on October 10, restoring balance and touching the August 2024 low. Although there is still the possibility for limited downside, the expectation is that the market begins forming a range and then starts building bullish momentum in the coming weeks.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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.
Ethereum's recent sell-off has weighed heavily on sentiment after the price fell below the $2,000 level and pulled much of the altcoin market lower alongside it. The move has caused sweeping fear and caution among Ethereum traders. However, some analysts are of the notion that a bullish upside will roll in soon.
In a post shared on X, crypto analyst ChainHub said the current conditions point more toward exhaustion, and after massive downside comes massive upside.
ETHBTC Structure Holds
ChainHub emphasized that the ETH/BTC pair is still technically valid and has not seen any structural invalidation despite the recent price crash. Although Ethereum's price fell much lower than many expected during the crash, it is not going to keep falling forever. He also pointed to fear levels that are now climbing to extremes rarely seen, noting that such environments always tend to appear near major turning points. “After massive fear and massive downside comes massive upside,” the analyst said.
On Ethereum itself, ChainHub acknowledged that losing the $2,000 handle was important, but he highlighted the next major area of interest near $1,700. This zone is technically consistent with a broader corrective structure, and it is possible that Ethereum might not even fall that far before it rebounds. However, even if Ethereum does fall to $1,700, price action reaching this area means Ethereum is finally at a region where buyers may begin to reassert control.
He linked this outlook to Bitcoin's recent behavior. Bitcoin's rejection at $72,000 opened the door to a retest of the upper portion of its summer 2024 demand range, which stretches from around $59,000 down to $49,000.
ChainHub pointed out that this is the first significant interaction with that demand area since 2025, with Fibonacci alignment clustering around $57,000 to $58,000. This increases the odds that Bitcoin is in the process of forming a base, and that is where it establishes a bottom.
Altcoins Touching Meaningful Demand Levels
ChainHub also noted that Ethereum is not alone in testing critical levels. Several major altcoins, including Solana and XRP, have moved into important demand zones. Many of these altcoins have revisited August 2024 lows or filled prior wicks, areas that have not yet been broken on an initial attempt.
Solana, for instance, has broken below $100 for the first time since January 2024 and recently traded at a low of $75. As noted by ChainHub, this move saw Solana finally touch meaningful demand for the first time in 2 years.
Dogecoin, Cardano, and Avalanche have also all filled the downward wicks on October 10, restoring balance and touching the August 2024 low. Although there is still the possibility for limited downside, the expectation is that the market begins forming a range and then starts building bullish momentum in the coming weeks.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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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Citron Research founder Andrew Left renewed his aggressive short campaign against Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) on Thursday, dismissing the company's complex financial architecture as "nonsense" after the firm reported a staggering $12.4 billion fourth-quarter loss.
The critique marks a sharp reversal for Left, who previously praised the company before it “completely detached from BTC fundamentals.”
The dispute centers on Executive Chairman Michael Saylor's recent descriptions of his firm as a “Bitcoin treasury company” powered by a “Bitcoin reactor.” Left fired back via social media, mocking the terminology used to justify the company's massive debt-fueled acquisition strategy.
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“I admit when I heard it I thought maybe I am ignorant and don't understand, turns out the more jargon the more nonsense,” Left stated. The “nonsense” Left refers to includes Saylor's claims that Strategy can “strip the volatility” off fixed-income securities and generate a “BTC spread” of up to 90%.
While Saylor previously bragged, “We're making 500 million a day,” the reality of early 2026 has proven more somber. Strategy's fourth-quarter results showed a net loss of $12.6 billion, largely due to a $17.5 billion surge in unrealized losses on its digital assets.
How did this one age? I admit when I heard it I thought maybe I am ignorant and don't understand, turns out the more jargon the more nonsense. https://t.co/DxCnMW6DXf
Trending: Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share.
Adding weight to the bearish sentiment, “Big Short” investor Michael Burry warned this week that Bitcoin's (CRYPTO: BTC) descent could trigger a “collateral death spiral.”
Burry noted that Strategy could find capital markets “essentially closed” if prices fall another 10%, potentially leaving the firm billions in the red.
Burry specifically highlighted the risk to the broader ecosystem: "At $50,000, miners would go bankrupt and be forced to sell their BTC reserves, tokenized metals futures would collapse into a black hole with no buyer".
Michael Burry thinks that a further decline in bitcoin could cause miners to go "bankrupt." pic.twitter.com/Nk4xEqdQNk
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Despite the volatility, Saylor remains defiant, telling investors on the post-earnings call that “the actions by big finance, the actions by the big banks and the actions by the financial regulators are the fundamentals.”
However, with Strategy's average cost per Bitcoin sitting at $76,052 and the current market price hovering near $64,000, the firm's “leveraged Bitcoin reactor” is facing its most severe stress test to date.
Shares of Strategy have declined by 29.59% year-to-date and 71.50% over the last six months. It was also down by 68.22% over the year. On Thursday, the stock fell 17.12% to $106.99 apiece following its earnings.
MSTR maintains a weaker price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a poor value ranking, as per Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings.
Photo courtesy: Wirestock Creators on Shutterstock.com
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A research team led by scientists from several Japanese institutions has identified a compound called Mic-628 that directly influences the body's internal timing system. The group included Emeritus Professor Tei H. (Kanazawa University), Associate Professor Takahata Y. (Osaka University), Professor Numano R. (Toyohashi University of Technology), and Associate Professor Uriu K. (Institute of Science Tokyo). Their experiments showed that Mic-628 specifically activates Per1, a core gene that helps regulate daily biological rhythms in mammals.
The researchers found that Mic-628 works by attaching to CRY1, a protein that normally suppresses clock gene activity. This interaction encourages the formation of a larger molecular complex known as CLOCK-BMAL1-CRY1-Mic-628. Once formed, this complex switches on Per1 by acting at a specific DNA site called a "dual E-box." Through this mechanism, Mic-628 shifts the timing of both the brain's master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and clocks in other organs, including the lungs. Notably, these clock shifts occurred together and did not depend on when the compound was given.
Faster Recovery From Jet Lag in Animal Tests
To test real-world relevance, the team used a mouse model designed to mimic jet lag by advancing the light-dark cycle by six hours (6-hour light-dark phase advance). Mice that received a single oral dose of Mic-628 adjusted to the new schedule much faster, taking four days instead of seven. Further mathematical analysis showed that this steady, one-direction shift forward is driven by a built-in feedback loop involving the PER1 protein, which helps stabilize the clock change.
Why Advancing the Clock Is So Difficult
Adjusting to earlier schedules, such as traveling east across time zones or working night shifts, requires the body clock to move forward. This type of adjustment is typically slower and more stressful for the body than delaying the clock. Common approaches like light exposure or melatonin depend heavily on precise timing and often produce uneven results. Because Mic-628 consistently advances the clock regardless of dosing time, it offers a fundamentally different drug-based approach to circadian reset.
What Comes Next for Mic-628
The researchers plan to continue studying Mic-628 to better understand its safety and effectiveness in additional animal studies and in humans. Since the compound reliably moves the body clock forward through a clearly defined biological pathway, it could become a model "smart drug" for addressing jet lag, sleep problems linked to shift work, and other disorders caused by circadian misalignment.
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
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A study published in the journal Science Advances is reshaping how researchers understand early human violence. By closely examining the people who died in what may be one of Europe's earliest known victory celebrations, scientists are challenging long-held assumptions about prehistoric warfare and its purpose.
The research, titled 'Multi-isotope biographies and identities of victims of martial victory celebrations in Neolithic Europe', was published in Science Advances and co-authored by Dr. Teresa Fernández-Crespo and Professor Rick Schulting. Using advanced multi-isotope analysis, the team reconstructed the life histories of individuals buried in mass graves in Alsace in northeastern France. These remains date back roughly 4300-4150 BCE.
Violence With Meaning, Not Chaos
The findings question the idea that prehistoric violence was random or driven only by survival. Instead, the evidence points to deliberate actions tied to social and symbolic goals.
Archaeological excavations at the Achenheim and Bergheim sites revealed disturbing patterns. Researchers uncovered complete skeletons bearing signs of extreme and repeated violence, alongside pits filled with severed left upper limbs. This combination of excessive force and body part removal did not resemble known Neolithic massacres or executions. Rather than unplanned brutality, the researchers suggest these deaths were part of organized rituals carried out after conflict, meant to shame defeated enemies and strengthen group identity.
Chemical Clues From Ancient Bones
To better understand who these individuals were, scientists compared isotopic markers in the victims' bones and teeth with those of people buried in standard graves. These chemical signatures reflect diet, movement, and physical stress over a lifetime.
The analysis showed clear differences. The victims had distinct dietary patterns and signs of greater mobility and physiological strain, indicating they were likely outsiders rather than members of the local community.
A Two-Tiered Ritual After Battle
The isotope data revealed another striking contrast. The severed limbs, thought to have been taken from warriors killed in combat, matched local isotopic values. In contrast, the individuals whose full skeletons showed signs of torture appeared to come from more distant regions.
This split supports the idea of a structured, two-level ritual. Local enemies killed in fighting were dismembered, with limbs brought back as trophies. Others, likely captives taken from afar, were subjected to violent executions. Researchers interpret this as a form of Neolithic political theatre designed to send a powerful message.
Professor Schulting said: "These findings speak to a deeply embedded social practice -one that used violence not just as warfare, but as spectacle, memory, and assertion of dominance."
Rethinking Violence in Early Societies
By uncovering the social and cultural roles violence played during the Neolithic period, the study adds an important new perspective to human history. It suggests that war and ritual were closely linked, with acts of violence serving long-lasting symbolic purposes that shaped early societies.
The research was supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions individual grant from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, awarded to Dr. Fernández-Crespo. The project brought together researchers from multiple institutions, including the CNRS, Aix Marseille University, and Minist Culture, LAMPEA in Aix-en-Provence, France; the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, UK; the Department of Chemistry at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; the Department of Archaeology and New Technologies at Arkikus, Spain; ANTEA-Archéologie, France; the University of Strasbourg, France; UMR 7044 Archimède, University of Strasbourg, France; and Inrap Grand Est, France.
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The Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), working with scientific publisher Pensoft Publishers and well known science YouTuber Ze Frank, invited the public to help name a newly identified deep-sea chiton (a type of marine mollusk). The official scientific description of the species was published today in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.
More than 8,000 name ideas were submitted through social media. After reviewing the entries, the research team selected the name Ferreiraella populi. The species name populi is a Latin singular noun in the genitive case meaning "of the people." Interestingly, 11 different participants independently suggested the same name during the online naming effort.
From a YouTube Video to a Scientific Name
The public naming campaign began after Ze Frank featured the rare deep-sea chiton from the genus Ferreiraella in an episode of his "True Facts" YouTube series.
The animal has eight armored shell plates and an iron-clad radula (a rasping tongue). Near its tail, it also hosts a small group of worms that feed on its excrement. Viewers were invited to submit a proposed scientific name along with a justification. In just one week, the response exceeded 8,000 suggestions.
"We were overwhelmed by the response and the massive number of creative name suggestions!" says Prof. Dr. Julia Sigwart, co-chair of SOSA at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt. "The name we chose, Ferreiraella populi, translates to "of the people." "
Several other names stood out during the selection process. One was Ferreiraella stellacadens, meaning "Shooting star chiton," inspired by the animal's distinctive aesthete pattern and the way it quickly gained attention. Another suggestion was Fereiraella ohmu, referencing a chiton-like creature from a Studio Ghibli film and offering a nod to Japan, where the species was discovered.
A Rare Specialist of the Deep Ocean
The species was first found in 2024 in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench at a depth of 5,500 meters. Ferreiraella populi belongs to the genus Ferreiraella, a rare group of mollusks known for living only on sunken wood in the deep sea.
The discovery adds to a lineage of chitons that has received little scientific attention so far and supports growing evidence that deep-sea wood-fall ecosystems host highly specialized communities that remain largely unknown, explains Sigwart.
Chitons are often described as resembling a mix between a snail and a beetle. Unlike most mollusks that have a single shell, chitons have eight separate shell plates (valves). This structure allows them to curl into a protective ball or cling tightly to uneven surfaces such as deep-sea wood-falls. Chitons live in environments ranging from shallow coastal waters and coral reefs to the deep ocean, where some species survive at depths of up to 7,000 meters in complete darkness.
How Scientific Names Are Created
When a new species is discovered, it is given a formal scientific name as part of its original taxonomic description. This system follows Carl Linnaeus's principle of binomial nomenclature and includes two parts: the genus name (the first part, capitalized and italicized) and the specific epithet (the second part, lowercase and italicized). The name is assigned by the author(s) who publish the first scientific description and must follow international rules such as the ICZN (zoology) or the ICN (botany). Each name must be unique, latinized, and previously unused. Specific epithets are often based on physical traits, locations, mythology, or people honored for their contributions.
Why Speed Matters for Ocean Biodiversity
Ferreiraella populi highlights the vast biodiversity of the oceans, much of which remains unexplored. Many species disappear before scientists even realize they exist, a problem that is especially pronounced among marine invertebrates, says Sigwart.
"It can often take ten, if not twenty years, for a new species to be studied, scientifically described, named, and published. At SOSA, we have therefore made it our mission to streamline these processes while simultaneously engaging the public with these fascinating creatures. Finding a name for the chiton together on social media is a wonderful opportunity to do just that! Ferreiraella populi has now been described and given a scientific name only two years after its discovery. This is crucial for the conservation of marine diversity, especially in light of the threats it faces such as deep-sea mining!"
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Following last year's trend of showcasing AI in multimillion-dollar ad spots, the 2026 Super Bowl advertisements took it a step further by leveraging AI both to create the commercials and to promote the latest AI products. Love it or hate it, the technology has become a star in its own right, alongside the latest movie trailers and snack brands.
Let's explore the biggest moments from this year's Big Game ads, which featured everything from robots and AI glasses to a touch of drama involving tech founders.
Vodka brand Svedka went with what it touts as the first “primarily” AI-generated national Super Bowl spot. The 30-second ad, titled “Shake Your Bots Off,” features the company's robot character, Fembot, and her new companion, Brobot, dancing their circuits off at a human party.
According to Svedka's parent company, Sazerac, it took roughly four months to reconstruct the Fembot and train the AI to mimic facial expressions and body movements, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the vodka brand noted that certain aspects were still handled by humans, such as developing the storyline.
The company partnered with AI company Silverside to create the Super Bowl spot, according to ADWEEK. Silverside AI is the same team behind recent AI-generated Coca-Cola commercials that sparked controversy.
It's a bold move to debut AI-generated content during the Super Bowl, an event known for star-studded, high-production ads. The heavy reliance on AI is polarizing, fueling debates over whether AI will replace creative jobs.
Either way, Svedka definitely got people talking.
Anthropic's ad wasn't just about selling its Claude chatbot; it was about throwing shade. The commercial took a jab at OpenAI's plan to introduce ads to ChatGPT, with a tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” Rather than focus solely on Claude's features, it poked fun at the idea of your helpful AI assistant suddenly turning into a hype man for “Step Boost Maxx” insoles, for example.
It wasn't a standard product pitch, and it escalated into an online feud. OpenAI's Sam Altman fired back on social media, calling the ad “clearly dishonest.” So while we didn't get any more Kendrick vs. Drake rap beef this time around, maybe we did get our own AI, nerdy version of it.
Meta spotlighted its Oakley-branded AI glasses, designed for sports, workouts, and adventures, including extreme scenarios such as chasing down a departing plane.
The ad showcased thrill-seekers, from skydivers to mountain bikers, using the glasses to capture epic moments. Famous faces like IShowSpeed and filmmaker Spike Lee made appearances, demonstrating capabilities like filming a basketball dunk in slow motion, posting hands-free to Instagram, and other advanced features.
The tech giant also featured its wearable AI tech in last year's Super Bowl ad to spark consumer interest, with stars like Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, and Kris Jenner showing off Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Amazon's ad took a cheeky (and slightly unsettling) approach, starring Chris Hemsworth in a satirical “AI is out to get me” storyline. The commercial exaggerates common fears about AI, with Hemsworth humorously accusing Alexa+ of plotting against him. Scenes included Alexa+ closing the garage door on his head and shutting the pool cover while he swam, each mishap escalating in absurdity.
Beyond the dark comedy, the ad introduced the new Alexa+, showcasing its enhanced intelligence and capabilities, ranging from managing smart home devices to planning vacations. Alexa+ had been available in early access for over a year and officially launched to all U.S. users on Wednesday.
Ring's commercial spotlighted its “Search Party” feature, which leverages AI and a community network to reunite lost pets with their owners. The ad followed a young girl searching for her dog Milo, illustrating how users can upload a pet's photo to the app, where AI works to identify matches and taps into nearby cameras and the broader Ring user community to help track down missing furry family members.
Ring recently announced that anyone can now use Search Party, even without owning a Ring security camera. According to the company, the feature has already helped reunite more than one lost dog with its owner every day.
Google's ad showcased the Nano Banana Pro, its newest image-generation model. The commercial followed a mother and son as they used AI to envision and design their new home, uploading photos of bare rooms and turning them into personalized spaces with just a few prompts.
Ramp scored big by getting Brian Baumgartner — the actor who played Kevin in “The Office” — for its Super Bowl commercial.
In the spot, Baumgartner uses Ramp's AI-powered spend management platform to “multiply” himself, effortlessly tackling a mountain of work. The ad highlights how Ramp's all-in-one solution helps teams focus on the most important tasks through smart automation.
And, as a playful nod to his TV persona, Baumgartner is seen carrying a pot of chili in the ad, referencing Kevin's legendary scene where he brings his cherished recipe for his co-workers to try, only to disastrously spill the entire pot on the floor.
Rippling, the cloud-based workforce management platform, went all in on its first-ever Super Bowl ad. The company tapped comedian Tim Robinson in a spot about onboarding an alien monster, poking fun at HR headaches and the promise of AI automation.
Health company Hims & Hers used its Super Bowl spot to address disparities in healthcare access. The ad cleverly references the lengths the wealthy go to for health and longevity, even appearing to poke fun at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight in 2021 and Bryan Johnson's expensive anti-aging routines.
In recent years, the company launched an AI-powered “MedMatch” tool to deliver more personalized treatment recommendations, especially for mental health and wellness.
Website builder Wix spotlighted its new AI-powered Wix Harmony platform, promising website creation as easy as chatting with a friend. Unveiled in January, the flagship platform combines AI-driven creation and “vibe coding” with full visual editing and customization.
Wix's biggest competitor, Squarespace, also has a Super Bowl ad this year. Squarespace's ad has a more cinematic approach starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
This post was initially published on February 6, 2026.
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The backlash over OpenAI's decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be
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Sam Altman got exceptionally testy over Claude Super Bowl ads
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Compact console-sized PC build keeps the original look and buttons intact.
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Over the years, we've seen plenty of attempts by DIY modders and PC enthusiasts to shrink gaming PCs down to the size of traditional game consoles. This is often done with the goal of enjoying PC gaming on a large TV from the comfort of their couch. From custom small form factor builds to console-inspired enclosures, the idea of a living room-friendly PC isn't exactly new. However, a modder on YouTube by the name of PhasedTech has taken this concept to a whole new level by cramming an entire desktop PC inside a svelte Xbox One S.
Now there have been similar projects in the past where modders have managed to install an entire PC inside the chassis of an old console. But, as pointed out in the video, most of them rely on an external power brick and / or integrated graphics. To make the project a bit more challenging, PhasedTech set out to use an internal power supply, a discrete graphics card, as well as an optical disc drive so the system could functionally mimic the original console. Additionally, the build avoids the use of glue, ensuring that all components are properly mounted and bolted in for a more professional finish. Lastly, only the rear and bottom of the chassis have been modified, with no changes allowed to the front, sides, or top panels.
Since the Xbox One S has a volume of approximately 4.4 liters, the parts chosen for the project had to be compact and consume relatively low power. For that reason, the hardware leans more towards a balanced console-like setup rather than a high-end gaming PC. The modder used a mini-ITX motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU cooled by a Noctua NH-L9i, along with 16GB of DDR4 ultra-low-profile memory. For storage, the system uses a standard NVMe SSD, a 250W flex PSU to provide power, and a low-profile single-slot Nvidia RTX 3050 to handle the graphics.
After separating the outer chassis from the core internals of the Xbox Series S, the modder began by laying out all the components to get a sense of where each part will go. They then shaved off some internal supports to make room for the hardware, followed by drilling a few holes to secure the power supply and motherboard using standoffs. Using a custom right-angle mount and screws, a USB Type-A extender cable is installed at the front of the console chassis.
For the optical disc drive, the modder soldered two wires to the drive's eject switch, with the other ends connected to a micro switch. This micro switch is intended to be used with the original Xbox eject button, enabling the disc drive to be controlled using the console's built-in button. After a quick test of the optical drive, all the power supply cables are installed, followed by preparation of the top half of the chassis.
By making use of two threaded mounting points and some plastic grooves inside the top chassis, the modder 3D-printed a two-part custom bracket to securely mount the disc drive, GPU riser cable, power button, and eject button in place. Notably a four-lane PCIe riser cable is used due to the limited internal space as opposed to a traditional 16-lane cable. Fortunately that does not impact the performance of the GPU used for the build. After installing the disc drive, power/eject buttons, GPU, and a bit of cabling, the top and bottom chassis are snapped back together, along with two custom 3D printed I/O shields for the rear.
The system boots into Windows without any issues, but due to the relatively low-end hardware, it is best suited for less resource-intensive and eSports titles. According to PhasedTech, games like Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 can push to 200 FPS at 1080p using medium settings, with temperatures reaching up to 80°C. While they haven't offered any extended benchmark results, the project stands out for being able to balance performance, thermals, and functionality within the limited space of a console chassis, while preserving the original look and feel of the original Xbox One S.
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When Super Bowl LX rolls around this year, all eyes will be on the NFL. That includes, on average, a gargantuan audience of 120 million human viewers from across the U.S. (around one-third of the country), but also more untraditional eyes—ones of a non-human variety.
In addition to football fans and people who just want to mindlessly watch advertisements, there will be an armada of cameras fixing their gaze on Levi Stadium in San Francisco. Those “eyes” are dedicated to capturing each and every solitary moment of the sport's most pivotal day—big plays, fan reactions, and any potential Janet Jackson-style “wardrobe malfunctions,” just to name a few. Some of those all-seeing eyes might even wind up tipping the scales of the game—especially the ones made by Sony.
This year's impending Super Bowl will be just the first ever to feature Sony's Hawk-Eye tech, a camera system that uses a half dozen 8K cameras installed in the catwalks of NFL stadiums to assist on-field officials with the critical task of determining the line to gain. For those not fluent in NFL lingo, that's the line—the yellow one superimposed on TV broadcasts—that teams need to reach in order to keep their offense on the field. (The 2025 season, for context, is the first full season where Hawk-Eye was used ubiquitously across the league to provide virtual measurements, though it was tested initially in 2024.)
While the players themselves work as a team to win the NFL's biggest game, Sony's Hawk-Eye cameras and the NFL officiating apparatus work as their own kind of team. After footage is captured by the cameras, it's then sent to the NFL's Art McNally GameDay Central Officiating Center in New York. From there, on-field officials are informed of the distance, while virtual recreations of those measurements are made to be shown to the in-stadium audience and anyone watching on TV in real time.
It might not sound like a lot, but for diehard fans and the teams in the game, it's a critical facet in determining whether, after 22 weeks of grueling televised violence, a team walks away with the Lombardi Trophy and some shiny new rings or with empty hands and a demoralizing start to the offseason.
Obviously, with those kinds of stakes, the pressure is on Sony for its systems to really get things right.
“As the biggest game and the most-watched show of the year, the Super Bowl production requires tools we can trust,” said Ken Goss, NBC Sports EVP of Studio and Remote Operations, in a statement leading up to Super Bowl LX. “Working with Sony allows us to flawlessly deliver every angle, replay, and on-field moment to viewers watching around the world.”
While this is the first year that Sony's Hawk-Eye cameras were used frequently in the NFL for virtual measurements and in the Super Bowl, the technology has actually been implemented in other sports for similar purposes. In tennis, the tech is famously used for automated line-calling, determining whether the ball is in or out, and deciding which player gets awarded points. In this capacity, the tech is apparently accurate within an impressive 5mm. In soccer, Hawk-Eye can be of equal importance, since it's used to determine whether the entire ball has crossed the line and whether a goal has been scored—not a minor task in a sport that is often decided by one score.
The NFL also implemented Hawk-Eye to assist with replay assistance in 2021, though that stopped short of determining concrete stuff on a consistent basis, like the line to gain.
It's clear that professional sports have faith in the efficacy of Hawk-Eye for making critical decisions, but as important as Sony's cameras have become, there is one thing they still do not do in the NFL; neither Sony, nor the NFL uses Hawk-Eye to actually spot the ball. Instead, Hawk-Eye cameras are secondary to the referee's official spotting of the ball, with the ref determining where the ball wound up and Hawk-Eye determining what the player's distance to a first down is based on that spot.
The NFL says Hawk-Eye is simply a faster alternative to old-school chain gangs, though it keeps referees with orange sticks on the sideline in the event that the technology fails. Here's the official use for Hawk-Eye according to the NFL:
“Sony's Hawk-Eye virtual measurement technology will serve as an efficient alternative to the process of walking chains onto the field and manually measuring whether 10 yards have been met after the official has spotted the ball.”
According to the NFL, the full process of using Hawk-Eye takes about 30 seconds, which saves 40 seconds compared to the previous method of sending out real humans with a chain to decide the line to gain.
In short, that means that the human referees, despite the eye in the sky they now have, are the ones determining how far a player actually gets and whether teams have to relinquish possession or go for broke and risk going for it on 4th down and potentially turning the ball over on downs.
It may seem odd not to use this advanced tech to potentially improve the accuracy of the game, but according to former NFL referee Jeff Bergman, who worked as an NFL line judge for 30 years until retiring in 2023, things aren't as straightforward as they seem.
“Spotting the ball is an art,” Bergman tells Gizmodo. “When the ball carrier is being tackled, you're looking for a body part other than the hands or the feet to hit the ground. And then you have to know where the forward-most point of the ball is, and you have to make sure the ball isn't coming out. So, there are four or five different things you have to be aware of.”
And as to whether Hawk-Eye is actually speeding the game up, Bergman, who was officiating in the NFL when Hawk-Eye was merely being tested on replay assistance in 2021, is even more skeptical.
“They used it [Hawk-Eye] in the past, but it was only half-baked. And from what I saw this year, I believe it's still only half-baked,” Bergman says. “The thought process behind the virtual measurement was to expedite the measuring and speed up the game. Well, it actually takes a lot longer. And then the virtual measurement ultimately comes out, and it says it's two feet, eight inches short. Well, on the field, we know it's less than a foot.”
Sony did not wish to comment for this story.
Imperfect or not, there's a vocal constituent of people who would like to see Hawk-Eye, or technology like it, go further. Take a stroll through Reddit, YouTube, or online sports punditry, and you'll see plenty of feedback urging the NFL to introduce more technology like Hawk-Eye to make rulings more consistent and accurate.
Even Bergman, a skeptic though he may be, is open to the expansion of technology in the NFL, telling Gizmodo, “Any type of additional intel that you can get as an official to help you make decisions is something that should be really embraced.”
The NFL, for its part, hasn't given any indication that it plans to further move the needle on using tech to make calls like that on the field, though. Here's what NFL executive, Kimberly Fields, told the Associated Press almost exactly a year ago when asked about Hawk-Eye:
“What this technology cannot do is take the place of the human element in determining where forward progress ends… There will always be a human official spotting the ball. Once the ball is spotted, then the line-to-gain technology actually does the measurement itself. So I think it's probably been a point of confusion around what the technology can and can't do. There will always be a human element because of the forward progress conversation.”
Gizmodo reached out to the NFL, but a representative was not made available for comment in time for publication.
The NFL does have other technologies outside of Hawk-Eye tech that seem promising, but those are also imperfect for the time being. For example, in 2017, the NFL put RFID chips inside the ball that can record all sorts of data. While those chips are capable of determining ball position, they fall short of being able to measure forward progress, which is the football terminology for how far a player gets before being officially ruled down.
There are a few reasons why those chips don't suffice for ball spotting, but a major one is that they (even advanced ultra-wideband ones) have a margin of error of six or more inches, which is about half the length of a football. A distance like that can be the difference between a first down and a change of possession. In short, it could potentially change the game. Then again, so could a shoddy spot by the referee.
Bergman, for his part, says he'd like to see technology be used to make officials better at their jobs, not replace their say on the field entirely.
“Utilizing the technology is critically important to a game official, but you really have to embrace that, and you have to want to do it. And you have to be taught to do it the proper way,” Bergman says. “I'm huge on technology, but it has to be able to be as reliable as the people on the field, and it has to expedite the play, not slow it down.”
