Month: February 2026

While President Trump is busy working through his checklist for sabotaging the midterm elections, Republicans are already concocting the political equivalent of a shady insurance policy — the kind someone takes out the day before the house catches fire.

I’ll save you some time and explain that the drubbing Republicans are about to endure won’t be the result of Trump or his policies. Instead, it will be because the midterm elections were rigged for the Democrats. Or at least these claims are the GOP spin that’s already in progress.

The predicate is being laid. “They want illegals to vote,” House Speaker Mike Johnson recently declared. “That’s why they opened the border wide for four years under Biden and Harris and allowed in all these dangerous people. It was a means to an end. The end is maintaining their own power,” Johnson continued.

To prevent this, Republicans have invented a MacGuffin: the SAVE America Act — a plot device Republicans have introduced primarily to drive the story forward.

That’s not to say the legislation would be meaningless. The SAVE America act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, eliminate mail-only registrations, mandate photo ID nationwide and force states to send voter lists to the Department of Homeland Security.

Some of these things (like requiring voter ID) are popular and even arguably salutary. But in light of recent events — say, Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results — any effort by Trump to nationalize or otherwise meddle in our election process should be met with immediate alarm.

Still, it is highly unlikely that any of these new tools would actually stem the tide of the rising blue wave that is poised to devour Republicans this November.

The notion that any substantial number of undocumented immigrants is voting is a farce. There are scant few examples of election fraud by anyone, and the examples that do surface often involve Republicans.

And to the degree there would be impediments to voter registration (there is worry that women who changed their names after getting married would be disenfranchised), the electoral results of making it harder to register to vote would largely affect future elections after this year — and these provisions wouldn’t solely hurt Democratic voters.

Regardless, this is all likely a moot point. Despite passing the House, it’s hard to imagine this bill can garner the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the Senate (and it doesn’t seem likely there’d be enough votes to nuke the filibuster).

This raises an interesting question: Why invest so much time and energy in a bill that seems destined to fail — and that, even if it did pass, would likely not alter even the closest of November’s midterm elections?

Because the bill isn’t really about passing policy. It’s about narrative control.

The SAVE America Act serves three strategic purposes for Republicans:

It’s a comforting but false diagnosis for the midterms. Let’s face it: Trump isn’t going to admit that his policies have backfired or that his approval ratings are in the tank, and Republicans aren’t about to lay that at his feet. As Trump declared in 2020 (before a single vote was cast), “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.” Trumpism cannot fail; it can only be failed.

Base mobilization through grievance. Just as caravans of migrants always seem to miraculously appear just before an election, threats of election rigging at least give Republicans something to scare Fox News voters about — a way to motivate via fear and outrage in an otherwise moribund midterm electorate.

Blame insurance. Despite being the establishment and controlling the entire federal government, Trump still gets to cast himself as the victim. And it won’t just be Democrats who get blamed for a midterm loss; there will also be a “stabbed in the back” excuse.

Scott Presler, a prominent right-wing activist championing this bill on Fox News, has already declared that unless the SAVE America Act passes, Republicans will lose both chambers of Congress. In a veiled threat to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), he recently asked, “Do you want to be remembered as the Senate Majority Leader that was responsible for ushering in the decline of the United States?”

They’re clearly playing a game, but is this game good for Republicans?

While it might seem shrewd to construct a boogeyman, Republicans risk eliminating the feedback loop on which healthy political parties rely.

When losses are blamed on cheating rather than voter sentiment, there’s no incentive to change your behavior, your policies or your candidates. So a party that voters have rejected will keep repeating the same dumb things, all while voters scratch their heads and wonder why they still haven’t gotten to the promised land.

Republicans might well reflect on Trump’s Republican Party as a party that had “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”

And a party that cannot learn or adapt is a party that shouldn’t count on winning many elections in the future.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”

Since 2019, Hodgkinson has trained with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.

Meadows, a former international runner, was in France to watch her protege take almost a second off the 800m indoor record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak almost 24 years ago.

“She actually said to me the day before: ‘obviously I know I’m going to get it’,” said Meadows.

“There had been so many benchmarks we measure in training, we had no doubt that she would do it.

“Her biggest fear was to set a world record, but be disappointed with the time. She said ‘what if I can’t smile? What if I’ve got the world record, and everyone’s so excited, and I think, oh that was rubbish. I could have gone faster’?”

The date – 19 February 2026 – had long been set in the diary by Meadows and Hodgkinson given the track in Lievin is notoriously fast.

“Lievin has had a lot of world records over the years, and we kind of thought ‘you know what, let’s go with the statistics’,” Meadows said.

“We’re only probably going to get one opportunity during this indoor season to go for it. So that’s the event that we picked, and that’s the date we’ve really had etched in our minds the last three months.”

“I’ve got to say, the time she did was the bare minimum of what she was happy with,” Meadows added.

“She definitely would have liked to run faster, and there was definitely half a second, maybe even up to one second in those legs.”

Activists released on bail include four hunger strikers: Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi.

Twelve activists linked to the Palestine Action group who were charged with breaking into the British site of an Israel-linked defence firm have been released on bail.

There were tears of joy at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, as the 12 prisoners, including hunger strikers Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi, were released on Friday.

The group – which also included Zara Farooque, Salaam Mahmood, Moiz Ibrahim, Finn Collins, Hannah Davidson, Harland (Harley) Archer, Louie Adams and Liam Mullany – had been held on remand in connection with a raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on August 6, 2024.

“Despite the state’s best efforts to break each and every one of them, they will walk out today with their heads held high,” said a spokesperson for the Filton 24 Defence Committee, hailing their release as a “monumental victory”.

The release of the 12, which comes after 11 other defendants charged in connection with the raid were also granted bail, means that 23 out of the so-called “Filton 24” are now out of prison.

On February 4, six of the activists were acquitted of aggravated burglary, the most serious of the charges they faced in connection with the raid at ⁠London’s Woolwich Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on charges of criminal damage.

On Wednesday, the same court dropped aggravated burglary charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, against the remaining 18 Filton 24 members, granting five more defendants bail.

Only Samuel Corner, who faced an additional charge of allegedly hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer, remains on remand. He did not apply for bail on Friday.

The Filton 24 Defence Committee called for Corner’s release. “This isn’t right, or just, given he has already spent over 18 months in prison with no convictions. He should also be granted immediate bail,” said the spokesperson.

The release of the activists comes after the British High Court ruled that the government’s ban on Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful and disproportionate.

⁠Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ⁠said in a statement that she was “disappointed” and that she intended to appeal the judgement in the Court of Appeal.

