Also, the Supreme Court seems skeptical of Trumps attempt to fire a Fed governor. Heres the latest at the end of Wednesday.

Nature, Published online: 21 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10012-2During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively warm North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Nature, Published online: 21 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10145-yEditorial Expression of Concern: The X-linked lymphoproliferative-disease gene product SAP regulates signals induced through the co-receptor SLAM

Quarterback Jarrett Stidham, set to make his first start in two years in Sunday's AFC Championship Game, and the Broncos have tried to stick to the team's usual routines.

Liverpool cruised to a convincing victory over Marseille, aided by an excellent performance from Dominik Szoboszlai.

Four of the WSL's top teams clashed in the League Cup semifinals, but what did we make of the games?

The initiative is the latest example of the president dismantling the post-World War II international system and building a new one, with himself at the center.

Anil and Shalini Babbar said they would not have known about the abuse their teenager was enduring at the home in upstate New York if a whistle-blower had not sent footage of an assault.

After a crackdown that killed thousands, Irans prosecutor general said on Wednesday that the sedition is over now, vowing to punish those responsible for the protests.

We want to hear from men over the age of 30 who feel as if they have not yet had a meaningful romantic relationship for a New York Times Magazine feature.

The president gave misleading accounts of the U.S. role in Greenlands history and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, among other claims.

What's at stake on the final matchday? Is it time to rule a line through Man City? ESPN's experts answer all the burning questions from the Champions League's penultimate group matches.

A jury in Corpus Christi found Adrian Gonzales not guilty of 29 counts of endangering the children who were left trapped with a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Texas.

At an oversight hearing, Democratic lawmakers peppered the agencys acting director over the Transportation Security Administrations role in Trumps immigration crackdown.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rallied supporters at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, where he promoted his new dietary guidelines.

The death of Daniel Naroditsky exposed the conflicts between the games traditional wing and its many online stars.

As Mrs. Obama defended her remarks from November that the country wasnt ready for a woman as president, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan offered a different view.

In a pair of matches between American women, defending champion Madison Keys survived a challenge from Ashlyn Krueger and Jessica Pegula defeated McCartney Kessler.

The Mets' winterlong pursuit of a frontline starting pitcher ended Wednesday with them acquiring All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers from the Brewers for prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, sources told ESPN.

The report from the county medical examiner said the detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, was asphyxiated and restrained by law enforcement. Federal officials described his death as a suicide.

The industry seemed penned in by our political debates until it started channeling them into wild caricatures and frothy drama.

After the Trump administrations cuts, workers at the national park are spread too thin to stop people from littering, flying drones and cliff-diving.

The Knicks ended their four-game losing streak Wednesday night with the most lopsided victory in franchise history, beating the Nets 120-66.

The president used a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to renounce the last vestiges of the liberal democratic order.

After President Trump aired his disdain for Europe, its leaders will gather in Brussels Thursday to take stock of what comes next.

President Trumps announcement appeared to draw the United States back from the possibility of military and economic conflict with American allies over Greenland.

Genocide hearings in The Hague offer a ray of hope for the Rohingya, but aid cuts are worsening a humanitarian crisis in refugee camps.

People mourn over the bodies of the Palestinian journalists Abd Shaat and Mohamed Qeshta, who were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle, before their funeral at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2026-01-21T13:41:01Z CAIRO (AP) Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two 13-year-old boys, three journalists and a woman, hospitals said, on one of the war-battered enclave s deadliest days since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in October.The United States is trying to push the deal forward and implement its challenging second phase.Among the dead were three Palestinian journalists who were killed while filming near a displacement camp in central Gaza, a camp official said. Israels military said it had spotted suspects who were operating a drone that posed a threat to its troops.The two boys were killed in separate incidents. In one, a 13-year-old, his father and a 22-year old man were hit by Israeli drones on the eastern side of the Bureij refugee camp, according to officials from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.It wasnt immediately clear whether the three had crossed into Israeli-controlled areas. A mounting death tollThe other 13-year-old was shot by troops in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, Nasser Hospital said after receiving the body. In a video circulated online, the father of Moatsem al-Sharafy is seen weeping over it.The boys mother, Safaa al-Sharafy, told The Associated Press that he had left to gather firewood so she could cook.He went out in the morning, hungry, she said, tears running down her cheeks. He told me hed go quickly and come back.Later Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a vehicle carrying the three Palestinian journalists who were filming a new displacement camp managed by an Egyptian government committee in the Netzarim area, said Mohammed Mansour, the committees spokesperson.Mansour said the journalists were documenting the committees work and that the strike occurred about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli-controlled area. He said the vehicle was known to Israels military as belonging to the committee. Video footage showed the charred and smoking vehicle by the roadside. One journalist killed, Abdul Raouf Shaat, was a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse but he was not on assignment for it at the time, the news agency said.Abdul was much loved by the AFP team covering Gaza. They remember him as a kind-hearted colleague, the agency said in a statement that demanded a full investigation into his death.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began in 2023, including visual journalist Mariam Dagga, who worked for the AP and other news organizations.Nearly five months after the strikes on a hospital that killed Dagga and four other journalists, the Israeli military says it is continuing to investigate.Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international journalists from entering to cover the war. News organizations rely largely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza as well as residents to show what is happening. Nasser Hospital officials also said Wednesday they received the body of a Palestinian woman shot by Israeli troops in the Muwasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, which is not controlled by the military.In a separate attack, three brothers were killed in a tank shelling in the Bureij camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.More than 470 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, according to Gazas health ministry. At least 77 have been killed by Israeli gunfire near a ceasefire line that splits the territory between Israeli-held areas and most of Gazas Palestinian population, the ministry says.The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. A mothers pleaThe first phase of the October ceasefire that paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants focused on the return of all remaining hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza.All but one hostage, living or dead, have been returned to Israel. Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known as Rani, was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war.His relatives on Wednesday called again on Israels government and U.S. President Donald Trump to ensure the release of his remains.We need to continue to amplify Ranis voice, explain about him, talk about him, and explain to the world that we, the people of Israel, will not give up on anyone, his mother, Talik Gvili, said. She told the AP the family doesnt really know where he is.Hamas said Wednesday it has provided all information it has on Gvilis body to the ceasefire mediators, and accused Israel of obstructing search efforts in areas it controls in Gaza. Israel targets more sites in LebanonIsraels air force carried out multiple strikes Wednesday against sites in southern Lebanon that it said the militant Hezbollah group used to store weapons, and at sites along Lebanons border with Syria where it said weapons were being smuggled.The military said it struck four border crossings in Lebanons northeastern region of Hermel.Earlier, strikes in three villages in southern Lebanon targeted weapons storage facilities. Israels military said it had issued warnings to evacuate. Lebanons health ministry said 19 people, including journalists, were wounded in the southern village of Qennarit, south of the port city of Sidon.Lebanese officials condemned the strikes in southern Lebanon, which President Joseph Aoun called systematic aggression.In addition, drone strikes on cars in the villages of Bazouriyeh and Zahrani killed two people, according to state-run National News Agency.The strikes were the latest in near-daily Israeli military action since a ceasefire more than a year ago ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. The agreement included a Lebanese pledge to disarm militant groups, which Israel says has not been fulfilled.___Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report. SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)2026-01-21T21:19:38Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) The astronauts evacuated last week from the International Space Station say a portable ultrasound machine came in super handy during the medical crisis.During their first public appearance since returning to Earth, the four astronauts refused Wednesday to say which one of them needed medical attention and for what reason. It was NASAs first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight.NASAs Mike Fincke said the crew used the onboard ultrasound machine once the medical problem arose Jan. 7, the day before a planned spacewalk that was abruptly canceled. The astronauts had already used the device a lot for routine checks of their body changes while living in weightlessness, so when we had this emergency, the ultrasound machine came in super handy. It was so useful that Fincke said there should be one on all future spaceflights. It really helped, he said. Of course, we didnt have other big machines that we have here on planet Earth, he added. We do try to make sure that everybody before we fly are really, really not prone to surprises. But sometimes things happen and surprises happen, and the team was ready ... preparation was super important. The space station is set up as well as it can be for medical emergencies, said NASAs Zena Cardman, who commanded the crews early return flight with SpaceX. She said NASA made all the right decisions in canceling the spacewalk, which would have been her first, and prioritizing the crews well-being. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui said he was surprised how well all the preflight training paid off in dealing with the health concerns.We can handle any kind of difficult situation, Yui said. This is actually very, very good experience for the future of human spaceflight.Joining them on what turned out to be a 5 1/2-month mission more than a month shorter than planned was Russias Oleg Platonov. They launched last August from Florida and splashed down in the Pacific off the San Diego coast last week. Welcoming them back to Houston were their replacements, who arent due to launch until mid-February. NASA and SpaceX are working to move up the flight.We were hoping to give them hugs in space, but we gave them hugs on Earth, Fincke said.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Tear gas is deployed as Federal agents make arrests on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)2026-01-22T02:55:53Z WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Army has ordered several dozen additional active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minneapolis if needed, a defense official said Wednesday, amid protests over the Trump administrations immigration enforcement crackdown.The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, confirmed that members of an Army military police brigade who are stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. If deployed, the troops would likely offer support to civil authorities in Minneapolis, according to the official, who stressed that such standby orders are issued regularly and they do not necessarily mean that the troops would end up going.About 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the Armys 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska also have received similar standby orders. President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 19th century law that would allow him to use active-duty troops as law enforcement. That threat followed protests that erupted in Minneapolis after a federal immigration officer killed resident Renee Good on Jan. 7. Trump quickly appeared to walk back the threat, telling reporters a day later that there wasnt a reason to use the act right now. If I needed it, Id use it, Trump said. Its very powerful. When asked about the latest orders, which were reported earlier by MS Now, the Pentagon said it didnt have information to provide at this time.Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and frequent target of Trump, has urged the president to refrain from sending in more troops and, in a statement Tuesday, invited him to visit Minnesota and help restore calm and order and reaffirm that true public safety comes from shared purpose, trust, and respect.In his second term, Trump has pushed traditional boundaries by using troops in American cities, often over the objections of local officials, amid federal operations targeting illegal immigration and crime. Trump deployed federalized National Guard troops to Los Angeles last June after protesters took to the streets in response to a blitz of immigration arrests. Ultimately, he sent about 4,000 Guard members and 700 active-duty Marines to guard federal buildings and, later, to protect federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.He also mobilized Guard troops in places like Chicago and Portland, Oregon, but has faced a series of legal setbacks. Trump said in December that he was dropping that push for the time being. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

