Key senators and the families of the 67 dead in an airliner collision with an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital are convinced that advanced aircraft locator systems recommended by experts for nearly two decades would have prevented last year’s tragedy. But it remains unclear if a bill will pass Congress requiring the systems around busy airports.
The Senate Commerce Committee is planning a hearing Thursday to highlight why the National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending since 2008 that all aircraft be equipped with one system that can broadcast their locations and another one to receive data about the location of other aircraft. Only the system that broadcasts location is currently required. The hearing will review all 50 of the NTSB’s recommendations to prevent another midair collision like that of Jan. 29, 2025.
All aboard the helicopter and the American Airlines jet flying from Wichita, Kansas, including 28 members of the figure skating community, died died when the aircraft collided and plummeted into the icy Potomac River.
The entire Senate already unanimously approved the bill that would require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have both kinds of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems installed. However, leaders of the key House committees seem to want to craft their own comprehensive bill addressing all the NTSB recommendations instead of immediately passing what’s known as the ROTOR act. The ADS-B out systems continually broadcast an aircraft’s location and speed and have been required since 2020. But ADS-B in systems that can receive those signals and create a display showing pilots were all air traffic is located around them are not standard.
If the American Airlines jet had been equipped with one of the ADS-B in systems that can receive location data, the NTSB and the victims’ families and key lawmakers say, the pilots may have been able to pull up in time to avoid the Black Hawk that inexplicably climbed into the plane’s path.
The receiving systems should have provided nearly a minute’s warning along with an indication of the helicopter’s position instead of the 19-second warning the pilots received with the existing collision-avoidance system on the plane. But for that to work the helicopter’s ADS-B out system that’s supposed to broadcast its location would have to be turned on and working correctly, which wasn’t the case on the night of the crash.
But these locator systems are one of the measures that might have been able to overcome all the systemic problems and mistakes the NTSB identified in the disaster. That’s why NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy — who will be the only witness at the hearing — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and all of the Senate endorsed it.
“This seems like a no-brainer, right? Especially when this is not a new thing that they’re proposing,” said Amy Hunter, whose cousin Peter Livingston died on the flight with his wife and two young daughters.
Afterward, the FAA made several changes including prohibiting helicopters from flying along the route where the crash occurred anytime a plane is landing on the secondary runway at Reagan National Airport.
The crash anniversary and NTSB hearing on the causes of the crash made recent weeks challenging for victims’ families. And now the Olympics are reminding Hunter and others that their loved ones — like young Everly and Alydia Livingston — will never have a chance to realize their dreams of competing for a gold medal.
The biggest stumbling block is cost concerns. Upgrading some airline jets might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, placing an expensive burden on some — especially regional airlines with tighter margins like the one that flew the jet that collided with the Army helicopter. Some worry whether general aviation pilots could afford the upgrades, too.
Any plane that’s more than a decade old likely doesn’t have either of these systems installed while most planes newer than that would at least have an ADS-B out system that broadcasts their location.
But roughly three quarters of the pilots of business jets and smaller single-engine Cessnas and Bonanzas use portable devices that only cost several hundred dollars made by companies like ForeFlight that can tap into this location data and display the information about nearby aircraft on an iPad. So it doesn’t appear the legislation would create a significant expense for them.
Tim Lilley, a pilot himself, said having both these locator systems would have saved the life of his son Sam, who was copilot of the airliner, and everyone else who died. He said small plane owners have an affordable option, but even the expensive upgrades to large planes would be worth it.
“If those recommendations had been fully realized, this accident wouldn’t have happened,” Lilley said. “I don’t know what value we put on the human life, but 67 lives would still be here today.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — With Valentine’s Day falling on a Saturday is a plus for many couples, it’s not a best-case scenario for local flower shops.
Lu Cushing, owner of Janie Beane Florist in Clearwater, said that they typically see a 20% dip in sales on the years Valentine’s Day hits on a weekend when compared to the holiday hitting on a weekday.
While a big money-maker as the historically biggest flower-buying holiday of the year, Cushing says Feb. 14 being on a Saturday has made a difference in buying habits.
“Men love to send flowers to work, in a place where she can enjoy them and everyone can see them,” Cushing said. “This year, we’re getting some orders for earlier in the week because they want them to last all week at the office.”
What You Need To Know
Major flower suppliers in Columbia and Ecuador are subject to tariffs
Price of flowers has increased as florists find ways to keep costs down for customers
Valentine’s Day falling on Saturday is not best case scenario for florists
Owner of Janie Beane Florist estimates 20% dip in sales compared to weekday Valentines Day
Instead of making dozens of deliveries to offices on Valentine’s Day morning, Cushing says they’ve been scattered throughout the week. There’s also more home deliveries and pickups this year set for Valentine’s Day morning.
Overall, Cushing says, this hasn’t been the busiest Valentine’s Day in history.
That’s on par with what she’s seen over the last few decades when the holiday hits over a weekend. Cushing is now in her 54th year at Janie Beane Florist, a shop she opened alongside her late mother.
The flower industry has had to adjust after the U.S. imposed tariffs on imported cut flowers. More than 80% of flowers found in the U.S. are from major suppliers in Ecuador and Columbia.
“Flowers are up more … definitely,” Cushing said. “Vases are up more.”
Vases that used to cost Cushing roughly $6 a piece are now between $8 to $9. Cushing said she’s shifted to finding more suppliers from North America to help curb the costs.
“We’ve adjusted,” she said.
Cushing said she offers options for those looking for flowers on budget by offering wrapped bouquets. She will wrap the stems of flowers in a sponge and a bag so a customer can take them home and use a vase they already have.
“I shop small business as well so its important to me that I accommodate everybody,” she said.
What has improved over the last year, Cushing said, is predictability. Before the tariffs went into effect, she said prices would bounce and make it difficult to quote large events like weddings. Now that prices have stabilized, the shop is taking less of a hit.
After over five decades, they also relocated to Imperial Square in Clearwater, to a family-owned plaza in a smaller more budget friendly space.
LIMA, Peru — The Trump administration on Wednesday expressed concern that China was costing Peru its sovereignty in solidifying control over the South American nation’s critical infrastructure, a blunt warning after a Peruvian court ruling restricted a local regulator’s oversight of a Chinese-built mega port.
The $1.3 billion deepwater port in Chancay, north of Peru’s capital of Lima, has become a symbol of China’s foothold in Latin America and a lightning rod for tensions with Washington.
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on social media that it was “concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners.”
It added: “We support Peru’s sovereign right to oversee critical infrastructure in its own territory. Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.”
The concern comes as the Trump administration seeks to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China has long built influence through massive loans and high trade volumes.
Chancay, along the Pacific coast, is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, an infrastructure program that has seen Chinese state-owned banks offer sizable loans or financial guarantees to construct seaports, airports and highways, among other projects, across multiple continents.
As Latin America’s deepest port, Chancay is capable of berthing some of the world’s largest cargo ships traveling between Asia and South America. China has been Peru’s biggest trading partner for more than a decade now.
China’s state-owned shipping and logistics company Cosco, a majority shareholder in the port, dismissed the U.S. claims.
In response to questions from The Associated Press, it said the court ruling “in no way involves aspects of sovereignty” and insisted that the port remains “under the jurisdiction, sovereignty and control of Peruvian authorities, subject to all Peruvian regulations.”