A group of Block 52 F-16CJ Vipers belonging to the South Carolina Air National Guard was recently spotted heading east across the Atlantic as part of a huge build-up of U.S. forces ahead of potential strikes on Iran. Each of the Vipers was notably seen carrying an Angry Kitten pod, a new electronic warfare system that helps defend against anti-air threats, and that may now be headed for its first use in real combat. Angry Kitten also has a very unique genesis, which we will dive into in a moment. These particular F-16s are primarily tasked with the Wild Weasel mission and are optimized for neutralizing enemy air defenses, something that would be crucial in any future operation aimed at the regime in Tehran. They can fulfill many other types of missions, as well.

The 12 F-16CJs arrived at Lajes on the island of Terceira in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, on February 17 and left the next day. The Vipers are readily identifiable as ones assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing by the “South Carolina” emblazoned on many of their tails, as well as distinctive markings reflecting the wing’s nickname, the “Swamp Foxes.” They were accompanied by at least one KC-46A Pegasus tanker. A substantial U.S. Air Force tanker force is now also forward-deployed in Lajes to support the ongoing build-up.

Roar of the F-16s Over the Atlantic | KC-46A Opens the Afternoon ✈️🇺🇸

Military Stopover in the Azores | F-16 & KC-46A ✈️🇺🇸 at Lajes

The F-16s transiting through Lajes carried inert AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) on their wingtips and drop tanks under each wing, as well as a single baggage pod. Each Viper also had a LITENING targeting pod and an AN/ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System pod. The AN/ASQ-213 is a key feature of Wild Weasel F-16s and is primarily designed to support the employment of members of the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) family. AGM-88-series missiles are chief among the munitions U.S. aircraft typically use during suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) missions.

However, the most notable stores seen on the jets were the Angry Kitten pods hanging underneath their fuselages. U.S. Air Force F-16s, and especially Wild Weasel CJs, typically carry other types of electronic warfare pods, such as the AN/ALQ-184 and AN/ALQ-131, on that station.

Angry Kitten has a very different story from other electronic warfare pods in U.S. military service. It is a direct outgrowth of the AN/ALQ-167, a series of pods primarily used to mimic hostile electronic warfare threats for training and testing purposes for decades. There are some documented examples of U.S. aircraft carrying AN/ALQ-167s, at least on an ad hoc basis, on real combat missions.

The development of Angry Kitten, which dates back to the early 2010s, was originally focused on providing improved electronic warfare capabilities for testing and training use, especially by aggressors playing the role of ‘red air’ adversaries. However, the potential value of the new pods as operational assets to help protect friendly aircraft quickly became apparent. The ability to rapidly adapt the pods in training to provide different effects simulating enemy systems, in particular, opened the door to a much more agile electronic system for use on real-world missions.

“We had a jammer called ‘Angry Kitten.’ It was built to be an adversary air jamming tool,” now-retired Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, then commander of Air Combat Command (ACC), told TWZ and other outlets back in 2022. “And all of a sudden, the blue team said, ‘you know, hey, we kind of need that, can we have that for us?’ And so I see this iterating and testing our way into this.”

Angry Kitten has been flying on F-16s since 2017. The pods have also been at least test flown on U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthog ground attack jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) aircraft, as well as U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters. AATC said last year that there were plans to evaluate the pod on KC-135 and KC-46 aerial refueling tankers.

As TWZ has previously written:

“Unlike the older AN/ALQ-167s, Angry Kitten is designed to be more readily modifiable and updatable to more rapidly adapt in parallel with the threat ecosystem. This is enabled in part by advanced Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology, which allows radio frequency (RF) signals to be detected and ‘captured,’ as well as manipulated and retransmitted. Electronic warfare systems that use DRFM can project signals from hostile radars (and radar seekers on missiles) back at them to create false or otherwise confusing tracks. Data collected via DRFM can also be used to help improve and refine the system’s capabilities, as well as for other intelligence exploitation purposes.”

“In general, electronic warfare systems need to be able to accurately detect, categorize, and respond to waveforms based on information contained in their built-in threat libraries to work most effectively. This, in turn, requires specialists to routinely reprogram systems to keep them as up to date as possible. Automating and otherwise shortening that process at every step of the way by developing what are known as cognitive electronic warfare capabilities has become a major area of interest for the entire U.S. military. The absolute ‘holy grail’ of that concept is an electronic warfare system capable of adapting its programming autonomously in real-time, even in the middle of a mission, as you can read more about here.”

Details the Air Force has previously shared about Angry Kitten have highlighted how the system important stepping stone for new cognitive electronic warfare capabilities.

“Unlike the F-16 tests, where pre-programmed mission data files were used, the C-130 testing includes development engineers aboard the aircraft who can modify jamming techniques mid-mission based on feedback from range control,” a release last March from the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center (AATC), which has been heavily involved in Angry Kitten’s development, explained.

“They are making changes [in] real-time to the techniques and pushing updates to the pod, seeing the change in real-time,” Chris Culver, an electronic warfare engineer involved in the work, said in that same release. “This approach allows for rapid optimization of jamming techniques against various threat systems.”

For F-16s supporting future operations in and around Iran, Angry Kitten would offer a valuable boost in self-defense capability for the fourth-generation jets. Stealthy B-2 Spirit bombers, as well as F-22 and F-35 fighters, spearheaded the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iran last year, with non-stealthy platforms providing support on the periphery. A new protracted campaign would involve more substantial effort to break Iran’s air defense overlay, which would likely require heavier use of fourth-generation tactical jets. The SEAD/DEAD missions that the South Carolina Air National Guard jets are optimized for inherently involve added risk since the aircraft are deliberately tasked with finding anti-air threats and engaging them.

Past TWZ analysis of air defense capabilities that Iran has supplied Houthi militants in Yemen offers some sense of the risks involved, even to stealth aircraft. However, Iran’s own capabilities are more advanced. At the same time, Israeli strikes took a significant toll on Iranian air defense systems during last year’s 12 Day War, especially in the western end of the country. It’s unclear to what degree that capacity has been restored in the interim.

Angry Kitten is, of course, just one part of the massive array of electronic warfare and other capabilities that the U.S. military has deployed in and around the Middle East in recent weeks.

It remains to be seen whether President Donald Trump’s administration will launch a new operation, which could last weeks, against Iran. There continues a steady drumbeat of reports pointing to the increasing likelihood of strikes as U.S. military assets continue to flow into the region, but also stressing that no final decision has been made. Trump and other administration officials are at least still publicly pushing for a diplomatic resolution to the current crisis, focused primarily on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“They better negotiate a fair deal,” Trump said today when asked if he had a message for the Iranian people.

Reporter: Do you have any message to the Iranian people?

Trump: The Iranian people in Iran or people here?

Reporter: In Iran

Trump: They better negotiate a fair deal. You know, the people of Iran are a lot different than the leaders of Iran. And it’s very, very very sad… pic.twitter.com/0a7i5LtGf2

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 20, 2026

“The most I can say – I am considering it,” Trump had also said earlier today when asked if he was considering strikes on Iran.

