Jan. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump insulted NATO member states by suggesting they can’t be counted on to contribute to military actions when needed, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday.

Starmer called the president’s comments “insulting and, frankly, appalling” and suggested Trump should apologize, while the prime minister addressed media on Friday.

“If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize,” Starmer said.

Starmer said Britain lost 457 military personnel in Afghanistan, while Canada lost 165 and Denmark 44, during the war that started Oct. 7, 2001, and ended Aug. 30, 2021.

The prime minister said Britain has a close relationship with the United States to ensure the island nation’s national security.

“It is because of that relationship that we fought alongside the Americans for our values in Afghanistan,” Starmer said.

“And it was in that context that people lost their lives or suffered terrible injuries [while] fighting for freedom, fighting with our allies for what we believe in,” he added.

Trump on Thursday accused NATO allies of shying away from fighting in Afghanistan by avoiding areas in which fighting was underway and said the United States could not count of NATO allies to help protect the United States and its territories if necessary.

He made the comments during an interview with Fox News, according to Politico.

“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump said, adding that European nations did send troops.

“They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he said, while suggesting they shied away from fighting.

British Defense Minister John Healey also took exception to the president’s comments.

“The UK and NATO allies answered the U.S. call,” Healy said on social media, “and more than 450 British personnel lost their lives in Afghanistan.

“Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”

Healy said NATO only issued an Article 5 call to action once, and the United Kingdom responded.

NATO’s Article 5 is a commonly included military treaty agreement in which an attack on one member nation is considered an attack on all.

Such treaty provisions led to military escalation that caused World War I after the assassination of Austro-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.

Trump also criticized British officials’ decision to cede control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius.

The US has completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, ending its membership for the first time since 1948. Officials blamed WHO’s COVID-19 response, halted funding and limited future engagement, prompting warnings about global health risks.

SMILING Jennifer Lopez goes for a vintage look on a shopping trip round the block.

The singer and actress, 56, wore a low-cut leather jacket and shades in LA.

She was spotted browsing the racks at luxury secondhand clothes store What Goes Around Comes Around in Beverly Hills.

J-Lo launched her Vegas residency in bold fashion and nearly bared it all with risque outfit choices, including a see-through lace bodysuit last month.

She made a stunning return to Las Vegas with her Up All Night Live residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Captivating the audience with her bold fashion choices, the former Mrs. Affleck showcased her dance moves in a number of sexy costumes.

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She shocked fans by appearing nude underneath a black lace corset and fullbody suit.

But the songstress was actually wearing custom Victoria’s Secret lingerie.

She also danced the night away in a fringe thong leotard, adding to the high-energy atmosphere of the show.

She also brought Fyre Festival executive, Ja Rule, on stage for a duet.

The beloved duo performed their hit songs I’m Real and Ain’t It Funny.

At one point, the Bronx native turned around to shake her famous backside’s fringe as Ja Rule looked on.

In an Instagram post that same night, Ja Rule’s wife of 24 years, Aisha Atkins, said, “I’m looking too.”

Jennifer Lopez’s stunning costumes for her Las Vegas residency were a collaborative effort led by her longtime stylists, Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn.

Politics can move too fast for few and too slow for many at the same time. Today is a perfect example of that. The brand-new Rodríguez regime seems quick at aligning with the Trump agenda, executing the sort of authoritarian due diligence needed to attract foreign investment and make things favorable for looming corporations. Yesterday they used a completely dominated National Assembly (one that neither admitted anything close to a debate nor disclosed the texts through official channels) to advance three legal initiatives related to doing business in the country. The non-chavista, systemic opposition group there led by Henrique Capriles and Stalin González decided not to take a stance. The parliamentary agenda included amending a massive energy-sector statute that could change the game for those aiming to become main oil-industry players.

But now it’s January 23^rd. The most significant date for the country’s democracy legacy tastes bittersweet, carrying hints of frustration and even despair, but also of opportunity. The collapse of the Marcos Pérez Jiménez regime exactly 68 years ago represents the complete opposite of the type of political shifts we’ve witnessed since January 3, 2026. In 1958, after some turbulent weeks marked by protests and a failed military uprising, mid-level Army officers rose to topple the Pérez Jiménez regime and dismantle its entire repressive structure. The dictator and his infamous repressor-in-chief managed to escape the country unharmed (though the story doesn’t end there for the former). And in stark contrast to what many of our neighbors were enduring, the armed forces became a key actor in promoting a civilian-led democratic order that began to take shape in the following months. Wolfgang Larrazábal, the military figure who oversaw that process, became an icon of Venezuela’s democratic transition.

What we have after January 3rd, however, is the exact opposite. An external force removed the dictator and his wife, not a group of generals acting in the people’s interest. The shambolic state of the military was laid bare before the eyes of the world, a defenseless, even invisible, force that couldn’t even scratch a group of American helicopters. Crucial difference: the rest of the regime remains in place, including the entire repressive apparatus. Notwithstanding, the ruling Rodríguez faction announced the start of a “significant” release process of detainees days after that “Deus ex machina” moment that raised hopes of a Caribbean-style glasnost. Two weeks later, about 15% of political prisoners have walked out. The regime has conducted this in a way that prevents celebration: dropping prisoners in specific spots of the city rather than right in front of the gates, sending them straight to airports (which happened to Rocío San Miguel), and gaslighting the public about the actual figure. Regime officials including Jorge Rodríguez and Tarek William Saab repeat they’ve released 400 political prisoners. Rights watchdog Foro Penal has so far verified 155.

In Caracas, they were careful not to disturb traffic or make chants that would upset the police or chavismo itself, such as calling for presidential elections, Delcy’s removal, or explicitly invoking the July 28 mandate.

In defiance, families of political prisoners have been camping outside prisons and torture centers for two consecutive weeks. Two leading Catholic priests have stood alongside them, which is particularly meaningful following a recent accusation against the Archbishop of Caracas of being too close to the regime. Two veteran anti-chavista politicians, Andrés Velásquez and Alfredo Ramos, have shown their faces after going into hiding since August 2024, when Maduro & Co. went after every real and made-up opponent following the July 28 presidential election. Today, campuses in at least seven universities across the country (ULA, LUZ, and USB, to name a few) woke up with banners calling for the freedom of all dissidents and the closure of prisons for regime opponents. 

Universidad Central student leaders organized a protest next to the capital’s main highway to honor today’s anniversary. Akin demonstrations took place in other parts of the country, such as Zulia, Mérida and Barinas. In Caracas, they were careful not to disturb traffic or make chants that would upset the police or chavismo itself, such as calling for presidential elections, Delcy’s removal, or explicitly invoking the July 28 mandate. Activists from PROVEA, trade union representatives and other human rights groups joined the students (who, by the way, have been quite active supporting families of detainees outside El Helicoide and the National Police jail in Boleíta). They released a joint statement. This is the core message:

We affirm that the “new political moment,” based on “reconciliation and reunion,” announced by the administration now headed by Delcy Rodríguez, will not be viable as long as urgent public demands remain unaddressed.

We believe that the most urgent demand, one that unites society as a whole, is the full, unconditional, and immediate release of all those who have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty or subjected to judicial proceedings for political reasons, and who remain unjustly held in prisons and police stations across the country.

This won’t be enough to shake the nascent Rodríguez-led dictablanda and force comprehensive concessions. Sustaining such pressure requires time and careful coordination with party structures and the wider Venezuelan population. But it is, without a doubt, a more than decent way to push for political freedoms on this weird, confusing anniversary. The sort of freedoms that other foreign stakeholders have been, and will continue to be, slower to demand.

Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. envoys met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.

The talks follow a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was “nearly ready,” certain sensitive sticking points — most notably those related to territorial issues — remain unresolved.

Here’s what’s known and not known about the meeting:

What’s different about these talks

They are taking place in the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine have already met several times on separate occasions, but this is believed to be the first time U.S. envoys will be there too — a significant step in that President Trump has been pressing for a halt to the war.

The talks are an outgrowth of recent diplomatic activity, even though Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure, leaving parts of the country without power amid a bitterly cold winter.

Zelensky met with Trump on Thursday behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing it as a “productive and meaningful” session. Trump said later that it had gone well and that Russia and Ukraine were “making concessions” to try to end the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in overnight talks at the Kremlin that lasted nearly four hours.

A spokesman for Zelensky said there are “many different formats in these talks — sometimes participants step aside for separate discussions, sometimes everyone meets together, sometimes several groups break off by topic.”

Who is participating

The U.S. has confirmed Witkoff and Kushner are attending. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll also is part of the team, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic process. NATO’s top general, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, also is attending.

The Ukrainian team includes Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s national security and defense council; Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff; and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office.

Putin’s foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov said Russia’s delegation is led by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. The Kremlin later said the rest of the delegation are from the Defense Ministry as well, but did not elaborate. Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev also is attending.

The talks are scheduled to conclude Saturday.

Questions of territory and security

Little is known about the specific issues to be discussed. Zelensky said the fraught issue of territorial concessions is a likely topic, while the Kremlin offered few details beyond calling the meeting a “working group on security issues.” Separate economic discussions will take place between Witkoff and Dmitriev, Kremlin officials said.

The sides have indicated that a possible peace deal hinges on the apparently still unresolved issue of territory. Speaking in a WhatsApp chat with journalists Friday, Zelensky described the issue of who would control the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as “key.”

Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 600-mile front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.

In his briefing on Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Ushakov stressed that “reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue,” a reference to Moscow’s demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.

Peskov also said Friday that Moscow had already made its position clear and that Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the Donbas region.

Ukraine has been pressing for security guarantees from the West to prevent Russia from invading its territory again.

Davies writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who allegedly became the head of an organization that trafficked large quantities of drugs through L.A., was apprehended recently in Mexico, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Authorities said Wedding, who was in hiding for more than a decade and on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, was taken into custody in Mexico City Thursday night and has been returned to the United States. Two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the pending case publicly, told The Times that Wedding negotiated his surrender.

FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials announced Wedding’s arrest at a news conference at Ontario International Airport on Friday morning.

“Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said. “He is a modern-day El Chapo, he is a modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could evade justice.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Wedding’s alleged global drug trafficking organization “used Los Angeles as its primary point of distribution.”

McDonnell said the efforts of authorities resulted in the seizure of more than 2,300 kilograms of cocaine, 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, 44 kilograms of fentanyl, eight firearms and more than $55 million in illicit assets.

“Together, we have disrupted a major narcotics pipeline impacting Los Angeles, the United States and Canada,” McDonnell said. “This is a significant blow to a criminal network that has endangered communities across borders.”

Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding faces federal charges that accuse him of running a drug trafficking organization and ordering the killing of a witness against him. (FBI)

Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office, said Wedding’s alleged organization shipped approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine through Southern California on its way to Canada.

Authorities have arrested 36 people for their role in the transnational organization and the treasury department has sanctioned 19 people, including Wedding, according to Davis.

Wedding allegedly became a major trafficker of cocaine into Canada and the United States and a ruthless leader who ordered killings, including one of a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case against him. The order resulted in the victim being shot to death in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025, prosecutors said.

“Ryan Wedding tormented several people and several families that will never be the same,” Davis said. “But today they get the justice that they sought.”

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi previously said Wedding’s operation was responsible for generating more than $1 billion a year in illegal drug proceeds.

A federal indictment against Wedding alleges his organization sourced its cocaine from Colombia, cooking and testing it in “cocaine kitchens” run collaboratively with a Colombian paramilitary group and drug cartel.

The so-called Wedding Criminal Enterprise worked with Mexican cartels, utilizing boats and planes to move drug shipments from Colombia, then using semitrucks to get the loads into the United States, U.S. authorities charged. Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties generally served as the “hub” where the organization’s cocaine was stored before being conveyed to final destinations in other parts of the U.S. and in Canada, according to the indictment.

On Friday, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch posted on X that Patel was returning to the U.S. with two priority targets: “a non-U.S. person who was detained by Mexican authorities among the FBI’s 10 most wanted and a Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered” at the U.S. Embassy.

Wedding’s capture follows a mass transfer of cartel suspects from Mexico to U.S. custody, with authorities south of the border handing over 37 inmates for prosecution. The Department of Justice said the defendants include high-ranking members of the Jalisco New Generation, Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.

Extraditions of high-level cartel suspects from Mexico have in past eras taken years to accomplish. Now, as it faces pressure from the Trump administration, the Mexican government has began moving quickly to expel some key figures outside of the standard process.

Wedding was previously charged in a 2024 indictment with running a continuing criminal enterprise, assorted drug trafficking charges and directing the murders of two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.

Authorities said Wedding’s aliases included “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “James Conrad Kin.”

Wedding competed for his home country, Canada, in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Mexican officials last year began handing over dozens of alleged cartel leaders facing charges in U.S. federal courts, including Andrew Clark, Wedding’s alleged lieutenant, who is facing prosecution in Los Angeles.

In December, the New York Times cited U.S. and Canadian court documents that indicated Clark had started cooperating with authorities against his former boss. The records reportedly showed a witness believed to be Clark had “agreed to assist U.S. authorities in the investigation of Wedding’s organization.”

An attorney for Clark did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Jan. 23 (UPI) — The snowfall and ice from a winter storm is expected to impact much of the United States beginning Friday and has triggered thousands of flight cancellations.

Total flight cancellations within, into or out of the United States for Saturday numbered 2,179, as of Friday, flight-tracking website FlightAware reported.

American Airlines was the most-affected airline, with 583 cancellations and one delay announced, followed by Southwest, which had 497 cancellations and 7 delays on record.

American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air had another 261 flights canceled and one delay, followed by SkyWest with 176 cancellations and one delay.

Another American Airlines subsidiary, PSA Airlines, had 136 flights cancelled, but no delays.

The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, by far, reported the most cancellations, with 595 outgoing flights, 68%, and 529 incoming flights, 61%, canceled. Two incoming flights were delayed.

Nashville International Airport was the next-most impacted, with 127 outgoing and 143 incoming flights canceled, accounting for 54% and 60% of scheduled flights, respectively. No flights were delayed there.

The storm system could affect more than 230 million of the nation’s estimated population of 349 million as it brings snow and ice to 34 states in the South, Midwest and Northeast, The Weather Channel reported.

The storm is expected to deliver snowfall totals ranging from a couple of inches to more than 2 feet in areas from the Mountain West, through the Central United States and into the Northeast over the next three days.

New England states were expected to be especially impacted by the storm system that was predicted to last from Saturday through Monday.

Icy conditions also were expected across most southern states, where freezing rain was predicted and equipment is scarce for counteracting such bad weather.

Strong and gusting winds were expected to accompany the storm system, which could cause blizzard conditions in snowy areas and drop the wind chill to -50 degrees Fahrenheit.

After banishing Faithful James, Rachel made a huge mistake that outed her as a Traitor to the other competitors, as Stephen contemplates stabbing her in the back

The Traitors‘ Rachel has made a huge error that could cost her the entire game. After opening her chest to find a shield in it, Rachel discovered she was safe from elimination, and it would be Faithful James who would be banished instead.

