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  • A Glimmer of Hope for Democracy in Venezuela as Opponents Test the Limits of Free Speech

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    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Andrés Velásquez didn’t stick around to become one more government critic jailed after Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election.

    A former governor who had crisscrossed Venezuela stumping for then-President Nicolás Maduro’s opponent in the disputed race, he grew a thick beard, sent his children into exile and avoided public events that could expose him to arrest.

    But in the aftermath of Maduro’s overthrow by the U.S., he mustered the courage to speak out. First, on Jan. 19, Velásquez, with his new look, appeared in a video in which he expressed support for Maduro’s removal while calling for new elections. Then, a few days later, he stuck his neck out even further, shooting a short video outside the infamous Helicoide prison in the capital, Caracas, to demand the release of all political prisoners.

    “We must dismantle the entire repressive apparatus in the hands of the state,” Velásquez said in the video. “Venezuela will be free!”

    Velásquez isn’t alone. Since Maduro’s ouster, a number of prominent critics have started to emerge from hiding to test the limits of political speech after years of self-imposed silence driven by fear. Regular Venezuelans are also throwing off restraint, with families of jailed activists protesting outside prisons and those freed defying gag orders normally imposed as a condition for release. Meanwhile, media outlets have begun re-opening their airwaves to critical voices banished in recent years.

    The political liberalization, while still incipient, was likened by Velásquez to glasnost, referring to the era of reforms and freer public debate that preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union. But unlike that and other democratic openings, this one is taking place almost entirely under the tutelage of the Trump administration, which has used a combination of financial incentives and threats of additional military strikes to carry out the president’s seemingly improbable pledge to “run” Venezuela from Washington.

    Last week, Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally, announced plans for a general amnesty that could lead to the release of hundreds of opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. She also announced the shutdown of Helicoide, vowing to transform the spiral-shaped building — a futuristic architectural icon transfigured into a symbol of Maduro’s dungeons — into a sports and cultural complex for police and residents of surrounding hillside slums.

    “May this law serve to heal the wounds left by the political confrontation fueled by violence and extremism,” she said at an event surrounded by ruling-party stalwarts.

    Pedro Vaca, the top freedom of expression expert for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the region’s most respected rights watchdog, said the few “breadcrumbs” offered by Rodríguez’s administration are no substitute for an independent judiciary and law enforcement.

    “Venezuela’s civic space is still a desert,” said Vaca, who has been trying for months to secure permission from Venezuelan officials to lead an on-the-ground assessment mission to the country. “The few critical voices emerging are seeds breaking through hardened ground, surviving not because freedom exists, but because repression has loosened while remaining ever-present. Let us be clear: this does not mark a democratic turning point.”


    Self-censorship deepens after 2024 election

    Political pluralism was severely eroded in Venezuela after Maduro took over the presidency from the late Hugo Chávez in 2013. Anti-government protests and episodes of civil unrest were regularly crushed by security forces whose loyalty to the self-proclaimed socialist leader proved unflinching if powerless against a far-superior U.S. military.

    The self-censorship deepened following the July 2024 elections, when Maduro launched a wave of repression marked by thousands of arbitrary detentions as he disavowed evidence showing he had lost the contested ballot to the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, by a more than two-to-one margin.

    Dissidents went into hiding, and the few remaining independent news outlets softened their already cautious coverage for fear of being unplugged.

    In an interview with the AP, Velásquez said he will continue to push the envelope of allowed political activity but remains wary because the state’s repressive apparatus continues to be entirely under the control of Rodríguez and her allies.

    “We must continue winning back lost terrain, challenging power. An opportunity has opened up and we can’t let it close again,” he said. “But the biggest obstacle we have to overcome is fear.”

    In the coming weeks, he’s looking to organize a public event with other government opponents who have recently come out of hiding. Among them is Delsa Solórzano, a former lawmaker who was also a fixture of the opposition’s 2024 presidential campaign. Solórzano last week resurfaced publicly at a rare press conference for her party, describing with tears how she had to take Vitamin D to compensate for the lack of sunlight while living clandestinely.

    “I didn’t hide because I committed any crime but because here fighting for freedom became an extremely high risk — to your life, your freedom and your safety,” Solórzano said.


    Rodriguez allies resist political liberalization

    Media outlets have also started flexing more muscle.

    Venevision, which like most private networks dropped coverage critical of the government in recent years, has reopened its airwaves to anti-government voices, covering opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s every move in Washington since Maduro’s capture.

    Meanwhile, Globovision, the nation’s largest private broadcaster, whose owner is sanctioned by the U.S. for his ties to Maduro, invited back prominent commentator Vladimir Villegas for the first time in years.

    Villegas earned a reputation for deftly navigating Venezuela’s already restricted airwaves by keeping the government’s most hardened opponents off his influential political talk show. But the show was abruptly canceled in 2020 when Villegas criticized Maduro for forcing DirecTV to carry state TV in violation of U.S. sanctions, a move that forced the satellite TV provider — and its assortment of international news outlets — to abandon the country.

    Rodríguez herself hasn’t embraced meaningful public debate of the nation’s problems other than announcing the creation of an advisory commission on political co-existence to be headed by Villegas’ brother, Culture Minister Ernesto Villegas.

    But already some of her allies seem intent on shutting down any criticism. Meanwhile, authorities have yet to restore full access to the social media platform X, which Maduro blocked after its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, accused him of stealing the 2024 vote.

    In response to Venevision’s coverage of Machado’s meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello — a hardliner wanted by the U.S. on a drug warrant — accused the media of playing into a plot by the Nobel Prize winner to sow chaos in Venezuela.

    “Without media attention, her notoriety fades away. Without headlines, she simply disappears,” Cabello warned on state TV, singling out Venevision’s coverage.

    But even on state TV — long a bastion of pro-government propaganda and ideological control — cracks have started to appear.

    Case in point: Rodríguez’s recent tour of a university campus in Caracas in which she was confronted by a small group of student protesters. While state TV made no mention of the students’ demands, the scene itself — in which a Rodríguez was shown calmly separating from her security entourage to “exchange ideas” with what the broadcaster called activists from “extremist parities” — would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago.

    Under Maduro, even the mildest of criticism was buried on state TV and broadcasts of the president’s frequent rallies and outdoor events stopped airing live after a series of embarrassing disruptions, including a 2016 visit to Margarita Island in which he was driven away by a group of angry, pot-banging protesters.


    Drawing inspiration from jailed activists

    While the outlook for an eventual democratic transition in Venezuela remains unknown, government opponents hope Rodriguez is unleashing forces that are beyond her control. Meanwhile, they continue to draw inspiration from those who suffered repression firsthand.