If the Trump administration does decide to move ahead with a new Iran operation, Wild Weasel F-16s from the South Carolina Air National Guard carrying Angry Kitten pods are among the capabilities that could be brought to bear.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

CONAN O’Brien has broken his silence after his friend Rob Reiner was at his party just hours before being killed.

Reiner, 78, and Michele allegedly had their throats slit while they were in bed and their son Nick was charged with murder.

Reiner and Michele had attended O’Brien’s holiday party the night before the killings on December 24, last year.

The couple arrived at that party with Nick because they were reportedly afraid to leave him alone.

Conan O’Brien told The New Yorker: “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot.

“My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people.

“And to have that experience of saying goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone. … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward. I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”

O’Brien admitted it is still “hard for me to comprehend” the tragedy.

Reiner’s son Nick faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if he’s convicted. 

The death penalty has not been ruled out.

This comes after Reiner told friends he was terrified of his own son and feared he could hurt him just hours before the Hollywood legend and his wife were found dead.

Nick, 32, had been living in the guesthouse of his parents’ $13.5 million Brentwood estate.

He had struggled with drug addiction since his teens, undergone at least 18 stints in rehab and experienced periods of homelessness.

Sources say Nick behaved erratically at the holiday party and unsettled guests.

According to MailOnline, Reiner told friends: “I’m petrified of him”.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m afraid of my own son. I think my own son can hurt me.”

At one point, Reiner introduced Nick to Bill Hader.

Nick then interrupted Hader mid-conversation, according to accounts.

Hader reportedly told him he was “in the middle of a private conversation.”

Nick reacted angrily, stood still, stared at Hader and stormed off.

It was moments later that Reiner approached friends and voiced his fear.

Hours after the gathering, prosecutors allege Nick returned home and killed both his parents in the early hours of Sunday, December 14.

On the Sunday afternoon, a masseuse contacted the Reiners’ 27-year-old daughter Romy after being unable to gain entry to the home.

Romy rushed to the house and found her father’s body before fleeing in distress.

She later learned her mother had also been killed.

Billy Crystal was seen outside the home with his wife Janice, wiping away tears as police arrived.

Crystal later joined Albert Brooks, Larry David, Martin Short and Barry Levinson in a statement praising Reiner as “a great comic actor” and “a master storyteller.”

Police said both victims were found in the master bedroom and no other suspects were located.

Nick was arrested around 9pm on Sunday near the Expo/Vermont Metro station.

Earlier that morning, he had checked into a Santa Monica hotel.

About an hour before his arrest, he was seen acting nervously while buying a Gatorade at a gas station.

Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail.

The legendary career of iconic director Rob Reiner

FAMED actor, director and producer Rob Reiner, 78, died on December 14 alongside his wife Michele Singer, 68, in an apparent homicide.

Here is a look at the prodigious list of achievements the Hollywood powerhouse earned before his tragic and sudden death.

Director’s Beginnings

• Reiner was born in New York City on March 6, 1947, to legendary comedy writer Carl Reiner and singer Estelle Reiner
• He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles film school before breaking into the entertainment industry

Hollywood Career

• Reiner first found fame as an actor playing Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the iconic sitcom All in the Family from 1971 to 1979
• In 1984, he directed his first film This Is Spinal Tap – a mockumentary following a fictional heavy metal band
• Reiner went on to direct cult classic films like The Princess Bride in 1987 and When Harry Met Sally… in 1989
• Other notable movies made by the director include Misery, The American President, and A Few Good Men, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture
• The production company he co-founded, Castle Rock Entertainment, has also produced hits like Seinfeld and The Shawshank Redemption
• Reiner didn’t halt his acting career either, recently starring in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013 and The Bear in 2025

Personal Life

• Reiner married actress Penny Marshall in 1971 and adopted her daughter, Tracy, from a previous marriage. The couple divorced in 1981
• He met photographer Michele Singer while shooting When Harry Met Sally
• They married in 1989 and had three children: Jake, born 1991, Nick born 1993, and Romy born 1997)
• Nick opened up about his struggle with drug addiction in 2016. The movie Becoming Charlie, directed by Reiner, was based on Nick’s story
• Reiner was an outspoken Democratic activist and a fierce critic of Donald Trump

RICHMOND, Va. — Democrats passed a new congressional map through the Virginia legislature on Friday that aims to help their party win four more seats in the national redistricting battle. It’s a flex of state Democrats’ political power, however hurdles remain before they can benefit from friendlier U.S. House district boundaries in this year’s midterm elections.

A judge in Tazewell, a conservative area in Southwest Virginia, has effectively blocked a voter referendum on the redrawn maps from happening on April 21 by granting a temporary restraining order, issued Thursday.

Democrats are appealing that decision and another by the same judge, who ruled last month that Democrats illegally rushed the planned voter referendum on their constitutional amendment to allow the remapping. The state’s Supreme Court picked up the party’s appeal of the earlier ruling.

The judge’s order prohibits officials from preparing for the referendum through March 18. But early voting for it was slated to start March 6, meaning Democrats would have to get a favorable court ruling within two weeks to stick with that timeline.

If Democrats get to carry out a referendum, voters will choose whether to temporarily adopt new congressional districts and then return to Virginia’s standard process after the 2030 census. Democrats wanted to publish the new map ahead of the April vote.

President Trump launched an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last year by pushing Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts to help his party win more seats. The goal was for the GOP to hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power in midterms.

Instead, it created a burst of redistricting efforts nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win nine more House seats in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they can win six more seats in California and Utah, and are hoping to fully or partially make up the remaining three-seat margin in Virginia.

Democratic lawmakers in Virginia have sought to portray their redistricting push as a response to Trump’s overreach.

“The president of the United States, who apparently only one half of this chamber knows how to stand up to, basically directed states to grab power,” Virginia’s Democratic Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said in February. “To basically maintain his power indefinitely — to rig the game, rig the system.”

Republicans have sounded aghast. House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore described the remap as a way for liberals in northern Virginia’s Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties to commandeer the rest of the state.

“In southwest Virginia, we have this saying … They say, ‘Terry, you do a good job up there, but you know, Virginia stops at Roanoke,” Kilgore previously said, referring to how some people across Virginia’s Appalachian region feel unrepresented in state politics. “That’s not going to be the same saying anymore, because Virginia is now going to stop just a little bit west of Prince William County.”

Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who ran in districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan legislative commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census.

Legislation that would put the Democrats’ more gerrymandered map into effect if voters approve the referendum now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who has indicated that she would support it.

“Virginia has the opportunity and responsibility to be responsive in the face of efforts across the country to change maps,” Spanberger said as she approved the referendum.

