Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy and led the No. 1 Hoosiers to their first national championship this past season, is forgoing his final college season and entering the NFL draft, he announced on social media Friday.

A Formula 1 test in January, in the middle of winter, behind closed doors and with no media or fans in sight? ESPN fills you in on all you need to know ahead of Barcelona testing.

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Three people from Indiana and two from Kentucky are in custody, officials said. The judge, Steven Meyer, and his wife were injured but are recovering.

President Trump said that NATO soldiers stayed a little off the front lines during the conflict. In Britain, which lost 457 soldiers in the war, the response was swift.

Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter, explains the different pieces of Trumps deportation machine.

LOS ANGELESSaying they wished she would just be honest with them, friends of multiplatinum recording artist Katy Perry expressed skepticism this week about her alleged powerful boyfriend who lives in Canada. Katy keeps going on and on about this new guy, but every time one of us asks when well get to meet him, she just says hes a really important person in Canada, said friend Emily Curry, who noted that she first became suspicious after she asked Perry to see a photo of her new beau andwas showna picture that looked suspiciously like it had been pulled from Googleimages. I called her last week, and she tried telling me the connection was bad because she and her boyfriend were out on a yacht. Sure, Katy. I dont know why she feels the need to lie. This is just like when she came back from vacation and told us she had been singing in outer space. Curry added that the alleged Canadian boyfriend was almost as far-fetched as Perrys so-called movie star ex, who supposedly lives in England.The post Katy Perrys Friends Skeptical Of Alleged Powerful Boyfriend Who Lives In Canada appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTONChecking to see if the prestigious award was real by placing the medal on the glass turntable and hitting the potato button, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. reportedly microwaved the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Look, look, I think its starting to melt! said Don Jr., the eldest Trump boy, who pressed his face against the door of the appliance to watch the gold medal slowly rotate as his younger brother begged for his turn to watch. Bye, bye Abraham Lincoln! Were going to turn you into slime, and then the Hotel Prize in Appliance [sic] will be ours. Wait, whats happening? At press time, sources reported the sobbing Trump boys were telling their father they had no idea how the Nobel Prize got into the fiery microwave.The post Trump Boys Put Nobel Peace Prize In Microwave appeared first on The Onion.

PARISClutching their chests in wonder at the newly unveiled work by an anonymous street artist, all 68 million members of the French populace were reportedly brought to tears Friday by a cartoon of a robot holding a flower. Technology has made us into zombies, and yet here is a robot showing us the truth, said 43-year-old Clmence Lefvre, echoing the sentiment of the entire French populace, whose economy ground to a halt as millions of police officers, nannies, mimes, pastry chefs, priests, and rebellious beatniks alike abruptly stopped their affairs to march down the Champs-lyses and raise their voices as one to thank the robot. This work is, how do you saytranscendent. It expresses an emotion beyond love and despair, for it is a reflection of love and despair itself. It is subversive like the art of Marcel Duchamp, and yet universal, speaking to all who suffer from ennui and an addiction to their phone. This is better than any work in that bourgeois temple of uninspired slop, the Louvre. Mon Dieu, what have we done to Mother Earth? At press time, an elderly farmer in a horse-drawn wagon was reported to have rolled up to the cartoon, wordlessly placed his hand on the robots heart, and collapsed into a peaceful death.The post Entire French Populace Moved To Tears By Cartoon Of Robot Holding Flower appeared first on The Onion.