    Journalist and political activist Carlos Julio Rojas spent 638 days in a Venezuelan prison where, like dozens of other prisoners, he said he was repeatedly handcuffed, denied sunlight and confined to a tiny cell with no bed — sometimes for weeks at a time.

    When he was released last month as part of a goodwill gesture announced by Rodríguez, he says he was instructed to never discuss the abuse.

    His mandated silence lasted barely 15 days.

    “For me, not speaking meant I still felt imprisoned. Not speaking was a form of torture,” said Rojas, who was accused without proof of participating in a 2024 assassination plot against Maduro. “So, today, I decided to remove the gag and speak.”

    Goodman reported from Washington

    This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • US Judge Sets Friday Hearing on Suit to Restore New York Tunnel Funding

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    WASHINGTON, Feb ‌4 (Reuters) – ​A U.S. ‌judge will ​hold a hearing ‍on Friday on ​the ​emergency ⁠request of New York and New Jersey to force the ‌restoration of funding for ​the massive $16 ‌billion ‍Hudson River ⁠tunnel before construction is set to halt on Friday.

    The states, ​which filed suit late on Tuesday, have asked for a temporary restraining order that would bar the U.S. Transportation Department ​from withholding funding.

    (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; ​Editing by Chris Reese)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Brothers of Renee Good, Woman Killed by Immigration Officer, Call for Action in Congress

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The brothers of Renee Good, one of two U.S. citizens killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, called on Congress to do something about the violence on American streets as a result of immigration operations, warning Tuesday that the scenes playing out are “changing many lives, including ours, forever.”

    Brothers Luke and Brett Ganger spoke during a hearing held Tuesday by congressional Democrats to highlight use-of-force incidents by officers from the Department of Homeland Security as they arrest and deport immigrants. The mood was somber as the brothers spoke, often comforting each other as they talked and listened to others speaking.

    Luke Ganger, speaking of the “deep distress” the family felt at losing their sister in “such a violent and unnecessary way,” didn’t specify what they wanted from Congress but painted his sister’s death as a turning point that should inspire change in operations such as those going on in Minneapolis.

    “The completely surreal scenes taking place on the streets of Minneapolis are beyond explanation. This is not just a bad day, or a rough week, or isolated incidents,” he said. “These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives, including ours, forever.”

    The forum was put on by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., to spotlight use-of-force complaints against Homeland Security officers tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

    Trump administration officials said Good tried to run over an officer with her vehicle. State and local officials in Minneapolis, as well as protesters, have rejected that characterization.

    The two brothers didn’t delve into the details of their sister’s death or what the administration has said about her. Instead, they spoke about her life.

    Luke Ganger said the most important thing the brothers could do was to explain to those listening “what a beautiful American we have lost. A sister. A daughter. A mother. A partner and a friend.”

    Brett Ganger shared some of the eulogy he had written for his sister’s funeral service. He compared her to dandelions that grow and bring beauty in unexpected places.

    “She believed tomorrow could be better than today. She believed that kindness mattered. And she lived that belief,” he said.

    The panel also heard from three other U.S. citizens who detailed their treatment by Homeland Security officers.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Complaint Accuses Gabbard of Playing Politics With Intelligence, Which Spy Agency Rejects

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A complaint made about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard months ago relates to an allegation that she withheld access to classified information for political reasons, according to a memo sent to lawmakers by the inspector general’s office and obtained by The Associated Press.

    That allegation in the complaint filed in May appeared to not be credible, according to the former watchdog for the intelligence community that initially reviewed it. It has become a flashpoint for Gabbard’s critics, who accuse her of withholding information from members of Congress tasked with providing oversight of the intelligence services.

    Copies of the top-secret complaint are being hand-delivered this week to the “Gang of Eight” lawmakers — a group comprised of the House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

    Gabbard’s office has denied the allegations and disputed that it withheld the complaint, saying the delay in getting it to lawmakers was due to an extensive legal review necessitated by the complaint’s many classified details, as well as last year’s government shutdown.

    Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia told reporters that he had not seen the complaint as of Tuesday but that he expected to see it within a couple days, following what he called a protracted effort by lawmakers from both parties to pressure Gabbard to send the report as required by law.

    “It took the Gang of Eight six months of negotiation with the director of national intelligence to share that whistleblower complaint,” Warner said. “This is in direct contradiction to what Gabbard testified during her confirmation hearings — that she would protect whistleblowers and share the information of timely matter.”

    The author of the complaint, in a second allegation, accused Gabbard’s office of general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Department of Justice. The IG’s memo, which contains redactions, does not offer further details of either allegation.

    In June, then-inspector general Tamara Johnson found that the claim Gabbard distributed classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, according to the current watchdog, Christopher Fox, in the memo to lawmakers. Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the accusation about the general counsel’s office, Fox wrote.

    Federal law allows whistleblowers in the intelligence services to refer their complaints to the Gang of Eight lawmakers even if they have been found non-credible, as long as their complaint is determined to raise urgent concerns.

    In his memo, Fox wrote that he would have deemed the complaint non-urgent, meaning it never would have been referred to lawmakers.

    “If the same or similar matter came before me today, I would likely determine that the allegations do not meet the statutory definition of “’urgent concern,’” Fox wrote.

    Andrew Bakaj, attorney for the person who made the complaint, said Monday that while he cannot discuss the details of the report, there is no justification for keeping it from Congress since last spring.

    The referral of the complaint to lawmakers isn’t simple because it contains classified details that necessitate it being hand-delivered, resulting in a process that is likely to take a few days.

    The inspector general’s office confirmed that some lawmakers and their staff were allowed to read copies of the complaint on Monday. Representatives for the inspector general plan to meet with the remaining lawmakers who had not seen it on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the office said.

    Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. She has recently drawn attention for another matter — appearing on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia that are central to Trump’s disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

    That unusual role for a spy chief raised additional questions from Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

    Gabbard said Trump asked her to be present at the search. She defended her role in a letter to lawmakers, arguing that she regularly works with the FBI and is authorized to investigate any threat to election security.

    Warner said Tuesday that he doesn’t accept Gabbard’s explanation and that her actions are eroding longstanding barriers separating intelligence work from domestic law enforcement. He said he wants Gabbard to address his questions before the Senate Intelligence Committee soon.

    “The director of national intelligence does not conduct criminal investigations,” Warner said. “She has no role in executing search warrants. And she does not belong on the scene of a domestic FBI search.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • US Announces Military Team Sent to Nigeria After Recent Attacks

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    LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The U.S. has dispatched a small team of military officers to Nigeria, the general in charge of U.S. Africa Command told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday.