Democratic candidates are already lining up in anticipation. “Dopesick” author Beth Macy and former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello launched campaigns in red areas that would be moved into districts with more registered Democrats.

Virginia Del. Dan Helmer and former federal prosecutor J.P. Cooney, who helped investigate Trump and was fired by him, have launched campaigns in a formerly rural district that would now mostly include voters just outside the nation’s capital. And former Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria is mounting a comeback against Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who ousted her in 2022, in a competitive district that the map has made slightly more favorable to Democrats.

Diaz writes for the Associated Press.

USA meanwhile have stars of their own, but don’t have the attacking gifts of the Canadians.

“The Tkachuk brothers [Brady and Matthew], and Jack Eichel, that attacking line has worked well together,” Bennett said.

“What they have not had is much scoring from captain Auston Matthews, he has not yet taken any of the games by the horns. They are OK, but not more than that.”

However, the Americans have the best defenceman at the Games in Quinn Hughes, who scored the crucial winner against Sweden.

“He might be the best three-on-three player in the world,” said Bennett. “He loves to keep possession, and is always looking to make an exciting play.”

It sets up a mouth-watering finale of an Olympic ice hockey competition which has benefitted hugely from the return of National Hockey League (NHL) players for the first time since 2014.

The attendance of players from the top North American league was in doubt for a time over concerns about the ice quality at the unfinished Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, but they have been a major boon for the Games.

“This is the highest level of hockey we have ever seen at an Olympics,” said Bennett. “The NHL players have made it a different world.

“At the last two Olympics, games have been good but have missed the quality in the final third, the big moments. Players didn’t have the skillset to break a game, so saw a lot of tight, dull games

“Some of what the players have been doing here has been mind-blowing. One of the goals scored for Canada, McDavid saucered this pass from the back door [behind the goal], it lands as McKinnon is shooting, on the half-volley. That’s when you recognise it.

“I have been getting phone calls from people in the hockey world, all they have been saying is, this is so good. There have been periods where Kent [Simpson, BBC co-commentator] and I have just been sat watching, smiling, laughing.”

Canada have won gold in three of the five Olympics when NHL players have featured and will fancy their chances in a game on Sunday which could be as fascinating in the stands as it is on the ice.

It is highly likely that Canadian prime minister Mark Carney will be in Milan for the game.

Not only is Canada as a country hockey-mad, but so is Carney – when working as governor of the Bank of England, he would play for a recreational team in Haringey, north London.

The big question is whether his American counterpart will also be in Italy.

Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, has suggested that he would not object if Israel were to take most of the Middle East, stressing what he described as the Jewish people’s right to the land.

In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired on Friday, Huckabee was pressed about the geographical borders of Israel, which he argues are rooted in the Bible.

Carlson told Huckabee that the biblical verse had promised the land to the descendants of Abraham, including the area between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile River in Egypt.

Such a swath would encompass modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” said Huckabee, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last year.

Carlson, who appeared taken aback by the statement, asked Huckabee if indeed he would approve of Israel expanding over the entire region.

“They don’t want to take it over. They’re not asking to take it over,” the ambassador replied.

The US envoy, an avowed Christian Zionist and staunch defender of Israel, later appeared to walk back his assertion, saying that it “was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement”.

Still, he left the door open for Israeli expansionism based on his religious interpretation.

“If they end up getting attacked by all these places, and they win that war, and they take that land, OK, that’s a whole other discussion,” Huckabee said.

The Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares Huckabee’s views on Israel’s right to expand.

The principle of territorial integrity and the prohibition against the acquisition of land by force have been a bedrock of international law since World War II.

In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and must cease immediately.

But Israeli law does not clearly demarcate the country’s borders. Israel also occupies the Golan Heights in Syria, which it illegally annexed in 1981.

The US is the only country that recognises Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the Syrian territory.

After the 2024 war with Hezbollah, Israel also set up military outposts in five points inside Lebanon.

Some Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly promoted the idea of a “Greater Israel” with expanded borders.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stirred international outrage in 2023 when he spoke at an event featuring a map that included the Palestinian territories and portions of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as part of Israel, set against the colours of the Israeli flag.

In his interview with Carlson, Huckabee tried to argue that Israel’s right to exist is rooted in international law, but he also attacked the legal institutions that oversee international law for their opposition to Israeli abuses.

“One of the reasons I’m so grateful President Trump and Secretary Rubio are pushing hard, trying to get rid of the ICC [International Criminal Court] and the ICJ is because they have become rogue organisations that are no longer really about an equal application of law,” he said.

Beyond his professed religious devotion to Israel, Huckabee has faced criticism for failing to speak up for the rights of US citizens who have been killed and imprisoned by Israeli forces during his ambassadorship.

Last year, Huckabee even sparked anger from some conservatives in the US when he met with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who sold US intelligence secrets to the Israeli government, details of which later made it to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Pollard, a former civilian analyst in the US Navy, served 30 years in jail and moved to Israel in 2020 after his release. He never expressed regret for his crimes, and in 2021, he called on Jewish employees in US security agencies to spy for Israel.

Huckabee said he does not agree with Pollard’s views, but he denied hosting him, arguing that he simply held a meeting with him at the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Asked if anyone can walk into the embassy to meet the envoy, Huckabee acknowledged that such a meeting requires a pre-approved appointment.

“He was able to come to the US embassy to have a meeting at his request. I did, and frankly, I don’t regret it,” Huckabee said.

“I met with a lot of people over the course of the time I’ve been here and will meet with a lot more.”

BARRY Manilow has been forced to reschedule his shows AGAIN after undergoing cancer surgery following his diagnosis in December.

The veteran singer, 82, has delivered a health update to fans while revealing he will have to push back his tour dates.

In his post, Barry revealed he was rescheduling his first batch of arena shows, which were due to begin in a matter of days.

He explained that the shows that are being canceled are the February 27 up until March 17 shows, on the order of his surgeon.

Barry then delivered some happy news when he said he would likely be able to do the Vegas shows at the very end of March, and the second batch of arena shows at the beginning of April.

“I’m SO, SO sorry I have to reschedule some of these first arena shows, again,” Barry added.

Read More about Barry Manilow

TOUGH TIME

Barry Manilow shares fresh health update after cancer surgery & canceling shows

THROUGH THE RAIN

Barry Manilow gives health update from hospital amid lung cancer diagnosis

The full statement read: “Hi everyone, Barry here.

“Just got home from visiting the surgeon. Very depressing visit.

“I told him that I have been using the treadmill three times a day (I have) but that I still couldn’t sing more than three songs in a row before I had to stop.”

Barry added that he told his surgeon that he was sure he would be able to do the arena shows in a few weeks, but the surgeon shook his head.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi declared a triumph against California on Friday, touting an appellate court ruling that she said blocked a state ban on immigration agents and other law enforcement officers wearing masks.