It added there were plenty of Peruvian authorities monitoring the port’s activities, including police forces, environmental regulators and customs officials.
The ruling issued Jan. 29 by a lower court judge orders Peruvian authorities to refrain from exercising “powers of regulation, supervision, oversight and sanction” over the port in Chancay.
The regulator, Ositran, which has oversight over all of the country’s other major ports, said it would appeal the decision, arguing that there was no reason to exempt Cosco Shipping from the agency’s oversight.
“(Cosco Shipping) would be the only company providing services to the public that could not be supervised,” Verónica Zambrano, president of Ositran, told a local radio station Wednesday.
Although it’s privately owned, the Chancay Port covers 180 hectares (about 445 acres) of Peruvian territory, Zambrano added, making it subject to government efforts to monitor and enforce compliance with local user protection standards.
Peru’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment. China’s Embassy in Peru did not respond to a request for comment.
Now, a foreclosure complaint has been filed against the complex’s owner.
What You Need To Know
Court records show a mortgage lender has filed a complaint for foreclosure against Lurin Real Estate Holdings for a loan it issued for the Elements on Third apartment complex
In the complaint, lawyers for BDS IV Mortgage Capital say Lurin failed to make payments starting in August and now owes more than $110 million
Lurin previously came under scrutiny when the city of St. Petersburg said a water shut-off at two properties, including Elements, was possible after Lurin failed to pay its utility bills
“Am I surprised? No, not really,” said Boshko Stanisic, an organizer with the St. Petersburg Tenants Union. “Lurin has been in kind of a financial fall for quite awhile.”
The complaint was filed on Feb. 6 against Lurin Real Estate Holdings. Lawyers for BDS IV Mortgage Capital claim Lurin failed to make payments on a $110 million loan starting in August.
“I didn’t know this was an ongoing thing. So, it’s a little concerning,” said Elements on Third resident Mitchell Williams.
In the nearly three years Williams has lived at the complex, he’s seen it go through ups and downs.
Back out at Elements on Third today in #StPetersburg – this time because a complaint for foreclosure was filed against the owner, Lurin Real Estate Holdings. Court documents say Lurin stopped making payments on a $110 million loan from its mortgage company in August. @BN9pic.twitter.com/pUAQtibIVw
“I think they were running out of cash or something,” he said. “The property started to get a little bit dirty.”
Then, the city said Lurin wasn’t paying its water bill at Elements and another of its properties, The Morgan Apartments.
“It was a little scary when we were notified that we might be without water and might have to make other accommodations when we’d been paying for it the whole time,” Williams said. “So, that was definitely frustrating.”
Williams said things started getting better in the fall, with maintenance and amenities being brought up to par. A city spokesperson also said back in August that Lurin paid its outstanding utility balance on the property.
Now, the BDS is seeking for force Lurin to pay the principal of the loan, plus interest and expenses, in full.
Stanisic said he’s working with residents at The Morgan as they navigate their own uncertain situation. He said tenants of a property facing foreclosure wouldn’t necessarily see immediate impacts.
“A lot of it is just a change in ownership, a little bit of uncertainty,” he said. “A new owner, they might purchase the property, they might come in and change up the property manager.”
Williams said residents haven’t been notified of the proceedings or any changes.
“We’re happy at the moment, but hopefully nothing goes downhill to where we were a few months ago,” he said.
A spokesperson for Lurin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The complaint says BDS is requesting the court appoint a receiver for Elements on Third. It also asks that the property be sold at a public sale if Lurin doesn’t pay the debt.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In Taipei, real estate agent Jason Sung is betting that home prices around a high-tech industrial park in the northern part of Taiwan’s capital will soon take flight – because of computer chip maker Nvidia.
The area is where Nvidia plans to build its new Taiwan headquarters as it rapidly expands on the island, set to surpass Apple to become the biggest customer of Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC, the biggest contract manufacturer of the advanced chips needed for artificial intelligence.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang describes Taiwan as the “center of the world’s computer ecosystem.” It’s riding high on the global AI frenzy. Its economy grew at an 8.6% annual pace last year, and it’s hoping to maintain that momentum after it recently sealed a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that cut U.S. tariffs on Taiwan to 15% from 20%.
“We have been lucky,” said Wu Tsong-min, an emeritus economics professor at National Taiwan University and a former board member of Taiwan’s central bank.
But Taiwan’s heavy reliance on computer chip makers and other technology companies carries the growing risk of the AI craze turning out to be a bubble.
“What if the AI bubble is real, and what if its rapid growth pace slows, what’s next for Taiwan? That’s the question many have been asking,” Wu said.
Escalating tensions with Beijing, which claims independently governed Taiwan as mainland China’s territory, are another abiding threat, despite the island’s vital role in global chip and AI supply chains.
An island of about 23 million people, Taiwan depends heavily on exports. They jumped nearly 35% year-on-year in 2025, as shipments to the U.S. surged 78% due to ballooning AI demand.
That’s thanks largely to TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., and electronics giant Foxconn, which makes AI servers for Nvidia and is a major supplier to Apple.
Taiwan has undergone massive economic changes while shifting from mainly labor-intensive industries such as plastics and textiles to advanced manufacturing like semiconductor fabrication.
The AI frenzy has made TSMC one of the world’s top 10 most valuable companies. Its profit jumped 46% last year to $1.7 trillion Taiwan dollars ($54 billion).
The chipmaker is investing heavily both in Taiwan and in new factories in Arizona in the U.S. It produces more than 90% of the world’s most advanced chips.
Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has doubled its value since 2023. The maker of Apple’s iPhone and iPads now produces AI servers and racks and has a partnership with OpenAI to supply AI data center equipment.
Taiwan’s heavy reliance on its technology industry means its biggest risk is that growth will be “very highly contingent on the AI boom and tech race continuing,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank.
Worries that the AI craze may prove to be a bubble prone to a bust similar to the dot.com crash in 2000 that swept through markets, alarming many in Taiwan.
“I’m also very nervous about it,” C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chairman said when asked about a potential AI bubble during an earnings call in January. “Because we have to invest about $52-$56 billion (this year).”
“If we did not do it carefully, that will be a big disaster to TSMC for sure,” he said. “I want to make sure that my customers’ demands are real.”
In a recent report, analysts from Fitch Ratings argued that AI demand will remain strong at least in the near term. In the longer term, however, the risks “will depend on the evolution of AI, as well as trade and investment policies and the adaptability of Taiwanese firms,” they wrote.
Taiwanese electronics company Asia Vital Components, a key supplier of liquid cooling systems for Nvidia, is investing heavily in research and development. Its chairman, Spencer Shen, said he saw no signs of a slowdown in AI-related demand so far. The company is already designing thermal solutions for 2028 AI servers, he said.
“We do not believe this is a bubble,” Shen told The Associated Press in an interview. “AI is driven by companies with real products and massive cash flows, like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta.”
“In fact, AI infrastructure is still in short supply,” Shen added. “I expect AI to trickle through to our everyday level and change the way that things will work fundamentally.”
Some in Taiwan believe that its pivotal role in the technology sector, especially as a maker of computer chips whose main material is silicon, helps to protect the island from attack by communist-ruled Beijing, whose leaders have vowed to reunite the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.