Whether the NFL has the means to make that happen or if the tech world can even marshal the know-how to make the process work is still an open question. Gizmodo reached out to another provider of technology to the NFL, Catapult, which makes similar player-tracking tech that can monitor metrics in practices, determining things like speed and injury risk, but didn't exactly get a straight answer on whether a ball-spotting future for technology is a real possibility.
“The sports industry has made great strides, but we've only just begun to unlock the power of performance tech,” Matt Bairos, Chief Product Officer at Catapult, said in an emailed statement to Gizmodo. “Football has always been a video-first sport. Coaches think, teach, and make decisions through video. But the real breakthrough, the seamless fusion of video with live, trusted athlete data, is starting to happen now.”
That sounds grand, but not everyone is optimistic about the future of sports tech like Hawk-Eye. Bergman, retired from a life in the NFL though he may be, saw a different future on the field this year—a much longer one.
“If you are having difficulties determining if the ball has made the line to gain, you'll be light years away from trying to determine where the spot of the ball is,” Bergman says.
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'The Blood of Heroes' was released in 1989 and stars Rutger Hauer, Delroy Lindo, and Vincent D'Onofrio.
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In a motion to dismiss, Nvidia argues authors suing over AI training have not plausibly alleged copying of their works.
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Nvidia is pushing back against claims that it trained AI models on pirated books, telling a federal court in California that its alleged contact with the library ‘Anna's Archive' doesn't amount to proof of copyright infringement.
In a motion to dismiss filed January 29, the company argues that the authors behind Nazemian v Nvidia have failed to plausibly show that their specific works were downloaded or used in training, despite expanding their complaint to include new theories and datasets.
The Nazemian case was filed in early 2024 and heard in the Northern District of California before Judge Jon Tigar and concerns allegations that Nvidia's AI tools and reference models were trained on copyrighted books sourced from so-called shadow libraries, including Anna's Archive and Books3. The plaintiffs' amended complaint references internal discussions during which Nvidia employees allegedly sought confirmation regarding access to Anna's Archive, arguing that this amounts to evidence of unlawful use.
In its motion to dismiss, Nvidia argues that the amended complaint fails to allege even the most basic elements required for a copyright infringement claim. According to the filing, the plaintiffs “do not allege facts showing that Nvidia copied any of their copyrighted works, when any such copying occurred, or which Nvidia models supposedly contain those works.” The company says that without those details, the claims are entirely speculative.
Addressing the Anna's Archive allegations directly, Nvidia states that while the complainant describes internal discussions and inquiries about potential access to the site, they don't allege that Nvidia actually obtained or downloaded any of the plaintiffs' works from it. The motion goes on to argue that discussing or evaluating possible data sources isn't equivalent to copying copyrighted materials, and that copyright law requires plaintiffs to plead facts showing reproduction of protected works. “It's equally plausible Nvidia did not [obtain the Plaintiffs' works].”
Pulling no punches, Nvidia also criticizes the plaintiffs' reliance on allegations made “on information and belief,” arguing that this approach improperly attempts to use discovery as a substitute for pleading. Nvidia goes on in its motion to remind the court that copyright plaintiffs must allege infringement before discovery begins, not rely on discovery to determine whether infringement occurred in the first place, which Anna's Archive appears to be attempting to do in this case.
Beyond Anna's Archive, Nvidia seeks to narrow the scope of the case by challenging the inclusion of additional datasets and models, such as Megatron 345M, added in the amended complaint, arguing that the plaintiffs improperly lump together multiple models and tools without explaining how any particular model was trained on their works. In several instances, Nvidia points to its own public documentation to argue that the plaintiffs' assumptions about training data are contradicted by publicly available sources.
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The amended complaint also introduces a secondary liability theory tied to Nvidia's NeMo Megatron framework and its support for downloading large public datasets such as The Pile. Nvidia responds that the complaint doesn't allege a predicate act of direct infringement by any third party, which is required to sustain claims of contributory or vicarious copyright infringement. Providing optional tooling, the company argues, doesn't establish liability absent specific allegations that users infringed copyrights using that tooling.
The motion to dismiss is due to be heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on April 2, 2026.
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This is a fun mod, but is a thermal printer more useful than a floppy drive in 2026?
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A retro computer enthusiast has fitted a thermal printer into an ancient Apple Macintosh Plus. A short video clip shared on social media shows the mod is effective and, dare we say, practical. The otherwise redundant floppy drive in this Mac Mini brain transplanted desktop looks almost perfect for spewing forth coils of thermal copy paper.
1円で落札したサーマルプリンタをMac mini仕込んだMacintoshに入れてみた。なんとなくなりたい事がわかってきた様な気がする。 pic.twitter.com/Lb4z8lVj2QFebruary 5, 2026
The original Apple Macintosh has such iconic computing appeal that it is natural that enthusiasts repurpose the old chassis if or when the innards deteriorate beyond repair. But what do you make of the cutout where the floppy drive used to be?
The above perfectly valid answer is provided by Japanese pickle store manager and Mac enthusiast, Meinan, on X. Apparently, they were lucky enough to get this thermal printer in some kind of auction for ‘1 yen', and were looking for a good way to make use of it. We don't know how it is hooked up to the computer, but would guess it simply interfaces via USB, like printers have done for decades now.
A brief glance at the display of this Mac Plus, shows that it has been seriously ungraded in the processing department too. Gone is the low-res mono CRT, and a vibrant LCD display is fitted in the frame. Powering the modern mac OS system you see running is some version of the Mac Mini.
In some ways it is a shame that Meinan's machine couldn't be preserved in its original configuration, of course. But we don't know what happened to this aged computer before its shell was reused. It seems to be a particularly interesting cross-generation sample. The shell mixes a Mac 128K facia, with a Plus 1Mb rear housing (and contents at one time) making it a possibly rare transition machine.
Overall, the thermal printer mod is a pretty interesting one. The project reminds us of the iMac G4 ‘lamp shade' revitalization mod by Action Retro in 2024. Similarly, a Mac Mini was squeezed into the retro-shell in that project. Sadly, Action Retro didn't reuse the vestigial optical drive during that mod, which seemed like a missed opportunity.
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The Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 is a game-changer for AMD Ryzen CPUs, offering 128GB of capacity and delivering DDR5-6000 speeds with precision-tuned memory timings.
Solid and reliable performance
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G.Skill has entered the 128GB (2x64GB) race and brought the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 to dethrone the best RAM. Finding reasonably priced DDR5 memory kits has become increasingly challenging, let alone procuring 128GB memory kits. First, manufacturing these massive dual-channel memory kits requires 64GB modules that push production costs through the roof. Second, the memory shortage has left most major retailers showing limited stock and manufacturers scrambling to meet even basic demand, so there aren't many premium enthusiast-grade kits being released. Therefore, G.Skill's Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 memory kit is worth paying attention to if you have the cash for such a hefty kit.
G.Skill has always understood that premium memory deserves premium aesthetics, and the Trident Z5 Neo RGB memory modules are the perfect example. The meticulously crafted aluminum heat spreader features a matte black exterior, a complementary black brushed aluminum inset, and silver highlights, making the fin-like design stand out. At a builder-friendly 1.65 inches (42mm) tall, we expect these memory modules to slide effortlessly under even the most aggressive CPU air coolers without any clearance nightmares.
Crowning each memory module is a streamlined RGB light bar with vibrant colors and illumination. G.Skill offers two alternatives for RGB customization and control: its dedicated Trident Z Lighting Control software or seamless integration with your motherboard's native RGB software. Choose the latter route, and you'll find the Trident Z5 Neo RGB fits in nicely with all the major platforms, including Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and ASRock Polychrome Sync.
At the heart of this kit are two 64GB DDR5 memory modules, each with a dual-rank design, which is essential for achieving this level of capacity. Each memory module houses 16 individual integrated circuits (ICs), with eight soldered chips on each side of the black PCB. Each of these ICs contributes 4GB of capacity. Surprisingly, G.Skill utilizes Samsung K4RBH086VM-BCWM (M-die) ICs for this particular in lieu of SK hynix's M-die. Meanwhile, the company has entrusted power distribution to Richtek, which supplies power management IC (PMIC) bearing the "0P=CF MY2" marking.
In its default stock configuration, the memory modules operate at DDR5-5600 with relaxed 46-45-45-90 timings to ensure maximum compatibility across a wide range of system configurations. G.Skill includes only a single overclocking profile, conveniently available in both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO formats. When you enable the DDR5-6000 profile through your motherboard's BIOS, the memory kit will automatically reconfigure itself to run at the higher frequency with tightened 34-44-44-96 timings and adjust the DRAM voltage to 1.35V. For additional details on timings and frequency choices, refer to our PC Memory 101 feature and the How to Shop for RAM article.
Memory Kit
Part Number
Capacity
Data Rate
Primary Timings
Voltage
Warranty
V-Color Manta Xfinity RGB
TMXFAL6464832KWK
2 x 64GB
DDR5-6400
32-45-45-96 (2T)
1.40
Lifetime
G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB
F5-6000J3444F64GX2-TZ5NR
2 x 64GB
DDR5-6000
34-44-44-96 (2T)
1.35
Lifetime
The Intel system features the Core Ultra 9 285K processor and the MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard with firmware version 7E20v1A60. Conversely, the AMD system utilizes the Ryzen 9 9900X processor and the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard with firmware version 7E49v1A64. The Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD CPU liquid-cooling solution efficiently maintains optimal temperatures for both the Arrow Lake and Zen 5 processors, ensuring efficient thermal management across platforms.
The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Gaming X Trio efficiently handles demanding graphics workloads, preventing any bottlenecks during our gaming RAM benchmarks. The TeamGroup A440 Lite PCIe 4.0 SSD balances performance and capacity, delivering 2TB of ultra-fast storage with speeds up to 7,400 MB/s—perfect for Windows 11 24H2 installations, benchmarking software, and gaming applications.
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The Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 power supply delivers reliable and ample power to our test systems, directly supporting the GeForce RTX 4080 via its native 16-pin (12VHPWR) cable. The Streacom BC1 open-air test bench offers flexible, tool-free accommodation for all hardware components, streamlining assembly and component swaps.
Component
Intel System
AMD System
Processor
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
Motherboard
MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X
MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
Graphics Card
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Gaming X Trio
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Gaming X Trio
Storage
TeamGroup A440 Lite 2TB
TeamGroup A440 Lite 2TB
Cooling
Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD
Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD
Power Supply
Corsair RM1000x Shift
Corsair RM1000x Shift
Case
Streacom BC1
Streacom BC1
Thanks to its higher data rate and optimized timings, the Manta XFinity memory kit outperformed the Trident Z5 Neo in the majority of the scenarios. However, the Trident Z5 Neo edged ahead in the Adobe Lightroom benchmark. It shows that performance can vary depending on the workload.
On the AMD platform, the Ryzen processor's integrated memory controller (IMC) determines whether the unified memory controller clock (UCLK) and memory clock (MEMCLK) can run in a 1:1 ratio with memory above DDR5-6000. With our Ryzen 9 9900X, DDR5-6400 forces a 2:1 ratio, which imposes a performance penalty on the Manta XFinity. That's the reason why the Trident Z5 Neo came out on top.
Sometimes you already know how an overclock will likely turn out, but it's still fun to push memory beyond the manufacturer's specifications.
On this occasion, we overclocked the memory from DDR5-6000 to DDR5-6333 while maintaining the memory timings at 34-44-44-96, with DRAM voltage increased from 1.35V to 1.45V. It just goes to show that high-capacity memory modules are difficult to overclock, even when applying substantial voltage.
Memory Kit
DDR5-6000 (1.45V)
DDR5-6333 (1.45V)
DDR5-6400 (1.45V)
DDR5-6466 (1.45V)
V-Color Manta XFinity DDR5-6400 C32
N/A
N/A
32-44-44-92
32-45-45-96 (2T)
G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34
34-40-40-84 (2T)
34-44-44-96 (2T)
N/A
N/A
The CAS Latency (CL) was unlikely to cooperate since G.Skill probably binned it to the limit. The other timings, however, responded well with 1.45V applied. We managed to decrease the tRCD and tRP by four clock cycles and the tRAS by 12 clock cycles, a solid result overall.
From a compatibility standpoint, DDR5-6000 is more likely to run perfectly on AMD's platform without any performance penalty than DDR5-6400. That's why many budget-conscious buyers choose DDR5-6000, and it's where the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 excels. G.Skill's memory kit delivers the complete package: beautiful aesthetics, good performance, and more than generous capacity. It's just a victim of the unfortunate circumstances of a global memory shortage that is pushing up pricing.
The Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 launched with a $419.99 MSRP just a couple of months ago. Fast forward to today, in the middle of a global DRAM shortage, and the price tag has skyrocketed to $1,599.99. On the bright side, Newegg generously includes a $50 Starbucks gift card so you can “drink coffee while you game.” Jokes aside, the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C34 is an excellent memory kit that's worth every dollar once pricing stabilizes.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom's Hardware. Although he loves everything that's hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
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The satellite internet race is ramping up. In the years since SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlinks back in 2019, numerous competitors have entered the market, including two you've almost definitely heard about lately: Amazon Leo and Blue Origin's newly announced TeraWave.
Starlink, Amazon Leo, and TeraWave are far from the only players in this rapidly growing industry, but they stand out because of their massive financial backings and the ambitious strategic visions of their respective billionaire owners. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk oversees Starlink, while Jeff Bezos—through Amazon and Blue Origin—is developing Amazon Leo and TeraWave.
Each of these brands has taken a unique approach to building the next generation of satellite internet technology. Understanding the differences between them is key to grasping how the future of global connectivity may unfold. So, without further ado, let's dive in.
The first thing to understand is that these networks came on the scene at different times, and their parent companies have chosen different deployment strategies. As a result, they are in various stages of development.
Starlink is by far the most mature of the three. SpaceX was first to market with its satellite project, announcing it in 2015. Since the start of deployment in 2019, the company has rapidly built up the Starlink megaconstellation through hundreds of launches aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, with 9,555 Starlinks currently active and providing broadband internet to millions worldwide.
Amazon unveiled plans to develop a competitor—called Project Kuiper at the time—about one month before SpaceX launched its first batch of operational Starlinks, “but was much slower to really ramp up and start production,” Kevin Bell, senior vice president of the Engineering and Technology Group (ETG) at The Aerospace Corporation, told Gizmodo. “Some of that was satellite driven, some of that was rocket driven,” Bell explained.
While SpaceX's approach to Starlink development prioritized rapid iteration and deployment, Amazon took its time finalizing the design of its satellites and conducted more extensive prototype testing. Because Amazon does not have its own rockets to support satellite deployment, it partners with launch providers—including SpaceX—to build its constellation.
The company launched its first operational batch of satellites aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket in April 2025. The next launch, set for February 12, will bring the constellation (now called Amazon Leo) up to 212 satellites. Because it is still in the early days of scaling, the service has not yet launched commercially.
Then there's TeraWave, the newcomer. Blue Origin announced the project on January 21, setting a goal to begin deployment by the first quarter of 2027. The company will presumably use its New Glenn rocket to launch its satellites, but that has not yet been confirmed. According to the announcement, the TeraWave constellation will ultimately scale to 5,408 satellites situated in low-Earth orbit (where Starlink and Amazon Leo reside) and in medium-Earth orbit.
That's larger than Amazon Leo's planned deployment of 3,236 satellites, but if Musk gets his way, Starlink will eclipse both of Bezos's constellations. The Federal Communications Commission recently approved a SpaceX application to launch up to a million more Starlinks for the purpose of building an orbital data center.
Broadly speaking, the satellite internet industry serves two types of customers: enterprise and individual users. But according to Bell, these markets can be further divided into five core segments, namely direct to device, direct to consumer, high bandwidth (for business-scale users), backhaul (providing connectivity to underserved areas), and sovereign government.
“While Starlink is really kind of spread across all of them, Amazon and TeraWave have chosen—at least initially—to position themselves towards the higher end,” Bell said.
Starlink indeed serves a diverse array of users, from individuals to the American government. Its primary customer base, however, consists of people living in rural and remote areas who lack access to reliable, high-speed internet. Amazon Leo ultimately plans to target that market, but its initial phase of deployment will serve select enterprise, government, and telecommunications customers.
TeraWave is unique in that it is not at all geared toward individual customers. This network will serve “tens of thousands” of enterprise, data center, and government users, according to Blue Origin.
“One of the big differences there is that, typically, an enterprise would negotiate a service level agreement—so there is a requirement that the company be able to provide a certain level of speed, a certain level of capacity,” Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, told Gizmodo.
To meet that demand, Blue Origin will design TeraWave to deliver data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second anywhere on Earth. By comparison, Starlink and Amazon Leo offer speeds ranging from hundreds of megabits to around 1 gigabit per second, which is suitable for individuals and some enterprise customers but not tailored toward high-capacity backhaul or large-scale enterprise operations.
As these networks grow, the satellite internet industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. Competition between them—and their many other competitors—will continue to drive innovation, bringing faster speeds, higher capacity, and broader coverage to users around the world.
“Each generation of satellite that is being launched has greater speed and capacity than the prior generation,” Stroup said. “We're just iterating much more quickly than ever before.”
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Whether sitting in class, a meeting, or an interview, I've never been fond of taking notes, and I'm far from alone. Not only does the process of scribbling something down cause me to miss what was said immediately after, but I also suffer from awful handwriting, meaning that I can rarely read the notes anyway. Recording interviews has long been a solution, but transcribing interviews is another step (with extra cost) that can leave you with thousands of words of material to sift through, much of it irrelevant.
AI notetakers—massively popular at CES 2026—have emerged to offer a new way of making IRL notetaking easier and faster, putting the power of AI into (or at least adjacent to) a portable device that evokes the microcassette recorder of yesteryear. As with all things AI, the jury's out on whether AI notetakers are actually useful or whether bypassing the intellectual rigor of writing down what people say is going to make us all even stupider, but at the very least I've found them to be a convenient way to capture the main points of a conversation—and helpful at keeping a record of discussions and meetings I might otherwise have promptly forgotten.
For this guide, I evaluated six AI notetaker products, using them in person and online for meetings, interviews, and conference calls. In addition to “daily life” use cases, I tested each one by recording the same prerecorded presentation to use as a control. (I won't identify it by name to mitigate the risk of companies attempting to tune their AI models for that specific dialog.) Throughout all of this testing, I considered the accuracy of transcriptions (and translations, where appropriate), the quality of insights generated, overall speed, additional features, and value for the money.
How Do AI Notetakers Work?
The concept behind most AI notetakers is simple: Drop the device on the table between you and your interview subject or in earshot of your professor, and fire it up with the touch of a button. An onboard microphone records the discussion, transcribing all that is said on the fly, then beams it to a companion app on your smartphone. When the discussion is finished, the transcription is uploaded to the cloud for AI processing, where it is crunched and then turned into outline form, often featuring AI-selected quotes from the discussion, action items, and other takeaways designed to make sense out of lengthy, meandering meetings.
Can I Just Use an App?
You don't need a physical device to AI-ify your notes. Services like Bluedot and Otter.ai, ubiquitous on Zoom calls these days, can do the job from your phone or computer. On Pixel phones, Google's Recorder app has been offering transcription and summarizations for several years, and Apple's Voice Memos app can do the same if you have an iPhone with Apple Intelligence.
But physical gadgets are handy for complicated in-person situations where the speaker is far away or difficult to hear, or where you want to use your phone for something else besides its voice recorder function. Just drop a notetaker where it's convenient, and the rest is taken care of. You don't even need to stick around for the discussion—and some notetakers can even translate foreign languages. More advanced systems like the $1,600 Vibe Bot are also available for conference room settings, working as a sort of permanent stenographer for business meetings.
What's the Deal With Subscription Plans?
Every AI notetaker pushes a paid subscription plan, and while all offer a stripped-down, no-cost tier, the utility of these plans varies greatly. Expect to pay $15 to $30 per month for unlimited AI insights on top of the hardware price.
Comulytic
Amazon
Comulytic
I had low expectations for the rather generic Comulytic Note Pro, but it surprised me as not only the most useful all-around notetaker on available but also the cheapest after you consider the cost of a premium subscription.
The slim device, at 28 grams, is small enough to fit in a wallet or attach unobtrusively with the included magnetic ring to the back of your handset (note: it requires a special USB dongle to charge). The 64 GB of storage space and a 45-hour battery life aren't massive, but both should be more than enough to handle a full week of interviews without offloading or recharging, all processed through OpenAI's GPT-5 and Google's Gemini. The small LCD is helpful (and rare in this market), indicating when you're recording and offering a recording duration. This makes it a lot more foolproof than other notetakers, which offer nothing more than a colored LED to tell you if it's on.
The Note Pro supports 113 languages—sort of. It will record in a foreign tongue and offer a verbatim transcript in the native language, but insights and summaries are delivered in your language of choice. It's not a full solution if you need a complete, direct translation, but if you just need the gist of a foreign news story or speech, Comulytic can uniquely handle it.
The proof is in the quality of the abstracts and insights provided. Of all the devices I tested, Comulytic's summaries were the most insightful and least rambling (though better than its transcripts), effectively picking out the most relevant portions of interviews and pulling the best quotes from my conversations (perhaps too many at times). It was also the only device to correctly transcribe a punny product nickname mentioned in passing in one interview, indicating that a more sophisticated language model may be behind the scenes.
Comulytic isn't perfect. It doesn't transcribe in real time, it's one of the slowest products at completing analyses, and I never got its “fast transfer” mode working, which meant all recordings had to be sent to my phone via a pokey Bluetooth connection, but these are minor dings against an otherwise solid solution. Best of all, for a limited time, the company includes a generous three months of premium service at no charge. Even if you don't want to subscribe, the free plan, which offers three “deep dives” and 10 abstracts a month, is better than nothing.
Subscription costs $15 per month or $120 per year
Open Vision Engineering
Pocket
The eponymous Pocket is quite a bit fatter and heavier (56 grams) than Comultyic, but it offers 128 GB of storage space (new models are down to 64 GB), a beefier battery with a whopping 96 hours of recording time, and the inclusion of Claude, Gemini, and GPT-5 models. And it can attach magnetically to your phone out of the box (assuming you have a MagSafe or Qi2 smartphone). A tiny switch on the side lets you shift into a mode that can record phone calls without being on speakerphone.
Pocket's transcriptions and insights are very good and easy to understand, and they get completed quickly (in a bit more than half the time as Comulytic). But I did sometimes struggle with the lone button on the Pocket, as presses sometimes wouldn't register or would cause me to tap it twice, which culminated in several two-second-long recordings being stored on the device. The tiny LED, which turns yellow when recording, is also tough to see.
Pocket's free plan isn't bad—offering unlimited transcriptions, summaries, and mind maps—but it limits history to 14 days and throttles exporting to one recording at a time. It didn't help that all exported documents I made were corrupted if I opted to save them in Word format. The luxe Pocket Pro plan offers a lot of refinements (and unlimited history), but it's costly considering what you get. Ultimately, it was the larger size of the Pocket hardware that made me less likely to reach for it over the Comulytic. When attached to my phone, it made my handset much too bulky.
Subscription costs $20 per month or $200 per year
InnAIO
Walmart
InnAIO
The InnAIO T10 is a language translator first, AI notetaker second, but if you want a device that can (haltingly) straddle both worlds, it's worth a look—despite some obvious immaturity in its current incarnation.
The 33-gram disc (no stated storage capacity, 15 hours of battery life) can live on its own or slap onto the back of your phone, and with the press of a button, it's ready to transcribe conversations in your native tongue and in the language of your choice. Note that translations can't be disabled. Even if you only want an English transcription, you'll have to pick a second language for real-time recordings.
The good news is the T10 is evolving—a promised offline mode is now operational, though the AI model may be dated, using GPT-4.1 instead of the more common GPT-5. It remains frustrating to use, and the free plan offers only 120 minutes per month of real-time translation and meeting minutes. (Unlimited use is pricey at $25 per month or $179 a year.) It's an imperfect product, but if you have a frequent need for transcriptions of multilingual communications, it's arguably the best on the market.
Subscription costs $25 per month or $179 per year
OSO AI
Amazon
OSO AI
OSO's AI Earbuds are a quirky concept, designed to transcribe what you hear—including phone calls—rather than specifically recording the broader world. It's a small but important distinction. Technically, you can remove your earbuds and drop them in the middle of the conference table to record what happens in a room, but people will look at you funny.
The best use case for these earbuds is to leave them in place, doing double duty as standard Bluetooth headphones and switching into AI recording mode when needed. The GPT-5-powered feature is, however, rather limited, offering just four hours of battery life and lacking physical controls for recording, requiring the use of the OSO app to fire up the system. Transcriptions are not displayed in real time, and—critically—the app is very finicky. Any hiccup (like closing the app) aborted recording in my testing. The unit can record in 100-some languages, but it can't translate from one to another.
OSO's free plan is very limited (with 300 minutes per month of transcription), and even its $16 per month or $120 a year subscription only gets you 2,000 minutes per month instead of the usual unlimited service. Its summaries are fine, but far from in-depth. Expect to see some competition in this space, and soon.
Subscription costs $16 per month or $120 per year
This is a nascent category that's growing. Here are others we've tested, but we'll also be keeping an eye on upcoming new hardware from companies like Omi, Boya, Mobvoi, and SwitchBot.
Plaud NotePin S for $179: The 18-gram NotePin S is the smallest and most versatile notetaker on the market (wear it as a lanyard, even!), but it's expensive given that it offers just 300 minutes of transcription unless you pay for its costly subscription. Transcriptions are not displayed in real time, though their eventual analysis is solid. It's a handy little device with multi-language support (though not translation), 20 hours of battery life, and 64 GB of internal storage—but it's just too costly in comparison to the field to recommend. A subscription will set you back $30 per month or $240 per year.
HiDock P1 for $169: HiDock's P1 is a big (91 grams) device that's closer to an old-school tape recorder than a modern AI notetaker, complete with a bevy of onboard controls. It's far more complicated than other notetakers, though its microphone is powerful, and its analyses are fast (at least when connected to a PC). It's best for desktop (computer-attached) scenarios rather than on-the-go usage; I couldn't get it working with my phone. The subscription is $229 per year.
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Watch geeks love the phrase “GADA watch,” meaning a “go anywhere, do anything” timepiece—something both feature-rich and eye-catching, a rugged and durable watch that doesn't compromise on style.
Here at WIRED, a related question has been floating around the Gear desk for some time. What's better, one all-rounder premium watch, or a varied collection garnered for exactly the same cash outlay as that piece that also covers every scenario?
Determined to answer this horological conundrum once and for all, WIRED set the same budget for each approach to find out. Let's start with our pick for a GADA timepiece.
Watch fans can never really be satisfied with one watch. We love to pretend that there is a “holy grail” or “exit watch” out there, but really there's no end to this journey. However, we also love to argue, and one permanent conversation starter is the concept of a one-and-done.
It can't be too high-end, for the true GADA watch must be something you can wear on a hike and in the pool, as well as to a formal function. Ideally, you'd be able to wear it around a major city without fear of theft, which rules out pretty much any Rolex, but we'd still want it to be something you can take pride in among horological snobs.
One and done: WIRED's current “go anywhere, do anything” timepiece is this Tudor Black Bay GMT.
Some brands make this kind of sweet spot their comfort zone. We considered the Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Worldtimer, or a Longines Spirit Zulu Time—both brands with an eye on value, a reputation for quality, and an all-around approach to design that's not too polarizing.
Inevitably, your one watch isn't going to be able to do everything. It won't be as chic as a Cartier or pack a pedigree chronograph. But rest assured it'll have you covered 95 percent of the time.
In the end, we settled on a Tudor Black Bay GMT, on a fabric or leather strap. For $4,550, you get a 41-mm stainless-steel piece with 200 meters of water resistance, a COSC-certified chronometer movement that's actually descended from the last generation of Rolex GMT movements, and a design that's smart enough to blend into most formal outfits, even though it's most at home in more casual settings.
With the dual time zone functionality it's a useful travel tool, too, and Tudor's brand name and build quality mean it's respected by watch geeks the world over.
That's what we're up against. Can we build a dream team to rival the Tudor for the same cash outlay?
First stop on our shopping list is a dive watch: something that can at least match the Black Bay's 200-meter water resistance rating and speak to its underpinnings as a daily diver. We don't need a hardcore dive monster, but something that blends style and spec. We could head to Seiko, but while the Prospex range holds a lot of phenomenal beaters, few could be said to be truly stylish.
One strong candidate is the Unimatic U1 Classic ($665), but we've gone for the recently updated Baltic Aquascaphe ($730). Powered by a Miyota automatic movement, the Baltic focuses on more visible premium touches, like the domed sapphire crystal and applied 3D luminous hour markers. It's water-resistant to 200 meters and available in blue, green, gray, or silver.
