MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota activist who was charged for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a church released her own video of her arrest after the White House posted a manipulated image online.

The White House on Thursday posted a picture on its X page of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong appearing to be crying with her hands behind her back as she is escorted by a person wearing a badge whose image is blurred. The photo was captioned in all caps: “Arrested far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.”

A photo posted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s account showed the same image with Levy Armstrong wearing a neutral expression.

Levy Armstrong, who was arrested with at least two others Thursday for an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a church where an ICE official serves as a pastor, released her own video. Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, a St. Paul school board member who was also arrested in connection with the protest, were both released Friday, according to a post by Levy Armstrong’s organization, the Racial Justice Network. Their attorneys declined to comment.

The video shot by Levy Armstrong’s husband, Marques Armstrong, shows several federal agents approaching to arrest her.

“I’m asking you to please treat me with dignity and respect,” she said to the agents.

“We have to put you in handcuffs,” one agent said, while another held up a phone and appeared to record a video.

“Why are you recording?” Levy Armstrong asked. “I would ask that you not record.”

“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent filming said. “It’s not going to be on anything like that.”

“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent said.

At no point in the more than seven-minute video — which shows Levy Armstrong being handcuffed and led into a government vehicle — did Levy Armstrong appear to cry. Instead, she talked with agents about her arrest.

“You know that this is a significant abuse of power,” she said. “Because I refuse to be silent in the face of brutality from ICE.”

“I’m not in here to get in a political debate,” the agent filming said.

In an audio message that Levy Armstrong’s spokesperson shared with the Associated Press, Levy Armstrong said the video of her arrest exposes that the Trump administration had used AI to manipulate images of her arrest.

“We are being politically persecuted for speaking out against authoritarianism, fascism and the tyranny of the Trump administration,” said Levy Armstrong, who recorded the message Friday morning during a call with her husband from jail.

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brook and Raza write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis and Tiffany Stanley in Washington contributed to this report.

Cardiff: Beetham; Adams, Millard, B Thomas, Stephens; Sheedy, Davies; Barratt, Belcher (capt), Assiratti, McNally, Nott, Mann, Botham, Lawrence.

Replacements: E Lloyd, Domachowski, Sebastian, Thornton, D Thomas, Mulder, I Lloyd, Grady.

Sin-bin: Mann 26

Benetton: Smith; Mendy, Menoncello, Marin, Odogwu; Farias, Uren (capt); Aminu, Maile, Pasquali, Marini, Ruzza, Favretto, Zuliani, Cannone.

Replacements: Bernasconi, Spagnolo, Gallorini, Scrafton, Fa’aso’o, Kingi, Garbisi,

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

Assistants: Ben Connor (Wales), Craig Evans (Wales

TMO: Colin Brett (Scotland)

US federal agents have shot and killed a 37-year-old US citizen in Minneapolis amid an immigration crackdown in the city. Authorities say the man had a handgun and ‘resisted attempts to be disarmed’. He died in hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.

According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.

The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.

READ: UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa

Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.

According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.

READ: UAE under scrutiny over alleged arms shipments to Sudan

Dancer and TV star Anton Du Beke, who is best known as a long-serving judge on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing has been revealed as Arctic Fox on The Masked Singer

Strictly Come Dancing legend Anton Du Beke has been revealed as Arctic Fox on The Masked Singer. The TV star, 59, who is best known for appearing as a judge on the BBC Saturday night favourite, had secretly switched over to ITV to take part in the nation’s favourite guessing game.

Judges Mo Gilligan, Davina McCall, Maya Jama and Jonathan Ross, along with Little Mix star Perrie Edwards serving as a guest panellist, all shared their educated guesses as to who it could be after a crowdpleasing perfomance of Barbra Streisand number Woman in Love.

Speaking to host Joel Dommett immediately after his elimination, he said: “I’ve loved every second of it, it’s been the most wonderful thing so thank you!”

READ MORE: Masked Singer fans claim Can of Worms is TV superstar after 8 clues stack upREAD MORE: Masked Singer’s Toastie ‘confirmed’ as ex EastEnders star with unbelievable voice

When asked about how he felt about being voted off the programme, he said: “Devastated naturally. Delighted to be able to perform but devastated to have been voted off!”