The two governments split in 1949 during a civil war. Beijing has been stepping up pressure, conducting military drills nearby. Exercises in late December included live rounds landing closer to the island than before, Taiwan officials said.
Such geopolitical factors cloud the economic outlook, though many in Taiwan including its former President Tsai Ing-wen believe its importance to global chipmaking would deter China from attacking.
The risk of an invasion is unclear. Both global tech companies and Chinese industries would suffer from massive disruptions of the chip supply chain, said Wu of National Taiwan University.
Still, some companies have been identifying contingency scenarios in recent years on how to respond in case of military action by China, said Chen Shin-horng, vice president of the semi-official Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.
“We need to understand the potential risk, potential damages to Taiwan,” said Chen.
While many of its core research and development activities are in Taiwan, TSMC already has plants in China, Japan and the U.S., and it’s expanding its offshore production in the U.S., Germany and Japan.
Roughly 65% of Foxconn’s manufacturing is in China, and the company has factories in other parts of the world such as India, Mexico and the U.S. AVC has been expanding its production capacity in Vietnam.
While some have called for Taiwan to diversify its economy away from technology to reduce risks, others argue that doubling down on its world-leading technology is the way forward. “It is our greatest strength,” said Shen of AVC.
The AI boom has done wonders for Taiwan’s stock exchange, where the benchmark Taiex has climbed nearly 250% over the past decade, making many investors rich. Economists have significantly upgraded forecasts for Taiwan’s economic growth for 2026 based on its robust AI-related exports.
But as is true elsewhere, the wealth is not evenly spread. Many Taiwan residents feel they have been left behind.
Taiwan’s wealth gap, according to official data, has roughly quadrupled over the past three decades.
The pay of tech workers already earning high wages, especially chip engineers and managers, has skyrocketed. For other traditional industries, such as plastics and machine toolmakers, growth has lagged.
Economists say that gap might widen as the AI frenzy continues.
“It can be tough to make a living,” said Jean Lin, a 30-something manager of a takeaway outlet selling bento meals in a Taipei neighborhood where Foxconn’s office is located.
“Many of the younger generation still can’t afford to buy an apartment,” Lin, who wishes to start her own business one day, added. “A lot of young people still feel they don’t have much money.”
___
Associated Press video journalist Johnson Lai contributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Mount Sinai nurses have approved a new contract, ending a monthlong walkout at its hospitals in New York City.
The hospital system said Wednesday that an overwhelming majority of its unionized nurses on strike voted to ratify new three-year pacts.
Brendan Carr, CEO of Mount Sinai, said its nurses will begin reporting back to work Saturday.
He urged hospital staff to come together with empathy and respect and a “shared culture” as its unionized nurses return to work starting with the morning shift Saturday.
“The past several weeks have been challenging, emotional, frustrating, and exhausting in different ways for all of us,” Carr said in a letter to staff. “I want to remind us all that health care is built on compassion, and that compassion must extend not only to our patients, but also to one another.”
The union and spokespersons for Montefiore and NewYork Presbyterian — the other two systems where nurses are on strike — didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The union has said tentative deals reached with those hospital systems call for pay raises of more than 12% over three years.
They also maintain nurses’ health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs and include new protections against workplace violence, including specific protections for transgender and immigrant nurses and patients, the union said.
The pacts even include new safeguards against artificial intelligence in hospitals for the first time, according to the union.
Nurses walked off the job Jan. 12 and have been picketing in front of some of the largest and most prestigious privately-run hospitals in the city, just as the region endured some of the most frigid temperatures seen in years.
Nurses said staffing and safety were among their top issues in contract talks.
They complained their patient loads are unmanageable and sought better security measures in hospitals, particularly after two recentviolent incidents.
The new contracts would address those concerns by increasing staffing levels and providing new protections against workplace violence, the union said.
They brought on thousands of temporary nurses to fill in staffing gaps, and canceled scheduled surgeries, transferred some patients and discharged others in the days ahead of the strike.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States on Wednesday to pressure the discount retailer into taking a public stand against the 5-week-old immigration crackdown in its home state of Minnesota.
ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, labor unions and other critics of the federal operation, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations to continue at Target locations for a full week. Target’s headquarters are located in Minneapolis, where federal officers last month killed two residents who had participated in anti-ICE protests, and its name adorns the city’s major league baseball stadium and an arena where its basketball teams plays.
“They claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,” said Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. He organized a Wednesday protest outside a Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown commercial district.
Demonstrations also were scheduled in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, Seattle and other cities, as well as in suburban areas of Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Target declined Wednesday to comment on the protests.
Target first became a bulls-eye for critics of the Trump administration’s surge in immigration enforcement activity after a widely-circulated video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield last month. Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos Minnesota, an immigrant-led social justice advocacy organization that is part of the CE Out Minnesota coalition, said his group is focusing its protests on the Richfield store.
One of the demands of Wednesday’s protests is for Target to deny federal agents entry to stores unless they have judicial warrants authorizing arrests.
Some lawyers have argued that anyone, including U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customers Enforcement agents without signed warrants, can enter public areas of a business as they wish. Public areas include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles, but not back offices, closed-off kitchens or other areas of a business that are generally off-limits to the public and where privacy would be reasonably expected, those lawyers say.
Target has not commented publicly on the detention of the store employees. CEO Michael Fiddelke, who became Target’s chief executive on Feb. 2, sent a video message to the company’s 400,000 workers two days after a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti on Jan. 24.
Fiddelke said the “violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful,” but he did not mention the immigration crackdown or the fatal shootings of Pretti, an ICU nurse at a medical center for U.S. veterans in Minneapolis, and Renee Good, a mother of three fired on in her car by an ICE agent.
Fiddelke was one of 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies who, in the wake of Pretti’s death, signed an open letter “calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
The protests over its alleged failure to oppose the immigration crackdown in Minnesota come a year after Target faced protests and boycotts over the company’s decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. At the time, critics said the decision marked a betrayal of Target’s retail giant’s philanthropic commitment to fighting racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.
The retail chain also is struggling with a persistent sales malaise. Critics have complained of disheveled stores that are missing the budget-priced flair that long ago earned the retailer the nickname “Tarzhay.”
While Wednesday’s protests targeted a tiny fraction of the company’s nearly 2,000 stores, the negative attention serves as another distraction from Target’s business, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division of market research firm GlobalData.
“The agenda has been hijacked by this,” Saunders said. “And it is a bit of a distraction for Target that they’d rather not have.”
In recent days, a national coalition of Mennonite congregations organized roughly a dozen demonstrations inside and outside of Target stores across the country, singing and urging Target to publicly call Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement among other demands.
A spokesperson for Mennonite Action said the coalition was not formally connected to Ice Out but following the lead of organizers in Minneapolis.
The Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, said the group did not plan any actions on Wednesday but was mapping out weekend singalong events at Targets in a handful of towns and cities, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She estimated that by the end of the weekend more than 1,000 congregation members will have participated.
Shenk noted that the Mennonites sing “This Little Light of Mine” and other gospel songs and hymns.
“The singing was an expression of our love for immigrant neighbors who are at risk right now and who are also a part of our congregation,” she said. “For us, it’s not just standing in solidarity with others but it’s also protecting people who are vulnerable.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The fast food giant said Wednesday that its global same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — jumped 5.7% in the October-December period. That’s better than the 3.9% Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Chicago-based McDonald’s fourth quarter revenue and earnings also beat analysts’ expectations.