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Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and attorney Abbe Lowell leave the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2026-01-23T05:01:06Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court for the past year has repeatedly allowed President Donald Trump to fire heads of independent agencies, but it appears to be drawing a line with the Federal Reserve. The court has signaled for months that it sees the Fed in a different light. It has said that the president can fire directors of other agencies for any reason, but can remove Fed governors only for cause, which is often interpreted to mean neglect of duty or malfeasance.Last year, the court allowed President Donald Trump to fire at least temporarily Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, but it carved out a distinction for the Fed. The two officials had argued that if Trump could fire them, he could also fire members of the Feds board of governors. We disagree, the court said then. The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States. That is now being put to the test in a case in front of the Supreme Court involving Trumps attempt to remove Fed governor Lisa Cook. On Wednesday during oral arguments, the court seemed inclined to keep Cook in her job. Allowing Cooks firing to go forward would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve, said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees on the nations highest court. But the court largely skirted a key issue: What, exactly, is the legal principle that protects the Fed, but not the other agencies?Several legal experts say the justices are on shaky ground. The Fed, they argue, is similar in many ways to the Federal Trade Commission or the National Labor Relations Board, agencies Congress intended to be independent but whose officials Trump has been able to fire without pushback from the high court. Theres no historical grounds for distinguishing the Fed from other independent agencies that Congress has designed, said Jane Manners, a law professor at Fordham University. The whole argument was premised on the idea that the Fed is different. They havent explained exactly why.Peter Conti-Brown, a professor of financial regulation at the University of Pennsylvania, added, Ill say as a legal scholar and as a historian I think that differentiation is hocus pocus.Just last month, the court signaled in a separate oral argument that it would likely allow Trump to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The conservative majority on the court also suggested it would overturn a 90-year-old precedent that sharply limited the presidents ability to fire top officials at independent agencies.Chief Justice John Roberts and many of his colleagues support the unitary executive theory, which holds that the president should have full sway over the staffing of agencies in the executive branch. Agency directors, like Slaughter, are exercising massive power over individual liberty and billion-dollar industries without being accountable to anyone, Kavanaugh said at the December oral argument. With the Federal Reserve, however, the Supreme Courts conservative justices have applied a different view: that the Feds monetary policy the setting of short-term interest rates and management of the money supply historically hasnt been overseen by the executive branch. Some legal experts have likewise drawn a distinction between the Fed and other independent agencies. In a brief filed in the Cook case, Aaron Nielson, a law professor at the University of Texas, and formerly a top lawyer in Texas government, wrote that, Whereas the modern FTC indisputably exercises executive power, the Feds core function is monetary policy, which need not and often does not require executive power. The First and Second Banks of the United States were nationwide banks that were the closest the United States had to a central bank in the first few decades after the nations founding, and both conducted early monetary policy, Nielson wrote, but werent executive branch agencies. But Lev Menand, a law professor at Columbia University and author of a book about the Fed, argued that the Fed does exercise executive power when it regulates the banking system. And monetary policy, when it adjusts the money supply, is part of that regulation, he said. There are also only three types of government authority, Menand argues: legislative, executive, and judicial, and the Fed belongs in the executive category. There is no fourth type of government power, Menand said. There is no other place to locate the Fed.Still, the justices mostly avoided addressing why the Fed is different during Wednesdays oral argument, in part, Menand noted, because neither side pushed it. Cooks lawyers had no reason to question a distinction that appeared to favor them. And even the governments own top Supreme Court lawyer, D. John Sauer, acknowledged that Trump could only fire Cook for cause, while in the other cases the White House had sought to remove officials for any reason, including policy differences. The distinction made it harder for the White House to argue that Cook should immediately be removed from office.There is a long tradition of having this exercise of monetary policy be exercised independent of executive influence, Sauer said. And we dont dispute that thats what Congress was doing. Paul Clement, one of Cooks lawyers, told the justices, its kind of why this case is, I think, problematic for the government because they could have come in here and said, you know, Fed, schmed, its not that different. This is just like the FTC.Instead, Clement added, they come in and say, no, were going to accept that the Fed is different, at least for purposes of this case.The Supreme Court will initially rule on the narrow question of whether Cook can remain in her position while the larger dispute over her firing is fought in the lower courts. Still, at some point it may have to issue more comprehensive rulings that could include a fuller explanation of why the justices see the Fed as different. For now, the Feds size and impact on the financial markets may be offering it a measure of protection. I dont mean to denigrate any other agency, but theres a reason that monetary policy has been treated differently, for lo these many years, Clement said. And theres a reason that the markets watch the Fed a little more closely than they watch really any other agency of government. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. twitter mailto

An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference at the field office in Portland, Ore., Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)2026-01-23T15:07:13Z WASHINGTON (AP) Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder for Canada who was among the FBIs top fugitives and faces charges related to multi-national drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness, was arrested Friday, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.Wedding, 44, is accused of running a drug trafficking operation, and officials say he orchestrated several killings to further the drug crimes. He was on the FBIs 10 Most Wanted list, and authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.Weddings arrest was confirmed by two people familiar with matter who were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.The arrest is expected to be announced later Friday morning at a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel in California. Wedding was apprehended in Mexico, one official said. The FBI released a new photo of Wedding last month and said it was believed to have been taken over the summer in Mexico.Wedding competed for his home country, Canada, in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He was charged in 2024 with running a drug ring that used semitrucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada. Authorities said his aliases included El Jefe, Public Enemy and James Conrad Kin. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on In November, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Wedding had also been indicted on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S. Authorities said Wedding and co-conspirators used a Canadian website called The Dirty News to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified and killed. The witness was then followed to a restaurant in Medelln in January and shot in the head.Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department. twitter mailto ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer covers the Justice Department and federal courts. She joined The AP in 2013 and is based in Washington. twitter MIKE BALSAMO Balsamo is the national law enforcement editor for The Associated Press. He oversees coverage of the Justice Department, federal courts and criminal justice. twitter mailto

