WASHINGTON (AP) — Under questioning from Democrats Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Jeffrey Epstein twice after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing Lutnick's previous claim that he had cut ties with the late financier after 2005. Lutnick again downplayed his relationship with the disgraced financier who was once his neighbor in New York City as he was questioned by Democrats during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told lawmakers. But Lutnick is facing growing scrutiny, including calls for his resignation, from lawmakers after the release of case files on Epstein contradicted Lutnick's claims on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein again after a 2005 tour of Epstein's home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife. The commerce secretary told senators Tuesday that he and his family actually had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 and he had another hour-long engagement at Epstein's home in 2011. Lutnick, a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, is the highest-profile U.S. official to face bipartisan calls for his resignation amid revelations of his ties to Epstein. His acknowledgement comes as lawmakers are grasping for what accountability looks like amid the revelations contained in what's known as the Epstein files. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens as President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he flies aboard Air Force One from Joint Base Andrews, Md., to West Palm Beach, Fla., Friday, Feb. 6, 2026 (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat who questioned Lutnick, told him, “There's not an indication that you yourself engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein. Van Hollen, D-Md., stopped short of calling for Lutnick's resignation on Monday, but requested documentation from Lutnick on any of his ties to Epstein. Lutnick during the Senate hearing said he would give that request some thought, adding, “I have nothing to hide.” However, several Senate Republicans were also questioning Lutnick's relationship with Epstein. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said the visit to Epstein's private island “would raise questions.” And Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters, “It's something I'm concerned with.” Tillis stayed away from calling for Lutnick to leave his post, but added that “he would do himself a service by just laying exactly what and what did not happen over the course of what seems to be an interesting relationship that included business entanglements.” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called for that over the weekend after emails were released that alluded to the meetings between Lutnick and Epstein. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, joined Massie in pressuring Lutnick out of office on Monday. Are we going to allow the rich and powerful people who are friends and (had) no problem doing business and showing up with a pedophile who is raping underage girls, are we just going to allow them to skate?”

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Progressive candidate Analilia Mejia leads in the NJ Democratic primary, advocating to abolish ICE and other far-left policies. A progressive candidate backed by champions of the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., pulled off a major upset victory over the more mainstream frontrunner in a Democratic congressional primary for a blue-leaning seat in New Jersey. Analilia Mejia, a progressive organizer, edged out former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski in the battle for their party's nomination in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District. Analilia Mejia speaks to supporters and members of the media at Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, New Jersey, on Jan. 29, 2026. Mejia and Malinowski were the leaders among a field of 11 Democratic candidates in last Thursday's primary to fill the seat left vacant when now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning November's gubernatorial election in the Garden State. "She stands for a progressive populist economic agenda," progressive leader Rep. Ro Khanna of California, emphasized last week in a social media post. We know that our economy is rigged to suit the billionaires." Malinowski, an assistant secretary of state in former President Barack Obama's administration who later represented a neighboring congressional district in northern New Jersey from 2018 to 2022 before losing re-election, was considered the favorite in the race heading into primary day. But Malinowski was the target of a slew of attack ads put out by a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which opposed Malinowski because he said he supports conditions on aid to Israel. The AIPAC-aligned super PAC United Democracy Project dished out more than $2.3 million to take aim at Malinowski, even though AIPAC had supported him in his past congressional elections. But the strategy backfired, because Mejia is much tougher on Israel than Malinowski. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) jumped the gun on primary night, congratulating Malinowski in an email release. "Tonight, Democrat Tom Malinowski clinched victory in the New Jersey District 11 special election Democratic primary," the DNC's release read. Tom Malinowski speaks during an event hosted by the League of Women Voters at Caldwell University with the candidates running for the 11th District, on Jan 15, 2026, in Caldwell, New Jersey. Later in the evening, after taking a slight lead in the vote count over Malinowski, Meija put out a social media post showing the famous photo of President Harry Truman, during his 1948 election victory, holding up a newspaper with the erroneous banner headline: "Dewey Defeats Truman." And besides Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Mejia also was endorsed by a large list of other progressive leaders, including Khanna, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Pramilla Jayapal of Washington state, the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a leading group on the left, said in a statement, "Analilia Mejia's momentous showing proves that voters, when given a choice, want Democrats with an inspiring vision who will boldly challenge powerful interests on behalf of working families." PCCC co-founder Adam Green, a New Jersey native who knocked doors for Mejia and spoke at a rally with her and Sanders on primary eve, added that voters "made clear they want Democrats who will shake up a broken political and economic system – not just be anti-Trump." Mejia will face off with Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican to file for the special election, which will be held on April 16. Mikie Sherrill stepped down from her seat in the House in November after winning the Garden State's gubernatorial election. "Radical Democrat Analilia Mejia wants to defund the police, raise your taxes, and turn New Jersey into a socialist hellscape. Republican Joe Hathaway is committed to making New Jersey safer and more affordable for working families," National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Spokeswoman Maureen O'Toole argued in a statement to Fox News Digital. The primary in New Jersey was held as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives. That's because a special election is scheduled on March 10 in Georgia's solidly red 14th Congressional District, in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The MAGA firebrand and one-time top Trump House ally in early January stepped away from Congress a year before her term ended. Marjorie Taylor Greene of stepped down from her seat in Congress in early January, a year before her term ended. A whopping 22 candidates, including 17 Republicans, are running in the Georgia showdown. If no contender tops 50% of the vote, a runoff election between the top two finishers will take place on April 7. Trump last week endorsed Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Clay Fuller, a Republican, in the race. Greene won re-election in 2024 to the seat by nearly 30 points, and Trump carried the district, which is located in northwest Georgia, by 37 points. There's one more vacant seat in Congress, in California's 1st Congressional District, following the recent unexpected death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa. A primary in the race to fill LaMalfa's seat will be held on June 2, which is primary day in California. And the special general election will be held on Aug. 4. The district, in northeastern California, is solidly Republican. Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. A Las Vegas flier is seen arguing with gate employees after learning her reservation did not allow multiple pets in one carrier, a confrontation captured on social media that has drawn millions of views. A United Airlines passenger ended up in a different country after accidently boarding the wrong flight. The passenger was headed from Los Angeles to Managua, Nicaragua, with a layover in Houston — but ended up in Tokyo, according to multiple reports. A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital. "We followed up with the airport to understand how this happened, reached out directly to the customer to apologize for his experience and offered travel credits and reimbursement," the spokesperson said. "We always advise customers to monitor the signs at the gate and boarding announcements to make sure the aircraft they board is going to their intended destination," they added. A Los Angeles traveler headed to Nicaragua accidentally flew to Tokyo on a United Airlines flight. The person landed at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan — and stayed at a hotel for two nights while United sorted out a travel itinerary to the original destination. "I'd love to go to Japan by mistake," wrote one person on social media about the incident. "Yeah… [if] by 6 hours you haven't arrived in Houston, something is wrong," wrote one person. Another person wrote, "Not saying it happened here, but several airports have two or even three gates connected to the same area. "They typically announce the flight's destination at least one time before they close the door. A user wrote, "My childhood fear … I used to travel at that age and always checked the flight map on screen [to see if I was] going to the correct destination." "Yeah… [if] by 6 hours you haven't arrived in Houston, something is wrong," said one person about the inadvertent trip to Tokyo. "How do you accidentally board the wrong flight? There are so many things this guy should've noticed," said one individual. Another user commented, "You would be surprised how clueless people are." Ashley J. DiMella is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital. A look at the top-trending stories in food, relationships, great outdoors and more. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to discuss possible military options against Iran with US President Donald Trump during his visit to Washington this week as Israel prepares contingencies should US-Iran talks collapse, according to two Israeli sources. Israel remains skeptical that nascent negotiations between the US and Iran will succeed, one of the sources said, but is pressing to ensure its interests are protected – as well as to preserve Israel's freedom of military action under any potential agreement. Netanyahu plans to present Trump with fresh intelligence on Iran's military capabilities, one of the sources said. “Israel is worried about Iran's progress in restoring its ballistic missile stockpiles and capabilities to its status before the 12-day war,” the source said, adding that the Israeli assessment is that without action, Iran could possess 1,800-2,000 ballistic missiles within weeks or months. “On this trip, we will discuss a series of issues: Gaza, the region, but first and foremost, the negotiations with Iran,” Netanyahu said as he boarded his aircraft. The upcoming meeting follows a series of high-level exchanges in recent weeks. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Intelligence Division head Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder visited the Pentagon in Washington last month, while presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Netanyahu and top security officials in Jerusalem last week. Israel has tried to push the US to ensure that any deal with Iran include Tehran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium, ceasing enrichment altogether, placing limits on its ballistic missile program and ending its support for regional proxies. The list matched a set of earlier US demands for a broader set of discussions about Iran's military capabilities and regional activities. But Iran has insisted it's only willing to discuss the nuclear file. Over the weekend, Trump signaled that he may accept a deal that leaves out the other issues. Asked by a reporter on board Air Force One if an agreement with Tehran is acceptable if it only covers nuclear, he said, “Yeah, that would be acceptable, but the one thing and right up front, no nuclear weapons.” The worst-case scenario for the Israeli prime minister is “a narrow nuclear deal in which the US settles for restrictions on enrichment alone.” Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, wrote in an article in the Israel Hayom newspaper. “From Netanyahu's standpoint, the two preferred options are either the military defeat of Iran through American force, or what he sees as a conceptual defeat, namely an agreement so comprehensive that it effectively dismantles the regime's ability to defend itself,” he wrote. Netanyahu railed against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated with Tehran under former President Barack Obama – and was outspoken that the deal left much of Iran's military capabilities intact and lifted uranium enrichment limits after 15 years. Such vocal criticism would become far more difficult if Trump signs a similar agreement that restricts the weaponization of Iran's nuclear program while allowing domestic uranium enrichment. Uranium is a nuclear fuel that can be used to make a bomb if purified to high levels. In June, Israel's surprise attack on Iran's military and nuclear facilities derailed a series of ongoing – though foundering – talks between the US and Iran. The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran ended with Trump demanding that Netanyahu call off another wave of attacks. Netanyahu's visit to Washington was initially scheduled for February 18, according to the Israeli source, one day before a meeting of the Board of Peace.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Wes Moore, widely believed to have White House ambitions, is facing questions over the accuracy of a story about his family's background involving being forced to flee the state of South Carolina due to threats from the Ku Klux Klan. "I am literally the grandson of someone who was run out of this country by the Ku Klux Klan, right?" Moore told Time magazine in 2023 in a conversation about how he "reconciles Patriotism" with the country's "racist past." Moore has frequently referenced his grandfather, James Thomas, as the figure in this story, including during a 2020 appearance on the Yang Speaks podcast titled "Wes Moore on how the KKK ran his family into exile," where he detailed how his grandfather was a minister in Winnsboro, South Carolina, who fled to Jamaica after being threatened by the klan. Wes Moore spoke out on social media following a fatal Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) However, a Washington Free Beacon report last week cast doubt on the specifics of that story. The report claims that historical records from the Protestant Episcopal Church and contemporary newspaper reports indicate that Thomas's departure was not a secret, middle-of-the-night escape, but an orderly and public professional transfer after he was appointed to replace a deceased pastor in Jamaica. Additionally, archival data and the diocese's own historical accounts suggest that the White community in Pineville, S.C., actually held Thomas's church in high regard for its medical services, with no mention of racial animus or Klan interference during his tenure. Fox News Digital has not independently verified the claims in the report and Moore's office pushed back in a statement to Fox News. "We're not going to litigate a family's century-old oral history with a partisan outlet," Moore spokesperson Ammar Moussa told Fox News Digital, in reference to the Washington Free Beacon report. "The broader reality is not in dispute: intimidation and racial terror were pervasive in the Jim Crow South, and it rarely came with neat documentation. Even Bishop William Alexander Guerry — whom they cite to suggest there was no hostility — was later murdered amid intense backlash tied to his racial equality work. The report on Moore's