A United States Border Patrol agent gestures to a car while conducting immigration enforcement operations, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)2026-02-10T12:02:54Z WASHINGTON (AP) The heads of the agencies carrying out President Donald Trumps mass deportation agenda will testify in Congress Tuesday and face questions over how they are prosecuting immigration enforcement inside American cities.Trumps immigration campaign has been heavily scrutinized in recent weeks, after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two protesters at the hands of Homeland Security officers. The agencies have also faced criticism for a wave of policies that critics say trample on the rights of both immigrants facing arrest and Americans protesting the enforcement actions.Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rodney Scott, who heads U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, who is the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will speak in front of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The officials will speak at a time of falling public support for how their agencies are carrying out Trumps immigration vision but as they are flush with cash from a spending bill passed last year that has helped broaden immigration enforcement activities across the country. The administration says that activists and protesters opposed to its operations are the ones ratcheting up attacks on their officers, not the other way around, and that their immigration enforcement operations are making the country safer by finding and removing people whove committed crimes or pose a threat to the country. Under Lyons leadership, ICE has undergone a massive hiring boom funded by Congress last summer and immigration officers have deployed in beefed-up enforcement operations in cities across the country designed to increase arrests and deportations. The appearance in Congress comes as lawmakers are locked in a battle over whether DHS should be funded without restraints placed over its officers conduct. Lyons is likely to face questioning over a memo he signed last year telling ICE officers that they didnt need a judges warrant to forcibly enter a house to arrest a deportee, a memo that went against years of ICE practice and Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches.During Scotts tenure, his agency has taken on a significant role in arresting and removing illegal immigrants from inside the country. That increased activity has become a flashpoint for controversy and marks a break from the agencys traditional job of protecting borders and controlling who and what enters the country. Under the leadership of commander Gregory Bovino, a group of Border Patrol agents hopscotched around the country to operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans where they were often accused of indiscriminately questioning and arresting people they suspected were in the country illegally. Bovino says his targets are legitimate and identified through intelligence and says that if his officers use force to make an arrest, its because its warranted.A Border Patrol agent and Customs and Border Protection officer both opened fire during the shooting death of Alex Pretti, one of two protesters killed in Minneapolis in January. The other protester, Renee Good, was shot and killed by an ICE officer. After the Pretti shooting, Bovino was reassigned and Trump sent his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to assume control. USCIS has also faced criticism for steps it has taken including subjecting refugees already admitted to the U.S. to another round of vetting and pausing decisions on all asylum cases. REBECCA SANTANA Santana covers the Department of Homeland Security for The Associated Press. She has extensive experience reporting in such places as Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

LeBron James says the Lakers are not a "championship team" compared to the Thunder.

The biggest offseason storylines for 2026, including players who might retire or be on the move.

Three years after an epic end to the World Baseball Classic, American stars are pitching in like never before.

Some conference championship rings fetch big bucks. Others wind up collecting dust on a closet shelf. Players share mixed opinions on the NFL's sparkly consolation prize.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Casey Wasserman, the entertainment mogul, are among facing blowback amid the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The former New York mayor paid a Conflicts of Interest Board fine for having City Hall employees assist in attacking former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over sexual harassment allegations.

The post Trump Attempts To Distract From Epstein Files By Gaining 200 Pounds appeared first on The Onion.

You can accept a four-bed colonial for $450,000or take your chances on the mystery house!Reference #68379The post Mystery House appeared first on The Onion.

The post Ron Howard Molts Baseball Cap To Grow Warmer Hat For Winter appeared first on The Onion.

YARMOUTH, MEAs he bemoaned yet another day of the same infuriating routine from one of the message boards biggest assholes, local man Kyle Parker confirmed Friday that AmigaraEnigma_9x9, his rival on AnimeNation.com, was up to his usual horseshit. Its not even noon, and hes already being a huge prick to someone who just said they kind of liked the Demon Slayer Hashira arc, said Parker, who sighed audibly as he saw his nemesis up to his typical bullshit of poisoning the well in otherwise perfectly civil discussions of anime, manga, video games, and Japanese culture. It was silly to think hed finally shut the fuck up after someone politely pointed out that literally no one but him thinks the Berserk OVAs are superior to the 1997 original. After all, this is the person who essentially haunts the fan art section so he can tear some poor teenagers drawings to shreds. Genuinely, what a nightmare. Sources later reported that Parker had rapidly typed out a perfect 700-word response to his insufferable rival on the definition of filler episodes, a post he began with the phrase You are mistaken.The post Rival On AnimeNation.com Up To His Usual Horseshit appeared first on The Onion.

