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.

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A shopper buys groceries Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the state over the weekend. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)2026-01-22T05:01:48Z ATLANTA (AP) Bags of ice-thwarting salt arent usually a hot item at Bates Ace Hardware in Atlanta, but store manager Lewis Pane sold all 275 he had in stock in one morning as residents braced for a major storm to deliver heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain on a broad section of the U.S. in coming days.Payne said he had 30 online orders for ice melt before 8 a.m. People sprinkle the salts on the ground before a storm to disrupt the formation of ice.Its impossible to get right now, Payne said. We have had to make special trips to our warehouse to pick up extra items because people need them. The storm was expected to hit starting Friday, stretching from New Mexico to New England and across the Deep South. The damage could rival that of a major hurricane. Meteorologists say ice may linger on roads and sidewalks because temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas. Ice could also weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages. The city of Carmel, Indiana, canceled its Winter Games out of fear residents could get frostbite and hypothermia competing in ice trike relay and human curling in which people slide down a skating rink on inner tubes. College sports teams moved up or postponed games, and the Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The coldest windchills may fall below minus 50 Fahrenheit (minus 46 Celsius) across the Northern Plains with subzero wind chills reaching as far southeast as the Mid-Atlantic states and Southern Plains, the National Weather Service said. At the Atlanta hardware store, Wendy Chambers stopped by to pick up batteries and flashlights in case there is a power outage.Were gonna be prepared, arent we? Were going to be able to read, do things, play games, she said before heading to church choir with her granddaughter.Oklahoma truck driver Charles Daniel planned to load up as much freight as possible before the storm arrives in his area on Friday. Youve got to be very weather aware, and real smart about what youre doing, said Daniel, who delivers goods across western Oklahoma in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer.You cant back down into decline docks, you cant go into neighborhoods or parking lots, Daniel said. Im 40,000 pounds unloaded. One mistake can literally kill somebody, so you have to use your head.He said truck drivers need to have a change of clothes, plenty of water and a couple of jackets on hand in case they get stuck because it would be a while before a tow truck could help them.In Arkansas, the Department of Transportation started treating some roads with brine on Tuesday. The salt helps prevent ice from forming. Over 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow were expected in parts of the state. Rain was complicating efforts to pretreat roads with salt in Alabama on Wednesday because precipitation washes away the brine. The Alabama Department of Transportation encouraged people to stay off the roads if ice forms.Any amount of ice is pretty dangerous, and certainly a quarter-inch could be very hazardous, said Seth Burkett, a department spokesperson. Snow and icy conditions were forecast for Maryland beginning Saturday afternoon or evening, with peak effects Saturday night and into Sunday morning. The governor declared a state of preparedness to help authorities respond quickly.Governors in North Carolina and South Carolina declared states of emergency, making it easier for state and local agencies to coordinate and get help from groups like the National Guard.___Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report. SEAN MURPHY Murphy is the statehouse reporter for The Associated Press in Oklahoma City. He has covered Oklahoma news and politics since 1996. twitter mailto