This undated photo provided by Jeanette Pagan-Lopez shows Geraldo Lunas Campos with his three children. Lunas Campos died Jan. 3, 2026, at an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. (Jeanette Pagan-Lopez via AP)2026-01-22T00:11:58Z WASHINGTON (AP) A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide.Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him. But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.His death was one of at least three reported in little more than a month at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base.The autopsy report by the El Paso County Medical Examiners Office found Lunas Campos body showed signs of a struggle, including abrasions on his chest and knees. He also had hemorrhages on his neck. The deputy medical examiner, Dr. Adam Gonzalez. determined the cause of death was asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The report said witnesses saw Lunas Campos become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement. It did not elaborate on what happened during the struggle but cited evidence of injuries to his neck, head and torso associated with physical restraint. The report also noted the presence of petechial hemorrhages tiny blood spots from burst capillaries that can be associated with intense strain or injury in the eyelids and skin of the neck. Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy report for AP, said the presence of petechiae in the eyes support the conclusion that asphyxia caused the death. Those injuries suggest pressure on the body and are often associated with such deaths, he said. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on He said the contusions on Lunas Campos body may reflect physical restraint and the neck injuries were consistent with a hand or knee on the neck.The autopsy also found the presence of prescription antidepressant and antihistamine medications, adding that Lunas Campos had a history of bipolar disorder and anxiety. It made no mention of him attempting suicide. Government provided changing accounts of what happenedICEs initial account of the death, which included no mention of an altercation with guards, said Lunas Campos had become disruptive and staff moved him into a cellblock where detainees are held away from others.While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance, the agency said in its Jan. 9 statement. Medical staff responded, initiated lifesaving measures, and requested emergency medical services.Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived. Last Thursday, after Lunas Campos family was first informed the death was likely to be ruled a homicide, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin amended the governments account, saying he had attempted suicide and guards tried to help him. Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life, she said. During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.After the final autopsy report was released Wednesday, McLaughlin issued a statement emphasizing that Lunas Campos was a criminal illegal alien and convicted child sex predator.New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact with a person under 11, a felony for which he was sentenced to one year in jail and placed on the states sex offender registry. Lunas Campos was also sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervision in 2009 after being convicted of attempting to sell a controlled substance, according to the New York corrections records. He completed the sentence in January 2017.ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody, McLaughlin said Wednesday, adding that the agency was investigating the death. DHS has not responded to questions about whether any outside law enforcement agency was also investigating. Deaths put a spotlight on Camp East MontanaThe AP reported in August that the $1.2 billion contract to build and operate Camp East Montana, expected to become the largest detention facility in the U.S., was awarded to a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no prior experience running a corrections facility and has subcontracted with other companies to help operate the camp.It was not immediately clear whether the guards present when Lunas Campos died were government employees or those of a private contractor.A final determination of homicide by the medical examiner would typically be critical in determining whether any guards are held criminally or civilly liable. The fact that Lunas Campos died on an Army base could limit state and local officials legal jurisdiction to investigate. Lunas Campos was among the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East, arriving in September after ICE arrested him in Rochester, New York, where he lived for more than two decades. He was legally admitted to the U.S. in 1996, part of a wave of Cuban immigrants seeking to reach Florida by boat.ICE said he was picked up in July as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation due to criminal convictions that made him eligible for removal. In addition to Lunas Campos, ICE announced that on Dec. 3 an immigrant from Guatemala held in Camp East Montana died after being transferred to a El Paso hospital for care. While the cause of death was still pending, the agency said Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, was suspected to have died of liver and kidney failure.On Sunday, ICE announced that Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old immigrant from Nicaragua, died at Camp East Montana on Jan. 14 of a presumed suicide. The agency said Diaz was detained by ICE earlier this month during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.Unlike with the two prior deaths, Diazs body wasnt sent to the county medical examiner in El Paso. McLaughlin said Wednesday that the autopsy for Diaz is being performed at the Army medical center at Fort Bliss. DHS again did not respond to questions about whether any agency other than ICE will investigate the death.Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, called on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons to brief Congress about the recent deaths.DHS must preserve all evidence including halting their effort to deport the witnesses, Escobar said Wednesday. I reiterate my call for Camp East Montana to be shut down and for the contract with the corporation running it to be terminated.___Foley reported from Iowa City. MICHAEL BIESECKER Biesecker is a global investigative reporter for The Associated Press, based in Washington. He reports on a wide range of topics, including human conflict, climate change and political corruption. twitter instagram mailto RYAN J. FOLEY Foley covers national news for The Associated Press and is based in Iowa City, Iowa. A 21-year AP veteran, he was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for the 2024 series, Lethal Restraint. twitter mailto