Next we should hit one of the main weaknesses in the Tudor's armor, and pick up a dress watch. The Black Bay isn't hulking, and our choice to opt for the fabric strap makes the whole watch a lot lighter (although it does add a millimeter in height), but it's not slim by any definition.
For price and poise, we've come straight to Dennison. The one time you can really get away with a quartz watch is at a formal occasion, where the chance of someone asking you for precision timing or to fiddle with your complications will be pretty low. The sold-out Time+Tide Date Night limited edition would be perfect, but failing that we'll opt for the Midnight Aventurine in steel ($690).
Next, we've got space in our collection for a real everyday watch: something that's not overburdened with functionality, but that will cover us for the working day. Here we can look at a simple automatic from Hamilton, whose military-inspired Khaki Field and Pilot watches would also be worthy inclusions. However, for a more everyday staple we've gone for the Khaki Field “Murph” 38 mm ($995), a compact version of the watch Matthew McConaughey's character gives to his daughter in Interstellar. With an 80-hour power reserve and 100-meter water resistance, it's a versatile choice in its own right.
WIRED's collection of watches here come to the same value as the Tudor, and will see you right in all the same situations.
To be a viable alternative to our GADA Tudor, the value collection has to include a travel-time watch. We looked at Farer's 36-mm Lander IV, with its preppy color scheme and distinctive character, but ultimately we went for another cult favorite from the affordable end of the Swatch Group stable.
The Mido Ocean Star Decompression Worldtimer costs $5 less than the Farer, at $1,490, and brings its own eye-catching dial to the table, as well as a 200-meter water resistance rating and a version of the same 80-hour movement as in the Hamilton. Perhaps the clincher was the world-time bezel, which shouldn't be confused with a true mechanical world-time complication, but does give at-a-glance timekeeping around the world.
So far we've spent $3,905, which means we still have $645 burning a hole in our pocket. The obvious gap in this collection is a chronograph of some kind. It would give us the decisive edge over the Black Bay, but for this budget most mechanical chronographs are out of reach. We could buy a MoonSwatch—in fact, at $285 we could buy two and have enough left for the Uber home—but we're on our mission to find something more substantial, more interesting, and (let's face it) more likely to stand the test of time.
And that something is the Brew Super Metric ($475), a hybrid mecha-quartz chrono from a New York microbrand with more personality than every MoonSwatch put together. The unashamedly loud retro styling isn't for everyone, but we think that the cushion-shaped case and steel bracelet help broaden our stylistic options, and although it's not a pedigree mechanical chronograph, it costs less than $500 while looking and feeling like no one's idea of a compromise.
That brings the challengers to a grand total of $4,380, which means we'd be able to buy a six-watch case to keep our collection in (of course it's got space for one more …) and maybe even a couple of spare straps.
There's no doubt the Tudor is in a different league, but could a crack squad of specialists tempt you to part with $4,550? Or will the lure of singular luxe prove too tempting? Over to you. It's decision time.
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A very specific folk.Volksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", "national community", or "racial community", depending on the translation of its component term Volk.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksgemeinschaft
Volksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", "national community", or "racial community", depending on the translation of its component term Volk.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksgemeinschaft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksgemeinschaft
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> The concept was notoriously embraced by the newly founded Nazi Party in the 1920s, and eventually became strongly associated with Nazism after Adolf Hitler's rise to power.(From your Wikipedia link.)
(From your Wikipedia link.)
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And plot twist, they are anti-Trump.I'm overwhelmed.
I'm overwhelmed.
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Before you would have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (30%), Ideological Crazies (30%)Today you have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (10%), Ideological Crazies For Trump (50%)The GOP lost that upper-middle class(opportunists) and they lost ideological believers(pre 2016 crazies). Given how fast it was lost, I expect it to come back in some manner, but Trumpism is a cult of personality rather than ideology.
Today you have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (10%), Ideological Crazies For Trump (50%)The GOP lost that upper-middle class(opportunists) and they lost ideological believers(pre 2016 crazies). Given how fast it was lost, I expect it to come back in some manner, but Trumpism is a cult of personality rather than ideology.
The GOP lost that upper-middle class(opportunists) and they lost ideological believers(pre 2016 crazies). Given how fast it was lost, I expect it to come back in some manner, but Trumpism is a cult of personality rather than ideology.
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Is not really limited to Trump at all, even though the consequential and public nature of Trump takes everyone's attention … ironically, with its opponents only feeding that loop in how they oppose it.It's a core characteristic of narcissism people rarely understand. Narcissism (individual or system) utterly depends on conflict for its “narcissistic supply”. When you “oppose it”, you are in fact only fueling that which you believe you are opposing. It's a paradox that people have an impossible time understanding, especially all the people who see “Nazis” everywhere, while openly and violently “protesting” in this supposed “Nazi” regime they're opposing. Narcissistic control needs that for its manipulation. That is precisely the kind of fuel narcissists love and need and relish with glee as you oppose them, because it means they have you exactly where they want you, emotional and easily manipulated and controlled.You think the Super Bowl would happen if people stopped living the delusion of “my team” conflict with “not my team”? When you see that stadium full of people, realize that every single one of those thousands of people, will have spent on avg. ~$15,000 per person. It takes manipulation into a state of mental illness to do that. No different than Trump supporters or Nazi fighters or all the other kind of fantasy LARPing that is so pervasive in America, living a life of delusion created for them because it is profitable and makes people easily manipulated.
It's a core characteristic of narcissism people rarely understand. Narcissism (individual or system) utterly depends on conflict for its “narcissistic supply”. When you “oppose it”, you are in fact only fueling that which you believe you are opposing. It's a paradox that people have an impossible time understanding, especially all the people who see “Nazis” everywhere, while openly and violently “protesting” in this supposed “Nazi” regime they're opposing. Narcissistic control needs that for its manipulation. That is precisely the kind of fuel narcissists love and need and relish with glee as you oppose them, because it means they have you exactly where they want you, emotional and easily manipulated and controlled.You think the Super Bowl would happen if people stopped living the delusion of “my team” conflict with “not my team”? When you see that stadium full of people, realize that every single one of those thousands of people, will have spent on avg. ~$15,000 per person. It takes manipulation into a state of mental illness to do that. No different than Trump supporters or Nazi fighters or all the other kind of fantasy LARPing that is so pervasive in America, living a life of delusion created for them because it is profitable and makes people easily manipulated.
You think the Super Bowl would happen if people stopped living the delusion of “my team” conflict with “not my team”? When you see that stadium full of people, realize that every single one of those thousands of people, will have spent on avg. ~$15,000 per person. It takes manipulation into a state of mental illness to do that. No different than Trump supporters or Nazi fighters or all the other kind of fantasy LARPing that is so pervasive in America, living a life of delusion created for them because it is profitable and makes people easily manipulated.
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Also, keep in mind that this is a partial leak. The data was scraped from some leaky endpoint which was patched out before every user could be scraped. Only users who were in the partial leak received emails (I have two accounts, only one received an email). If you're a Substack user but didn't receive an email, I'd assume you're not in the leak. Troy Hunt should load it into HIBP eventually, and those concerned can check there if they don't want to seek the leak out on their own.
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Well let's find outI did a tiny bit of research, pretty sure it's BreachForums (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BreachForums)
I did a tiny bit of research, pretty sure it's BreachForums (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BreachForums)
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This source claims it's Breach forums but no idea if it's reliablehttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/newsletter-pl...
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/newsletter-pl...
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Substack PR probably love this. Like a gas tank has a partial leak.
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Also, to clarify, I don't mean to appear as though I'm discrediting this leak or downplaying its severity. I only mentioned that it was a partial leak to offer an explanation as to why some users received emails and others didn't, as witnessme's comment seemed confused about this.
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I'm not sure this would be the case? I've seen plenty of links to content of questionable legality shared on HN.
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https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/Substack
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Under GDPR, a business has the obligation to inform users if they have been affected by a data breach. That could hypothetically explain why Substack would inform some users (those protected by GDPRish legislation) while keeping it quiet towards the rest of them.
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> Substack specified that more sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, and other financial information, was unaffected.I hate it when companies do this.passwords and credit card numbers are easily changed.names, emails and phone numbers are not.
I hate it when companies do this.passwords and credit card numbers are easily changed.names, emails and phone numbers are not.
passwords and credit card numbers are easily changed.names, emails and phone numbers are not.
names, emails and phone numbers are not.
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The same goes for full names on file, physical addresses, and other hard-to-change information. Passwords have been the least of my concerns since password managers were invented.You could, in theory, use a custom domain or email aliasing service like SimpleLogin or Addy to combat the email address issue, though websites like GitHub have been known to block emails created with an aliasing service. I could go on about why that move does next to nothing to combat actual abuse; any spammer worth their salt can just buy a bunch of Gmail accounts or Outlook accounts instead.
You could, in theory, use a custom domain or email aliasing service like SimpleLogin or Addy to combat the email address issue, though websites like GitHub have been known to block emails created with an aliasing service. I could go on about why that move does next to nothing to combat actual abuse; any spammer worth their salt can just buy a bunch of Gmail accounts or Outlook accounts instead.
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couldn't*
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https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/could-couldnt-care-l...https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/could-ca...
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/could-ca...
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"It is impossible that he could care less."
— The Morning Post (London, Eng.), 18 Jul. 1840
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Here are the columns from the CSV file I've seen being shared around on forums, including the "internal metadata". This mostly boils down to full name on file, email, Stripe customer ID, activity metrics, usernames, and phone numbers. Everything else is largely irrelevant.id,name,email,email_confirmed,email_confirmation_token,stripe_platform_customer_id,is_global_admin,is_ghost,created_at,anonymous_id,email_bounce_count,photo_url,publisher_agreement_accepted_at,bio,updated_at,profile_set_up_at,tos_accepted_at,email_digest_at,has_passed_captcha,import_confirmation_required,post_notification_preference,reader_installed_at,activity_items_viewed_at,dismissed_ios_app_promo_at,email_notifications_last_resumed_at,previous_name,release_group,handle,phone,bank_payment_failures,is_globally_banned,session_version
id,name,email,email_confirmed,email_confirmation_token,stripe_platform_customer_id,is_global_admin,is_ghost,created_at,anonymous_id,email_bounce_count,photo_url,publisher_agreement_accepted_at,bio,updated_at,profile_set_up_at,tos_accepted_at,email_digest_at,has_passed_captcha,import_confirmation_required,post_notification_preference,reader_installed_at,activity_items_viewed_at,dismissed_ios_app_promo_at,email_notifications_last_resumed_at,previous_name,release_group,handle,phone,bank_payment_failures,is_globally_banned,session_version
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A friend of mine received a very well-crafted physical letter at his home about resetting his cryto ledger.He is now very stressed because there are news about people with crypto getting abducted.And with the ledger leak they have:- his name and address- how much money he has on his ledger
He is now very stressed because there are news about people with crypto getting abducted.And with the ledger leak they have:- his name and address- how much money he has on his ledger
And with the ledger leak they have:- his name and address- how much money he has on his ledger
- his name and address- how much money he has on his ledger
- how much money he has on his ledger
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Surely a list of services that allow phone number logins exists so that one can avoid signing up in the first place and we would then see it in another connecting breach.
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For example, I tried to set up another form of 2FA on Chase, but it still defaults to phone. I can't disable or change it.
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Sepsis is a leading global cause of hospital deaths, occurring when the body's response to infection damages tissue and causes organs to fail. Africa bears the world's highest burden of sepsis, with an estimated 48 million cases each year leading to about 11 million deaths. People living with HIV face the greatest risk of dying from the condition.
A new study has found that tuberculosis, a chronic bacterial lung disease, is a major and long-overlooked cause of deadly sepsis among people living with HIV. An associated Phase 3 clinical trial called the ATLAS study found that starting tuberculosis (TB) treatment immediately, even before a TB diagnosis is confirmed, could significantly reduce sepsis deaths among HIV patients.
The study and ATLAS trial were conducted by Tulane University and University of Virginia in collaboration with Mbarara University in Uganda and the Tanzania's Kibong'oto Infectious Diseases Hospital, among others. The findings of the study and clinical trial were published in Lancet E-Clinical Medicine and Lancet Infectious Disease, respectively.
"Our analysis of the clinical trial results found that Mtb (the bacteria that causes TB) is a much more common cause of sepsis that we thought," said Dr. Eva Otoupalova, an assistant professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, who co-led the study and was also an author on the ATLAS trial. "Usually, anti-TB treatments are reserved for those diagnosed with TB. We found that, in African hospitals where HIV and TB are a common co-infection, patients with sepsis may benefit from being given anti-TB medications as soon as possible."
The ATLAS trial found that immediately treating HIV-related sepsis patients with anti-TB medication caused a 23% reduction in mortality when compared to those who only received treatment after receiving a TB diagnosis. Put another way, early anti-TB treatment saved 1 in every 4 patients.
An immediate but higher dose of the same medication was not associated with a decrease in mortality.
In the follow-up study examining the outcomes of the trial, Mtb was the most common pathogen, detected in 52% of HIV-related sepsis patients.
Previous studies have shown that TB can cause sepsis, however those studies are few, and I don't think we realized how high the prevalence is. Our analysis also found that our diagnostic tools are missing a lot of TB-sepsis, which is impactful if anti-TB treatment is only given to those diagnosed with the disease."
Dr. Eva Otoupalova, Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine
It's been known that TB can be difficult to detect in children, the elderly, those with HIV and those with pulmonary TB, all cases where sputum needed for testing is more difficult to obtain. However, the researchers found that combined urine and sputum testing missed 32% of Mtb bloodstream infections.
The findings highlight the need for both earlier treatment and improved TB diagnostic tools.
"These studies underscore two things: First, we successfully intervened in TB-related sepsis, and second, we used every rapid test available and found that they just don't detect all of the Mtb," Otoupalova said.
Tulane University
Otoupalova, E., et al. (2026). Aetiology of sepsis in adults living with HIV in East Africa: a secondary analysis of an open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled phase 3 trial. eClinicalMedicine. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103719. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(25)00654-6/fulltext
Heysell, S. K., et al. (2026). Immediate or high-dose antituberculosis therapy for HIV-related sepsis in Tanzania and Uganda (ATLAS): a phase 3, open-label, randomised, controlled, 2 × 2 factorial, superiority trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. doi: 10.1016/s1473-3099(25)00747-9. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(25)00747-9/fulltext
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Stroke patients treated intravenously with loberamisal, a novel neuroprotective medication, daily for 10 days and starting within 48 hours of stroke symptoms, had better recovery than patients who received a placebo, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2026. The meeting, from February 4 to 6, 2026, in New Orleans, is a world premiere meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.
The study is a Phase III clinical trial, a large-scale study to evaluate the effectiveness of a new treatment. The study goal is to test loberamisal, a new-generation dual-target treatment strategy designed to protect brain cells (neuroprotective agent) within the first 2 days after a stroke.
Neuroprotective agents may help improve patient outcomes since they are aimed at preserving the function of neurovascular units. However, trials for most of these agents have not been successful. In this trial, we tested loberamisal, a small-molecule, dual-acting neuroprotective agent that was an effective neuroprotectant in rodent studies. New treatments for stroke may come from multi-target neuroprotective agents, which could lead to important advancements in reducing or preventing disability after a stroke."
Shuya Li, M.D., study author, director of the Clinical Trial Center and head of the Phase I Clinical Research Unit at Beijing Tiantan Hospital in Beijing
The American Stroke Association's new 2026 Guideline for the Early Management of Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke notes that neuroprotection has garnered renewed interest. Current knowledge gaps need to be addressed in future research.
In this study trial participants were patients who received stroke care at 32 centers in China. 998 adults, ages 18 to 80, were treated for 10 days with either a daily, intravenous infusion of 40 mg loberamisal for 10 days or a matched placebo, started within 48 hours of a moderate to severe stroke caused by a blocked vessel. All had a confirmed clogged brain-vessel stroke, and treatment began within 48 hours of when stroke symptoms began. Only about 17% of participants received standard IV clot-busting medication (for example, alteplase), limiting assessment of combined effects of both treatments. Patients who received surgical treatment for the blockage (mechanical thrombectomy) were excluded from the trial.
At 90 days after treatment, the analysis found:
Study limitations include that the trial was conducted only in China, therefore, the results cannot be directly translated to people living in other countries.
"We want to confirm our findings with larger groups of people, including people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, patients with more severe strokes and those who also have had vascular surgery. We need to better understand how loberamisal works by studying biomarkers in multiple population groups," Li said.
Other limitations were that most patients in the study had moderate to severe strokes, which may affect applicability to people who have a more severe stroke. No blood or imaging biomarkers were assessed, which limits the applicability of the study's understanding of how loberamisal affects the body.
Study details, background and design:
American Heart Association
Posted in: Drug Trial News | Medical Condition News
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Ovarian cancer kills more women than any other gynecological cancer. Most patients receive their diagnosis only after the disease spreads throughout the abdomen. Until now, scientists have never fully understood why this cancer advances so fast. A new study led by Nagoya University explains why. Published in Science Advances, the study shows that cancer cells recruit help from protective mesothelial cells that normally line the abdominal cavity. Mesothelial cells lead the invasion and cancer cells follow the pathways they create. These hybrid cell clusters resist chemotherapy better than cancer alone. Researchers examined abdominal fluid from ovarian cancer patients and found something unexpected. Cancer cells do not float alone in the abdominal cavity. Instead, they often grab onto mesothelial cells and form hybrid spheres. About 60% of all cancer spheres contain these recruited mesothelial cells. The cancer cells release a protein called TGF-β1 that transforms the mesothelial cells and causes them to develop spike-like structures that cut through tissue.
When ovarian cancer develops, cancer cells break off from the tumor. These cells enter the abdominal fluid and float freely. The fluid moves around as you breathe and move your body. This movement carries the cancer cells to different spots in the abdomen. Most other cancers spread differently. Breast cancer or lung cancer cells enter blood vessels. They travel through the bloodstream to reach distant organs. Doctors can sometimes track these cancers through blood tests because blood moves in predictable paths through vessels. Ovarian cancer cells avoid blood vessels entirely. They float in fluid that has no fixed path. This floating stage happens before the cancer cells attach to new organs. Scientists did not fully understand what happened during the floating period or how cells worked together to spread cancer so quickly. The research team discovered that cancer cells recruit protective mesothelial cells that have shed from the abdominal cavity lining during this floating stage.
The two cell types stick together and form hybrid spheres. The mesothelial cells then grow invadopodia, spike-like structures that drill into surrounding tissue. The hybrid spheres resist chemotherapy drugs more effectively and invade tissues faster when they land on organs.
The researchers examined abdominal fluid from ovarian cancer patients using advanced microscopy to watch this process in real time. They confirmed their findings with mouse models and single-cell genetic analysis. Lead author Dr. Kaname Uno, a former PhD student and current Visiting Researcher at Nagoya University's Graduate School of Medicine, explained that the cancer cells do not need to become more invasive themselves. "They manipulate mesothelial cells to do the tissue invasion work. They undergo minimal genetic and molecular changes and just migrate through the openings that mesothelial cells create." Dr. Uno worked as a gynecologist for eight years before he pursued research. One of his patients changed his career path. She had clear screening results just three months before doctors found advanced ovarian cancer. Current medical tools failed to detect the cancer early enough to save her life. This motivated Dr. Uno to investigate why ovarian cancer spreads so rapidly. This discovery opens new treatment possibilities. Current chemotherapy targets cancer cells but ignores the mesothelial accomplices. Future drugs could block the TGF-β1 signal or prevent the formation of these dangerous partnerships. The research also suggests that doctors could monitor these cell clusters in abdominal fluid to predict disease progression and treatment response.
Nagoya University
Uno, K., et al. (2026). Mesothelial cells promote peritoneal invasion and metastasis of ascites-derived ovarian cancer cells through spheroid formation. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu5944. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu5944
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A new study from National Jewish Health helps explain how exposure to burn pit smoke and desert dust may damage the lungs of military service members deployed to regions such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The research, published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine(Opens in a new window), sheds light on why veterans exposed to these environments face higher rates of asthma and other long-term respiratory conditions.
Burn pits, which are used to dispose of waste during military operations, release tiny particles into the air. These particles can be inhaled deep into the lungs, but until now, scientists have not fully understood how they trigger lasting lung damage. In this study, researchers compared particulate matter collected from Afghanistan with similar desert dust from California to better understand their effects on lung immune cells.
The findings show that particles linked to burn pit exposure cause stronger inflammation and stress in lung immune cells than typical desert dust. These particles activate an immune response that can lead to ongoing inflammation and tissue damage, helping explain why some service members develop chronic breathing problems after deployment.
This study provides important insight into how deployment-related particulate matter affects immune cells in the lungs. Our findings identify the Toll-like Receptor 2 (TLR2) as a key mediator of inflammation caused by burn pit–associated particulate matter and suggest that targeting this pathway may offer new strategies to protect or treat individuals exposed during military service."
Brian Day, PhD, vice president of research and, director of the Office of Research Innovation at National Jewish Health, and principal investigator of the study
Using pre-clinical monocyte cell lines and primary bone marrow–derived macrophages, researchers evaluated how Afghanistan desert particulate matter (APM) and California desert particulate matter (CPM) affect immune signaling and inflammatory responses. They measured the production of nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide and inflammatory cytokines, which are key drivers of lung inflammation and tissue damage.
The results showed that APM was significantly more toxic to macrophages than CPM, producing stronger oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. These findings suggest that deployment-related particulate exposure may place warfighters at heightened risk for long-term respiratory disease.
Key findings include:
The research represents a significant step toward understanding the biological basis of deployment-related respiratory disease. It provides new information to help guide future diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for affected veterans and service members.
National Jewish Health
Day, B. J., et al. (2025). Pro-inflammatory and oxidative responses to burn pit relevant desert particulate matter in macrophages: A role for TLR2 signaling. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2025.09.035. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089158492500992X?via%3Dihub
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Children across the globe engage in a constellation of behaviors that support cooperation, an action critical to the survival of the human species, a team of Boston College researchers report today in the journal Science Advances.
The team from Associate Professor of Psychology Katherine McAuliffe's Cooperation Lab surveyed children in the urban United States, rural Uganda, Canada, and Peru, and the hunter-horticulturalist indigenous Shuar of Ecuador.
The researchers found there are cross-cultural regularities in some aspects of the development of cooperation - namely, that younger children tend to be self-interested, and that as children get older their behavior starts to reflect local norms, according to the report.
The researchers examined the development of four cooperative behaviors - fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and honesty - in more than 400 children aged 5 to 13 from five societies. They also collected normative judgments from more than 160 peers and nearly 90 adults from each community.
"Cooperation is crucial to the success of our species," said McAuliffe. "We were interested in how behaviors related to cooperation-fairness, trustworthiness, honesty, and forgiveness-emerge with age across diverse populations. We found some similarities, such as fairness and trustworthiness behaviors aligning with adult norms over age across societies. And we found some differences, such as variations in the norms themselves."
The norms themselves contained cross-cultural differences. For instance, adults across cultures have different ideas of what constitutes "fair" behavior.
"There are cross-cultural regularities in some aspects of the development of cooperation - namely, that younger children tend to be self-interested, and that as children get older their behavior starts to reflect the norms of their broader society," said co-author Dorsa Amir, a former post-doctoral researcher in McAuliffe's lab and now an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and Duke University.
We find cross-cultural differences in the norms themselves. For instance, adults across cultures have different ideas of what constitutes 'fair' behavior. Our study shows that children seem to be sensitive to those specific differences and tend to bring their behavior in line with them over time."
Dorsa Amir, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, Duke University
The team worked with 5- to 13-year-old children and adults in Canada, Ecuador, Peru, Uganda, and the U.S. They designed four different child-friendly activities to measure fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and honesty. For example, in the fairness activity, children used an intuitive wooden apparatus to make decisions about whether to accept or reject uneven divisions of candies between themselves and a peer.
The research found substantial variation in cooperative behaviors and norms across populations, but, more generally, that children's behaviors and norms tend to converge toward community-specific norms in middle childhood.
The team also identified three cooperative strategies – maximization, generic cooperation, and partner-contingent cooperation – that become more prevalent with age and differ across societies. All told, the findings show how the differences and similarities present as cooperative behavior develops within and across cultures.
McAuliffe said the study, undertaken with funding from the John Templeton Foundation, built on previous work that had looked at children's sharing and fairness behavior across societies to understand a broader suite of cooperative behaviors.
"By including a 'cooperative task battery' we were in a good position to explore how cooperative behaviors relate to one another," said McAuliffe, referring to the collection of activities and tasks they administered during their sessions with participants in the study.
McAuliffe said the researchers were most surprised by the findings about the role of forgiveness.
"Our lab has done a lot of work on punishment behavior, finding punishment to be a common response to transgressions across societies," she said. "Yet, here, both adults and children seemed to endorse forgiveness over punishment. It's possible that, in past work, we have overestimated how much people want punishment because we haven't given them alternative options such as forgiveness."
McAuliffe and her team are working on a follow-up report from four of these same countries that looks at the mechanisms of norm transmission.
"Specifically, we are comparing the influence of adult and peer models in influencing children's fairness and trustworthiness behavior," she said. "This is an important extension of the current work because it goes beyond showing that children vary in their cooperative behavior and looks at how that variation may come about."
Boston College
Amir, D., et al. (2026). The emergence of cooperative behaviors, norms, and strategies across five diverse societies. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw9995. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw9995
Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Research News
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Antibiotic resistance (AR) has steadily accelerated in recent years to become a global health crisis. As deadly bacteria evolve new ways to elude drug treatments for a variety of illnesses, a growing number of "superbugs" have emerged, ramping up estimates of more than 10 million worldwide deaths per year by 2050.
Scientists are looking to recently developed technologies to address the pressing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are known to flourish in hospital settings, sewage treatment areas, animal husbandry locations and fish farms. University of California San Diego scientists have now applied cutting-edge genetics tools to counteract antibiotic resistance.
The laboratories of UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences Professors Ethan Bier and Justin Meyer have collaborated on a novel method of removing antibiotic-resistant elements from populations of bacteria. The researchers developed a new CRISPR-based technology similar to gene drives, which are being applied in insect populations to disrupt the spread of harmful properties, such as parasites that cause malaria. The new Pro-Active Genetics (Pro-AG) tool called pPro-MobV is a second-generation technology that uses a similar approach to disable drug resistance in populations of bacteria.
"With pPro-MobV we have brought gene-drive thinking from insects to bacteria as a population engineering tool," said Bier, a faculty member in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. "With this new CRISPR-based technology we can take a few cells and let them go to neutralize AR in a large target population."
In 2019 Bier's lab collaborated with Professor Victor Nizet's group (UC San Diego School of Medicine) to develop the initial Pro-AG concept, in which a genetic cassette is introduced and copied between the genomes of bacteria to inactivate their antibiotic-resistant components. The cassette launches itself into an AR gene carried on plasmids, circular types of DNA that replicate within cells, thereby restoring sensitivity of the bacteria to antibiotic treatments.
Building upon this idea, Bier and his colleagues developed a follow-on system that spreads the antibiotic CRISPR cassette components via conjugal transfer, which is similar to mating in bacteria. As they described in the Nature journal npj Antimicrobials and Resistance, the researchers showed that this next-generation pPro-MobV system can exploit a naturally created bacterial mating tunnel between cells to spread the key disabling elements. They demonstrated the process working within bacterial biofilms, which are communities of microorganisms that contaminate various surfaces and can be extremely difficult to remove under conventional cleaning methods. Biofilms also contribute to the spread of disease and are created in the majority of infections that lead to serious disease, in part because biofilms help combat antibiotics by creating a protective layer of cells that is difficult for antibiotics to diffuse through. The new technology therefore carries potential in health care settings, environmental remediation and microbiome engineering.
The biofilm context for combatting antibiotic resistance is particularly important since this is one of the most challenging forms of bacterial growth to overcome in the clinic or in enclosed environments such as aquafarm ponds and sewage treatment plants. If you could reduce the spread from animals to humans you could have a significant impact on the antibiotic resistance problem since roughly half of it is estimated to come from the environment."
Ethan Bier, Professor, UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences
The researchers also found that components of the active genetic system could be carried and delivered by bacteriophage, or phage, which are viruses that are natural evolutionary competitors of bacteria. Phage are being specially engineered to combat antibiotic resistance by evading bacterial defenses and inserting disruptive factors inside cells. pPro-MobV elements, the researchers envision, would work in conjunction with such engineered phage viruses. This active genetic platform also can incorporate a highly efficient process known as homology-based deletion as a safety measure to remove the gene cassette if desired.
"This technology is one of the few ways that I'm aware of that can actively reverse the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes, rather than just slowing or coping with their spread," said Meyer, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, who studies the evolutionary adaptations of bacteria and viruses.