    General Dagvin R.M. Anderson said the move followed his meeting with Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, in Rome late last year.

    “That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States in order to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years,” Anderson said.

    It is unclear when the team arrived in Nigeria.

    The military officers are the latest step since the U.S launched airstrikes against a group affiliated with the Islamic State last year on Dec. 25.

    Nigeria has been in the diplomatic crosshairs of the U.S. following threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to attack the country, alleging the West African nation is not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens. Following the allegations, the West African country was designated as a Country of Particular Concern, a congressional designation in the U.S. for countries responsible for religious oppression.

    The diplomatic dispute has led to increased military cooperation between the two countries. The terms of the cooperation have been unclear. The U.S has supplied Nigeria with military equipment and carried out reconnaissance missions across Nigeria.

    Nigeria has been battling several armed groups across the country. The groups include Islamist sects like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • FACT FOCUS: Images of NYC Mayor With Jeffrey Epstein Are AI-Generated. Here’s How We Know

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    Multiple AI-generated photos falsely claiming to show New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a child and his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, along with other high-profile public figures, were shared widely on social media Monday.

    The images originated on an X account labeled as parody after a huge tranche of new Epstein files was released by the Justice Department on Friday. They are clearly watermarked as AI and other elements they contain do not add up.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: Images show Mamdani as a child and his mother with Jeffrey Epstein and other public figures linked to the disgraced financier.

    THE FACTS: The images were created with artificial intelligence. They all contain a digital watermark identifying them as such and first appeared on a parody X account that says it creates “high quality AI videos and memes.”

    In one of the images, Mamdani and Nair appear in the front of a group photo with Maxwell, Epstein, former President Bill Clinton, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. They seem to be posing at night on a crowded city street. Mamdani looks to be a preteen or young teenager.

    Another supposedly shows the same group of people, minus Nair, in what appears to be a tropical setting. Epstein is pictured holding Clinton sitting in his arms, while Maxwell has her arm around Mamdani, who appears slightly younger.

    Other AI-generated images circulating online depict Mamdani as a baby being held by Nair while she poses with Epstein, Clinton, Maxwell and Bezos. None of Epstein’s victims have publicly accused Clinton, Gates or Bezos of being involved in his crimes.

    Google’s Gemini app detected SynthID, a digital watermarking tool for identifying content that has been generated or altered with AI, in all the images described above. This means they were created or edited, either entirely or in part, by Google’s AI models.

    The X account that first posted the images describes itself as “an AI-powered meme engine” that uses “AI to create memes, songs, stories, and visuals that call things exactly how they are — fast, loud, and impossible to ignore.”

    An inquiry sent to the account went unanswered. However, a post by the account seems to acknowledge that it created the images.

    “Damn you guys failed,” it reads. “I purposely made him a baby which would technically make this pic 34 years old. Yikes.”

    The photos began circulating after an email emerged in which a publicist, Peggy Siegal, wrote to Epstein about seeing a variety of luminaries, including Clinton, Bezos and Nair, an award-winning Indian filmmaker, at 2009 afterparty for a film held at Maxwell’s townhouse.

    While Mamdani appears as a baby or young child in all of the images, he was 18 in 2009, when Nair is said to have attended the party.

    The images have led to related falsehoods that have spread online in their wake. For example, one claims that Epstein is Mamdani’s father. This is not true — Mamdani’s father is Mahmood Mamdani, an anthropology professor at Columbia University.

    The NYC Mayor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Every Homeland Security Officer in Minneapolis Is Now Being Issued a Body-Worn Camera, Noem Says

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Every Homeland Security officer on the ground, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, will be immediately issued body-worn cameras, Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday.

    Noem made the announcement on the social media platform X. She said the body-worn camera program is being expanded nationwide as funding becomes available.

    “We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” Noem said in the social media post.

    The news of the body cameras comes as Minneapolis has been the site of intense scrutiny over the conduct of immigration enforcement agents. There have been increased calls by critics of Homeland Security to require all of the department’s officers who are responsible for immigration enforcement to wear body cameras.

    President Joe Biden ordered in 2022 that federal law enforcement officers wear body cameras as part of an executive order that included other policing reform measures. President Donald Trump had rescinded that directive after starting his second term.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Labor Department Delays January Jobs Report Because of Partial Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department, citing the partial federal government shutdown, said Monday that it will not release the January jobs report on Friday as scheduled.

    In a statement, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said: “Once funding is restored, BLS will resume normal operations and notify the public of any changes to the news release schedule.’’ It is also postponing the December report on job openings, which was supposed to come out Tuesday.

    The jobs report and other key economic statistics were previously delayed by a record 43-day government shutdown last fall.

    Economists had expected the January jobs report to show that employers added 80,000 jobs last month, up from 50,000 in December.

    The delay in data comes at a bad time. The economy is in a puzzling place.

    Growth is strong: Gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — advanced from July through September at the fastest pace in two years.

    But the job market is sluggish: Employers have added just 28,000 jobs a month since March. In the 2021-2023 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns, by contrast, they were creating 400,000 jobs a month.

    Economists are trying to figure out if hiring will accelerate to catch up to strong growth or if growth will slow to match weak hiring, or if advances in artificial intelligence and automation mean that the economy can roar ahead without creating many jobs.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Trump Administration to Create a Strategic Reserve for Rare Earths Elements

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to deploy nearly $12 billion to create a strategic reserve of rare earth elements, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of these hard to process metals as leverage in trade talks.

    The White House confirmed on Monday the start of “Project Vault,” which would initially be funded by a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital. The minerals kept in the reserve would help to shield the manufacturers of autos, electronics and other goods from any supply chain disruptions.

    During trade talks last year spurred by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Chinese government restricted the exporting of rare earths that are needed for jet engines, radar systems, electric vehicles, laptops and phones.

    China represents about 70% of the world’s rare earths mining and 90% of global rare earths processing. That gave it a chokehold on the sector that has caused the U.S. to nurture alternative sources of the elements, creating a stockpile similar to the national reserve for petroleum.

    The loan would be for a period of 15 years. The U.S. government has previously taken stakes in the rare earths miner MP Materials, as well as providing financial backing to the companies Vulcan Elements and USA Rare Earth.

    Bloomberg News was the first to report the creation of the rare earths strategic reserve.

    Trump is scheduled on Monday to meet with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and mining industry billionaire Robert Friedland.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Patriots, Seahawks Arrive in San Jose Ahead of Super Bowl Showdown

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    SAN JOSE, California, Feb ‌1 (Reuters) – ​The New ‌England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks ​arrived in San Jose, California, on ‍Sunday to begin weeklong ​preparations for Super Bowl ​LX ⁠in nearby Santa Clara.

