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Tag: ARTICLE

  • World Trade Center’s last office tower will soon be built and house American Express

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    NEW YORK — The World Trade Center’s final office tower will start construction as soon as this spring and become American Express ‘ new headquarters, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the company said Wednesday, marking a milestone nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11 attacks destroyed the site.

    The 2 World Trade Center building will round out the long, tortuous redevelopment of the original 16-acre trade center property. There remains no construction date for a neighboring apartment building to replace another 9/11-damaged skyscraper.

    But the 2 World Trade Center announcement represents a big step, physically and symbolically, in fulfilling a pledge of renewal at ground zero. Hochul and other officials also trumpeted the project as a sign of New York’s continued vitality as a business hub. It comes as Florida and other states have been trying to woo companies from New York.

    “Building 2 World Trade Center will bring another iconic skyscraper to Lower Manhattan, create thousands of good-paying union jobs and provide billions in economic benefits to New Yorkers,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.

    American Express CEO Stephen Squeri called the skyscraper “an investment in our company’s future, our colleagues and the Lower Manhattan community,” where the credit card giant has been based for nearly 200 years. Its current headquarters is just west of the trade center.

    The trade center was decimated when al-Qaida hijackers crashed jets into its twin towers, part of a coordinated attack that also sent planes into the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, mainly at the trade center.

    Fraught with physical, financial and political complexities and public debate over what to build, redevelopment unfolded gradually and hit numerous roadblocks. But over time, the signature 1 World Trade Center skyscraper, other towers, the Sept. 11 memorial and museum, a transit hub -cum-shopping center and a performing arts center were built on the property, owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

    The 55-story, roughly two-million-square-foot (186,000-square-meter) 2 World Trade Center building is planned at the site’s northeastern corner. The spot is currently occupied by a low placeholder building, covered with colorful graffiti-style murals, and a beer garden.

    American Express declined to discuss the cost of the new building — which the company will own, leasing the underlying land — but said it doesn’t involve any tax incentives. Messages seeking further information about the costs and financing of the project were sent to officials.

    Plans once envisioned a skyscraper soaring as high as 80 stories, and News Corp. and the former Twenty-First Century Fox were among companies that at points eyed moving there. Like some other trade center components, the project labored for years to secure financing and an anchor tenant. The task grew tougher when the coronavirus pandemic emptied offices in 2020 and raised questions about companies’ future space needs.

    Developer Larry Silverstein always insisted the project would happen, however.

    Silverstein Properties CEO Lisa Silverstein, who is the 94-year-old developer’s daughter, hailed American Express as “an iconic institution embodying the strength, resilience, and global significance of the project.”

    The company plans to occupy the entire Norman Foster -designed building, a sleek structure of glassy sections interspersed with landscaped terraces and gardens. It’s expected to accommodate up to 10,000 workers; American Express declined to say how that compares to its current headquarters.

    Completion is expected in 2031.

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  • FBI serving search warrants at Los Angeles school district headquarters and superintendent’s home

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    LOS ANGELES — The FBI is serving search warrants at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and the superintendent’s home.

    Federal officials in Los Angeles were serving the warrants Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe. The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.

    The district and the superintendent’s office did not immediately respond to emails and a voicemail requesting comment.

    TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s modest home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown LA. There was no visible sign of agents outside the district headquarters as of mid-morning.

    The sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District is the nation’s second largest, with more than 500,000 students and covering more than two dozen cities.

    Carvalho has been its superintendent since February 2022. Before coming to Los Angeles, Carvalho oversaw Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, from 2008 to 2021, when he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance.

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    Tucker reported from Washington.

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  • NASA moves its Artemis II moon rocket off launch pad for more repairs

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA moved its grounded Artemis moon rocket from the launch pad back to its hangar Wednesday for more repairs.

    The slow-motion trek at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center was expected to take all day. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket had spent a month at the pad ready for potential liftoff, but encountered a series of problems serious enough to require a return to the Vehicle Assembly Building, about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away.

    Managers ordered the rollback over the weekend after the rocket’s helium pressurization system malfunctioned. Already delayed a month by hydrogen fuel leaks, the launch team had been targeting March for astronauts’ first trip to the moon in decades. But now the Artemis II lunar fly-around by a U.S.-Canadian crew is off until at least April.

    All four astronauts were at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as invited guests, since the flight delay means they no longer need to quarantine.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Chiuri makes Fendi creative debut with fur-forward looks and star-filled front row

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    MILAN — Uma Thurman’s casual front-row look for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut as Fendi creative director during Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday provided a sneak peek of a cold-weather collection that veered from solid daywear to sensuous evening looks, anchored by fur-forward outerwear.

    The front row was star-packed, including Thurman in a classic white blouse under a dark blazer and Jessica Alba in a double-breasted pantsuit. Both echoed looks on the runway.

    Dakota Fanning and Monica Bellucci also were present, along with a host of K-pop stars, including Fendi ambassador Bang Chan. Hundreds of K-pop fans waited outside with homemade signs and drawings of their favorite singers, across the street from a dozen anti-fur protesters.