University of California - San Diego
Kaduwal, S., et al. (2026). A conjugal gene drive-like system efficiently suppresses antibiotic resistance in a bacterial population. Npj Antimicrobials and Resistance. DOI: 10.1038/s44259-026-00181-z. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44259-026-00181-z
Posted in: Genomics | Device / Technology News | Medical Science News
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For the millions of people living with end‑stage kidney disease, hemodialysis is more than a medical procedure, it is a thrice‑weekly lifeline that keeps the body's chemistry in balance. Yet even with decades of clinical experience and numerous technological advances, one stubborn challenge persists: determining how much fluid to remove during treatment without tipping a patient into dangerous instability. Too little fluid removal leaves patients overloaded, too much can trigger sudden drops in blood pressure, cramping, nausea, or even early termination of the session. These events are not rare, in fact, they affect nearly half of all dialysis patients.
A new pilot study from Boston University and Boston Medical Center suggests a promising way to address this longstanding problem. By using a custom optical device that illuminates the skin and underlying muscle with near‑infrared light, the researchers captured real‑time changes in tissue water content and other physiological signals during hemodialysis. As reported in Biophotonics Discovery, their research results point to a future in which clinicians may be able to anticipate adverse events earlier, and intervene before a patient becomes unstable.
Current monitoring tools provide only a partial picture of what happens during fluid removal. For example, devices like Crit‑Line track how the blood's hematocrit changes as water is removed from circulation. But this leaves out the largest reservoir of fluid in the body: the extravascular compartments, where more than 60% of total body water resides. Those spaces exchange water with the bloodstream at varying rates depending on the patient's vascular refill capacity, comorbidities, and the intensity of ultrafiltration.
When this delicate balance breaks down, when fluid leaves the bloodstream faster than it can be replenished, patients become vulnerable to hypotension and other complications. Because existing tools cannot reliably detect this mismatch in real time, clinicians often rely on patient symptoms or heuristic rules to adjust treatment.
The Boston team saw an opportunity: instead of listening only to the bloodstream, why not measure what is happening directly in the tissue itself?
The researchers created a compact device that combines two forms of near‑infrared spectroscopy: frequency‑domain (FD) and broadband continuous‑wave (CW), to gather complementary information. The FD light component measures absolute absorption and scattering as specific wavelengths, and when combined with the broadband CW measurements, the amounts of water, lipids, and hemoglobin can be quantified in tissue.
Together, these measurements provide a high‑resolution portrait of the optical properties of tissue. Each minute during dialysis, the system captured:
The probe itself, held against the calf muscle with medical tape, remained unobtrusive throughout treatment. Patients continued their dialysis as usual while the device recorded continuous optical data.
Twenty‑seven adult inpatients receiving fluid‑removal dialysis participated. Their medical histories reflected a typical inpatient dialysis population, including high rates of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Researchers logged any signs of trouble including cramping, dizziness, vomiting, headache, shortness of breath, or hypotension, and tagged these events in the data stream.
The central question: Could tissue‑level optical changes distinguish patients who experienced complications from those who did not?
Among all optical markers measured, one metric proved especially telling: the water ratio, defined as water content divided by the combined water‑plus‑lipid content of the tissue.
Across the cohort:
This difference was statistically significant.
The implication is compelling: when the body struggles to shift water from tissues into the bloodstream fast enough to keep up with fluid removal, the water ratio may flatten or rise, signaling an emerging mismatch that precedes symptoms.
The researchers also found that reduced scattering amplitude, a parameter reflecting how light interacts with tissue structure, differed between groups. Patients who remained stable tended to show distinct patterns in scattering compared to those who became unstable. This lines up with earlier work showing that tissue scattering decreases as hydration increases.
Together, water ratio and scattering measures formed a signature that could discriminate between the two groups. A multifeature model using three optical parameters classified subjects with strong accuracy, better than any single marker alone.
Crit‑Line, the widely used optical hematocrit monitor, did not distinguish between stable and unstable patients in this cohort in a statistically significance manner. Likewise, systolic blood pressure only showed a difference because most complications were hypotension‑related, and by the time blood pressure drops, an adverse event is already underway.
The optical system, by contrast, revealed subtle physiological divergence earlier in treatment, sometimes within the first quarter of the session. This points to possible future use as an early warning tool, rather than a reactive one.
Dialysis patients frequently suffer from fluid‑management‑related complications. Yet clinics have few objective, real‑time tools for assessing the physiological mechanisms that actually drive those complications.
This study is small, but it opens a meaningful path forward:
The authors emphasize limitations: the cohort was small and medically complex, the tissue model was simplified, and optical methods require further validation. But they also highlight the broad potential of the technology. Beyond dialysis, tools that measure tissue hydration could help manage edema in heart failure, monitor weight‑loss interventions, or support athletes tracking hydration status.
Fluid removal during hemodialysis will always be a balancing act. But with the ability to monitor tissue water in real time, clinicians may soon have a clearer view of the underlying physiology that shapes each patient's response. This optical approach doesn't just add another number to the chart, it opens a new window into how the body manages fluid, second by second.
For patients whose treatments can suddenly shift from routine to dangerous, that insight could make all the difference.
SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics
Suciu, D., et al. (2026) Frequency-domain broadband near-infrared spectroscopy for noninvasive monitoring of fluid volume status during hemodialysis. Biophotonics Discovery. DOI: 10.1117/1.BIOS.3.1.015003. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/biophotonics-discovery/volume-3/issue-01/015003/Frequency-domain-broadband-near-infrared-spectroscopy-for-noninvasive-monitoring-of/10.1117/1.BIOS.3.1.015003.full
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Dr. Lena Smirnova
Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling.
Natasha Bury
Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria.
Rosanna Zhang
In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research.
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New research from CU Anschutz scientists suggests that staying physically active after heart rhythm treatment may significantly reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) returning, offering patients a simple, low-cost way to support long-term heart health.
The study, published this month in the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology, found that adults who engaged in regular, moderate physical activity after catheter ablation had markedly lower rates of AF recurrence compared with those who were less active.
Atrial fibrillation often comes back even after a technically successful ablation, which can be frustrating for patients and clinicians alike. Our findings suggest that moderate exercise for 30 minutes three times a week, something most people can realistically do, may help protect against recurrence after undergoing catheter ablation."
Lohit Garg, MBBS, assistant professor of cardiology, CU Anschutz School of Medicine and lead author of the study
Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder worldwide and is linked to a higher risk of stroke, heart failure and repeated hospitalizations. Catheter ablation is a widely used treatment that restores normal rhythm, but recurrence remains a persistent challenge. The CU Anschutz study examined whether post-procedure lifestyle behaviors could influence outcomes.
Researchers analyzed data from 163 adults who underwent catheter ablation and tracked both their physical activity levels using wearables and heart rhythm outcomes over time.
"For many patients, recovery after ablation raises questions about what they can do beyond medications or procedures to reduce the chances of recurrent AF," Garg said. "This study suggests that physical activity may directly support the durability of AF treatment."
The researchers also observed that regular physical activity is associated with better blood pressure control, improved sleep, mood and weight management, all of which are known contributors to heart rhythm stability.
"Exercise should be part of the post-ablation conversation," Garg said. "It's one of the few interventions patients can control themselves that may meaningfully affect their long-term recovery."
The study's authors emphasized that patients should always consult their healthcare provider before beginning or changing an exercise routine, particularly following a heart procedure.
University of Colorado Anschutz
Nabrzyski, R. J., et al. (2026). Impact of physical activity on atrial fibrillation recurrence following catheter ablation. Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology. DOI: 10.1007/s10840-025-02230-5. https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10840-025-02230-5
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Rice University bioengineer Antonios Mikos is part of a team of researchers led by the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded up to $24.8 million over five years to help address the nation's growing organ donor shortage by bioprinting on-demand kidney tissues.
The new funding, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), will enable the team to produce bioprinted, vascularized kidney tissue that augments renal function in patients suffering from kidney disease. The implantable kidney tissue will be made from a patient's own cells combined with a bioink that supports the long-term viability of the implanted cells.
"Our key efforts are going to focus on the development of the bioinks, which are 3D printable inks that can host cells," said Vasiliki Kolliopoulos, a postdoctoral researcher in the Mikos lab who is working on the project. "These are highly complex materials that have to not only be able to mimic the tissue microenvironment but that can also sustain cells over their culture period prior to them being implanted."
The task will involve developing a library of bioinks that can be adapted to different patients and also vascularizing the 3D-printed constructs to enable their long-term maintenance and function in the body.
The project will draw on the extensive experience in the development of bioinks ⎯ including tissue-mimicking bioinks ⎯ of the Mikos group and will benefit from the resources and infrastructure at the Biomaterials Lab at Rice.
The funding comes from the Personalized Regenerative Immunocompetent Nanotechnology Tissue (PRINT) program at ARPA-H, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. PRINT will use state-of-the-art bioprinting technology and a regenerative medicine approach to 3D-print personalized, on-demand human organs that do not require immunosuppressive drugs.
This aims to solve the critical problems of organ shortage and transplantation risks in the United States. There are 120,000 people on waiting lists for an organ, but only 45,000 transplants are performed annually. In addition, transplanted organs last about 15 to 23 years on average and require immunosuppressive drugs for life.
"Just as tissue engineering is considered a convergent science that requires the convergence of many different disciplines, ARPA-H funding mechanisms like PRINT allow for the convergence of different laboratories, different institutions that contribute different expertise needed to address a major health care problem ⎯ in this case, kidney disease," said Mikos, the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and director of the Biomaterials Lab, the Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering and the J.W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering at Rice.
Mikos said the project builds on a long history of collaboration between researchers at Rice, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the University of Maryland. Other program partners include PrintBio Inc. and the University of Texas at El Paso.
"We're really excited to take part in such a significant project and to be able to contribute towards the next generation of patient care," Kolliopoulos said.
The project also includes plans to develop a scalable pathway for the manufacturing and commercialization of personalized bioprinted organs and tissues.
What we are trying to do with PRINT is extraordinarily hard. It requires major breakthroughs in cell manufacturing, bioreactor design and 3D-printing technology to reliably build organs that function like the real thing. But if we succeed, we won't just be giving patients faster access to new organs - we will change the foundation of transplantation itself. The advances from this program could dramatically reduce wait times, eliminate the need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs and open the door to bioprinted solutions for many other organs in the future."
Ryan Spitler, ARPA-H PRINT program manager
The research is supported by ARPA-H under award number D25AC00320-00. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ARPA-H.
Rice University
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In recent years, cancer researchers have made major breakthroughs by using the body's immune system to fight cancer. One of the most promising approaches, known as immune checkpoint blockade, works by releasing molecular "brakes" on T cells. This allows them to better recognize and attack cancer cells. While these therapies can be very effective for some patients, many solid tumors, including most forms of breast cancer, remain largely unaffected. Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) Program Co-leader Erik Nelson and his research group are working to understand why these treatments fail.
Elevated blood concentrations of cholesterol have long been linked to cancer outcomes. In a new study, they found that a protein called ABCA1 is involved in transporting cholesterol out of a type of immune cell called macrophages, and in so-doing shifts them to an "attack cancer" mode.
Immune based therapies have revolutionized how we can treat cancer, basically taking the brakes off of a type of immune cell called T cells so they can attack cancer. While this approach works well for some patients, many so-called solid tumors fail to respond or develop resistance mechanisms."
Erik Nelson, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign
Nelson's team began looking beyond T cells to try and understand why solid tumors fail to respond to traditional treatments. They focused on myeloid immune cells, particularly macrophages, which are abundant in many solid tumors and play a major role in shaping the tumor environment.
"Here, we find that ABCA1, which is a protein that transports cholesterol from inside the cell to the outside, plays a big role in directing how myeloid cells, specifically macrophages, behave," Nelson said. "When we engineer macrophages to express more ABCA1, they become much better at fighting cancer and supporting the other immune cell type, T cells."
Immune checkpoint blockers are currently approved for only one subtype of breast cancer, and even among those patients, only about a quarter respond to treatment. One reason, researchers believe, is the influence of myeloid cells in the tumor environment. These cells can suppress immune activity, promote new blood vessel growth that feeds tumors, and limit the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
To understand how important ABCA1 is to the immune response, the team tested what happens when myeloid cells completely lack ABCA1.
"We next utilized mice that were engineered so that their myeloid cells did not express ABCA1," Nelson said. "Tumors grew quicker in these mice, and perhaps even more importantly, immune based therapies failed to control tumors in these mice."
The researchers also found strong evidence that these mechanisms matter in humans. In patient tumor samples, higher levels of ABCA1 in myeloid immune cells were associated with increased numbers of cancer killing T cells and improved outcomes for breast cancer patients.
"This tells us that what we are seeing in the lab is relevant to patients with cancer," Nelson said. "It gives us confidence that targeting ABCA1 could be a meaningful new strategy for cancer immunotherapy."
Looking ahead, Nelson's team is now focused on developing ways to increase ABCA1 activity specifically in tumor associated macrophages and testing whether these approaches can be combined with existing immune therapies.
"Our ultimate goal is to induce an immune response in tumors that were previously unresponsive to immunotherapy," Nelson said. "The immune system has the capacity to eradicate cancer. We just need to figure out where all the brakes are and how to release them safely."
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Cancer Center at Illinois
Bendre, S. V., et al. (2026). Cholesterol efflux protein, ABCA1, supports anticancer functions of myeloid immune cells. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adx5490. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx5490
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
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Wistar scientists have combined a promising cancer therapy with a molecule that targets tumors to treat cancer more effectively. The new approach could be a way to deliver treatment directly to tumors at higher doses, while reducing side effects in healthy tissue.
An Aurora kinase A (AURKA) inhibitor is viewed as a lethal synthetic molecule in cancer therapy, but the problem is you can't dose it high enough, because then it starts to spill over and target normal cells, causing toxicity. By using this cancer-targeting approach, we can direct this molecule, which is already in clinical use, to cancer cells, increasing its exposure in the tumor itself."
Joseph Salvino, Ph.D., coauthor
Salvino is professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, and scientific director of Wistar's Molecular Screening & Protein Expression Facility.
The new chimeric molecule takes two existing molecules and attaches them together like LEGO blocks to make what's called a small molecule drug conjugate. One half of the conjugate, an Aurora kinase A (AURKA) inhibitor, works by blocking a protein that controls cell division and helps tumors to grow. While this molecule has shown promise in clinical trials, it's also caused toxic side effects that limited its use. The second half is a molecule that binds to a protein called HSP90, which cancer cells produce to help them survive stress. By targeting HSP90, which is found at high levels in cancer cells, researchers hoped to show that they could concentrate the compound within the tumor, preferentially over healthy tissue.
In a proof-of-concept study, they demonstrated that the new chimeric molecule successfully binds to both the AURKA and HSP90 proteins. When researchers tested it in cell samples taken from multiple cancer types, including head and neck, lung, and melanoma, they found that it stopped the cancer cells from dividing and replicating, eventually causing the cells to die.
The researchers then tested the new chimeric molecule in preclinical animal models. They found that it concentrated inside the tumors at levels sometimes 10 times higher than when the original AURKA inhibitor was used on its own. The compound also stayed in the tumor for much longer, and was still active 24 hours after being injected, while the original inhibitor was no longer detectable. The compound was also well tolerated in preclinical models, with no significant toxicity.
When the researchers combined the new molecule with another cancer drug, called a WEE1 inhibitor, the two together were even more effective in controlling tumor growth.
"When drugs fail in the clinic, 50% of the time it's because of poor exposures in the tumor, due to pharmacokinetic problems," or the body's ability to absorb or interact with a drug, Salvino explained. "Our approach will take an existing compound and improve its pharmacokinetic properties, enhancing its exposures in the tumor."
In addition to the cancers tested in the initial study, the new compound should have broad application to many other types of cancer, he added.
Next, researchers plan to apply their approach to different molecules and types of cancer. They also want to develop the new chimeric molecule into a formulation that can be given orally.
The Wistar Institute
Nguyen, T. T., et al. (2026). NN-01-195, a novel conjugate of HSP90 and AURKA inhibitors, effectively targets solid tumors. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-25-0857. https://aacrjournals.org/mct/article/doi/10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-25-0857/771952/NN-01-195-a-novel-conjugate-of-HSP90-and-AURKA
Posted in: Drug Discovery & Pharmaceuticals | Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
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American women now have the option of screening for cervical cancer at home, using newly approved self-collection tools. While experts hope this will increase uptake in the under-screened population, a first-of-its kind study by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found the majority (60.8%) still prefer to see a medical professional in-clinic.
The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, also revealed that marginalized were more likely to prefer at-home self-sampling, and women with low income and those who do not trust the health care system were more likely to be uncertain about which option to choose. Of 2,300 screening-eligible women, just 20.4% prefer to screen for cervical cancer at home, and 18.8% were unsure about their choice.
Home-based self-sampling has the potential to remove many of the barriers women face when it comes to cervical cancer screening. By expanding screening options and pairing them with targeted education, we can empower more women to participate in screening in a way that fits their lives."
Sanjay Shete, Ph.D., lead author, deputy division head of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences
While cervical cancer screening rates have increased over the last 25 years, there has been a shift since the COVID-19 pandemic toward decreased annual screening coverage. Experts say there is still a need to improve cervical cancer screening uptake among under-screened populations, and this study suggests that these groups would benefit from having options that best fit their preference.
In the study, Black women were less likely to prefer at-home self-sampling versus clinic-based testing compared to white women. On the other hand, individuals who were overdue for screening were most likely to prefer at-home kits, as were those who had experienced prejudice or discrimination when getting medical care. The most reported reasons for preferring at-home self-sampling were privacy (54.9%), time constraints (35.1%) and avoiding embarrassment (33.4%).
Both the Health Resources and Services Administration and the American Cancer Society have adopted home-based self-collection for cervical cancer screening.
"Major public health and medical organizations should consider updating their recommendations to include home-based self-sampling. This policy shift could play a critical role in reducing screening inequities and improving uptake among populations that have historically been underserved," said co-author Joël Fokom Domgue, M.D., senior researcher of Epidemiology.
This cross-sectional study was based on data from the 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults in the civilian population. This study included all women aged 21-65 who completed the survey and were eligible for cervical cancer screening as per U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. The individuals also had to have responded to the cervical cancer screening questions.
Limitations of the study include the cross-sectional nature of HINTS, a lack of familiarity with the new at-home screening kits, the fact that the FDA has not approved the self-collection tool at the time of the HINTS survey, and that data and prior screening history was not collected as a part of HINTS.
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Fokom Domgue, J., et al. (2026) Women's Preferences for Home-Based Self-Sampling or Clinic-Based Testing for Cervical Cancer Screening. JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.58841. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2844711
Posted in: Medical Research News | Women's Health News | Healthcare News
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Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, marked by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. What makes it more dangerous is the ability of cancer cells to move quickly through the body, allowing them to invade surrounding tissues. While this behavior is well known, the mechanism behind this rapid spread remains unclear. Researchers from Kyushu University set out to fill this gap and unveiled a new physical process that helps cancer cells move rapidly throughout the body.
This study was led by Professor Junichi Ikenouchi from Kyushu University's Faculty of Medical Sciences, along with his colleagues at Kyushu University, in collaboration with Yokohama City University. The findings of this study, published in The EMBO Journal on February 3, 2026, reveal how water pressure generated inside cells aids in cancer cell migration.
Healthy cells typically move by attaching to surfaces, which allows them to pull themselves forward. While existing therapies can target this adhesion-based movement, cancer cells evade this treatment approach by following a different strategy: amoeboid migration. In this mode, cells form temporary bulges called blebs, enabling them to squeeze through tight spaces without attaching to their surroundings.
For a long time, it was believed that bleb expansion was driven by internal pressure-until research by Ikenouchi in 2021 overturned that assumption.
In our previous research, we observed that expanding blebs show unique cytoplasmic properties such as high levels of calcium ions, suggesting that blebs are not just passive, pressure-driven protrusions but specialized cellular compartments."
Professor Junichi Ikenouchi, Kyushu University's Faculty of Medical Sciences
Inspired by this, the researchers wanted to further explore the reasons behind these bleb expansions. Furthermore, they also noticed significantly higher levels of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) present in the cells, prompting a critical question: does CaMKII have a more direct physical role in shaping cells and their movements?
As the researchers probed deeper into bleb dynamics, they discovered that CaMKII does much more than act as a signaling protein. When a bleb begins to grow, there is an increase in the calcium levels inside the cells. In response to this surge, CaMKII present in the cell undergoes a structural change and assembles into a large protein supercomplex together with other molecules.
Once formed, this supercomplex behaves like an osmotic engine, creating a concentration gradient that draws water into the bleb through osmosis. The water pushes the cell membrane outwards, leading to rapid growth of the bleb. This newly discovered process was named "CODE" which stands for "CaMKII-based osmotically-driven deformation."
"Surprisingly, cells can generate force simply by changing how proteins are distributed inside them," says Ikenouchi. "CaMKII creates pressure by gathering in one place, and that pressure physically pushes the membrane outward."
These findings hold great significance in molecular biology, as most advanced cancer cells rely on amoeboid movement. In such cases, treatment becomes difficult; most current therapies only target cell proliferation or adhesion-dependent migration. Uncovering the CODE mechanism opens new avenues for therapies that specifically target amoeboid movement.
Apart from cancer, understanding how cells generate force through changes in their physical properties could also have implications for regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and tissue engineering. This research may inspire new therapeutic strategies that target cellular mechanics rather than classical signaling pathways, opening the door to more robust and effective treatments.
Kyushu University
Fujii, Y., et al. (2026). CaMKII nucleates an osmotic protein supercomplex to induce cellular bleb expansion. The EMBO Journal. DOI: 10.1038/s44318-026-00703-5. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s44318-026-00703-5
Posted in: Cell Biology | Medical Science News | Medical Condition News
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Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling.
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Rosanna Zhang
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Neuropathic pain, caused by injury or disease of the somatosensory nervous system, is a major clinical challenge and often evolves into a chronic condition. Importantly, up to 80% of patients with long-term pain also experience anxiety or depression. This creates a vicious cycle that not only worsens prognosis and quality of life but also poses significant challenges for treating both the pain and the accompanying emotional disorders. Current treatments mainly focus on pain intensity, while emotional symptoms often remain inadequately addressed.
Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice, is now widely recognized and integrated into global pain management. It offers a drug-free option for conditions such as chronic back pain, migraines, and arthritis. High-quality clinical trials have further confirmed its efficacy in treating both acute and chronic pain. Beyond pain relief, acupuncture also demonstrates certain advantages in managing pain-induced negative emotions. While research on the potential mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia has achieved notable progress, the neural mechanisms underlying the link between acupuncture and pain-related emotional disturbances remain poorly understood.
Previous studies have indicated that the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in integrating pain perception and emotional regulation, yet it remains unclear whether acupuncture exerts its effects by modulating the prefrontal cortex. Given these challenges, there is a pressing need to investigate whether and how acupuncture intervention influences the prefrontal cortex and modulates specific neuronal circuits, thereby alleviating pain-induced emotional disturbances.
Researchers from Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine reported (DOI: 10.13702/j.1000-0607.20230755) in January 2025 in Acupuncture Research hat electroacupuncture significantly alleviated pain-induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in a mouse model of neuropathic pain by modulating specific excitatory neurons in the brain. By combining behavioral testing with chemogenetic manipulation, the team demonstrated that the therapeutic effects of electroacupuncture depend on the activation of glutamatergic neurons in the ventrolateral orbital cortex, a subregion of the prefrontal cortex closely linked to emotional processing. The study provides direct neural evidence connecting acupuncture-based intervention with brain circuit modulation.
To explore the neural basis of pain-related emotional disorders, the researchers established a neuropathic pain model in mice using common peroneal nerve ligation. A battery of behavioral tests—including open field, elevated plus maze, forced swimming, and tail suspension assays—revealed that nerve injury induced persistent anxiety- and depression-like behaviors alongside heightened pain sensitivity. Electroacupuncture was then applied daily for seven days at specific hindlimb acupoints ("Yanglingquan" (GV34) and "Xuanzhong" (GB34)) commonly used in pain treatment.
Results showed that electroacupuncture markedly improved emotional behaviors without affecting overall locomotion, indicating a genuine anxiolytic and antidepressant effect rather than a motor artifact. To uncover the underlying mechanism, the team selectively activated or inhibited glutamatergic neurons in the ventrolateral orbital cortex using chemogenetic tools. Artificial activation of these neurons mimicked the emotional benefits of electroacupuncture, while their inhibition completely blocked the therapeutic effect of electroacupuncture.
Immunofluorescence analysis further confirmed increased neuronal activation following electroacupuncture, demonstrating that excitatory prefrontal neurons are a critical neural substrate linking pain relief and emotional regulation.
"Chronic pain is not merely a sensory experience—it fundamentally alters emotional brain circuits," said one of the study's senior authors. "Our findings show that electroacupuncture can directly engage prefrontal glutamatergic neurons that are suppressed by long-term neuropathic pain. By restoring the activity of this circuit, emotional symptoms such as anxiety and depression can be alleviated. This provides a biological explanation for the clinical observation that acupuncture improves both pain and mood, and highlights its potential as a complementary strategy for treating complex pain-related disorders."
These results have important implications for the treatment of chronic pain conditions complicated by emotional disorders. By identifying a specific prefrontal neural circuit involved in pain-induced anxiety and depression, the study opens new avenues for precision neuromodulation therapies. Electroacupuncture, as a low-risk and non-pharmacological intervention, may help reduce reliance on antidepressants or opioids, particularly in patients with comorbid pain and mood disorders. More broadly, the findings support an integrative neuroscience framework in which traditional therapeutic techniques are evaluated and optimized through modern brain circuit analysis, potentially accelerating their translation into evidence-based clinical practice.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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The Ball is Round. The Place is Philly.
Photo courtesy @USYNT Instagram
The United States' Men's Under-17 National Team went on a 10-0 rout Saturday evening against Saint Kitts and Nevis in its second match of the 2026 CONCACAF U-17 World Cup Qualifying.
Earlier in the day, fellow Group E member the Dominican Republic bested Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 10-0, extending their goal differential to 15. Thus, the United States needed to beat Saint Kitts and Nevis by eight or more goals to bring its own goal differential above that mark going into the final match of the qualifier.
Philadelphia Union II's striker Malik Jakupovic, who had scored two goals off the bench against Saint Vincent on Thursday, and Union Academy's goalkeeper Matthew White started in the match. The US U-17s made nine changes to the lineup from Thursday's victory due to the quick turnaround between matches in this tournament.
The United States got on the board right away in the seventh minute through Malik Jakupovic. He scored his third goal in two matches after a ball perfectly whipped in by Myles Gardner on the right sideline. Gardner assisted Jakupovic's first goal in the U17s previous match, too.
Jakupovic doubled the advantage in the 23rd minute, juggling the ball to hold it up and get past two defenders to place it confidently into the net. He received the ball from a long, lobbed pass by Mattheo Dimareli from about the halfway mark.
The Union striker nearly got his hat trick a minute later, but the goalkeeper, Victor Hart, made an impressive kick save to keep it out. A goal from Myles Gardner was called offside in the 26th minute. Jakupovic had the would-be assist with a touch while laying on the pitch.
Jermaine Powell of Saint Kitts and Nevis saw the first caution of the match for a foul just outside the box on Mattheo Dimareli. The challenge required a stoppage in play so that Dimareli could receive treatment. Dimareli hit the bar on the ensuing free kick.
Vincente Garcia was fouled inside the box in the 35th minute. He stepped up to the spot for the penalty and scored his first-ever goal for the US U-17s.
After the goal, the hosts made a change at right back, bringing on T'Quandre Burroughs for Jermaine Powell, who received a yellow earlier.
Jakupovic got his hat trick in the 44th minute, receiving a through ball from Gardner, then cutting inside to hammer the shot into the side netting.
The ball rarely left St. Kitts and Nevis' defensive half, but the hosts were able to keep up a high press against the USA, suffocating a few promising chances.
Saint Kitts and Nevis were forced to switch keepers at the half after earlier concerns for the lower extremity of Victor Hart Jr, who has been a mainstay in the U17 side for the past two years. Brian Collins made his first international appearance by coming on for him.
Within a minute of kickoff, another St. Kitts' Jaheem Hazel went down and required attention. He ended up being fit to continue.
Collins brought down Mattheo Dimareli just outside of the box in what looked like a DOGSO foul. The referee chose to give a yellow card to the substitute goalkeeper and award a penalty. Saint Kitts and Nevis did not have a third keeper on their roster.
Dimareli stepped up to the spot and slotted it in to make it five.
The United States made its first substitutions in the 61st minute, bringing on Peter Molinari and Paul Sokoloff for Landry Walker and Vincente Garcia.
Saint Kitts and Nevis' Joshua Finch took a hit while trying to make a tackle and required the stretcher to get off the pitch. Roko Pehar missed an open net on the following corner kick.