portrayal of his grandfather's life story added fuel to the fire of scrutiny the rumored 2028 White House hopeful has already faced for previous stories about his record, including questions about his military record and an Oxford University thesis, both reported on by the Washington Free Beacon and both brought up by users on social media in recent days. "Wes Moore is being talked about as one of the top contenders in the 2028 Democratic primary and the guy has already told more lies about his life than Elizabeth Warren," Greg Price, Trump White House rapid response manager for the first half of 2025, posted on X. "Moore is reaching Biden levels of fabulism," National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru posted on X. "Hoo boy," Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume posted on X. "Read this, and the post it is in response to." In September, Moore said he is "not running for president" in 2028 and is "excited" about serving a full term if he wins re-election in November, although many still believe he has presidential ambitions at some point in the future. Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is expected this week to revoke a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, according to a White House official. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an official announcement, confirmed the plans, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. “This week at the White House, President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday. It is used to justify regulations, such as auto emissions standards, intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change — deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world. Legal challenges would be certain for any action that effectively would repeal those regulations, with environmental groups describing the shift as the single biggest attack in U.S. history on federal efforts to address climate change. An EPA spokesperson did not address when the finding would be revoked but reiterated that the agency is finalizing a new rule on it. Brigit Hirsch said via email that the Obama-era rule was “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history” and said EPA “is actively working to deliver a historic action for the American people.” President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” previously issued an executive order that directed EPA to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic administrations, saying they were “willing to bankrupt the country” in an effort to combat climate change. Democrats “created this endangerment finding and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence ... segments of our economy,″ Zeldin said in announcing the proposed rule last year. Peter Zalzal, a lawyer and associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, countered that the EPA will be encouraging more climate pollution, higher health insurance and fuel costs and thousands of avoidable premature deaths. Zeldin's push “is cynical and deeply damaging, given the mountain of scientific evidence supporting the finding, the devastating climate harms Americans are experiencing right now and EPA's clear obligation to protect Americans' health and welfare,” he said. Zalzal and other critics noted that the Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. “The evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused greenhouse gases is beyond scientific dispute,” the panel said. ___ Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ClimateDepot.com executive editor Marc Morano joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss President Donald Trump's decision to sever ties with dozens of international organizations and more President Donald Trump's administration is poised to walk back an Obama-era greenhouse gas finding that serves as a lynchpin for justifying climate regulations across the country on Wednesday. The 2009 "endangerment finding" identifies six greenhouse gases that the Obama administration said pose "a threat to public health and welfare." That harm finding was then used to justify sweeping climate regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), such as raising fuel economy standards and limiting power plant emissions, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin hailed the move as cutting through government red tape in an interview with the Journal. President Donald Trump's administration is walking back a key climate research finding from former President Barack Obama's administration. The Journal reports that the final rule will be made public later this week and is set to eliminate requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse-gas emission standards for motor vehicles. The rollback does not yet affect power plants or oil and gas facilities. "More energy drives human flourishing," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the outlet. "Energy abundance is the thing that we have to focus on, not regulating certain forms of energy out." Trump is reportedly expected to hold an event at the White House on Wednesday with Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. There they will announce a new initiative for the Department of War to purchase electricity from coal-powered plants. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will meet with Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump has been consistently critical of global warming claims and climate regulation throughout both of his terms in office, famously withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement when he first took office in 2017. Trump is expected to direct the War Department to purchase more electricity from coal-fired power plants this week. Trump more recently used the wall of winter storms across the U.S. as a talking point against "climate insurrectionists." Rarely seen anything like it before," Trump wrote on social media last month. "Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???" This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters. At Vox, our mission is to help you make sense of the world — and that work has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? See inside Tolga Bat Hospital, a place for Australia's injured and orphaned flying foxes. If it doesn't melt your heart, nothing will. In northeastern Australia, not far from the coastal city of Cairns, is a place called Tolga Bat Hospital. It comprises a few small buildings with treatment rooms, cold storage for fruit, and a nursery for orphan bats, as well as several outdoor wire enclosures. The largest cage is akin to a long-term care facility; it's for bats that can no longer fly and will live out their lives at the hospital. They come in with disease, heat stress, or injuries from barbed wire. The hospital also cares for hundreds of baby spectacleds — named for the lighter fur around their eyes that makes it look like they're wearing glasses — that have lost their mothers and can't survive on their own. On a warm afternoon in December, I visited the hospital with Australian photographer Harriet Spark. We met a lot of cute bats — and they were hard not to love. Flying foxes are furry with expressive eyes, large ears, and a dog-like snout. But it was the hospital founder and director, Jenny Mclean, whom I found even more endearing. Mclean, who works around the clock at the hospital and doesn't pay herself, said she feels a responsibility to help these creatures — not only because they're suffering at our expense but because they help keep our planet healthy. Flying foxes are exceptionally good at pollinating plants and dispersing their seeds, Mclean said. Giving back to these animals in some way, she said, is the least we can do. Most of the babies were outside when we visited, hanging with their feet on several mesh metal shelves. Spectacled flying foxes are enormous: These animals were about 2 months old and already football-sized. By the time they grow up, their wingspan could reach more than three feet. The bats, still too young to fly, hung upside down, wrapped in their own wings, alongside stuffed animals. The stuffies, which Mclean buys from a local secondhand store, are meant to mimic mother bats, and the babies will often cling to them for comfort, Mclean told me. Even younger bats were in a room inside the building. Infants under one week are kept in an incubator because they have trouble regulating their body temperature. Slightly older babies are kept in plastic boxes with heating pads and socks that they can cling to. During tick season, which typically runs from October to December, hospital workers search the ground below colonies, or “camps,” for infected bats, which often fall out of trees. Mothers likely pick up ticks while they're foraging without their young, Mclean said, and the parasites latch on before they have a chance to crawl onto the babies. Paralysis ticks live all across eastern Australia, but they only seem to affect spectacled flying foxes in the Atherton Tablelands, where the hospital is located, Mclean told me. One explanation, Mclean said, is that spectacleds in this region feed on the berries of an invasive shrub called wild tobacco, where they encounter the ticks. That afternoon, I followed Mclean into the main hospital building, where she treats adult bats with paralysis. Rows of small metal cages and cloth boxes sat on shelves along the wall. Using a towel, Mclean gently grabbed one of the bats from its cage to see if it would eat. The animal was having trouble swallowing, Mclean told me, as she placed a syringe with apple and mango juice in its mouth. The bat took a few sips and then pulled its head away. Mclean moved it into a small plastic bin for plan B: seeing if the animal would eat a small piece of pear instead. The bat began to chew, but then spat it out. “You have not got a good swallow, my girl,” Mclean said. Spectacleds in the Tablelands, meanwhile, are increasingly born with cleft palate syndrome (for reasons that are not yet clear), which makes it hard for them to feed. And more recently, severe heat waves tied to climate change have decimated flying fox populations. Mclean says she received about 500 orphans that year from the heat wave alone. “There are not that many people who will champion them,” she told me. Bats have a bad rap, in part, because they can carry diseases. Flying foxes are no exception — in rare cases, they can carry Australian bat lyssavirus, a relative of rabies. What gets less attention is the fact that humans almost never contract a disease from flying foxes. (Workers at Tolga Bat Hospital get vaccinated before handling bats as a safety precaution.) Ultimately, flying foxes are not a real threat to humans, she said. “It's this whole thing of, are we willing to share the planet or not?” she said. If flying foxes continue to disappear, so will essential services like pollination and seed dispersal that keep forests alive, Mclean told me. Around the world, energy is becoming abundant — there's just one problem. Do we need a new federal agency to help? Scientists are baffled by the results from new Arctic research. Why forecasters struggled to see this extreme winter storm coming. Australia is doing absolutely everything to protect its most iconic ecosystem — except, perhaps, the one thing that really matters.