McDonald’s cut prices on some U.S. combo meals in September. Those Extra Value Meal promotions came on top of discounts that began earlier in 2025, including the McValue menu. McDonald’s popular Snack Wraps, which returned to menus in July for $2.99, also helped improve value perceptions.
The price cuts came after years of steady declines in visits from customers with annual household incomes of $45,000 or less. In a conference call with investors last summer, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski warned that those consumers, in particular, no longer saw McDonald’s as a good value.
The company also boosted U.S. traffic in the fourth quarter with limited-time offers, including the return of its Monopoly game in October and a Grinch-themed meal in December. McDonald’s said its same-store sales rose 6.8% in the U.S. in the October-December period.
The playbook has been similar in international markets. In Australia, for example, McDonald’s saw higher store traffic after it locked in pricing on its value items for 12 months starting in July.
McDonald’s revenue rose 10% to $7.01 billion in the fourth quarter. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of $6.84 billion.
Net income rose 7% to $2.16 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, including restructuring charges, McDonald’s earned $3.12 per share. That also beat analysts’ forecast of a $3.05 per share profit.
Other chains have also been focused on their value message over the last year. Taco Bell, which expanded its value menu in January 2025, said last week that its same-store sales jumped 7% in the October-December period.
As the Trump administration prepares to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation, the head of Washington’s performing arts center has warned its staff about impending cuts that will leave “skeletal teams.”
In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that “departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,” promising “permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.”
A Kennedy Center spokesperson declined comment Wednesday.
Over the next few months, he wrote, department heads would be “evaluating the needs and making the decisions as to what these skeletal teams left in place during the facility and closure and construction phase will look like.” Grenell said leadership would “provide as much clarity and advance notice as possible.”
The Kennedy Center is slated to close in early July. Few details about what the renovations will look like have been released since President Donald Trump announced his plan at the beginning of February. Neither Trump nor Grenell have provided evidence to support claims about the building being in disrepair, and last October, Trump had pledged it would remain open during renovations.
It’s unclear exactly how many employees the center currently has, but a 2025 tax filing said nearly 2,500 people were employed during the 2023 calendar year. A request for comment sent to Kennedy Center Arts Workers United, which represents artists and arts professionals affiliated with the center — wasn’t immediately returned.
Leading performers and groups have left or canceled appearances since Trump ousted the center’s leadership a year ago and added his own name to the building in December. The Washington Post, which first reported about Grenell’s memo, has also cited significant drops in ticket revenue that — along with private philanthropy — comprises the center’s operating budget. Officials have yet to say whether such long-running traditions as the Mark Twain Award for comedy or the honors ceremony for lifetime contributions to the arts will continue while the center is closed.
The Kennedy Center was first conceived as a national cultural facility during the Eisenhower administration, in the 1950s. President John F. Kennedy led a fundraising initiative, and the yet-to-be-built center was named in his honor following his assassination. It opened in 1971 and has become a preeminent showcase for theater, music and dramatic performances, enjoying bipartisan backing until Trump’s return to office last year.
“This renovation represents a generational investment in our future,” Grenell wrote. “When we reopen, we will do so as a stronger organization — one that honors our legacy while expanding our impact.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered a formal investigation into Dutch-based semiconductor chipmaker Nexperia and upheld an earlier order suspending its Chinese CEO, citing doubts about the company’s policies and conduct.
The written decision by the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal is the latest step in a saga swirling around Nexperia that sent shock waves through the world’s auto manufacturers, who use the company’s chips in their cars.
The dispute made global headlines in October, when the Dutch government said it had effectively seized control of the company since late September based on national security concerns.
Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng, who’s also founder of Nexperia owner Wingtech, was suspended by the enterprise chamber in October following claims of mismanagement.
At a court hearing last month, lawyers for Zhang and Wingtech painted him as a successful businessman trying to guide Nexperia through troubled geopolitical waters. They urged the court not to order an investigation and said Wingtech had been blindsided by the Dutch government move. Zhang was not in court for the hearing.
However, Nexperia lawyer Jeroen van der Schriek told the three-judge panel that the behavior of Wingtech and Hong Kong-based holding company Yuching since October “makes it clear that they are willing to subordinate Nexperia’s interests to other interests.”
An English statement issued by the court on Wednesday’s ruling said that chamber found that “a conflict of interest has been handled without due care” at Nexperia.
It added that there are “indications that the director of Nexperia changed the strategy without internal consultation under the threat of upcoming sanctions.” It said that agreements with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs “were no longer adhered to, the powers of European managers were restricted and their dismissal was announced.”
The court statement said that it could not definitively say how long the investigation would take, but added that such probes can take more than six months. The court will use the findings to assess “whether there has been mismanagement at Nexperia and whether definitive measures need to be taken.”
Nexperia did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The dispute at Nexperia escalated when China temporarily blocked the export of Nexperia chips from its plant in China in October, sending global auto manufacturers scrambling to secure supplies and alternatives. Beijing’s export ban was later lifted, after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October. And the Dutch government in November said it was relinquishing its control of Nexperia as a “show of goodwill.”
But a standoff between Nexperia’s headquarters in the Netherlands and its Chinese unit continued to fuel chip supply chain concerns. Nexperia’s Chinese arm had said its Dutch headquarters interrupted shipments of wafers to its Chinese factory, which it said had impacted its core production operations and weighed on its ability in delivering finished products. Nexperia’s headquarters hit back, and said the Chinese unit had ignored instructions from the head office.
“Nexperia’s situation now requires, first and foremost, a situation of calm that allows Nexperia to restore its internal relations, its production chain and deliveries to customers,” the court said Wednesday.
Car manufacturers including Honda had to halt production of some cars as the Nexperia crisis unfolded, and Mercedes-Benz was among those scrambling to find alternatives.
Nexperia was spun off from Philips Semiconductors two decades ago and then purchased in 2018 by Wingtech. In 2023, the British government blocked Nexperia’s bid to acquire Wales-based chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab, citing national security risks.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Several well-known businesses in and around downtown Greensboro have recently closed their doors, sparking concern among city leaders and business owners about the future of the area’s commercial district.
What You Need To Know
Several well-known businesses in and around downtown Greensboro have recently closed their doors, sparking concern among city leaders and business owners about the future of the area’s commercial district
Among the closures are Dame’s Chicken and Waffles, Red Cinemas, M’Coul’s Public House and Liberty Oak Restaurant and Bar
Business owners raised a range of challenges, including parking issues, supply chain disruptions, tariffs and the rising cost of operating a business
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, some Greensboro City Council members met face-to-face with downtown business owners and community leaders, walking through the area and listening to concerns about what is making it difficult to stay open
Among the closures are Dame’s Chicken and Waffles, Red Cinemas, M’Coul’s Public House and Liberty Oak Restaurant and Bar. Another downtown restaurant, Cille and Scoe, has also announced it will be closing soon.
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, some Greensboro City Council members met face-to-face with downtown business owners and community leaders, walking through the area and listening to concerns about what is making it difficult to stay open.
“It’s an American, a cultural problem, it’s an epidemic,” said Daniel Craft, a realtor in downtown Greensboro.