The United States made two more changes in the 68th minute. KK Spivey and Will Ostrander entered for Roko Pehar and Myles Gardner.
A sixth goal came in from the head of fullback Eddie Chadwick after some strong buildup by the United States right after the changes. Astin Mbaye of AC Milan played the ball over the box for the assist.
Dimareli scored his second three minutes later, having been left unmarked at the back post. Malik Jakupovic added to his outing with an assist on that goal.
The United States' final change was Prince Forfor for Mattheo Dimareli.
A handball in the box by Saint Kitts' Adondre Eddy gave a third penalty to the United States. Jakupovic made easy work of it to bag his fourth. The goal solidified the United States' goal differential to put them at the top of the group going into the final match.
That did not stop Jakupovic, who went on to get a fifth in the 84th minute from outside the box.
Substitute Prince Forfor got in on the scoring in the 90th minute to make it double-digits for the USA. By then, the US coaching staff seemed to require their team to make a certain number of passes between them before they could push forward and attack.
The result eliminated Saint Kitts and Nevis from qualification contention.
The U17MNT will finish this year's CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier against the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, February 10th at 1 PM. Both a win or a draw will see the United States qualify for a record 20th U17 World Cup later this year.
Matthew White; Astin Mbaye, Tyson Espy, Eddie Chadwick, Daniel Barrett, Vincente Garcia (Paul Sokoloff– 61'), Landry Walker (Peter Molinari– 61'), Roko Pehar (KK Spivey– 68'), Myles Gardner (Will Ostrander– 68'), Malik Jakupovic, Mattheo Dimareli (Prince Forfor– 76')
Unused subs: James Donaldson; Keller Abbott, Aaron Medina, Max Steelman, Liam Vejrostek
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Victor Hart (Brian Collins– 46'); Kejaun Pollock, Khamarl Wattley, Joshua Finch (Lajewan Jeffers– 69'), Ajnarel Wilkinson, Joshua Nais, Savi-K Morton (Niza'iah Skeete– 89'), Adondre Eddy, Jaheem Hazel, Jermaine Powell (T'Quandre Burroughs– 38'), Kymarni Newton
Unused Subs: Kvondrey Adams, V'dondre Akers, Dequandre Liburd
USA: Jakupovic– 7'
USA: Jakupovic– 23'
USA: Garcia– 36' (Penalty)
USA: Jakupovic– 44'
USA: Dimareli– 58' (Penalty)
USA: Chadwick– 69'
USA: Dimareli– 72'
USA: Jakupovic– 80' (Penalty)
USA: Jakupovic– 84'
USA: Fofor– 90'
SKN: Powell– 31'
SKN: Collins– 56'
Referee: Renlee Napoleon
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Orange barrels and the sound of jackhammers have become a temporary staple of the Downtown Houston skyline, but the city says the mess is paving the way for a historic transformation. FOX 26's Mekenna Earnhart explains the upcoming city's upcoming 'Promenade' for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
HOUSTON - Orange barrels and the sound of jackhammers have become a temporary staple of the Downtown Houston skyline, but the city says the mess is paving the way for a historic transformation.
Why you should care:
The $12 million Main Street Promenade project is officially in its final sprint. The initiative, which permanently closes seven blocks of Main Street (from Commerce to Rusk) to vehicular traffic, aims to turn the corridor into a pedestrian-first "outdoor living room" just in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
What they're saying:
For business owners in the heart of the construction zone, the project represents both a challenge and a massive opportunity.
At Day 6 Coffee Co., owner Julius Chatton says the construction has definitely changed the way people get to his shop, but he's keeping his eyes on the prize.
"The construction has sort of impeded vehicular traffic to an extent," Chatton said. "But with the FIFA World Cup, of course, we will get international business and an opportunity to expose people to Houston and the way we do hospitality."
Chatton, whose shop sits in a historic protected building, hopes the millions of international fans expected to descend on Houston in June will see a side of Texas they aren't expecting.
"People's notions of Texas are pretty linear," Chatton said. "It will be nice to showcase the diversity that exists in Houston."
Just down the street at Taste Kitchen + Bar, General Manager Jordon Graves has already seen the light at the end of the tunnel. While construction was a hurdle when it was directly in front of their doors, that phase is complete for his block.
"In the beginning, we did have problems... people looking for the restaurant, couldn't get by," Graves said. "Now that they're finished, it's getting back better."
Graves says the vision of a walkable Main Street is what keeps the staff excited. "Once we get different people from all around the world, getting our flavor... we'll be on a different level."
The backstory:
The project grew out of a successful pilot program during the COVID pandemic, proving that Houstonians were hungry for more walkable, outdoor spaces. When the final brick is laid in May 2026, the Promenade will feature expanded dining patios, shaded canopies, and public art.
While the World Cup is the catalyst for the speed of the project, city officials say the Promenade is a permanent gift to the city, one that small business owners hope will keep downtown vibrant long after the final whistle blows.
For more information on the Main Street Promenade and how to navigate downtown during construction, visit the Downtown Houston+ website.
The Source: Downtown Houston+, Day 6 Coffee Co. owner Julius Chatton, and Taste Kitchen + Bar General Manager Jordon Graves.
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Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa has accused Clasico rivals Barcelona of generating the “biggest scandal in the history of Spanish football”. The Blaugrana remain embroiled in the long-running Negreira case, with accusations being levelled at the Catalan giants of bribing match officials. No definitive conclusion to that saga has been reached, much to the bemusement of Arbeloa.
The case has been back in the news of late. Barca were initially found to have made payments totalling €8.4 million (£7m/$10m) to Jose María Enríquez Negreira - a former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) - between 2001 and 2018.
Barcelona maintain that they hired Negreira as an external consultant to provide technical reports on refereeing, with the man himself denying any suggestion that was paid to influence decisions made in competitive fixtures. Bribery charges were dismissed by a Spanish court in May 2024, but the investigation continues under the charge of sports corruption.
Arbeloa, who has taken coaching reins at the Bernabeu on the back of Xabi Alonso's dismissal, has been asked for his take on the situation. Unsurprisingly, given his ties to the Blancos, the ex-Spain international was scathing in his assessment.
He told reporters: “Regarding the Negreira case, I think that no one understands that, to this day, the biggest scandal in the history of Spanish football is still unresolved. For me that is what should worry a lot of people.”
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Arbeloa is doing his best to ensure that off-field matters do not become a distraction for Real, as they chase down Barcelona in another thrilling La Liga title race. He has endured the odd shock defeat during his tenure - against Albacete and Benfica - but has overseen three successive victories in La Liga.
He said of the challenges that his side face heading into a clash with Valencia on Sunday: “Great teams have to do a lot of things well to win. We can't just master one, we have to be able to do many things well on the pitch: we have to be able to do them at the same time, have automatisms, think all the same way… And that can only be achieved by working and putting in hours.
“The predisposition that the players have had is still just as good, with the same desire and the same ambition of the objectives we have ahead of us. Tomorrow is a very complicated and difficult match. This week we've been focused on continuing that improvement in all aspects of the game. We are still far from our ceiling.”
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Real Madrid have lost England international midfielder Jude Bellingham to an untimely injury, with a hamstring problem being picked up by the all-action 22-year-old, while Rodrygo is now serving a ban.
The Brazilian forward was dismissed during a humbling 4-2 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon that saw opposition goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin score a 98th-minute header to keep his team alive in Champions League competition.
Rodrygo has apologised for his actions, and Arbeloa considers that to be the end of the matter. He said: “He has already issued a statement of regret. He knows he made a mistake and from there we need to get him back as soon as possible and in the best possible condition so that he can help us as he knows how to do.”
Real are readying themselves for an immediate reunion with Benfica in continental action. Having failed to secure a top eight finish and automatic qualification for the last 16, they must face Jose Mourinho's men again in the knockout phase play-offs.
The first leg of that contest will take place on February 17, with the Blancos having two domestic fixtures to work through prior to that. After facing Valencia at the Mestalla, they will then play host to Real Sociedad on February 14. Arbeloa's side are within touching distance of Barcelona at the top of the Liga table.
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The Sporting KC Training Centre will serve as a Team Base Camp Training Site during FIFA World Cup 26™ for reigning champions Argentina, the club announced today.
Each team participating in FIFA World Cup 26™ selects a Team Base Camp Training Site where the team's delegation will be headquartered to prepare for matches, including practice sessions, player workouts, team meetings and staff operations. This “home away from home” is designed to provide a hub where teams will arrive ahead of their first match and will be available for those teams to return to between matches.
Argentina's Schedule for FIFA World Cup 26™
June 16: Argentina vs. Algeria in Kansas City, Mo.
June 22: Argentina vs. Austria in Arlington, Texas
June 27: Argentina vs. Jordan in Arlington, Texas
Argentina are three-time World Cup champions, winning the sport's biggest prize in 1978, 1986 and 2022. Currently No. 2 in the FIFA rankings, La Albiceleste finished first in World Cup qualifying in South America and are led by head coach Lionel Scaloni – named The Best FIFA Football Coach in 2022 – and a star-studded pool of players headlined by Lionel Messi. The back-to-back MLS MVP has appeared in a record 26 World Cup matches and is poised to play in a record sixth World Cup this summer.
“Following several inspection trips and after a thorough final report, it was concluded that Kansas City would be the ideal location for the tournament, considering the distances between cities and, more importantly, the amenities available to the team,” the Argentine Football Federation wrote in confirming Kansas City as their Team Base Camp for FIFA World Cup 26™.
The Sporting KC Training Centre opened in 2018 as the team's official training ground and the $75 million state-of-the-art facility features five fields, highlighted by a super pitch spanning seven acres with three full-size natural grass fields in addition to two synthetic turf fields with LED sports lighting. Inside the world-class venue is a luxury of accommodations, including a gymnasium, sports performance lab, hydrotherapy pools, training room, locker rooms, team lounge, offices, classrooms and media studio.
Located in Kansas City, Kansas, the Sporting KC Training Centre is less than a mile from Sporting Kansas City's home stadium, Sporting Park, which is designated as a Venue-Specific Training Site to host training sessions for national teams preparing to play matches in Kansas City during FIFA World Cup 26™.
Lionel Messi turned the clock back when scoring a stunning solo goal for Inter Miami in their latest pre-season friendly. The Argentine GOAT found himself lining up against Barcelona. He was not reunited with former employers from Camp Nou, but was in action on Ecuadorian soil. The all-time great gave those in the stands what they came for when dancing past defenders and hitting the back of the net.
MLS Cup winners Inter Miami have been working through a tour of South America. Messi is getting himself back up to speed after rewriting the history books again in 2025. He has become the first man to win back-to-back MVP awards in the United States.
A notable hat-trick will soon be chased down, while also looking to defend his Golden Boot award. Javier Mascherano's side continue to look to their talismanic captain for inspiration, with a contract extension in South Florida being agreed through 2028.
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Messi has opened his goal account for the new year, and did so in spectacular style when lining up against Barcelona SC. With a little over half-an-hour gone in that contest, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner picked up possession a long way out.
He immediately set off towards the penalty area, despite seeing several yellow shirts blocking his path. Three defenders descended upon him when reaching the edge of the box. Messi shifted the ball beyond two of them with the outside of his famous left foot.
Without breaking stride, and having worked a yard of space, the Argentina international whipped a shot back across the face of goal and into the corner of the net - leaving opposition keeper Jose Contreras flapping at fresh air.
Inter Miami were pegged back in the 41st minute, but restored their lead in first-half stoppage-time when Messi teed up German Berterame. Mascherano made a number of changes in the second half, with his skipper being replaced by Luis Suarez just before the hour mark.
The Herons were unable to see the game out, after seeing David Ayala sent off, with Argentine midfielder Tomas Martinez ensuring that the game ended 2-2 when levelling for the hosts three minutes from time.
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Inter Miami will now turn their attention to a MLS season opener against Son Heung-min and LAFC on February 21. Their opening five games of the new campaign will be played away from home as work on Freedom Park is completed.
Messi will be hoping to hit his stride as quickly as possible, allowing him to feel comfortable with his form and fitness ahead of the 2026 World Cup finals - with the expectation being that he will join Argentina's squad for a global title defence.
Bruno Fernandes has reached yet another milestone for Manchester United which underscores his importance to the Red Devils yet again. The Portuguese midfielder ran the game against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and his goal contributions took him to second, and above some of the club's greatest players, in the list of fastest players to reach 200 goal involvements.
Fernandes was on the scoresheet as United earned their fourth win on the bounce. The Red Devils beat Spurs 2-0 at Old Trafford with the Portuguese midfielder doubling his team's advantage after Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring with a sweeping effort from the top of the box from a corner.
Fernandes took the headlines when he fired home from a Diogo Dalot cross with just ten minutes to go as he put the game beyond doubt. Thomas Frank's side had been reduced to ten men earlier in the game following a red card to Cristian Romero and never looked like turning the game around.
The United skipper has once again been the star of their season for both Ruben Amorim and now Michael Carrick. The goal against Spurs marked his sixth goal in the Premier League this campaign and his 18th direct involvement. His 12 assists in the division put him far and away the best playmaker in the league, with Rayan Cherki's seven the next highest tally.
Fernandes notched up his 200th goal or assist for Manchester United on Saturday and, in doing so, became the second-quickest player to do so in the club's long history. Only Wayne Rooney, who scored 133 goals and registered 67 assists in 295 games, can top Fernandes' record of 104 goals and 96 assists in 314 games.
Per Opta, Fernandes has also overtaken the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (339 games), David Beckham (393), Ryan Giggs (424) and Paul Scholes (564). It puts him amongst some of the very best players to have ever pulled on a red shirt of Manchester United and he will not be forgotten any time soon.
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United have been resurgent under Carrick and their fourth win on the spin is testament to the work he has put in at Old Trafford. The Red Devils never accrued as many victories in a row under his predecessor Amorim.
Speaking after the game, Fernandes hailed the impact the former England and United midfielder has had on the squad. He 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.”
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United will have to contend with another side on their own glitzy run of form on Tuesday when they travel to the London Stadium to face West Ham. United are currently fourth in the Premier League, look set to secure a return to the Champions League next season and can begin to dream beyond. Carrick's side are also just three points off of Aston Villa and Manchester City ahead of them and will fancy themselves to overhaul their rivals. League leaders Arsenal, 12 points clear of United, appear too far ahead to even begin to suggest a potential title charge.
United will know any slip up could spell trouble too, with Chelsea just one point below them. Liverpool are four off the pace but have a game in hand against City on Sunday afternoon, knowing victory will put the pressure on the sides above them.
United can strengthen their grip on the top four with a win against the Hammers, but will have to play well to take the maximum points off a side with four wins from their last five games in all competitions.
With a global sporting event comparable to the Olympics set to take place in Kansas City this June, mid-Missouri businesses should start preparing now for the economic ripple effects of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the leader of a Columbia bank said Wednesday.
"It's not every day that we have a mini Olympics happening an hour and a half down the road from us," said Sarah Dubbert, president of Commerce Bank in Columbia.
Nearly half of the 650,000 visitors expected for the World Cup will arrive from outside the United States, according to FIFA data. That will create a surge in tourism and spending and a test of readiness for small businesses across the state.
Although the six matches will be hosted at Arrowhead Stadium, Dubbert believes cities such as Columbia will benefit as visitors travel before and after games. She encouraged small businesses to reassess their business plans and consider creative ways to meet potential demand.
"I think where we're located on I-70, being right in the middle of Missouri, there's an opportunity for spillover, and we want to make sure we can take advantage of it," Dubbert said.
Beyond increased foot traffic, she said businesses should prepare for a more diverse customer base, including potential language barriers and cultural differences due to the large number of international visitors expected.
"It's all about intentionality," Dubbert said.
For Columbia businesses, that intentionality — including staffing and inventory decisions as well as contactless payments — could determine how effectively they capitalize on the increased traffic tied to the World Cup.
"We want to make sure that the small business community knows that we're promoting Columbia as a satellite city but also how to prepare their businesses as well," said Megan McConachie, communications and outreach supervisor for the city of Columbia.
McConachie said Columbia is typically prepared to handle large crowds.
"You know, we're very used to having large scale festivals, Mizzou football games, Mizzou graduations," McConachie said, "and so those are things that we're all very used to as a community having take place."
What will make this summer different, though, is the preparation for international travelers of various cultural backgrounds. Customers from different countries could encounter challenges, such as different tipping norms or difficulties with contactless payments.
Commerce Bank is offering a Small Business Readiness Program aimed at encouraging owners to plan well in advance. One recommendation from Dubbert is to adjust staffing based on tournament schedules or other cultural norms.
"It's really a preparation checklist more than it is a program — different things to think about," Dubbert said. "We wanted to give people plenty of time to incorporate what they think might help them really maximize this FIFA experience."
The City of Columbia also recommends that local businesses and community members visit columbiamo.com for additional resources, visitor forecasts, and other pertinent information before the World Cup.
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Former Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has been told that Kobbie Mainoo's form is 'very embarrassing' for him after failing to get the best out of the England midfielder when he was in charge at Old Trafford. Mainoo made only a handful of appearances this season with Amorim in the dugout, but has started all four of United's wins under new boss Michael Carrick.
Amorim's underwhelming stint as United boss came to an end early on in January. Despite improving the team's form this season, he was sacked after seemingly taking on the board over his job title.
Following a 1-1 draw at Leeds, Amorim said: "To start with that, I noticed that you received selective information about everything. I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United. And that is clear. I know that my name is not [Thomas] Tuchel, it's not [Antonio] Conte, it's not [Jose] Mourinho but I'm the manager of Manchester United. And it's going to be like this for 18 months or when the board decides to change. That was my point. I want to finish with that. I'm not going to quit. I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me."
During Amorim's 14 months at the helm, United recorded their lowest-ever Premier League finish of 15th, lost to Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final and he became derided for his comments lambasting his Red Devils group as 'maybe the worst' in the club's history.
Amorim was also heavily criticised for his deployment of academy product Mainoo, who became a key starter under predecessor Erik ten Hag but couldn't nail down a place in the Portuguese's demanding 3-4-3 system. But the 20-year-old has found his best form again in recent weeks, and after impressing in Saturday's 2-0 win against Spurs, Ian Wright took the opportunity to praise Mainoo and lay into Amorim.
"Everybody was confused with what was happening under Ruben Amorim," Wright said on Premier League World. "When you look at [Mainoo], someone who's not played, coming into a Man United side that's not in great form. To play in that midfield which is where all the questions have been around... just the quality.
"You're listening to Bruno [Fernandes] saying they've been given the freedom to express themselves because they're good players. And Kobbie is a very, very good player. I'm just pleased we're seeing that now.
"I think it's very embarrassing for Ruben Amorim if we're going to be totally honest. Because what we seen was a Man United youth product not given the opportunity to play and very, very close to leaving the club.
"[Mainoo] was brilliant today. Magnificent today."
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Due to his feud with Amorim, Mainoo wanted to leave United. In the final week of the summer 2025 transfer window, the midfielder asked to be loaned out, aware that clubs such as Napoli, where fellow academy product Scott McTominay is thriving, were interested in his services. A move to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona never materialised, though reports have suggested Mainoo would have pushed for a January exit too had Amorim remained in post but he will now sign a new contract with United.
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Mainoo and the Red Devils return to action on Tuesday with a trip to relegation-battling West Ham United, with Carrick looking to record his fifth win on the spin as head coach.
In the longer term, there is also buzz that Mainoo could return to the England fold in time for the World Cup this summer. He has been capped ten times by the Three Lions but hasn't represented his country since September 2024 - one month before Thomas Tuchel was unveiled as the team's permanent successor to popular head coach Gareth Southgate.
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NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has joined the ownership group of Women's Super League champions Chelsea. Antetokounmpo is a close friend of Alexis Ohanian, who is a minority owner of the Blues' women's side, and the 'Greek Freak' has decided to purchase his own stake in the club as he continues to bolster his investment portfolio.
Antetokounmpo, like many of the NBA's European stars, is a huge soccer fan and has added a second football club to his growing list of investments. He and his brothers, Alex, Kostas and Thanasis, became minority owners of Major League Soccer team Nashville SC back in 2023, while Giannis also owns a stake in the Major League Baseball franchise Milwaukee Brewers.
Antetokounmpo took to social media late on Saturday night to announce the news of his latest investment, writing: "I'm proud and honored to partner with my friend @alexisohanian, joining the ownership group of @ChelseaFCW, a historic club built on passion, excellence, and a winning culture. Chelsea's history speaks for itself, and I'm excited to contribute to the future by supporting continued growth and impact in women's sport. This is about ambition, legacy, and pushing the game to new heights. Up the Chels!"
Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of tennis legend Serena Williams, bought a 10 percent stake in Chelsea Women from BlueCo in May 2025. At the time, Ohanian said: "I've bet big on women's sports before - and I'm doing it again. I'm proud to announce that I'm joining Chelsea Women as an investor and board member. I'm honored for the chance to help this iconic club become America's favourite WSL team and much, much more."
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Though Antetokounmpo is now officially a part owner of Chelsea, he was in fact once a fan of their London rivals, Arsenal. In 2020, he said: "I used to watch a lot of football when I was growing up. My dad was a football player and football was our life. I started playing basketball when I was 13. My favourite team used to be Arsenal and my favourite player used to be Thierry Henry. I am an Arsenal fan but I like PSG when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was here on the team. Deep down I am still an Arsenal fan."
However, during a conversation on X, formerly Twitter, last year, the Greek was asked which football team he supported, and admitted he had lost his love for the Gunners. "Back in the day Arsenal. Now probably Real Madrid," he replied.
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Antetokounmpo made headlines off the court earlier this week when he controversially partnered with prediction market Kalshi. This came after he decided not to pursue a trade away from the Milwaukee Bucks at the NBA trade deadline, despite extensive reporting suggesting he would try and engineer an exit to a title contender.
The 31-year-old could be watching from afar on Sunday when Chelsea travel to neighbours Tottenham in the WSL. The Blues are 12 points behind league leaders Manchester City and are set to miss out on the title for the first time since 2019, though despite this recently tied head coach Sonia Bompastor - the successor to current USWNT boss Emma Hayes - down to a new contract.
Meanwhile, USWNT star Catarina Macario could leave Chelsea in the near future after rejecting the offer of a new deal.
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Felix Auger-Aliassime, back to raising the roof.
The top seed downed home favourite Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-6(4) on Sunday afternoon to successfully defend his crown at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier. Auger-Aliassime did not face a break point in a 96-minute win to secure his ninth tour-level title, and his eighth on indoor hard courts.
FAAbulous title defence ✅@OpenOccitanie | #OpenOccitanie26 | @felixtennis pic.twitter.com/IoUusPDBlC
“Adrian is always a very tough opponent to play, for all players, I think," said Auger-Aliassime in his on-court interview. "That's why myself and all our peers on Tour have so much respect for him and the challenge he poses on the court. I knew it was going to be a tough match today, so I'm very happy. It's amazing emotions to win again here. I'm thrilled with my whole week and especially today.”
After defeating Stan Wawrinka, Arthur Fils, Titouan Droguet and Mannarino to go back to back in Montpellier, Auger-Aliassime moved clear of Milos Raonic to set a new record for the most Tour titles by a Canadian in the Open Era. Auger-Aliassime has now won 89 tour-level matches indoors this decade, the most of any player.
Having retired from his first-round match at the Australian Open due to cramp, Auger-Aliassime will now head to the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam full of confidence following his Montpellier bounceback. Before he steps on court in the Netherlands, he will on Monday rise two spots to No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
Auger-Aliassime rode a fast start to the first set of Sunday's final in the south of France. The 25-year-old won the first eight points to assume control and closed out the set with his second break of Mannarino's serve in the ninth game.
The second set was a hard-fought affair dominated by serve. Auger-Aliassime carved out the first break point of the set at 5-4, 30/40, which doubled as a championship point. Mannarino fended it off with an unreturnable serve, but Auger-Aliassime later reeled off five consecutive points from 2/4 in the tie-break to complete a straight-sets win and take a 2-1 lead in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
As it so often is when he competes indoors, Auger-Aliassime's serve was the foundation of his final victory. He finished the match having won 87 per cent (39/45) of points behind first serves, according to Infosys ATP Stats, a number which was boosted by 13 aces.
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Oscar Piastri reflects on 'tough lessons' and his goals for 2026
Lando Norris 'proved to myself that I have what it takes' after title success
Williams Team Principal James Vowles sits down with Lawrence Barretto to discuss why the outlook now looks brighter for the squad despite missing the recent Barcelona Shakedown.
In the second week of January, Williams Team Principal James Vowles says he and the team realised there was a problem with production that left them behind on certain parts.
That left Vowles with "one of the hardest" decisions of his career – try to make the Barcelona Shakedown or skip it to ensure the team were ready for Bahrain testing with the in-season development plan unscathed. Neither was ideal but for Vowles, but it was clear there was only one option – the latter. And so ensued a painful period as they watched all 10 of their rivals get started on 2026 while they were on the sidelines.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to now, though, and things are looking significantly brighter, in yet another example of how quickly things can change in Formula 1.
The team have completed their first shakedown with the FW48 breaking cover at a damp Silverstone last week – with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz getting a taste of their new office before the car was sent on to Bahrain for final preparations ahead of the first official pre-season test, which starts on Wednesday.
"I have no concerns about going forward from here," Vowles tells me when we sit down to chat in the Williams Experience Centre, surrounded by a suite of historic Williams cars that combined have won nine Teams' Championships and seven Drivers' titles, at their HQ in Grove.
"As strange as this sounds, we need to as an organisation go through these sorts of events. I wish it wasn't as extreme as what it was, but we need to go through that to make sure we absolutely flush out every part of our business that simply is not at the right level and fit the purpose and learn from it very quickly – and we are.
"What I've seen out of it is the drivers pulled closer together, the board pulled closer together, the team pulled together through this. Even while we're still now in the midst of making sure we're preparing for Bahrain and beyond, there was an ongoing review of what can we do right now to make sure that we make changes that bring us in the right direction forward."
Vowles' decision was made easier by the fact that, while they have ambitions to be World Championship contenders once again, they are not yet at that level.
The iconic British team are in the midst of a rebuild, which began in 2023 when Vowles joined as Team Principal from Mercedes, with all corners of the business getting attention to ensure they are strengthened sufficiently to cope with the challenge of trying to fight for wins and titles on a consistent basis.
They believe taking a hit now to ensure a smooth campaign ahead – even if they are playing catch-up slightly – is worth it, so long as it keeps them on course to be fighting at the front in a few years' time.
"We're not championship level," says Vowles. "We're not championship level across the board. But we are nudging everything forward in the right direction of travel and so part of that is there will always be investment in our long-term – and I can't state that enough.
"That's why 2025 (when Williams finished fifth overall) was successful. It was the investment in 2023. And that's why our future will be successful. It's the investments in the current year.
"That's what I love about the cost cap. It forces you to, do you want to focus on the next race or an update? Or do you want to focus on goodness that can apply across the next three years fundamentally?
"It's not as easy a decision as it may sound on the outset but, to that point, the reason for making the decision on Barcelona is to protect what we're doing in terms of upgrade strategy across the year."
Williams carried out a test in the virtual world while everyone else was in Barcelona, and Vowles says that helped them "remove some of the gremlins" which are normal when you have a new car that has been started from scratch after sweeping changes to the chassis and power unit regulations.
But they will have to do a bit of work in real life at the track early doors in Bahrain on areas such as correlation to ensure everything is working as it was in the sim world, whereas many of their rivals will have already done that in Barcelona.
Still, with six days of running, there is plenty of time to catch up and ensure they hit the ground running when points are first on offer in Australia.
What's the target for this year, then? They finished fifth last year, with the highs of two podium finishes for Sainz and a superb P9 in the Drivers' Championship standings for Albon after a stellar opening two-thirds of the campaign.
That was a big step forward, given the team had finished 10th, seventh and ninth in the previous three campaigns. It was even more impressive given they turned off development very, very early in 2025 to switch all resources to 2026 and the new rules in the hope of getting the headstart on the next generation of car.
Is it realistic to expect at least the same, or should they be more cautious given the level of competition and the fact they pleasantly surprised themselves with the level they showed last year?
For Vowles, it's pretty clear. Yes, fighting for championships is the end goal, but last year's form needs to be the minimum they should expect of themselves as they move forward with their rebuild.
"I want to treat last year as a baseline, the base we operate from," says Vowles. "And we want to move forward from there. We want to move every part of the business forward so that includes simulation capability, aerodynamics, build of the car, design of the car, the flow of where we go on upgrades etc.
"It really is pushing the boundary and a lot of those are metrics that you can't see. Some of them in the real world translate to performance on track.
"But it's making sure that what we did last month is not acceptable for what we're going to be doing in the next month. What we did last year is a nice baseline. We need to nudge it forward from there."
