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Tag: World News

  • UN approves 40-member scientific panel on the impact of artificial intelligence over US objections

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a 40-member global scientific panel on the impacts and risks of artificial intelligence, with the United States strongly objecting.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who established the panel, called the adoption “a foundational step toward global scientific understanding of AI.”

    “In a world where AI is racing ahead,” he said, “this panel will provide what’s been missing — rigorous, independent scientific insight that enables all member states, regardless of their technological capacity, to engage on an equal footing.”

    He has described it as the first fully independent global scientific body dedicated to bridging the knowledge gap in AI and assessing its real-world economic and social impacts.

    The vote in the 193-member assembly was 117-2, with the United States and Paraguay voting “no” and Tunisia and Ukraine abstaining. America’s allies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere voted in favor along with Russia, China and many developing countries.

    U.S. Mission counselor Lauren Lovelace called the panel “a significant overreach of the U.N.’s mandate and competence” and said “AI governance is not a matter for the U.N. to dictate.”

    As the world leader in AI, the United States is resolved to do all it can to accelerate AI innovation and build up its infrastructure, she said, and the Trump administration will support “like-minded nations working together to encourage the development of AI in line with our shared values.”

    “We will not cede authority over AI to international bodies that may be influenced by authoritarian regimes seeking to impose their vision of controlled surveillance societies,” Lovelace said, adding that the Trump administration is concerned about “the non-transparent way” the panel was chosen.

    Guterres said the 40 members were selected from more than 2,600 candidates after an independent review by the International Telecommunications Union, the U.N. Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies and UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. They will serve for three-year terms.

    Members are predominantly AI experts but also come from other disciplines and include Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2021.

    There are two Americans on the panel: Vipin Kumar, a University of Minnesota professor focusing on AI, data mining and high-performance computing research, and Martha Palmer, a retired University of Colorado professor and linguistics expert whose research includes capturing the meaning of words for complex sentences in AI.

    There are two Chinese experts on the panel: Song Haitao, dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Wang Jian, an expert in cloud-computing technology at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

    Ukraine said it abstained because it objected to Russia’s Andrei Neznamov, an expert in AI regulation, ethics, and governance, being on the panel.

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  • Remote community grieves the 8 victims killed in Canada’s deadliest attack in years

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    VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The families of victims of a shooting in a remote Canadian Rockies town grappled with unrelenting grief Thursday as details emerged about those killed in the country’s deadliest mass shooting in years.

    Authorities said the 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs, in their northern British Columbia home on Tuesday before heading to the nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire, killing five children and an educator before killing herself.

    Twenty-five people were also injured in the attack. The motive remains unclear.

    Among the dead was 12-year-old Kylie Smith, whose family remembered her as “the light in our family.”

    “She loved her family, friends, and going to school,” Kylie’s family said in a statement. “She was a talented artist and had dreams of going to art school in the big city of Toronto. Rest in paradise, sweet girl, our family will never be the same without you.”

    Kylie’s father tearfully recounted the desperate hours spent trying to learn what happened to his daughter, only to find out from an older girl, not the authorities.

    Lance Younge told CTV News that his son, Ethan, texted “I love you” shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday and then called a short time later to say he was hiding in a utility room at his school in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, but that he didn’t know where his sister Kylie was.

    The family would find out hours later that Kylie was among the dead.

    While looking for Kylie, Younge said he walked around the local recreation center where students were reuniting with their families for about six hours, but that police wouldn’t tell him anything.

    “I went home not knowing where my daughter was until a high school kid … came here and told us her story about trying to save my daughter’s life,” he said. “The police didn’t tell us anything. We had to find out through the community and through kids and rumors.”

    Authorities on Thursday identified the other victims as Abel Mwansa, Zoey Benoit and Ticaria Lampert, all age 12, as well as 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield and assistant teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39.

    In a statement, Zoey’s family described her as “resilient, vibrant, smart, caring and the strongest little girl you could meet.”

    Peter Schofield, whose grandson, Ezekiel, was killed, shared his grief in a Facebook post, saying: “Everything feels so surreal. The tears just keep flowing.”