    Fendi was born a century ago in Rome as a furrier and leather goods maker, and heritage fur looks were strong on the runway, from bombers to patchwork coats. Wispy fur collars complemented silken dresses and sheer, beaded eveningwear; fur-lined hoods adorned parkas, while plush collars topped trench coats.

    Dark blazers and overcoats defined the opening looks, layered over trousers, casual dresses and sheer lace. Lace was reinterpreted on laser-cut leather dresses, anchored by starched white collars and dainty bangles.

    Boho florals made a quick appearance, along with a sheer Art Deco–style dress. A smattering of denim and animal prints punctuated the mostly black and navy palette.

    Chiuri’s was one of the most highly anticipated debuts during this Milan Fashion Week of mostly womenswear collections. She started her career at Fendi as a handbag designer and later was co-creative director of Valentino and creative director of Dior.

    The creative director shuffle reshaping European fashion has been male-dominated, with Chiuri among a handful of women taking top jobs at major houses. They include Louise Trotter, who will show her second collection at Bottega Veneta, and Meryll Rogge, who will make her debut at Marni this week.

    Silvia Venturini Fendi, who stepped aside as creative director of the fashion house last fall, took a front-row seat for Wednesday’s collection.

    “It’s very moving,” said Venturini Fendi, who until this season has been busy backstage during shows. “It’s the first time I have watched a Fendi runway show.”

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  • Penguins captain Sidney Crosby placed on injured reserve after getting hurt at the Olympics

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    Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) reacts after Canada lost to the United States in a men’s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

    The Associated Press

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  • Robinson, Edmonds lead TCU over Arizona State 90-78

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    FORT WORTH, Texas — Micah Robinson scored 20 points, Xavier Edmonds added 17 and TCU rolled to a 90-78 victory over Arizona State on Tuesday night.

    TCU took the lead for good with about six minutes to play before halftime led by as many as 18 points in the second half.

    Edmonds and Robinson each made three of TCU’s eight 3-pointers. Brock Harding shot just 1 of 10 from the floor but made 8 of 11 free throws and finished with 10 points and distributed 11 assists for the Horned Frogs. Tanner Toolson added 12 points and Liutauras Lelevicius scored 10.

    TCU (18-10, 8-7 Big 12) has won five of its last six and four straight against Arizona State (14-14, 5-10).

    Maurice Odum scored 21 points and had 10 assists to lead the Sun Devils. Anthony Johnson added 18 points and Massamba Diop 13.

    Edmonds scored 14 points and Lelevicius added nine to help TCU take a 33-30 lead to halftime. With 13:30 left, TCU started a 9-0 surge for a 58-46 lead and the Horned Frogs held a double-digit advantage for most of the remainder.

    Arizona State hosts Utah on Saturday.

    TCU plays at Kansas State on Saturday.

    ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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  • Winning numbers drawn in Tuesday’s Mega Millions

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    The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the “Mega Millions” game were: 12-39-43-49-55, Mega Ball: 23, Megaplier:

    The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the “Mega Millions” game were:

    12-39-43-49-55, Mega Ball: 23

    (twelve, thirty-nine, forty-three, forty-nine, fifty-five, Mega Ball: twenty-three

    Estimated jackpot: $438 million

    For more lottery results, go to Jackpot.com | Order Lottery Tickets

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  • Asian stocks gain after optimism about AI sends Wall Street higher

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    TOKYO — U.S. futures were flat after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, while Asian shares were mostly higher.

    Japan’s benchmark briefly hit a record high as investors were cheered by an overnight Wall Street rally driven by optimism about the artificial-intelligence boom.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 surged 2.2% to 58,583.12.

    Shares also rose in China. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 26,735.22, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.6% to 4,142.17.

    South Korea’s Kospi surged 2.1% to 6,093.33, as the benchmark continued to benefit from the global demand for computer chips.

    In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 2.1% as shares in TSMC, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of computer chips, surged 2.5%.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.2% to 9,128.30.

    In his speech, Trump focused on jobs, manufacturing and an economy he says is stronger than many Americans believe. He didn’t dwell on efforts to lower the cost of living — despite polling showing that his handling of the economy and kitchen-table issues has increasingly become a liability.

    The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were nearly unchanged.

    On Tuesday, before the speech, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to 6,890.07. The Dow industrials added 0.8% to 49,174.50, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1% to 22,863.68.

    Advanced Micro Devices helped lead the market and rallied 8.8% after announcing a multiyear deal where it will supply chips to Meta Platforms to help power its AI ambitions. Meta also got the right to buy up to 160 million shares of AMD stock for 1 cent each, depending in part on how many chips Meta ultimately buys.

    It’s a reminder of the excitement that built in recent years about the billions of dollars pouring into AI, producing a sharp turnaround from the prior day, when worries about the potential downsides of AI shook Wall Street. IBM rose 2.7% to recover some of its 13.1% drop from Monday, which was its worst since 2000.

    Chipmaking giant Nvidia is due to report its earnings later Wednesday in a quarterly report likely to sway a jittery stock market as investors weigh whether the massive bets riding on technology’s latest craze will pay off.