    The Patriots touched down first, with players and coaches exiting their plane to partly sunny skies. The ‌Seahawks arrived approximately 90 minutes later ​after a ‌send-off parade of ‍fans ⁠in cloudy Seattle.

    Both teams are scheduled to meet with the media on Monday during Super Bowl Opening Night, the traditional start to game-week festivities.

    The ​Seahawks are returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since falling to New England in the championship game 11 years ago. The Patriots, considered underdogs in this matchup, are pursuing a record seventh Super Bowl title and their ​first since 2019.

    The Super Bowl kicks off on February 8 at 6:30 p.m. ET (2230 GMT).

    (Reporting by Angelica ​Medina in San Francisco; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • In Minneapolis, All-Encompassing Immigration Story Tests a Newsroom in Midst of Digital Transition

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    With the eyes of a nation fixed on the unrest in Minneapolis, the events haven’t left local journalists overmatched.

    Over the past month, the Minnesota Star Tribune has broken stories, including the identity of the immigration enforcement officer who shot Renee Good, and produced a variety of informative and instructive pieces. Richard Tsong-Taatarii’s photo of a prone demonstrator sprayed point-blank with a chemical irritant quickly became a defining image. The ICE actions have changed how the outlet presents the news.

    At a time when many regional newspapers have become hollowed-out shells due to the decline in journalism as a business, the Star Tribune has kept staffing relatively steady under billionaire Glen Taylor, who has owned it since 2014. It rebranded itself from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and committed itself to a digital transformation.

    It was ready for its moment.

    “If you hadn’t invested in the newsroom, you wouldn’t be able to react in that way,” said Steve Grove, publisher and chief executive.


    Minnesota’s robust journalism tradition

    The Star Tribune hasn’t operated in a vacuum. Minneapolis has a robust journalism tradition, particularly on public radio and television. Sahan Journal, a digital newsroom focusing on immigrants and diverse communities, has also distinguished itself covering President Donald Trump’s immigration efforts and the public response.

    “The whole ecosystem is pretty darn good,” said Kathleen Hennessey, senior vice president and editor of the Star Tribune, “and I think people are seeing that now.”

    While national outlets have made their presence felt, strong local teams offer advantages in such stories. The Star Tribune’s Josie Albertson-Grove was one of the first journalists on the scene after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead on Jan. 24. She lives about a block away, and her knowledge of the neighborhood and its people helped to reconstruct what happened.

    Journalists with kids in school learned about ICE efforts to target areas where children gather by hearing chatter among friends. While covering a beat like public safety can carry baggage, Star Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer developed sources that helped her, along with colleagues Andy Mannix and Sarah Nelson, report on who shot Good.

    Besides those contacts, the staff simply knows Minnesota better than outsiders, Hennessey said.

    “This is a place with a really, really long and entrenched tradition of activism, and a place with really deep social networks and neighborhood networks,” she said. “People mobilize quickly and passionately, and they’re noisy about it. That’s definitely been part of the story.”

    A Signal chat tipped Tsong-Taatarii about a demonstration growing raucous on Jan. 21. Upon arriving, he focused his lens on one protester knocked to the ground, leaving the photographer perfectly placed for his richly-detailed shot. Two officers hold the man face-down with arms on his back, while a third unleashes a chemical from a canister inches from his face. The bright yellow liquid streams onto his cheek and splatters onto the pavement.

    What some have called the sadistic cruelty involved in the episode outraged many who saw the photo. “I was just trying to document and present the evidence and let people decide for themselves,” Tsong-Taatarii said.


    ‘A badge to prove I belong’

    In one enterprising story, the Star Tribune’s Christopher Magan and Jeff Hargarten identified 240 of an estimated 3,000 immigrants rounded up in Minnesota, finding 80% had felony convictions but nearly all had been through the court system, been punished and were no longer sought by police. Hargarten and Jake Steinberg collaborated on a study of how the size of the federal force compared with that of local police.

    Columnist Laura Yuen wrote that her 80-year-old parents have begun carrying their passports when they leave their suburban townhouse, part of the “quiet, pervasive fear” in the Twin Cities. Yuen downloaded her own passport to carry on her phone. “A document that once made me proud of all the places I’ve traveled is now a badge to prove I belong,” she wrote.

    A piece by Kim Hyatt and Louis Krauss detailed the health consequences of chemical irritants used by law enforcement — or thought to be used, since questions about what specifically was deployed went unanswered.

    “I really think they’ve done a commendable job,” said Scott Libin, a veteran television newsman and journalism professor at the University of Minnesota. He praised the Star Tribune’s story about the criminal backgrounds of immigrants as thorough and dispassionate.

    Since Hennessey, a former Associated Press editor, began her job last May, the Star Tribune has experienced a run of big stories, including the shooting of two state lawmakers and a gunman opening fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. And, of course, “we have a newsroom that still has muscle memory from George Floyd ” in 2020, Grove said.

    News compelled fundamental shifts in the way the Star Tribune operates. Like some national outlets, it has rearranged staff to cover the story aggressively through a continuously updated live blog on its website, offered free to readers. There’s also a greater emphasis on video, with the Star Tribune doing forensic studies on footage from the Pretti and Good shootings, something few local newsrooms are equipped to do. Traffic to its website has gone up 50 percent, paid subscriptions have increased and the company is getting thousands of dollars in donations from across the country, Grove said.

    “People have changed the way that they consume news,” Hennessey said. “We see that readers are coming back. You know, they’re not just waking up in the morning, reading the site and then forgetting about us all day long. They’re coming back a couple of times a day to check in on what’s new.”

    Most people in the newsroom are contributing to the story, including the Star Tribune’s food and culture team, and its outdoor reporters. “There are no normal beats anymore,” Albertson-Grove said.


    A rapid transformation to a digital-first newsroom

    Under Grove, a former Google executive, the Star Tribune has attempted a digital-first transition, turning over about 20% of its staff in two years. The paper shut its Minneapolis printing plant in December, laying off 125 people, and moving print operations to Iowa.

    “We face every single headwind that every local news organization in the country does,” Grove said. “But we do feel fortunate that we’re the largest newsroom in the Midwest and it’s part of the reason we’re able to do this now.”

    As a reporter, Sawyer says the public response to the outlet’s work, sharing stories and images, has lifted her spirits. Readers see it as public service journalism. Still, she could use a break. She and her husband, Star Tribune photographer Aaron Lavinsky, have a baby daughter and make sure to stagger their coverage. They can’t both be tear-gassed or arrested at the same time; who makes the daycare pickup?