To date, it doesn't appear that any judge in the District of Minnesota has held an agency official or Justice Department attorney in civil contempt of court or imposed sanctions in cases related to Operation Metro Surge. Many of the punishment threats have arisen in cases where judges concluded that an immigrant was unlawfully arrested and must immediately be released. Other compliance issues have bubbled up when Immigration and Customs Enforcement releases a noncitizen with certain conditions that they weren't subject to prior to their arrest, enraging a judge who never gave permission to impose such constraints. “This is clearly not tenable,” Judge Laura Provinzino, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, told one top government attorney late last month. “I can't continue to have (federal prosecutors) violating really important orders … If somebody should be released, that has to happen.” Trump admin attorney leaves Minnesota after telling judge her job ‘sucks' amid crush of immigration cases But in some instances, attorneys representing immigrants swept up in the enforcement blitz have asked the judge to impose sanctions when compliance issues have occurred. “It's very rare for federal government officials to face contempt sanctions in court,” said David Cole, a Georgetown Law professor who served as the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “And yet, it's become almost routine under this administration.” “If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the government's obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn't be an ‘overwhelming' habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders,” she said. “The level of illegal aliens currently detained is a direct result of this administration's strong border security policies to keep the American people safe.” “The extent of ICE's noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated,” Judge Patrick Schiltz recently wrote in a scornful order that included a list of 74 cases in which his colleagues on the bench had found violations. The problem was on full view last week when Julie Le, one of the attorneys managing the government's ballooning caseload, unloaded on a federal judge in St. Paul about how it's like “pulling teeth” to get agencies to correct errors made in some cases. ‘Untethered to the facts': Federal judges say Trump administration has a credibility issue as it battles immigration cases US District Judge Jerry Blackwell, a Biden appointee, had hauled Le and one of her colleges into court to explain why they shouldn't be held in contempt for repeated violations of court orders in a handful of cases. “Continued detention is not lawful just because compliance with release orders is administratively difficult or because an operation has expanded beyond the government's capacity to execute it lawfully,” Blackwell told the two lawyers. Blackwell didn't announce a decision from the bench, and Le has subsequently left her temporary post in Minnesota, which she took on in early January. In the cases reviewed by CNN, judges have similarly skewered the administration over its compliance problem, even as they've stopped short of imposing a punishment. Judge John R. Tunheim, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said late last month that the government had “willfully violated” two of his orders in the case of a Salvadoran national who was challenging his detention. The man wasn't returned to Minnesota until January 28, four days after he was supposed to land back in the state. Judge Donovan Frank had raised the possibility of a contempt showdown if immigration officials didn't provide assurances that they had complied with his order to release the man, who had been detained by agents and subsequently brought to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. But four full days passed without an update from the government, prompting Frank on January 28 to threaten officials with contempt proceedings if they didn't provide assurances that the man had been released. Meanwhile, in a different courtroom on January 28, Provinzino grilled a high-ranking official in the federal prosecutor's office in Minneapolis about why his office had regularly violated orders from her and made clear that if she saw any further compliance issues, the top federal prosecutor in the state would need to personally appear before her to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt. The judge had called the hearing after saying that repeated demands from her for information about a detainee she had ordered released went unanswered. The man, a Mexican national, had also remained in custody 26 hours after he was supposed to have been let out. “You would just happen to be, I think, the seventh one in the office who's violated one of my orders,” she told Assistant US Attorney Friedrich Siekert. “What steps are you putting in place or is the United States Attorney's Office and ICE putting in place to ensure compliance on a prospective basis?” And in the case of a man referred to in court papers as “Juan,” Judge Susan Nelson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, noted that the government blew past her deadline for his release by five days. She said she would hold a contempt hearing if compliance wasn't eventually achieved, but after those plans were announced, the man was released and the judge said the hearing was “no longer necessary.” At least one of the Trump appointees overseeing cases in Minnesota is also grappling with compliance issues in the cases they're handling. For Schiltz's part, the appointee of former President George W. Bush had summoned the head of ICE, Todd Lyons, before him last month to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt for violations of orders in cases he's overseeing. Days before the hearing was set to take place, Schiltz backed down from his threat after an immigrant detainee was finally released from custody, as the judge had ordered. David Wilson, an immigration attorney in Minneapolis whose firm has been handling hundreds of cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge, including many where compliance issues have arisen, said that Schiltz's 4-page broadside against the government represented a “boiling point” for a visibly frustrated court system. “There's clearly a fire burning behind the building,” he said.