But Anton, who is married to Hannah Summers and has a set of eight-year-old twins with her, revealed he is just a huge fan of the show and decided to sign up to the programme so his appearance could be a big surprise for his children.

He added: “Well it’s such a lovely show. And it’s been going a while, I wondered why no-one ever asked me before! They have, I just haven’t had the time. It’s a lovely show, wonderfully done, it’s a great show. And the thought of doing this and people trying to guess who you are.

“I’m just a huge fan and I know my children are loving this. I haven’t told them, I’ve been very good. I’ve done very well, I haven’t mentioned it. They said where are you going daddy and I’ve just said I’ve got rehearsal. So I haven’t told them I’m on the show. So when they see the unveiling they are going to be overwhelmed. It’s going to be brilliant!

“I’ve had such fun. It’s been brilliant fun and that’s what I’m going to take away really. I’ve loved working with the vocal coaches. I’ve loved belting out a bit of Shirley Bassey, a bit of Barbra Streisand. Tony Hadley.”

His exit was part of a double elimination, and it came just moments after singer Kate Nash was revealed to have been performing as Monkey Business, and she had given a rendition of As Long As He Needs Me from Oliver! this week.

She said: “I was so nervous about it but then I got really nervous about the mask coming off and how it was going to feel singing without the mask. It’s like a little comfort zone, you’re not worrying about anything else when you’re in there. It was a unique experience , it’s going to be hard to give her up.”

* This is a breaking showbiz news story. Join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News , Flipboard , Apple News, TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads – or visit The Mirror homepage

MINNEAPOLIS — The NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors was postponed on Saturday afternoon following another fatal shooting by federal officers in Minneapolis.

The league announced the decision was made to “prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community” after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed in a confrontation with officers on a street in a commercial district less than two miles from Target Center, the downtown arena where the Timberwolves play.

The game was moved back by 24 hours, rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. The Timberwolves and Warriors are also scheduled to play on Monday night.

Jan. 24 (UPI) — An unidentified man has been arrested after he drove a vehicle into a Detroit Metro Airport terminal and injured six on Friday night.

The incident happened at the airport’s McNamara Terminal and close to the check-in line for Delta Air Lines at 7:30 p.m. EST., CBS News reported.

The vehicle struck a ticket counter and was fully inside the terminal when the driver was arrested, according to the Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees the airport’s operations.

Six people were treated for injuries at the scene, but none were hospitalized.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise when the vehicle rammed the terminal’s entryway and continued into the Delta Air Lines passenger desk, which was manned, according to WXYZ-TV.

Police and Transportation Security Administration officers responded quickly and arrested the driver.

“The response was so quick, thank god, with the cops and TSA and everybody,” airline passenger Ali Khalifa told WXYZ, adding that it “all happened in seconds.”

A man wearing a Detroit Lions jersey who was driving the Mercedes-Benz when it crashed into the ticket counter was arrested, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Reports do not say if others were in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

The cause of the crash is unknown, and it did not disrupt airport operations.

Cleanup crews were tending to the damage at 10:15 p.m., and an investigation is underway.

The suspect remained in custody on Saturday, but charges were not filed as of Saturday morning, according to the WCAA.

The British Army’s next main battle tank, the Challenger 3, has successfully fired its main gun for the first time. The new tank is planned to enter service in 2027 and is further evidence of the pivot back toward armored warfare — in Europe, especially — in response to the growing threat from Russia, after many years of stagnation.

Indeed, it has been so long since the British Army last had any kind of new main battle tank in development that the previous time that such firing trials took place was more than 30 years ago.

The milestone was announced by the Defense Equipment and Support (DE&S) branch, which handles procurement for the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The trials took place at an unnamed firing range in the United Kingdom, with the tank fully crewed.

Responsible for the campaign was Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), a joint venture between Germany’s Rheinmetall and Britain’s BAE Systems, which is developing the new tank. The gun itself is a product of Rheinmetall Waffe Munitions. This is a 120mm smoothbore L55A1 cannon that can fire both kinetic-energy anti-armor rounds and programmable multipurpose ammunition.

Ahead of the crewed trials with the Challenger 3 and RBSL personnel, the company, together with the British Army and DE&S, had undertaken remote firing of the L55A1 gun.