    A need for mental health services

    Trent Ernst, publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines, the town’s biweekly newspaper, said he has been “randomly breaking down and weeping at inopportune times, usually when talking to people about what is happening.”

    He said he knows Maya Gebala, 12, who was wounded in the head and neck, and Paige Hoekstra, 19, who also suffered bullet wounds. Both were hospitalized in Vancouver.

    He said he spoke with Maya at a recent town winter carnival, describing her as “funky and vivacious” and “full of life.”

    Ernst said one of the biggest frustrations in the community is the lack of medical support and in particular mental health services. Rootselaar had a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health, authorities said.

    “The majority of people that I’ve talked to are sad more at the fact that Tumbler Ridge doesn’t have the level of support for mental health and health services in general,” he said.

    “If this had happened three hours later, our clinic would have been closed and there would be no emergency room there,” he said, adding that it would likely have reopened under such exceptional circumstances.

    In particular, Ernst said there’s a severe lack of mental health services in the Canadian Rockies town, which has roughly 2,700 residents and is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.

    “Right now, there are five mental health nurses in town. But this is the exception, and it’s an exceptional situation. There are times where we’ll go months, if not years, without having anybody in mental health services in town,” he said.

    Alleged shooter led a nomadic life

    Rootselaar and her family led a “nomadic lifestyle” marked by multiple moves between at least three Canadian provinces, according to a 2015 British Columbia court ruling.

    The court’s decision in a dispute between the alleged shooter’s parents described her mother, Jennifer Jacobs, moving with her children between Newfoundland, Grand Cache in Alberta and Powell River, British Columbia, in the previous five years.

    Her mother, also known as Jennifer Strang, was found to have engaged in “reprehensible conduct” by failing to give her children’s father enough notice that she was moving back to Newfoundland in August 2015.

    Jacobs was ordered in the court ruling to return their children to British Columbia.

    A community grieves

    Mourners braved frigid cold Wednesday night to honor the victims, with Mayor Darryl Krakowka telling them, “It’s OK to cry.”

    Krakowka described the town as “one big family,” and encouraged people to reach out and support each other, especially the families of those who died in the attack. The community must support victims’ families “forever,” not only in the days and weeks to come, he said.

    Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun at the school that they said Rootselaar used in the attack.

    Dwayne McDonald, deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said Wednesday there was no information that anyone at the school was targeted. He said officers arrived at the school two minutes after the initial call and that shots were fired in their direction when they showed up.

    “Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday as he arrived in Parliament.

    Carney, who said flags at government buildings will be flown at half-staff for seven days, planned to visit Tumbler Ridge on Friday.

    Deadliest rampage since 2020

    The attack was Canada’s deadliest since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.

    School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.

    Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press reporter R.J. Rico in Atlanta contributed.

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    Jim Morris, Rob Gillies

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  • Trump administration reaches a trade deal to lower Taiwan’s tariff barriers

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration reached a trade deal with Taiwan on Thursday, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99% of its tariff barriers, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.

    The agreement comes as the U.S. remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.

    Most of Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. will be taxed at a 15% rate, the USTR’s office said. The 15% rate is the same as that levied on other U.S. trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea.

    Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan’s Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.

    “President Trump’s leadership in the Asia-Pacific region continues to generate prosperous trade ties for the United States with important partners across Asia, while further advancing the economic and national security interests of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.

    The Taiwanese government said in a statement that the tariff rate set in the agreement allows its companies to compete on a level field with Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It also said the agreement “eliminated” the disadvantage from a lack of a free trade agreement between Taiwan and the U.S.

    The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan.

    Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the U.S. — from having formal ties with Taipei.

    Under the deal, Taiwan will make investments of $250 billion in U.S. industries, such as computer chips, artificial intelligence applications and energy. The Taiwanese government says it will provide up to an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to help smaller businesses invest in the U.S.

    The agreement would make it easier for the U.S. to sell autos, pharmaceutical drugs and food products in Taiwan. But the critical component might be that Taiwanese companies would invest in the production of computer chips in the U.S., possibly helping to ease the trade imbalance.

    The investments helped enable the U.S. to reduce its planned tariffs from as much as 32% initially to 15%.

    Taiwan’s government said it will submit the deal and investment plans to its legislature for approval.