    As has been the case since Nvidia’s chipsets emerged as AI’s best building blocks, the expectations are sky high for the results covering the company’s fiscal quarter, covering November through January.

    Big U.S. companies have reported mostly better profits for the end of 2025 than analysts expected. Keysight Technologies rallied 23.1% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500, while Home Depot rose 2% after likewise delivering stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected.

    In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said that confidence among U.S. consumers improved by more than economists expected. The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.03%, where it was late Monday.

    In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 48 cents to $66.11 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 48 cents to $71.06 a barrel.

    The U.S. dollar slipped to 155.82 Japanese yen from 155.91 yen. The dollar traded close to 160 yen levels several months ago. The euro cost $1.1803, up from $1.1774.

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    Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

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  • Gov. Gavin Newsom takes heat from Republicans and LGBTQ+ lawmakers during book tour

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    LOS ANGELES — If politicians write memoirs to generate online buzz and headlines, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting plenty of both — favorable and not.

    Just a few days into a national book tour, the two-term Democrat who is widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028 is taking heat from conservatives who say some recent remarks were racist and from LGBTQ+ advocates bristling at his calls for the Democratic Party to be more “culturally normal.”

    Newsom’s kickoff swing for “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery” comes as he’s sought to position himself as the leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump and a capable player on the international stage.

    The book, released Tuesday, focuses heavily on carefully crafted biography over policy and is designed to introduce Newsom to a national audience who may be unfamiliar with the former San Francisco mayor and lieutenant governor. It’s been argued that all publicity is good publicity, but the six-city tour is also testing those limits as Newsom seeks to shake off the image, fair or not, of a liberal elitist out of touch with Main Street.

    Newsom’s middling academic record and lifelong struggles with dyslexia are a key piece of his narrative as he seeks relatability with audiences. But conservatives have seized on comments about those struggles made Sunday during a conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is Black.

    “I’m just trying to impress upon you: I’m like you, I’m no better than you, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” he said, referring to a lower-than-average score on the commonly used college entrance exam.

    Republicans said Newsom was disparaging Black people by suggesting they weren’t smart, an assertion Newsom and his office forcefully denied.

    “Black Americans aren’t your low bar,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, wrote on social media. “We’ve built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled and outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. Its ridiculous!”

    Newsom’s office pushed back hard against another critic, Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, accusing him of being indifferent to racist remarks made by Trump and saying his comments amounted to fake outrage. “You’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?” Newsom wrote on X.

    His office said the crowd, which can be heard laughing, was racially diverse. Dickens said critics were taking the comments out of context.

    “That wasn’t an attack on anyone. It was a moment of vulnerability about his own journey,” the mayor wrote on Instagram. “We’ve gotten so used to loud, chest-pounding politics that when someone speaks about shortcomings, people try to twist it into something else.”

    Other prominent Black Democrats also chimed in to defend Newsom.

    The back-and-forth has put Newsom’s book tour in the national headlines for several days, a premium place to be in a fragmented world of political news.

    “At this early stage of the pre-presidential race, just about any publicity is good publicity,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy. To “have the spotlight is invaluable and Newsom has a real knack for attracting all the right enemies if you are running for the Democratic presidential nomination.”

    Newsom’s press office later taunted in a social media post that he was dominating news coverage on the same day as Trump’s State of the Union speech. “FOX NEWS IS WALL-TO-WALL COVERAGE OF ME,” the post said.

    Critics of his remarks in Atlanta were largely on the right but included some exceptions like Nina Turner, a co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and Cornel West, who tried to launch a third-party presidential bid in 2024. Both are Black.

    Meanwhile, he’s facing blowback from California Democrats over other remarks made this week.

    He told CNN in an interview aired Monday that the Democratic Party needs to be “more culturally normal” and “less prone to spending a disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity” while emphasizing energy costs, child care and other kitchen table issues.

    “It’s deeply concerning for anyone, especially our elected leaders, to be defining who or what is ‘culturally normal.’ By definition, it implies someone else is ‘not normal,’” the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus said in a statement.

    “We cannot adopt the language of MAGA extremists who in the last year are actively seeking to roll back the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals and marginalized communities,” the caucus wrote.

    Lindsey Cobia, a senior Newsom campaign adviser, noted his long history supporting the LGBTQ+ community including when, as mayor, he issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples before it was legal.

    “Nobody’s been a bigger supporter of LGBTQ+ rights than Governor Newsom,” she said in a statement.

    It’s not the first time Newsom has angered allies in the LGBTQ+ community. On the first episode of his political podcast last year, he said it was “ deeply unfair ” for transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Those comments were widely viewed as an attempt by Newsom to move to the political center.

    Newsom’s last two stops on the book tour are in San Francisco and Los Angeles. With a year left in his governorship, some critics say he should stay focused at home.

    “To go on a book tour when our state is in desperate need of revamping and revisions … its almost comical,” said Hollywood crisis manager Holly Baird, who is not a fan of the governor.

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  • Federal workplace safety regulators penalize businesses over 6 deaths at Colorado dairy

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    Federal workplace safety regulators have issued citations and fines against three businesses for violations in the deaths of six people last year at a Colorado dairy.