CHICAGOSeeking to expand beyond sports coverage into radical new forms and expressions, Barstool Sports announced Monday that it would soon launch Confluences, a literary journal featuring book reviews, flash fiction, and in-depth arts criticism.Representatives at the sports website told reporters that Confluences would allow Barstool staff to supplement their usual output of fantasy football rankings, piss-based shenanigans, and GIFs of obese pets with the kind of cultural commentary found in The Paris Review and n+1. The journal will be available both online and as a quarterly, 200page volume published through the University of Chicago Press.For years, Barstool contributors have recapped UFC fights and posted jaw-dropping SEC smoke shows, all while privately engaging in rigorous literary criticism, and were excited to finally share this passion with our loyal Stoolies, said site founder Dave Portnoy, noting that as the new journals editor, he had already commissioned a three-part essay on Susan Sontags early work from longtime Barstool personality PFT Commenter. Whether its an interview with Ayad Akhtar on theaters power in the face of oppression or a review of Ocean Vuongs latest poetry collection, this will naturally complement our ongoing touchdown dance compilations and debates over the best Nickelodeon cartoons of the 90s.He added, As intellectuals, we are equally interested in the postcolonial installation art of Guiller-mo Gmez-Pea and humorous photo mockups depicting John Daly as Santa Claus, and we expect our readers will welcome this broadening of focus.Portnoy confirmed that Confluences would explore numerous disciplines, with its debut issue set to include long-form essays on the intersectional limits of third-wave feminism, the unpublished correspondence of Roland Barthes, and the best breakfast tacos in Austin, TX, as well as blackout poetry composed with cut-up Bang Energy labels and a piece from literary historian Stephen Greenblatt outlining various potential College Football Playoff wagering scenarios.The magazine is also expected to serve as a coveted destination for contemporary writers in a range of creative fieldsincluding such luminaries as Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, and Glenny Ballswith Pulitzer Prize finalist Ta-Nehisi Coates scheduled to author a retrospective on the years craziest parking lot beatdowns.According to sources, Confluences will also publish a 400-line prose poem adapted from a recent blog post by Barstool contributor John Feitelberg and titled I Shit My Pants At Julian Edelmans House.Our goal is simply to advance, fearlessly, into the maelstrom of the great ontological and phenomenological inquiries of our era while also counting down a list of the funniest-looking Japanese baseball mascots, said Portnoy, noting that the journals operations were made possible due to generous financial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Zyn-brand nicotine pouches. What is the role of the arts in a fully digitized society? How do we reconcile the ancient Greek ideal of kalos kagathos with the constraints of postmodern aestheticism? What does the girl from Ferris Buellers Day Off look like now? These are just some of the dialectics well be grappling with.Also, the one-bite pizza reviews will be presented by Salman Rushdie until further notice, he added.At press time, Confluences was reportedly hosting an online livestream in which 12 Barstool employees sat in recliners and reacted to the latest soundscape from multimedia artist Camille Norment.The post Barstool Sports Spins Off New Literary Journal appeared first on The Onion.

It's so clever!READ MORE...

A member of the Pima County sheriffs office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie's home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)2026-02-10T13:42:53Z TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) Today show host Savannah Guthrie pleaded for the publics help at an hour of desperation in the search for her missing mother as the familys latest attempts to reach the abductors failed to yield any proof she is alive or communication with the culprits.Guthrie and her family have posted several videos to Instagram in recent days in which they pleaded for the return of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie and offered to pay a ransom for her safe return. Her latest message Monday evening struck a different tone as she talked about entering another week of this nightmare and was more focused on helping investigators gather clues into the disappearance than earlier posts.The FBI said Monday that it isnt aware of ongoing communication between Guthries family and any suspected kidnappers more than a week after Nancy Guthrie went missing. The FBI has also not identified any suspects or persons of interest in Nancy Guthries disappearance, Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said in a statement. The agency is operating a 24-hour command post equipped with investigative teams and crisis management experts while asking for help from the public. The family continues to believe Nancy Guthrie is out there and hearing everyones prayers, Savannah Guthrie said in the video released Monday. She was taken and we dont know where, and we need your help, Guthrie said in the video posted on Instagram, urging people nationwide to be on the lookout no matter where you are, even if youre far from Tucson, if you see anything, if you hear anything. The mysterious disappearance and search has riveted the country from President Donald Trump, who spoke with Savannah Guthrie last week, to the online sleuths whove flooded social media with tips, theories and rumors.The FBI is asking for the publics help on digital billboards up in several major cities in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information. Multiple news outlets received alleged ransom letters during the past week. At least one letter made monetary demands and set deadlines for receiving the money. The first passed last Thursday and a second one passed Monday evening.Law enforcement officials declined to affirm that the letters were credible but said all tips were being investigated seriously. The Pima County Sheriffs Department said Monday that law enforcement tip lines have received thousands of calls.Authorities say they have growing concerns about Nancy Guthries health because she needs daily medication. She is said to have a pacemaker and has dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriffs dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.In a video Saturday, Savannah Guthrie said the family was prepared to pay for her mothers return. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her home just outside Tucson. She was last seen there Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day after not attending church. DNA tests showed blood on Nancy Guthries front porch was a match to her, and her doorbell camera was disconnected in the early hours of Sunday morning, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said. Outside the home Monday, neighbors strolled by on their morning jogs and walks, while a county sheriffs deputy remained stationed out front.Law enforcements work at Guthrie homes will continue Tuesday as part of the ongoing investigative process, including the expansion of the search and follow-up on new leads, the Pima County Sheriffs Department said in a statement Monday.Detectives and agents carried out follow-up work in the neighborhood and other locations over the weekend as part of the investigation, the Pima County Sheriffs Department said Sunday.Investigators on Saturday were inside daughter Annie Guthries home, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Nancy Guthries house. On Sunday, an investigator was seen using a pole to search an underground tank behind Nancy Guthries home. TY ONEIL ONeil is a video journalist at The Associated Press and is based in Las Vegas. mailto