Salt is spread on a street in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)2026-01-23T04:18:59Z Winter has its fans, but even those who enjoy playing in the snow probably dislike the chore of clearing up after a big storm that dumps several inches or even feet of snow and ice.Its easy to dash to the closest hardware store to grab a bag of salt, but experts say there are a lot of environmental and other factors to consider when tackling all that ice and snow. Heres what to know.What kinds of salt are out there?Rock salt, also known as sodium chloride, is the cheapest and most commonly used product. But its not great for the environment and its not the most effective option out there. After a big snowstorm, many people head straight to the hardware store for salt. But the way you clear snow and ice can have real impacts on your pets, plants and pavement. Theres a chart we reference thats chemical effectiveness at certain temperatures. And really, when you get to about 15 degrees or colder, you can keep applying more and more rock salt and its not going to do any more than it already does, said Martin Tirado, CEO of the Snow and Ice Management Association, a trade group for industry professionals. In those conditions, other products calcium chloride, magnesium chloride release heat that helps the salt work better, Tirado said.The different formulations vary in other ways, too, including how quickly they work, their corrosiveness and how they interact with moisture. Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride can cost at least twice as much as rock salt.But all contain chlorides that can pollute fresh water, damage shrubs, trees and grass and crumble concrete sidewalks, stoops and driveways. Blends and coatings can reduce the corrosive nature and environmental hazards of these salts, experts say. Calcium manganese acetate is one of the tamest de-icing products out there, developed specifically to replace rock salt and be more environmentally friendly. It is biodegradable, a corrosion inhibitor, and typically used as a liquid. But it is much more expensive and can still create issues with dissolved oxygen on bodies of water. A Nashville Department of Transportation truck applies salt brine to a roadway Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the state over the weekend. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) A Nashville Department of Transportation truck applies salt brine to a roadway Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the state over the weekend. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More What about those environmental effects? Pamela Bennett, a horticulture professor at Ohio State, said rock salt is the worst for plants. It gets them in two ways: through the roots and through the air.Salt percolates through the soil. When plants start to draw in salty water in the spring, that dries roots, leading to dry leaves. Brown tips on leaves indicate the soil might have gotten too salty. Salt can also reach plant foliage in the winter, thats evergreens directly when its carried by mist and spray. Thats an issue thats worse on major roads as a lot of traffic moves quickly. When you have a lot of road salt on the highways, cars are splashing and wind blows it. That salt turns into what looks like a burn, Bennett says.What about my pets?Most people walking their dog in snowy places have seen what happens when they walk across a heavy salt treatment stopping suddenly and lifting a paw as if in pain.Their paw pads get dry or they get little cuts because those crystals are sharp, and then theyre chewing them because thats the only way they know to make it feel better, said Alison Manchester, an assistant clinical sciences professor at Cornell University. If they swallow enough salt, it can lead to vomiting, too.For some people, animal safety is a strong reason to look to a nonsalt option against ice and snow. Salt and shovels are displayed for sale at Ankeny Hardware, Jan. 11, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File) Salt and shovels are displayed for sale at Ankeny Hardware, Jan. 11, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More So what are my nonsalt alternatives?Abrasives such as gravel and sand can help with grip, so pedestrians and tires are less likely to slip. But they also come with their own problems.Sand that runs off into freshwater bodies lakes, streams and rivers can kill natural growth, Tirado said.Sand can also accumulate in your soil, eventually becoming a problem for plant growth. It can even make a type of concrete when it mixes in clay-heavy soils, experts say.Unconventional solutions are out there. You can buy a deicer that wraps its chlorides in beet juice or beet extract that coats the granules for a variety of benefits, including melting ice faster, working in colder temperatures and staying where its put. And a Korean company, Stars Tech, is working with material taken from invasive starfish to produce a deicer that it says more slowly releases chloride material and thus avoids some of the corrosion and environmental problems of salt. Be ready to shovel more than once and dont over-apply Experts say preparation and strategy can make clearing ice easier. That starts with watching forecasts to see how much snow is expected.People wait until after the storm to start shoveling, Tirado said. Thats fine if youre having 1 to 2 inches. If you start getting 3, 4 or more inches than that, you cant wait ... you need to go out multiple times. That way it keeps the paved surface more clear in a productive and proactive manner. Ground temperature matters. If its warmer, you may be able to use less than you think you need. Colder ground temperatures might require more.Proper application of whatever you put on your sidewalk or driveway is important, too.The key here is to not use too much and scatter it too much, said David Orr, director of the Local Roads Program at Cornell. We also do probably need to get into the habit that it may not be perfectly bare and that can be OK.___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. ALEXA ST. JOHN St. John is a climate reporter for The Associated Press based in Detroit. She covers environmental and energy policy, breaking climate news and extreme weather. twitter mailto CALEIGH WELLS Wells reports on how peoples choices impact the environment for The Associated Press. She is based in Cleveland. mailto

Nature, Published online: 23 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00235-2Nature staff discuss some of the weeks top science news.