    The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday announced fines including penalties for failing to protect workers against hazardous gases against the dairy owner and a dairy service provider. The deaths of five men and a teenager on Aug. 20, 2025, sent shockwaves through the rural communities in and around Keenesburg, 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Denver.

    Previously, the Weld County coroner’s office determined from autopsies and toxicology tests that all the people who died were exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas.

    Those autopsy reports gave little indication of the circumstances of the deaths, describing only an industrial accident in a confined space at a dairy farm.

    In August 2025, federal regulators opened initial investigations of the dairy, owned by Prospect Ranch as well as Johnstown, Colorado-based Fiske Inc, whose subsidiary High Plains Robotics services dairy equipment and employed some of those who died.

    The hazards of confined spaces on farms and dairies are a well-known and persistent cause of death in agriculture across the U.S. — often from exposure to odorless and colorless noxious gases, or due to asphyxiation in closed spaces where oxygen has been depleted.

    First responders from a rural fire district in Weld County were dispatched around 6 p.m. on Aug. 20 to Prospect Ranch and took their own safety precautions as they entered a confined space.

    All those who died in Colorado were Latino, ranging in age from 17 to 50. Four of them, including the teenage high school student, were from the same extended family.

    Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, of Nunn, was found dead along with his 17-year-old son Oscar Espinoza Leos and a second son, 29-year-old Carlos Espinoza Prado.

    The Espinozas are related by marriage to a 36-year-old from Greeley who died — Jorge Sanchez Pena, according to the Weld County coroner’s office.

    The other two men — Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, and Noe Montañez Casañas, 32 — lived in Keenesburg.

    The remains of Montañez Casañas, a veterinarian who was employed under a U.S. visa, were repatriated to the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, according to the Mexican consulate in Denver.

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    Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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  • Tiger Woods nearing decisions on whether to play in Masters and be Ryder Cup captain

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    LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods is on the clock.

    Woods kept everyone guessing — a favorite hobby of his — with one word and a smug grin last week at Riviera when he was asked if playing in the Masters was off the table.

    “No,” he replied.

    The grin indicated there would be nothing to add. To borrow a phrase from Dan Hicks at NBC when Woods forced a playoff in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, “Expect anything different?”

    He wasn’t about to rule out playing in the Masters with two months to go. And having not competed in more than a year, Woods just doesn’t know yet. But big decisions are looming for Woods in the next month.

    The Masters gets all the attention because a red shirt on Sunday has become nearly as common as a green jacket at Augusta National. But there’s also that small matter of the Ryder Cup.

    Woods is the top choice — the only choice at the moment — to be captain for the 2027 matches in Ireland, just like he was for the last Ryder Cup before he turned it down. Officials were forced to wait longer than ever before announcing Keegan Bradley as captain at Bethpage Black.

    Now the PGA of America is asking Woods to decide before the Masters whether he wants the job. Two people informed of the situation describe it more as a soft deadline than an ultimatum. They spoke on condition of anonymity because these matters are private.

    The Ryder Cup captaincy has become a time-consuming job, and Woods sounds as though he is busier than ever. His most important role is chairman of the Future Competition Committee as it works toward one of the biggest and most complicated overhauls of the PGA Tour schedule.

    Woods offered as much when he said, “I thought I spent a lot of hours practicing in my prime. It doesn’t even compare to what we’ve done in the boardroom.”

    This is what drives him at the moment. He would love to be at the Masters, where in 2024 he set the record by making his 24th consecutive cut. He is a player at heart.

    Woods looked good last week in his role as tournament host at the Genesis Invitational. More than one person noticed the purpose in his step — and how big he looked — just walking through the locker room. He was comfortable in his news conference and in the CBS booth with Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman.

    Good enough to compete while walking 72 holes at Augusta? Woods kept them guessing, too.

    He said he is hitting full shots — “Not well every day, but I can hit them,” he said — and the Achilles tendon he ruptured a year ago is no longer an issue, rather it’s the recovery from a seventh back surgery in September to replace a disk in his lower back.

    Age doesn’t help. He turned 50 at the end of last year and recovery takes longer.

    As for the Ryder Cup captaincy, it’s all about time and priorities. Woods is driven by the idea that as much as he has done for the game already (think prize money), he can do even more as a chief architect that reshapes the model of golf at the highest level.

    So when the Ryder Cup came up, his first response was he hasn’t decided.

    “I’m trying to figure out what we’re trying to do with our tour,” he said. “That’s been driving me hours upon hours every day and trying to figure out if I can actually do our team — Team USA and our players and everyone that’s going to be involved in the Ryder Cup — if I can do it justice.”

    By the time the azaleas are bursting with blooms in early April, Woods could be wearing yet another hat as Ryder Cup captain. Or the PGA of America will move on to a Plan B that includes predictable options and few surprises.

    Meanwhile, the next two weeks might offer hints on how much progress Woods is making on the job taking up most of his bandwidth.

    PGA Tour Enterprises CEO Brian Rolapp is expected to give an update, pulling back the curtain as much as he can, on the progress of the new schedule. The committee is looking at the sequence of events — a splashy start and a finish that makes sense — with an eye on big markets.