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)2026-02-10T13:54:47Z LONDON (AP) Keir Starmer fights another day.After indirect fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files sparked a dramatic day of crisis that threatened to topple him, the U.K. prime minister was saved by a pugnacious fightback and hesitation among his rivals inside the governing Labour Party about the consequences of a leadership coup.Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Tuesday that Labour lawmakers had looked over the precipice and they didnt like what they saw.And they thought the right thing was to unite behind Keir, Miliband told the BBC.He might have added: For now. Mandelson blowbackStarmers authority over his center-left party has been battered by aftershocks from the publication of files related to Epstein a man he never met and whose sexual misconduct hasnt implicated him. But it was Starmers decision to appoint veteran Labour politician Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to Washington in 2024 that has led many to question the leaders judgment and call for his resignation.Starmer has apologized, saying Mandelson had lied about the extent of his ties to the convicted sex offender. And he vowed to fight for his job. Every fight I have ever been in, Ive won, Starmer told Labour lawmakers during a rally-the-troops meeting on Monday evening.Starmers risky decision to appoint Mandelson who brought extensive contacts and trade expertise but a history of questionable ethical judgment backfired when emails were published in September showing that Mandelson had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financiers 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Starmer fired Mandelson, but a new trove of Epstein files released last month by the U.S. government contained more revelations. Mandelson is now facing a police investigation for potential misconduct in public office over documents suggesting that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein. Hes not accused of any sexual offenses. Simmering discontentThe Mandelson scandal may be the final straw that finishes Starmers premiership. But it follows discontent that has built since he led Labour to a landslide election victory 19 months ago.Some of Starmers problems stem from a turbulent world and a gloomy economic backdrop. He has won praise for rallying international support for Ukraine and persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a trade deal easing tariffs on U.K. goods. But at home, he has struggled to bring down inflation, boost economic growth and ease the cost of living.Despite a huge parliamentary majority that should allow the government easily to implement its plans, Starmer has been forced to make multiple U-turns on contentious policies including welfare cuts and mandatory digital ID cards.Starmer has been through two chiefs of staff, four directors of communications and multiple lower-level staff changes in Downing Street. The prime ministers powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned Sunday over the decision to appoint Mandelson. Communications director Tim Allan left the next day. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar then held a news conference on Monday and called for Starmer to resign. If other senior party figures had followed, the pressure would have been impossible for Starmer to resist.But none did. Instead, Starmers Cabinet and parliamentary colleagues posted apparently choreographed messages of support. They included former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, considered the two most likely challengers for the top job.Then, came the party meeting where Starmer impressed many with his sense of resolve. Lawmakers in the room said that the mood, initially skeptical, became supportive.It was clear he was up for the fight, said Chris Curtis, one of more than 200 Labour lawmakers elected in the 2024 Starmer landslide. Temporary reprieveStarmer appears to have more political lives than Larry the cat, who has outlasted five prime ministers during 15 years as chief mouser in Downing Street.But his respite is likely to be temporary. Many Labour lawmakers remain worried about their reelection chances if the partys dire opinion poll ratings dont improve.Some female party members feel particularly disappointed by Mandelsons appointment. The Labour leader of Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan, called revelations about Mandelson deeply troubling, not least because, once again, the voices of women and girls were ignored.That failure must be acknowledged and confronted honestly, she said, while offering support for Starmer.Labour faces potential electoral setbacks at a Feb. 26 special election in what was once a party stronghold in northwest England, and in Mays elections for legislatures in Scotland and Wales and local councils in England.And rivals are still plotting. The Guardian reported that an Angela for leader website backing Rayner briefly went live last month by accident. Streeting, whose genial relationship with Mandelson is now a weakness, released messages hed exchanged with Mandelson before and after the ambassadorial appointment, seemingly in an attempt to show the men werent close friends. The exchanges include implicit criticism of Starmer, with Streeting writing that the government had No growth strategy at all.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that Starmer had bought himself some time and challengers were keeping their powder dry for the moment.Its very difficult to image after the shellacking that the party will presumably face in May, him continuing to lead the party much beyond this summer, Bale said.Though in British politics, nothing is impossible.There are problems with the other candidates, Bale said. Its never an ideal situation for any party to be choosing a prime minister in midterm, and it may be that the Labour Party decides, better the devil you know. I suspect that Keir Starmer will go, but who knows? JILL LAWLESS Lawless is based in London, covering British politics, diplomacy and culture and top stories from the UK and beyond. She has reported for the AP from two dozen countries on four continents. twitter mailto

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin reacts at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)2026-02-10T11:02:48Z CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy (AP) Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won gold in the new team combined event at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday when Mikaela Shiffrin surprisingly crossed fourth after wasting a first-run lead by teammate Breezy Johnson.Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories 71 of them in slalom, also a record has now gone seven straight Olympic races without a medal.After taking two golds and silver from her first two Olympics, Shiffrin also didnt win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games four years ago.Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher of Germany earned silver and Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles of the U.S. took bronze.No tricks here at all, Shiffrin was told over team radio before her run on a course set by an Austrian coach. Actually its nothing to report. You got it. But Shiffrin lost time to the leaders at every checkpoint and crossed 0.31 seconds behind missing a medal by finishing 0.06 behind the other American team. In the finish area, Johnson who was coming off a gold in the individual downhill embraced Shiffrin, while the Austrians and other podium finishers began celebrating. The team combined consists of one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with the times from the two added together to determine the results. Shiffrin still has her individual events of giant slalom and slalom to come.Neither Raedler, who placed second in the downhill leg, nor Huber, who had the 10th-fastest slalom leg, has ever won a World Cup race.Aicher, one of the few all-around skiers competing in every event, also took silver in the individual downhill.Wiles, who was fourth in the downhill leg, and Moltzan, who had the fourth-fastest slalom leg, both earned their first Olympic medals.Shiffrin was only 15th fastest in the slalom leg.___AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics ANDREW DAMPF Dampf has been a Rome-based sports writer at The AP for over 20 years, covering soccer, tennis, Alpine skiing and many other events in Italy and beyond, including five soccer World Cups. The Milan-Cortina Games will mark the 10th Olympics that he has reported from. twitter RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