Rachel got through to the final by the skin of her teeth, as the room was split on whether to send her or James home. Thanking the team for listening to her, Rachel said she understood why she came under fire and then made a massive mistake.

Whilst talking she said: “If I were a faithful, I would have murdered me.” As Jade gave her the side-eye, she corrected to “If I were a traitor” but has the damage been done?

One fan wrote online: “Slip of the tongue. Will it cost Rachel?” Another angrily wrote: “You’re telling me she played the most masterful game of Traitors all for her to get to the final and act like this??!!!!! Rachel what are we doing?”

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This series of The Traitors featured a number of twists and turns, even from the first episode. Not only did Claudia pick her three Traitors, as per usual, she also picked a Secret Traitor, whose identity was unknown to the Faithfuls, Traitors and the audience.

The twist was largely received well by fans who were excited to work out who the unidentified Traitor was. However, only three episodes in, Fiona was revealed as the scarlet-cloaked villain.

Later in the series, another twist took place in which the traitors were given a dagger. Using the dagger, they could award a player with the power for their vote at the round table to count twice. The dagger was given to gardener James, but it was not enough to save him from receiving the joint most votes at the roundtable.

He faced off against Rachel, who has been a Traitor, alongside Stephen, since the start. Many fans wanted Rachel and Stephen to make it to the final and win, as they have played a blinder of a game. Thankfully, Rachel survived the roundtable, as revealed at the start of The Traitors’ final.

Fans praised Rachel and Stephen for their traitorous game. One said: “I absolutely love them. Ten out of ten, no notes. The best team of Traitors we’ve ever had. Like two cats with eighteen lives. Give one or both of them all the money. Send them on Celebrity Coach Trip. Put their heads on 2p coins.”

Another added: “I know we are supposed to want the faithfuls to win but I have absolutely adored these two as our traitors for this series.” A third said: “The only acceptable ending for me is for Rachel and Stephen to win as traitors.”

The hit series has not only become a favourite among the British public but has catapulted host Claudia Winkleman into being one of the best-loved TV personalities in the country. Off the back of her Traitors success and her shock exit from Strictly Come Dancing this year, Claudia has secured her own chat show on the BBC.

Announcing the new show, she said: “I can’t quite believe it and I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for this amazing opportunity. I’m obviously going to be awful, that goes without saying, but I’m over the moon they’re letting me try.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

For more than a year, a Texas oil firm has clashed with California officials over controversial plans to restart offshore oil operations along the Santa Barbara County coast.

Now, California’s feud with Sable Offshore Corp. has spread to the Trump administration.

On Friday, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced that he had filed suit against the federal government, alleging that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had usurped jurisdiction of Sable’s oil pipelines in an “unlawful power grab.”

“California has seen first-hand the devastating environmental and public health impacts of coastal oil spills — yet the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to evade state regulation which protects against these very disasters,” Bonta said in a statement Friday. “California will not stand idly by as the President endangers California’s beautiful coastline and our public health to increase profits for his fossil fuel industry friends.”

Signs warn of an oil pipeline owned by Sable Offshore Corp.

(Al Seib/For The Times)

The attorney general’s petition, filed in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges PHMSA’s attempt to federalize oversight of the onshore pipelines and its recent approval of Sable’s restart plan. Along with the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the agency that had been working to review Sable’s restart plan, the attorney general argues that PHMSA’s decisions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and asked the court to overturn them.

The federal pipeline agency falls under the U.S. Department of Transportation. Officials with the agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new case.

Regulatory oversight of the pipelines has become a major sticking point in the Houston-based company’s plan to revive three drilling rigs in federal waters off Santa Barbara County’s coast.

The pipelines are part of a network that connects the offshore platforms to to an onshore processing plant near Goleta and then further inland. The two lines in question are located entirely onshore. One of them burst in 2015 near Refugio State Beach, causing one of the biggest oil spills in the state’s history.

The former owner shuttered operation after that spill, but Sable announced in 2024 that it planned to restart oil production — a move that has sparked fear and concern among locals, environmental activists and state and local regulators.

The Trump administration didn’t immediately get involved, but it did signal its support for the project last year, as part of its goal to increase U.S.-made oil.

But in December, PHMSA officials reclassified the pipelines as “interstate” pipelines, citing their link to offshore rigs along the Outer Continental Shelf in federal waters.

Soon after that, the federal agency approved the pipelines for a restart, shocking many who had been working for more than a year to ensure Sable’s compliance with state and local laws.

Bonta on Friday called both those findings incorrect and illegal, saying the federal agency had “no right to usurp California regulatory authority … of potentially hazardous pipelines.”

Sable has repeatedly clashed with state and local officials.

Last year, the California Coastal Commission found that Sable had failed to adhere to the state’s Coastal Act despite repeated warnings and fined the company $18 million. In September, the Santa Barbara County district attorney’s office filed criminal charges against the company, accusing it of knowingly violating state environmental laws while working on repairs to oil pipelines that have sat idle since a major spill in 2015.

The company also remains entangled in several ongoing lawsuits, including one brought by the Central Coast Water Board — represented by Bonta’s office — that alleges the company repeatedly failed to follow state laws and regulations intended to protect water resources, repeatedly putting “profits over environmental protections.”

Sable Offshore Corp.’s Las Flores Canyon Plant operates in Goleta.

(Al Seib/For The Times)

The company denies that it has broken any laws and insists that it has followed all necessary regulations.

Bonta’s new lawsuit doesn’t directly address Sable’s restart plans, but focuses on Trump administration actions over the last few weeks, including its “attempt to evade state regulation.” Bonta argues the administration has put the state’s environment and residents at risk.

Bonta also argues that the change in oversight directly contradicts a consent decree reached after the 2015 oil spill, which determined the state fire marshal would review and approve any possible restart of the onshore pipelines.

“PHMSA’s current position represents a significant departure from this agreement and the way in which PHMSA historically viewed the pipelines,” Bonta’s office said in a statement.

This was pretty audacious, even by the Dodgers’ standard. Their $17-million left fielder flopped last year, so they threw $240 million at another corner outfielder to supplement the three most valuable players already in their lineup.

Still, as Kyle Tucker smiled for the cameras at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, it was hard to imagine this one man could sign here and take down the 2027 season.

On Tuesday the Athletic quoted one ownership source that portrayed the Tucker signing as a tipping point that made it “a 100 percent certainty” owners would push for a salary cap when the collective bargaining agreement expires this fall. Owners have been complaining about the Dodgers’ signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell and Tanner Scott, and on and on, and it sounds silly that the signing of one Kyle Daniel Tucker would turn the owners in a direction many of them already indicated they want to go.

“I agree,” said the man who signed him, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

If baseball comes up with new rules next year, the Dodgers will abide by them. Until then, Friedman said, their “only focus” is on delivering the best possible product to the fans who pack Dodger Stadium every night and shop the team store like crazy. In return, he said, the Dodgers can sell themselves to stars like Tucker.

“A destination spot is where players and their families feel incredibly well taken care of,” Friedman said. “If they’re playing in front of 7,000 people, they don’t feel that as much.

“Playing in front of 50,000 people, and seeing the passion and how much people live and die for the Dodgers each summer and each October, I think, adds to the experience and allure of playing here.”

He also said this, which might infuriate some fans and perhaps some owners outside Los Angeles: “This isn’t just about, let’s spend a lot of money.”