    “I think both residents and journalists in this town are running on fumes,” she said. “We’re tired of being in the international spotlight and it’s never for something positive. People are trying their best to get through this moment with grace.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • NASA Begins a Practice Countdown for Its First Moonshot With Astronauts in More Than 50 Years

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA began a two-day practice countdown Saturday leading up to the fueling of its new moon rocket, a crucial test that will determine when four astronauts blast off on a lunar flyby.

    Already in quarantine to avoid germs, Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will be the first people to launch to the moon since 1972. They will monitor the dress rehearsal from their Houston base before flying to Kennedy Space Center once the rocket is cleared for flight.

    The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket moved out to the pad two weeks ago. If Monday’s fueling test goes well, NASA could try to launch within a week. Teams will fill the rocket’s tank with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel, stopping a half-minute short of when the engines would light.

    A bitter cold spell delayed the fueling demo, and the launch, by two days. Feb. 8 is now the earliest the rocket could blast off.

    Riding in the Orion capsule on top of the rocket, the U.S. and Canadian astronauts will hurtle around the moon and then straight back without stopping until splashdown in the Pacific. The mission will last nearly 10 days.

    NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program, from 1968 to 1972. Twelve of them walked on the surface.

    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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  • As Officials Disparage Pretti and Good, Families of Black People Killed by Police Have Déjà Vu

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    The shooting deaths of white protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis followed a playbook that is painfully familiar to Black Americans: Authorities quickly moved to disparage the victims, only to be contradicted as more evidence emerged.

    Black families who have lost loved ones to police violence said the killings in Minnesota have brought back painful memories of their own fights for justice as law enforcement agencies spun up narratives to suggest officers had no other choice but to kill their relatives.

    And these law enforcement agencies often make no effort to publicly correct misstatements or falsehoods that might have impact on a fair justice process, experts said.

    Timothy Welbeck, the director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University, said it “regrettably” took the deaths of Pretti and Good to again shine a spotlight on this issue.

    “Black people have leveled a critique against law enforcement for as long as we’ve had policing in America,” said Welbeck, an assistant professor at Temple’s Africology and African American Studies Department.

    He also called it “painfully ironic” that Pretti and Good died in “the same place” where other high-profile cases brought the issue to the fore: George Floyd, who was murdered in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer, and Philando Castile, who was fatally shot in 2016 as he tried to show a suburban Minneapolis police officer his license to carry a concealed firearm.

    Clarence Castile, an uncle of Philando Castile, said it was eerie to hear federal authorities make snap conclusions in the Pretti and Good shootings.

    “Right away they backed up their officers and said they had justifiable shoots, their lives were in danger, they feared for their lives,” Castile said. “I heard the same thing, (officials) said the same things when that cop shot my nephew.”

    “We know, from the beginning, that they haven’t taken the time to investigate,” he said. “They’re just putting out something, because they think they have to respond. Sometimes the best response is no response.”


    ‘Protecting the integrity of the investigation’

    Leonard Sipes, who worked for 35 years in public affairs and communications for federal and state law enforcement agencies and is also a former officer, said the standard practice for shootings or any other major breaking case is to simply state that “it’s under investigation.” Sipes said he typically waited 24 hours before releasing information to the public.

    “Getting the story correct is vital to the reputation of the agency,” Sipes said. “You are also obligated to protect the integrity of the investigation. A rush to judgment can violate that.”

    The killings of Pretti, a Veterans Affairs hospital ICU nurse, and Good, who described herself as a poet, mother and wife, quickly became rallying cries for Minnesotans protesting the largest surge of federal law enforcement into an American city.

    After Pretti and Good were killed, administration officials from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to President Donald Trump claimed the two were far-left radicals acting with malicious intent to harm federal officers.

    “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” Pretti’s family said in a statement this week, noting that videos showed Pretti holding his phone, not a gun, when he was tackled by federal agents before he was shot several times. “Please get the truth out about our son.”

    Good was remembered by her family as “the beautiful light of our family and brought joy to anyone she met.”

    “She was our protector, our shoulder to cry on and our scintillating source of joy.”

    Still, officials have not walked back claims that Pretti and Good were avowed extremists who intended to harm federal agents when they were killed.


    Frustration over past and present cases

    Some Black activists and police reform advocates expressed frustration that people who are outraged by how the Pretti and Good cases have been handled often ignored the same dynamics when the victims were Black.

    “Ultimately, this demonstrates the insidious nature of racism and how it’s embedded its ways into the systems and structures of society,” Welbeck said. “When Black people try to point out not only the logical fallacies of it, but just the callousness of it, we were often lambasted or told that we were overreacting and needed to wait for justice to play itself out.”

    Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, said it’s a common misconception that Black racial justice organizers won’t get active when white people die at the hands of law enforcement.

    “I want to be very clear that I mourn and rage about the murder of Alex Pretti and Renée Good,” said Abdullah, organizer of a national hub for BLM chapters. “What they suffered is what Black people suffer every single day, and it doesn’t make it right for them, but it’s also not right for us.”

    Justin Hansford, who participated in Black Lives Matter protests after the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, said the Minneapolis shootings should be a reminder to all Americans that injustice disproportionately impacting Black people can impact them, too.

    “It’s the idea that Black folks were always the ones whose experience signaled to the rest of the country what was soon to come,” said Hansford, a professor at the Howard University School of Law and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center.

    “It was because this is the Black experience that you looked at it narrowly, and you failed to address it. And then the experience becomes mimicked nationally.”


    Tulsa shooting victim’s sister knows Minneapolis families’ pain

    Tiffany Crutcher, the twin sister of Terence Crutcher, a Black man killed in 2016 by a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer, said she couldn’t watch videos showing the killings of Pretti and Good. Just hearing authorities speak about their deaths was re-traumatizing, she said.

    She’s “been there before,” she said, recalling how law enforcement officials made snap judgements about her brother.

    Crutcher’s family maintained that Terence was in need of help after his vehicle stalled on the road. The officer who fatally shot him claimed she feared he was reaching into his car for a weapon. Terence Crutcher was unarmed.

    Video footage from the scene recorded an operator saying Terence “looks like a bad dude” who “could be on something.” Ultimately, the officer who shot him was acquitted at trial for manslaughter.

    “In our trauma and shock, we had to control the narrative about who Terrence was,” Tiffany said. “While we’re grieving and mourning, at the same time, we have to rally and let the world know that our loved one did not deserve to die.”

    She said the Pretti and Good shootings are helping people wake up to the problem of unequal justice for people killed by police.