America, its time to refamiliarize yourself with Ring.At Sundays Super Bowl, Ring advertised Search Party, a cute, horrifyingly dystopian feature nominally designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses AI to look for a lost dog: One post of a dogs photo in the Ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said in the Super Bowl commercial. Search Party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs. Onscreen, an AI-powered box forms around a missing dog: Milo Match, it says. Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family. Be a hero in your neighborhood with Search Party. Available to everyone for free right now.It does not take an imagination of any sort to envision this being tweaked to work against suspected criminals, undocumented immigrants, or others deemed suspicious by people in the neighborhood. Many of these use cases are how Ring has been used by people on its dystopian Neighbors app for years. Ring rose to prominence as a piece of package theft prevention tech owned by Amazon and by forming partnerships with local police around the country, asking them to shill their doorbell cameras to people in their neighborhoods in return for a system that allowed police to request footage from individual users without a warrant.Chris Gilliard, a privacy expert and author of the upcoming book Luxury Surveillance, told 404 Media these features and its Super Bowl ad are a clumsy attempt by Ring to put a cuddly face on a rather dystopian reality: widespread networked surveillance by a company that has cozy relationships with law enforcement and other equally invasive surveillance companies.Unlike, say, data analytics giant Palantir or some other high-profile surveillance companies, Ring is a surveillance network that homeowners have by and large deployed themselves, powered by fear mongering against our neighbors and unfettered consumerism.After a lot of criticism in the late 2010s over its police contracts and its terrible security settings that resulted in hackers breaking into a series of indoor Ring cameras to terrorize children and families, Ring somehow found a way to more or less fly under the radar the last few years as a critical part of our ever-expanding surveillance state. It did this by scaling back police partnerships that were so critical to its growth but that received lots of scrutiny from journalists and privacy advocates. Siminoff left Ring in 2023, but returned last year; in his absence, Ring explicitly sought to take on a softer tone by branding itself as more or less as a device that could be used to film viral moments on peoples porches. It turned its owners into mini cops who would complain about delivery people who didnt drop a package in the correct spot; who became hyperaware of the comings and goings of their friends, spouses, and children, or who might catch a potentially sharable moment when someone slipped on an icy porch or whatever. Part of this strategy included creating a short-lived reality TV show called Ring Nation, which consisted of precious little moments filmed through Ring cameras.When Siminoff returned last year, he immediately sought to re-establish many of Rings partnerships with police, and set an explicit goal of injecting more AI into Ring cameras and trying to revolutionize how we do our neighborhood safety.Ring is rolling back many of the reforms its made in the last few years by easing police access to footage from millions of homes in the United States. This is a grave threat to civil liberties in the United States, Matthew Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote shortly after Siminoffs return. This is most likely about Ring cashing in on the rising tide of techno-authoritarianism, that is, authoritarianism aided by surveillance tech. Too many tech companies want to profit from our shrinking liberties.Even in Siminoffs absence, Ring had always, explicitly been intended to assist law enforcement. In a series of investigations we did back at VICE (mostly written by Caroline Haskins, who is still covering surveillance at WIRED), we uncovered thousands of pages of documents, emails, and chats via public records requests and leaks that highlighted Rings surveillance ambitions. The company threw parties for police, employees wore FUCK CRIME shirts to internal parties, and helped police facilitate the retrieval of footage from its customers cameras if they initially refused to cooperate. It helped police set up elaborate, completely useless package sting operations designed to catch criminals but that did not result in any arrests. Ring gave cops devices that they could raffle off to people in their towns, gave police heat maps of where its customers lived, used its social media accounts to post footage of supposed suspicious people, and incentivized customers to create Digital Neighborhood Watch groups that could earn them swag if they used their Ring cameras to report suspicious activity to police.With Rings recent partnership with Flock, which will further facilitate the sharing of video footage with police, and its new Search Party feature, the message is clear: Ring is still, again, and always will be in the business of leveraging its network of luxury surveillance consumers as a law enforcement tool. After years of saying it wasnt doing facial recognition and that it was focused more on object recognition, it has now explicitly launched friendly versions of facial recognition and facial recognition-adjacent technologies: Search Party is essentially specific dog recognition (for now), and a beta product called Familiar Faces specifically identifies people you know when theyre at your door. Alexa Guard identifies whos who, the products website reads. With Familiar Faces, easily tag your family and friends in the Ring app so your 2k and 4k cameras can notify you when someone is spotted.Ring has always been a surveillance tool, but adding AI analysis and networking the devices togetherlike is being promised with Search Partyturns discrete pieces of tech into massive, automated surveillance dragnets.Siminoffs return was a hard pivot back to, in his words, the crime fighting element and away from the softer tone they had tried to establish with Ring as a fun way to interact with people in your community, Gilliard said. But I think its becoming very obvious to people how these systems are being deployed against their neighbors in oppressive ways, and they are beginning to reject them, particularly since there is no strong evidence that they prevent crime or make people safer.The YouTube comments on Rings Super Bowl ad are almost uniformly negative, with people noting this is like the commercial they show at the beginning of a dystopian sci fi film to quickly show people how bad things have gotten, are we really supposed to believe that the main intent for this is lost pets, and glad people are freaking out. This is dystopia becoming reality.Rings poorly defined partnership with Flock in particular has been the subject of various viral posts and public backlash. Many people have suggested that this partnership is evidence that Ring camera footage will be shared with ICE. At the moment theres not enough evidence to explicitly say that thats the case.The supposed vector goes something like this: Ring says it will partner with Flock, which is used by thousands of local police departments. As we have reported, some of those police departments have performed Flock license plate lookups for ICE. Its too early to say whether Ring footage will eventually end up with ICE, but the fact that people immediately drew that conclusion and understood the possible method of information sharing shows that surveillance companies can no longer hide behind viral videos of delivery drivers dancing. Its a mask off moment, and people know it: In Amazons alliance with this administration, its become more clear than ever that Ring is an extension of the carceral state, Gilliard said. An emotionally charged Super Bowl ad wont change that.

Nature, Published online: 10 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00193-9A call to replace problematic pesticides, and ways to measure climate changes of the past, in this weeks pick from the Nature archive.

It was a heartbreaking offseason for much of NASCAR, and as the garage descends on Daytona, the stock car world is ready to refocus on racing.

Although Mikaela Shiffrin finished fourth after Breezy Johnson gave her a first-run lead, the U.S. still won bronze in the team combined event Tuesday, as Austria won gold.

A bull, a building or a matador -- will Team USA's figure skating style win gold at the 2026 Winter Games? Learn more about fashion on the ice now.