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An ethics watchdog group filed a complaint Thursday seeking an investigation into whether President Donald Trumps criminal defense attorney now the No. 2 at the Justice Department broke federal conflict-of-interest law when he issued a new prosecution policy that benefits the cryptocurrency industry.The complaint comes after a ProPublica investigation revealed last month that Todd Blanche owned at least $159,000 worth of crypto-related assets when he ordered an end to investigations into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges launched during President Joe Bidens term. Blanche, the deputy attorney general, issued the order in an April memo in which he also eliminated an enforcement team dedicated to looking for crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes.Blanche had previously signed an ethics agreement promising to dump his cryptocurrency within 90 days of his confirmation and not to participate in any matter that could have a direct and predictable effect on my financial interests in the virtual currency until his bitcoin and other crypto-related products were sold.Later ethics filings show Blanche divested from the investments more than a month after he issued the memo. Even when he did ultimately get rid of his crypto interests, his ethics records show he did so by transferring them to his adult children and a grandchild, a move ethics experts said is technically legal but at odds with the spirit and intent of the law.In its complaint this week, the Campaign Legal Center asked the Justice Departments acting inspector general to launch an investigation. The complaint alleged that the evidence suggests that Blanche blatantly and improperly influenced DOJs digital asset prosecution guidelines while standing to financially benefit.The public has a right to know that decisions are being made in the publics best interest and not to benefit a government employees financial interests, Kedric Payne, the organizations general counsel and senior director of ethics, wrote in the complaint. The inspector generals office should investigate and determine whether a criminal violation occurred.The Campaign Legal Center is a nonpartisan government watchdog group dedicated to addressing challenges facing democracy in the U.S. Its trustees and staff include Democrats and Republicans, including Trevor Potter, a Republican former chair of the Federal Election Commission, who serves as president of its Board of Trustees.Under the federal conflicts-of-interest statute, government officials are forbidden from taking part in a particular matter that can financially benefit them or their immediate family unless they have a special waiver from the government. The penalties range from up to one year in jail or a civil fine of up to $50,000 all the way to as much as five years in prison if someone willfully violates the law.In the complaint, Payne alleged that Blanches orders violated the law because they benefited the industry broadly, including his own investments. He estimated that Blanches bitcoin alone rose by 34%, to $105,881.53, between when he issued the memo and when he divested. At the time he issued the memo, Blanche also held investments in several other cryptocurrencies, including Solana and Ethereum, and stock holdings in Coinbase.Payne said strong evidence of wrongdoing triggered his groups request for an investigation.I cant think of another situation where Ive seen someone sign an ethics agreement and then take an action that doesnt comply with the agreement and you can clearly verify that they did it, said Payne, a former deputy general counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics and the U.S. Energy Department.The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Blanche, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, was Trumps lead attorney in the Manhattan trial that resulted in his being convicted of 34 felonies stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels. Blanche also defended Trump against criminal charges accusing him of conspiring to subvert the 2020 election and retaining highly classified documents. (Those two cases were dropped after Trump was reelected president.)Since gaining Senate confirmation on March 5, Blanche has helped lead a remaking of the Department of Justice and made headlines in other ways. As news of Trumps ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein gained momentum last year, Blanche personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins longtime confidante now serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping him sexually abuse underage girls.In his April 7 memo titled Ending Regulation by Prosecution, Blanche condemned the Biden Justice Departments tough approach toward crypto as a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed. The memo disbanded the agencys National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which had won several high-profile crypto-related convictions. Blanche said the agency would instead target only the terrorists and drug traffickers who illicitly used crypto, not the platforms that hosted them.The digital assets industry is critical to the Nations economic development and innovation, Blanche wrote. President Trump has also made clear that [w]e are going to end the regulatory weaponization against digital assets.The market reacted favorably; crypto trading spiked.In an ethics filing he electronically signed in June, Blanche said his bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments including Solana, Cardano and Ethereum were gifted in their entirety to my grandchild and adult children. Financial disclosure records dont provide exact amounts but instead a broad range for the worth of a government officials investment. At that point, Blanches records show his transfers to his family members were worth between $116,000 and $315,000. He said he sold additional crypto-related investments worth between $5,000 and $75,000. The divestment took place in late May and early June, the ethics filing said.The post Complaint Accuses Trumps Criminal Attorney of Blatant Crypto Conflict in His Role at DOJ appeared first on ProPublica.