    The U.S. side said the deal with Taiwan would help create several “world-class” industrial parks in America in order to help build up domestic manufacturing of advanced technologies such as chips. The Commerce Department in January described it as “a historic trade deal that will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector.”

    In return, the U.S. would give preferential treatment to Taiwan regarding the possible tariffs stemming from a Section 232 investigation of the importing of computer chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

    TSMC, the chip-making giant, is expected to be the key investor. It has committed to $165 billion in investments in the U.S., including not only fabrication plants but also a major research and development center that would help build a supply chain to power U.S. artificial intelligence ambitions. Major U.S. tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD rely on TSMC for manufacturing highly advanced chips.

    Taiwan also said the investments will be two-way, with U.S. companies also investing in key Taiwanese industries. Nvidia this week signed a land deal in Taipei to build a headquarters office there.

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  • Anthropic hits a $380B valuation as it heightens competition with OpenAI

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    Artificial intelligence company Anthropic says it is now valued at $380 billion, cementing its position alongside rival OpenAI and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a trio of the world’s most valuable startups that investors will be watching closely this year to see if they will become publicly traded on Wall Street.

    “These are the three biggest names that could go public this year,” said Angelo Bochanis, an associate at Renaissance Capital, which researches the potential for initial public offerings.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said Thursday its valuation grew after it raised $30 billion in its latest round of funding, led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and the U.S.-based investment firm Coatue, along with dozens of other major investors.

    The funding also includes a portion of the $15 billion that Nvidia and Microsoft said they would invest in Anthropic in November, part of a deal that would eventually commit Anthropic to buying from Microsoft some $30 billion in computing capacity it needs to build and run AI systems like Claude. Anthropic has also been heavily backed by cloud providers Amazon and Google.

    Anthropic’s chief financial officer Krishna Rao says the company will use the surge of investments to continue building “enterprise-grade products” and AI models.

    Renaissance Capital counts Anthropic as third among the most valuable private firms. It’s behind ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $500 billion. Both San Francisco-based AI companies trail rocket maker SpaceX, which recently merged with Musk’s AI startup xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok.

    Anthropic isn’t profitable but said Thursday it is on track for sales of $14 billion over the next year, a rapid rise from “its first dollar in revenue” that came less than three years ago. While OpenAI has dabbled in a number of revenue models, including digital advertising, Anthropic has tailored Claude products to be a workplace assistant on tasks such as software engineering.

    Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI employees in 2021. Its co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei has promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aimed to build. Anthropic also this week announced a new $20 million bipartisan organization to influence AI regulation in the United States.

    OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge commercial potential of AI large language models that could help write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic followed that with its first version of Claude in 2023.

    Whichever company is first to do an initial public offering will have “an opportunity to raise even more money,” Bochanis said. “It’s an opportunity to be a big headline and get that sort of boost to your public image.”

    The risks are that they’ll have to invite public inspection of their business models as they continue to lose more money than they make.

    “Private markets have been throwing dozens of billions of dollars at these companies, even as valuations multiply again and again and again,” Bochanis said. “With public markets, there’s going to be a little more scrutiny. A single earnings report could tank a stock.”

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  • Trump Administration Reaches a Trade Deal to Lower Taiwan’s Tariff Barriers

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration reached a trade deal with Taiwan on Thursday, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99% of its tariff barriers, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.

    The agreement comes as the U.S. remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.

    Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. will be taxed at a 15% rate or the U.S. government’s “Most Favored Nation” rate, the USTR’s office said.

    Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan’s Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.

    The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan.

    Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the U.S. — from having formal ties with Taipei.

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

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Judge Says US Must Help Bring Back a Handful of Venezuelans Deported to Notorious Prison

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    A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to make arrangements to allow some of the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador to return to the U.S. at the government’s expense.

    The case has been a legal flashpoint in the administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown. It started in March after President Donald Trump invoked the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to send Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

    In Thursday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington criticized the White House’s response to his earlier order that it come up with a plan to give the men a chance to challenge their removals.

    “Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand,” Boasberg wrote. Nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, the judge has repeatedly clashed with the administration over the deportations.

    An email to the White House was not immediately returned.