“Firing the vehicle first remotely and then with a crew in the turret reflects the enormous amount of work that has gone into ensuring the design is safe, robust, and ready,” explained Rebecca Richards, the managing director of RBSL.

“Seeing Challenger 3 fire successfully with a crew in the turret demonstrates just how far the program has progressed and marks a proud moment for U.K. armored vehicle development,” Richards added.

Rheinmetall – Challenger 3 contract signed

The new gun replaces the L30A1 rifled gun, of the same caliber, found in the current Challenger 2. This new weapon provides a notably greater muzzle velocity since the projectile leaves the barrel faster, it ensures an improved degree of penetration and, in some cases, extends the range.

As we have described in the past:

The gun fires single-piece ammunition, rather than the two-piece rounds that are used in the Challenger 2. A wide range of NATO-standard smoothbore ammunition is therefore available, including the DM63 and DM73, Rheinmetall’s armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds. These types of ammunition feature a long dart penetrator, which uses kinetic energy to penetrate enemy armor.

Potentially, the Challenger 3 could also fire the U.S.-made M829A4 round, another APFSDS type, but one that features a depleted uranium (DU) penetrator, denser than many penetrators made of more conventional metals, for improved armor-piercing performance. Currently, the British Army uses a DU round in the Challenger 2, the L27A1 CHARM 3.

While NATO-standard ammunition will bring logistics and cost advantages, the space requirements of the single-piece ammunition mean that the total number of rounds carried is 31, compared to 49 in the Challenger 2. The ammunition is stored in an isolated bustle compartment, at the rear of the turret, to improve survivability if the tank takes a hit.

As well as the new main gun, the Challenger 3 introduces a new optical/targeting package of the same kind that’s used in the British Army’s troubled Ajax tracked infantry fighting vehicles. This comprises the Thales Orion and Day/Night Gunner and Panoramic Sight (DNGS T3). These are part of what the manufacturer describes as a digitized turret, with an open-architecture concept, so that hardware and software upgrades will be easier to install than in the past.

In terms of protection, the Challenger 3 is equipped with a new modular armor (nMA). Using a modular system means that specific parts of the armor can be quickly removed and replaced. It also means the United Kingdom doesn’t need to buy full sets of armor for all its Challenger 3s, equipping individual tanks with nMA when they need to deploy. The nMA package includes appliqué armor for the sides of the hull and the belly.

Further protection can be provided with an active protection system (APS), although, like the nMA package, this won’t always be installed on the tanks. The United Kingdom chose the Israeli-made Trophy APS for the Challenger 3, a system that employs a radar to detect incoming projectiles before firing intercepting projectiles at them; you can read more about the system here. It is hard to envisage the Challenger 3 ever being deployed for combat without the Trophy, which would provide defense against anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. It could also potentially be used in the future to counter lower-end drones.

TROPHY is the world’s ONLY operational APS (Previous Version – Updated Video Available)

Finally, the Challenger 3’s mobility is addressed through the Heavy Armor Automotive Improvement Project (HAAIP), which includes retrofitting an improved engine (although with no increase in power output), a new suspension, a hydraulic track tensioner, an electric cold start system, and an improved cooling system.

The Challenger 3 is being manufactured by RBSL in Telford, England, as part of a contract worth over £800 million (around $1 billion). In early 2024, it was announced that the first prototype of the tank had been completed at Telford, as TWZ reported at the time.

More trials will now follow, including further crewed firing activity and reliability testing, planned for later this year.

DE&S describes the Challenger 3 as the “centerpiece of the British Army’s armored modernization program” and says that it will “deliver a step change in lethality, survivability, and digital integration.”

Other elements of this modernization program have not been proceeding entirely smoothly, however.

Earlier this year, we reported on how the British Army had suspended the use of its new Ajax fighting vehicles after dozens of soldiers became ill after riding in them. The U.K. Ministry of Defense confirmed that “around 30 personnel presented noise and vibration symptoms” following an exercise involving the tracked vehicles.

Aside from technical issues with the Ajax, there are broader concerns about how the vehicle will be operated in relation to the Challenger 3.