Business owners raised a range of challenges, including parking issues, supply chain disruptions, tariffs and the rising cost of operating a business.
Tanya Dickens, owner of Savor the Moment Dessert Bar, says food and beverage businesses are being hit especially hard.
“The increased cost of everything, ingredients and use. The food and beverage industry has been hit really hard because everything fluctuates so much. But it’s usually going up right. And you can only charge so much to your customer for what it is that you’re selling,” Dickens said.
Greensboro City Council member Cecile “CC” Crawford says the walk is the first step toward building strategies to support downtown businesses.
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, Greensboro city council members, downtown business owners and other city leaders walk throughout downtown to talk about concerns and issues. (Spectrum News 1/Ashley Van Havere)
“We’re going to get all of the feedback and begin working on strategies to help the businesses downtown thrive a little more,” Crawford said. “What I’m hearing on my side of downtown is that South Elm Street is developing, and they want a little more support, and so, just trying to get a full picture around that as well.”
City leaders say feedback gathered from these conversations could help shape future policy changes aimed at increasing foot traffic and encouraging more people to visit downtown Greensboro.
Council members also plan to hold additional walks and discussions in the coming weeks and encourage any downtown business owners who could not attend Tuesday’s meeting to reach out and share their concerns.
Follow us on Instagram at spectrumnews1nc for news and other happenings across North Carolina.
There are just 16 Flock Safety cameras in Thornton.
But those electronic eyes, mounted to poles at intersections throughout this city of nearly 150,000, brought out dozens of people to the Thornton Community Center for a discussion on how the controversial license plate-reading cameras are being used — and whether they should be used at all.
Law enforcement agencies cite the automatic license-plate readers, or ALPRs, as a powerful tool that bolsters their ability to locate and stop suspects who may be on their way to committing their next assault or robbery.
But Meg Moore, a six-year resident of the city who is helping spearhead opposition to Flock cameras, said she worries about how the rapidly spreading surveillance system is impacting residents’ privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Thornton’s Flock camera data can be seen by more than 1,600 other law enforcement agencies across the country.
“We want to make sure this is truly safe and effective,” she said in an interview.
The debate over Atlanta-based Flock Safety’s cameras, which not only can record license plate numbers but can search for the specific characteristics of a vehicle linked to an alleged crime, has been picking up steam in recent years. The discussions have largely played out in metro Denver and Front Range cities in recent months, but this year they reached the state Capitol, where lawmakers are pitching a couple of bills to tighten up rules around surveillance.
In Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston has been butting heads with the City Council over the issue. Johnston is so convinced of Flock’s value in combating crime that in October, he extended the contract with the company against the wishes of much of the council. Denver has 111 Flock cameras.
In Longmont, elected leaders took a different approach. Its City Council voted in December to pause all sharing of Flock Safety data with other municipalities, declined an expansion of its contract with the company and began searching for an alternative.
Louisville beat its Boulder County neighbor to the punch by several months, disabling its Flock cameras at the end of June and removing them by the start of October. City spokesman Derek Cosson said privacy concerns from residents largely drove the city’s decision.
Steve Mathias, a Thornton resident for nearly a decade, would like to see Flock’s cameras gone from his city. Short of that, he said, reliable controls on how the streetside data is collected, stored and shared are paramount.
“In our rush to make our community safe, we’re not getting the full picture of the risks we’re facing,” he said. “We’re making ourselves safe in some ways by making ourselves less safe in others.”
The hot-button debate in Thornton played out at last month’s community meeting and continued at a City Council meeting last week, where the city’s Police Department gave a presentation on the Flock system.
Cmdr. Chad Parker laid out several examples of Flock’s cameras being instrumental in apprehending bad actors — in cases ranging from homicide to sex assault to child exploitation to a $5,700 theft at a Nike store.
As recently as Monday, Thornton police announced on X that investigators had tracked down a man suspected of hitting and killing a 14-year-old boy who was riding a small motorized bike over the weekend. The agency said a Flock camera in Thornton gave officers a “strong lead” in identifying the hit-and-run suspect within 24 hours.
At the Feb. 3 council study session, police Chief Jim Baird described Flock’s camera system as “one of the best tools I’ve seen in 32 years of law enforcement.”
But that doesn’t sway those in Thornton who are wary of the camera network.
“I’m not a fan of building toward a surveillance state,” Mathias said.
The hazards of a system like Flock, he said, lie not just in the pervasive data-collection methods the company uses but also in who eventually might get to see and use that data — be it a rogue law enforcement officer or a hacker who manages to break into Flock’s database.
“A person who wants us to do us harm with this system will have as much capability as the police have to do good,” he said.
A Flock Safety license plate recognition camera is seen on a street light post on Ken Pratt Boulevard near the intersection with U.S. 287 in Longmont on Dec. 10, 2025. (Matthew Jonas/Daily Camera)
Crime-fighting tool or prone to misuse?
In November, a Columbine Valley police officer was disciplined after he accused a Denver woman of theft based in large part on evidence from Flock cameras, according to reporting from Fox31. The officer mistakenly claimed the woman had stolen a $25 package in a nearby town and said he’d used Flock cameras to track her car.
“It’s putting too much trust in the hands of people who don’t know what they’re doing,” DeFlock’s Will Freeman said of so many police agencies’ adoption of the technology.
Last summer, 9News reported that the Loveland Police Department had shared access to its Flock camera system with U.S. Border Patrol. That came two months after the station reported that the department gave the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives access to its account, which ATF agents then used to conduct searches for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Parker, the Thornton police commander, said any searches connected to immigration cases or to women from out of state who are seeking an abortion in Colorado — another scenario that’s been raised — “won’t ever touch our system.” State laws restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities and with other states’ abortion-related investigations.
“Any situation I feel uncomfortable about or that might be in conflict with our policies or with Colorado law, I will revoke their access — no problem,” he said.
Thornton deputy city attorney Adam Stephens said motorists’ Fourth Amendment rights are not being violated by the city’s Flock camera network. During last week’s meeting, he cited several recent court cases that, in essence, determined that there is no right to privacy while driving down a public roadway.
In an interview, Stephens said Thornton was “in compliance with the law.”
Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel wrote in an email that the company was “proud to partner with the Thornton Police Department to provide technology used to investigate and solve crimes and to help locate missing persons.”
Lewbel provided links to two news stories about minor children who were abducted and then found with the help of Flock’s cameras in Thornton and elsewhere.
At the council’s study session last week, Parker provided more examples of Flock’s role in fighting crime and finding missing people in Thornton. They included police nabbing a suspect who had hit and killed a pedestrian, locating a burglar who was suspected of robbing several dispensaries, and tracking down an 89-year-old man with dementia who had gotten into his car and gotten lost.
“It allows us to find vehicles in a manner we weren’t able to previously,” Parker said of the camera network.
Thornton installed its first 10 Flock cameras in 2022 and then added five more — plus a mobile unit — two years later. The initial deployment was in response to a spike in auto thefts in the city, which peaked at 1,205 in 2022 (amid an overall surge in Colorado). Thornton recorded 536 auto thefts last year.
The city says Flock cameras have been involved in 200 cases that resulted in an arrest or a warrant application in Thornton over the last three years.
Thornton police have access to nearly 2,200 other agencies’ Flock systems across the United States, while nearly 1,650 law enforcement agencies can access Thornton’s Flock data, according to data provided by the city.