    The 137 men were later returned to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United States.

    Lee Gelernt, their attorney in the U.S., said at a court hearing on Monday that plaintiffs’ attorneys are in touch with a handful of them who have since managed to leave Venezuela and are now in a third country. These men are interested in clearing their names, he said.

    Boasberg’s order says U.S. officials must provide the men in third countries who wish to fly back to U.S. with a boarding letter. The government must also cover their airfare. He noted the men would be detained upon their return.

    Those men and the migrants who remain in Venezuela can also file new legal documents arguing the presidential proclamation under which they were deported illegally invoked the 18th century wartime law, the judge ruled. The legal filings can also challenge their designation as members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

    Boasberg said he could decide later whether to require hearings and how to conduct them, but it was up to the government to “remedy the wrong that it perpetrated here and to provide a means for doing so.”

    “Were it otherwise, the Government could simply remove people from the United States without providing any process and then, once they were in a foreign country, deny them any right to return for a hearing or opportunity to present their case from abroad,” he wrote.

    In March, Trump officials flew the Venezuelan men to the prison, despite a verbal order from Boasberg for the aircraft to turn around. Boasberg subsequently started a contempt investigation, though the dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches has been paused by an appeals court.

    The administration has denied violating his order.

    Gelernt said in a statement on Thursday Boasberg had “begun the process of giving these men their right to challenge their removal.”

    “Remarkably, although the government does not dispute the men were denied due process, it still was not willing to do what was right without a court order,” he said.

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

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  • Prosecutors investigate the EU’s executive branch over the sale of buildings to Belgium 2 years ago

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    BRUSSELS — Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the European Commission’s sale of 23 of its buildings to Belgium where it has dozens of premises, the European Union’s executive branch said on Thursday.

    Belgium’s sovereign wealth fund SFPIM bought the buildings for around 900 million euros ($1 billion) in 2024 to help transform the European quarter of the capital, Brussels, “into a modern, attractive and greener area,” according to the European Commission.

    The commission said in a statement that “the sale of the buildings followed established procedures and protocols, and we are confident that the process was conducted in a compliant manner.” It didn’t provide details about the investigation.

    The institution underlined that it “is committed to transparency and accountability,” and promised to fully cooperate with the European Prosecutor’s Office, or EPPO, which investigates crimes against the EU’s financial interests.

    The commission, which proposes EU laws and supervises the way they are applied, promised to provide “any information and assistance needed to ensure a thorough and independent investigation into this matter,” including with Belgian authorities.

    The EPPO also declined to provide details about the inquiry so as “not to endanger the ongoing procedures and their outcome.” Spokesperson Lidija Globokar said only that prosecutors were “conducting evidence-collecting activities in an ongoing investigation.”

    The Financial Times, citing “two people familiar with the operation,” reported that Belgian police conducted searches of different commission premises on Thursday, including the EU executive branch’s budget department.

    The commission, which employs more than 30,000 people, still owns around 60 buildings in Brussels.

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  • Germany Wants to Deliver 5 More Missile Interceptors to Ukraine, Defence Minister Says

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    BERLIN, ⁠Feb ⁠12 (Reuters) – Germany ⁠will deliver five additional ​PAC-3 missile interceptors to Ukraine if ‌other countries donate ‌a total ⁠of ⁠30, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said ​on Thursday.

    PAC-3, or Patriot Advanced Capability-3, is among the ​main weapons the West has ⁠supplied to ⁠Ukraine as ⁠it fights ​Russia’s invasion.

    “We all know it ​is about ⁠saving lives,” Pistorius said in Brussels after a meeting of the ⁠Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

    “It’s a matter of ⁠days and not a matter of weeks or months,” he added.

    The minister noted that the Patriots announcement has not been approved by national governments ⁠yet, but he said he is “very optimistic” the 30+5 can be achieved.

    (Reporting by ​Maria Martinez, Editing by ​Miranda Murray)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Carney Plans Visit to Tumbler Ridge as Canada Grieves Mass Shooting

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    OTTAWA, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister ⁠Mark ⁠Carney will shortly visit the ⁠remote British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge, where nine people ​died in one of the country’s worst mass shootings, his office said on Thursday.