The Maine Republican is one of her partys most vulnerable senators, and her seat is crucial to Democratic hopes of retaking control of the chamber.

Casey Wasserman, who founded and leads the talent agency bearing his name, exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is from Turkey, was detained by immigration agents last year after she co-wrote a pro-Palestinian opinion article for her student newspaper.

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Palestinians mourn over the flag-draped body of a Hamas militant Ibrahim Al-Za'anin, killed in an Israeli army strike, during his funeral in Gaza City, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2026-02-10T14:03:17Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Two Palestinians on bicycles were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Tuesday, hospital officials said, marking the latest deaths since an October ceasefire that hasnt halted deadly attacks in the Gaza Strip.Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the two men were hit near the ceasefire line that divides Gaza, with one half under Israeli military control. They were hit in eastern Deir al-Balah, the hospital said, adding that it also received the body of a woman who was killed by Israeli gunfire in central Maghazi refugee camp.Israels military did not immediately respond to questions about either strike. It has previously said its forces respond to ceasefire violations or attacks on its soldiers.Gazas Health Ministry on Tuesday said reported 586 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the ceasefire, bringing the cumulative toll to 72,037 killed since the start of Israels offensive. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect on Oct. 10. The escalating Palestinian toll has prompted many in Gaza to say it feels like the war has continued unabated. Yet parts of the agreement outlined in last years ceasefire are moving forward. After a chaotic first week, officials say more Palestinians are entering and leaving Gaza for Egypt via the reopened Rafah crossing. Plans for an international peacekeeping force meant to provide security in Gaza are also beginning to take shape. Indonesia the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country said Tuesday that its military had begun training personnel to serve in Gaza, specifically for reconstruction and humanitarian response. Its army chief of staff said between 5,000 and 8,000 troops were preparing to deploy. Vahd Nabyl Achmad Mulachela, a spokesperson for Indonesias Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Indonesian troops would not take part in disarmament one of the most contentious and unresolved elements of the peace plan.Indonesias President Prabowo Subianto told the U.N. General Assembly in October that his country planned to contribute troops, even as details about the forces role and mandate was unclear. The commitment came as Prabowo sought closer ties with U.S. President Donald Trump.Israel and Hamas remain divided over the timeline and scope of Israels withdrawal and the demilitarization of the enclave after nearly two decades of Hamas rule. The temporary International Stabilization Force outlined last year in Trumps 20-point peace plan among the key components of that effort is envisioned as a later phase of the plan.The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023. The 251 hostages taken in the attack were returned to Israel in various ceasefire agreements, with the remains of Israeli police officer Ran Gvili the final body in Gaza were found and returned in January, paving the way for the advance of the ceasefire agreement. The war has sparked worldwide protests and brought allegations of genocide that Israel denies.___Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Samy Magdy and Sam Metz contributed from Cairo and Ramallah, West Bank.Find more of APs coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Tristan H. Cockcroft gives newcomers tips on how to best use the tools available to them in ESPN's fantasy baseball game.

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych wore the helmet commemorating athletes killed during the war with Russia during training runs Tuesday, after IOC said they'd allow an armband.

Canada women's hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin has been ruled out Tuesday's preliminary round matchup against the U.S. at the Olympics.