If the Dodgers’ spending habits border on satire to you, well, the Onion got there first. Two decades ago, when fake news actually meant fake, the Onion ran this headline: “Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player In Baseball.”

The Yankees led the major leagues in payroll that year and for the next 10 years. They won the World Series once in that span, in 2009. They have not won since.

So, when the Dodgers splurged last winter, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered a measured response.

“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner told YES Network. “We’ll see if it pays off.”

It did. The Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series. They made more money on ticket sales alone in 2024 than roughly half the 30 teams made in total revenue. Same for their local television revenue.

There’s more: an estimated $200 million in sponsorship revenue last year — thank you, Shohei. In all they took in an estimated $1 billion last year — an MLB record — meaning they spent close to $600 million in player payroll and luxury taxes and still made money.

At that level the cries that owners of other teams should just spend more start to ring a bit hollow. They should spend more, of course. But the issue is how to persuade owners to spend another $100 million when the Dodgers still might outspend them by $300 million.

The Yankees can do the kind of things the Dodgers do, and the San Diego Padres have shown how fans in a small market turn out when an owner is more concerned with winning than profit. However, the implosion of cable and satellite television means that local media revenues have cratered for teams outside large markets.

More than half of MLB teams never have paid anyone the $240 million the Dodgers committed to Tucker. The Dodgers committed even more to Ohtani, Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

The owners could agree that teams should share more revenue, with luxury tax penalties not just in cash but also in restrictions that would hamper the ability to compete, something more significant than the loss of a couple of draft picks.

But that Tucker deal: The Dodgers committed $64 million in a signing bonus — never mind the salary! — to a player they arguably did not need. Owners will be very happy to argue the luxury tax has failed and only a salary cap will stop the Dodgers and New York Mets.

Kyle Tucker’s contract includes a $64-million signing bonus.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

This was part of that Onion satire in 2003: “Yankees manager Joe Torre, whose pitching rotation prior to the mass signing lacked a clear seventh ace, now has the luxury of starting each of his hurlers twice a season.

“ ‘As they say, you can never have enough pitching in this league,’ Torre said.”

Let’s see: Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan. That might be six aces. And, since you never can have enough pitching: Ben Casparius, Kyle Hurt, Landon Knack, River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski. There might be a seventh ace in there, or on the trade market during the coming year.

A salary cap would provide cost certainty that likely would enable owners to sell teams for more money. Whether a salary cap would solve the issue of competitive balance is questionable — in the capped NFL, the AFC championship game has included either the New England Patriots or Kansas City Chiefs for 15 consecutive years — but that would be the owners’ pitch.

So would this: You could compete with the Yankees for the first two decades of this century, but you just can’t compete with these Dodgers, even if that reflects less on payroll and more on management, a dash of October randomness, and that horrendous fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.

In 1994, when owners called off the World Series rather than surrender their pursuit of a salary cap, the following season started a month late, and even then the owners did not get a cap. If they really want a cap, baseball insiders say, the owners will have to vow to stick together and support doing what the NHL owners did to secure one: calling off an entire season.

For the Dodgers and their fans, that is someone else’s problem, at least for this year. In Los Angeles, the prevailing question is not “Salary cap?” but “Three-peat?”

Tucker likely will bat “second or third” in the Dodgers’ lineup, manager Dave Roberts said. He’ll better the defense by playing right field, allowing Teoscar Hernández to move to left field.

Of all the potential offseason acquisitions the Dodgers discussed, Friedman said, “There was really nobody that moved our World Series odds for 2026 more than Kyle Tucker.”

I asked Tucker how he felt about supposedly having so much power that his signing could shut down what owners say is a troubled sport.

“I think baseball is in a good spot,” Tucker said. “We have phenomenal attendance around the world. … Fans are being very supportive of their teams and their players and their organizations. I think it’s a good thing having that interaction with everyone, and I think it’s just going to grow the game from there, as long as we can — as a league and as players — continue growing the fan base.”

Ohtani and the Dodgers are rock stars, as evidenced by the team selling out of $253 seats next to the on-field stage at the annual fan festival next week.

The players will not be playing. They will appear for short interviews with team broadcasters.

Seats in the stands are available from $28 to $153, for an event that was free three years ago. While fans and owners of other teams complain, the Dodgers shake it off and find ways to make even more money.

Life is good when you’re the champions. Enjoy it this year, Dodgers fans. If a lockout is happening next January, as it likely will be, the fan festival will not be happening.

Jan. 23 (UPI) — Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., on Friday endorsed his former campaign manager, Adrian Boafo, to succeed him after he announced his pending retirement.

Hoyer, 86, is the longest-serving House Democrat and represented Maryland’s 5th Congressional District since winning a special election in May 1981.

Boafo, 31, seeks the Democratic Party’s nomination to replace Hoyer after the Nov. 3 general election. Maryland’s primary is scheduled for June 23.

“I’ve had the opportunity to know him for some period of time,” Hoyer told The Washington Post.

“He really knows the district,” Hoyer said. “He knows the people. He’s served the people.”

Boafo thanked Hoyer for the endorsement in a social media post.

“Thank you, Congressman Hoyer, for your service to our nation and for your support in this race,” Boafo wrote in a post on X. “We will continue to build upon your work and deliver for the people of Maryland’s 5th.”

Boafo represents Prince George’s County in the Maryland House of Delegates and formerly was a member of the Bowie City Council.

He also was a lobbyist for software developer Oracle, which was co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison.

Also seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the seat are former Hoyer challenger Quincy Bareebe, who founded Royal Assisted Living and Royal Home Care; Alexis Solis, CEO of Empress Consulting International; and Navy veteran Terry Jackson.

The winner of the Democratic Party’s nomination has the upper hand in winning the general election. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the congressional district by 33 points during the 2024 general election for president.

We have what appears to be the first look at one of two new Gulfstream 700 (G700) VIP jets for the U.S. Coast Guard. The jet notably has a livery almost identical to that of a 737 Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) with a luxurious VVIP interior and clear ties to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rather than a more typical Coast Guard paint scheme.

Aviation photographer Lennon Popp took a picture of the G700, seen at the top of this story, at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday. This airport is home to Gulfstream’s main headquarters and manufacturing facility. The aircraft was using the callsign Gulf Test 96 (GLF96) at the time. What the timeline might be for formal delivery of the jet, if that has not already occurred, is unclear. The Coast Guard said in the past that it hoped to have the jets in hand no later than December 31, 2025. TWZ has reached out to DHS and the Coast Guard for more information. The Coast Guard currently falls under the purview of DHS.

The G700 acquisition does look to be proceeding on a very fast schedule, but what tradeoffs this may require is unknown. DHS and the Coast Guard only confirmed the order for the jets, referred to as Long Range Command and Control Aircraft (LRCCA), last October. The Coast Guard’s present LRCCA fleet consists of a C-37A and a C-37B, which are based on older and out-of-production Gulfstream V and G550 models, respectively. Various Gulfstream models are also in service across the U.S. military and with other U.S. government agencies, but none of them currently operate 700-series types.

The existing LRCCAs are regularly used as a VIP transport for the Secretary of Homeland Security (currently Kristi Noem) and other senior departmental leaders, as well as top Coast Guard leadership. The jets also have a role in larger continuity of government planning to ensure U.S. authorities can keep functioning in the event of a host of different severe contingency scenarios, including major hostile attacks and devastating natural disasters.

What is immediately eye-catching in Popp’s picture is the G700’s paint scheme, which is white over blue with red and gold cheat lines. The DHS seal is also painted on the side of the fuselage just behind the main cabin door, and the Coast Guard seal is seen on the side of the engine nacelle. “United States of America” is written in large lettering on the side of the fuselage, and there is a large American flag, depicted blowing in the wind, on the side of the tail.