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By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
Before the Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie steamy lovefest, Wuthering Heights, takes over the world, this weekend belonged to K-Pop group Stray Kids as their Live Nation concert movie, Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience, danced to a $19.1M global win from 61 territories, electrified largely by Universal International. The pic also had bragging rights for the No. 1 pic at the weekend foreign B.O. with $13.5M, while domestic delivered $5.6M from Bleecker Street‘s new event cinema label Crosswalk at 1,724 locations.
CJ has Korea but the movie didn't fare that well over there with an estimated $227K (we're still figuring out why that is). Japan didn't go this weekend. For Uni, it's their first K-Pop movie. In several territories, the movie is besting such comps as Taylor Swift / The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, Break The Silence: The Movie, Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Moonage Daydream.
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Disney is claiming they're the No. 1 MPA title for the weekend, (though No. 2 global) with Zootopia 2 which nabbed $16.8M WW ($12.8M overseas, $4M domestic). Zootopia 2 is now the No. 5 MPA release of all-time internationally with $1.388 billion, passing Avengers: Infinity War ($1.374Bn). Total global is $1.8B. Zootopia 2 remains the #1 film for the weekend in China, Japan (non-local) and Czechia.
Meanwhile, The Housemaid flies past $350M worldwide with a $16.5M global weekend ($14.7M abroad, $1.8M North America), with 20th Century Studios' Send Help (which remained No. 1 stateside with $10M in its second frame) pulled in $16.3M WW for a running global take of $53.7M (broken out $35.8M stateside, $17.9M abroad).
Housemaid‘s global has surpassed that of It Ends With Us ($350M) with $354.7M WW, broken out that's $231M foreign and $123.7M domestic.
***
Imax screens repped 20% around the world for Stray Kids or $3.9M, making it the large format exhibitor's biggest opening weekend ever for a Korean-language film. North America did $2.1M or 38% of the concert pic's domestic weekend. Imax offshore markets were $1.8M.
Stray Kids sang No. 1 in Mexico ($2.1M) at 558 screens (incl. 24 IMAX and 27 4DX). The weekend performance was above Taylor Swift / The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. Stray Kids has now surpassed the lifetime of Break The Silence: The Movie, Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Moonage Daydream. Germany with $1.6M repped the best debut for a K Pop release ever at 331 screens (including 12 Imax hubs and four 4DX). In the UK & Ireland, the kids were also cool becoming the country's highest-grossing K-Pop event release ever with $1.4M at 465 screens (incl. 50 IMAX and 35 4DX). IMAX accounted for 19% of the total and Cineworld's 4DX screens took 7%. Italy took in $800K at 220 screens (including six Imax), surpassing the lifetimes of Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS Permission to Dance on Stage, Break the Silence: The Movie, and BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul. Stray Kids ranked No.3 in the market, behind two local titles, and achieved the highest location average of the top titles ($2.3k). Opening weekend also performed in line with Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour and BTS Yet to Come to the Cinema. Spain was $600K at 184 screens, ranking No. 6. Brazil was $600K at 506 screens (11 Imax), France $500K at 210 screens (8 Imax/3 4DX), Peru was No. 1 with $400K at 78 screens (1 Imax and 1 4DX). Chile was $400K and No. 1 at 132 screens (2 Imax and 9 4DX). Australia saw $400K across 130 screens, achieving the best location average in the market. Imax repped 32% in a massive over-indexing with the weekend result above BTS Yet to Come to the Cinema and the lifetimes of Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Break the Silence: The Movie. Argentina was also No. 1 for the K Pop kids with $300K at 120 (two Imax). Reports from theatres there indicate that fans are turning these screenings into parties, featuring singing and dancing, with many seeing the film more than once. Poland ranked No. 1 with $300K at 152 screens (eight Imax). Stray Kids there surpassed the lifetime of Taylor Swift / The Eras Tour.
The Housemaid remains No. 1 in Brazil in its sixth weekend, muy bien, with a 17% uptick from last weekend. UK is nearing $40M via Lionsgate, France has now crossed 4M admission ahead of F1 (cume there via Metropolitan is $35.8M). Germany was No. 1 again in weekend 4 via Leonine. Overall Latin America count $33.1M through distributor IDC which has a joint venture with Lionsgate.
Sam Raimi's Send Help opened to No. 1 in the UK with $1.8M for the weekend $2.2M including previews, +114% ahead of Blink Twice, +68% ahead of Ready or Not and +66% ahead of The Menu. It also opened as the #2 non-local film in Croatia and the #3 film in Bosnia. Overall foreign weekend dips by -45%. Other updated territory cumes are Mexico ($2.3M), Australia ($1.6M), Germany ($900K), Japan ($800K), Italy ($800k), Saudia Arabia ($700K), Spain ($700k), Netherlands ($600K) and Korea ($500K).
James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash brought in $3.5M domestic, $12.2M (-40%) in its eighth weekend for an overall global frame of $15.7M and running cume of $1.439B WW ($391.5M domestic, $1.047B). Pic is the No. 11 MPA release of all-time at the international B.O passing Inside Out 2‘s $1.046B). It's the No. 1 MPA release of 2025 internationally and globally behind Zootopia 2.
We'll have more foreign B.O. updates for you later on.
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Meghan Markle was pretty in pink as she attended he annual Fifteen Percent Pledge Fundraising Gala in Los Angeles solo on Saturday night.
The Duchess of Sussex looked glam in a custom strapless pink gown designed Charles Harbison of Harbison Studio.
She wore a black cloak with a long train draped over her arms.
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Markle, 44, slicked her hair back in a tight bun as she wore a natural makeup look.
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She accessorized the look with black earrings and Stuart Weitzman black suede heels.
Harbison posted a video of himself inside the event smiling and laughing with Markle.
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The Fifteen Percent Pledge, which was founded by Aurora James, is a non-profit organization that encourages retailers to commit at least 15 percent of their shelf space and revenue to black-owned businesses.
Beyonce's mom Tina Knowles was honored at the annual event for her advocacy for the community.
Chloe Bailey, Kimora Lee Simmons and Winnie Harlow were among the guests in attendance at the gala, which was held at Paramount Studios.
Prince Harry did not accompany Markle to the event, though just days earlier, the As Ever founder posted a video of her husband as she brought him sweet treats as he worked in his office.
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The video was promoting her latest As Ever collaboration with Compartés Chocolates, which includes her brand's signature raspberry and strawberry spreads along with a collection of chocolate treats.
As part of the collab, she posted a photo of herself wearing a familiar-looking navy Roland Mouret dress from when she was a working member of the royal family.
Markle previously wore the elegant strapless midi in November 2018, when she and her husband, Prince Harry, attended the Royal Foundation Dinner at Kensington Palace.
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Markle and Harry were last spotted together at Sundance Film Festival in Utah last month for the premiere of their documentary “Cookie Queens.”
Page Six Hollywood exclusively reported the pair appeared “guarded” during the event and Harry, 41, only “wanted to talk about was his Daily Mail trial.”
Last month, Harry testified that wife Markle's royal life was “absolute misery” during his trial against the UK tabloid.
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In 2026, it should come as no surprise that a suburban hamlet calling itself “the safest town in America” has a hidden history of violence. I mean, when Minneapolis, Minnesota — a city that's predominant cultural stereotype is rooted in how nice its people are — is too dangerous for parents to trust their kids will make it home from school every day, can any American town be considered truly and simply safe? (Not from ICE! Not from this government! Not unless you're grading on a curve!)
Even if you set reality aside (a reasonable request for a network comedy), seeing “the safest town in America” scrawled under a roadside welcome sign should register less as a reassurance than a red flag. To her credit, Samira (Keke Palmer) seems to take it that way: The new resident of Ashfield Place, a cul-de-sac nestled within a fictional New Jersey suburb, is immediately, insistently suspicious — as she should be. The Victorian across the street looks like a cartoon haunted house that's come to life. Crows roost on its dilapidated shingles and fly off simultaneously, like a choreographed murder. Speaking of the M-word, its other meaning is rumored to have happened within the pink five-bedroom with an unfinished basement, resulting in its decades-long abandonment… until now. [dun dun dun]
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Samira's hair-trigger apprehension is a welcome change from her genre-forbearers, whose delayed reactions to obvious threats prove as annoying as they are unnatural; too many scared characters act like they've never seen a horror movie before; Samira acts like she never forgot what Eddie Muprhy said in “Raw.” But the astute self-awareness ends there. Her sudden shifts from on edge to easy-breezy makes “The ‘Burbs” premiere feel like it's setting up a spoof movie. It's not, and the tone never resolves itself.
Celeste Hughey's Peacock adaptation is blunt and bland. The eight-episode first season offers plenty of promise early on: Palmer leads a strong cast in what initially appears to reframe Joe Dante's 1989 film — half-a-comedy about suburban malaise, half-a-satire about how privileged paranoia and groupthink can destroy anyone perceived to be different — through the lens of the besieged minority party (in this case, a Black woman). But all that actively regresses after the first hour, and “The ‘Burbs” plods along absent a good point, or any point at all.
“Nope” this is not.
With a tension-less atmosphere and an affable ensemble, “The ‘Burbs” often feels like a slower, cheaper wannabe-successor to Hulu's hit comic murder-mystery: Call it, “Only Murders in the Neighborhood.” What happened in the movie version doesn't seem to matter to the series: There's a whole new history to the neighborhood, a whole new cast, and a whole new case to crack. (There are plenty of odd little easter eggs, as if there's a huge fandom demanding “The ‘Burbs” reboot be faithful, but don't hold your breath for a Hanks cameo — all you'll get is a photo).
The story centers on Samira investigating her creepy new neighbor with her other, slightly less creepy neighbors: The cul-de-sac crew includes Dana Richards (Paula Pell), a retired Marine who never leaves the neighborhood, Tod Mann (Mark Proksch), a rich loner who knows as much about his friends as they don't know about him, and Lynn Gardner (Julia Duffy), a casually racist widow whose good intentions are supposed to make us forget she's introduced by knocking on Samira's car window, ready to run her out of town for being Black in a white neighborhood.
But hey, Samira can take it. She's used to crazy white people. Her smug British husband Rob (Jack Whitehall) is the reason they're living on Ashfield Place to begin with: He grew up there — his best friend Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar) still lives down the street — and his parents left them their house after retiring to a cruise ship. Tempted out of New York after a robbery in their building, the Fischers just want to enjoy their blessings… but then the new neighbor (Justin Kirk) calls the cops on Samira for bringing him brownies (aka the same thing Lynn accosted her for), and suddenly their picturesque property feels like it could be a trap.
“The ‘Burbs” keeps you guessing about the neighborhood's many secrets — What's going on in that old house? Who's the new owner? Why's he burning stuff in the woods and making weird noises in the basement? — but it never pushes those questions hard enough to build genuine suspense. The end of the premiere — when everyone rallies around Samira after her racial profiling incident — tells you what the show is really about: community. But doubts surrounding Dana, Tod, Lynn, and Naveen aren't serious (even Lynn's ignominious introduction gets swept under the rug), and what little there is to find out is held back at the expense of the ensemble. It's hard to appreciate characters who won't open up.
“The ‘Burbs” is so intent on preserving an air of mystery, it never develops any of its other attributes. It trades in sharp characters, commentary, and comedy for broad semblances of each, be it the image of a haunted house (without any real frights lurking inside), the appearance of a socio-political stance (without ever digging into the racial barriers facing Black residents living in enclaves of white flight), or the impression of a fun time (without enough jokes to fill a good comedy, twists to pay off a good mystery, or insights to deliver a valuable cultural assessment).
In perhaps the series' greatest sin, given the envious trio of Palmer, Pell, and Proksch, it's not even a good hang. All three proven performers have their moments, but they elevate the show, not the other way around — much like Tom Hanks and Bruce Dern elevated the original movie, which has more to say about the suburbs than the series does (even if you recognize its degenerative, ill-fitting conclusion).
If community is what really matters in “The ‘Burbs” — a point that could surely resonate right now — then the serious needs to showcase why community matters via its own rewarding group of neighbors. Instead, they seem disposable, like you could find them anywhere, and, worse yet, that tracking them down isn't really worth the bother.
Nothing could be further from the truth, which just numbs whatever else “The ‘Burbs” hoped to make you feel.
“The ‘Burbs” premieres Sunday, February 8 on Peacock. All eight episodes will be released at once.
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A former FBI special agent believes authorities may be close to identifying those responsible for Nancy Guthrie's disappearance.
Stuart Kaplan, an ex-FBI special agent, told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday that the FBI and police are “zeroing in” on potential suspects after a vehicle was taken from Nancy's property on Friday night.
Kaplan noted that advanced technology deployed by the FBI will ultimately serve as the catalyst to break the case wide open.
“I think the FBI and its partners are zeroing in and that the noose is getting tighter and tighter,” Kaplan added. “I think every time you see law enforcement go back to the house, they have in some capacity, additional digital footprints that require them to go back and corroborate or to dismiss or dispel or to confirm.”
Kaplan also pointed out that Friday's investigative efforts, which involved the seizure of a car from Nancy's home, could yield crucial information.
“And I see this latest event of taking this car, may be one of those confirmations. It may be that this car may have been shared with someone else,” Kaplan explained.
The former agent continued, “We haven't heard a lot about people that would come and help or assist Nancy, whether it was home healthcare aides, or just people that would come and maybe take her to the supermarket or to the beauty parlor.”
Kaplan noted that if the car has been used by someone other than Nancy, authorities may have seized it for forensic analysis.
“If, in fact, this car may have been commonly used, they may have retrieved this car for forensic analysis to see whether or not there is any fiber or hair samples, or GPS tracking to see if, in fact, prior to last Sunday, was this car used by someone to go somewhere?” he added.
When asked about his opinion on whether the suspects know Nancy personally, Kaplan said there's “no doubt” the person was familiar with her.
“This was someone who was familiar and intimate with Nancy Guthrie, her relationship with her daughter, her health issues, her medical issues,” he explained. “There's no doubt there was planning and plotting in connection with going to this house last week.”
Kaplan expressed confidence that the FBI will soon make a breakthrough, saying, “The FBI has a lot of information. It's being kept close to the vest. This case is on the precipice of being broken wide open.”
Is it wide for all the “talking heads” on TV news programs to be making comments about this investigation when a woman's life is at risk?
I think it's her daughter Annie/SIL knows something.. in my opinion they were the last to see her and who knows the mom home better than anyone?
I just pray that she still with us and comes back home soon May God bless them
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By Jesse Whittock
International TV Co-Editor
Lindsey Vonn‘s Olympic dream is in tatters after she crashed out of the Women's Downhill final.
The 41-year-old Team USA skiing legend had taken a huge risk competing just days after announcing she had suffered an ACL rupture on her knee.
However, the legendary Olympian crashed near the top of the Olympia delle Tofane course as she misjudged a turn, with her shoulder clipping a gate as she picked up speed. She lost her balance and crashed, with her left leg, which had sustained a significant ACL injury just over a week ago, gave way.
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Vonn was heard crying out in agony as medical staff surrounded her. After a significant pause in the time trial proceedings, she was placed on a stretcher and airlifted to a hospital. It was a devastating sight, as the 2010 downhill Winter Olympic champion, who has won four World Cups in a storied career, left the snow for what is almost certainly the final time.
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Competing against a field of world-class downhill skiers, Vonn was competing as the 13th of 36 racers in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The crowd watching on her silenced as they watched on following the crash, with music played as a course hold was placed on the event.
BBC Sport reporter Chemmy Alcott, a former skier who was often Vonn's competition in the past, was visibly distressed by the event and noted that Vonn was given a standing ovation as the helicopter carrying her took off.
The Women's Downhill has now resumed, as the Olympic world awaits news on Vonn's conditions.
Vonn had trained well and set the third-quickest time in practise runs yesterday. Her teammaker, the reigning women's downhill world champ Breezy Johnson, had earlier set the fastest time and looks set to have won the gold.
Vonn was considered to be the highest-profile athlete at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. She had come out of retirement to put in a series of outstanding performances that placed her among the major favorites for a medal.
We included the star, who represented by WMG/IMG in our recent article on potential breakout stars from the Olympics, which began on Friday and runs until February 22.
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A+++++++ for effort and determination!!! True inspiration for any athlete or anyone who needs to overcome anything standing in the way of success.
She should have never been out there in the first place. Pure selfish move. How many Olympics has she been to?? If she actually tore her ACL (questionable) she should have given the spot to another competitor. Put her team and home country first. Instead she used it to attention grab and compete knowing she apparenly wasn't 100%. Yeah, she's such a hero.
This 1000%! When she tore her ACL, the US Ski Team should've stepped in and said this year‘s Olympics were off the table. If the US Ski Team wasn't going to do that, Team USA should've done that. She took away a spot from another (healthy) US athlete for her own selfish reasons. Everyone was so focused on the damn Cinderella story that no one considered what was in the right interest for the health of the athlete and for the good of team USA.
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John Travolta is not only a famous actor, but he's also a loving father. That's why he just shared a photo of himself with his daughter, Ella (25), and son, Ben (15), whom he shared with his late wife, Kelly Preston.
The star took to Instagram on Sunday, February 8, to post a rare shot of himself with his children. In the pic, Ella can be seen leaning against her dad, while the star has his arm around Ben.
In the caption of his post, John wrote, “My beautiful babies in my belated Christmas card 2025. Hope all is going well.”
When John shared the photo of himself with Ella and Ben on Instagram, his followers left quite a few comments letting him know what they thought of the pic.
One person wrote, “Lucky you all have each other to Love xx”
“Such a beautiful family! You're an amazing dad!🙏♥️,” came from another follower.
A third person wrote, “❤️I know how you feel. Hug them for as long as you can.”
“Beautiful, thank you for sharing dear John ✨️🫶✨️🙏❤️🌹⚘️🌹,” someone else said in a comment.
Another fan added, “What a beautiful family, it's so good to see how well you are. My heart is filled with light seeing how well you are. I'm so glad you showed up! I love you all. ❤️”
A few others commented on how big Ben has gotten.
“Benji is so big! 🙌❤️,” came from one person.
Another person wrote, “Beautiful children❤️,his son has gotten so tall.”
That's not to mention someone else who added, “Ben is getting tall. Ella is beautiful too, John.”
In August 2019, John opened up to People about Ella and Ben, who were 19 years old and 8 years old, respectively, at the time.
While talking about Ella, he said, “She is her own person. She is gracious, generous, poised, graceful and gorgeous. I don't know how she came to be, and I don't take any credit other than just adoring her. And maybe that's a valid contribution.”
As for Ben, his dad noted how many hobbies he was involved in, saying, “He's into gymnastics, tennis, fishing and the computer world, like all the kids.”
John also noted how important it is to let children share their thoughts.
“I really do believe that children have rights. Just because they are little bodies doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a say-so,” he said.
He added, “I find when you consult them, they can come up with much better ideas than yours.”
There opinion should be acknowledged you can't say we're family&make family decisions w/o asking there opinion.
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Michael Rubin's Fanatics Super Bowl Party was the place to be in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday.
The annual bash was jam-packed with A-listers once again, making it one of the most sought-after parties to score an invite to during Big Game Weekend.
One of the earliest celebs to arrive and make his way down the red carpet at Pier 48 was NFL legend Tom Brady, followed by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, New York Giants star Cam Skattebo and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
Shortly after, we spotted everyone from influencer Alix Earle — who, along with Brady, has been hopping around to all the hottest Super Bowl parties this week — to singer J Balvin, NFL star Odell Beckham Jr., retired NBA pro Dwight Howard, actor Jamie Foxx and “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King.
Of putting together such an A-list guest list this year, Fanatics CEO Rubin exclusively told Page Six that it was “really easy” thanks to the Patriots making it into the Super Bowl.
“I get one of my closest friends, Robert, [and Kraft Group president] Jonathan Kraft actually being in the game, that helps, by the way, when your friends are playing in the game,” he explained on the red carpet.
“What's going to make it a great week is that, we're going to have the best party ever today and then the [New England Patriots] are going to win the game tomorrow.”
Inside the star-studded bash, Page Six spotted rapper Jay-Z hanging out with friends in an exclusive, roped-off area of the venue, taking a spot right next to the stage.
Just a few feet away, “Bloody Valentine” rocker MGK was seen chatting it up with actor Kevin Costner, who became “fast friends” with the singer's close pal, Pete Davidson, at last year's VIP fête.
Kendall Jenner was also in attendance — after recently appearing in a Super Bowl 2026 ad for Fanatics Sportsbook — and at one point stopped to snap an unexpected pic with Kraft.
Other attendees included Zac Efron, Sofía Vergara, Jon Bon Jovi, Diplo, Kevin Hart, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, Teyana Taylor, Russell Wilson, Shaboozey, Drew Brees, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Reggie Bush, Guy Fieri, Fat Joe, Becky G, Tiffany Haddish, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam Devine, Emma Roberts, Livvy Dunne, Kevin Hart, Danny Amendola, Ja Rule, Lala Anthony, Camille Kostek, Kyle and Kristin Juszczyk and many more.
Guests at the party were entertained from beginning to end, with performances from Cardi B — who encouraged partygoers to take shots with her in celebration — along with SZA, Travis Scott, Ciara, 21 Savage, Don Toliver, Chase B and Nelly and Ashanti.
The Fanatics bash kicked off just one day before the New England Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, meanwhile, will be headlining the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, following an opening ceremony by Green Day and pre-game performances from Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile and Coco Jones.
“I just want to have fun, it's going to be a huge party,” the “King of Latin Trap” (real name: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) teased during Apple Music's press conference in San Francisco Thursday.
“I don't want to give spoilers; people only need to worry about dancing. They don't even have to learn Spanish; it's better if they dance, but there's no better dance [than one] that comes from the heart.”
Tune into all the Super Bowl 2026 festivities live on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and Universo Sunday.
Law enforcement activity intensified Saturday night as investigators spent around two and a half hours inside Annie Guthrie's home.
It marked the most significant police presence at the residence in days amid the ongoing investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance.
As deputies departed, one officer was observed loading a white case into his vehicle, which he had earlier carried inside, along with what appeared to be a grocery-size brown bag, according to Fox News Digital.
Deputies ultimately left the property around 10:30 p.m. local time, but not before conducting what appeared to be a methodical and detailed search that has raised new questions about the direction of the case.
At least four members of the Pima County Sheriff's Department arrived at the home in two unmarked white SUVs and a white truck late Saturday afternoon.
The extended visit stood out, as recent days had seen little to no visible law enforcement activity at the residence.
The late-night activity comes as authorities widen their focus in the case.
Earlier Saturday, Fox News Digital reported that the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are searching for an unidentified male after two plainclothes officers visited a gas station near Nancy Guthrie's home.
A gas station employee told the outlet that investigators requested access to surveillance footage, explaining they were looking for “some guy” who had “got away.”
The employee said no description was provided and authorities did not disclose what the footage revealed.
Adding to the uncertainty, the sheriff's department previously declined to say whether any family members have been ruled out as suspects, a statement that continues to draw attention as searches expand across multiple locations.
Deputies were also seen earlier Saturday at Nancy Guthrie's residence, indicating investigators are continuing to retrace steps and reexamine evidence.
As the investigation stretches into another critical phase, the extended late-night search at Annie Guthrie's home signals that authorities are actively pursuing new leads — even as many questions remain unanswered.
While inside the residence, investigators appeared to take photographs in the garage before moving to the opposite side of the home, where three bedrooms are located.
Bright photography flashes were visible through windows, and at one point, a jacket was placed over a window, blocking the view from media gathered outside.
Fox News Digital reporters on the scene also reported hearing clanking noises from inside the home, suggesting deputies may have been moving or handling items during the search.
One deputy was later seen exiting the residence wearing latex gloves, a detail that underscored the forensic nature of the visit. It remains unclear whether anyone is currently living in the home.
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"Honestly, there's no one we wish we could thank in person at this moment more than we would love to thank Catherine O'Hara," Rogen said, which led the audience to erupt in applause Saturday night.
By
McKinley Franklin
The Studio directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg honored Catherine O'Hara during their acceptance speech for outstanding directorial achievement for a comedy series at the 2026 DGA Awards.
“Honestly, there's no one we wish we could thank in person at this moment more than we would love to thank Catherine O'Hara,” Rogen said, which led the audience to erupt in applause, as Goldberg added, “We grew up in Canada, and she is and was quite literally our idol since we were children.”
O'Hara portrayed movie executive Patty Leigh in Rogen and Goldberg's Apple TV comedy. She appeared in all 10 episodes of The Studio‘s hit first season, and notably earned herself a 2025 Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a comedy series.
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DGA Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson Takes Top Honor for 'One Battle After Another'
The Beetlejuice actress died Jan. 30 at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness. She was 71.
Rogen cited the two-time Emmy winner's iconic role in the Home Alone franchise as a moment that made him want to make his own films.
“Home Alone honestly is the movie that made me want to make movies in a lot of ways,” he said. “And I mean, in that movie she's always yelling, ‘Kevin, Kevin,' and on set she would always be yelling, ‘Evan, Evan!' And every time she did it, we were like, ‘It's like Home Alone.'”
“The best part of her is she showed that you can be an utter genius and also the nicest person in the entire world,” Goldberg continued.
“Every day we worked very hard to make the show good enough to warrant her time and her presence. So, ultimately, we would like to thank the DGA for this, but we would mostly like to thank Catherine O'Hara for being such a wonderful person,” Rogen said to conclude their acceptance speech.
Following O'Hara's death, The Studio cast, crew and producers paid tribute to their late star, with Apple TV and Lionsgate Television sharing in a joint statement, “We are all heartbroken by the loss of Catherine O'Hara.”
Elsewhere on Saturday night's awards ceremony, Paul Thomas Anderson won the top prize of outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film for One Battle After Another.
“This is an incredible, incredible honor. We're going to take it with the love that it's given and the appreciation of all our comrades in this room,” Anderson said during his acceptance speech, noting “obviously we are up here minus one,” paying tribute to first director Adam Somner, who passed away from cancer in November 2024.
Earlier, Christopher Nolan kicked off the night with his first presidential speech since he was elected DGA president, where he acknowledged “that our members are having very hard times.”
“Tonight is a celebration of extraordinary work and it should be a very joyful one, but I do want to start by just acknowledging that our members are having very hard times. In 2024, our employment in our guild was down about 40 percent, and that was followed by another decline in '25,” Nolan added. “The amount of money that people spend on our work, on entertainment, is very, very stable. Audiences are invested in us, we have to be sure that we're able to repay that investment.”
See the full 2026 DGA Awards winners list here.
Kirsten Chuba contributed to this report.
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By Antonia Blyth
Executive Editor, Awardsline
One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson has won the DGA Awards‘ top prize — Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film — which marks a highly significant Oscar predictor.
“It's an honor, President Nolan,” he told DGA president Christopher Nolan, to loud laughter from the audience Saturday at the Beverly Hilton.
This was Anderson's third DGA nomination. Most recently, he was nominated for Licorice Pizza in 2021 and, before that, for There Will Be Blood in 2007.
Ever since the first DGA Awards ceremony in 1948, the winner of its Theatrical Feature Award has predicted the Best Director Oscar winner in all but eight instances. This makes the DGA Awards a major bellwether for Oscar. Add to that, the DGA Theatrical Feature win and Oscars Best Director has matched every year for the past five.
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Anderson referenced Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, saying, “It's like we're all here for a reason, some cosmic thing brought us to this room, and it was that call to the mountain. It's that feeling that we all love making sh*t and we need to do it. We need to do it or it's an addiction, I'm not quite sure.”
On a more somber note, Anderson paid tribute to his close friend, producer and longtime first AD Adam Somner, who died in 2024 from thyroid cancer.
“Obviously we are up here, minus one,” Anderson said. “A lot of people in this room know our hero, our man, Adam Somner. Steven [Spielberg] knows him. His wife Carmen [Ruiz de Huidobro] is here.”
Anderson continued, “He took this work so seriously, and did not take himself seriously at all. And that was a great gift… He made us feel safe. Think about this work that we do, how dangerous it can be, really dangerous. And to be to get through a film and no one get hurt, be safe, have an amazing experience is because of a great AD, and he was the best.”
Choking up a little, Anderson went on, “I wish everyone in this room the love that I had with him, may you be blessed with a relationship that I had with him, and if you have one already, hold them close, remind them that you love them. He would love this. He'd be so f*cking happy.”
Last year, the big DGA win went to Anora's Sean Baker, who went on to win the Directing Oscar and the film took Best Picture. Two years ago, Christopher Nolan won at the DGAs ahead of picking up Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Oppenheimer.
Other nominees in this same DGA category tonight Ryan Coogler for Sinners, Chloé Zhao for Hamnet, Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein and Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme.
Coogler is only the fifth Black director ever to be recognized in this DGA Awards category. The last was Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman in 2018. But no Black filmmaker has ever won this top DGA prize.