    “Naturally, there’s an affinity more broadly towards law enforcement and people believing them,” Tiffany said. “However, I think that is shifting.”

    “Our voice is all that we have. And we made a conscious decision that we were going to utilize our voice and get ahead of the harmful narratives.”

    AP writer Matt Brown in Washington, D.C., contributed.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Starbucks Feels the Heat as More Chains Compete for US Coffee Drinkers

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are drinking more coffee than they have in decades. But fewer of them are getting it from Starbucks.

    The company that revolutionized U.S. coffee culture remains America’s biggest player, with nearly 17,000 U.S. stores and plans to open hundreds more. But it’s facing unprecedented competition, which will make it harder to win back the customers it already lost.

    Starbucks’ share of spending at all U.S. coffee shops fell in 2024 and 2025; it now stands at 48%, down from 52% in 2023, according to Technomic, a food industry consulting firm. Dunkin ‘, a perennial rival that just opened its 10,000th U.S. store, gained market share in both of those years.

    Starbucks has other challengers, like the fast-growing drive-thru chains 7 Brew, Scooter’s Coffee and Dutch Bros. Chinese chains like Luckin Coffee and Mixue are opening U.S. stores. High-end coffee shop Blue Bottle, which has 78 U.S. stores, has opened two more since the start of the year. Even McDonald’s and Taco Bell are bolstering their beverage offerings.

    “People haven’t fallen out of love with Starbucks, but they’re now polyamorous in their coffee choices,” said Chris Kayes, chair of the management department in the George Washington University School of Business. “People are now experimenting with other coffees, and they’re seeing what’s out there.”

    Americans love coffee. In both 2024 and 2025, an estimated 66% of Americans reported drinking coffee every day, up 7% from 2020, according to the National Coffee Association, an industry trade group.

    Coffee chains are racing to cash in on that demand. The number of chain coffee stores in the U.S. jumped 19% to more than 34,500 over the last six years, according to Technomic, a consulting firm that researches the foodservice industry.

    Seattle-based Starbucks was a small, regional chain when former CEO Howard Schultz acquired it in 1987. Now, other small chains are seeing explosive growth. Nebraska-based Scooter’s Coffee had 200 locations in 2019; it now has more than 850. Arkansas-based 7 Brew, which had 14 locations in 2019, now has more than 600.

    “There’s too much supply relative to demand,” said Neil Saunders, a managing director and retail analyst at consulting firm GlobalData Retail

    Saunders said Starbucks’ size is somewhat of a disadvantage, since it has less ability to grow sales by opening new locations.

    “Honestly, they’re pretty saturated,” Saunders said. “They’re a very mature business.”

    “Growth doesn’t require us to become something new. It requires us to be exceptionally good at what we already are,” Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said.

    Starbucks expects to open more than 575 new U.S. stores over the next three years. It developed a smaller-format store that is cheaper to build but still has indoor seating, drive-thru lanes and mobile pickup. The company said the reduced scale would allow Starbucks stores to operate in locations they couldn’t before.

    Starbucks is also adding new products, like updated pastries and snackable foods that are high in protein and fiber, to try to win back customers.

    Lack of menu innovation is one reason Starbucks has struggled, especially among younger consumers who like novelty and will try new places to find it, Saunders said.

    Arizona-based Dutch Bros, for example, added protein coffee drinks in January 2024, nearly two years before Starbucks did. Energy drinks make up 25% of Dutch Bros’ business almost 14 years after the chain introduced them. Starbucks offered iced energy drinks for a limited time in 2024; executives said Thursday that customizable energy drinks would appear on the Starbucks menu soon.

    Dutch Bros, which is led by former Starbucks executive Christine Barone, has just over 1,000 shops in the U.S. and hopes to double that number by 2029. It’s betting that customers want speed and convenience; nearly all of its stores are drive-thrus with walk-up windows.

    Dutch Bros also focuses on value. In a recent meeting with investors, Barone pointed out that Dutch Bros’ medium drinks are 24 ounces; at Starbucks, a medium drink is 16 ounces.

    Luckin, whose app brims with coupons and promotions, is also value-oriented. On a recent afternoon, one of its nine New York stores buzzed with customers picking up mobile orders. The tiny shop had no seating.

    Xunyi Xie, who was visiting New York from his home in Delaware, said he stopped by to try a Velvet Latte because Luckin had a $1.99 drink promotion. Xie said he normally brews his own espresso, but if Luckin opened a store that was on his way to work, he would go there.

    As for Starbucks? “I think it’s overpriced,” Xie said.

    In 2024, the average customer spent $9.34 at Starbucks, compared to $8.44 at Dutch Bros and $4.68 at Dunkin’, according to an analysis by the investment research company Morningstar.

    Starbucks didn’t raise prices in its 2025 fiscal year and has vowed to be judicious about future increases. But Ari Felhandler, an equity analyst with Morningstar, said it would be a mistake for Starbucks to try to win over customers with discounts because competitors will always go lower.

    “Keep your prices the same and try to justify them,” Felhandler said. He thinks Starbucks’ store redesigns and new menu items will bring back traffic.

    Grams, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, said the company firmly believes its best way forward is not drive-thru-only stores or mobile pickup kiosks. It’s building cafes with comfortable seating — the “soul of Starbucks,” as he put it — that also serve mobile, drive-thru and delivery customers. Customers sometimes want something convenient, and they sometimes want to dwell, he said.

    “There’s always going to be competition. We’re aware of it, we keep an eye on it for sure, but we don’t try to be them,” Grams told The Associated Press. “We offer something that most people don’t, which is a legitimate space to sit down, enjoy and use it for a variety of different reasons.”

    But Kayes, of George Washington University, wonders if that strategy will be enough to keep Starbucks on top, or if customers who want a cozy or premium experience have already moved on to independent coffee shops or upscale chains like Blue Bottle.

    “In some ways, I think they are a victim of their own success,” Kayes said. “I do think that the aura of Starbucks as being something special and unique and exciting isn’t there anymore.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • From Stilettos to Safety Concerns on Inauguration Day: 4 Takeaways From Melania Trump’s New Movie

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The new documentary “Melania” opens on a close-up of the trademark stilettos of first lady Melania Trump as she walks the halls of Mar-a-Lago, her Palm Beach home, in early January 2025, following her as she climbs into a dark SUV for the short drive to the airport and a flight aboard her husband’s personal plane to New York and their Trump Tower penthouse home.