In contrast, the Coast Guard’s two existing LRCCAs have a different livery. They are overall white with orange and blue bands around the forward end of the fuselage, similar to what’s found on all of the other fixed-wing aircraft the service operates.

As noted, the G700’s livery is virtually the same as the one that appeared unexpectedly on the 737 Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) last month. We will come back to that aircraft, which carries the U.S. civil registration number N471US, later on. The paint scheme seen on N471US and now on the G700 is also very similar to what President Donald Trump had picked for the forthcoming pair of Boeing 747-8i-based VC-25B Air Force One aircraft during his first term. President Joe Biden subsequently reversed that decision, going back to the same iconic, Kennedy-era livery worn by the current VC-25A Air Force One jets that the VC-25Bs are set to replace. Last August, the Air Force told Inside Defense it was “implementing a new livery requirement for VC-25B,” but did not offer any further details.

The Coast Guard has shared some details about how the G700 LRCCAs will otherwise be configured.

“Gulfstream (as the OEM [original equipment manufacturer]) is the only vendor capable of acquiring G700s under a secure, strict, and time-sensitive process,” according to a formal justification for the sole-source contract that the Coast Guard posted online last October. “DHS and USCG require exacting follow-on cabin refresh, next generation satellite connectivity, and open the potential for a secure command and control communications suite to replicate capabilities of the C-37B.”

The document specifically mentions “Starshield installation” as part of the communications suite for the G700s. Starshield is a more secure cousin to SpaceX’s commercial Starlink space-based internet service intended for government customers. Starshield and Starlink have become increasingly ubiquitous across the U.S. military, including in support of tactical operations, and other U.S. government agencies, in recent years. This underscores SpaceX’s preeminent position in the satellite internet and communication marketspace, as well as when it comes to other space-related services, as you can read more about here.

“The G700 provides a combination of increased range, speed, seating capacity, and enhanced avionics in comparison to a used G550,” the justification document adds. “While a G550 is capable, it is no longer in production and USCG is at the mercy of the re-sell [sic] market to grow the LRCCA fleet in the required time.”

DHS and Coast Guard officials have stressed these points repeatedly in the past year in arguing for the need to modernize the LRCCA fleet. Members of Congress have previously leveled significant criticism on DHS, and Secretary Noem more specifically, over the plans to buy new jets, the total cost of which has been said be between $170 and $200 million. The price of a base model G700 before any alterations, painting, and other work is done is generally set at around $70 to $80 million.

Disputes over the allocation of funding and the decision to order the jets during a protracted government shutdown have drawn particular ire from some legislators. DHS has seen a huge boost in its total budget in the past year.

A Joint Explanatory Statement report accompanying a draft Homeland Security spending bill making its way through Congress right now includes a new demand for monthly updates detailing the use of the Coast Guard’s LRCCA fleet. Among other things, those status reports must include “for official travel, the nexus to a statutory Department of Homeland Security mission and justification for [the] trip” and “any alcoholic beverages consumed on the flight and the source of such beverages.”

Childlike wonder meets climate devastation in the modestly realized French animated film “Arco,” a fantasy of the future that centers on the innocent adventurousness of kids as a hopeful reality, still. (Another hopeful reality for “Arco” is its recent Oscar nomination as of Thursday morning.)

While animator Ugo Bienvenu’s debut feature, written with Félix De Givry, openly aspires to the playful awe of Spielberg and classic stories such as “Peter Pan,” it also feels of a piece with the unadorned postwar poignancy of René Clément’s “Forbidden Games” and the animated Japanese tale “Grave of the Fireflies.”

The titular boy (voiced in this English-dubbed version by Juliano Valdi) is who we first meet: a lively 10-year-old tending to chickens and pigs at a verdant family home suspended above the clouds on a giant platform. Soon his parents and older sister arrive from the air, trailing rainbows behind their colorful capes. They’ve just flown in from a trip to the time of dinosaurs, bringing back flora to add to their sustainable lifestyles. Arco wants to fly, too, but is told he’s not old enough yet.

Since when did that stop a willful kid? When Arco swipes his sister’s flying apparatus for a secret midnight soar, however, he falls into the year 2075 and a tech-dependent Earth world barely hanging on in the face of incessant weather disasters. Which is when we meet kind, forthright suburban schoolgirl Iris (Romy Fay), her tech-laden life marked by holograms for parents (voiced by Mark Ruffalo and producer Natalie Portman), a friendly robot for a nanny (not to mention robots everywhere as teachers, cops and the like), and retractable domes encasing every house and building in advance of destructive storms and fires.

When Iris encounters the crash-landed Arco in the woods, a friendship develops, built around trying to make his way back (forward) to his time, but also a curiosity about each other’s lives. With epic fires on the horizon, though, returning Arco to his original future proves especially fraught, especially with a suspicious trio of bickering explorer brothers (Andy Samberg, Will Ferrell, Flea) tracking their every move, believing they’re onto a big secret.

With its Miyazaki-inflected aesthetic rooted in hand-stylized humans and a juxtaposition of natural-world splendor with the sheen of artificial enhancements, “Arco” is a sweet yet slight sci-fi vision, an “E.T.” riff with a European sensibility. That isn’t always in its favor. Story-wise it can feel like not enough — a simplicity that stalls as much as it enchants — and the less said the better about the hapless adult brothers, who lean more toward creepy than funny.

The animation is a mixed bag, too. The backdrops tend to be more inviting than the foregrounded characters, with Iris’ and Arco’s eyes oddly lifeless for a movie dependent on their connection and in which adults are shown as absentee stewards, often sporting high-tech shades that indicate a remove. At its best, when theme and visuals are in sync, “Arco” has the easy charm of something half-remembered from one’s cartoon-packed youth: beguilingly earnest and awkward in equal measure.

“Arco” defies dismissing, however, especially as it pertains to what lies in store for humanity. It’s an agreeably heartfelt reminder that children are powered by an imaginative daring and purity of bonding we’d be wise to nurture, not squelch, if we’re going to learn how to inhabit the increasingly uninhabitable.

A federal judge ruled Friday that President Trump’s administration must keep federal funds flowing to childcare subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic-controlled states — at least for now.

The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick extends by two weeks a temporary one issued earlier this month that blocked the federal government from holding back the money from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The initial temporary restraining order was to expire Friday.

Broderick said Friday that he would decide later whether the money is to remain in place while a challenge to cutting it off works its way through the courts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent the five states notices in early January informing them it would require justifications for spending the money aimed at helping low-income families. It also said it would require more documentation, including the names and Social Security numbers of the beneficiaries of some of the programs.

The programs are intended to help low-income families

The programs affected by the restrictions at the heart of this case are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes childcare for 1.3 million children from low-income families nationwide; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs.

The states say that they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from those programs — and that the programs are essential for low-income and vulnerable families, including paying about half the cost of shelters for homeless families in New York City.

For TANF and the Social Service Block Grant, the request required the states to submit the data, including personal information of recipients beginning in 2022, with a deadline of Jan. 20.

Government lawyers said Friday that the department was working on more guidelines about what exactly was required before the initial restraining order was put in place.

The administration says it took action because of concerns about fraud

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this month that it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally. At the time, it didn’t explain why.

But in Friday’s hearing, Mallika Balachandran, a federal government lawyer, said that the concerns were raised by media reports, though she told the judge she did not know which ones. Federal officials have previously cited a video by a right-wing influencer who claimed fraud by Minneapolis day care centers operated by people with Somali backgrounds.