A 2019 FBI report revealed that President Donald Trump allegedly called a Palm Beach, Florida, police chief in 2006 to express gratitude for “stopping” Jeffrey Epstein, after the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender's crimes became public. Trump made the comments long before his foray into politics and presidential run. He allegedly told the police chief that everyone knew Epstein “has been doing this.” “Donald Trump told [redacted] that he threw Epstein out of his club. The report was based on a phone conversation Trump allegedly had in October 2019 with a police chief, whose name was redacted, the Miami Herald reported. “Trump told him people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting,” read the FBI report. The report also discussed then-Prince Andrew's presence at Palm Beach, stating that “he was a fixture in Palm Beach and he had no protection while there.” Trump's alleged statements in the report would appear to contradict his earlier claims from July 2019, when he denied knowing anything about Epstein's sex crimes against underage girls. Trump's alleged 2006 phone call, along with the 2019 report, had previously gone unreported. An FBI employee claimed that Trump had not called Reiter in 2006, according to the Miami Herald.

TikTok has agreed to settle in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff's attorneys confirmed. Young people use their phones to view social media in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comparing social media platforms to casinos and addictive drugs, lawyer Mark Lanier delivered opening statements Monday in a landmark trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Instagram owner Meta and Google's YouTube responsible for harms to children who use their products. Instagram's parent company Meta and Google's YouTube face claims that their platforms addict children through deliberate design choices that keep kids glued to their screens. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums. Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants. Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt spoke of the disagreement within the scientific community over social media addiction, with some researchers believing it doesn't exist, or that addiction is not the most appropriate way to describe heavy social media use. Lawyers representing YouTube will begin their opening statement on Tuesday. He presented jurors with a slew of internal emails, documents and studies conducted by Meta and YouTube, as well as YouTube's parent company, Google. He emphasized the findings of a study Meta conducted called “Project Myst” in which they surveyed 1,000 teens and their parents about their social media use. He also highlighted internal Google documents that likened some company products to a casino, and internal communication between Meta employees in which one person said Instagram is “like a drug” and they are “basically pushers.” She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury. KGM made a brief appearance after a break during Lanier's statement and she will return to testify later in the trial. Lanier spent time describing KGM's childhood, focusing particularly on what her personality was like before she began using social media. Lanier said that despite the public position of Meta and YouTube being that they work to protect children, their internal documents show an entirely different position, with explicit references to young children being listed as their target audiences. “For a teenager, social validation is survival,” Lanier said. The defendants “engineered a feature that caters to a minor's craving for social validation,” he added, speaking about “like” buttons and similar features. He spent much of his time going through the plaintiff's health records, emphasizing that she had experienced many difficult circumstances in her childhood, including emotional abuse, body image issues and bullying. Schmidt presented a clip from a video deposition from one of KGM‘s mental health providers, Dr. Thomas Suberman, who said social media was “not the through-line of what I recall being her main issues,” adding that her struggles seemed to largely stem from interpersonal conflicts and relationships. Schmidt acknowledged that many mental health professionals do believe social media addiction can exist, but said three of KGM's providers — all of whom believe in the form of addiction — have never diagnosed her with it, or treated her for it. Schmidt emphasized to the jurors that the case is not about whether social media is a good thing or whether teens spend too much time on their phones or whether the jurors like or dislike Meta, but whether social media was a substantial factor in KGM's mental health struggles. A slew of trials beginning this year seek to hold social media companies responsible for harming children's mental well-being. Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify at the Los Angeles trial, which will last six to eight weeks. A separate trial in New Mexico, meanwhile, also kicked off with opening statements on Monday. In that trial, Meta is accused of failing to protect young users from sexual exploitation, following an undercover online investigation. Attorney General Raúl Torrez in late 2023 sued Meta and Zuckerberg, who was later dropped from the suit. A federal bellwether trial beginning in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children. In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming it is harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. TikTok also faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states. Associated Press Writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this story.