A person walks in the cold and wind Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)2026-01-22T05:03:39Z ATLANTA (AP) Millions of Americans from New Mexico to the Carolinas are bracing for a potentially catastrophic ice storm that could crush trees and power lines and knock out power for days, while many northern states all the way to New England could see enough snow to make travel nearly impossible, forecasters say.An estimated 100 million people were under some type of winter weather watch, warning or advisory on Wednesday ahead of the storm, the National Weather Service said.The storm, expected to begin Friday and continue through the weekend, is also projected to bring heavy snow and all types of wintry precipitation, including freezing rain and sleet. An atmospheric river of moisture could be in place by the weekend, pulling precipitation across Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast and continuing across Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.Heres a look at the approaching storm and how people are preparing for it, by the numbers: 0The number of snowplows owned by the city of Jackson, Mississippi, where a mix of ice and sleet is possible this weekend. The city uses other heavy machinery like skid steers and small excavators to clear roads, said James Caldwell, deputy director of public works. Jackson also has three trucks that carry salt and sand to spread across roads before freezing weather. 0.5The amount of ice half an inch, or 1.27 centimeters that can lead to a crippling ice storm, toppling trees and power lines to create widespread and long-lasting power outages. The latest forecasts from the National Weather Service warn of the potential for a half-inch of ice or more for many areas, including parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on 1The number of Nashville snowplows named after country music legend and Tennessee native Dolly Parton (Dolly Plowton). Another snowplow in East Tennessee was named Snowlene after her classic hit song Jolene as part of a 2022 naming contest. 3The number of layers needed to keep warm in extreme cold. AP video journalist Mark Vancleave in Minnesota explains the benefits of all three a base layer, a middle layer and an outer shell in this video. 4The number of major U.S. hub airports in the path of the southern storm this weekend, when ice, sleet and snow could delay passengers and cargo: Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Still more major airports on the East Coast could see delays later, as the storm barrels east.12The number of inches of snow that could fall in parts of Oklahoma.Youve got to be very weather aware, and real smart about what youre doing, said Charles Daniel, who drives a semitrailer across western Oklahoma.One mistake can literally kill somebody, so you have to use your head, he added.15The number of snow and ice removal trucks operated by Memphis, Tennessees Division of Public Works. The city also has six trucks that spread brine, a mixture designed to melt wintry precipitation. Statewide, the Tennessee Department of Transportation has 851 salt trucks and 634 brine trucks, and most of the salt trucks double as plows. 19Parts of at least 19 states in the storms path were under winter storm watches by late Wednesday, with more watches and warnings expected as the system approaches. They include Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. An estimated 55 million people are included in these winter storm watches, the weather service said.32The degree in Fahrenheit when water freezes, equivalent to 0 Celsius. This is a magic number when it comes to winter weather, said Eric Guillot, a scientist at the National Weather Service. If the temperature is slightly above 32, it will be mostly liquid. But the colder it is below the mark, the more efficiently precipitation will freeze.45The number of snowplow trucks at the ready in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure. 50 Below ZeroThe windchill value how cold it feels to a person when winds are factored in that is expected in parts of the Northern Plains, the weather service projects. That equates to minus 45.6 Celsius and is forecast for parts of northern Minnesota and North Dakota.When the weather forecast says, feels like negative 34, its just a matter of covering skin and being prepared for it, said Nils Anderson, who owns Duluth Gear Exchange, an outdoor equipment store in Duluth, Minnesota.330The number of snowplows in the city of Chicago, where annual snowfall averages 37 to 39 inches (0.94 to 0.99 meters). The city also has 40 4x4 vehicles, and about 12 beet juice-dispensing trucks, according to Cole Stallard, Chicagos commissioner of Streets and Sanitation. The natural sugars of beet juice lower the freezing point of water, allowing salt mixtures to work at much lower temperatures and preventing refreezing, while also helping salt stick to the road longer. 600The number of miles added last year to snowplow routes in Nashville, Tennessee. That was done to get deeper into our neighborhoods roads that had never been plowed before, said Alex Apple, a spokesperson for Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell.1,000-plusTexas has this number of pieces of winter weather equipment, including snowplows, motor graders and brine tankers, Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson Adam Hammons said. He said the agency also works with state partners and contractors to get more equipment when needed. In the Dallas area, right now our main focus is treating our roadways in advance of the storm, agency spokesperson Tony Hartzel said Wednesday.78,000The number of cubic yards of salt on hand at the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The state has 121 salt houses around the Arkansas, plus 600 salt spreaders and 700 snowplows, said Dave Parker, an agency spokesperson.-Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Travis Loller and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; John OConnor in Springfield, Illinois; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed. JEFF MARTIN Martin covers a variety of topics including crime, hurricanes, and civil rights across the southeastern U.S. He was a member of the AP team named a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for the Lethal Restraint project. mailto

Giannis Antetokounmpo says chemistry issues might be contributing to the Bucks' recent penchant for lopsided losses.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after a meeting in the Foreign Policy Committee at Christiansborg in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026./ (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)2026-01-22T07:45:22Z COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Denmarks prime minister insisted that her country cant negotiate on its sovereignty on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he agreed a framework of a future deal on Arctic security with the head of NATO, and said she has been informed that this has not been the case.Trump on Wednesday abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. It was a dramatic reversal shortly after he insisted he wanted to get the island including right, title and ownership.He said additional discussions on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defense program, a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space. Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Thursday that security in the Arctic is a matter for all of NATO, and it is good and natural that it be discussed between the U.S. president and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. She said that she had spoken with Rutte on an ongoing basis, including before and after he met Trump in Davos. She wrote that NATO is fully aware of the kingdom of Denmarks position that anything political can be negotiated on, including security, investment and economic issues but we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty. I have been informed that this has not been the case, she said, adding that only Denmark and Greenland can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.Frederiksen said that Denmark wants to continue engaging in constructive dialogue with allies on how to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the U.S. Golden Dome program, provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity. Asked in an interview with Fox News whether Greenland would remain part of the kingdom of Denmark under the framework deal Trump announced, Rutte replied that that issue did not come up any more in my conversations tonight with the president.Hes very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect it, he said. That was really the focus of our discussions.

2026-01-22T07:53:03Z MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Three people were killed and another was wounded on Thursday in a shooting in a town in Australias New South Wales state, police said.Emergency services were called to an address at Lake Cargelligo, a town of around 1,500 people, following reports of shooting, a police statement said.Three people two women and a man were dead, and another man was taken to hospital in serious but stable condition, police said.The shooter or shooters appeared to be at large.Police used geo-targeted text messages to urge the public to avoid the area and for local residents to stay inside and contacted.The shooting comes on a National Day of Mourning as Australia remembers the 15 people shot dead in Sydney at a Hannukah celebration on Dec. 14.Authorities say the two alleged Sydney gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State group to carry out Australias worst mass shooting since 1996. ROD MCGUIRK McGuirk covers Australian and South Pacific news for The Associated Press. He is based in Melbourne. mailto