    Woods said the final work might not be done in time for 2027, perhaps only portions of what to expect. That would seem to indicate a later start to the season (Aloha, Hawaii) and moving around some of the postseason events.

    The tour has been looking at moving some of the premier West Coast stops to August for better (warmer) weather and prime-time viewing.

    To move Riviera to August would make sense except golf in LA doesn’t have a history of big attendance in August, and title sponsor Genesis already has a PGA Tour event in July (Scottish Open). Torrey Pines? It was worth noting the strong attendance this year by officials from Wisconsin-based Sentry, currently the title sponsor at Kapalua.

    Pebble Beach has a massive car show that dates to 1950 and is among the best in the world in the middle of August. That tournament is unlikely to move to summer.

    “There’s been a lot of moving parts over the last couple years,” Woods said.

    He was speaking about the tour. He could just as easily be talking about himself.

    ___

    On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season.

    ___

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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  • Waymo robotaxis being dispatched in 10 U.S. markets with expansion in Texas, Florida

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    Waymo will begin dispatching its robotaxis in four more cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.

    The move into Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, announced Tuesday, widens Waymo’s early lead in autonomous driving while rival services from Tesla and the Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in only a few U.S. cities.

    In contrast, Waymo’s robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they have been transporting passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas.

    Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in all the U.S. cities except Atlanta and Austin, where its robotaxis can only be summoned through Uber’s ride-hailing service.

    The expansion into four more markets marks a significant step toward Waymo’s goal to surpass 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities that include Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit and Boston while signaling its first overseas availability is likely to be London.

    To help pay for more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion as part of the financial infusion that puts the value of the company at $126 billion. The valuation fueled speculation that Waymo may eventually be spun off from its corporate parent Alphabet, where it began as a secret project within Google in 2009.

    Although Waymo is opening up in four more cities, its robotaxis initially will only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando before the service will be available to all comers in those markets.

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  • Amon-Ra St Brown to play in mother’s home of Germany as Detroit set for NFL Munich game

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    MUNICH — Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown says a long-time dream will come true after his team was confirmed to play in the NFL game in Munch this year.

    St. Brown’s mother was born in Germany and his career has been closely followed by the NFL’s large German fan base.

    “It has been a dream of mine to play a game in my mother’s home country of Germany since coming to the league,” St. Brown said in a league statement on Tuesday.

    “I cannot wait to play in front of the incredible fans that I’ve gotten to know through my visits and football camps in the country. Their support for me and the country’s instant connection to the Lions brand is inspiring, and I’m looking forward to our team getting to showcase Detroit football on an international scale.”

    Detroit’s opponent will be confirmed later. The Munich game is part of a record schedule of nine international games in 2026 including new host cities in France, Australia and Brazil.

    The NFL is heading back to Munich for its third game at a stadium better known as the home of German soccer champion Bayern Munich. The city hosted the NFL’s first game in Germany in 2022 and another in 2024. Frankfurt and Berlin have also hosted games.

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    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

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  • Reddit hit with $20 million UK data privacy fine over child safety failings

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    LONDON — Britain’s data privacy watchdog slapped online forum Reddit on Tuesday with a fine worth nearly $20 million for failures involving children’s personal information.

    The Information Commissioner’s Office said it issued the penalty worth 14.5 million pounds ($19.5 million) because the failures resulted in the platform using children’s data “unlawfully.”

    “Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control. That left them potentially exposed to content they should not have seen,” said Information Commissioner John Edwards. “This is unacceptable and has resulted in today’s fine.”

    The U.K. privacy regulator has been escalating scrutiny of online platforms over child safety. Earlier this month it hit MediaLab, owner of image-sharing site Imgur, with a 247,590 pound fine over similar failures and it has also been investigating TikTok since last year.

    The watchdog took issue with Reddit’s age verification measures. It said that even though the platform doesn’t allow children under 13 to use its service, it didn’t have any way to check the ages of its users before July 2025.

    Edwards said online platforms that are likely to be accessed by children are responsible for protecting them by making sure they’re not exposed to any risks “through the way their data is used.” They can do this with “effective age assurance measures,” he said.

    Reddit rolled out age verification measures in July 2025 in order for users to access mature content, including asking them to declare their age when setting up an account.

    But the watchdog said “self-declaration” is easy to bypass and that it told Reddit it would continue to monitor the platform’s handling of children’s data.

    Reddit said it would appeal the decision.

    “Reddit doesn’t require users to share information about their identities, regardless of age, because we are deeply committed to their privacy and safety,” the company said in a statement. “The ICO’s insistence that we collect more private information on every UK user is counterintuitive and at odds with our strong belief in our users’ online privacy and safety.”

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  • US military boards third oil tanker in Indian Ocean after tracking it from Caribbean

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    WASHINGTON — U.S. military forces boarded a third sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

    U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Bertha overnight, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”

    “The vessel was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and attempted to evade,” the post said. “From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it.”

    Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.

    The Bertha is a vessel flagged to the Cook Islands and is under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

    Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. military helicopters flying toward the tanker.

    Trump’s Republican administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of Venezuela’s oil. The Pentagon’s post did not state whether the Bertha was formally seized and placed under U.S. control.