The removal of the flag from the Manhattan monument, the symbolic heart of the gay rights movement, came after a Trump administration directive about flags at national park sites.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin listens during the annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference on June 3, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)2026-02-10T13:18:14Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration is expected this week to revoke a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, according to a White House official. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a final rule rescinding a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding. That Obama-era policy determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an official announcement, confirmed the plans, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. This week at the White House, President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday. The endangerment finding is the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet. It is used to justify regulations, such as auto emissions standards, intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world. Legal challenges would be certain for any action that effectively would repeal those regulations, with environmental groups describing the shift as the single biggest attack in U.S. history on federal efforts to address climate change. An EPA spokesperson did not address when the finding would be revoked but reiterated that the agency is finalizing a new rule on it.Brigit Hirsch said via email that the Obama-era rule was one of the most damaging decisions in modern history and said EPA is actively working to deliver a historic action for the American people. President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, previously issued an executive order that directed EPA to submit a report on the legality and continuing applicability of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic administrations, saying they were willing to bankrupt the country in an effort to combat climate change. Democrats created this endangerment finding and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence ... segments of our economy, Zeldin said in announcing the proposed rule last year. And it cost Americans a lot of money.Peter Zalzal, a lawyer and associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, countered that the EPA will be encouraging more climate pollution, higher health insurance and fuel costs and thousands of avoidable premature deaths. Zeldins push is cynical and deeply damaging, given the mountain of scientific evidence supporting the finding, the devastating climate harms Americans are experiencing right now and EPAs clear obligation to protect Americans health and welfare, he said.Zalzal and other critics noted that the Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.Since the high courts decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v. EPA, courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.Following Zeldins proposal to repeal the rule, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reassessed the science underpinning the 2009 finding and concluded it was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence. Much of the understanding of climate change that was uncertain or tentative in 2009 is now resolved, the NAS panel of scientists said in a September report. The evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused greenhouse gases is beyond scientific dispute, the panel said. ___Follow the APs coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency at https://apnews.com/hub/us-environmental-protection-agency___ Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report. MATTHEW DALY Daly covers climate, environment and energy policy for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington, D.C. twitter mailto SEUNG MIN KIM Kim covers the White House for The Associated Press. She joined the AP in 2022 and is based in Washington. Kim is also a political analyst for CNN. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, departs the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, on July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)2026-02-10T14:39:38Z PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced her reelection bid Tuesday, betting that she can hold onto her coveted Maine seat despite a renewed Democratic effort to oust her in a race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate. The campaign will test Collins political survival skills. The 73-year-old has won five terms by casting herself as a reflection of Maines independent spirit, occasionally clashing with President Donald Trump while also largely supporting his agenda.I have always worked across the aisle to solve problems. Maine needs experienced, steady leadership that focuses on getting things done, Collins said in a Tuesday statement.As she seeks a sixth term, Collins faces outrage over immigration enforcement tactics that could become a political liability for Republican candidates across the country. A recent operation in Maine led to hundreds of arrests but also criticism that people were being rounded up even if they didnt have criminal records. Collins has taken credit for stopping the surge of federal agents in Maine after she spoke directly with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. However, Democrats accused Collins of not going far enough, pointing to her refusal to call for Noems ouster and her vote in favor of a bipartisan Homeland Security funding bill. The party needs to net four seats to retake the Senate majority, and they are aiming to do that in Maine, North Carolina, Alaska and Ohio. Gov. Janet Mills and oyster farmer Graham Platner are among Collins top Democratic challengers. While many establishment Democrats and influential left-leaning groups have backed Mills, Platner has gained traction with his anti-establishment image and economic equality message. Hes campaigned aggressively while facing revelations of problematic social media posts and having to cover up a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. Mills has accused Collins of governing without any courage shortly after the Republican voted in favor of funding the DHS and several other agencies in January. She repeated that charge Tuesday.Seniority without a backbone is just tenure, and after decades in Washington, Senator Collins has failed to demonstrate the leadership required in this dangerous moment in history, she said in a statement.Platner has demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of DHS, be dismantled and said he did not believe Collins or the Trump administrations promise to leave Maine. He said Tuesday in a post on the social platform X that Collins should have kept her promise to serve just two Senate terms.Thats just one of a hundred reasons she doesnt deserve a sixth term, he wrote.Platner recently outraised both Mills and Collins, according to the latest federal filings. The first-time candidate collected nearly $4.6 million, while Mills raised $2.7 million. Collins, who had not yet officially launched her campaign during the filing period, had more than $8 million in cash on hand at the end of 2025. Collins, who has said she didnt vote for Trump in 2016, voted to convict the president after his 2021 impeachment over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. After Collins joined a handful of Republican colleagues in backing a failed effort to limit the presidents ability to unilaterally use force in Venezuela, Trump said on social media that they should never be elected to office again.But Collins has also broadly backed Trumps agenda, including his tax and spending bill, and his nominees. Notably, Collins voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Trumps choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has since espoused anti-vaccine policy and ousted public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.She has faced down tough challenges before. Democrat Sara Gideon raised $69 million in 2020, outspending Collins in a bid to help take back the Senate during a presidential election year when the Democrats won the top of the ticket. Collins defeated Gideon by more than 8 points. Collins has remained in office despite Maine becoming increasingly blue. The proportion of registered Democrats has increased since her last reelection campaign, when unenrolled independent voters outnumbered Democrats in 2019 but now trail them in 2026. Republicans have trailed both groups for years.___Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island. PATRICK WHITTLE Whittle is an Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Maine. He focuses on the environment and oceans. twitter mailto

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, left, is hugged by United States' Paula Moltzan at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)2026-02-10T16:07:16Z CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy (AP) Make that seven straight races without a medal for Mikaela Shiffrin at the Winter Olympics.The American skiing standout was given the ideal platform to win the new team combined event after partner Breezy Johnson led the opening downhill leg on Tuesday.Shiffrin was the last racer out in the slalom the second leg of the event and was 15th, dropping the U.S. to fourth place and extending her Olympic slump that stretches back to 2022 when she didnt win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games.Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won gold, while Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles took bronze ahead of their more high-profile U.S. teammates.Olympic redemption will have to wait, then, for Shiffrin, who is the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories. She is set to compete in her core events of slalom and giant slalom later in the Milan Cortina Games as she looks to add to her two golds and a silver from her first two Olympics.Johnson missed out on a second medal of these Games, having won the downhill on Sunday. Klaebo nears gold medal recordDont be surprised if Johannes Hsflot Klbo soon holds the all-time record for gold medals at the Winter Games.The Norwegian cross-country star powered to his second straight Olympic gold and seventh of his career by winning the mens sprint. He was a comfortable 0.8 seconds ahead of Ben Ogden of the United States.Klbo moved to one gold behind three compatriots: Marit Bjrgen, Bjrn Dhlie and Ole Einar Bjrndalen, all of whom have retired with a record-tying eight. Bjrgen and Dhlie also were cross-country skiers. Klbo can join them by winning the 10 kilometers freestyle on Friday. He already won the skiathlon on Sunday for his sixth gold.In the womens final, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden watched on as the country swept the medals. Linn Svahn edged defending champion Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist was third. Botn tribute to late teammate after biathlon winJohan-Olav Botn paid tribute to a Norway teammate who died in the lead-up to the Games, after winning the mens 20-kilometer individual biathlon.As he crossed the finish line, Botn pointed to the sky in a tribute to Sivert Guttorm Bakken, who was found dead in his hotel room in Lavaz, Italy, in December.The golds for Botn and Klbo took Norway to six three more than any other nation so far. Medal No. 12 for Fontana in short track speedskatingTwenty years later, Italian short track speedskater Arianna Fontana is still winning medals at the Winter Olympics.The latest was a gold in the mixed team relay. That took her to three golds and 12 medals overall in an Olympic career that started in 2006 when she was age 15 at the Winter Games in Turin.Fontana was already the most decorated short track speedskater of all time and theres chances for more medals in the 500 and the 3,000 relay at these Olympics.___AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics STEVE DOUGLAS Douglas is a Europe-based sports writer who has covered some of the worlds biggest events for The AP over the last 15 years, notably the mens soccer World Cup final in 2022. As well as soccer, he handles a range of other sports including golf, cricket and rugby. mailto

Nature, Published online: 10 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04165-3An early-career scientists idea, shared at a poster session, has been published by someone else. What happens now?