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)2026-01-23T16:18:54Z Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. envoys met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washingtons push for progress to end Moscows nearly 4-year-old invasion.The talks follow a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was nearly ready, certain sensitive sticking points most notably those related to territorial issues remain unresolved.Heres whats known and not known about the meeting: Whats different about these talksThey are taking place in the UAEs capital of Abu Dhabi. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine have already met several times on separate occasions, but this is believed to be the first time U.S. envoys will be there too a significant step in that President Donald Trump has been pressing for a halt to the war.The talks are an outgrowth of recent diplomatic activity, even though Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure, leaving parts of the country without power amid a bitterly cold winter. Zelenskyy met with Trump on Thursday behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing it as a productive and meaningful session. Trump said later that it had gone well and that both Russia and Ukraine were making concessions to try to end the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner in overnight talks at the Kremlin that lasted nearly four hours.A spokesman for Zelenskyy said there are many different formats in these talks sometimes participants step aside for separate discussions, sometimes everyone meets together, sometimes several groups break off by topic. Who is participatingThe U.S. has confirmed Witkoff and Kushner are attending. The Ukrainian team includes Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraines national security and defense council; Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff; and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office.Putins foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Russias delegation is led by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. The Kremlin later said the rest of the delegation are from the Defense Ministry as well, but did not elaborate. Putins envoy Kirill Dmitriev also is attending.The talks are scheduled to conclude Saturday. Questions of territory and security Little is known about the specific issues to be discussed. Zelenskyy said the fraught issue of territorial concessions is a likely topic, while the Kremlin offered few details beyond calling the meeting a working group on security issues. Separate economic discussions will take place between Witkoff and Dmitriev, Kremlin officials said. The sides have indicated that a possible peace deal hinges on the apparently still unresolved issue of territory. Speaking in a WhatsApp chat with journalists Friday, Zelenskyy described the issue of who would control the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as key.Russias bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.In his briefing on Putins meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Ushakov stressed that reaching a long-term settlement cant be expected without solving the territorial issue, a reference to Moscows demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.Peskov also said Friday that Moscow had already made its position clear and that Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the Donbas region.Ukraine has been pressing for security guarantees from the West to prevent Russia from invading its territory again.___Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed. ___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine KATIE MARIE DAVIES Davies is an Associated Press reporter covering Russia, Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus. She has reported on the region for more than a decade and is part of the team covering the Russia-Ukraine war. twitter mailto

This photo shows various weather apps arranged on a smartphone in Glenside, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)2026-01-23T16:28:06Z Smartphone weather apps that summarize their forecasts with eye-popping numbers and bright icons may be handy during mild weather, but meteorologists say its better to listen to human expertise during multi-faceted, dangerous winter storms like the one blowing through the U.S. The multistate storms combination of heavy snow, treacherous ice and subzero temperatures shows why its best to seek out forecasters who can explain its nuances via local TV or radio newscasts, online livestreams or detailed websites, said meteorologists interviewed by The Associated Press. The data is changing rapidly before and during the storm, and the distance of a few miles can mean the difference between snow, sleet or dangerous freezing rain. Weather apps are really bad at storms that have multiple types of precipitation and it really makes messaging hard, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, a past president of the American Meteorological Society. Apps dont understand the details of why snow, sleet or freezing rain happens. University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado and other experts said humans are important in these cases, especially those with local expertise. For extreme weather events, it is especially important to know there are human forecasters interpreting the data and making the best localized forecasts for your area, Furtado said. Unfortunately, many of the weather forecast apps use AI methods to either make the forecast or interpolate from larger grids to your hometown, introducing the potential for significant errors. But some apps can be useful, especially those that pair National Weather Service data with meteorologists expertise, forecasters said. And they are definitely getting used right about now.The Weather Channel app, which is seeing booming traffic this week, uses numerous models, data sources, weather observers and staff, said James Belanger, vice president of its parent company, which also owns the Weather Channel and weather.com. That level of proficiency matters, he said.Its an all-hands-on-deck kind of approach that we take, Belanger said, adding that not all weather apps are created equal. What apps can and cant do Apps get much of their information from the National Weather Service and some companies augment it with proprietary information and the well-regarded European forecast models. Many offer forecasts by ZIP code or geographic areas far from weather stations by using software that focuses broader regional forecasts to where the phone is located. This photos shows weather apps arranged on a smartphone in Glenside, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) This photos shows weather apps arranged on a smartphone in Glenside, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More While there are good apps, especially those displaying National Weather Service warnings and information, many oversimplify uncertainty and present highly precise-looking numbers that imply more confidence than actually exists, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. This type of storm is where apps are weakest because they dont get nuances, he said.Weather apps are good for forecasting nice warm summer days, but not days like much of the country is facing now, said Steven DiMartino of NY NJ PA Weather. The paid online subscription service touts its human expertise with the slogan Meteorology Not Modelology.The problem with the weather app is that it just provides data, but not explanation, DiMartino said. Anyone can look at data, but you need a meteorologist, you need that human touch to look at it and say, Hmm, that looks like an error; were gonna tweak this.Seeking quality sources of data Cory Mottice, a National Weather Service meteorologist since 2014, developed the app EverythingWeather, which uses weather service data, as an easy place for the public to find the latest weather forecasts for their area without navigating the agencys website. He said its just for fun and not affiliated with the weather service.The strength of his app, he said, is that the information comes from professional meteorologists at the more than 125 weather service offices. Many apps just use raw computer modeling data which arent always reliable in extreme events with no human oversight, which can really lead to some very misleading numbers or graphics depending on what youre at, he said.With his approach, you have actual meteorologists that are experts in their field at different places all over the country for that specific area, looking at the data, adjusting it, making the forecast as needed, Mottice said. Mixing decades of experience, 100 meteorologists and AI The popular Weather Channel app uses information from many sources, including the weather service and more than 100 weather models, including those from the U.S. and Europe and their own distinct model. They augment it with input from over 100,000 citizens to help forecast weather events, said The Weather Companys Belanger. And its all synthesized by artificial intelligence to come up with a forecast, he said. People walk on an ice covered beach along the shore of Lake Michigan, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) People walk on an ice covered beach along the shore of Lake Michigan, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thats more accurate than relying on a single model or provider, he said, because AI is able to learn which models are the most accurate in different conditions to help create that optimal forecast.Even so, humans, including a team of more than 100 meteorologists, always have the final say about what goes on the app, Belanger said.One of the things that has been a lesson and a principle that weve adopted is that its the combination of advancements in technology with the human oversight, that allows the company to provide the best forecasts especially in situations like the current winter storm, Belanger said.Be careful with social mediaForecasters also warn against another quick fix for weather information: social media, where hype, misinformation and short takes can spread quickly. While social media can help amplify official sources like the weather service, its also where misinformation spreads fastest, Gensini wrote in an email. Weather is complex, and social media tends to reward confidence and drama, not nuance, Gensini said. That mismatch is a real challenge during major events like this.Kim Klockow McClain, an extreme weather social scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, said people are getting misled by hyped forecasts. When people are continually exposed to only worst-case forecasts, research suggests they will lose trust over time, she said.__Borenstein reported from Washington, Webber from Fenton, Michigan.___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. SETH BORENSTEIN Borenstein is an Associated Press science writer, covering climate change, disasters, physics and other science topics. He is based in Washington, D.C. twitter mailto