    Maduro was brought to the U.S. to face charges of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. and has pleaded not guilty.

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  • Home Depot tops expectations in the fourth quarter, but customers pull back on spending

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    Home Depot’s fourth-quarter was muted by ongoing caution from American consumers in a weak housing market, but the home improvement retailer topped Wall Street expectations.

    The Atlanta company earned $2.57 billion, or $2.58 per share, for the three months ended Feb. 1. Stripping out one-time charges or benefits, earnings were $2.72 per share, topping analyst projections for per-share earnings of $2.53, according to FactSet.

    A year earlier it earned $3 billion, or $3.02 per share.

    An extra week in fiscal 2024 added approximately 30 cents per share to the year-ago quarter.

    Home Depot’s stock rose more than 3% before the market opened on Tuesday.

    Revenue totaled $38.2 billion, down from $39.7 billion a year earlier. The extra week in the prior-year period added about $2.5 billion of sales.

    Wall Street was looking for revenue of $38.09 billion.

    Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, edged up 0.4%. In the U.S., comparable store sales climbed 0.3%.

    Chair and CEO Ted Decker said in a statement that Home Depot’s quarterly results “were largely in-line with our expectations, reflecting the lack of storm activity in the third quarter and ongoing consumer uncertainty and pressure in housing. Adjusting for storms, underlying demand was relatively stable throughout the year.”

    Customer transactions dropped 1.6% in the quarter. The amount shoppers spent rose to $91.28 per average receipt from $89.11 a year earlier.

    Home Depot and other retailers have seen customers cut back on their spending amid concerns about inflation and economic uncertainty.

    U.S. consumer confidence declined sharply in January, hitting the lowest level since 2014 as Americans grow increasingly concerned about their financial prospects.

    The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index cratered 9.7 points to 84.5 in January, falling below even the lowest readings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    And sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell sharply in January as higher home prices and possibly harsh winter weather kept many prospective homebuyers on the sidelines despite easing mortgage rates.

    Existing home sales sank 8.4% last month from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s the biggest monthly decline in nearly four years and the slowest annualized sales pace in more than two years.

    The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows that fueled a homebuying frenzy at the start of this decade.

    For fiscal 2026, Home Depot anticipates adjusted earnings to be approximately flat to up 4% from fiscal 2025’s $14.69 per share. The company foresees total sales growth of about 2.5% to 4.5% and comparable sales growth to be approximately flat to up 2%.

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  • Kevin Durant says he wants to play for U.S. men’s basketball team at 2028 Olympics

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    Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant will be less than two months shy of his 40th birthday when the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics begin, but he says he told USA Basketball Managing Director Grant Hill he’d like to be considered for the U.S. men’s team when…

    HOUSTON — Rockets forward Kevin Durant will be less than two months shy of his 40th birthday when the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics begin, but he said Monday night he told USA Basketball Managing Director Grant Hill he’d like to be considered for the U.S. men’s team when the time comes.

    “I didn’t want to just take my name out of consideration just because of the simple fact that I’m older and I did it before,” Durant said after scoring 18 points for Houston in a 125-105 win over the Utah Jazz. “Grant understands my love for Team USA. That’s my family. The level of love I have for Team USA and the whole organization over there is unmatched, so I’d love to be part of it until I’m done playing.”

    Durant has played in the last four Olympics, becoming USA men’s basketball’s career scoring leader in the process, but he says he doesn’t want to just be handed a spot on the 2028 team. He wants to earn it.

    “I understand how tough that decision is for Grant, and how many great players are going to emerge the next year and a half, and I’m also very old compared to a lot of these players,” Durant said. “I know I’ve got my work cut out for me to make that team.”

    During the 2024 Paris games, Durant became the first American player to win four Olympic gold medals in men’s basketball. United States stars Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird won five gold medals in women’s basketball, but Durant says joining that club is not his motivation for wanting to go through another Olympic cycle.

    “I just love playing for Team USA. I love representing my country. That’s the first and most important thing — it’s putting that USA across my chest and representing where I come from,” he said.

    Durant is averaging 25.9 points per game on 50.7% shooting in his 18th NBA season.

    ___

    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

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  • Hegseth and Anthropic CEO set to meet as debate intensifies

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    WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to meet Tuesday with the CEO of Anthropic, with the artificial intelligence company the only one of its peers to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, declined to comment on the meeting but CEO Dario Amodei has made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent.

    The meeting between Hegseth and Amodei was confirmed by a defense official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    It underscores the debate over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how the technology could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance. It also comes as Hegseth has vowed to root out what he calls a “woke culture” in the armed forces.

    “A powerful AI looking across billions of conversations from millions of people could gauge public sentiment, detect pockets of disloyalty forming, and stamp them out before they grow,” Amodei wrote in an essay last month.

    The Pentagon announced last summer that it was awarding defense contracts to four AI companies — Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. Each contract is worth up to $200 million.

    Anthropic was the first AI company to get approved for classified military networks, where it works with partners like Palantir. The other three companies, for now, are only operating in unclassified environments.

    By early this year, Hegseth was highlighting only two of them: xAI and Google.