“The 9th Circuit has now issued a FULL stay blocking California’s ban on masks for federal law enforcement agents,” Bondi posted on the social media site X, calling the Feb. 19 decision a “key victory.”

Bondi, however, appeared confused about which case the court was ruling on this week.

A federal judge in Los Angeles blocked California’s first-in-the-nation mask ban 10 days earlier, on Feb. 9.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said she was “constrained” to block the law because it included only local and federal officers, while exempting state law enforcement.

The state did not appeal that decision.

Instead, on Wednesday, the law’s author Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a new mask bill without the problematic carve-out for state officers.

With the initial legal challenge already decided and the new bill still pending in the legislature, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has no reason to revisit the mask ban.

The ruling that Bondi appeared to reference involves a separate California law requiring law enforcement officers to display identification while on duty.

Snyder had previously ruled the “No Vigilantes Act” could take effect because it did not exempt state police, a decision the Justice Department appealed to the 9th Circuit.

The appellate court is set to review the matter early next month. Until then, the court issued an injunction that pauses the state law from taking effect.

Issuing a temporary administrative injunction is a common procedural move, allowing judges to freeze things in the status quo until the court has a chance to weigh the law and come to a decision.

Thursday’s order set a hearing in the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena for March 3, indicating the case is far from over.

Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, also celebrated with a post on X, calling Thursday’s order “another key win for the Justice Department.” He too suggested the injunction somehow involved the mask case.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The law requiring officers to show ID is less controversial than the mask ban. But it may still face an uphill battle in the appellate court. A three-judge panel is set to hear the case, comprising two judges nominated to the bench by President Trump and one by President Obama. One of the Trump appointees, Judge Mark Bennett of Hawaii, has previously signaled skepticism over the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

At issue in the ID case is whether California’s law interferes with or controls the operations of the federal government, actions prohibited by the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. Snyder ruled that the identification law was more akin to speed limits on the highway, which apply equally to everyone, a decision the appellate court could reject.

A ruling is not expected before mid-March, and would not directly affect the push by state lawmakers to pass a revised mask ban.

Recent polls show more than 60% of Americans want U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and other federal agents unmasked. More than a dozen states are pursuing laws similar to California’s.

In Washington, congressional Democrats have made a mask ban for ICE a key issue in the ongoing partial government shutdown, vowing not to fund the Department of Homeland Security until one is enacted.

Legal experts have said the issue likely will not be resolved until it reaches the Supreme Court.

St Helens: Sailor; Feldt, Macdonald, Cross, Murphy; Lomax, Hastings; Klemmer, Clark, Walmsley, Sironen, Wright, Shorrocks.

Interchanges: Robertson, Host, Delaney, Whitley

Leigh: Hodgson; Senior, Niu, Brand, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Badrock, Alick-Wienke, Ofahengaue.

Interchanges: Hughes, Liu, Davis, Horne

Referee: Aaron Moore.

Feb. 20 (UPI) — Wildfires have burned more than 300,000 acres in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, and more than a million people in the region were under a fire watch Friday.

No deaths were reported, but several structures have been damaged or destroyed in Oklahoma’s Panhandle, where a 283,000-acre Ranger Road Fire was 20% contained as of Friday morning, KFOR reported. That fire spread into parts of southwestern Kansas.

The Stevens Fire, 12,428 acres, and the Side Road Fire, 3,680 acres, in Oklahoma’s Texas County were 60% and 75% contained, respectively as of Friday morning.

The Poor Farm Fire in Latimer County was 10% contained after burning some 9,000 acres.

Among other significant fires, the 43 Fire in Woodward County has burned 1,680 acres and was 60% contained, while the 1,400-acre Rattlesnake Fire in Osage and Washington counties was only 30% contained.

Other active fires are the 182-acre Hospital Road Fire in Carter County, which was 40% contained; the 242-acre 615 Fire in Cherokee County, which was 70% contained; and the 126-acre Chelsea Fire in Rogers County, which was 60% contained.

Warm, dry and windy conditions in the area triggered the fires, and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday declared states of emergency for Woodward, Beaver and Texas counties.

Many residents have evacuated those counties, and a significant fire danger remains in Texas and Cimarron counties in the Panhandle region.

Local forecasters said cooling temperatures and lessening wind speeds are expected to reduce the threat of the fires spreading, but wind speeds of between 25 mph and 35 mph, with gusts of up to 60 mph, continued on Friday morning.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, its embarked airwing and elements of its carrier strike group (CSG) are now in the western Mediterranean. The Ford and the USS Mahan, one of its Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer escorts, transited the Strait of Gibraltar around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. Eastern), eyewitnesses told The War Zone. The Ford passed through the Strait from the Atlantic after leaving the Caribbean, where it took part in the mission to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

This marks the Ford‘s return to the Mediterranean since leaving its homeport of Norfolk on June 24, 2025. The Ford‘s deployment was extended for a second time to join a growing list of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, including the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, as President Donald Trump considers an attack on Iran. You can read more about how the extension affects the ship and its crew in our story here.

Daniel Ferro, (@Gibdan1 on X), shared photos of the ships with us. 

Another eyewitness, who runs the @maritimegraphy X account, provided to us videos of the ships crossing as well as a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol jet flying overhead. The P-8 is packed with sensors and they often provide overwatch for CSGs to detect potential threats on and under the water’s surface.

Both ship spotters said the U.S. Navy vessels were accompanied by at least one Spanish Navy Santa Maria class frigate. The Pentagon declined comment.

Ford Carrier Strike Groups Enters The Med On Feb. 20th, 2026

As noted earlier, the Ford CSG will eventually be joining the Lincoln CSG, already deployed to the Middle East, as well other Navy ships and scores of tactical jets, surveillance planes, tankers, airborne early warning and control aircraft, as well as additional air defense assets. The Ford‘s current location puts it about 2,500 miles east of the Israeli coast, meaning it could take a few more days to arrive there if that is indeed its intended station, as one report states. While patrolling there would help Israel defend against incoming barrages, the ship’s air wing would have to fly across Israel or Lebanon, Syria or Jordan, and Iraq, to reach Iranian territory.

In addition to the tactical jets already in theater or in bases in Europe preparing to fly there, reports have emerged that the U.S. has pulled F-35 Lighting II stealth fighters and other assets and troops out of NATO’s Cold Response exercise scheduled to take place in Norway next month. This move is another part of the U.S. buildup in the Middle East, according to Norwegian defense officials.

NATO declined comment and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to our query.

The influx of aviation assets has packed U.S. facilities in the Middle East and elsewhere. For instance, satellite images show 18 F-15E Strike Eagles, 18 F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, 12 F-16 Fighting Falcons, six E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare jets and two MQ-9 Reaper drones visible at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan alone. This does not include all the aircraft that cannot be seen under shelters and sun shades. Every designated spot for a tactical jet that is visible from space is now full at the packed installation.