This image released by Warner Bros Pictures shows Michael B. Jordan, foreground from left, Michael B. Jordan and Omar Benson Miller in a scene from "Sinners." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)2026-01-22T05:05:32Z Horror films have traditionally been left out of the Oscars, but when nominations for the 98th Academy Awards are announced Thursday, Ryan Cooglers vampire tale Sinners could make history. Nominations will read at 8:30 a.m. Eastern by presenters Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman. Viewers can tune in live to Oscar.com, Oscars.org, the academys digital platforms and ABCs Good Morning America. No movie has ever landed more than 14 nominations something achieved only by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. But Sinners could top that mark with a heap of nods for its lush craft, Cooglers writing and direction, and Michael B. Jordans acting (it would be his first nomination). Right with it will likely be Paul Thomas Andersons One Battle After Another, which has coasted through awards season as the clear frontrunner. The father-daughter revolutionary comedy could land 14 nominations of its own, including five or even six acting nominations. Whatever the final tally is, Warner Bros. is poised for its best Oscar showing in the 102-year-old studios history. Both One Battle After Another and Sinners should lead Warner Bros. to a record haul even as the studio prepares for its sale to Netflix. Earlier this week, Netflix amended its $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to an all-cash offer, sweetening its offer over that of Paramount Skydance. This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting. That new honor will help Sinners and One Battle After Another pad their already impressive stats. Ten films will be nominated for best picture. Along with the two favorites, movies such as the Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value, the Shakespeare drama Hamnet and the table tennis odyssey Marty Supreme are expected to be in the mix. The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and will be televised live on ABC and Hulu. YouTubes new deal to exclusively air wont take effect until 2029. This year, Conan OBrien will return as host. ___For more coverage of the Oscars and nominations, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards. JAKE COYLE Coyle has been a film critic and covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump stands on the stage prior to addressing a meeting of Global Business Leaders at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2026-01-22T05:07:36Z WASHINGTON (AP) Barely a month into his presidency, Joe Biden had a message for Europe.America is back, Biden told the Munich Security Conference in 2021. The transatlantic alliance is back.It was a promise Biden delivered often as he sought to cast the disruptions of his predecessor, Donald Trump, as an anomaly. But nearly five years later, Bidens assurances have proven short-lived.In his second term, Trump has cast aside alliances forged over seven decades with Europe that helped lead to the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has hectored leaders, making demands and leveling accusations more commonly associated with enemies. In the process, he has rocked the stability that has sustained the relationships and left countries to chart a course without U.S. leadership.The most stark example of this shift has been Trumps threat to take over Greenland, dismissing the nation as a large piece of ice as he demanded that Denmark cede control to the U.S., a move that could have caused NATO to rupture. He called Denmark, which had the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces in Afghanistan, ungrateful for U.S. protection during World War II. He posted private text messages that showed European leaders trying to court him. Trump shared images of him planting the U.S. flag in Greenland and, in an extraordinary speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said Europe was not heading in the right direction. At one point, he said that sometimes you need a dictator. Then, hours later, he announced a framework of a future deal on Arctic security. Following a long pattern, however, he offered scant details. An uncertain standing for the US in the worldThough Trump has for now backed away from his most potent threats to obtain Greenland, the episode has left Americas standing in the world uncertain. NATO leaders already were responding to Trumps threats by signaling strategies that dont include the U.S. That could make it much harder for the next president whether they are a Democrat or Republican to attempt the same type of reputational repair that Biden sought. To an extent, things can be improved, said Jon Finer, who was Bidens deputy national security adviser and is now a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. But they will never be the same in large part because I think any country that is behaving rationally in terms of its relationship with the United States will realize that we can only be counted on in four year increments, if at all.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who parried Trumps gambit to make Canada the 51st state, has already set out on a more independent path. In Davos, Carney was candid that the notion of the longstanding rules-based order was an illusion.Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition, Carney said as he called on so-called middle powers to act together.Unable to reach a deal with Trump to cut tariffs, Carney was in Beijing last week meeting with President Xi Jinping and brokering a deal that cut levies on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on certain agricultural and food products including Canadian canola, lobsters and crab. While there, he said ties between Ottawa and Washington were much more multifaceted than with Beijing, but added the way our relationship has progressed in recent months with China, it is more predictable. Over the weekend, the European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought free trade agreement, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen portrayed as a bulwark against the Trump administration. EU lawmakers narrowly voted on Wednesday to hold up the deal for now. European leaders were unsparing Ahead of Trumps appearance in Davos, European leaders were unsparing, using language that until recently would have been unthinkable in relation to a dispute with the U.S. French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned against colonial adventures, warning of a shift towards a world without rules. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said so many red lines have been crossed, adding, being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else. If you back down now, youre going to lose your dignity.This moment was also notable for the criticism of Trump from longtime allies on the right. In the UK, Nigel Farage said in an interview with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson that he understood the security issues Trump was raising in the Arctic. But he added that Trumps approach amounted to the biggest fracture in the transatlantic relationship in decades.To have a U.S. president threatening tariffs unless we agree that he can take over Greenland, by some means, without it seems even getting the consent of the people of Greenland, I mean, this is a very hostile act, Farage told Johnson. Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pens far-right National Rally party in France and a European Parliament lawmaker, posted that the EU should suspend last years tariff deal with the U.S., describing Trumps threats as commercial blackmail. Trump mostly has support from GOP in CongressCongressional Republicans so far have largely supported Trump or stayed silent. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast likened the dispute to a hard conversation and questioned the long-term consequences. Trump used his 2025 State of the Union address to express a desire to reclaim the Panama Canal. If you went back exactly one year, you might say, man the tensions with Panama were the worst theyd ever been, said Mast, a Florida Republican. Panama came in last week, things were the best that theyd ever been because we had some really tough conversations with each other that we needed to have.The most pointed concerns from inside the GOP have largely come from those who arent running for reelection this year, including Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who said on Wednesday that all of this has been totally unnecessary.Threatening Greenland with force was absurd, he said.For their part, Democrats have encouraged a more robust response both from Europe and in the U.S. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, was in Davos this week and blasted Europeans for focusing on diplomatic efforts ahead of Trumps appearance. Diplomacy with Donald Trump? he said. Hes a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. In an interview, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it may take some time for a future president to rebuild trust with allies. But he argued a full recovery in global relationships may require a more lasting shift in U.S. politics.Allies will continue to hold their breath until you have two consecutive elections when we know we have a president that is going to stick by our institutions, he said. Everybodys just looking at us now as a nation and trying to see where we will be.___Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto, Sam McNeil in Brussels and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report. MATT BROWN Brown covers national politics, federal policy and democracy issues for The Associated Press. twitter instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump gestures after his special address during the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)2026-01-22T05:10:58Z DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) President Donald Trump wants to spotlight his proposed Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, looking to create momentum for a project that has been overshadowed this week first by his threats to seize Greenland, and then by a dramatic retreat from that push.The new board was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the Gaza ceasefire, but has morphed into something far more ambitious and skepticism about its membership and mandate has led some traditional U.S. allies to so far take a pass.Trump expressed confidence in his idea ahead of what the White House said would be a charter announcement on the sidelines of the forum in the Swiss alps.We have a lot of great people that want to join, Trump said with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi by his side during a Wednesday meeting. Egypt is among the countries that has announced it will join the board. Trump added, Its going to be the most prestigious board ever formed. Some 35 countries had agreed to sign on to the project, a senior administration official told reporters, and 60 nations had been invited to join. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. Trump, who has spoken about the board replacing some of the functions of the United Nations and perhaps even making it eventually obsolete, said some countries leaders have indicated that they plan to join but still require approval from their parliaments, and said his administration is also receiving queries about membership from countries that hadnt been invited to join. Who will join is still unclear Big questions remain, though. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is still consulting with Moscows strategic partners before deciding to commit. The Russian president on Thursday is due to host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks in Moscow.Others have raised questions about why Putin and other authoritarian leaders had even been invited to join. Trump said he wanted everybody who was powerful. I have some controversial people. But these are people that get the job done. These are people that have tremendous influence.Some European nations, meanwhile, have declined their invitations. Norway and Sweden have indicated that they wont participate, after France also said no. French officials stressed that while they support the Gaza peace plan, they were concerned the board could seek to replace the U.N. as the main venue for resolving conflicts.Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the time has not yet come to accept the invitation, according to the STA news agency, with the main concern being the boards mandate may be too broad and could undermine international order based on the U.N. Charter. The United Kingdom, the European Unions executive arm, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and China also have not yet indicated their response to Trumps invitations. Trump calling off the steep tariffs he threatened over Greenland could ease some allies reluctance but the issue is still far from settled. Board grew out of ceasefire proposal The idea for the Board of Peace was first laid out in Trumps 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan and even was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.Invitation letters to world leaders ahead of Davos indicated that the panel may not confine their work to Gaza. When asked by a reporter earlier this week if the board should replace the U.N., Trump replied that it might. He asserted that the world body hasnt been very helpful and has never lived up to its potential but also said the U.N. should continue because the potential is so great.Trumps hopes for the board received some good news on Wednesday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced hes agreed to join, after his office has earlier criticized the makeup of the boards committee tasked with overseeing Gaza.Months into the ceasefire, Gazas more than 2 million Palestinians continue to suffer the humanitarian crisis unleashed by over two years of war. And violence in Gaza, while not at the same level as before the October ceasefire and hostage deal was agreed on, continues. Key to the truce in Gaza continuing to hold is the disarming of Hamas, something the militant group that has controlled the Palestinian territory since 2007 has refused to do and that Israel sees as non-negotiable.Trump on Wednesday said his administration should know in the next few weeks whether Hamas would come to terms on laying down their weapons.If they dont do it, Trump said, theyll be blown away. Very quickly. Iran protests loom in backgroundTrumps push for peace also comes after he threatened military action this month against Iran as it carried out a violent crackdown against some of the largest street protests in years, killing thousands. Trump, for the time being, has signaled he wont carry out any new strikes on Iran after he said he received assurances that the Islamic government would not carry out the planned hangings of more than 800 protesters.But even as he prepared to unveil his Board of Peace, Trump also made the case that his tough approach to Tehran including strikes on Irans nuclear facilities in June last year was critical to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal coalescing. Iran was Hamas most important patron, providing the group hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid, weapons, training and financial support over the years.If we didnt do that, there was no chance of making peace, Trump said of Iran. Meeting with ZelenskyyTrump also expects to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, though it wasnt clear if the talks would take place at Davos or by phone.But Trump, who continues to struggle to get Zelenskyy and Putin to agree to terms to end their nearly four-year old war, again expressed frustration with both on Wednesday.I believe theyre at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done, Trump said. And if they dont, theyre stupid that goes for both of them.___Madhani reported from Washington. JOSH BOAK Boak covers the White House and economic policy for The Associated Press. He joined the AP in 2013. twitter mailto AAMER MADHANI Madhani covers the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Dortmund midfielder Felix Nmecha is attracting interest from Manchester United and Chelsea. Transfer Talk has the latest.