For Anaya Robinson, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the networked nature of Flock cameras across wide geographies is a big part of the problem. By linking one police agency’s Flock technology with that of thousands of other police departments, it “creates a surveillance environment that could violate the Fourth Amendment.”
The sweeping nature of Flock’s surveillance is also worrisome, Robinson said.
“You’re not just collecting the data of vehicles that ping (a police department’s) hot list (of suspicious vehicles), you’re collecting the data of every vehicle that is caught on a Flock camera,” he said.
And because the technology is relatively inexpensive — Thornton pays $48,500 to Flock annually for its system — it’s an affordable crime-fighting tool for most communities. But that doesn’t mean it should be deployed, DeFlock’s Freeman said.
Fight remains a largely local one
State lawmakers are crafting bills this session to limit the reach of surveillance technologies like Flock’s.
Senate Bill 70 would put limits on access to databases and the sharing of information. It would prohibit a government from accessing a database that reveals an individual’s or a vehicle’s historical location information, and it would prohibit sharing that information with third parties or with government agencies outside the controlling entity’s jurisdiction. Certain exceptions would apply.
Senate Bill 71 would direct a “law enforcement agency to use surveillance technology only for lawful purposes directly related to public safety or for an active investigation.” It also would forbid the use of facial-recognition technology without a warrant and would place limits on the amount of time data can be retained.
Both bills await their first committee hearings.
Thornton says it doesn’t use facial recognition technology. Its Flock data is retained for 30 days.
Regardless of what passes at the state Capitol, the real fight over license plate readers of any type will likely continue to happen at the local level. Thornton’s council plans further discussions on Flock next month.
For Moore, the resident who is leading the charge against the cameras, potential surveillance of the immigrant community is what troubles her the most.
“We want to make sure we’re operating this so that it’s safe for all of our residents,” she said. “Getting rid of the cameras altogether is a tough sell. But there needs to be a conversation about guardrails.”
Mayor Pro Tem Roberta Ayala, a Thornton native, said she has heard a wide array of opinions from her constituents about the advantages and potential downsides of the technology.
“Could it be misused? Yes. Do we want to stop that? Yes,” she said.
But as a victim of crime herself, Ayala also knows the immense damage and disruption that crime causes victims and their families, be it a stolen vehicle or something much worse. And as a teacher, Ayala is concerned about achieving justice for the families of children who are harmed or abused.
“If it can save even five kids,” she said, “I want the cameras.”
LARGO, Fla. — Whataburger, a Texas-based burger joint, will open a restaurant on Ulmerton Road on Thursday.
According to our news gathering partners at the Tampa Bay Business Journal, it will be the first location in the area since the chain left about 20 years ago.
Whataburger has 1,110 restaurants in 17 states.
The company said it plans to open several locations in the Bay area, starting with the one in Largo.
LOS ANGELES — The world’s biggest social media companies face several landmark trials this year that seek to hold them responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Opening arguments for the first, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, begin this week.
Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube will face claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums.
“This was only the first case — there are hundreds of parents and school districts in the social media addiction trials that start today, and sadly, new families every day who are speaking out and bringing Big Tech to court for its deliberately harmful products,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the nonprofit Tech Oversight Project.
At the core of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. 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 and what damages, if any, may be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms.
KGM claims that her use of social media from an early age addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Importantly, the lawsuit claims that this was done through deliberate design choices made by companies that sought to make their platforms more addictive to children to boost profits. This argument, if successful, could sidestep the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.
“Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” the lawsuit says.
Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts have drawn similarities to the Big Tobacco trials that led to a 1998 settlement requiring cigarette companies to pay billions in health care costs and restrict marketing targeting minors.
“Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit says. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”
The tech companies dispute the claims that their products deliberately harm children, citing a bevy of safeguards they have added over the years and arguing that they are not liable for content posted on their sites by third parties.
“Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teen mental health struggles squarely on social media companies,” Meta said in a recent blog post. “But this oversimplifies a serious issue. Clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal. Narrowing the challenges faced by teens to a single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors impacting young people today, like academic pressure, school safety, socio-economic challenges and substance abuse.”
A Meta spokesperson said in a recent statement that the company strongly disagrees with the allegations outlined in the lawsuit and that it’s “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”
José Castañeda, a Google Spokesperson, said that the allegations against YouTube are “simply not true.” In a statement, he said, “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work.”
The case will be the first in a slew of cases beginning this year that seek to hold social media companies responsible for harming children’s mental well-being. 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. The majority of cases filed their lawsuits in federal court, but some sued in their respective states.
TikTok also faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states.
In New Mexico, meanwhile, opening arguments begin Monday for trial on allegations that Meta and its social media platforms have failed 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.
Prosecutors have said that New Mexico is not seeking to hold Meta accountable for its content but rather its role in pushing out that content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that can be harmful, saying they uncovered internal documents in which Meta employees estimate that about 100,000 children every day are subjected to sexual harassment on the company’s platforms.
Meta denies the civil charges while accusing Torrez of cherry-picking select documents and making “sensationalist” arguments. The company says it has consulted with parents and law enforcement to introduce built-in protections to social media accounts, along with settings and tools for parents.
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Ortutay reported from Oakland, California. Associated Press Writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this story.
BANGKOK — Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 share index jumped 4.7% on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s governing party secured a two-thirds supermajority in a parliamentary election.
Takaichi is expected to pursue market-friendly policies. She told public broadcaster NHK later that she is ready to pursue policies to make Japan strong and prosperous.
Markets across Asia also advanced, with South Korea’s Kospi surging 4.3% and other benchmarks gaining more than 1%.
The gains came after the U.S. stock market roared back on Friday as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge.
The S&P 500 rallied 2% for its best day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,206 points, or 2.5%, and topped the 50,000 level for the first time, while the Nasdaq composite leaped 2.2%.
The combination of a rebound in tech shares, Wall Street’s rally and other upbeat news lifted shares across Asia.
NHK, citing results of vote counts, said Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. That marks a record since the party’s foundation in 1955 and surpasses the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 by late Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
Takaichi’s first major task when the lower house reconvenes in mid-February is to work on a budget bill, delayed by the election, to fund economic measures that address rising costs and sluggish wages.
By late morning, the Nikkei 225 was up 4.7% at 56,788.85, having topped 57,000 earlier in the session to set a new record. The Kospi gained 4.3% to 5,308.84.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.5% to 26,963.25 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 1% to 4,106.54. Taiwan’s Taiex gained 2.4%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 surged 1.9% to 8,876.50.
On Friday, computer chip companies helped drive the widespread rally, and Nvidia jumped 7.8% to trim its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10%. Broadcom climbed 7.1% and erased its drop for the week.
But even with Friday’s surge, the S&P 500 still fell to its third losing week in the last four. Apart from worries about spending by Big Tech companies, which are Wall Street’s most influential stocks, concerns about AI potentially stealing customers from software companies also hurt the market. Software stocks got hit particularly hard after AI firm Anthropic released free tools to automate things like legal services.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, steadied following a weekslong plunge that had sent it more than halfway below its record price set in October. It climbed back above $70,000 after briefly dropping close to $60,000 late Thursday.
Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild swings. Gold rose 1.8% to settle at $4,979.80 per ounce, while silver added 0.2%.