    Police say 18-year-old ‌Jesse Van Rootselaar, who had suffered ‌mental health problems, killed her mother and stepbrother on Tuesday before shooting a ⁠teacher and ⁠five young students at the local school.

    Van Rootselaar, who police say was ​born a male but began identifying as a woman six years ago, then died by suicide.

    “The Prime Minister will be visiting Tumbler Ridge shortly in support of the community … (we are) working closely ​with the community and local authorities to finalize details based on their own immediate ⁠needs,” ⁠Carney’s office said in ⁠a brief statement, ​which gave no details.

    Across Tumbler Ridge, a town of around 2,400 in the Canadian ​Rockies, flowers and stuffed ⁠animals could be seen at unofficial public memorials.

    “Hold your kids tight, tell them you love them every day. You never know,” a tearful Lance Young, father of 12-year-old victim Kylie Smith, told reporters on Wednesday. 

    Police, who say they still do not have a motive, held ⁠a meeting with provincial officials late on Wednesday.

    “They are working very hard – they ⁠recognize the public does need to hear information to fill that vacuum,” local provincial legislator Larry Neufeld told CBC News on Thursday.

    Police said they had visited Van Rootselaar’s house on several occasions to address mental health issues and had twice taken her away for formal assessments. British Columbia premier David Eby said on Wednesday he had reached out to local health officials to ask for more details of the interactions.

    At one point police seized guns from the house ⁠but returned them after the owner – who they did not identify – successfully appealed the decision.

    British Columbia on Thursday observed an official day of mourning. Provincial lieutenant-governor Wendy Cocchia, the personal representative of King Charles, Canada’s head of state, is ​due to give a speech in the legislature honoring the victims.

    (Reporting ​by David Ljunggren; Editing by Nia Williams)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • One Tech Tip: All you need to know about the iPhone’s Lockdown Mode

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    A little known security feature on iPhones is in the spotlight after it stymied efforts by U.S. federal authorities to search devices seized from a reporter.

    Apple’s Lockdown Mode recently prevented FBI agents from getting into Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson ‘s iPhone.

    Agents seized the phone, as well as two MacBooks and other electronic devices, when they searched Natanson’s home last month as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally handling classified information. But the FBI reported that its Computer Analysis Response Team “could not extract” data from the iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, according to a court filing.

    So what is Lockdown Mode? Here’s a rundown of how it works and how to use it:

    Apple says Lockdown Mode is an “optional, extreme” protection tool designed to guard against “extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyberattacks.” It’s not for everyone, but instead for “very few individuals” who could be targeted by digital threats because of who they are or what they do.

    “Most people will never be targeted by attacks of this nature,” Apple’s support page says.

    It’s available in Apple’s newer operating systems, including iOS 16 and macOS Ventura. It works by putting strict security limits on some apps and features, or even making some unavailable, to reduce the areas that advanced spyware can attack. It also restricts the kinds of browser technologies that websites can use and limits photo sharing.

    Apple has previously rejected U.S. government requests to build so-called backdoor access for its devices.

    In 2016, Apple refused a request by authorities to help bypass lockscreen security for an encrypted iPhone belonging to a shooter who carried out a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. The company also declined to add an ability to input passcodes electronically, which would make it possible to carry out “brute force” attempts to guess the combination using computers.

    “It would be wrong to intentionally weaken our products with a government-ordered backdoor,” Apple said in explaining its decision.

    Make sure your iPhone, iPad or MacBook has been updated. You’ll have to turn the feature on separately for each of your Apple devices.

    On your iPhone, go to Settings, then to the Privacy and Security section, scroll down to the bottom and tap on Lockdown Mode. Enter your passcode — not a facial or fingerprint scan — to activate it. The device will restart and then you’ll again have to use your passcode to unlock it. On MacBooks, follow a similar procedure from the System Settings menu.

    Apple recommends that you switch it on for all of the company’s devices that you own.

    You might assume that requiring facial or fingerprint recognition to unlock your phone is good enough to protect it from snooping. But experts say passcodes are better than biometrics at protecting your devices from law enforcement, because they could compel you to unlock your device by holding your phone up to your face or forcing you to put your finger on the scanner.