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The calls came over the span of a single month in 2004, patient after patient with strikingly similar complaints. Some told Oregon psychiatrist James Hancey that their new generic medication for depression had stopped working. Others described unexpected reactions dizziness, flu-like symptoms and electric shock sensations in the brain.That started to tell me, This drug is no good, Hancey said. You get all these phone calls where people are saying the exact same thing.Hancey suspected that the generic was ineffective, and that his patients were suffering from abrupt withdrawal. But he had no easy way to confirm exactly where the pills came from or the safety record of the factory that made them. He began keeping what he called a no fly list dozens of generic drugs he suspected were unsafe or ineffective based largely on patterns he observed in his patients.Now, he has something else.Last month, ProPublica launched Rx Inspector, a free, searchable tool that allows doctors, researchers and patients to trace a specific generic medication back to its manufacturer and to see the inspection history of the factory.Researchers said they are using the tool to turbocharge work to make the countrys drug supply safer. Health care workers said they are checking factory records before writing prescriptions. And patients say it has helped them understand what may have gone wrong when a medication caused unexplained health problems or didnt work at all.This is a godsend to researchers looking to study pharmaceutical manufacturing, said John Gray, a professor at Ohio State University working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to assess the safety and quality of generic drugs.Although the Food and Drug Administration knows where generic drugs are made and inspects factories around the world, it has never allowed the public to easily see which manufacturer produced which pill or whether the factory had a history of safety and quality violations.Rx Inspector changes that. Drawing on records ProPublica obtained from the FDA, in part by suing the agency in federal court, the tool links nearly 40,000 medications to their original manufacturers and to inspection reports and regulatory actions that were previously difficult, if not impossible, for the public to locate. On Friday, ProPublica published some of the underlying data to GitHub, so that other journalists and researchers can build on our work.The tool is part of a monthslong ProPublica investigation into failures by the FDA to oversee the generic drug industry, particularly foreign factories repeatedly faulted for drug contamination and other quality failures.It is already reshaping how people make decisions.Gray and his team are working to assign generic drugs a quality score based on risk. The goal is to help government purchasers, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, buy medications based on quality, not just cost. Rx Inspector has enabled his team to move faster researchers can easily look up factory locations and inspection details, he said.Col. Vic Suarez, a retired Army medical supply-chain commander who is collaborating on the project, said he is also using the tool for research aimed at helping new U.S.-based drug companies produce high-quality medication.Health care workers said the tool is changing how they counsel patients.Hancey, the Oregon psychiatrist, said he recently shared Rx Inspector with the training director at his hospital so that residents could use it to investigate generic drugs and develop their own no fly lists. He will refine his own list as well, now that he can more easily track the drugmakers behind the generics that concern him most.Experience has taught me that not all generics are the same, he said. And you dont know who you are dealing with. This will cut down on a lot of the legwork.Ninety percent of the prescriptions in the United States are for generics, many of them made overseas. For years, pharmacists and lawmakers have pressed the FDA to require manufacturers to identify themselves on the labels of pill bottles so that consumers and health care workers could learn more about the drugs they use and prescribe.The FDA resisted. The former head of drug safety at the agency told ProPublica that regulators didnt want to police thousands of companies to ensure they were providing accurate information.The FDA does require companies to disclose manufacturing locations when they apply to sell a generic drug. But it does not publish that information on its website. And while the agency posts some inspection reports online, it routinely redacts the names of generic drugs involved, even when inspectors find serious safety and quality violations.Rx Inspector pulls those threads together. Since the tools launch, ProPublica has heard from dozens of readers who used it to look up their own medications. They described feeling empowered, even vindicated, after learning where their drugs were made and, in some cases, discovering long-standing concerns by the FDA about substandard manufacturing.John Beeler, a father of three in Atlanta, used Rx Inspector to learn more about a generic antidepressant that he believes made him sick. Courtesy of John BeelerIn Atlanta, 49-year-old John Beeler said he developed headaches and rashes on his sides, upper body and hands after he started taking bupropion, the generic for the brand-name Wellbutrin and among the most widely used antidepressants in the United States.For two exhausting weeks in 2024, Beeler said, he worried: Were his pills making him sick?The FDA has fielded thousands of complaints about some generic versions of the drug, government records show. Testing by independent labs including a test commissioned by ProPublica have turned up irregularities in the way the pills dissolve in the body, which can flood patients with too much medication or leave their symptoms untreated.Beeler, a father of three,. asked his doctor to switch him to a different medication. The rashes and headaches cleared up almost immediately.When Beeler later used Rx Inspector, which he found on Reddit, he learned that the pills he had been taking were made in a factory in India cited multiple times by FDA inspectors for poor-quality manufacturing, including for shipping potentially contaminated medication to the U.S.Kate Wagner discovered her generic ADHD drug was made at a factory repeatedly cited by FDA inspectors for safety and quality violations. Courtesy of Kate WagnerDrug safety experts caution that the same manufacturer can produce both good and bad batches, and that patients can react differently to the same drug for reasons unrelated to manufacturing. Doctors and pharmacists advise patients with concerns to talk to their health care providers and to not stop taking medication on their own.Beeler said he has no idea what caused the reaction to his generic bupropion, but having access to information about the factory and its troubles with the FDA would have allowed him to make different choices.Having somebody say, Theres big differences in the way that certain drugs are manufactured, its kind of like, Im not that crazy, he said. It would have answered a lot of questions early on.In Chicago, Kate Wagner, 32, went on a new generic for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder last year and said she spent two weeks in a stupor, barely able to move. The experience was so disorienting, she stopped taking stimulants altogether even though she had been on them since she was a child.Wagner recently discovered Rx Inspector on X and learned that the generic was made at a U.S. factory found to have manufacturing violations during nine inspections from 2009 to 2022.I really felt like in my heart that it was just a bad drug, said Wagner, who writes about architecture. Theres a difference between an expected side effect and being made sick by medication.Dawn Levitt had no idea that a generic immunosuppressant that protects her heart came from a troubled factory in India. Katherine DaileyDawn Levitt cant take any chances she relies on a generic drug to protect her fragile heart. She has had two heart transplants since 2006 and takes everolimus, the generic version of the immunosuppressant Zortress, to prevent rejection.When Levitt used Rx Inspector to look up her generic, she learned that it was made in an Indian factory faulted by the FDA for quality and safety lapses, including dirty drugmaking equipment and destroying records related to drug quality.I felt sick and anxious when I saw the violations, said Levitt, who lives in Michigan and blogs about her medical journey. She said she quickly made plans to talk with her doctor and transplant team.I already had to have a second heart transplant, she said. This could jeopardize the survival of my heart transplant and my life.Johanna Staples kisses her husband around 2005, a few years before he died. I loved my husband with all my heart, she said. Courtesy of Johanna StaplesFor Johanna Staples, the costs of poorly made drugs have already been steep.Nineteen years ago, Staples lost her husband, Dennis, in one of the deadliest drug contamination breaches in U.S. history. Before receiving dialysis for complications from Type 2 diabetes, Dennis was given a dose of heparin, a generic blood thinner used by millions of Americans. Moments later, he collapsed in his chair and never regained consciousness.Investigators later determined that some generic heparin contained a contaminated ingredient from China that could cause severe allergic reactions. Dozens of deaths and hundreds of serious injuries were reported among patients.I loved my husband with all my heart and dearly miss him every minute of every day with an ache that cannot be dulled or cured, Staples told a House subcommittee investigating the crisis in 2008.Now 73, Staples takes a few generic medications herself. When she recently used Rx Inspector to look them up, she said she was stunned.Her blood pressure medication was made in China. Last year, FDA inspectors found so many quality violations at the plant that the agency issued a warning letter, a significant enforcement step, and demanded improvements.Staples said its distressing to learn that, nearly two decades after her husbands death, patients and doctors are still often kept in the dark.I find it so very wrong and alarming that we are not given full disclosure on the meds we are prescribed, she said. Nothing has changed.Read MoreYou can check out the Rx Inspector here. Although we cannot offer medical advice, our reporting team wants to hear from you. Please fill out this form to let us know what you find. We may follow up with future reporting.Look Up Where Your Generic Prescription Drugs Were MadeThe post A Godsend: ProPublicas Rx Inspector Tool Is Helping People Find Critical Safety Information on Generic Drugs appeared first on ProPublica.