NEW YORK — Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival thriller “Send Help” repeating as No. 1 in ticket sales and the Melania Trump documentary “Melania” falling sharply in its second weekend.
Super Bowl weekend is typically one of the lowest attended moviegoing times of the year. It was the second slowest weekend last year and in 2024 it ranked dead last for moviegoing.
Studios instead put their focus on advertising movies for the massive television audience. Among the trailers expected to hit the NFL broadcast Sunday were The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mandalorian and Grogu,” Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael” and Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
In North American theaters, the Disney.-20th Century Studios release “Send Help,” directed by Sam Raimi, lead all films with $10 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $53.7 million globally thus far, the R-rated survival thriller has proved a solid midbudget success. Disney meanwhile watched its remarkably long-lasting “Zootopia 2″ cross $1.8 billion worldwide in its 11th week of release.
“Melania,” from Amazon MGM, added 300 theaters in its second weekend but dropped steeply with to $2.4 million in ticket sales, down 67% from its much-discussed debut. The rapid downturn means the Brett Ratner-directed documentary is likely heading toward flop territory given its high price tag. Amazon MGM paid $40 million for film rights, plus some $35 million to market it.
The North American total for “Melania” stands at $13.4 million. Amazon MGM has not released international figures, though they’re expected to be paltry.
Kevin Wilson, head of domestic distribution for the studio, said the movie’s box-office performance “is a critical first moment that validates our wholistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement, and provides momentum ahead of the film’s eventual debut on Prime Video.”
The film’s ticket sales — which would be very good for a less expensive documentary — were a talking point throughout the week. Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel hammered the movie’s sales. Kimmel called them a “rigged outcome.” Elsewhere in theaters, the Italy-set Kevin James romantic comedy “Solo Mio” debuted with a robust $7.2 million, a major win for Angel Studios, best known for its faith-based releases. “Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience,” a K-pop concert film released by Bleecker Street, launched with $5.6 million, and an additional $13.2 million overseas. The Luc Besson-directed Bram Stoker adaptation “Dracula” opened with $4.5 million, a studio-best debut for the indie distributor Vertical.
One of the most unusual releases in theaters, however, remains the low-budget indie “Iron Lung.” The YouTube filmmaker Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, self-financed and self-distributed the R-rated video game adaptation, along with writing, directing and starring in it. In its second weekend, “Iron Lung” collected $6.2 million, bringing its two-week total to $31.2 million. It cost $3 million to make.
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Send Help,” $10 million.
2. “Solo Mio,” $7.2 million.
3. “Iron Lung,” $6 million.
4. “Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience,” $5.6 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to keep home prices high, bypassing calls to ramp up construction so people can afford what has been a ticket to the middle class.
Trump has instead argued for protecting existing owners who have watched the values of their homes climb. It’s a position that flies in the face of what many economists, the real estate industry, local officials and apartment dwellers say is needed to fix a big chunk of America’s affordability problem.
“I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, and they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump told his Cabinet on Jan. 29.
That approach could bolster the Republican president’s standing with older voters, a group that over time has been more likely to vote in midterm elections. Those races in November will determine whether Trump’s party can retain control of the House and Senate.
“You have a lot of people that have become wealthy in the last year because their house value has gone up,” Trump said. “And you know, when you get the housing — when you make it too easy and too cheap to buy houses — those values come down.”
But by catering to older baby boomers on housing, Trump risks alienating the younger voters who expanded his coalition in 2024 and helped him win a second term, and he could wade into a “generational war” in the midterms, said Brent Buchanan, whose polling firm Cygnal advises Republicans.
“The under-40 group is the most important right now — they are the ones who put Trump in the White House,” Buchanan said. “Their desire to show up in an election or not is going to make the difference in this election. If they feel that Donald Trump is taking care of the boomers at their expense, that is going to hurt Republicans.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE – Construction equipment is seen near new homes on July 11, 2025, in Happy Valley, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
FILE – A “For Sale” sign is seen on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
FILE – An aerial view of homes in the northern subdivisions is seen in Vacaville, Calif., Dec. 27, 2025. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)
New housing is underway near the Bishop Ranch Shopping Center in San Ramon, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026./San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
In the 2024 presidential election, 81% of Trump’s voters were homeowners, according to AP VoteCast data. This means many of his supporters already have mortgages with low rates or own their homes outright, possibly blunting the importance of housing as an issue.
Older voters tend to show up to vote more than do younger people, said Oscar Pocasangre, a senior data analyst at liberal think tank New America who has studied the age divide in U.S. politics. “However, appealing to older voters may prove to be a misguided policy if what’s needed to win is to expand the voting base,” Pocasangre said.
Booker Lightman, 30, a software engineer in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who identifies politically as a libertarian Republican, said the shortage of housing has been a leading problem in his state.
Lightman just closed on a home last month, and while he and his wife, Alice, were able to manage the cost, he said that the lack of construction is pushing people out of Colorado. “There’s just not enough housing supply,” he said.
Shay Hata, a real estate agent in the Chicago and Denver areas, said she handles about 100 to 150 transactions a year. But she sees the potential for a lot more. “We have a lack of inventory to the point where most properties, particularly in the suburbs, are getting between five and 20 offers,” she said, describing what she sees in the Chicago area.
New construction could help more people afford homes because in some cases, buyers qualify for discounted mortgage rates from the builders’ preferred lenders, Hata said. She called the current situation “very discouraging for buyers because they’re getting priced out of the market.”
But pending construction has fallen under Trump. Permits to build single-family homes have plunged 9.4% over the past 12 months in October, the most recent month available, to an annual rate of 876,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Trump’s other ideas to help people buy houses
Trump has not always been against increasing housing supply.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s team said he would create tax breaks for homebuyers, trim regulations on construction, open up federal land for housing developments and make monthly payments more manageable by cutting mortgage rates. Advisers also claimed that housing stock would open up because of Trump’s push for mass deportations of people who were in the United States illegally.
As recently as October, Trump urged builders to ramp up construction. “They’re sitting on 2 Million empty lots, A RECORD. I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!” Trump posted on social media, referring to the government-backed lenders.
But more recently, he has been unequivocal on not wanting to pursue policies that would boost supply and lower prices.
In office, Trump has so far focused his housing policy on lobbying the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rates. He believes that would make mortgages more affordable, although critics say it could spur higher inflation. Trump announced that the two mortgage companies, which are under government conservatorship, would buy at least $200 billion in home loan securities in a bid to reduce rates.
Trump also wants Congress to ban large financial institutions from buying homes. But he has rejected suggestions for expanding rules to let buyers use 401(k) retirement accounts for down payments, telling reporters that he did not want people to take their money out of the stock market because it was doing so well.
There are signs that lawmakers in both parties see the benefits of taking steps to add houses before this year’s elections. There are efforts in the Senate and House to jump-start construction through the use of incentives to change zoning restrictions, among other policies.
One of the underlying challenges on affordability is that home prices have been generally rising faster than incomes for several years.
This makes it harder to save for down payments or upgrade to a nicer home. It also means that the places where people live increasingly double as their key financial asset, one that leaves many families looking moneyed on paper even if they are struggling with monthly bills.
There is another risk for Trump. If the economy grows this year, as he has promised, that could push up demand for houses — as well as their prices — making the affordability problem more pronounced, said Edward Pinto, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.