Broderick asked whether the government picked the five states first and then did research into whether there were fraud claims there. Balachandran said she didn’t know that either.

Broderick said he didn’t understand why the government made it harder for the states to access money for the programs before any wrongdoing had been found.

“It just seems like the cart before the horse,” he said.

The states, which all have Democratic governors, say the move was instead intended to damage Trump’s political adversaries.

Around the same time as the actions aimed at the five states, the administration put up hurdles to Minnesota for even more federal dollars. It also began requesting all states to explain how they’re using money in the childcare program.

States call the action ‘unlawful many times over’

In court papers last week, the states say what they describe as a funding freeze does not follow the law.

They say Congress created laws about how the administration can identify noncompliance or fraud by recipients of the money — and that the federal government hasn’t used that process.

They also say it’s improper to freeze funding broadly because of potential fraud and that producing the data the government called for is an “impossible demand on an impossible timeline.”

Jessica Ranucci, a lawyer in New York’s attorney general’s office arguing on behalf of the five states, told the judge that she was told only about a half-hour before the hearing that the government had been developing more information about what states needed to provide. That wasn’t mentioned in the court filings, she said.

The administration says it’s not a freeze

In a court filing this week, the administration objected to the states describing the action as a “funding freeze,” even though the headline on the Department of Health and Human Services announcement was: “HHS Freezes Child Care and Family Assistance Grants in Five States for Fraud Concerns.”

Federal government lawyers said the states could get the money going forward if they provide the requested information and the federal government finds them to be in compliance with anti-fraud measures.

The administration also notes that it has continued to provide funding to the states.

The lawyer for the states said that most of the funding, though, was not accessible until after the restraining order was entered.

This isn’t the only case where the federal government has threatened to cut off funding recently. Trump has said this month that “sanctuary cities” that resist his administration’s immigration policies — and their states — could lose federal funds.

This week, his budget office told other federal departments and agencies to collect information about money several states receive — but said it wasn’t to withhold money.

Mulvihill writes for the Associated Press.

Trinity Rodman has re-signed with the Washington Spirit, ending a months-long saga that led the NWSL to adjust its salary cap rules in order to retain one of its biggest stars.

Financial details of the three-year contract weren’t released, but ESPN reports that the deal is worth more than $2 million annually, including bonuses, making Rodman the highest-paid athlete in NWSL history.

In a news release, the Spirit described the deal as “one of the most significant contracts in the NWSL and the women’s game worldwide.”

“I think I’ve always had a vision and an idea of what I wanted my legacy to be,” Rodman said at an event announcing her new deal Thursday at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. “And for me, we’re doing that and I’m so grateful for that.”

Rodman is currently training with the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team in Carson. At age 18, she was selected No. 2 overall by Washington in the 2021 draft. Rodman went on to win the league’s rookie of the year award and record the game-winning assist in extra time during the NWSL championship game that season.

In 2024 and 2025, Rodman helped the Spirit return to the championship game.

“Getting drafted here and developing and maturing and learning — and failing — at the Spirit, in D.C., it’s become so much of my legacy and my story,” Rodman said. “But on top of that, I still feel like there’s so much more I have to give and so much more that I want to do.”

Rodman’s initial contract with Washington expired on Dec. 31, making her a free agent. A gold medal winner for the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Rodman was rumored to be getting interest from European teams that don’t have the same salary restrictions.

“I can’t think of the Washington Spirit without her,” Spirit owner Michele Kang said at Thursday’s event in L.A. “And I hope she can’t think about her career without the Washington Spirit. So this is really monumental and it was really important, not only for the Spirit, especially for our fans who expect to see her. They come to Audi Field and that’s where Rowdy Audi clearly came out.”

Lakers legend Magic Johnson, a minority stakeholder in the Spirit, called Rodman’s re-signing a “big win for the entire National Women’s Soccer League!”

“Michele and the Spirit leadership spoke about the vision for the franchise, creating sustainable success, implementing innovation and being a standard bearer for women’s sports,” Johnson wrote on X following Thursday’s event. “Keeping Trinity as a Spirit player was a big step to fulfilling that vision. I want to congratulate the entire Spirit organization for getting the deal done! I know our incredible fan base is as excited as I am.”

Rodman and the Spirit had previously reached an agreement on a four-year, multimillion-dollar contract in early December. That deal was rejected by the NWSL as being against the spirit of the league’s salary cap, which is set at $3.5 million for each team for the 2026 season and will rise each year until hitting $5.1 million in 2030.

The NWSL Players Assn. filed a grievance against the league for nixing the contract agreement, alleging that the move violated the collective bargaining agreement.

Weeks later, the league adopted a “High Impact Player” rule allowing teams to spend up to $1 million over the salary cap for star players that meet certain criteria. The union also has filed a grievance over that rule, claiming that the league is not allowed to “unilaterally create a new pay structure.”

Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter says the “High Impact Player” rule figured into Rodman’s new contract and that neither NWSLPA grievance would alter the deal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jan. 23 (UPI) — People are calling out of work, businesses are shutting down and people are avoiding spending money in Minnesota Friday as a protest of the federal agents surge in their state.

The general strike day is called ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom, and the organizers have called for people to boycott work, school and shopping. The strike calls for an immediate end to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in the state and charges for the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. It also demands no more funding for ICE in the next federal budget.

“It’s tense and emotional, and folks are hurting,” Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of Faith in Action, told The New York Times. He said Minnesotans are showing their “deep resilience and willingness to stand together in ways I haven’t seen folks do in a very long time.”

The day of the protest will be difficult for those braving the weather, as Minnesota is under an extreme cold warning Friday. Temperatures in the Twin Cities are expected to drop to minus 20 degrees, with wind chills of minus 41 degrees.

A march is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST in Minneapolis, and prayer vigils are planned all over the state.

The city has been under tension for weeks since the agents arrived. Good was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7. Federal prosecutors recently subpoenaed Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey and other Democratic elected officials. A Nicaraguan detainee died in ICE custody of an apparent suicide. On Thursday, a 5-year-old boy was detained with his father, and three other children were taken. Three activists were arrested after a protest during a church service. Vice President JD Vance visited the city Thursday to “restore law and order” in the city, and he blamed local officials for the “chaotic” ICE enforcement.

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the state of Minnesota have filed a federal lawsuit to stop the federal action in their cities and state.

Minneapolis native Kimberly Chase, 64, protested the Vance speech Thursday and told The Washington Post that her niece and her classmates had talked about digging a hole on school property to hide from ICE agents if they came to their school.

“We’re being invaded at all levels of society from kids to old people,” Chase told The Post. “But it’s not working. If anything, it’s making our community tighter.”

Many local businesses in the Twin Cities were closed on Friday.

“There’s a time to stand up for things, and this is it,” Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, told The New York Times. Her restaurant in Minneapolis closed on Friday. “If it takes away from a day of our income, that is worthwhile.”

In an email on Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security official told The Times that the strike was “beyond insane.” He asked, “Why would these labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their communities?”

“What we have experienced and are experiencing in the state of Minnesota is not normal,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, auxiliary minister at Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Paul, at a Jan. 13 news conference, The Post reported. “We have witnessed violence over and over again, families being ripped apart, loved ones being torn from their hospital beds, from their workplaces, from their homes.

“We cannot allow this to continue,” Bates Imari said. “If you ever wondered for yourself, when is the time that we do something different, when is the time that we stand up … the time is now.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said on X Monday that the agency had arrested more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants in Minneapolis. She provided no evidence of that number.