A person carries a shopping bag in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)2026-01-22T13:37:51Z WASHINGTON (AP) Powered by strong consumer spending, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in two years from July through September, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its first estimate.Americas gross domestic product the nations output of goods and services rose at a 4,4% annual pace in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, up from 3.8% in the April-June quarter and from the 4.3% growth the department initially estimated. The economy hasnt grown faster since third-quarter 2023.Consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. GDP, grew at a healthy 3.5%pace. A surge in exports and a drop in imports also contributed to robust third-quarter growth.The economy has remained resilient despite uncertainty caused by President Donald Trumps policies, particularly his double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on Earth. Despite the strong growth numbers, many Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the economy and especially the high cost of living.The gap between how consumers say they feel and the strong spending numbers might reflect what is known as a K-shaped economy In that situation, the income of wealthier Americans is on the rise, due to stock market gains and growing investments, while lower-income households struggle with stagnant pay and high prices. The job market also looks a lot weaker than the overall economy. Employers have added a lackluster 28,000 jobs a month since March. In the 2021-2023 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns, by contrast, they were creating 400,000 jobs a month. Still, the unemployment rate remains low at 4.4%, suggesting a no-hire, no-fire labor market with companies hesitant to bring on new employees but reluctant to let go of the ones they have.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2026-01-22T12:01:34Z WASHINGTON (AP) The House will look to pass this years final tranche of spending bills on Thursday, an effort that is being complicated by Democratic lawmakers concerns that the measure funding the Department of Homeland Security inadequately addresses President Donald Trumps mass deportation efforts.The House has already passed eight of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund federal agencies and programs. If the final four bills pass on Thursday, action would then move to the Senate, with final passage needed before a Jan. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.House Democratic leaders Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Rep. Pete Aguilar of California announced in a closed-door meeting that they would oppose the Homeland Security bill. Their members are demanding a forceful stand in response to the Republican presidents immigration crackdown, most recently centered in the Minneapolis area, where more than 2,000 officers are stationed and where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three. Theres a very big concern about ICE being out of control, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee. But Democrats have few good options to express their opposition. DeLauro said that passing a continuing resolution to fund Homeland Security at current levels for the remainder of the budget year would cede spending decisions to Trump. Theres also little appetite for another shutdown, even if it would affect only a portion of the federal government. There is much more we must do to rein in DHS, which I will continue to press for. But the hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need, said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. This years Homeland Security bill holds spending for ICE roughly flat from the prior year. It also restricts the ability of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to unilaterally shift funding and allocate federal dollars as she sees fit.Its not everything we wanted. We wanted more oversight. But, look, Democrats dont control the House. We dont control the Senate or the White House. But we were able to add some oversight over Homeland, said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a member of the Appropriations panel. He said he intends to vote for the bill.Democrats voice their concerns privately and publiclyBut most Democrats who emerged from the closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday had a different view.I never support lawless operations, said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.If its the status quo, Im a no, said Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill. DeLauro, along with Cuellar, made a presentation about the bill to House Democrats during their closed-door meeting. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said she told her colleagues why she thought it was a mistake. Others who spoke up agreed, she said.I think this is just a really horrific time, and people understand whats at stake, Jayapal said. We cant treat this like its anything else. Our eyes are not lying to us. She explained that extra money for body cameras and other changes was insufficient. The bill provides $20 million that must be used for ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers when conducting enforcement actions. She said she told her colleagues, Nobody should try to sell this as an improvement. Its not an improvement.But some Democrats in key swing districts will likely be seeing campaign ads targeting them if they vote against the Homeland Security funding bill. The campaign arm for House Republicans issued press releases on Wednesday targeting some 20 Democrats, saying they will do anything to appease the defund ICE crowd even if it means risking national security.Meanwhile, liberal advocacy groups are also applying pressure, saying Congress must take clear, immediate action to rein in the department.The DHS bill that was released clearly falls far short, and should be roundly rejected. Every Democrat should be voting against this funding bill, and Democratic leadership in both chambers should be actively whipping their caucus in opposition, said Andrew ONeill, national advocacy director for the group Indivisible. Republicans are confident the bill will passSpeaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was optimistic that the funding bills would pass, including the Homeland Security measure. He can afford a few defections given the GOPs razor-thin majority.All we do is win, Johnson said.The overall funding package before the House on Thursday contains roughly $1.2 trillion in spending. About two-thirds of that will go to the Defense Department. Other departments that are funded through the package include Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Most federal spending is unaffected by the yearly battles in Congress, most notably Social Security and Medicare.

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The post Medieval Scribe Keeps Forgetting Whence/Whither Rule appeared first on The Onion.

LOS ANGELESNoting that this years nominations had once again completely omitted an important sector of cinema, actor Tim Allen took to social media Thursday to call out the Oscars for failing to recognize movies where a guy turns into a dog. By not elevating these films, the Academy is sending the message that stories about a guy who turns into a big dopey dog to learn an important lesson about family dont matter as much as other stories, Allen wrote in an Instagram post, observing that this yearsAcademy Awardswould mark the 98th consecutive ceremony in which no films about a guy who turned into a dog would be recognized. Not only is this unjust, but its also discouraging for a generation of young filmmakers who want to make a movie in which a dad turns into a sheepdog in the middle of his sons Little League game and starts wildly chasing after the ball. If we want to see the nextThe Shaggy D.A., we need to do better. All of us. At press time, Allen had created a petition calling for more guys who turn into dogs sometimes to be added to the Academys voting body.The post Tim Allen Calls Out Oscars For Failure To Recognize Movies Where Guy Turns Into Dog appeared first on The Onion.

MILFORD, MAWincing at the blast of guttural sobs erupting from the speaker as she picked up, local woman Anna Higgins reportedly threw herself on a grenade Tuesday by answering a phone call from her dysregulated friend. Im so sorry, Jenniferit must be really hard to get dumped so soon after you stopped taking your antidepressants, said Higgins, who immediately regretted answering the phone despite it being her turn to act as a human shield between her friend group and the highly unstable woman said to be capable of inflicting severe distress over a wide impact radius with her drama. Oh wow, I cant believe how many problems you have in all areas of your life. The other people are the crazy ones. Its definitely not you! And sure, attempting to get back together with the guy who once stole and crashed your car sounds like a great idea. At the end of the multihour conversation, sources confirmed that an exhausted Higgins again put herself directly in the line of fire by asking her dysregulated friend if shed like to meet up for dinner soon.The post Woman Throws Self On Grenade By Answering Call From Dysregulated Friend appeared first on The Onion.