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OWENSBORO, KYInsisting that the Winter Olympic sport was basically just lying there and letting gravity happen, local man Michael Chou correctly declared Tuesday that he could totally compete in luge and it wouldnt be that difficult. Not to shit on these guys, but cmon, if you can successfully go down a waterslide, youve pretty much got what it takes to luge in the Olympics, said Chou, who fairly noted that unlike other Olympic events, luge required no real lifelong dedication because its not like you have a luge run in your backyard that you can go out and practice on every day growing up. I mean, there isnt even a steering wheel or anything. Its literally just lie down, point your feet, and dont fall offthe same skill set that goes into using a couch. Chou added that he didnt understand why curling was the sport everyone made fun of when it actually requires an insane amount of skill and precision, unlike luge, where you could honestly send down a sled full of sandbags and still probably get on the podium.The post I Could Totally Do That, Says Correct Man Watching Luge Event appeared first on The Onion.

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President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One, early Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., after returning from a trip to Florida. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2026-02-10T16:37:37Z WASHINGTON (AP) The National Governors Association will no longer hold a formal meeting with President Donald Trump when the group of state leaders meet in Washington later this month after the White House planned to invite only Republicans.NGA staff was informed that the White House intends to limit invitations to the annual business meeting, scheduled for February 20, to Republican governors only, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who is the chairman of the NGA, said in a Monday letter to fellow governors obtained by The Associated Press. Because NGAs mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program.The NGA is scheduled to meet in Washington from Feb. 19-21. Representatives for Stitt, the White House and the NGA didnt immediately comment on the letter. Brandon Tatum, the NGAs CEO, said in a statement last week that the White House meeting is an important tradition and said the organization was disappointed in the administrations decision to make it a partisan occasion this year. The governors group is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. In his letter, Stitt encouraged governors to unite around common goals.We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us, he wrote. The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. Americas governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics. Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Maines then-Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs. Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls and womens sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, Well see you in court.Trump then predicted that Mills political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.The back and forth had a lasting impact on last years conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.___Peoples reported from New York. JOEY CAPPELLETTI Cappelletti covers Congress for The Associated Press. He previously reported on Michigan politics for AP. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2026-02-10T16:38:17Z WASHINGTON (AP) Under questioning from Democrats Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Jeffrey Epstein twice after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing Lutnicks previous claim that he had cut ties with the late financier after 2005.Lutnick once again downplayed his relationship with the disgraced financier who was once his neighbor in New York City as he was questioned by Democrats during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings that were years apart.I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him, Lutnick told lawmakers.But Lutnick is facing calls from several lawmakers for his resignation after the release of case files on Epstein contradicted Lutnicks claims on a podcast last year that he had decided to never be in the room with Epstein again after a 2005 tour of Epsteins home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife. The commerce secretary said Tuesday that he and his family actually had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 and he had another hour-long engagement at Epsteins home in 2011. Lutnick, a member of President Donald Trumps Cabinet, is the highest-profile U.S. official to face bipartisan calls for his resignation amid revelations of his ties to Epstein. His acknowledgement comes as lawmakers are grasping for what accountability looks like amid the revelations contained in whats known as the Epstein files. In countries like the United Kingdom, the Epstein files have triggered resignations and the stripping of royal privileges, but so far, U.S. officials have not met the same level of retribution. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat who questioned Lutnick, told him, Theres not an indication that you yourself engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein. Its the fact that you believe that you misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements. Meanwhile, House members who initiated the legislative effort to force the release of the files are calling for Lutnick to resign. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called for that over the weekend after emails were released that alluded to the meetings between Lutnick and Epstein.Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, joined Massie in pressuring Lutnick out of office on Monday.Based on the evidence, he should be out of the Cabinet, Khanna said.He added, Its not about any particular person. In this country, we have to make a decision. Are we going to allow the rich and powerful people who are friends and (had) no problem doing business and showing up with a pedophile who is raping underage girls, are we just going to allow them to skate? STEPHEN GROVES Groves covers Congress for The Associated Press. twitter mailto

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Olympic biathlon bronze medal winner Sturla Holm Laegreid revealed in a live broadcast on Tuesday that he had been unfaithful to his girlfriend.