    The movie, which stretches nearly two hours, is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the first lady’s life during the 20 days before she resumed the role last year. The first lady, who is known to fiercely protect her privacy, had film crews follow her in Palm Beach, Florida; New York City and Washington, during that window to show her transition from a private citizen to public figure to an audience that mostly regards her as kind of a mystery.

    “With this film, I want to show the American people my journey,” she says in the documentary, which opened Friday in theaters in the U.S. and around the world.


    The first lady focuses on getting details just right

    Viewers follow Melania Trump through a variety of meetings — and fittings — where the former fashion model appears keenly focused on the precise fit of her inaugural coat and hat and the gown she plans to wear to the balls. In one of the scenes where she’s wearing the coat, she asks for it to be tightened around her hips. In another, after she comes downstairs in the strapless gown, her request is for the black trim at the top to be fixed straight across and to not flop.

    She reviews the minute arrangements for a pre-inaugural candlelight dinner in Washington for President Donald Trump’s donors, such as the invitations and the caviar served inside a golden egg. And she works on furnishing the family’s private living quarters on the second floor of the White House. She asks her interior designer for a bigger bed for their son, Barron, “because he’s much taller now” than in Trump’s first term.


    She meets with powerful women

    Melania Trump, who was involved in every aspect of the film’s development, includes scenes from meetings with some powerful women before Inauguration Day: a video call with Brigitte Macron, the French president’s wife, to discuss working together on children’s initiatives, and a sit-down with Queen Rania of Jordan.

    She also meets with Aviva Siegel, who had been held hostage by Hamas militants after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and whose husband of 44 years was still in captivity at the time of the meeting. The film’s credits say Melania Trump played a key role in winning the release of Siegel’s husband.


    Melania was concerned about safety on Inauguration Day

    She and President Trump attend a meeting with Secret Service officials to review plans for the day. Told that there will be several points along the parade route where they could get out of the limousine to walk along Pennsylvania Avenue, she asks, “Is it safe?”

    She doesn’t appear reassured by the answer, and says she knows Barron will not get out of the car. Trump had been the target of two assassination attempts during his campaign, including one at a rally in Pennsylvania in which his ear was grazed by a bullet and a supporter standing behind him was fatally shot.

    Trump eventually moved the traditional outdoor inauguration ceremony indoors due to concerns about bitterly cold weather, and the parade was moved indoors to the Capital One Arena.

    Melania Trump, who narrates the documentary, calls it a “practical decision” to move the parade. “But in truth, I was relieved,” she says.


    Melania says she wants to modernize the role of first lady

    She says in the film that she wants to move beyond the traditional “social duties” of first ladies. In some ways, she’s already done so, especially with the documentary.

    Presidents and first ladies generally wait until they leave the White House to pursue such projects to avoid questions about possible conflicts of interest or ethics.

    The film, announced before the Trumps returned to the White House, is the product of a reported $40 million deal with AmazonMGM Studios. Amazon does business with the federal government, and co-founder Jeff Bezos has sought to improve relations with the president.

    Melania Trump also has not been tied to living in the White House. In Trump’s first term, she took the unusual step of living in New York for several months so that Barron, then in elementary school, could finish the school year. In the second term, she spent much of the first year in New York and Florida working on the film.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • US Judge Temporarily Blocks End of Ethiopians’ Deportation Protections

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    BOSTON, Jan ‌30 (Reuters) – ​A federal ‌judge on Friday temporarily ​blocked U.S. President ‍Donald Trump’s administration ​from ​ending ⁠temporary protections from deportation that had been granted to thousands of Ethiopians ‌living in the United States.

    U.S. ​District ‌Judge Brian ‍Murphy in ⁠Boston said he would issue an order delaying the February 13 effective date ​of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s termination of the temporary protected status granted to over 5,000 Ethiopians in order to provide more time for ​a legal challenge to be heard.

    (Reporting by Nate Raymond in ​Boston, Editing by Franklin Paul)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Florida Sets up a Third Execution in 2026 as State Leads US Death Penalty Surge

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    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop is set to be Florida’s third execution of 2026, keeping the state on pace to match or possibly exceed last year’s record 19 executions.

    Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Thursday for Billy Leon Kearse, 53, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection March 3 at Florida State Prison.

    DeSantis, a Republican, oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

    Two executions have already been scheduled for next month. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, is scheduled to die on Feb. 10, and the execution of Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled for Feb. 24, exactly one week before Kearse.

    Kearse was initially sentenced to death in 1991 after being convicted of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. The Florida Supreme Court found that the trial court failed to give jurors certain information about aggravating circumstances and ordered a new sentencing. Kearse was resentenced to death in 1997.

    According to court records, Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish pulled over Kearse for driving the wrong way on a one-way street in January 1991. When Kearse couldn’t produce a valid driver’s license, Parrish ordered Kearse out of his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him.

    A struggle ensued, and Kearse grabbed Parrish’s sidearm, prosecutors said. Kearse fired 14 times, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor. A nearby taxi driver heard the shots and used Parrish’s radio to call for help.

    Parrish was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died from the gunshot wounds, officials said. Meanwhile, police used license plate information that Parrish had called in before approaching Kearse to identify the attacker’s vehicle and home address, where Kearse was arrested.

    Attorneys for Kearse are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Forty-seven people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, the highest total since 2009. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis.

    DeSantis explained the unprecedented number of executions last year by saying his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.

    “Some of these crimes were committed in the ’80s,” the governor said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly. If I honestly thought someone was innocent, I would not pull the trigger.”

    Florida executions are all conducted via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • US Labor Department Proposes Rule to Boost Transparency in Pharmacy Benefit Manager Fees

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    Jan 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department ‌of ​Labor’s Employee Benefits ‌Security Administration on Thursday issued a proposed ​rule aimed at increasing transparency around fees and compensation collected ‍by pharmacy benefit managers.

    The ​move, which follows a directive under President ​Donald Trump’s ⁠executive order on lowering drug prices, seeks to clarify PBM business practices that affect employer-sponsored health plans covering millions of Americans.

    PBMs — including units of CVS Health, Cigna ‌and UnitedHealth — negotiate drug prices and manage formularies for ​health plans, ‌but have faced ‍scrutiny ⁠from U.S. officials over business practices and a lack of transparency.

    The department said PBMs often do not disclose the full scope of payments they receive, leaving plan fiduciaries unable to assess whether compensation is reasonable.

    “This action will allow ​employers to see the full extent of the fees charged by pharmacy benefit managers, enabling them to negotiate a better deal for themselves and American workers,” said Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling.

    The proposed regulation would require PBMs to disclose rebates and other payments from drug manufacturers, compensation collected when plans pay more for a drug than pharmacies are ​reimbursed, and funds recouped from pharmacies.