Lajes Air Field in the Azores has also seen a big uptick of aircraft. There were at least 11 KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tankers, 12 F-16 Fighting Falcons and a C-17 Globemaster II cargo jet there as of yesterday. This includes a KC-46 that had an aborted takeoff last month. The tankers at the island airfield are a critical component of the air bridge between the U.S. and Europe and the Middle East that enables the rapid buildup we have been seeing unfold.

Satellite imagery also shows an increase of refueling tanker activity at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, while a continuous decrease at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East. The closer the base is to Iran, the more vulnerable it is to large scale barrages or ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. Al Udeid sits right on the Persian Gulf. As we have previously noted, both Jordan and Saudi Arabia have both said they would not allow U.S. forces to use their territory or airspace for an attack against Iran. Whether that pledge sticks is doubtful.

Friday morning, Trump was asked if he is considering a “limited strike” against Iran if it does not agree to a deal to curtail its nuclear weapons ambitions. He replied in the affirmative. The president did not provide details of what that could entail or when it might be launched.

KERRY Katona and her partner Paolo Margaglione are brushing off their drama-filled week with a night out in London.

The Sun revealed yesterday how Paolo was hit by Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews in a bust-up during their recent trip to Dubai, where they went to visit the couple.

The incident was the first time Kerry and her partner were meeting her best pal’s new man, following their whirlwind romance, with the trip turning sideways just hours in.

But seemingly not letting it get to them, Kerry and Paolo headed to the capital from their Cheshire home to celebrate her daughter Heidi’s 19th birthday.

Heading to celeb hotspot Sheesh Mayfair, Kerry enjoyed cocktails as she filmed herself dancing with Paolo.

Appearing in high spirits, the pair giggled as Kerry captioned the clip: “Mums and dads on the loose.

SLURRED SPEECH

‘Pregnant’ Katie Price slurs in video after Lee PUNCHED Kerry Katona’s man

QUICK ESCAPE

Kerry Katona’s boyfriend fled the country hours after Katie Price bust up

“Can you tell we don’t get out often?”

In another video, Kerry planted a kiss on Paolo, who beamed for the camera.

Kerry and Paolo headed to Dubai last week for a Valentine’s Day getaway, where they met close friend Katie and her husband Lee, who are on their honeymoon after a surprise wedding.

While the two couples appeared in high spirits when Kerry and Paolo touched down in the UAE, Kerry later said that Paolo had to head home “urgently” due to a work commitment.

But yesterday, we revealed that the dad-of-two actually locked horns with Lee, who took a strike at him.

An onlooker told us: “Lee was having some cross words with Katie. He was acting in what appeared to be an aggressive manner.

“Paolo then appeared and stepped in. Lee seemed to be very angry and was shouting at him.

“It all got very heated and Lee threw some punches and one of them landed Paolo square on the head.”

The incident happened in a public part of the hotel where Kerry and Paolo had been staying, with onlookers seeing what went on.

Kerry is thought to not have been present at the time of the altercation.

WASHINGTON — The late Rev. Jesse Jackson will not lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office due to past precedent.

Johnson’s office said it received a request from the family to have Jackson’s remains lie in honor at the Capitol, but the request was denied, because of the precedent that the space is typically reserved for former presidents, the military and select officials.

The civil rights leader died this week at the age of 84. The family and some House Democrats had filed a request for Jackson to be honored at the U.S. Capitol.

Amid the country’s political divisions, there have been flare-ups over who is memorialized at the Capitol with a service to lie in state, or honor, in the Rotunda. During such events, the public is generally allowed to visit the Capitol and pay their respects.

Recent requests had similarly been made, and denied, to honor Charlie Kirk, the slain conservative activist, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

There is no specific rule about who qualifies for the honor, a decision that is controlled by concurrence from both the House and Senate.

The Jackson family has announced scheduled dates for memorial services beginning next week that will honor the late reverend’s life in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and South Carolina. In a statement, the Jackson family said it had heard from leaders in South Carolina, Jackson’s native state, and Washington offering for Jackson to be celebrated in both locations. Talks are ongoing with lawmakers about where those proceedings will take place. His final memorial services will be held in Chicago on March 6 and 7.

Typically, the Capitol and its Rotunda have been reserved for the “most eminent citizens,” according to the Architect of the Capitol’s website. It said government and military officials lie in state, while private citizens in honor.

In 2020, Rep. John Lewis, another veteran of the civil rights movement, was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda after a ceremony honoring his legacy was held outside on the Capitol steps because of pandemic restrictions at the time.

Later that year, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) allowed services for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall after agreement could not be reached for services in the Capitol’s Rotunda.

It is rare for private citizens to be honored at the Capitol, but there is precedent — most notably civil rights icon Rosa Parks, in 2005, and the Rev. Billy Graham, in 2018.

A passionate civil rights leader and globally minded humanitarian, Jackson’s fiery speeches and dual 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns transformed American politics for generations. Jackson’s organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, became a hub for progressive organizers across the country.

His unapologetic calls for a progressive economic agenda and more inclusive policies for all racial groups, religions, genders and orientations laid the groundwork for the progressive movement within the Democratic Party.

Jackson also garnered a global reputation as a champion for human rights. He conducted the release of American hostages on multiple continents and argued for greater connections between civil rights movements around the world, most notably as a fierce critic of the policies of apartheid in South Africa.

Brown and Mascaro write for the Associated Press.

Arguably it was Wales’ worst performance of the opening three rounds but they still had enough to avoid only a second home Six Nations defeat to the Scots.

The visitors, who started with an impressive win in Italy and then pushed England hard, will lament missed opportunities when they had the wind at their backs.

With both head coaches of the senior teams, Steve Tandy and Gregor Townsend, in attendance it was the hosts that started sharply.

They were 11-0 up after 12 minutes thanks to Exeter lock Evans going over from close range and a pair of booming penalties by Leggatt-Jones.

The second try came in the 16th minute after fast hands released Tom Bowen down the left and the wing stayed calm to put centre, and Cardiff clubmate, Cutts over for a try on debut.

Scotland needed a response but were denied one when a try from a snipe by scrum-half Hamish MacArthur, one of nine Edinburgh players in the XV, was chalked off due to a neck roll in the build-up.

The final act of a scrappy first half was a third Leggatt-Jones penalty to stretch the lead to 19-0.

The Scots were held up over the line three minutes after the restart but were over through Glasgow centre Waugh from a neat offload by rangy fly-half Jack Dalziel.

Scrum-half MacArthur converted to make it 19-7 but Wales caught the visitors cold with a rare attacking foray in the 52nd minute.