    The defense secretary said in a January speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas that he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

    Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”

    In January, Hegseth said Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok would join the Pentagon network, called GenAI.mil. The announcement came days after Grok — which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk — drew global scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.

    OpenAI announced in early February that it, too, would join the military’s secure AI platform, enabling service members to use a custom version of ChatGPT for unclassified tasks.

    Anthropic has long pitched itself as the more responsible and safety-minded of the leading AI companies, ever since its founders quit OpenAI to form the startup in 2021.

    The uncertainty with the Pentagon is putting those intentions to the test, according to Owen Daniels, associate director of analysis and fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

    “Anthropic’s peers, including Meta, Google and xAI, have been willing to comply with the department’s policy on using models for all lawful applications,” Owens said. “So the company’s bargaining power here is limited, and it risks losing influence in the department’s push to adopt AI.”

    In the AI craze that followed the release of ChatGPT, Anthropic closely aligned with President Joe Biden’s administration in volunteering to subject its AI systems to third-party scrutiny to guard against national security risks.

    Amodei, the CEO, has warned of AI’s potentially catastrophic dangers while rejecting the label that he’s an AI “doomer.” He argued in the January essay that “we are considerably closer to real danger in 2026 than we were in 2023″ but that those risks should be managed in a “realistic, pragmatic manner.”

    This would not be the first time Anthropic’s advocacy for stricter AI safeguards has put it at odds with the Trump administration. Anthropic needled chipmaker Nvidia publicly, criticizing Trump’s proposals to loosen export controls to enable some AI computer chips to be sold in China. The AI company, however, remains a close partner with Nvidia.

    The Trump administration and Anthropic also have been on opposite sides of a lobbying push to regulate AI in U.S. states.

    Trump’s top AI adviser, David Sacks, accused Anthropic in October of “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.”

    Sacks made the remarks on X in response to an Anthropic co-founder, Jack Clark, writing about his attempt to balance technological optimism with “appropriate fear” about the steady march toward more capable AI systems.

    Anthropic hired a number of ex-Biden officials soon after Trump’s return to the White House, but it’s also tried to signal a bipartisan approach. The company recently added Chris Liddell, a former White House official from Trump’s first term, to its board of directors.

    The Pentagon-Anthropic debate is reminiscent of an uproar several years ago when some tech workers objected to their companies’ participation in Project Maven, a Pentagon drone surveillance program. While some workers quit over the project and Google itself dropped out, the Pentagon’s reliance on drone surveillance has only increased.

    Similarly, “the use of AI in military contexts is already a reality and it is not going away,” Owens said.

    “Some contexts are lower stakes, including for back-office work, but battlefield deployments of AI entail different, higher-stakes risks,” he said, referring to the use of lethal force or weapons like nuclear arms. “Military users are aware of these risks and have been thinking about mitigation for almost a decade.”

    ___

    O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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  • Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge winners

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    The winners of this year’s Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge created innovative projects to improve their cities’ core services – many using some combination of artificial intelligence and the wisdom of their residents.

    That’s what South Bend, Indiana, Mayor James Mueller did with his initiative that uses AI to interpret data about residents, like a family falling behind on paying its water bill, and to help offer them services and support that could prevent larger issues.

    “Technology is not necessarily good or bad – it’s how it’s used and how you protect against abuses,” said Mueller, a Democrat who has been mayor since 2020. “We’re trying to use cutting edge tools to deliver city services in a proactive way that meets our residents’ needs.”

    The twenty-four winners announced Tuesday range from Boise, Idaho, where they are using geothermal energy to lower residents’ heating bills, to Beira, Mozambique, where they are relocating fishermen and their families from flood-prone coastal homes to safer inland houses. Each will receive $1 million to implement the program, as well as support from Bloomberg Philanthropies experts to help the new initiative succeed.

    The hope, says former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., is that successful programs from Mayors Challenge winners can be used in other cities.

    “The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs – and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more of them succeed,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

    James Anderson, head of government innovation programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, said many of this year’s winners are integrating AI technology into their work in sophisticated ways, bringing municipal governments closer to the residents they serve.

    “Testing and learning and adapting new ideas don’t generally get funded with public dollars,” Anderson said. “It is up to philanthropy to support experimentation.”

    Vico Sotto, mayor of Pasig City in the Philippines, said becoming one of this year’s Mayors Challenge winners will speed up his project to build floating parks in the Pasig River that will become new community space and reduce flooding threats in the area. Without the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Sotto said the initiative wouldn’t be able to start for another year or two.

    “The government doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to maintaining infrastructure,” Sotto said. “So we will be creating a governance council, including people who live in the area, so definitely they’re not going to abandon these parks. They’re going to take care of them because they’re using them as well.”

    In Lafayette, Louisiana, the city-parish had the opposite problem. Lafayette wanted to update parts of its sewer system, but because some parts were on homeowners’ property the city wasn’t allowed to pay for it.

    Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet said the Mayors Challenge encouraged her administration to figure out a solution that will now allow Lafayette to make the repairs and, as a result, encourage development in the city. The plan was also named a Mayors Challenge winner.