Christa Sarrack, president of a labor union that represents about 6,000 of Minnesota’s hospitality workers, said the one-day strike might be the largest worker action in Minnesota history. She told The Times that some of the union members’ employers had decided to close for the day, and others were allowing employees to not come to work.

“We cannot simply sit by and allow this to continue,” Sarrack said. “We must use every tool that we have to fight back.”

Some coffee shops planned to close but open their doors for people to come inside and warm up, offering free coffee and sign-making materials, The Post said. A brewery planned to offer free hot dogs. Other businesses said they would stay open to help employees who needed the wages but would donate some revenue to local nonprofits.

Hundreds of businesses are closing their doors in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the midwestern United States, as anti-ICE protesters continue to call for the federal agency to leave the city as part of a large-scale economic protest that has been named The Day of Truth and Freedom.

Friday’s walkout includes small businesses, unions, faith groups, and educators across the city, which has become a focal point of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s aggressive actions. The call, organised by a coalition of community groups, also urges a suspension of consumer spending.

“It is time to suspend the normal order of business to demand immediate cessation of ICE actions in MN,” the group organising the protest wrote on its website.

There are solidarity marches in cities across the US, including New York City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Seattle, among others.

At the Minneapolis protest, the group is also planning a march that begins at 2pm local time (20:00 GMT) and ends at the Target Center — an arena in downtown Minneapolis.

Eyes on Target

The big-box retailer, in particular, has been in the crosshairs of organisers because of the company’s close ties to Minneapolis, where its headquarters are located, and it is the state’s fourth-largest employer.

The group is calling for Target stores to exercise protections under the Fourth Amendment, which would mean federal agents do not have the legal authority to enter a residence or place of business without a warrant signed by a judge.

In a document shared with organisers, the group pointed to two incidents of concern. One on January 8, when Customs and Border Patrol aggressively forced two US citizens onto the ground and subsequently detained them while working at a store in Richfield, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, and another three days later in nearby St Paul, where Customs and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino entered a store with other agents.

“Where Target leads, others follow. Our state is under occupation from federal agents, and they are attacking Minnesotans quite literally inside of Target stores. We need Target to stand with Minnesotans against these attacks,” the document said.

Target has been quiet about the protests and calls from its workers to take a stance. The company sent a memo to staff, according to Bloomberg News, warning of potential disruptions.

The pressure by anti-ICE protesters is the latest in a wave of pushback against the retail giant by progressives in the past year. There was a call for boycotts after the company rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which the company later attributed to a reason for a downturn in sales in early 2025.

The looming tensions have not made a dent on Wall Street, as the company’s stock is up 1.3 percent in midday trading.

Target did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The political response

“The Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement operations have resulted in countless dangerous criminal illegals being removed from the streets – including rapists, murderers, burglars, drunk drivers, and more. Making American communities safer will create an environment in which all businesses can thrive in the long term and their customers can feel safe. Joe Biden and Democrat leaders should’ve never let countless dangerous criminal illegals enter our country to begin with. And now the Trump Administration is cleaning up the Democrats’ mess,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Al Jazeera in a statement.

When pressed for a response to this reasoning and asked whether ICE would commit to holding accountable agents who break the law, the White House declined to provide additional comment.

The allegations concerning the agency’s conduct have led to the protests, including claims that ICE’s actions violated First and Fourth Amendment protections and threats towards protesters.

Among them are the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a case that has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties advocates, and the Department of Justice’s decision not to investigate the agent behind the shooting, which has invoked further outrage. One of the economic blackout’s calls is to hold Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot and killed Renee Good, legally accountable.

“I understand why people are choosing to participate in the January 23 blackout, and I support those decisions. At the same time, our small businesses, especially immigrant-owned businesses, are under a lot of pressure right now, and they could really use our support. However you choose to show up, I hope we keep our neighbours and local businesses in mind,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.

Representatives for Governor Tim Walz did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

HE is already one of the most famous men in Britain, with a record 18 Brit Awards and record sales exceeding 80million.

And today, Robbie Williams has made history once again when his latest album Britpop soared to the top of the charts – meaning he has now surpassed The Beatles to become the act with the most No1 albums in UK history, with a total of 16.

In an exclusive chat after finding out the news, he said: “It’s absolutely insane.

“I’m still trying to take it all in and figure out what it all means.“I can just tell you that I’m glad that it’s happened to me.”

It comes a week after it was revealed he has quit the UK and is now splitting his time between the Bahamas and Miami, having only moved back to London from Los Angeles in 2022.

Revealing why he left the UK, he said of his new life in the sun: “Not going to lie, it’s not s**t. I’m done with bad weather.“

HE’S THE ONE

Inside Robbie Williams’ wild career as he looks set to eclipse The Beatles

BRIT OF A SHOCK

Robbie Williams surprises fans by dropping new Britpop album

“I was out of the UK for like 24 years and then I was in the UK, and I know what I prefer.

“Unfortunately it goes dark and grey at the end of September. And if you’re lucky, it doesn’t stop being dark and grey until the end of May.

“So I’m doing away with that bit and just being in the sunshine. And if you can, why not? Why wouldn’t you?”

And maybe he’ll come back here in the summer?

“Yeah. I mean, everybody’s heading to the Cotswolds, aren’t they? I’d like to do that.”

I’m bigger than the Beatles and Jesus. There you go, there’s your headline.

Robbie Williams

Robbie’s incredible new chart feat was unveiled this afternoon, although neither of the surviving Beatles members Sir Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr had been in touch… yet.

He quipped: “No, but I’m bigger than the Beatles and Jesus. There you go, there’s your headline.

‘I’m a more monster’

“It doesn’t make any sense. The Beatles, the best band to ever exist. They did everything before they split up and then achieved what they achieved with their solo careers and stuff.

“And here’s this daft [bloke] from Stoke, wandering into the party and claiming some sort of record that overthrows them for five minutes.

“In my life and in my mind, I’ll have that mean happiness for me.

“But I also realise that the Beatles are the Beatles. Elvis is Elvis. And I should be stacking some shelves in an Asda in Stoke-on-Trent, so I’m just very, very lucky.”

It’s an astonishing feat, having landed his first solo No1 album in 1997 with Life Thru A Lens after leaving Take That – and also scoring seven No1 singles along the way.

Ayda’s coming in tomorrow and a few of the kids are coming in tomorrow too. I guess I’ll be celebrating by buying Ayda a handbag. She doesn’t do cheap handbags.”

Robbie Williams

Joining on a Zoom call from a lavish hotel suite in Paris, he said he will be celebrating there this weekend – and his wife Ayda Field will be reaping the rewards.

He admitted: “Ayda’s coming in tomorrow and a few of the kids are coming in tomorrow too. I guess I’ll be celebrating by buying Ayda a handbag.

“She doesn’t do cheap handbags.”

At only 51, there’s plenty of life in Robbie yet, and I won’t be surprised if he has loads more No1s in the future.

Asked if he has a total he wants to hit, he said: “I think this could be an end to want and need in this particular field…”

But then he conceded: “Oh, who am I kidding?

“I always want more. I’ve got a more problem. I’m a more monster. The hole is unfillable. So, yeah, f**k, scrap everything I’ve just said. I want more.”

And he is relishing the success.

On whether he knows where his other No1 awards are, he panned the camera over to a table featuring all 16.

“Why would I?” he chuckled.

“They’re coming everywhere with me now.

“There’s nothing in my house that would suggest I am me and I do what I do for a living.

“Those should be somewhere. Maybe in the garage where I could, if I’m just showing people around, go, ‘Oh, yeah, those. Oh, who put those there?’”