Impressive captain Deian Gwynn burst into the 22 from a cunning line-out move for Leggatt-Jones to find the unmarked Scott with a cross-kick that the debutant did well to gather in the challenging wind.

The nerves were settled and Wales sealed victory on the hour when hooker Howe, their star of the tournament so far, barged over.

Scotland finished hunting a pair of bonus points thanks to tries by Marshall and Rennie but late chances went begging and it was a pointless trip.

After a rest weekend, Wales take on Ireland in Cork while Scotland welcome France to Edinburgh.

Sudan’s civil war is shifting into a drone-driven phase, erasing the lines between battlefield and civilian life. As Ramadan begins under famine conditions, how do the people of Sudan mark the holy month in the midst of war?

In this episode: 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili and Melanie Marich with Maya Hamadeh, Tuleen Barakat and our guest host, Tamara Khandaker. It was edited by Ney Alvarez. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhemm. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

The United States Supreme Court ruling against the administration of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs has left a question unanswered on what is the refund process for the funds collected over the past several months through the tariffs that had been imposed on most US trading partners .

In a 6–3 decision issued on Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts upheld a lower court ruling that found the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) exceeded his authority.

The high court did not specify how the federal government would refund the estimated $175bn collected under the tariffs. In his dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned that issuing refunds would present practical challenges and said it would be “a mess”.

The case will now return to the Court of International Trade to oversee the refund process.

More than 1,000 lawsuits have already been filed by importers in the trade court seeking refunds, and a wave of new cases is expected. Legal experts say the administration will likely require importers to apply for refunds individually. That process could disproportionately burden smaller businesses affected by the tariffs.

“The government is probably not going to voluntarily pay back the money it unlawfully took. Rather, the government is going to make everyone request a refund through different procedures by filing formal protests. They’re going to delay things procedurally as long as they can. Hiring lawyers and going through these procedures costs money and time,” Greg Shaffer, a law professor at Georgetown University, told Al Jazeera.

“I imagine the largest companies, who have been prepared for this eventuality, will eventually get their money back. But smaller importers, it’s a cost-benefit analysis where they might shrug their shoulders and say it’s not worth going through the hassle to get the unlawfully imposed taxes paid back to them.”

Trump’s path forward

Despite Friday’s ruling, other sweeping levies remain in place. Trump had invoked Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to impose sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminium, cars, copper, lumber, and other products, such as kitchen cabinets, worldwide.

On Friday, Trump said he would impose a 10 percent global tariff for 150 days to replace some of his emergency duties that were struck down. The order would be made under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and the duties would be over and above tariffs that are currently in place, Trump said.

The statute allows the president to impose duties of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days on any and all countries related to “large and serious” balance of payments issues. It does not require investigations or impose other procedural limits.

The president also has other legal avenues available to continue taxing imports aggressively.

“Our trading partners were well aware of the risks the President faced in using IEEPA as the basis for reciprocal and other tariffs. Nevertheless, they chose to conclude deals with Washington, convinced by Washington that other statutes would be utilised to keep the tariffs in place,” Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera in a statement.

“With respect to China, USTR [United States trade representative] still has an active Section 301 investigation on China’s compliance with the Phase One agreement, which could be a major feature of the back-up plan for Beijing.”

The president is expected to travel to Beijing next month to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to discuss trade.

“The two main options include Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the traditional mechanism for imposing tariffs in response to unfair trade practices by other countries. It requires an investigation and a report, but ultimately gives the president considerable discretion to impose tariffs. It has been used in the past and will likely be the most frequently used measure going forward,” Shaffer, the law professor, said.

He noted, however, that the administration’s tariff options could not be applied retroactively, meaning any new tariffs would apply only to future imports rather than covering duties already paid.

Raj Bhala, professor of law at The University of Kansas School of Law, argues there are remedies at the president’s disposal in addition to Section 122. Bhala said that Trump could use Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (also known as the Smoot-Hawley Act). That allows the president to impose a 50 percent tariff to challenge discriminatory trade practices from other countries.

“Each option involves procedural hurdles,” Bhala said.

Congressional pressure

Roberts wrote that the president must “point to clear congressional authorization” to impose tariffs. The ruling has increased pressure on both Trump’s allies and critics in Congress to clarify the scope of executive trade authority.

“What a fantastic ruling for a feckless branch of government. While its current tendency is to abdicate, the court has told Congress to do its job,” a former official in the White House Office of Management and Budget told Al Jazeera in response to the decision.

“Congress must either act with specific legislation, or declare war, which would grant the President the emergency powers to levy tariffs.”

“Congress and the Administration will determine the best path forward in the coming weeks,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on the social media platform X.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, by contrast, welcomed the ruling, saying it will “finally give families and small businesses the relief they deserve” and that Trump should end “this reckless trade war for good.”

But how that money will get paid back, and if it was already spent, will require Congress to step in.

“If it has been spent, the money will have to be reallocated by Congress. Congress will have to determine how much is owed to importers, pass a law to fund it, and create a mechanism for repayment. There’s also the question of who is entitled to it. Is it only the importer, or does it extend to the end consumer? Where does the line stop?” Babak Hafezi, professor of international business at American University, told Al Jazeera.

“This is not something that will be fixed in 24 hours. It will most likely take years, possibly even a decade, to resolve all the issues this less-than-a-year-old law has imposed on Americans.”

We used to have more films like “Midwinter Break,” in which the combination of a couple of great actors, a gifted writer and the unfussy shepherding of a thorny, intimate scenario gave discerning moviegoers their recommended weekly allowance of adult drama about the human condition.

That’s no longer the case, so you would be forgiven for attaching more importance to the small-scale appeal of this adaptation of Irish author Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel. Without gimmicks or pomp (save a picturesque setting) and through the supreme talents of Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds, it offers up an affecting two-hander about a couple on the brink who’ve never really acknowledged said precipice. As directed with low-key confidence by Polly Findlay, the movie is both good and, in a certain way, good enough.

Should a marriage be merely good enough? Because hiding in the 40-year togetherness of retired teacher Stella (Manville) and ex-architect Gerry (Hinds) is an unmistakable chasm. It’s a divide with roots in the turbulent Belfast of their youth, which necessitated starting their family in Glasgow. It manifests now in a brittleness that tints their everyday exchanges as ossifying empty nesters.

Stella’s restless energy in wanting to fix things spurs her to arrange an impromptu trip for them to Amsterdam. Initially they rekindle a genial intimacy over art, meals and the city’s beauty. She eases off her intolerance for his drinking by tagging along to bars, while he accompanies his faith-driven wife to the Begijnhof, a historical religious site of dwellings initially intended to house a sisterhood of single Catholic women. We gather her keen interest isn’t entirely touristy but also, because Hinds is so good, that his wisecracks about religion — which she bristles at — have a basis in something personal, too.