In 2021, a damning report into Ajax from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British defense and security think tank, stated the following:

“If grouped within the Heavy Brigade Combat Teams alongside Challenger 3, Ajax cannot deliver infantry to the objective and cannot perform the divisional reconnaissance function. Alternatively, if made part of the Deep Recce Strike Brigade Combat Team, Ajax will struggle to be sustained operating independently. Ajax’s inability to peer-to-peer recover also makes it a poor independent unit, while its weight, complexity, and size make it hard to deploy with lighter forces, despite the British Army seeking to operate further afield with greater frequency.”

The Brigade Combat Team is the core around which the British Army will be organized, based upon wide-ranging structural changes that call for a “lethal, agile, and lean” force of around 72,500 personnel by 2025, down from 76,000 in 2021.

Deployable Brigade Combat Teams will also include Boxer wheeled armored personnel carriers and AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, among others.

Regardless of how the British Army fields the Ajax — provided that controversial program survives — it is also worth noting that only a relatively small number of Challenger 3s are currently envisaged. This raises questions about the British Army’s ambitions to use the tanks as a “digitized backbone” that will connect combat across the Brigade Combat Team, allowing data to be shared with different platforms in real time.

The United Kingdom currently plans to convert just 148 of its older Challenger 2s into the new version, including eight prototypes. In the past, RBSL has said that it’s technically possible to build new Challenger 3s if required.

The Challenger 2 entered British Army service in 1994 and has since been involved in combat operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, without loss to enemy action, according to the British Army. However, at least two examples that have been provided to Ukraine by the United Kingdom have been knocked out on the battlefield.

A video showing the first evidence of a Ukrainian Challenger 2 destroyed in Ukraine:

While significant armor losses in the war in Ukraine and the emergence of new threats, such as low-cost first-person-view (FPV) drones, have raised questions about the future of the tank on the modern battlefield, it’s notable that most NATO nations have been driven to reinforce their fleets. Some countries have even returned to tanks after giving them up.

However, there have been specific concerns about the serviceability and operational readiness of the Challenger 2 fleet, which could well port over into the Challenger 3.

The Challenger 2 has long had issues regarding excessive weight. The Challenger 2 weighs 82.7 tons with add-on armor modules, compared to 73.6 tons for the U.S. Army’s M1A2 SEPv3. The Challenger 3 will be heavier than its predecessor, but its engine won’t be more powerful.

Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was speculation that the British Army might lose its tanks altogether. With that in mind, even a relatively small number of Challenger 3s ensures that the United Kingdom remains in the tank game out to at least 2040, according to current plans.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

ELIZABETH Hurley has been soaking up the sun in the Maldives, and she’s shared another snap looking absolutely stunning.

The British actress and model, who recently teased fans with naked hot tub photos, posted a new pic to her Instagram grid in a red bikini.

Liz slinked her slender frame into a pool filled with crystal-clear water while wearing the figure-hugging two piece.

The bright red perfectly popped against her lightly tanned skin, as shades shielded her eyes from the day’s rays.

As she propped herself up with both arms on the side of the pool, Liz showcased her age-defying physique and super flat stomach.

Grinning miles wide, the star appeared to be having an amazing time, surrounded by palm trees, blue skies and an enviable ocean view.

LIZ SIZZLES

Liz Hurley, 60, shares naked hot tub snaps on luxury holiday in the Maldives

COURT SUPPORT

Prince Harry returns to court to support Liz Hurley as she gives evidence

“It’s been a grim week – so back to last week!! best hol,” Liz captioned the photo.

Her fans adored the snap, rushing to the post’s comments section to compliment Liz and wish her well.

“Goddess,” said one user.

“The most beautiful and perfect woman in this world,” said another.

A third added: “It’s only going to get better here on out, make sure you believe it.”

Liz hasn’t been enjoying just anywhere in the Maldives. She’s had the pleasure of being one of the first guests to visit a brand new private island.

The island is only accessible via sea plane and boasts a villa as well as a jetty for transport.

Speaking about the trip on Instagram earlier in the week, Liz shared: “Oh my. I adore the #Maldives and was thrilled to be one of the first guests on the brand new, private island @_.herebaaatoll.

“We landed by sea plane straight to our villa’s own jetty – thank you @transmaldivian – and were spoilt rotten by the brilliant staff.

“What a perfect way to kick off 2026.”