Officials at the U.S. Forest Service knew gear worn by wildland firefighters contained potentially dangerous forever chemicals years before the agency publicly acknowledged the issue, according to internal correspondence obtained by ProPublica.Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, have been linked to negative health impacts, including certain cancers and delayed development in children. For years, PFAS chemicals were commonly used to treat the heavy gear worn by municipal firefighters to help it repel water and oil.Federal agencies have said little about whether the compounds were also found in the lighter heat-resistant clothing worn by wildland firefighters. In February 2024, when ProPublica was reporting on the dangers of wildland firefighting including the risk of cancer the news organization asked both the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior if federal wildland firefighting gear contained PFAS. Both agencies gave nearly identical answers, writing that they did not have specific measured concentration data showing that PFAS is contained in protective clothing and gear.But email correspondence obtained by ProPublica shows that government officials were alerted to the presence of PFAS in pants used by wildland firefighters as early as 2021. In April 2022, a senior Forest Service official asked colleagues if they had an obligation to tell firefighters that PFAS had been found in their gear.According to the emails, the agency decided not to immediately share the information, instead waiting for the results of a study into whether PFAS can be absorbed through the skin.The emails were released last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2022 by George Broyles, a former Forest Service employee who for years studied smoke exposure among firefighters, and who has repeatedly raised concerns about the agencys reluctance to acknowledge cancer among its workforce. They just obfuscate, said Broyles. Its just a continuation of the same thing: Were going to stick our heads in the sand and hope that nobody notices.The Forest Service declined to answer questions about the records, PFAS chemicals in its gear, and firefighter health. In 2024, the agency said in a statement to ProPublica, The Forest Service is deeply committed to not only understanding occupational risks to employees but mitigating these risks.The Department of the Interior did not answer questions about PFAS.By 2021, public awareness of the ubiquity and risks of PFAS was rising. At the beginning of that year, Congress ordered the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a subagency of the Department of Commerce, to find out if firefighting gear contained PFAS. Researchers from the agency began collecting hoods and gloves worn by municipal firefighters who tackle building fires as well as various samples of wildland firefighting gear.In April, according to the documents, a Forest Service equipment specialist emailed one of its suppliers, TenCate, which produces fabric used in wildland firefighting gear. At the time, the companys Advance fabric, a Kevlar blend used in some pants, was treated with a finishing product called Shelltite. Question, asked the Forest Service specialist. Does the Shelltite finish on the Advance fabric have any PFAS presence?A TenCate manager quickly responded by attaching a document confirming that one of its finishes contained a form of PFAS that had been applied to repel hydrocarbons and gasoline. The manager also said that TenCate was in the final stages of developing a finish without the compound.TenCate did not respond to repeated requests for comment from ProPublica.PFAS is a broad class of chemicals. According to emails sent from TenCate to the Forest Service, the companys finish used a form of PFAS with six or fewer fluorinated carbon atoms. According to experts, these short-chain PFAS chemicals are less harmful than other ones, but some can linger in the environment for years and in the human body for months. Their full impact on human health is not known.All firefighters have significantly higher cancer risks than the general population, but less is understood about the health of wildland firefighters than of their counterparts who battle blazes in buildings and other structures. This is largely the fault of the government: As ProPublica has reported, the Forest Service has known of carcinogenic elements in wildfire smoke for decades but the government dragged its heels in studying the impacts on wildland firefighters. Researchers have found elevated levels of some PFAS in the blood of structural firefighters, but less is known about these chemicals in their wildland peers.While structural firefighting departments often require garments that repel oil and water, experts say it is not always necessary for wildland firefighters, who often wear the same gear for weeks in remote locations.From the wildland firefighting perspective, I dont see any reason to have the PFAS treatments in their gear. They dont really need the oil repellency, said Bryan Ormond, an associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at North Carolina State University, in an email. It would be a safer option to not have the PFAS treatment.According to a former fire service official with direct knowledge of the dynamic, the presence of PFAS in pants was a topic of discussion around 2021 by a risk management committee made up of senior officials from multiple agencies, including the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. The official said that committee members wanted to know: Is it a big deal, little deal, or no deal?In April 2022, a full year after TenCate told the Forest Service about the PFAS treatment used on its fabric, a senior agency official named David Haston raised the issue again. An assistant director of operations at the Forest Service at the time, Haston emailed colleagues asking whether TenCates fabric was still coming with PFAS in the finish? Can Tencate tell us whether or not this is hazardous to people that wear these garments? Do we have a duty to notify employees?The email was forwarded to a Forest Service equipment specialist named David Maclay-Schulte who said hed asked the company if its PFAS-free fabric was ready. They said they will look into it and get back to me, wrote the specialist. I am hopeful its sooner rather than later.Five months later, in September, Maclay-Schulte wrote to Forest Service officials that he still hadnt heard back from TenCate. In the email, Maclay-Schulte said he would contact the company again, but added that the Forest Service had decided to wait until the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had completed studies, including one about whether PFAS can be absorbed through skin, before any decisions would be made. In the same email, he asked colleagues whether he should respond to questions about PFAS that Broyles had asked on behalf of a labor advocacy group called Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. The other officials all agreed that they would not immediately tell Grassroots about the PFAS. They need to send the FS an official request asking for this information, wrote a physiologist for the agency.According to multiple wildland firefighters and government officials familiar with contracting and purchasing, the Forest Service never told rank-and-file wildland firefighters that their pants might contain PFAS.To me it demonstrates that managers high up in the agency over several years have never really prioritized the health and well-being of the actual firefighters, said Riva Duncan, the president of Grassroots and a former Forest Service fire chief. Duncan noted that many wildland firefighters wear their pants even in the offseason. Theyve known about this. Theyve known about other threats to health and well-being yet they have chosen to not be proactive and share the information with employees. It seems its only when theyre forced to provide information that we find out about it.In the past few years, under pressure from labor groups and lawmakers, the federal government has begun to acknowledge cancer in the workforce, and the Forest Service last year made masks available to wildland firefighters in response to reporting from The New York Times. But a full accounting of the risks is still not available; the governments preparedness guide for incoming wildland firefighters, produced in 2022, makes no mention of cancer. When ProPublica asked the Department of the Interior if it planned to update the guide, a spokesperson directed the news organization to a blog post about research into workplace hazards that does not mention cancer.In January 2023, almost two years after the Forest Service learned of the PFAS treatments, TenCate finally responded to Maclay-Schulte. To the best of our knowledge wearing ADVANCE with Shelltite or Supershelltite has not caused deleterious health impacts, wrote a senior director at the company. But the company also informed the agency that it was now producing its PFAS-free finish for the pant fabric.It is unclear if the government began purchasing pants with the new finish or if it continued to purchase the pants with PFAS.In 2024, NIST released the study of PFAS in firefighting gear that Congress had mandated in 2021. The study found that some wildland firefighting gear contained PFAS. Most of it had modest amounts of the chemicals. But, NIST wrote, in a summary of the study, there were some cases that had notably high levels. According to Heather Stapleton, an exposure scientist and professor at Duke University, the study showed levels in certain samples similar to what has been reported in structural firefighting gear.The study did not specify the companies it had sourced its gear from, and NIST did not respond to questions from ProPublica. The NIOSH study that the Forest Service officials had been waiting on when deciding how to act, however, is still ongoing.The post Firefighters Wore Gear Containing Forever Chemicals. The Forest Service Knew and Stayed Silent for Years. appeared first on ProPublica.