The setback occurred hours after one of the worlds largest nuclear complexes restarted, ending more than a decade of dormancy following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdown.

The gunman was holed up in the town, local news media reported. The shooting happened on the day Australians were honoring the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre.

The exterior of the Egyptian Theatre is illuminated on Main Street during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 22, 2015. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, File)2026-01-22T06:19:28Z PARK CITY, Utah (AP) Robert Redford liked to say that everybody has a story. Hes not the only person who said it, but he is one of the few who did something to celebrate it, his daughter, Amy Redford, said Wednesday evening ahead of the Sundance Film Festivals opening day. Thanks to her fathers vision, the Sundance Institute he founded and its year-round programs have helped shape and nurture American independent film for the past 40 years. This years Sundance Film Festival is a grand goodbye party: Its the first without Redford following his death in September, and the last in Utah before the festival relocates to Boulder, Colorado. This is a festival of new beginnings and endings, his daughter said in an interview with The Associated Press. Im going to look around and drink it up and enjoy it and just not take anything for granted. Robert Redfords legacy and Sundances decades-long history in Utah are key themes of the 2026 festival, which officially begins Thursday morning with over a dozen films premiering throughout the day. By the time the dust has settled from Oscar nominations, the festival will already be in full swing with the world premieres of Amir Bar-Levs documentary The Last First: Winter K2 about the changing culture of extreme mountain climbing, Rachel Lamberts tender drama Carousel, starring Chris Pine and Jenny Slate, and Judd Apatows portrait of comedian Maria Bamfords mental health journey on the opening day list. Also upcoming is David Alvarados American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez about the legacy of the playwright and director, and Joanna Natasegaras The Disciple, which delves into the stranger-than-fiction story of how Dutch-Moroccan record producer Cilvaringz found his way into the inner circle of the Wu-Tang Clan. Too Many Cooks creator Casper Kelly will also debut his midnight movie Buddy, starring Cristin Milioti, about escaping a childrens television show.The Sundance Film Festival runs through Feb. 1.___For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival LINDSEY BAHR Bahr has been a film writer and critic for The Associated Press since 2014. twitter instagram mailto HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Schoenbaum is a government and politics reporter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also covers general news in the Rockies and LGBTQ+ rights policies in U.S. statehouses. twitter mailto

In this image from a video, rescuers and fire crews work near the site of a landslide at the base of Mount Maunganui on New Zealands North Island, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (TVNZ via AP)2026-01-22T01:46:06Z MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Landslides hit a campground and a house in New Zealand and emergency crews were trying to rescue people buried in rubble, officials said Thursday.Emergency services were called to the slide at the base of Mount Maunganui on New Zealands North Island after 9:30 a.m. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano. Images showed vehicles, travel trailers and a bathroom block crushed by debris.Police Superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the single figures but didnt say further how many were affected.Another landslide hit a house in the nearby Welcome Bay community at 4:50 a.m, a police statement said. Two people escaped the house but two others were missing, Anderson said. A rescue operation was underway there.Further north near Warkworth, a man remained missing after floodwaters swept him from a road Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed large swathes of the North Island, a police statement said. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed local authorities safety advice during the extreme conditions. Extreme weather continues to cause dangerous conditions across the North Island. Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted, Luxon posted on social media.At Mount Maunganui, no survivor had been recovered, Fire and Emergency NZ commander William Pike said. Members of the public ... tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices, Pike told reporters. Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip.No sign of life had been detected since, Pike said.Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said emergency crews were continuing a rescue operation at Mount Maunganui. Mayor Mahe Drysdale said those unaccounted earlier had included people who had left the campground without notifying authorities. The campground was closed after the disaster.Australian tourist Sonny Worrall said he was lazing in a hot pool within the campground when he heard then saw the landslide.I looked behind me and theres a huge landslide coming down. And Im still shaking from it now, Worrall told New Zealands 1News news service. I turned around and I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run.He looked back to see the rubble carrying a travel trailer behind him.It was like the scariest thing Ive ever experienced in my life, Worrall said.___This version has corrected the location where a landslide hit a house, to Welcome Bay, not Bay of Plenty. ROD MCGUIRK McGuirk covers Australian and South Pacific news for The Associated Press. He is based in Melbourne. mailto