She’s reportedly on holiday with son Damien at the picture perfect resort.

Liz has maintained a successful acting career since the 1990s.

She’s best known for her iconic roles as Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and the Devil in Bedazzled (2000).

She gained some later mainstream prominence in her TV series role in The Royals (2015-2018).

She’s currently dating Billy Ray Cyrus.

Her USC team might have dropped five of its last six games, more than it lost all of last season, while the road ahead could be something of an uphill climb, with four of its final 10 games against top-12 teams.

But by no means, at 11-8, is coach Lindsay Gottlieb ready to wave the white flag on USC’s season or its NCAA tournament hopes. Quite the contrary, in fact.

“There’s a ton of season left,” Gottlieb said confidently Friday, two days before USC was set to face off with No. 7 Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Trojans had just fallen short against Michigan State 74-68, the night before.

“We know we’re right there,” the coach continued. “But right there isn’t good enough. We’re not satisfied with that. But for this team, if we continue to figure the things out that are keeping us from getting over the hump, you know, then we think that we can do some damage.”

It certainly seemed that way at the start of January, when the Trojans were 10-3 and appeared to have found some sort of stride without injured superstar JuJu Watkins. But the void she’d left in USC’s lineup became particularly noticeable in the new year, as a blowout loss to UCLA, the largest defeat of Gottlieb’s tenure, left USC reeling. Sophomore wing Kennedy Smith went down with an injury after that, and USC blew a fourth-quarter lead to Oregon a few nights later. In three of their next four games — against Minnesota, Maryland and Michigan State — USC failed in some fashion to deliver down the stretch.

Yet none of those losses, Gottlieb points out, has been all that detrimental to the Trojans’ tournament resume. Not yet, at least. USC still sits at No. 25 in the NET rankings, thanks to its grueling nonconference schedule to start the season. The Trojans are 9-1 in games against Quad 2, 3 and 4 opponents, although they are 2-7 against top-tier opponents currently ranked as Quad 1.

That trend can’t hold if USC hopes to make the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive season under Gottlieb, a streak that USC’s women’s basketball program hasn’t matched since Cheryl Miller walked the sideline. But following Sunday’s matchup with Michigan, USC will have to contend with another top-10 team when Iowa comes to Galen Center.

The schedule should get easier after that, with matchups through February against Rutgers (9-10), Northwestern (8-11), Indiana (11-9) and Penn State (7-13), all of which rank in the bottom third of the conference. Yet the margin for error through that stretch, considering USC’s eight losses, is razor thin.

“Our whole mindset is only looking forward,” guard Kara Dunn said. “We have so many opportunities ahead to turn things around.”

Most of those opportunities of late have been on account of Dunn, who has been dynamic since the start of the new year. She’s averaging more than 24 points over USC’s last five.

It was precisely the role she’d envisioned when she committed to Gottlieb and USC, in search of a more free-flowing, pro-style offense. But it would take some adjusting, similar to how it took time for transfer forward Kiki Iriafen to settle into the offense last season.

“I was just trying to find where I fit,” Dunn said.

USC guard Kara Dunn has found her stride during the new year, averaging more than 24 points over their last five games.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

She found it just in time, with freshman Jazzy Davidson mired in a multi-game slump. Davidson has still been one of the best freshmen in college basketball this season, but she’s shooting only 38% from the field this season. Smith, the Trojans’ third-leading scorer, has been even streakier at 35%. Both have struggled especially from the three-point line in recent games, shooting a combined four of 26 over their last three games.

Fortunately for USC, Dunn has stepped up from deep in their absence, hitting 44% of her three-point attempts over the last four to keep the Trojans afloat on offense. Against Purdue, in USC’s only win in January, Dunn dropped a season-high 29.

“I’m really just remembering who I am and who I was previously,” Dunn said. “I’m used to scoring in high numbers.”

USC will need her contributions to continue if it hopes to make any noise come March. There’s little Gottlieb can do now about the limitations in USC’s frontcourt, which has relied all season on a four-way rotation at center. But Davidson continues to make progress in her first season, while Dunn’s emergence has helped take pressure off the Trojans’ impressive freshman.

As Gottlieb gathered her team for a meeting on Friday, she urged her players to learn from the hard lessons of the last three weeks. Now was no time to sound any alarm bells, she assured, with hopes that they stick together from here.