We eventually learn what it is that has kept Stella and Gerry in a state of deepening apartness. But these expected revelations aren’t as cathartic as one might hope, probably because what “Midwinter Break” had going for it was a gathering totality of unhurried observance, as if we, too, were stumbling in the dark along with these nervous dancers, who once knew each other so well yet had lost the ability to turn knowing into understanding.

Still, the chance to see Manville and Hinds give heart, soul and edge to a cracked marriage is a display of nuanced skill that no screenwriting choice (even if true to the source material) can fully hamper. Manville, one of our greatest actors, is achingly real, giving Stella the protective bearing of a wounded soldier. Hinds, meanwhile, masterfully shows an affable partner’s emotional immobility.

Findlay knows to stay out of the way when her actors are deep inside what’s lived-in about their situation, or when grace notes — especially the story’s real ties to the Troubles — needn’t be overstruck. Modest to a fault, “Midwinter Break” seems to float like something cautious and wishful, hoping along with the audience that this union’s individual strains will fall into harmony once more.

Shortly before releasing an after-action report on the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a confidential memo detailing plans to protect Mayor Karen Bass and others from “reputational harm” in connection with the city’s handling of the catastrophic blaze, records obtained by The Times show.

“It’s our goal to prepare and protect Mayor Bass, the City, and the LAFD from reputational harm associated with the upcoming public release of its AARR, through a comprehensive strategy that includes risk assessment, proactive and reactive communications, and crisis response,” the memo states, referring to the acronym for the LAFD’s report.

The 13-page document is on LAFD letterhead and includes email addresses for department officials, representatives of Bass’ office and public relations consultants hired to help shape messaging about the fire, although it is not known to whom it was eventually distributed. The Times obtained the memo, titled “LAFD AARR: Strategic Response Plan,” from the LAFD through the California Public Records Act.

Labeled “for internal use only,” the memo, which is unsigned, aims to shape news media coverage of the report’s findings, including through efforts to “minimize tough Q&A” by asking to hold closed-door briefings with the Fire Commission and City Council. The memo is undated but notes that “This plan has been updated with the latest timeline as of 10/7.” The after-action report was released to the public on Oct. 8.

The Times disclosed in December that the report had been altered to deflect criticism of the LAFD’s failure to pre-deploy engines and crews to the Palisades ahead of the Jan. 7, 2025 fire, among other shortcomings in the city’s preparations for and response to the deadly disaster.

Mayor Karen Bass joins L.A. City Council and community safety leaders at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on February 17, 2026.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Bass has repeatedly denied that she was involved in any effort to water down the report, which was meant to spell out mistakes and suggest measures to avoid repeating them after a fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes. But two sources with knowledge of Bass’ office have said that after receiving an early draft of the report, the mayor told then-Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that it could expose the city to legal liabilities.

Bass wanted key findings about the LAFD’s actions removed or softened before the report was made public, the sources told The Times early this month. The mayor has said that The Times’ story based on the sources’ accounts was “completely fabricated.”

Representatives of Bass’ office and the LAFD did not immediately comment this week on the 13-page “strategic response plan” memo.

The disclosure about the effort to protect the mayor’s reputation comes after other records revealed that she was leading damage control efforts around both the after-action report and an announcement by federal prosecutors that the Palisades fire was caused by a rekindling of a smaller blaze.

The LAFD was facing scrutiny over why it failed to put out the earlier blaze.

“Any additional interviews with the Fire Chief would likely depend on the Mayor’s guidance,” LAFD spokesperson Capt. Erik Scott wrote in an Oct. 9 email to a Bass aide, Villanueva and others. “Regarding a press conference, I would be cautious as it could invite a high volume of challenging questions, and this would also be contingent on the Mayor’s direction.”

Before releasing the after-action report, the LAFD formed an internal crisis management team and brought in the public relations consultants, Beverly Hills-based Lede Co., to help shape its messaging about the fire. In the 13-page strategy memo, Lede, whose fee was covered by the nonprofit Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, is tasked with helping to manage and monitor news media coverage of the report.

The latest set of documents obtained by The Times includes a “Tough Q&A” with proposed answers to questions that news reporters might ask Bass and Villanueva. The questions for Bass centered around the budget and former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley’s claims that budget restrictions hampered the department’s ability to fight the Palisades fire, with the proposed answers emphasizing that the budget was not cut.

Ronnie Villanueva speaks during his appointment as interim LAFD Chief on Feb. 21, 2025.

(Drew A. Kelley / Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)

Villanueva’s proposed answers focused on the “unstoppable” nature of the fire and improvements LAFD has since made to ensure adequate staffing on red flag days.

Other internal emails reviewed by The Times show that Bass met with Villanueva about the after-action report in mid-July.

The mayor’s role in altering the after-action report and managing its release has become an issue in her reelection campaign. Bass previously said through a spokesperson that her office merely encouraged the LAFD to fact-check references in the report about city finances and the forecast of high winds leading up to Jan. 7. The mayor later told The Times that the report was “technical,” saying, “I’m not a firefighter.”

The changes that ended up in the final report were significant, with some Palisades residents and former LAFD chiefs saying they amounted to a cover-up.

A week after the fire, The Times exposed LAFD officials’ decisions not to fully staff up and pre-deploy all available engines and firefighters to the Palisades and other high-risk areas before the dangerous winds hit. Bass later removed Crowley, citing the failure to keep firefighters on duty for a second shift.

An initial draft of the after-action report said the pre-deployment decisions “did not align” with policy, but the final version said the number of companies pre-deployed “went above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.”

Fire fighters work to extinguish flames during the Eaton fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Altadena, CA.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

The author of the report, Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, declined to endorse the final version because of changes that altered his findings and made the report, in his words, “highly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.”

Even with the deletions and changes, the report delivered a harsh critique of the LAFD’s performance during the Palisades fire, pointing to a disorganized response, failures in communication and chiefs who didn’t understand their roles. The report found that top commanders lacked a fundamental knowledge of wildland firefighting tactics, including “basic suppression techniques.”

Fire Chief Jaime Moore, an LAFD veteran whom Bass named as chief in November, has said he is focused on the future and not interested in assigning blame for changes to the report. But he said he will not allow similar edits to future after-action reports.

The after-action report included just a brief reference to the Lachman fire, a small Jan. 1, 2025, blaze that rekindled six days later into the Palisades fire.

The Times found that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the Lachman burn area the day after the fire was supposedly extinguished, despite complaints by crew members that the ground still was smoldering.

After the Times report, Bass directed Moore to commission an independent investigation into the LAFD’s handling of the Lachman fire.

LAFD officials have said that most of the 42 recommendations in the after-action report have been implemented, including mandatory staffing protocols on red flag days and training on wind-driven fires, tactical operations and evacuations.

Pringle is a former Times staff writer.