Zhao won this DGA top honor in 2021 for Nomadland (which also earned Best Picture and Best Director at Oscar) and now, with this Hamnet nomination, she joins Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion and Greta Gerwig as the only women to earn multiple DGA nominations.
In 2018, Del Toro won the DGA top film prize for The Shape of Water, while this was Safdie's first DGA nomination.
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By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
“Honestly, there's no one we wish we could thank in person at this moment more than we would love to thank Catherine O'Hara,” said The Studio creator-director-star-scribe Seth Rogen during his acceptance speech Saturday for Best Comedy Series Director at the DGA Awards.
Both Rogen and his creative partner Evan Goldberg were recognized tonight for helming the episode “The Magic Hour.”
“We grew up in Canada, and she is and was quite literally our idol since we were children,” said Studio co-creator/director/scribe Goldberg.
“Yeah. I mean, Home Alone, honestly, is like the movie that made me want to make movies in a lot of ways,” said Rogen, adding, “In that movie, she's always yelling ‘Kevin! Kevin!' and on set we would be yelling ‘Evan! Evan!' Every time she did, it's like, Home Alone.”
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Rogen added, “And the best part of her is she showed that you can be an utter genius and also the nicest person in the entire world. It was an honor to get to direct her every day and we worked very hard to make the show good enough to warrant her time and her presence So, ultimately, we would like to thank the DGA for this, but we would mostly like to thank Catherine O'Hara for being such a wonderful person and for blessing us with your presence.”
O'Hara died last week in Los Angeles at age 71 after a brief illness. On The Studio, she played a studio executive who, after being fired, becomes a producer; the role is loosely based on former Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairwoman Amy Pascal.
O'Hara was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the Emmys back in September for her turn on the Apple TV/Lionsgate series.
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Erin Krakow has been soaking in all of the excitement during her first pregnancy after announcing in November 2025 that she and her husband, Ben Rosenbaum, are expecting.
In a new Instagram post, Krakow shared an adorable photo of her growing pregnant belly with her beloved dog, Willoughby, resting on her lap.
“Siblings 🥰,” she captioned the sweet post.
The “WCTH” star also showed off her stunning engagement ring and wedding band in the snapshot as she rested her hand on Willoughby, whom she and Rosenbaum adopted from Tobie's Small Dog Rescue in January 2023, according to Krakow's previous Instagram post.
Hearties couldn't help but fawn over Krakow's dog protecting her growing belly bump, taking to her comments to reassure her that her baby and pup will be “the best of friends.”
“Aww just resting and waiting! How sweet ❤️,” wrote one fan.
“Dogs and babies together are just the sweetest 🥹 So excited for your first and second babies to officially meet 🥰,” said another.
“Aww! So sweet! He will be a fierce protector and best friend of your baby! ❤️❤️,” added a third.
“Snuggles! It's a beautiful connection,” said a fourth.
In an interview with Scary Mommy earlier this year, Krakow opened up about how her role as Elizabeth Thornton on “WCTH” has overlapped with her personal life as an expectant mom.
“This year, I've really enjoyed exploring what it means to be a protective mom — some might say overprotective mom,” she shared with the outlet of her onscreen son, Little “LJ” Jack.
When asked about the peculiarity of being pregnant at the same time as “WCTH” co-stars Kayla Wallace and her husband, Kevin McGarry, as well as co-star Chris McNally and his partner, Julie Gonzalo, the Hallmark star explained what a thrill it is to relish in the joy together.
“Oh, it's the best. It was such a surprise to learn that we were all pregnant at the same time and due within six weeks of each other,” Krakow shared. “It has been so nice to be able to lean on one another and ask questions. ‘Is this normal? How are you preparing for this? Did you find a stroller?' It's nice to have a community you can lean on, and it feels pretty comparable to the way we handle life in Hope Valley.”
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By Patrick Hipes
Executive Managing Editor
Paul Thomas Anderson won the top film prize on Saturday at the 78th DGA Awards for Warner Bros' One Battle After Another, another victory on the awards circuit this season.
Anderson was one of four Oscar-nominated directors in tonight's marquee Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film race, which also included Sinners' Ryan Coogler, Marty Supreme's Josh Safdie and Hamnet's Chloé Zhao. The other DGA nominee was Frankenstein's Guillermo del Toro, who lost out on the Oscar list to Sentimental Value's Joachim Trier.
The DGA winner in the category has matched the Oscars Directing trophy in each of the last five years. Last year, the big DGA win went to Anora's Sean Baker, who went on to win Directing the Oscars along with that pic scoring Best Picture. Two years ago Christopher Nolan won at the DGAs ahead of picking up Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Oppenheimer. (Now Nolan is the president of the DGA, which begins labor contract negotiations with studios rep the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Monday.)
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On the TV side tonight, Amanda Marsalis won the Dramatic Series prize for HBO Max's The Pitt, after being nominated for the Emmy in the category. The series ending up winning five Emmys in total last fall including Best Drama Series. On the Comedy Series side, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg repeated their Emmy Directing win (one of 13 total Emmy wins also including Best Drama Series) tonight by taking the category for The Studio.
Shannon Murphy, meanwhile, won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Limited Series & Anthology for FX on Hulu's Dying for Sex, while Liz Patrick of NBC's SNL50: The Anniversary Special took the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety prize.
In the Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film category, Charlie Polinger won for the dramatic thriller The Plague tonight, topping a nominees list that included Ava Victor (Sorry, Baby), Hasan Hadi (The President's Cake), Harry Lighton (Pillion) and Alex Russell (Lurker). The Documentary feature prize went to Mstyslav Chernov for 2000 Meters to Andriivka.
Tonight's ceremony emceed by Kumail Nanjiani were the Directors Guild of America's honorary awards, which this year include associate director/stage manager David Charles receiving the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, which recognizes extraordinary service to the industry and the guild, and Commercials 1st AD Gregory G. McCollum receiving the Frank Capra Achievement Award, given in recognition of notable career achievements and for outstanding service to the DGA.
Below is the complete winners list.
Theatrical Feature Film
Paul Thomas AndersonOne Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Directorial Team:
Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film
Charlie PolingerThe Plague (IFC Films)
Documentary Film
Mstyslav Chernov2000 Meters to Andriivka (PBS)
Drama Series
Amanda MarsalisThe Pitt, “6:00 P.M.” (HBO Max)
Comedy Series
Seth Rogen & Evan GoldbergThe Studio, “The Oner” (Apple TV+)
Directorial Team:
Limited & Anthology Series
Shannon MurphyDying for Sex, “It's Not That Serious” (FX on Hulu)
Movies for Television
Stephen ChboskyNonnas (Netflix)
Variety
Liz PatrickSNL50: The Anniversary Special (NBC)
Documentary Series/News
Rebecca MillerMr. Scorsese, “All This Filming Isn't Healthy” (Apple TV)
Reality, Quiz & Games
Mike SweeneyConan O'Brien Must Go, “Austria” (HBO Max)
Sports
Matthew Gangl2025 World Series – Game 7 – Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays (Fox Sports)
Commercial
Kim Gehrig (Somesuch)
You Can't Win. So Win. – Nike | Wieden+Kennedy
I'm Not Remarkable – Apple | Client Direct
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Genre:
Rock
Label:
Rough Trade
Release Date:
1981
In 1954, Time magazine published a short column listing three civil rights breakthroughs (and one “no-gain”) that included Knoxville integrating its airport restaurants and Birmingham allowing Black and white athletes to compete against each other in baseball and football. It's a short list, presented straightforwardly, except for one phrase in the first sentence: “to breach the Magnolia Curtain of racial discrimination.” Those words—a bit of poetry in the newsreel—implied a truth both obvious and largely unspoken: The South had used its prejudices and its claims to heritage, among other bricks and mortar, to cordon itself off from the rest of the nation. The phrase took hold and proved useful during the Civil Rights era, and in 1964, when a self-proclaimed “New York liberal” writer named Richard Boeth moved to the small town of Rosedale, Mississippi, he gleefully annihilated the region's calcified hypocrisies for The Atlantic. He called the piece “Behind the Magnolia Curtain.”
In 1981, Memphis musician Tav Falco adopted that same phrase for the title of his debut album with the Panther Burns, one of the weirdest, wildest support groups in rock history. His usage seems less pointed than Boeth's, on account of him being an actual Southerner; Falco might have been born in Pennsylvania, but he grew up near Gurdon, Arkansas, moved east to Memphis as a young man, and has been closely associated with that city ever since (despite spending the past 30 years living in Europe). He's always been on the southern side of the Magnolia Curtain, so he can see what it conceals from those who erected it in the first place: a vibrant culture that extends to food, clothes, literature, and especially music, too often disregarded or overwritten by modern Southerners.
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Or, as he told a combative TV host during a famously tense Panther Burns performance in 1979: “It's all invisible to us.” And by “us” he means not himself or his band, but Memphis in general, the South in general. Everybody down here. “We can't see what's around us. There are blues people here who don't have exposure, rockabilly artists who don't have any exposure. They don't really exist here. They're part of our environment, we see them every day, yet they're invisible to us. We take them for granted. It takes a group like us to create contrast, to create focus.”
Panther Burns wanted to jolt their listeners into seeing those invisible people—those old blues and rockabilly artists whose innovations defined the city's culture even after they were forgotten. The way they did that was by playing old songs very loud and very bad. At any given moment each musician in the band might be playing at a different tempo or in a different key altogether, or hell, they might be playing a completely different song. On a good night they could make the Shaggs sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Panther Burns weaponized their amateurism, but never condescended to the source material: Falco wanted to make that old music as culturally disruptive in the late 1970s as it had been in the late 1950s. The best way to do that, he reckoned, was volume and chaos.
That strategy was evident enough in his first public appearance, when the man born Gustavus Nelson gave birth to a legend named Tav Falco. The scene takes place on the afternoon of October 1, 1978, at the Orpheum Theatre, then a rundown building with broken seats and peeling paint, lacking heat and constantly in danger of demolition. It was, in other words, a perfect symbol of the city's withering music industry. Elvis had died, and while his death eventually inspired a morbid, kitschy cottage industry, he was still dead. Stax had closed, shuttered by some shady dealings by Atlantic in New York and Union Planters Bank in Memphis. Chips Moman had closed American Recordings, where the Box Tops, Bobby Womack, and Dusty Springfield had recorded huge hits. And Al Green, the city's last major superstar—at least for a while—had ditched Hi Records and bought a church. In a downtown emptied by white flight and recession, the Orpheum was used primarily for DIY events, which is why Jim Dickinson chose the spot for a series of shows celebrating local music. The very last one he advertised as the final performance by his band Mud Boy & the Neutrons, although he knew full well the band wasn't going away.
Midway through Mud Boy's mock send-off, Falco wandered onstage looking like a punk Charlie Chaplin: pencil-thin mustache, tattered tuxedo, and frayed, fingerless gloves. Strumming an out-of-tune guitar, he delivered a crude and shrill yet impassioned cover of Lead Belly's “Bourgeois Blues.” He caterwauled the chorus—“It's a bourgeois town!”—as an accusation to a city that was ignoring its greatest resources, namely its legacy of blues, country, rockabilly, gospel, and plum weird shit. He then set his Silvertone down on a chair, produced a chainsaw seemingly out of nowhere, and set about loudly splintering the still-plugged-in guitar. It was so loud, so violent, so intense that Falco reportedly ended his short set by fainting.
Nobody could have known at the time, but that performance was a prophecy of the city's future, where artists would become the primary stewards of Memphis music history, rampaging through old blues, rock, soul, and gospel. The audience was small that afternoon—roughly 50 people in the 2,300-seat venue—but Alex Chilton was there, and he liked what he heard. He saw great promise in the collision of punk and performance art, blues and noise, reverence and irreverence: local music history as a vehicle for local commentary and local confrontation. Chilton had been up in New York City, off on the fringes of the punk scene and catching shows by James Chance & the Contortions and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, and he saw the potential in Falco for a uniquely Memphis take on no wave, anchored in the musical traditions that made the city famous. He suggested to Falco that they start a band—not as equals, not like him and Chris Bell in Big Star, but with Chilton as sideman and Falco as bandleader. They rounded out the group with some local professionals (like bassist Ron Miller, a member of the Memphis Symphony) and some friends unburdened by musical talent (like drummer Ross Johnson, who by his own admission was no drummer). “I'm really not even a musician,” Falco explained to Memphis' Commercial Appeal. “I just make music and play upon the guitar.”
That band name—Panther Burns, sometimes the Unapproachable Panther Burns—comes from a town deep in the Mississippi delta, about an hour south of Memphis. The word “town” might be an exaggeration: It's more like a strip of highway with aspirations of incorporation. Falco knew about its lore, how a panther once stalked the community for months. The animal was so massive and powerful that its mighty tail swept loose the earth behind it, erasing its footprints and making it impossible to track. Finally the local sharecroppers trapped the beast in a cane break, which they set on fire rather than kill it by hand. For their cowardice they suffered a long night listening to its dying shrieks. Falco wanted the band to make music that sounded like the cries of a conflagrating cat; he wanted to keep folks up at night.
Just four months after that Orpheum performance, Falco and his new band played their first show at 96 S. Front Street, an old cotton exchange building that had once housed a segregated “soft drink” establishment and an off-the-books whiskey service in the 1920s but had sat empty for decades. Besides the Orpheum, there weren't many places in Memphis where punk and no wave or new wave bands could play, so they had to create venues for themselves in the vacant historic buildings overlooking the Mississippi River. Falco didn't brandish a chainsaw, but the band exerted a similar effect on the songs they covered. They played with fury and abandon. They made the invisible briefly visible. Some folks left plugging their ears, but enough stayed to crowd the stage. Realizing he was boxed in, Chilton stepped to the side, unzipped, and relieved himself mid-song.
Onstage, Falco appeared like a man from another time, cajoling his audience and even calling them “lackeys of the running dog imperialists.” Away from the stage, however, their mission to illuminate the dark corners of Memphis history through volume proved much more daunting. They recorded covers of “Train Kept a Rollin'” by Johnny Burnette and “Dateless Night” by Allen Page, two local rockabilly pioneers by then largely forgotten. That single caught the ear of Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis. He encouraged Panther Burns to record and submit a full album of material, so they booked time at Sam Phillips Recording Services. Jim Dickinson stepped in to produce and play a little piano, but Travis deemed the results too polished, too polite, too bourgeois. Where was the noise? The subversion? The disruption? (Those recordings were released in 1992 as The Unreleased Sessions.)
Falco and Panther Burns regrouped and booked two three-hour sessions at Ardent Records in Midtown, once hectic with overflow from Stax but now booking sessions with national acts like ZZ Top. They took a first-take, best-take approach to recording, not necessarily racing through the songs but certainly not taking their time to get everything just right. Comprised primarily of covers of Memphis non-hits, Behind the Magnolia Curtain is a bizarre record, its confrontational lack of chops intensifying its cockeyed charisma and ribaldry. Sex—once so repressed by polite society that it bubbled up in disreputable music—motivates many songs, especially on the first side. Their cover of Page's “She's the One That's Got It” plays coy with its subject matter, especially when the band begs him to elaborate. “Got what?” they bark at him. “Oh, you know!” comes the reply. Somehow it sounds racier than if he were more explicit.
That weird discretion makes his takes on “Come On Little Mama” and “Hey High School Baby” less troublesome than, say, the Stray Cats' “She's Sexy +17,” which far too eagerly broadcasts its lecherous designs. Those historical re-enactors from Massapequa were taking rockabilly back into the Top 10, but lesser-known bands like the Blasters and, in particular, the Cramps were cratedigging for left-of-center inspiration and putting their own indelible stamps on old blues and rockabilly numbers. Behind the Magnolia Curtain, though, sounds like an album that could only have been made in Memphis by artists steeped in local lore, by folks who drove by the boarded-up Stax building every day, who maybe bumped into Furry Lewis sweeping up on Beale Street, who knew where all the bodies were buried. It's full of big ideas, but never sounds brainy or abstract. It's always specific, always purposeful, always lurid. Behind the Magnolia Curtain kicks you in the head and the gut, and then it kicks you in the ass.
There's an intimacy with the source material, but also a sense of immense possibility. Falco invited members of the Tate County Mississippi Drum Corps up to Memphis to play on the record, and you can hear their booming bass drums and slithering snares on their version of R.L. Burnside's “Snake Drive” and Ary Barrosso's “Brazil.” The latter is one of the most covered songs of the 20th century, but that bouncing chorus of drums, along with Falco's marblemouthed croon, utterly transforms the melody. This melding of punk and fife-and-drum blues has inspired locals for years, including one-time Panther Burns guitarist Lorette Velvette (“Come On Over”) and the Oblivians (“I May Be Gone”).
Rough Trade picked up Behind the Magnolia Curtain, and soon the Panther Burns were on the road more than they were in Memphis, with a lineup that changed almost every night. A few members played only one show, others even less. The official list of players past and present includes old-timers like Burnside, the Memphis Horns, Teenie Hodges of the Hi Rhythm Section, and the Bar-Kays' Ben Cauley, along with younger artists like Jim Duckworth (of the Gun Club), Jim Sclavunos (Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and later the Bad Seeds), Alex Greene (Reigning Sound), Roland Robinson (who wrote Rod Stewart's hit “Infatuation”), and many others. Chilton left the band not long after recording Magnolia Curtain, but his short tenure invigorated him: You can hear him tinkering with these ideas throughout his career, especially on his 1979 solo debut, Like Flies on Sherbert. Finding intention in inscrutability, he forged a way forward.
For Falco, it was impossible to sustain that chaos of possibilities, and not just because the musicians in Panther Burns couldn't help but hone their chops. Folks get used to loud and bad, they adjust to the din, so the visible becomes invisible once again. His subsequent albums, including 1987's excellent, Chilton-produced The World We Knew, burrow deeper into his own persona, which is eccentric and mysterious in a specifically Southern way. He left Memphis for Europe in the early 1990s, perhaps with the idea that the best way to understand your home is to leave it, yet he remains closely associated with that city as a soapbox historian, always beating the drum for the forgotten and the never-known. With Behind the Magnolia Curtain, he showed generations of locals how they might rediscover and redefine Memphis music, how they might draw back the curtain once more.
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"Those that are opposed don't fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future," the president wrote on Truth Social Saturday.
By
McKinley Franklin
President Donald Trump is showing support for the pending Nexstar–Tegna merger.
Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday where he shared his thoughts on the deal, which is under review by the FCC, writing in favor of the merger that he says “will help knock out the Fake News.”
“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks. Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar – Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” the president wrote. “Those that are opposed don't fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE! PRESIDENT DJT.”
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In August, Nexstar and Tegna entered a definitive agreement for a merger, which would see the former company emerge with 265 local TV stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country's 210 television DMAs, or Nielsen's Designated Market Areas. In total, this would cover 80 percent of U.S. TV households.
And while the merger hasn't been approved yet by the FCC, chairman Brendan Carr reshared Trump's social media post in support of said deal on Saturday.
“President Trump is exactly right,” Carr wrote on X Saturday. “The national networks like Comcast & Disney have amassed too much power. For years, they've been pushing this Hollywood & New York programming all over the country with no real checks.”
The FCC chairman concluded, “Let's get it done and bring real competition to them.”
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook released a statement in November, where he argued, “Nexstar's acquisition of TEGNA will provide us with the scale necessary for local journalism to thrive amidst a media landscape that is dominated by Big Tech and the legacy media companies, enabling us to continue not only investing in high-quality journalism and local news, but in serving our local communities in the best possible way.”
“To be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news,” Sook said. “Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices — journalists who live in the community — not a chatbot or social media influencers. And yet, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country because of antiquated regulatory constraints. In an era where political discourse has turned increasingly polarized and violent, our democracy requires that Americans have easy access to reliable fact-based journalism and community forums to debate the issues of the day safely and respectfully.”
Trump recently weighed in on another major merger currently dominating Hollywood, that of Netflix and Paramount Skydance's battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, telling NBC News‘ Tom Llamas' that he “shouldn't be involved” in the fight for the company.
“I haven't been involved,” Trump said. “I must say, I guess I'm considered to be a very strong president. I've been called by both sides. It's the two sides, but I've decided I shouldn't be involved. The Justice Department will handle it.”
While Netflix announced plans to acquire Warner Bros. for $82 million, Paramount has fought against this, subsequently launching a $108.7 billion hostile offer for the entire company. Warner Bros. subsequently denied Paramount's offer, which led the David Ellison-led company to file a lawsuit, seeking more information about how they settled on accepting Netflix's offer.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos appeared before the U.S. Senate's antitrust subcommittee on Tuesday, where he said that the company acquiring Warner Bros. would help save the studio from “deep-pocked tech companies trying to run away with the TV business.”
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The group chatted with Billboard ahead of the Super Bowl Sunday ad.
By
Ashley Iasimone
The Backstreet Boys bring a fun, reimagined version of “I Want It That Way” to T-Mobile's 2026 Super Bowl commercial, which they filmed in New York City with a snowstorm looming.
“We were hit with the winter storm right at the exact same time we were supposed to start filming,” BSB's Nick Carter revealed in an interview with Billboard's Tetris Kelly, noting, “There was a lot of adjustments that were being made at the time because we were supposed to do a two-day shoot.”
That two-day schedule was condensed into one long day on set in the city at T-Mobile's store in Times Square, where Carter says the temperature dropped to about six degrees, with snow imminent: “There's a state of emergency basically in the city … The inside of the store was freezing. So every time that they opened the door it was like a wind tunnel, or like a refrigerator.”
As Carter shared, “It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work — good work. Producers were incredible. Everybody had a lot of fun. Everybody was really creative.” He added that the group and the commercial's production team bounced ideas off of each other, while bandmate Kevin Richardson chimed in, “It was a great collaboration.”
Billboard has a backstage look at the Backstreet Boys' T-Mobile commercial shoot, premiering in the bloopers clip and the behind-the-scenes video below.
The commercial was created in partnership with Panay Films, with a 60-second spot scheduled to air during the second quarter of the game on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 8).
“This spot is about asking Americans to pause and think about what their wireless provider actually does for them,” said Lucy McLellan, chief brand and communications officer at T-Mobile, in a statement about the ad. “We believe people deserve more than just a connection — they deserve more benefits, more transparency and a better overall experience — and that's what sets T-Mobile apart. Bringing the Backstreet Boys back was a fun way to put a fresh twist on an iconic song and bring that message to life on the biggest stage in the world. The takeaway is simple: it's better over here.”
The in-store event had something like 50 extras present, the Backstreet Boys said: customers — and, clearly, BSB fans — at the T-Mobile store.
Druski and Pierson Fodé are also featured in the spot, which was directed by Steve Pink and produced by creative team Andrew Panay, Brian Klugman and Nate Tuck, with Kevin Anderson as editor.
Also among the talent was a young actor who was a pro through a commercial shoot that went late into the night due to the weather-adjusted timeline, AJ McLean recalled; her moment was opposite Machine Gun Kelly, who makes a comedic cameo at the end of the ad: “We knew that MGK had not started filming yet, and we had wrapped close to 2 a.m. and he hadn't even started filming his bit yet,” McClean said. “So that means that little girl was probably there at, like, three in the morning … But everybody, from the extras to crew, they just kept the ball rolling.”
Ahead of getting on set, the Backstreet Boys put in time in the studio to record some new, funny lyrics to “I Want It That Way,” written specifically for the T-Mobile commercial.
“We recorded several different versions of the different takes and the lyrics,” Howie Dorough shared.
Watch T-Mobile's Super Bowl commercial with the Backstreet Boys below, followed by Billboard‘s premiere of their bloopers and a behind-the-scenes video of the group's on-set experience.
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'The Odyssey' filmmaker, who was elected president of the Directors Guild of America last year, spoke at Saturday's awards.
By
Kirsten Chuba
Events Editor
Christopher Nolan, the newly elected president of the Directors Guild of America, presided over his first DGA Awards on Saturday night, as he kicked off the ceremony with a passionate speech.
Nolan was elected in September to serve as president of the Hollywood directors union, and returned to its annual awards show in very different fashion than two years ago, when he won the top prize for Oppenheimer.
This time around, he began by showing appreciation to the guild's board members and telling those in the room, “If you like the way the organization is running and you see things you like, or more importantly if you don't like the way we're doing things, please come and get involved… we need as many voices as possible.”
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Nolan noted how being a director can be “a lonely profession, and having us all come together on occasions like this is what helps us have strengths together in our conversations and our dealings with the studios. A lot of heavy hitters here tonight.” He joked he wasn't “supposed to talk too much about business” but took a moment to shout out the negotiations committee, who “have spent many, many months figuring out what's going on in this crazy world of ours.”
The filmmaker, whose highly anticipated film The Odyssey comes out in July, is leading the union at a very fraught time in Hollywood, as production has slowed, AI is threatening jobs and one Hollywood giant (Netflix) is attempting to swallow another (Warner Bros.). There are also labor negotiations with studios and streamers on the horizon, with discussions expected to begin on May 11, after SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America initiate their own negotiations.
“Tonight is a celebration of extraordinary work and it should be a very joyful one, but I do want to start by just acknowledging that our members are having very hard times. In 2024, our employment in our guild was down about 40 percent, and that was followed by another decline in '25,” Nolan continued. “The amount of money that people spend on our work, on entertainment, is very, very stable. Audiences are invested in us, we have to be sure that we're able to repay that investment.”
“It's the people in this room that were able to look forward and realize what an audience wants before they even know they wanted it. And no Pam and Mike, I'm not talking about you,” he teased to Warner Bros.' Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca. “The directors — we are the storytellers, we are the people who have to innovate on the screen and it's very important that as our industry progresses, as new technologies and new forms of distributions come along, that we are always sensitive to how are our voices being put across, how can we get our messages across, how can we engage with that audience and pay that investment that they continue to give us. The best argument on that is to look at the work represented here tonight.”
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With Oscars voting in full swing, and awards season entering its final stretch, tonight's Directors Guild of America Awards marked one of the last benchmarks in a tight race for Best Director. Presented the evening's top prize by last year's winner Sean Baker (“Anora”), Paul Thomas Anderson took home the honor in the Theatrical Feature Film category for “One Battle After Another.”
Coming on the heels of the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards (but ahead of the Indie Spirit Awards next weekend), the 78th annual DGA ceremony will clarified where filmmakers Anderson, Chloé Zhao (“Hamnet”), Josh Safdie (“Marty Supreme”), and Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”) stood on the podium they'll share with Joachim Trier (“Sentimental Value”) at the 98th Academy Awards. Also competing in the 2026 DGA theatrical feature film category tonight was Guillermo del Toro (“Frankenstein”).
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Historically, the DGA doesn't always mirror the Academy's final Best Director lineup, but its winners often help define momentum heading into Oscars night. This year's guild honorees reflected marquee auteurs as well as an eclectic slate of first-time directors, including Hasan Hadi (“The President's Cake”), Harry Lighton (“Pillion”), Alex Russell (“Lurker”), and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”), and race winner Charlie Polinger (“The Plague”). IndieWire's Marcus Jones was on the ground at the Beverly Hilton.
Keep reading for the complete list of nominees and winners at the 2026 DGA Awards.
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”Guillermo del Toro, “Frankenstein”Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”
Hasan Hadi, “The President's Cake”Harry Lighton, “Pillion”WINNER: Charlie Polinger, “The Plague”Alex Russell, “Lurker”Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby”
Liza Johnson, “The Diplomat”WINNER: Amanda Marsalis, “The Pitt”Janus Metz, “Andor”Ben Stiller, “Severance”John Wells, “The Pitt”
Lucia Aniello, “Hacks”Janicza Bravo, “The Bear”WINNER: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, “The Studio”Christopher Storer, “The Bear”Mike White, “The White Lotus”
Jason Bateman, “Black Rabbit”Antonio Campos, “The Beast in Me”Lesli Linka Glatter, “Zero Day”WINNER: Shannon Murphy, “Dying for Sex”Ally Pankiw, “Black Mirror”
Jesse Armstrong, “Mountainhead”WINNER: Stephen Chbosky, “Nonnas”Scott Derrickson, “The Gorge”Michael Morris, “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”Kyle Newacheck, “Happy Gilmore 2”
Yvonne De Mare, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”Andy Fisher, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”Beth McCarthy-Miller, “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert”WINNER: Liz Patrick, “SNL50: The Anniversary Special”Paul Pennolino, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
WINNER: Matthew Gangl, 2025 World SeriesSteve Milton, 2025 Masters TournamentRich Russo, Super Bowl LIX
Lucinda M. Margolis, “Jeopardy!”Adam Sandler, “The Price is Right”WINNER: Mike Sweeney, “Conan O'Brien Must Go”
WINNER: Kim GehrigMiles JaySpike JonzeAndreas NilssonSteve Rogers
WINNER: Mstyslav Chernov, “2000 Meters to Andriivk”Geeta Gandbhir, “The Perfect Neighbor”Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, Eyni Sara Khaki, and Mohammad Reza Eyni, “Cutting Through Rocks”Elizabeth Lo, “Mistress Dispeller”Mark Obenhaus and Laura Poitras, “Cover-Up”
Marshall Curry, “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night”Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes”WINNER: Rebecca Miller, “Mr. Scorsese” Alexandria Stapleton, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” Matt Wolf, “Pee-wee as Himself”
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It's like the old proverb says: How can you win the hearts and minds of a nation if you can't even keep Shinedown on your side? Such is the plight of Kid Rock's Rock The Country music festival, which has just added the Florida-based rock band to its list of recent festival dropouts. At the same time, outlets like Complex are reporting that the festival has just canceled what was supposed to be one of the 8 shows of its 2026 tour, dropping out of a July weekend appearance in South Carolina.