    FBI agents told Natanson that they “could not compel her to provide her passcodes,” but the warrant they used to execute the search did give them the authority “to use Natanson’s biometrics, such as facial recognition or fingerprints, to open her devices.” According to a court filing, Natanson said she didn’t use biometrics to lock her devices but agents were ultimately able to unlock her MacBook with her finger.

    Apple says some apps and features will work differently when Lockdown Mode is on.

    Some websites might load slowly or not work properly, and some images and web fonts could be missing because they block “certain complex web technologies.”

    In Messages, most types of attachments are blocked, and links and link previews won’t be available. Incoming FaceTime calls are blocked unless it’s from a number you’ve called in the past month.

    In Photos, location information is stripped from shared photos and shared albums are removed from the app. Focus mode won’t work normally.

    There are also tighter restrictions on connecting your phone or computer to unsecure Wi-Fi networks or to other computers and accessories.

    When I tried it out on my own iPhone, some apps warned me that certain functions might not work. I noticed that one of my news apps started using a different font and photos on some websites didn’t appear, replaced by a question mark.

    The biggest disruption happened when I went to the gym, which involved using a web-based check-in system to scan a QR code. But my phone camera wouldn’t work so I had to turn off Lockdown Mode in order to get in. To be sure, my iPhone’s standalone Code Scanner app still worked, so the problem seemed to center on using a website to activate the camera.

    Follow the same procedure outlined above that you used to turn on Lockdown Mode. You’ll need to enter your passcode and the phone will perform a restart.

    ___

    Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

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  • Ukrainian Drone Strike Causes Fire at Refinery in Russia’s Komi Region, Governor Says

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    MOSCOW, Feb 12 (Reuters) – ⁠A ⁠Ukrainian drone ⁠attack has caused ​a fire at an ‌oil refinery owned by ‌Lukoil ⁠near ⁠Ukhta in Russia’s northwestern Komi Republic, the ​head of the region, Rostislav Goldshtein, said ​on Thursday.

    He said in a ⁠statement ⁠on the Telegramn ⁠app ​that nobody had been injured ​and that ⁠emergency services were working on the scene.

    Ukrainian attacks on ⁠Russian energy infrastructure somewhat subsided in January ⁠amid peace negotiations, but have picked up intensity in recent days.

    Ukraine’s General Staff said on Wednesday that Ukrainian drones had hit ⁠Lukoil’s oil refinery in Russia’s southern Volgograd region.

    (Reporting by Reuters, Writing ​by Felix LightEditing by ​Andrew Osborn)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • In blunt warning, the US says Peru could lose its sovereignty to China

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    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.

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  • Taiwan’s AI-powered economy soars in the shadow of bubble fears and China threats

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    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.

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  • Dutch court orders investigation into semiconductor chipmaker Nexperia

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    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.

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  • Arguments to begin in landmark social media addiction trial set in Los Angeles

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    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.

    —

    Ortutay reported from Oakland, California. Associated Press Writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this story.

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  • Russia’s FSB Says Ukraine’s SBU Was Behind Assassination Attempt on Top General

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    MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security ‌Service ​said on Monday ‌that the men suspected of shooting one of ​the country’s most senior military intelligence officer had confessed that ‍they were carrying out orders ​from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

    Ukraine has denied ​any involvement ⁠in Friday’s attempted assassination of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. Alexeyev has regained consciousness after surgery.

    Russia said that the suspected shooter, a Ukrainian-born ‌Russian citizen named by Moscow as Lyubomir Korba, had been ​questioned ‌after he was extradited ‍from ⁠Dubai. A suspected accomplice, Viktor Vasin, has also been questioned.

    The FSB said in a statement that both Korba and Vasin had “confessed their guilt” and given details of the shooting which they said was “committed on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine.”

    The FSB ​did not provide any evidence that Reuters was able to immediately verify. It was not possible to contact the men while they were in detention in Russia. The SBU could not be reached for immediate comment on the FSB statement.

    The FSB said Korba was recruited by the SBU in August 2025 in Ternopil, western Ukraine, underwent training in Kyiv and was paid monthly ​in crypto-currency. For killing Alexeyev, Korba was promised $30,000 by the SBU, the FSB said.