    “Bloomberg Philanthropies, the staff, Michael Bloomberg – all of them – have such a global impact in ways that most people will never know,” said Boulet, a Republican elected in 2023. “They bring in a level of capacity and give you the space to really be creative and to come up with solutions that can change lives.”

    South Bend’s Mueller said that the Mayors Challenge comes at a time when more and more global problems need to be solved at a local level.

    “Trust in government is at an all-time low, but local governments consistently perform better in surveys about trust from their residents,” Mueller said. “It is critical for us to maintain that level of trust with our residents and build it even further. So that’s why we’re always looking at innovative ways of doing things better and making the city a better place to live.”

    The winners of the 2026 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge are: As-Salt, Jordan; Barcelona, Spain; Beira, Mozambique; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Benin City, Nigeria; Boise, Idaho, United States; Budapest, Hungary; Cape Town, South Africa; Cartagena, Colombia; Fez, Morocco; Fukuoka, Japan; Ghaziabad, India; Ghent, Belgium; Kanifing, The Gambia; Lafayette, Louisiana, United States; Medellín, Colombia; Netanya, Israel; Pasig, Philippines; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; South Bend, Indiana, United States; Surabaya, Indonesia; Toronto, Canada; Turku, Finland; Visakhapatnam, India.

    _____

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Hegseth and Anthropic CEO set to meet as debate intensifies over the military’s use of AI

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    WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to meet Tuesday with the CEO of Anthropic, with the artificial intelligence company the only one of its peers to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, declined to comment on the meeting but CEO Dario Amodei has made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent.

    The meeting between Hegseth and Amodei was confirmed by a defense official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    It underscores the debate over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how the technology could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance. It also comes as Hegseth has vowed to root out what he calls a “woke culture” in the armed forces.

    “A powerful AI looking across billions of conversations from millions of people could gauge public sentiment, detect pockets of disloyalty forming, and stamp them out before they grow,” Amodei wrote in an essay last month.

    The Pentagon announced last summer that it was awarding defense contracts to four AI companies — Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. Each contract is worth up to $200 million.

    Anthropic was the first AI company to get approved for classified military networks, where it works with partners like Palantir. The other three companies, for now, are only operating in unclassified environments.

    By early this year, Hegseth was highlighting only two of them: xAI and Google.

    The defense secretary said in a January speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas that he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

    Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”

    In January, Hegseth said Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok would join the Pentagon network, called GenAI.mil. The announcement came days after Grok — which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk — drew global scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.

    OpenAI announced in early February that it, too, would join the military’s secure AI platform, enabling service members to use a custom version of ChatGPT for unclassified tasks.

    Anthropic has long pitched itself as the more responsible and safety-minded of the leading AI companies, ever since its founders quit OpenAI to form the startup in 2021.

    The uncertainty with the Pentagon is putting those intentions to the test, according to Owen Daniels, associate director of analysis and fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

    “Anthropic’s peers, including Meta, Google and xAI, have been willing to comply with the department’s policy on using models for all lawful applications,” Owens said. “So the company’s bargaining power here is limited, and it risks losing influence in the department’s push to adopt AI.”

    In the AI craze that followed the release of ChatGPT, Anthropic closely aligned with President Joe Biden’s administration in volunteering to subject its AI systems to third-party scrutiny to guard against national security risks.

    Amodei, the CEO, has warned of AI’s potentially catastrophic dangers while rejecting the label that he’s an AI “doomer.” He argued in the January essay that “we are considerably closer to real danger in 2026 than we were in 2023″ but that those risks should be managed in a “realistic, pragmatic manner.”

    This would not be the first time Anthropic’s advocacy for stricter AI safeguards has put it at odds with the Trump administration. Anthropic needled chipmaker Nvidia publicly, criticizing Trump’s proposals to loosen export controls to enable some AI computer chips to be sold in China. The AI company, however, remains a close partner with Nvidia.

    The Trump administration and Anthropic also have been on opposite sides of a lobbying push to regulate AI in U.S. states.

    Trump’s top AI adviser, David Sacks, accused Anthropic in October of “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.”

    Sacks made the remarks on X in response to an Anthropic co-founder, Jack Clark, writing about his attempt to balance technological optimism with “appropriate fear” about the steady march toward more capable AI systems.

    Anthropic hired a number of ex-Biden officials soon after Trump’s return to the White House, but it’s also tried to signal a bipartisan approach. The company recently added Chris Liddell, a former White House official from Trump’s first term, to its board of directors.

    The Pentagon-Anthropic debate is reminiscent of an uproar several years ago when some tech workers objected to their companies’ participation in Project Maven, a Pentagon drone surveillance program. While some workers quit over the project and Google itself dropped out, the Pentagon’s reliance on drone surveillance has only increased.

    Similarly, “the use of AI in military contexts is already a reality and it is not going away,” Owens said.

    “Some contexts are lower stakes, including for back-office work, but battlefield deployments of AI entail different, higher-stakes risks,” he said, referring to the use of lethal force or weapons like nuclear arms. “Military users are aware of these risks and have been thinking about mitigation for almost a decade.”

    ___

    O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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