It's not clear if the two incidents are related, with representatives for Kid Rock and Rock The Country so far not deigning to speak on the topic. But you know who does deign? Shinedown, which issued a statement on social media today asserting that Shinedown refuses to be drawn into fractious political debates:
SHINEDOWN is everyone's band. We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power of music and song. We have one BOSS, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band's purpose is to unite, not divide. With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock The Country Festival. We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division. And to our fans, thank you for supporting and believing in us. We love and appreciate you always. All love and respect, SHINEDOWN.
News of The Shinedown Withdrawal follows earlier reports that Ludacris had either dropped out of the shows, or never intended to be part of them in the first place. (Eagle-eyed Creed watchers have also noticed that the band's name has disappeared from the Rock The Country site.) There are still a lot of pretty well-known names topping the bill for the other seven shows, including Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, and Jelly Roll, so it's not clear if the withdrawals were the reason for the South Carolina cancellation. (Local authorities have told journalists that they weren't given any motivation for why the festival pulled out.) But it's obviously pretty hard to disconnect the festival from the wider political divides in America at the moment, especially because Rock himself won't really let you, what with his endless efforts to associate himself with the Donald Trump regime—including headlining this week's Turning Point USA “All-American Halftime Show”—in ways that are definitely turning up the political heat surrounding the festival.
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Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner challenged the “Kardashian curse” after sister Kendall's viral Super Bowl commercial suggested she's under a dating curse.
“Haven't you heard? The internet says I'm cursed,” Kendall joked in the Fanatics Sportsbook ad, which references the model's series of NBA boyfriends. “Any basketball player who dates me kind of hits a rough patch.”
Kim took to Instagram Stories on Friday to address the “curse” by sharing her Fanatics Sportsbook bet on Sunday's big game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
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The Skims founder, 45, shared a screen shot of her bet — 69 cents in favor of the Seahawks with the possibility of earning $347,222 — writing atop the pic, “Here me out … I'm proving the curse ISN'T real because one of us will win.”
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Kylie, meanwhile, took to the same platform to share that she's also backing the Seahawks. “Kim traded on the Seahawks,” she wrote atop Kim's screengrab.
“Am I saying I copied her by trading on the Seahawks?” she joked, referencing Kourtney and Kim's infamous rift over Kourtney having her wedding to Travis Barker in Italy, eight years after Kim wed Kanye West in the same locale.
Kendall, meanwhile, sipped tea in a black swimsuit in the already-viral Superbowl ad for the sports betting site.
In the ad, she sipped tea from a rose-embellished teacup. As she uttered, “Haven't you heard? The internet says I'm cursed, the rose wilted.
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She then recounted her rough history with basketball players hitting “a rough patch” after dating her, striking a match and throwing the flame into a bin full of basketball jerseys.
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Kendall then ambled through a mansion filled with portraits of herself and her ex boyfriends — their faces conspicuously removed. “While the world has been talking about it, I've been betting on it,” she added.
In the next shot, she emerged from a luxurious pool in a black swimsuit. “This pool? Basketball boyfriend one missed the playoffs. I guess nobody was getting a ring in this house,” she quipped before moving onto a jet.
In the cheeky ad, she also stepped into a sports car before approaching a jet, noting that “Boyfriend number two flopped right out of the league,” and adding, “This cute jet? Thanks boyfriend three!”
Once she was settled in her seat, she said she was ready to “bet on something new. Football players.” Kendall, 30, concluded the ad by quipping, “The Kardashian curse – it's not even my last name.”
Kendall indeed has dated a string of NBA stars, including Devin Booker, Ben Simmons, and Jordan Clarkson, and Blake Griffin.
But her love interests haven't been exactly restricted to athletes — ex boyfriend Bad Bunny is set to perform at the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Anderson, S.C., was removed from the fest's schedule this week as the lineup shifted for the multi-date, Kid Rock-led event.
By
Ashley Iasimone
Amid Rock the Country's lineup disruptions this week — with artists including Shinedown, Ludacris, Morgan Wade and Carter Faith making exits — the festival's July 25-26 weekend in Anderson, S.C., is no longer on the schedule.
The South Carolina stop originally announced as part of an eight-city trek has been removed from Rock the Country's website. Billboard reached out to a representative for Rock the Country for comment.
Anderson County administrator's was informed of the event being called off on Feb. 5, reports the Greenville, S.C., publication The Post and Courier. No specific reason for the cancellation was stated.
As of Saturday (Feb. 7), the tour's seven other stops remain on its schedule: Bellville, Texas (May 1-2); Bloomingdale, Ga. (May 29-30); Sioux Falls, S.D. (June 27-28); Ashland, Ky. (July 10-11); Hastings, Mich. (Aug. 8-9); Ocala, Fla. (Aug. 28-29) and Hamburg, N.Y. (Sept. 11-12).
Rock the Country's lineup varies by date, with Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, Brooks & Dunn, Riley Green, Miranda Lambert, Hank Williams Jr., Ella Langley, Lynyrd Skynrd, Jon Pardi, Brantley Gilbert and dozens more artists set to perform throughout the tour.
Shinedown, who pulled out of the festival on Feb. 6, was one of the acts booked to perform at the South Carolina dates. The band opted to drop out after receiving backlash from fans for participating in the festival.
While event organizers have not explicitly stated any political affiliation, headlining performers Aldean and Kid Rock have both been vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. Kid Rock and Brantley Gilbert are appearing at Turning Point USA's upcoming “All-American” alternative halftime show, set to broadcast opposite the NFL's official Super Bowl Halftime Show starring Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, whose Debí Tirar Más Fotos was recently the first all-Spanish album to win album of the year at the Grammy Awards.
“Shinedown is everyone's band. We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power of music and song. We have one boss, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band's purpose is to unite, not divide. With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock the Country festival,” Shinedown said in a statement posted on its social media pages on Feb. 6.
The group stated, “We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”
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The director admitted he "promised" himself he would work with 'The Notebook' actress again following their time collaborating on 2022's 'Multiverse of Madness.'
By
McKinley Franklin
Sam Raimi believes Rachel McAdams was “underutilized” in his 2022 Marvel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
When discussing their collaboration on Send Help, Raimi's survival thriller that stars The Notebook actress alongside Dylan O'Brien, the director recently told Total Film he “promised” himself he would work with McAdams again following their time collaborating on the Doctor Strange sequel. In fact, Raimi noted that he thought she wasn't utilized to her full potential in the latter film.
“First, she was the perfect person because she's such a brilliant actress,” he said of McAdams starring in Send Help. “I had a chance to work with her on my last film and saw how talented she was and actually underutilized. And I promised myself that I would work with her again. And then this film came up, and her warmth is wonderful.”
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McAdams portrayed Dr. Christine Palmer in Multiverse of Madness, Stephen Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) former girlfriend. The Spider-Man director added that McAdams playing a “dark, terrible villain” in Send Help “really sets the audience up to be surprised” because it differs from roles she's played in the past.
“And because the movie's focus is not a whodunnit, but what comes next, that's what really the movie wants to do to the audience,” Raimi continued. “They don't know what's right around the corner; it turns left when they think it's gonna turn right. That was an important factor, that she, this good person that we know and love, becomes this terrible villain.”
The Hollywood Reporter pointed out contrast this in its Send Help review, as Frank Scheck wrote, “In the past, McAdams has proved equally fine at romantic comedy and serious drama, but this role stretches her in ways she's never handled before. She's fully up to the challenge, making Linda's transformation from meek dweeb to badass survivalist fully convincing and enormous fun to watch.”
Raimi previously raved about McAdams' role in the film at its Los Angeles premiere in January, telling THR that “Rachel was a great choice [for the part] because she's never gone [this dark] before and she really knows how to, and yet she can do comedy brilliantly.”
“There's a very tough woman there who usually just shows off her beauty, her great skills as an actress, her feminine side, but not the monster within,” he continued. “And fortunately, all actors and actresses have monsters within them to bring out; I know from personal experience.”
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The Texas native appeared in three films for exploitation director S.F. Brownrigg, including ‘Don't Look in the Basement' and ‘Poor White Trash Part II.'
By
Mike Barnes
Senior Editor
Camilla Carr, the Texas-born actress who appeared for director S.F. Brownrigg in the low-budget 1970s horror films Don't Look in the Basement, Poor White Trash Part II and Keep My Grave Open, has died. She was 83.
Carr died Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, of complications from Alzheimer's and a dislocated hip, her son, writer, poet and painter Caley O'Dwyer, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Carr also stood out on CBS' Designing Women when she portrayed a Sugarbaker client who thinks gay men who contract AIDS are getting what they deserve in the October 1987 episode “They're Killing All the Right People,” written by series creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason.
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Carr played an unhinged patient who kills a nurse in Don't Look in the Basement (1973) and a devious hillbilly daughter in Poor White Trash Part II (1974) — a drive-in hit also known as Scum of the Earth — before she starred in Keep My Grave Open (1977) as a woman with a murderous split personality (she thinks she's also her brother).
All three were cult exploitation films from Brownrigg, a producer-director known for his ability to create creepiness with very little money.
Born on Sept. 17, 1942, in Memphis, Texas, Carr attended Kermit (Texas) High School and the University of North Texas. She first met her future husband, Hugh Feagin, when they were actors at Theatre Three in Dallas, and they appeared together in the Texas-shot A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), starring Fabian as 1930s bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd. (Feagin was in Don't Look in the Basement and Poor White Trash Part II as well.)
Carr and future Designing Women star Jean Smart acted together in Jane Chambers' landmark lesbian play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, which opened for what proved to be a long run at The Fountain Theater in East Hollywood in 1983.
As Mrs. Imogene Salinger on Designing Women, Carr overhears plans for a funeral for a young interior designer (Tony Goldwyn) dying of AIDS and remarks, “As far as I'm concerned, this disease has one thing going for it: It's killing all the right people.” (Watch the scene here.)
“It was a shitty character, but she did a great job for an important cause,” her son said.
Bloodworth Thomason, whose mother had recently died after getting AIDS through a blood transfusion, earned an Emmy nomination for writing the episode.
Carr also showed up in the Michael Anderson-directed Logan's Run (1976); played housekeeper/snoop Nellie Maxwell on three episodes of CBS' Falcon Crest in 1988; appeared on One Day at a Time and Another World; and played Maxine in 1991 in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana, one of several productions she did for the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
And in 2015, she came out of retirement to appear in Don't Look in the Basement 2, directed by S.F. Brownrigg's son, Anthony Brownrigg.
Carr also wrote on telefilms and authored the comic 1989 novel Topsy Turvy Dingo Dog, which revolved around a B-movie actress, Mary Jane Shady, who returns to her hometown of Uncertain, Texas, for her 20th high school reunion.
Her second husband was Oscar-winning screenwriter Edward Anhalt (Panic in the Streets, Becket). They were married from 1968 until their 1976 divorce, and she was one of his five wives.
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"We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her," the 'Today' host said in a new video message on Instagram Saturday.
By
McKinley Franklin
Savannah Guthrie has issued a new video message acknowledging that her family has received a message from the suspected kidnappers of her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
Sitting with her her brother, Camron Guthrie, and sister, Annie Guthrie, Savannah began, “We received your message, and we understand.”
“We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said in the new video shared on Instagram Saturday. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
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“Bring her home,” Savannah wrote in the caption of the new post.
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On Wednesday, Savannah, Camron and Annie addressed their mother's suspected kidnapper for the first time, noting in the video, “Our mom is our heart and our home. She's 84 years old. Her health, her heart, is fragile. She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive, and she needs it not to suffer.”
“We, too, have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media. As a family, we are doing everything that we can. We are ready to talk,” Savannah continued. “However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please. Reach out to us.”
And on Thursday, Savannah's brother Camron, a retired F-16 fighter pilot, shared a separate video on his sister's Instagram page, pleading for those responsible “to reach out.”
“This is Camron Guthrie. I'm speaking for the Guthrie family,” he began in the video. “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom. We want to talk to you and we are waiting for contact.”
In each post Savannah and the Guthrie family have made concerning the disappearance of their mother, the caption reads, “Bring her home.”
On Tuesday, Pima County Sheriff's Department acknowledged the reporting of a ransom note, that was originally obtained by TMZ and at least two local news outlets in Arizona on Tuesday, saying that investigators are “following all leads.”
Nancy was reported missing on Sunday by family members after she didn't show up for church. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed with the Pima County Sheriff's Department that they believe Nancy may have been abducted or kidnapped. Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News on Monday that he believes Nancy was taken from her home as she slept.
“I believe she was abducted, yes,” Nanos told CBS News. “She didn't walk from there. She didn't go willingly.”
Nanos has explained that there is an added layer of urgency to find Nancy as she is without her daily medications that could lead to serious health risks, including death. Amid an ongoing investigation, Nanos additionally noted on Wednesday that he is hopeful Nancy is still alive.
Savannah exited her planned Winter Olympics coverage amid the search for her mother, as commentators for NBC acknowledged her absence during Friday's opening ceremony.
“We're certainly without a very important and beloved member of our team tonight,” host Terry Gannon said of Savannah. “She is dearly missed by everybody.”
Earlier Saturday, President Donald Trump shared an update on the search for Nancy, telling reporters reporters he received new information on the case from federal law enforcement and the FBI.
“I think we're doing very well in that regard. You're probably surprised to hear that,” Trump said. “I think we're doing very well, meaning we have some clues, I think that are very strong and I think we could have some answers coming up fairly soon.”
More to come.
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PA REAL LIFE: Claire secretly got into tarot card reading at 11 . Claire Stone, tarot expert to the stars of Real Housewives of Cheshire and Love Island, who has shared her top tips for manifesting love ahead of Valentine's Day, and revealed what her clients really want to know about their futures. Issue date: Thursday February 5, 2026. PA Photo. See PA story REAL LIFE Tarot . Photo credit should read: Kiki Mason/PA Real Life
NOTE TO EDITORS: This image must only be used in conjunction with PA Real Life story REAL LIFE Tarot . All usage is subject to a fee or incorporated into your outlet's agreed content package. Find copy in full on PA Explore or contact PA Real Life at RealLife2@pamediagroup.com or on 020 7963 7175 for access or queries(Image: Kiki Mason/PA Real Life)
A tarot reader to the stars of Real Housewives Of Cheshire and Love Island has shared her top tips for manifesting love ahead of Valentine's Day, and revealed what her clients really want to know about their futures.
Self-described as The White Witch of Cheshire, Claire Stone, 44, said she was a psychic and author who was born with abilities such as astral projection and being able to communicate with spirits and angels.
From as young as seven years old, Claire said she remembers playing with a snake spirit animal that she would chase around the living room and that her cousins would follow, but she did not realise at the time that they could not see it.
She lived with her grandparents and one night, after they put her to bed, she said she astrally projected – an out-of-body experience where she described floating in spirit form – and saw them eating supper and watching the news downstairs. The next morning, she said she nonchalantly told them what she had experienced, but that they were “really scared” because they were Christians.
Claire said a vicar cautioned her grandmother that the abilities her granddaughter had reported were the “devil in disguise” and he encouraged her to enrol her into a religious course to put her back on the “right” path. As a result, Claire became scared of the angels and spirits who she said visited her, screaming out to them one night to leave her alone, which she said they did.
At 11, Claire said she secretly got into tarot card reading after her friend got a book about it for Christmas, which gave her a lot of comfort at a tumultuous time in her life. She said she was grappling with agoraphobia and instability at home and had reached breaking point by her early teens.
Claire told PA Real Life: “I had just had enough of this crap life and I was so fed up. Instead of turning to God like I'd been conditioned, I asked the universe: ‘Can anyone help me?' This is when I opened my mind to these spirit guides that I'd once connected with years ago.”
“I was petrified. I'm not going to lie. I was really, really scared, but I was equally as intrigued to reawaken that as well,” she said.
This is when Claire said she dived head-first into her psychic interests and bought her own deck of tarot cards to do readings for herself and her friends, alongside communicating with angels.
It started out as “ridiculous” questions such as, “Will I get a Berghaus coat for Christmas?” and “Does this boy fancy me?”, until Claire said she was giving readings to her friends' older siblings, their parents, and neighbours. She said she quickly became known as The Angel Girl.
By 19, Claire went to college and studied aromatherapy, reflexology, Indian head massage, and reiki, before qualifying as a professional holistic therapist. It was during these therapies that she said she would receive messages from clients' loved ones.
“I was giving someone a massage one day and all I could think in my head was about green wellington boots,” Claire said.
“And sometimes it can feel ridiculous to say something because it means nothing to you as the reader, but you've got to trust that it means something to that person. So I asked if green wellies meant anything to her.
“She immediately burst into tears because it was the anniversary of her dad's death. That's why she had treated herself to a massage. And the only thing that she'd had of his was a pair of green wellies,” Claire said.
Claire is now a published author, wife, and mother-of-two to Leah, 21, and Lexi, 13, who has given tarot readings to celebrity clients, including Love Island 2018 winners Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, and Big Brother's Lisa Appleton.
Claire's career led to producers from the television series The Real Housewives Of Cheshire approaching her to be a featured guest.
She said: “I've been on the show loads of times and sometimes it's ridiculous, like doing past-life readings on dogs. And I am up for a laugh. If it's not harming anyone, I'll go and entertain it.”
Claire said she had become friends with the cast, including doing readings and helping with feng shui to help try and manifest love.
“She had this gorgeous painting of a glamorous woman looking over her shoulder, but it was a single woman,” Claire said of one Housewives cast member.
“I told her that she needed to get rid of that picture and replace it with something like a couple with their arms around each other or a statue of a couple embracing. I also got her to put two rose quartz crystals under the bed.”
Claire said crystals were one way to help manifest love into your life, something she said she got asked a lot about, especially around Valentine's Day.
One way to manifest love, she said, is to create a “love corner” in your home: a feng shui principle often implemented in your bedroom or the far right-hand corner of your living space. Claire said that if you were single and you had a double bed but only one bedside table, your romantic energy was blocked because you were not symbolically inviting a partner into your space.
Another was through tarot, such as embracing the “two of cups” card, which represented harmony, romantic partnership, and mutual attraction. Claire suggested placing this imagery in your love corner or changing your phone screen background to it to invite the energy in.
According to Claire, the biggest thing you could do to manifest love was to be open to it.
She said: “People will say things like, ‘I'll never meet anyone' or ‘all men are bastards', but you're never going to attract love until you've got rid of that. So you need to reprogramme your mind by saying things to yourself like, ‘I am loveable', ‘I am worthy of love', ‘my perfect partner is on the way to me', and ‘I can't wait to meet this person'.”
The most common question Claire said she gets during her £111 tarot card reading sessions is about work and business, then a lot about whether exes will come back into her clients' lives.
For the latter, Claire said: “I'm very cautious with this because I know it's quite unhealthy for people to be hung up on past partners, so I tell them we can do a cord-cutting ritual together, which is a ceremony where you are releasing the energy of your ex-partner. Or you could write everything down and then burn it. You can also get rid of anything that they ever bought you to remove that physical connection. Again, it's very much about changing the way you think.”
Claire said she believed manifestation was something you could do for all aspects of your life, and that you did not need to be able to speak to angels or spirits.
She said: “Every day I get up, I light my angel candle, and I'm connected straight away. I'm asking for guidance, asking for protection, and asking for the day ahead to be blessed. If you keep asking, it makes you feel connected, and I think that's what everyone is looking for.
“Whether someone wants to be a millionaire, (to have) success in their business, or (to find) a life partner. I think underneath all of that, what people are really looking for is a connection to themselves, to their own souls, and to that universal energy.”
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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
A group of teens plays around with an Aztec death whistle, leading to expected results, in Whistle, which premiered at last year's Fantastic Fest and opens in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. While this initially appears to be another in the long line of lamebrained children-playing-with-haunted-things horror films (see also: Ouija, Wish Upon, Truth or Dare, Tarot, Spin the Bottle), director Corin Hardy (The Hallow, The Nun) knows exactly what he is working with here and lets his audience in on the joke.
The result is a wildly entertaining supernatural chiller that embraces the inherent silliness of its well-worn template and dials things up to 11. Backed by some engaging performances and showstopping scenes of gore, Whistle is as entertaining as the so-bad-its-good classic Wish Upon … only the filmmakers know exactly what they're doing here.
Whistle stars Dafne Keen as Chrysanthemum—let's call her Chrys—who moves in with her cousin Rel (Sky Yang) and begins life as a high school senior in a new school after an unexplored tragedy back in Chicago. “I heard you were a junkie who O.D.'ed and killed your dad,” varsity basketball star Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) teases her before taking a knee to the groin. Ah, good old high school ribbing. Two scenes later, these characters are the best of friends.
Also among the core friend group: prom queen type Grace (Ali Skovbye), Dean's girl and Rel's crush, and Ellie (Sophie Nélisse), who immediately shares some meaningful glances with Chrys that develop into a romance. Decidedly not in their friend group: “youth pastor” Noah (Percy Hynes White), who deals drugs to his flock, corners Chrys with an offer of free goofballs on her first day in school, and turns into a villain of utterly baffling motivation.
But Chrys and co. have more pressing matters to attend to: namely, that Aztec death whistle she finds in her locker, left over from Horse (Stephen Kalyn), who spontaneously combusted in the locker room in Whistle‘s opening scene. Mr. Craven (Nick Frost) gives us another taste of what the whistle can do before Grace blows it at a pool party and casts their fate.
In horror terms, the representation of death—and how it kills—is what sets Whistle apart from the other films of the genre (as well as the Final Destination franchise). As explained by Horse's mom (Michelle Fairley), death here is the physical embodiment of each character upon their own future death, now called into the present when the death whistle is used. When Horse blew into the whistle, he summoned himself as a charred corpse at the moment of his own fiery death years in the future.
That sets Whistle up for some bravura gore sequences, which include characters being pursued by their own mangled corpses from car wrecks and industrial accidents. When the corpse catches up to you, the moment of death is re-created, resulting in some genuinely impressive—and stomach-churning—effects work as characters are isolated and violently maimed; unlike other recent horror films (Primate), Whistle doesn't play its card too early, resulting in some showstopping sequences at the climax.
But what really separates Whistle from the pack is that it knows what kind of movie it is, and plays all the tropes up to the hilt. The script (by Owen Egerton) is wall-to-wall clichés, but director Hardy turns that into a strength by pushing everything so over-the-top his film becomes a satire full of not-so-subtle in-jokes. Viewers expecting something as serious-minded as Talk to Me might be put off by what's on display, but those who can appreciate the film's sarcastic tune will find a lot to like.
Strong performances also help: Whistle has an unusually engaging central performance from Keen—evoking memories of a Beetlejuice-era Winona Ryder—that breaks through a real lack of characterization in the script and exceeds anything we might usually expect from these kinds of films. She's backed by a pair of scene-stealing turns from Hynes White (aping Caleb Landry Jones) and Yang (dressing up as The Crow—or, uh, The Revenger for the big autumn carnival), in support.
Whistle succeeds not by reinventing the teen horror formula but by fully committing to it, embracing its clichés with a knowing wink and escalating them into gleeful excess. Anchored by a strong central performance from Keen and elevated by outrageous gore sequences, the film finds its identity as a self-aware supernatural chiller that understands exactly how ridiculous the premise is—and blows right into it.
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The prime minister's name comes up dozens of times but the records themselves do not support online claims that Carney and Epstein were linked.
The prime minister's name comes up dozens of times but the records themselves do not support online claims that Carney and Epstein were linked.
Many of the conspiracy theories linking Prime Minister Mark Carney to Jeffrey Epstein were sparked by this 2013 photo of Carney, in purple, standing next to Ghislaine Maxwell, a close Epstein associate, at a music festival.
The latest trove of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein reveals to new extents the relationships the notorious sex offender held with prominent and powerful figures, from Elon Musk to Bill Gates to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew.
The disclosure has also revived conspiracy theorists' attempts to connect the late financier to a particularly prominent Canadian: Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Fringe social media accounts, doubling down on claims they made during the last federal election, are pointing to Carney's name cropping up in the records as proof the two men were linked — even though a mere cursory read of the records that name Carney show they do not support the claim.
A search of the U.S. Department of Justice's online library containing the Epstein files turns up 69 mentions of Mark Carney, dating from 2013 to last fall, all of which have been reviewed by the Star.
The vast majority of incidents are news summaries in which Carney is mentioned in his official capacity as governor of the Bank of England. There is one email in which Epstein's associates discuss attending an event at which Carney is speaking. There's another in which a financial activist mentions the scrutiny Carney was facing at the time regarding a different scandal involving an investment firm that went under, taking the live savings of some clients with it.
The Epstein files shine a light on the relationships the notorious sex offender held with wealthy and powerful figures, among them former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson.
There is no correspondence between Carney and Epstein, and no suggestion that Carney had any involvement with Epstein's crimes. (“The Prime Minister did not know and has never met Mr. Epstein,” a spokesperson said in a statement.)
Other Canadian political figures, including Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, also show up in the latest Epstein drop for similar reasons.
Carney's mention in the Epstein files, even when it's just via news briefs, fuels a persistent conspiracy theory about him, particularly how his time at the Bank of England feeds into narratives about shadowy financial elites, says Amarnath Amarasingam, an associate professor who studies conspiracy theories and online communities at Queen's University.
“A lot of conspiracy theories equate power with nefarious activity and control, so that's a lot of what we are seeing here.”
Online conspiracy mongers have tried to link Carney to Epstein as early as the election campaign last summer. Much of it was sparked by a photo of Carney standing next to Ghislaine Maxwell, a close Epstein associate, at a music festival in 2013.
The photographer who took the photo snapped it for the social pages of a British newspaper that was interested in the weekend activities of Carney because he was a newcomer Canadian who'd recently been tapped to run the Bank of England. (A source close to Carney told the Star at the time that Maxwell went to school with Carney's wife's sister and that she and Carney were “not friends.”)
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an undated photo.
Despite any actual evidence linking Carney and Maxwell outside of a family connection, the conspiracy gained steam thanks to AI-generated images of Carney and Epstein. In Spring 2025, there was what the Canadian Digital Media Research Network called “a surge in suspicious posts on social media spreading false claims.” The online discourse leaked into the real world, when then-Liberal leader Carney was heckled at a campaign rally in March.
With scrutiny of the American government's handling of the case at a fever pitch, Congress voted last November to force the release of the Epstein files. They're less a cohesive set of documents than a hodgepodge of records from different departments, including files from FBI investigations, unclassified records, communications and court records. There are duplicates and redactions — meaning names or photos that have been blacked out — are inconsistent.
Transparency into the online files has some limitations, as some documents, including those that are written by hand, are not searchable.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail in New York in summer 2019 after being indicted.
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking for her role in helping to recruit underage victims and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
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Alex Boyd is a Calgary-based reporter for the Star. Follow her
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Footage showing a UFO-like object is going viral on social media, reigniting curiosity about parallel universes. The recently surfaced video is from 2012 and it shows glowing tri-orbs moving over the Persian Gulf. As per a report by the New York Post, the videos are leaked footage recorded by the US military purportedly showing UFO-like objects operating over the Middle East.
According to the reports, the US Department of War and the intelligence community officially designated the flying objects to be Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), and kept it under the “non-human" category.
The video captured in 2012 shows three lights or orbs in a triangular formation. The video was taken by an MQ-9 Reaper drone's infrared sensors.
‘LEAKED' US AIR FORCE VIDEO OF UFOs IN MIDDLE EAST — NYP pic.twitter.com/jnrd47LKMe— RT (@RT_com) February 7, 2026
The one-minute clip showing mysterious glowing objects was released recently by reporters and prominent UFO researchers George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell, NYP reported.
George Knapp spoke about the footage on his podcast and said, “This is a military-recorded, sensor-generated image of what looks like a triangular UFO, like one big triangular craft with dots on each of the three ends. And clearly, you watch this, and that's not what it is."
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.
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Katy Henriksen is the features editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Her passion for both storytelling and culture serve as a through line in her decades of experience as an arts journalist. She believes in the transformative power of art to enrich our community and loves highlighting it in hopes more people learn about the amazing stories here in Northwest Arkansas.
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