The state of New Mexico is accusing three Texas oil executives of orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to pocket revenue from hundreds of oil and gas wells in New Mexico and offload the cost of plugging and cleaning up the wells onto the states taxpayers. The suit, filed in late December by the New Mexico attorney generals office, is the latest salvo in the states fight against oil and gas executives accused of foisting old wells onto the public.The 72-page complaint alleges a yearslong pattern of fraud and self-dealing in which the oil executives Everett Willard Gray II, Robert Stitzel and Marquis Reed Gilmore Jr., all of Midland, Texas repeatedly transferred wells among a series of shell corporations, LLCs, and partnerships they created. On multiple occasions, the men placed companies into bankruptcy protection, only to move their profitable wells to other companies they owned or managed outside the bankruptcy proceedings, the suit said.New Mexico faces millions of dollars in costs to plug wells the companies shed through the bankruptcies. Unplugged oil and gas wells can emit climate-warming methane and carcinogenic gases and often leak briny, radioactive wastewater, as ProPublica and Capital & Main detailed in a 2024 investigation. The newsrooms uncovered Gray, Stitzel and Gilmores early business dealings and use of bankruptcy proceedings.I will not stand by while bad actors take advantage of the system avoiding responsibility, burdening the state with costly remediation, and recklessly endangering the health of New Mexicans, Ral Torrez, the states attorney general, said in a statement.As part of ProPublica and Capital & Mains 2024 investigation, the news organizations toured dozens of wells belonging to Remnant, the group of companies through which the men launched their enterprise. Some wells leaked such high volumes of methane that, if ignited, the air could explode; others emitted hydrogen sulfide at potentially lethal concentrations; and several were surrounded by oil and wastewater spills. At the time, the owner of an oil field services company that had worked on Remnants wells said that the men filed for bankruptcy protection without paying his company what it was owed.The recent lawsuit is meritless and built on baseless claims, Gray said in a statement responding to questions from ProPublica and Capital & Main. I have always acted ethically and never been involved in any activities to defraud the state of New Mexico. I strongly deny any wrongdoing in this matter, he said.New Era Energy & Digital, one of Grays companies named in the states complaint, ended up with 87 of the groups best gas wells, and the company said in a press release that those no longer align with the Companys business model. New Era is focused instead on building an AI data center powered by a yet-to-be-built nuclear power station, it said.Stitzel and Gilmore didnt respond to requests for comment.The tactics alleged by the attorney general are commonly used in the industry to squeeze profits from old wells before companies go bankrupt. Oil and gas executives so frequently follow a similar pattern that environmentalists call it the playbook.Oil companies and trade groups argue that most orphan wells are from an earlier era and that modern operators are helping address the problem by paying into various government-managed funds that pay for the plugging of some old wells.The exact number of orphan wells awaiting cleanup nationwide is unknown, but the figure is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not higher. New Mexico faces as much as a $1.6 billion bill to plug such wells, according to a June 2025 Legislative Finance Committee report.As the oil boom is aging and a lot of the wells are becoming low-producing, the risk is increasing, said Mandy Sackett, the lead New Mexico campaigner for environmental group Earthworks. The potential for taxpayers to be saddled with plugging oil companies orphan wells, she said, poses such a massive financial risk.Out of the Dark AgesThe problem of Remnant and other companies leaving wells as orphans is informing a broader reckoning among legislators and regulatory agencies about the inadequacy of New Mexicos safeguards.Oil companies are required to set aside funds, called bonds, that the state can call on to pay for well plugging and environmental cleanup. These bonds are meant to protect taxpayers from shouldering such costs in the event that a company goes bankrupt or walks away.But like all oil-producing states, New Mexicos bonds cover only a fraction of the true cost of cleanup. A 2024 ProPublica and Capital & Main analysis found that the 15 states that account for nearly all the nations oil and gas production held bonds that would cover less than 2% of the projected $151.3 billion cost to plug the wells in their states.In New Mexico, a fresh attempt at bonding reform kicked off with hearings in October, as the states Oil Conservation Commission began updating bonding rules. The proposed amendments, which are backed by a coalition of environmental groups, would require companies to put forward a $150,000 bond for each inactive or low-producing well. Research has shown that these are disproportionately likely to become orphans and the states responsibility to plug.The proposed regulations target companies with large collections of these risky wells and would require companies whose portfolios are made up of at least 15% inactive or low-producing wells to buy bonds for each of their wells. The proposals would also place other layers of regulatory scrutiny on sales of wells to poorly capitalized companies and limit the time that wells could remain idle before needing to be plugged.Mark Olalde/ProPublica Reporter Nick Bowlin tests an orphan well that had belonged to Remnant and Acacia for methane and hydrogen sulfide leaks near Artesia, New Mexico.Oil Conservation Division officials said in a statement that the interested parties are currently engaged in settlement talks for the bonding rulemaking. The agency declined to comment on the attorney generals lawsuit.New Mexicos State Land Office, which oversees the states publicly owned land, recently initiated a similar process to increase the amount of money set aside in bonds to plug wells within its jurisdiction. The agency estimates that there are 15,000 unplugged oil and gas wells on land it manages.Ari Biernoff, general counsel of the State Land Office, said that these reforms would bring bonding requirements out of the Dark Ages and closer to what the agency would need to fund cleanup should companies walk away.Any reasonable observer would conclude we have grossly inadequate bonding, Biernoff said.Industry groups have expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed rules.The New Mexico Oil & Gas Association and Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico submitted counterproposals with significantly reduced bonding increases. The latter said in comments submitted to the state that its suggestion will keep smaller operators from going out of business.We do not believe its in New Mexicos best interest for the State Land Office to kill a lot of smaller, state-based, good operators to leave only a handful of supermajors, Jim Winchester, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, wrote to the agency.Remnants of the Oil IndustryBeginning in 2015, Gray, Stitzel and Gilmore aggregated several hundred wells in southeastern New Mexico under the Remnant companies, subsequently racking up regulatory violations, including having too many inactive, unplugged wells. The states Oil Conservation Division gave Remnant a deadline of July 2019 to plug some of its wells. Fifteen days before the deadline, the men placed the company into bankruptcy protection.Remnants dissolution kicked off a complex and disputed series of transactions among the three men. According to the attorney generals complaint, Stitzel and Gilmore created several companies under the name Acacia and purchased most of Remnants wells from themselves. Gray, meanwhile, created Solis Partners a wholly owned subsidiary of Grays New Era and ended up with 87 of the groups most lucrative gas-producing wells. The bill of sale that landed the wells with Grays company was for $10, and Gray signed on behalf of Remnant a change-of-operator application that sent wells to Solis Partners.Then, in December 2024, a major oil company that the state had asked to plug some of Acacias wells sued Acacia to force it to clean up its own mess. Two weeks later, Acacia filed to liquidate through bankruptcy.Of Remnants and Acacias wells, 172 ended up as the responsibility of the State Land Office, according to the agency. Eleven of those have been plugged, all but one by other oil companies that hold leases with the agency and stepped up to do the work. Based on the states estimated per-well cleanup cost, the remaining wells could cost a total of more than $25 million to plug.The agency was able to claim a single bond from Remnant worth $20,000.This is a very vivid demonstration of why we need an upgrade to the bonding rule, said Biernoff, the State Land Office general counsel.The most lucrative wells from Gray, Stitzel and Gilmores foray into New Mexicos oil and gas industry belong to Solis Partners. But even that company appears at risk of leaving them as orphans, as it has about 120 inactive wells on state trust land, according to the State Land Office. Its parent company, New Era, which is pitching plans for a 3,500-acre AI data center campus in southeastern New Mexico, said it is selling the wells.Having enriched themselves with the profits from Solis Partners and Acacias oil and gas production, the Individual Defendants are once again seeking to walk away from the plugging and remediation costs, the attorney generals complaint alleged.Charlie Barrett is an ecologist with environmental group Oilfield Witness who has chronicled pollution at Remnants and Acacias wells for years. Theyre old, theyre just falling apart, he said. They are also, he said, emblematic of the small oil and gas operators that represent the final stage of the industry leaving its wells as orphans.I wish I could say that its unique, Barrett said, but it isnt.The post A Fraudulent Scheme: New Mexico Sues Texas Oil Companies for Walking Away From Their Leaking Wells appeared first on ProPublica.

Its striking how clearheadedly and defiantly Europeans are reacting to the presidents provocations.

We heard from 300 people about what they are paying in health insurance premiums after Affordable Care Act subsidies expired.