Pinto said construction of single-family homes would have to rise by 50% to 100% during the next three years for average home price gains to be flat — a sign, he said, that Trump’s fears about falling home prices were probably unwarranted.
“It’s very hard to crater home prices,” Pinto said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood largely ceded attention to football over a slow box-office weekend, with the survival thriller “Send Help” repeating as No. 1 in ticket sales and the Melania Trump documentary “Melania” falling sharply in its second weekend.
Super Bowl weekend is typically one of the lowest attended moviegoing times of the year. It was the second slowest weekend last year and in 2024 it ranked dead last for moviegoing.
Studios instead put their focus on advertising movies for the massive television audience. Among the trailers expected to hit the NFL broadcast Sunday were The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mandalorian and Grogu,” Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael” and Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
In North American theaters, the Disney.-20th Century Studios release “Send Help,” directed by Sam Raimi, lead all films with $10 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $53.7 million globally thus far, the R-rated survival thriller has proved a solid midbudget success. Disney meanwhile watched its remarkably long-lasting “Zootopia 2″ cross $1.8 billion worldwide in its 11th week of release.
“Melania,” from Amazon MGM, added 300 theaters in its second weekend but dropped steeply with to $2.4 million in ticket sales, down 67% from its much-discussed debut. The rapid downturn means the Brett Ratner-directed documentary is likely heading toward flop territory given its high price tag. Amazon MGM paid $40 million for film rights, plus some $35 million to market it.
The North American total for “Melania” stands at $13.4 million. Amazon MGM has not released international figures, though they’re expected to be paltry.
Kevin Wilson, head of domestic distribution for the studio, said the movie’s box-office performance “is a critical first moment that validates our wholistic distribution strategy, building awareness, engagement, and provides momentum ahead of the film’s eventual debut on Prime Video.”
The film’s ticket sales — which would be very good for a less expensive documentary — were a talking point throughout the week. Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel hammered the movie’s sales. Kimmel called them a “rigged outcome.” Elsewhere in theaters, the Italy-set Kevin James romantic comedy “Solo Mio” debuted with a robust $7.2 million, a major win for the Christian-oriented Angel Studios. “Stray Kinds: The Dominate Experience,” a K-pop concert film released by Bleecker Street, launched with $5.6 million. The Luc Besson-directed Bram Stoker adaptation “Dracula” opened with $4.5 million, a studio-best debut for the indie distributor Vertical.
One of the most unusual releases in theaters, however, remains the low-budget indie “Iron Lung.” The YouTube filmmaker Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, self-financed and self-distributed the R-rated video game adaptation, along with writing, directing and starring in it. In its second weekend, “Iron Lung” collected $6.2 million, bringing its two-week total to $31.2 million. It cost $3 million to make.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Send Help,” $10 million.
2. “Solo Mio,” $7.2 million.
3. “Iron Lung,” $6 million.
4. “Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience,” $5.6 million.
5. “Dracula,” $4.5 million.
6. “Zootopia 2,” $4 million.
7. “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” $3.5 million.
8. “The Strangers: Chapter 3,” $3.5 million.
9. “Shelter,” $2.4 million.
10. “Melania,” $2.4 million.
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BAGHDAD — Hundreds of traders and customs clearance company owners protested in central Baghdad on Sunday, demanding that Iraq’s government reverse recently imposed customs tariffs that they say have sharply increased their costs and disrupted trade.
The new tariffs that came into effect on Jan. 1 were imposed as part of an attempt to decrease the country’s debt and its reliance on oil revenues as oil prices have dropped.
Iraq faces debt of more than 90 trillion Iraqi dinars ($69 billion) — and a state budget that remains reliant on oil for about 90% of revenues, despite attempts to diversify.
But traders say the new tariffs — in some cases as high as 30% — have placed an unfair burden on them. Opponents have filed a lawsuit aiming to reduce the decision, which Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court is set to rule on Wednesday.
The demonstrators gathered outside the General Customs Directorate Sunday, chanting slogans against corruption and rejecting the new fees.
“We used to pay about 3 million dinars per container, but now in some cases they ask for up to 14 million,” said Haider al-Safi, a transport and customs clearance company owner. “Even infant milk fees rose from about 495,000 dinars to nearly 3 million.”
He said that the new tariffs have caused a backlog of goods at the Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq and added that electric vehicles, previously exempt from customs duties, are now subject to a 15% fee.
“The main victim is the citizen with limited income, and government employee whose salary barely covers his daily living, those who have to pay rent, and have children with school expenses — they all will be affected by the market,” said Mohammed Samir, a wholesale trader from Baghdad.
Protesters also accused influential groups of facilitating the release of goods in exchange for lower unofficial payments, calling it widespread corruption. Many traders, they said, are now considering routing their imports through the Kurdistan region, where fees are lower.
The protests coincided with a nationwide strike by shop owners, who closed markets and stores in several parts of Baghdad to oppose the tariff increase. In major commercial districts, shops remained shut and hung up banners reading “Customs fees are killing citizens.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Pitchers and catchers will report for their first workouts for Major League Baseball spring training starting Tuesday.
What You Need To Know
Pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training in Florida this week
Phillies staff members are already unloading trucks with the supplies the team will need
They are bringing 2,400 baseballs, 140 batting helmets and 1,200 baseball bats this spring
Spring training games begin Feb. 20
Florida is home to baseball’s Grapefruit League, and thousands of fans will flock to the Tampa Bay area to watch their favorite teams because seven of the franchises call the Tampa Bay area home during spring training, bringing a huge economic impact. Throughout Florida, more than 1.4 million fans visited for spring training in 2025, generating about $687,000 annually for the state and creating more than 7,000 jobs, according to data from the Florida Sports Foundation and studies of the Grapefruit League.
That means teams like the Philadelphia Phillies have to start getting ready.
When the equipment trucks start pulling into Baycare Ballpark, it marks the unofficial start to spring training in Clearwater.
Phillies staff members like clubhouse attendant Tim Schmidt wait months for the trucks full of gear and supplies.
“It’s been on my calendar for a while, so yeah, it’s nice that it’s here, and I’m excited to get it underway, and I’m ready to see the guys,” Schmidt said.
Filled to the brim, it takes the whole staff, as well as some help from a forklift, to unload all the supplies needed for spring training.
The Phillies are bringing 2,400 baseballs, 140 batting helmets and 1,200 baseball bats this spring, Schmidt said.
Among all the people who helped unload the trucks was Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector.
He said it’s a day he looks forward to every year.
“Our sign of spring is the Phillies equipment truck arriving,” Rector said. “That’s a little bit more predictable than the groundhog.”
Spring training has been in Clearwater for about 100 years, including the Phillies here for most of that time, Rector said.
“Such a strong connection with our citizens,” Rector said. “They’ve been here for 80 years. It’s almost like seeing family come home.”
Schmidt said it was going to be a long day because there is a lot to unpack before the players arrive.
Still, the work isn’t an issue.
He’s ready to focus on the season.
“Once we get down here, it’s go time,” Schmidt said. “We don’t really stop until the playoffs are over.”
The seven teams that will be in the Tampa Bay area for the next few weeks, honing their skills before the regular season begins, are the Phillies, the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves.
Spring training games begin Feb. 20, and tickets are on sale now.