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Children watch television at ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave, File)2026-01-23T06:06:44Z A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trumps administration must keep federal funds flowing to child care subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic-controlled states at least for now.The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick extends by two weeks a temporary one issued earlier this month that blocked the federal government from holding back the money from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. That expires Friday.The judge said hed decide later whether the money is to remain in place while a challenge to cutting it off works its way through the courts.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this month that it was pausing the funding because it had reason to believe the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others. The states say the move was instead intended to damage Trumps political adversaries.A judge previously gave the states a reprieve to the administrations plan to halt funding for the states unless they provide information on the beneficiaries of some programs, including names and Social Security numbers. The temporary restraining order was set to expire Friday.Around the same time as the actions aimed at the five states, the administration put up hurdles to Minnesota for even more federal dollars. It also began requesting all states to explain how theyre using money in the child care program. The programs are intended to help low-income familiesThe programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for 1.3 million children from low-income families nationwide; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs. The states say that they receive a total of more more than $10 billion a year from those programs and that the programs are essential for low-income and vulnerable families.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent letters to the states on Jan. 5 and 6 telling them they would be placed on restricted drawdown of program money until the states provided more information.For TANF and the Social Service Block Grant, the request required the states to submit the data, including personal information of recipients beginning in 2022, with a deadline of Jan. 20. States call the action unlawful many times overIn court papers last week, the states say what they describe as a funding freeze does not follow the law.They say Congress created laws about how the administration can identify noncompliance or fraud by recipients of the money and that the federal government hasnt used that process.They also say its improper to freeze funding broadly because of potential fraud and that producing the data the government called for is an impossible demand on an impossible timeline. The administration says its not a freezeIn a court filing this week, the administration objected to the states describing the action as a funding freeze, even though the headline on the Department of Health and Human Services announcement was: HHS Freezes Child Care and Family Assistance Grants in Five States for Fraud Concerns.Federal government lawyers said the states could get the money going forward if they provide the requested information and the federal government finds them to be in compliance with anti-fraud measures.The administration also notes that it has continued to provide funding to the states, not pointing out that a court ordered it to do so. GEOFF MULVIHILL Mulvihill covers topics on the agendas of state governments across the country. He has focused on abortion, gender issues and opioid litigation. twitter mailto