    The FSB said Polish intelligence was involved in his recruitment. Poland could not be ​reached for immediate comment.

    (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Perry)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Puerto Rico Stops for 13 Minutes to Applaud History and Bask in Bad Bunny’s Glow

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Super Bowl lasted all of 13 minutes for many Puerto Ricans in San Juan and beyond.

    People turned their backs to TV screens as food, music and chatter filled the first half of the game until a hush fell across the island. The halftime show was starting.

    “He appeared at the right moment in the history of Latin America,” said Marielys Rojas, 39, who is originally from Venezuela but has lived the last 22 years in Puerto Rico.

    She was among the hundreds who gathered by a grassy knoll near a beach in Puerto Rico’s capital to watch the halftime show on a huge screen as waves crashed behind them and the sounds of coquís, an endemic frog, filled the salty air.

    Amarilys Reyes, 55, arrived at the seaside watch party with her 22-year-old daughter.

    She had never watched a Super Bowl and didn’t know who was playing, but it didn’t matter. Like many others, she was only there for Bad Bunny.

    “It’s the biggest show of his life,” Reyes said.

    Energy, nerves and excitement had been building across Puerto Rico ever since the NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced that Benito Antonio Ocasio Martínez would headline the Super Bowl XL Halftime Show.

    Watch parties were quickly organized across the U.S. mainland and the island. Some dubbed it “Super Bori Sunday,” a shortened nod to “Boricua,” which refers to someone with Puerto Rican ancestry, while others referred to it “The Benito Bowl: Morcilla, Sancocho, Mofongo, Reggaetón and a little bit of Football.”

    One woman wrote on social media that she would watch the halftime show with her 87-year-old mother in Puerto Rico so they could dance together, while another person posted that they had prepared a PowerPoint presentation for their American friends dubbed “Bad Bunny 101.”

    Creativity flowed as Feb. 8 approached: One bar in Puerto Rico posted a promo featuring the quarterbacks from the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots sitting on the iconic white plastic lawn chairs that grace the cover of Bad Bunny’s newest album.

    Even the Teletubbies got in on the excitement, shaking their colorful rumps to Bad Bunny ’s “Baile Inolvidable” a day before the show.

    Wonder Woman also lent her support, with Lynda Carter noting on social media that she was a “huge fan” of Bad Bunny, whom she noted was an American citizen: “Make no mistake.”

    But criticism of the first all-Spanish NFL halftime show spiked as the first half ended.

    Jake Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer who has property in Puerto Rico and has posted about life on the island, wrote on X: “Turn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.”

    Puerto Ricans quickly responded.

    “Don’t you live where he’s from?” wrote one person while many others noted that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

    Luke Lavanway, a 35-year-old who lives in New York but was vacationing in Puerto Rico to escape the ongoing cold snap, said he had no problem with a halftime show in Spanish.

    “That’s part of us,” he said. “That’s what makes us great, and we should just enjoy it.”

    The crowd that had gathered for the halftime show began streaming out of the watch party as soon as the second half started, smiling as they reflected on what they had just witnessed.

    “I thought it was phenomenal that Bad Bunny brought all Latinos together in one place and represented them all equally,” said Carlos Ayala, 36, of San Juan. “It’s an important moment for Latino culture.”

    He also thought it fantastic that Ricky Martin sang Bad Bunny’s, “Lo que le pasó a Hawaii,” which laments gentrification in Puerto Rico, a worsening issue for many on an island with a more than 40% poverty rate.

    “Transmitting that message is extremely important in these times,” he said, adding that he also appreciated the light posts and exploding transformers featured during the show, a nod to Puerto Rico’s chronic outages “so the world can see what we live through.”

    Among those beaming after the show was Juliana Santiago, 35, who said her heart swelled with pride on Sunday night.

    She said Bad Bunny proved that “you can accomplish things, that the American dream truly is real.”

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

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Tokyo benchmark Nikkei 225 jumps after PM Takaichi’s ruling party wins a super majority in election

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    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%.