Rock led a rival halftime show, backed by Turning Point USA, following conservative backlash over the choice of Bad Bunny. Later in the interview, however, Rock was more charitable toward Bunny when asked about the performance's content, though he added that he “didn't understand any of it.” Looked like he had one, you know, not my cup of tea. But I don't fault that kid for doing the Super Bowl, getting in front of a global audience. I fault the … NFL for putting them in that position. Rock previously performed in the 2004 Super Bowl alongside Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. “Nobody remembers I played the Super Bowl because that was when Janet Jackson showed her boob,” he joked. TPUSA's “All-American Halftime Show” featured performances from Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barrett, and Brice Lee. Both shows aired approximately around the same time. Though an impressive viewership, it was dwarfed by Bunny's over 135 million viewers, the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show of all time.

Savannah Guthrie released a video ahead of Monday evening's looming ransom deadline set by her mother's purported abductors. The investigation into the apparent kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, continues a week after she was reported missing in Arizona. A member of the Pima County Sheriff's Department stands by his truck looking at Nancy Guthrie‘s house, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil) A person walks a dog as members of the Pima County sheriffs office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie's home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil) This image provided by the Pima County Sheriff's Department on Feb. 2, 2026, shows a missing person alert for Nancy Guthrie. The agency is operating a 24-hour command post equipped with investigative teams and crisis management experts while asking for help from the public. In a video released Monday, Savannah Guthrie said the family was “at an hour of desperation” but that they continue to believe her mother is out there and hearing everyone's prayers. “She was taken and we don't know where, and we need your help,” Guthrie said in the video posted on Instagram, urging people nationwide to be on the lookout “no matter where you are, even if you're far from Tucson, if you see anything, if you hear anything.” The FBI is asking for the public's help on digital billboards up in several major cities in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. Multiple news outlets received alleged ransom letters during the past week. At least one letter made monetary demands and set deadlines for receiving the money. The first deadline passed last Thursday and a second one was set for Monday evening. The Pima County Sheriff's Department said Monday that law enforcement tip lines have received thousands of calls. Authorities say they have growing concerns about Nancy Guthrie's health because she needs daily medication. She is said to have a pacemaker and has dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff's dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com. In a video Saturday, Savannah Guthrie said the family was prepared to pay for her mother's return. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.” She was last seen there Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day after not attending church. DNA tests showed blood on Guthrie's front porch was a match to her, and her doorbell camera was disconnected in the early hours of Sunday morning, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said. Speaking to reporters, Tucson resident Chuchi Ruiz, who stopped by Nancy Guthrie's house to bring flowers and offer support, says news of her disappearance has shaken the community. Outside the home on Monday, neighbors strolled by on their morning jogs and walks, while a county sheriff's deputy remained stationed out front.