Emergency crews respond after a commuter train derailed when a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks in Gelida, near Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)2026-01-19T12:29:49Z MADRID (AP) Two fatal train crashes in two days have rocked Spain and the tragedies have led to questions about safety on the countrys railway system. The first crash involved a high-speed train in southern Spain that derailed on Sunday evening, colliding with another fast train, killing at least 43 people and injuring more than 150. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people when a commuter train in the northern region of Galicia hurtled off the rails as it came around a bend going too fast.On Tuesday night, another train crash happened in northeastern Spain on a commuter line near Barcelona. One person was killed.Heres what to know about the two crashes. Derailment and collision The Sunday derailment happened at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails and slammed into an oncoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva with around 200 people, according to rail operator Adif.The head of the second train took the brunt of the impact, Transport Minister scar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a four-meter (13-foot) slope. The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid. The impact was so incredibly violent that we have found bodies hundreds of meters away, Andalusias regional President Juan Manuel Moreno said.Authorities said Wednesday they had identified almost all the victims from Sundays crash. Cause under investigationExplanations about what caused the crash were scant, with an official investigation underway.lvaro Fernndez, the president of national railway company Renfe, told Spanish public radio RNE that both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph) and human error could be ruled out.Transport Minister Puente called the crash truly strange since it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. But Puente said late Monday that officials had found a broken section of track.Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment), Puente told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.The train that jumped the track belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, belonged to Renfe.Iryo said in a statement Monday that its train was manufactured in 2022 and passed its latest safety check on Jan. 15. The Spanish Union of Railway Drivers sent a letter last August asking Spains rail operator to investigate flaws on high-speed train lines across the country caused by increased traffic. It warned of potholes, bumps and imbalances in overhead power lines, as well as frequent breakdowns and damage to trains, according to a copy of the letter seen by The Associated Press.The union called for a general strike in the coming weeks to demand more safety assurances.High-speed expansionSpain has spent decades investing heavily in high-speed trains. It currently has the largest rail network in Europe for trains traveling more than 250 kph (155 mph), with more than 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles) of track, according to the International Union of Railways.The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Officials said that Sundays collision was the first with deaths on Spains high-speed rail network since it opened its first line in 1992. Commuter line crashA Barcelona commuter train crashed Tuesday after a retaining wall fell onto the tracks, Spanish regional authorities said, killing one person and injuring at least 37 others.While Spains high-speed rail network generally runs smoothly, the commuter rail service is plagued by reliability issues. However, crashes causing injury or death are not common. SUMAN NAISHADHAM Naishadham is an Associated Press reporter covering Spain and Portugal. She is based in Madrid. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 22 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00207-6Non-protein-coding genes have been linked to a hereditary condition, retinitis pigmentosa, that causes progressive blindness.