This image taken from video shows Michael David McKee walking into the courtroom on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Rockford, Ill. (WIFR News/Pool Photo via AP)2026-01-23T05:05:28Z COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home pleaded not guilty to the killings in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.Michael David McKee, 39, appeared remotely on camera from jail for his arraignment in Franklin County, where he faced four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 double homicide of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37. He was garbed in prison attire and did not speak during the brief hearing. Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond, at least for now. The mystery that first surrounded the case which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him. Who is Michael David McKee?McKee attended Catholic high school in Zanesville, a historic Ohio city about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of the capital, according to the Diocese of Columbus. He enrolled at Ohio State University in September 2005 the same semester that his future wife, then Monique Sabaturski, enrolled, university records show. Both graduated with bachelors degrees in June 2009. Sabaturski earned a master of education degree from Ohio State in 2011, and McKee earned his medical degree there in 2014. Sabaturski and McKee married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show. Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show. He completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, according to the school. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on McKee also lived in and was licensed to practice medicine in both California and in Nevada, where he was among doctors named in a personal injury lawsuit in a Las Vegas court in 2023. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was working at the time of his arrest, declined to provide specific information on the dates of his employment. His Illinois medical license became active in October 2024. What is McKee accused of?An Ohio grand jury indicted McKee in the double homicide last week.McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house. Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has said that McKee was the person seen walking down that alley in video footage captured the night of the killings. She also said a gun found in his Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicles movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois. A message seeking comment was left with McKees attorney. McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count. If convicted, he faces a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life in prison without parole. How were the killings discovered?Columbus police conducted a wellness check on Spencer Tepe at around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, after his manager at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio, reported that he had not shown up to work on that day, saying tardiness was very worrying and out of character for Tepe, according to a 911 call.Someone else called to request a wellness check before a distraught man who described himself as a friend of Spencer Tepe called police and said, Oh, theres a body. Theres a body. Oh my God. He said he could see Spencer Tepes body was off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.The Franklin County Coroners Office deemed the killings an apparent homicide by gunshot wounds. Who were the Tepes?Family members said the Tepes were extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others. They have described Monique as a joyful mother, avid baker and thoughtful planner. According to their obituaries, which were issued jointly, the pair were married in 2020. Spencer Tepe got his bachelors degree from Ohio State University in 2012 and earned his doctor of dental surgery degree in 2017, according to school records. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. They had two young children. Both were home at the time of the killings and left unharmed, as was the family dog. JULIE CARR SMYTH Smyth covers government and politics from Columbus, Ohio, for The Associated Press. She was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news. twitter mailto PATRICK AFTOORA-ORSAGOS Aftoora-Orsagos is a video journalist covering breaking news for The Associated Press. He is based in Columbus, Ohio. twitter mailto