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  • US Olympians speaking up about politics at home face online backlash — including from Donald Trump

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    MILAN — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that it is hard to cheer for American Olympians who are speaking out against administration policies, calling one such critic “a real Loser” who perhaps should have stayed home.

    It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians at the Milan Cortina Games inviting online backlash with their words.

    Reporters on Friday asked U.S. athletes at a news conference how they feel representing the country during the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess replied that he had mixed emotions since he doesn’t agree with the situation, and that he is in Milan competing on behalf of everyone who helped get him to The Games.

    “If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hess said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

    Among those who piled on Hess were YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

    “From all true Americans If you don’t want to represent this country go live somewhere else,” he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, he was photographed sitting beside U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the U.S women’s hockey game in Olympic host city Milan.

    Trump said the next day that Hess’ comments make it hard to root for him.

    “Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

    Hess wasn’t the only athlete voicing discontent — or facing blowback

    At Friday’s news conference with the athletes, freestyle skier Chris Lillis referenced Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he’s “heartbroken” about what is happening in the U.S.

    “I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”

    And U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn said the LGBTQ+ community has had a hard time during the Trump administration.

    In addition to Paul, conservative figures criticizing the athletes on social media include former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, actor Rob Schneider and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — who Trump has endorsed for the Florida gubernatorial race in November. And there was a flood of vitriol directed at them from ordinary Americans.

    Glenn posted on Instagram that she had received “a scary amount of hate / threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel.” She added that she will start limiting her social media use for her well-being.

    In response to questions from The Associated Press, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement Sunday that it is aware of an increasing amount of abusive and harmful messages directed toward the athletes and was doing its best to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement.

    “The USOPC stands firmly behind Team USA athletes and remains committed to their well-being and safety, both on and off the field of play,” it said.

    Anti-ICE protests in Italy

    Support for the U.S. abroad has eroded as the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive posture on foreign policy, including punishing tariffs, military action in Venezuela and threats to invade Greenland.

    During the opening ceremony, Team USA athletes were cheered on, but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens, waving American flags from the tribune.

    In Milan, several demonstrations have broken out against the against the local deployment of ICE agents — even after clarification that they are from an investigations unit that is completely separate from the enforcement unit at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S.

    Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm seen in the streets of the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers were sent to Italy.

    A demonstration on Saturday featured thousands of protesters. Toward its end, a small number of them clashed with police, who fired tear gas and a water cannon. That followed another one last week, when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.

    Associated Press writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

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  • Separatist Wins Rerun Vote for President of Bosnian Serb Region

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    SARAJEVO, Feb 8 (Reuters) – A close ally of ‌Bosnian ​Serb separatist leader Milorad ‌Dodik declared victory in a partial rerun on Sunday of ​the Serb Republic’s presidential election, which was called due to irregularities in the ‍original vote last November.

    Sinisa Karan, ​of the republic’s ruling SNSD party, was also the victor in the ​November election ⁠for the largely ceremonial post. His opponent, Branko Blanusa of the Serb Democratic Party, conceded defeat in Sunday’s partial rerun but accused the ruling party of vote buying and “election engineering”.

    “From now I am the president of all of ‌you, of all citizens of the Republika Srpska,” Sinisa Karan said at ​a news ‌conference. Bosnia’s central election ‍commission ⁠is expected to release preliminary results of the vote later on Sunday.

    The repeat vote was limited to a small portion of the electorate, covering just 136 polling stations and 85,000 eligible voters, but the close November tally raised the possibility that it could alter the final result.

    Karan’s term will last until a general election scheduled ​for October.

    The election in November was called after Dodik, the region’s former president, was stripped of office and banned from politics for six years for defying rulings by an international peace envoy and Bosnia’s constitutional court.

    Bosnia is made up of two autonomous regions, the Serb-dominated Serb Republic and the Federation, shared by Croats and Bosniaks, which are combined under a weak central government.

    Karan, a former government minister in the Serb Republic, campaigned to continue Dodik’s separatist policies that have blocked ​political reforms in Bosnia.

    “This is the night when we start anew to do what we have been doing over the past 23 years but with ever more vigour,” he said.

    Blanusa, a university professor, was ​a political newcomer supported by most Serb opposition parties.

    (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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