During the chat, he also let slip that he has “five albums ready to go”, so there will be more music to come in the next few years.

He explained: “They’re all demos right now. But I don’t think I will be writing, I don’t think I have to write for a long time. I’ve already done it all. There’s a vault full of stuff.”

But self-deprecating as always, he added: “Whether great swathes of the general public will want it from me, who knows and who cares? But I’ve got stuff to deliver.”

Robbie’s 16 chart-topping albums

How do you know what you know?

Did you learn it in school, read it in a newspaper? Did you get your information on social media or though chatter with friends?

Even in an age of misinformation and disinformation — which we really need to start clearly calling propaganda — we continue to rely on old ways of knowing. We take it for granted that if we really need to get to the truth, there’s a way to do it, even if it means cracking the pages of one of those ancient conveyors of wisdom, a book.

But we are entering an era in America when knowledge is about to be hard to come by. It would be easy to shrug off this escalation of the war on truth as just more Trump nonsense, but it is much more than that. Authoritarians take power in the short term by fear and maybe force. In the long term, they rely on ignorance — an erasure of knowledge to leave people believing that there was ever anything different than what is.

This is how our kids, future generations, come to be controlled. They simply don’t know what was, and therefore are at a great disadvantage in imagining what could be.

This week, the White House altered a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, the civil rights lawyer arrested in Minneapolis for protesting inside a church.

The original photo shows Armstrong in handcuffs being led away by a federal officer with his face blurred out. Armstrong is composed and steady in this image. A veteran of social justice movements and a trained attorney, she appears as one might expect, her expression troubled but calm.

In the photo released by the White House, Armstrong is sobbing, her mouth hanging open in despair. In what is clearly nothing more than overt racism, it appears her skin has been darkened. Her braided hair, neatly styled in the original picture, is disheveled in the Trump image.

On the left, a photograph from the X (formerly Twitter) account of U.S. Secretary Kristi Noem, showing Nekima Levy Armstrong being arrested. On the right, the photo has been altered before being posted to the White House’s X (formerly Twitter) account.

(@Sec_Noem via X/@WhiteHouse via X)

A strong, composed resister is turned into a weeping, weak failure.

“YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,”

That was the official White House response to inquiries about the photo, posted on social media.

The same week, the Trump administration began ripping down exhibits at the President’s House in Philadelphia that told the story of the nine Black people held in bondage there by George Washington. I’ve been to that exhibit and had planned to take my kids this summer to learn about Joe Richardson, Christopher Sheels, Austin, Hercules, Giles, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond.

They are names that barely made it into American history. Many have never heard of them. Now, this administration is attempting to erase them.

How do you know what you know? I learned most of what I knew about these folks from that signage, which is probably in a dump somewhere by now.

The information we once took for granted on government websites such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is gone. Climate change information; LGBTQ+ information; even agricultural information. Gone (though courts have ordered some restored).

The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked federal police misconduct, has been shut down.

The Smithsonian is undergoing an ideological review.

And now, our government is telling us it will alter in real time images of dissenters to create its own narrative, demand we believe not our own eyes, our own knowledge, but the narrative they create.

“I’ll end with this, we’re being told one story which is totally different than what’s occurring,” said Cumberland County, Me., Sheriff Kevin Joyce.

He was speaking specifically about an incident in his town in which a corrections officer recruit was detained by ICE this week. In video taken by a bystander, about five agents pull the man from his car as he drives home after work. They then leave the car running in the street as they take him away.

Joyce told reporters the man had a clean background check before being hired, had no criminal record, and was working legally in the country. The sheriff has no idea where the man is being held.

Joyce’s sentiment, that what we are being told isn’t what’s happening, applies to nearly everything we are seeing with our own eyes.

A woman shot through her temple, through the side window of her car? You don’t understand what you are seeing. It was justified, our vice president has told us, without even the need for an investigation.

Goodbye Renee Good. They are attempting in real time to erase her reality and instead morph her into a domestic terrorist committing “heinous” crimes, and maybe even worse.

“You have a small band of very far left people who are doing everything they can … to try to make ICE out to be the ultimate enemy, and engage in this weird, small-scale civil war,” Vice President JD Vance said this week.

Protesting turned into civil war.

Next up, artificial intelligence is getting into the erasure game. Scientists are warning that those who wish to destroy truth will soon unleash AI-run operations in which thousands if not millions of social media posts will offer up whatever alternative reality those in control of it wish. Under the pressure of that avalanche of lies, many will believe.

The message the White House is sending with Armstrong’s photo is that they control the truth, they decide what it is.

Our job is to fight for truth, know it when we see it, and demand it not be erased.

Freshmen have played a big role in UCLA‘s strong start to the gymnastics season, accounting for roughly 37% of its routines ahead of Sunday’s meet against Michigan State.

Leading the way has been Ashlee Sullivan, who was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after fifth-ranked UCLA swept the conference’s weekly honors for the second time this season.

Against Nebraska last week, Sullivan recorded career-highs in three events and tied for first on uneven bars (9.9) and floor exercise (9.875).

“We’re really relying on our freshmen and the experience that they had previously in their elite careers and things like that,” UCLA coach Janelle McDonald said.

Three meets into the season, Tiana Sumanasekera is the only freshman to compete in every event, with Nola Matthews and Sullivan making appearances in three.

“We always make the decision that’s best for the team, and so we’re gonna make our lineups not necessarily based on who gets to do all-around, but who are the best six for each event,” McDonald said.

Matthews and Sullivan are practicing for all events, with the latter close to participating on beam.

UCLA gymnast Ashlee Sullivan performs her floor routine during a quad meet in Utah on Jan. 10.

(Tyler Tate / Associated Press)

“We kind of restructured [Ashlee’s] beam routine about a week and a half ago, just to be a little bit cleaner,” McDonald said, “but she’s known as a beamer.”

McDonald is excited to see her freshman go up against a challenging adversary like No. 21 Michigan State.

“So far this season, they’ve showed up and just really delivered,” McDonald said. “I’m excited to see them get to have this opportunity against a great, great team.”

A Big Ten rivalry in the making

Michigan State, the 2024 Big Ten champion, will offer a big test for the Bruins as the two teams renew their budding rivalry.

“Some of our favorite memories were against Michigan State last year, I know the dual meet we had was just incredible [with] us coming back,” McDonald said.

During a dual meet in February, UCLA came back from 0.7 points down in the last rotation to win. They met again in the Big Ten championship, and Michigan State led after two rotations, 99.1-98.9. After an incredible floor rotation — highlighted by a perfect 10 from Jordan Chiles — and a school-record 49.75 on beam, the Bruins took the title.

This year’s meet will be shown live on Fox at 10 a.m. PST, marking the second time this season the Bruins have been on national television.

“It’s just a very cool opportunity to get to be a representative of our sport and get some different eyes on our sport,” McDonald said. “It’s not something we take lightly and it’s definitely something we want to show up for.”

Balancing NCAA success with Olympic dreams

With the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics fast approaching, McDonald and her coaching staff understand the importance of maintaining and developing the elite skills in their gymnasts that will carry them in national and international competition.

Sumanasekera has been working with UCLA coaches to improve her NCAA routines while also bolstering the elite skills that could improve her chances of making the U.S. Olympic team.

“It’s really about maintaining elite skills, making sure she has them in her pocket so that we can just pull on them when it’s time to build those elite routines back up,” McDonald said. “There’s so many different people that have a hand in our program to help them continue to feel good and to be as strong as possible in all of those things.”