Days into President Donald Trumps second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. Please Donald Trump, I need your help, he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. I am an American. Help me come home.The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed Bitcoin Jesus for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had renounced his citizenship more than a decade earlier. At the time of his video, Ver was under criminal indictment for millions in tax evasion and living on the Spanish island of Mallorca. His top-flight legal defense team had failed around half a dozen times to persuade the Justice Department to back down. The U.S., considering him a fugitive, was seeking his extradition from Spain, and he was likely looking at prison.Once, prosecutors hoped to make Ver a marquee example amid concerns about widespread cryptocurrency tax evasion. They had spent eight painstaking years working the case. Just nine months after his direct-to-camera appeal, however, Ver and Trumps new Justice Department leadership cut a remarkable deal to end his prosecution. Ver wouldnt have to plead guilty or spend a day in prison. Instead, the government accepted a payout of $49.9 million roughly the size of the tax bill prosecutors said he dodged in the first place and allowed him to walk away.Ver was able to pull off this coup by taking advantage of a new dynamic inside of Trumps Department of Justice. A cottage industry of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants with close ties to Trump has sprung up to help people and companies seek leniency, often by arguing they had been victims of political persecution by the Biden administration. In his first year, Trump issued pardons or clemency to dozens of people who were convicted of various forms of white-collar crime, including major donors and political allies. Investigations have been halted. Cases have been dropped.Within the Justice Department, a select club of Trumps former personal attorneys have easy access to the top appointees, some of whom also previously represented Trump. It has become a dark joke among career prosecutors to refer to these lawyers as the Friends of Trump.The Ver episode, reported in detail here for the first time, reveals the extent to which white-collar criminal enforcement has eroded under the Trump administration. The account is based on interviews with current and former Justice Department officials, case records and conversations with people familiar with his case.Do you have a tip about special access inside the Justice Department or Trumps White House? Avi Asher-Schapiro can be reached by email at avi.asher.schapiro@propublica.org and by Signal at aaschapiro.20. Molly Redden can be reached by email at molly.redden@propublica.org and by Signal at mollyredden.14.The Trump administration has particularly upended the way tax law violators are handled. Late last year, the administration essentially dissolved the team dedicated to criminal tax enforcement, dividing responsibility among a number of other offices and divisions. Tax prosecutions fell by more than a quarter, and more than a third of the 80 experienced prosecutors working on criminal tax cases have quit.But even amid this turmoil, Vers case stands out. After Ver added several of these new power brokers to his team most importantly, former Trump attorney Chris Kise Trump appointees commandeered the case from career prosecutors. One newly installed Justice Department leader who had previously represented Trumps family questioned his new subordinates on whether tax evasion should be a criminal offense. Vers team wielded unusual control over the final deal, down to dictating that the agreement would not include the word fraud.It remains the only tax prosecution the administration has killed outright.Roger Ver in 2018 Paul Yeung/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesVer did not reply to an extensive list of questions from ProPublica. In court filings and dealings with the Justice Department, Ver had always denied dodging his tax bill intentionally a key distinction between a criminal and civil tax violation and claimed to have relied on the advice of accountants and tax attorneys.Roger Ver took full responsibility for his gross financial misconduct to the tune of $50 million because this Department of Justice did not shy away from exposing those who cheat the system. The notion that any defendant can buy their way out of accountability under this administration is not founded in reality, said Natalie Baldassarre, a Justice Department spokesperson.In response to a list of detailed questions, the White House referred ProPublica to the Justice Department.I know of no cases like this, said Scott Schumacher, a former tax prosecutor and the director of the graduate program in taxation at the University of Washington. It is nearly unheard of for the department to abandon an indicted criminal case years in the making. Theyre basically saying you can buy your way out of a tax evasion prosecution.Roger Ver is not a longtime ally of Trumps or a MAGA loyalist. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, a day he once called the happiest day of my entire life. In the early days of bitcoin, he controlled about 1% of the worlds supply.Ver is clean-cut and fit he has a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu. In his early 20s, while he was a libertarian activist in California, Ver was sentenced to 10 months in prison for illegally selling explosives on eBay. Hes often characterized that first brush with the law as political persecution by the state. After his release, he left the U.S. for Japan.Ver in Tokyo in 2014 Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesVer became a fixture in the 2010s on the budding cryptocurrency conference circuit, where he got a kick out of needling government authority and arguing that crypto was the building block of a libertarian utopia. At a 2017 blockchain conference in Aspen, Colorado, Ver announced he had raised $100 million and was seeking a location to create a new non-country without any central government. For years, Ver has recommended other wealthy people consider citizenship in the small Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, which has no individual income tax.Bitcoin completely undermines the power of every single government on the entire planet to control the money supply, to tax peoples income to control them in any way, he told a gathering of anarcho-capitalists in Acapulco, Mexico, in 2016. It makes it so incredibly easy for people to hide their income or evade taxes. More than one friend, he said with a smirk, had asked him how to do so: They say, Roger, I need your help. How do I use bitcoins to avoid paying taxes on it?Renouncing U.S. citizenship isnt a magic get-out-of-tax-free technique. Since 2008, the U.S. has required expatriates with assets above $2 million pay a steep exit tax on the appreciation of all their property.In 2024, the Justice Department indicted Ver in one of the largest-ever cryptocurrency tax fraud cases. The government accused Ver of lying to the IRS twice. After Ver renounced his citizenship in 2014, he claimed to the IRS that he personally did not own any bitcoin. He would later admit in his deal with the government to owning at least 130,664 bitcoin worth approximately $73.7 million at the time. Then in 2017, the government alleged, Ver tried to conceal the transfer of roughly $240 million in bitcoin from U.S. companies to his personal accounts. In all, the government said he had evaded nearly $50 million in taxes.Vers defense was that his failure to pay taxes arose from a lack of clarity as to how tax law treated emerging cryptocurrency, good-faith accounting errors and reliance on his advisors advice. He claimed it was difficult to distinguish between his personal assets and his companies holdings and pinpoint what the bitcoin was actually worth.The Biden administrations Justice Department dismissed this legal argument. Prosecutors had troves of emails that they said showed Ver misleading his own attorneys and tax preparers about the extent of his bitcoin holdings. (Vers team accused the government of taking his statements out of context.) The asset tracing in the case was rock solid, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. A jury, prosecutors maintained, was unlikely to buy Vers defense that he made a good-faith error.By the time of Trumps election, Ver had been arrested in Spain and was fighting extradition. He was also the new owner of a sleek $70 million yacht that some law enforcement officials worried he might use to escape on the high seas.In Trump, Ver saw a possible way out. After the 2024 election, he was barking up every tree, said his friend Brock Pierce, a fellow ultrawealthy crypto investor who tried to gin up sympathy for Ver in Trumps orbit.Ver had initially gone the orthodox route of hiring tax attorneys from a prestigious law firm, Steptoe. Like many wealthy people in legal jeopardy, Ver now also launched a media blitz seeking a pardon from the incoming president.If anybody knows what its like to be the victim of lawfare its Trump, so I think hell be able to see it in this case as well, Ver said in a December 2024 appearance on Tucker Carlsons show. On Charlie Kirks show, Ver appeared with tape over his mouth with the word censored written in red ink. Laura Loomer, the Trump-friendly influencer, began posting that Vers prosecution was unfair. Ver paid Trump insider Roger Stone $600,000 to lobby Congress for an end to the tax provision he was accused of violating.A dress at the New York Young Republican Clubs annual gala in 2024 shows an image of Ver. Adam Gray/AFP/Getty ImagesVers pardon campaign fizzled. His public pressure campaign in which he kept comparing himself to Trump was not landing, according to Pierce. You arent doing yourself any favors shut up, his friend recalled saying.One objection in the White House, according to a person who works on pardons, may have been Vers flamboyant rejection of his American citizenship. Less than a week after Trump was inaugurated, Elon Musk weighed in, posting on X, Roger Ver gave up his US citizenship. No pardon for Ver. Membership has its privileges.But inside the Justice Department, Ver found an opening. The skeleton key proved to be one of the Friends of Trump, a seasoned defense lawyer named Christopher Kise. Kise is a longtime Florida Republican power player who served as the states solicitor general and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. He earned a place in Trumps inner circle as one of the first experienced criminal defenders willing to represent the president after his 2020 election loss. Kise defended Trump in the Justice Department investigation stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and against charges that Trump mishandled classified documents when leaving the White House.Kise had worked shoulder-to-shoulder on Trumps cases with two lawyers who were now leaders in the Trump 2.0 Justice Department: Todd Blanche, who runs day-to-day operations at the department as deputy attorney general, and his associate deputy attorney general, Ketan Bhirud, who oversaw the criminal tax division prosecuting Ver. Kise reportedly helped select Blanche to join Trumps legal team in the documents case, and he and Bhirud had both worked for Trumps family as they fought civil fraud charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022.On Vers legal team, Kise worked the phones, pressing his old colleagues to rethink their prosecution against Ver.Kise scored the legal teams first big victory in years: a meeting with Bhirud that cut out the career attorneys most familiar with the merits of the case.In that meeting, however, it wasnt clear that the new Justice Department leadership would be willing to interfere with the trajectory of Vers case. While the Trump administration had backed off aggressive enforcement of white-collar crimes writ large, the administration said it was still pursuing most criminal cases that had already been charged.Bhirud initially expressed skepticism that Ver accidentally underpaid his taxes. It was hard to believe that a man going by Bitcoin Jesus would have no idea how much bitcoin he owned, Bhirud said, according to a person familiar with the case.Bhirud and Blanche did not respond to detailed questions from ProPublica.The Justice Department stuck to its position that either Ver would plead guilty to a crime, or the case would go to trial.But Kise would not stop lobbying his former colleagues to reconsider. Blanche and Bhirud had already demanded that career officials justify the case again and again. Over the course of the summer, Kise wore down the Trump appointees zeal for pursuing Ver on criminal charges.Kise and the law firm of Steptoe did not respond to questions.While there were meetings and conversations with DOJ, that is not uncommon. The line attorneys remained engaged throughout the process, and the case was ultimately resolved based on the strength of the evidence, said Bryan Skarlatos, one of Vers tax attorneys and a partner at Kostelanetz.It was a chaotic moment at the Justice Department, an institution that Trump had incessantly accused of being weaponized against him and his supporters. After Trump took office, the department was flooded with requests to reconsider prosecutions, with defendants claiming the Biden administration had singled them out for political persecution, too.While many cases failed to grab the administrations attention, Kise got results. Last week, Kises client Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian billionaire accused of trying to bribe the former governor of Puerto Rico, received a pardon from Trump.Every defense attorney is running the weaponization play. This guy gets an audience because of who he is, because his name is Chris Kise, said a person who recently attended a high-level meeting Kise secured to talk the Justice Department down from prosecuting a client.As Kise stepped up the pressure, Vers case ate up a significant share of Bhiruds time, despite his job overseeing more than 1,000 Justice Department attorneys, according to people familiar with the matter. Ordinarily, it would be rare for a political appointee to be so involved, especially to the exclusion of career prosecutors who could weigh in on the merits.Bhirud began to muse to coworkers about whether failure to pay ones taxes should really be considered a crime. Wasnt it more of a civil matter? It seemed to a colleague that Bhirud was aware Vers advocates could try to elevate the case to the White House.The government ceded ground and offered to take prison time off the table. Eventually, Vers team and Bhirud hit on the deal that would baffle criminal tax experts. They agreed on a deferred prosecution agreement that would allow Ver to avoid criminal charges and prison in exchange for a payout and an agreement not to violate any more laws. The government usually reserves such an agreement for lawbreaking corporations to avoid putting large employers out of business not for fugitive billionaires.By the time fall approached, Kise and Bhirud, with Blanches blessing, were negotiating Vers extraordinary deal line by line. Once more, career prosecutors were cut out from the negotiations.Vers team enjoyed a remarkable ability to dictate terms. They rejected the text of the governments supposed final offer because it required him to admit to fraud, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. In the end, Ver agreed to admit only to a willful failure to report and pay taxes on all his bitcoin and turned over the $50 million.The government arrived at that figure in a roundabout manner. It dropped its claim that Ver had lied on his 2017 tax return. The $50 million figure was based on how much he had evaded in taxes in 2014 alone, plus what the government asserted were interest and penalties. In the end, the deal amounted to the sum he allegedly owed in the first place. He never even had to leave Mallorca to appear in a U.S. court.Under any previous administration, convincing the leadership of the tax division to drop an indicted criminal case and accept a monetary penalty instead would be a nonstarter. While the Justice Department settles most tax matters civilly through fines, when prosecutors do charge criminal fraud, their conviction rate is over 90%.People always ask you, Cant I just pay the taxes and itll go away? said Jack Townsend, a former federal tax prosecutor. The common answer that everybody gave until the Trump administration was that, no, you cant do that.When the Justice Department announced the resolution in October, it touted it as a victory.We are pleased that Mr. Ver has taken responsibility for his past misconduct and satisfied his obligations to the American public, Bhirud said in the Justice Departments press release announcing the deferred prosecution agreement. This resolution sends a clear message: whether you deal in dollars or digital assets, you must file accurate tax returns and pay what you owe.Inside the Justice Department, the resolution was demoralizing: Hes admitted he owes money, and we get money, but everything else about it stinks to high heaven, said a current DOJ official familiar with the case. We shouldnt negotiate with people who are fugitives, as if they have power over us.Among the wealthy targets of white-collar criminal investigations, the Ver affair sent a different message. Lawyers who specialize in that kind of work told ProPublica that more and more clients are asking which of the Friends of Trump they should hire. One prominent criminal tax defense lawyer said he would give his clients a copy of Vers agreement and tell them, These are the guys who got this done.The only one of Vers many lawyers to sign it was Christopher Kise.The post How Bitcoin Jesus Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the Friends of Trump appeared first on ProPublica.

The appearance provides Mr. Smith with what is likely to be his best opportunity to challenge President Trumps assertion that he was persecuted for his politics, not for his misdeeds.