    Fiduciaries would also gain new authority to audit PBM disclosures and receive additional protections if PBMs fail to comply, ​the department said.

    (Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Rubio Details How the Trump Administration Will Control Venezuela’s Oil Money

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration soon will allow Venezuela to sell oil now subject to U.S. sanctions, with the revenue initially dedicated to basic government services such as policing and health care and subject to Washington’s oversight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

    “The funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. Treasury would control the process. Venezuela, he said, “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”

    The U.S. will not subsidize oil industry investments in Venezuela, Rubio said, and is only overseeing the sale of sanctioned petroleum as an “interim step.”

    “This is simply a way to divide revenue so that there isn’t systemic collapse while we work through this recovery and transition,” Rubio said.

    “You are taking their oil at gunpoint, you are holding and selling that oil … you’re deciding how and for what purposes that money is going to be used in a country of 30 million people,” Murphy said. “I think a lot of us believe that that is destined for failure.”

    Under Maduro, Rubio said Venezuela’s oil industry benefited the country’s corrupt leaders and countries such as China, which purchased Venezuelan oil at a discount. Now, Venezuela’s interim leaders are assisting the U.S. in seizing illegal oil shipments, he said.

    The U.S. will give Venezuela’s current leaders instructions on how the money can and cannot be spent and conduct audits to ensure it is used as intended, Rubio said. He said Venezuela could use the money to pay for policing or to buy medicine.

    The fund was initially set up in Qatar to avoid having the proceeds seized by American creditors and because of other legal complications that stem from the U.S. not considering Maduro’s government legitimate, Rubio said.

    Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been set aside and as much as $3 billion more is anticipated, he said.

    “It’s an account that belongs to Venezuela, but it has U.S. sanctions as a blocking mechanism,” Rubio said. “We only control the dispersal of the money, we don’t control the actual money.”

    Earlier this month, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez said cash from oil sales would flow into two sovereign wealth funds: one to support crisis-stricken health services and a second to bolster public infrastructure, including the electric grid.

    The country’s hospitals are so poorly equipped that patients are asked to provide supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. They also must pay for lab and imaging tests at private hospitals.

    On Tuesday, during a televised event to announce the revamping of various health care facilities, Rodríguez said her government and the U.S. administration “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication” since Maduro was captured.

    Neither Rodríguez nor her government’s press office immediately comment on Rubio’s remarks Wednesday.

    At Rodríguez’s request, Venezuelan lawmakers last week began debating an overhaul of the country’s energy law. The proposed changes are meant to create conditions to attract much-needed private foreign investment.

    Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • What We Know About the Investigations Into the Minneapolis Shooting Death of Alex Pretti

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The fatal shooting over the weekend of a Minneapolis man has prompted calls for a thorough independent investigation into the second death at the hands of federal immigration officers since the Trump administration began its large-scale operation in the city late last year.

    But many of the investigation’s details, including the identities of the officers involved and precisely what evidence is being examined, remain unclear even as tensions soar in Minneapolis over the death of Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse.

    Any investigation into the details of the shooting will likely be highly scrutinized. The Trump administration has been quick to cast Pretti as an armed instigator, although videos emerging from the scene and local officials contradict that claim.

    Here’s a look at what’s known about the investigation into the shooting and what’s not:

    The White House says three federal investigations into the shooting are underway.

    During a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were investigating the shooting and U.S. Customs and Border Protection was “conducting their own internal review.”

    “As President (Donald) Trump said yesterday, the administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out,” Leavitt added, without providing additional details on the probes.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which normally plays a key role in any case in which a federal law enforcement officer kills a civilian, is instead only lending support in processing physical evidence from the scene, such as Pretti’s gun.

    Historically, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department investigates shootings of civilians by law enforcement officers for potential criminal violations, but there’s no indication that they intend to do so in Pretti’s case. In the case of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement earlier this month that “there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”

    Gil Kerlikowske, who headed Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration, said that when he was at the agency, if a Border Patrol agent used deadly force on the job, it would be “routine” for the FBI to conduct a criminal civil rights investigation, even in cases where the force may have been justified and even if the probe wouldn’t necessarily lead to prosecution.

    Kerlikowske also questioned why Homeland Security Investigations, an arm within DHS that traditionally probes cross-border issues like drug smuggling and human trafficking, would take a lead role in this investigation.

    “This isn’t something that HSI has real expertise or does at all,” said Kerlikowske. “Shooting and use of force and potential criminal liability is not something that would be in their portfolio.”


    Videos, firearms and questions about Pretti’s phone

    FBI Director Kash Patel said Sunday on Fox News that the agency will be assisting HSI by “processing physical evidence.”

    Patel said they’re in possession of “the firearm, which is going to go to our laboratory,” in reference to Pretti’s gun.

    But Patel made no reference to whether the bureau had gathered the firearms of the officers or agents who were on the scene or what other evidence the FBI was processing.

    DHS officials did not respond to questions Monday about whether they are in possession of Pretti’s phone or whether they have recovered the video he was recording when he was killed.

    Pretti’s family told The Associated Press they don’t have the phone and don’t know where it is. Pretti’s father, Michael Pretti, said Monday the family had still not been contacted by or provided any information by federal law enforcement.

    Investigators also have an extensive array of videos to sift through, including multiple videos shot by activists and protesters at the scene.

    Use-of-force experts have said that bystander video undermined federal authorities’ claim that Pretti “approached” a group of lawmen with a firearm and that a Border Patrol officer opened fire “defensively.” There has been no evidence made public, they said, that supports a claim by Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino that Pretti, who had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, intended to “massacre law enforcement.”

    Investigators have video from at least four Border Patrol agents on the scene who were wearing body cameras, said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. Those videos have not been made public.

    Neither have the identities of the Border Patrol agents involved. The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said Saturday.


    State officials say they are being shut out

    The incident has shined a light on the increasing mistrust between officials in the state and the Trump administration over who should take the lead in investigating.

    Drew Evans, superintendent of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that federal officers had blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.

    “We will continue to investigate this case and others that we have recently been involved with. But I would be remiss if I didn’t state that it would be difficult to obtain all of the evidence and information obtained without cooperation,” Evans said Saturday.

    A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting after state and county officials sued.

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect.

    McLaughlin dismissed the lawsuit, saying claims that the federal government would destroy evidence are “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened.”

    Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said he called for an impartial investigation in a phone call with Trump Monday.

    Trump, in an earlier social media post, said after their call he and Walz “seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” although he did not mention the investigations. Later, Leavitt said Trump supports the probes that are underway.

    Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Eric Tucker contributed.

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