“The only way through a storm is not to pull off of the road,” Gottlieb said, “but to keep going through it.”

On eve of day two of talks in UAE capital, Russian attacks cut off about 1.2 million from power in sub-zero temperatures.

Ukraine and Russia ended a second day of United States-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi without an agreement, but with the warring sides saying they were open to further dialogue, as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure continued.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X on Saturday that bilateral discussions focused on the “parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this”, and that further talks could take place as early as next week.

The talks were attended by Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov, and Russian military intelligence and army representatives, according to Zelenskyy. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were also present.

A UAE government statement said talks were “constructive and positive”, tackling “outstanding elements” of Washington’s peace framework, with “direct engagement” between Ukraine and Russia, a rare event in the almost four-year-old war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and Western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s maximalist demands and territorial ambitions, while Russia rejected revised versions over proposals for stationing European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Before the discussions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine withdrawing from its eastern area of Donbas, the industrial heartland consisting of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

While Russia controls all of Luhansk, Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to surrender the remaining 20 percent it still holds in Donetsk.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said: “We … know that they were meant to be discussing what to do about the contested areas in Donbas and also about the possibility of a ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.”

‘Cynical’ attack during talks

On the eve of the second day of talks, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, cutting off about 1.2 million people from electricity in sub-zero temperatures, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba.

Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said drone attacks on Kyiv killed one person and wounded four others.

Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said that drone attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city wounded 27 people.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who was not at the talks, accused Putin of acting “cynically”. “His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table,” he said.

“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at [US President Donald Trump’s] Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal,” Sybiha wrote on X.

It emerged on Monday that Trump’s administration had invited Putin to join the board, purportedly aimed at resolving global conflicts, as well as overseeing governance and reconstruction in Gaza.

Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition member of parliament in Kyiv, said on X that the attacks during talks were “not a coincidence”.

“This has been Putin’s strategy many times in the past. This is why a ceasefire was such a crucial prerequisite to any real talks,” she said.

Reporting on the talks, Zelenskyy said on X that he valued “the understanding of the need for American monitoring and oversight of the process of ending the war and ensuring genuine security”.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have negotiated a draft defense spending bill that includes nearly $900 million for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based combat jet program. The proposed legislation and an accompanying report also aim to finally force the selection of a winner in the stalled F/A-XX competition. All of this comes after Congress did not reverse the Pentagon’s previously announced plan to effectively freeze the F/A-XX effort in the most recent annual defense policy bill, despite framing the program as fully funded therein.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of the draft Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 Fiscal Year, which is currently consolidated with spending bills for a swath of other government agencies, earlier today. The committee also released a Joint Explanatory Statement report with additional information and Congressional guidance. The House Appropriations Committee had put out more truncated information about the proposed legislation yesterday, which only included a brief note about “enhancing investments” in F/A-XX.

Last month, the House Armed Services Committee announced that “full funding for the Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX 6th Generation Aircraft programs” was included in the separate defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for Fiscal Year 2026. However, it subsequently turned out that the legislation, which was signed into law on December 18, only authorized the “full” $74 million the Pentagon had previously requested.

The Pentagon had revealed its intention to shelve F/A-XX, formally known as the Next Generation Fighter program, indefinitely when it rolled out its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget last June. At that time, U.S. military officials said concerns about competition for resources with the U.S. Air Force’s F-47 sixth-generation fighter program had been the primary factor in that decision. Boeing is the prime contractor for the F-47, and has been competing head-to-head with Northrop Grumman for F/A-XX following the reported elimination of Lockheed Martin.

F/A-XX is intended as a very stealthy replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and E/A-18 Growlers currently in Navy service that will offer increased range and an array of other advancements. On top of its expected kinetic capabilities, Navy officials have talked in the past about the sixth-generation jet’s improved ability to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions and to contribute to battle space management. Serving as a flying ‘quarterback’ from uncrewed aircraft, including future carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), is also expected to be a key role for F/A-XX. You can read more about what the Navy has shared about its requirements for its Next Generation Fighter here.

“The agreement provides $897,260,000 above the fiscal year 2026 President’s budget request to continue F/A-XX development and directs the Secretary of Defense to obligate these and any prior funds for the purposes of awarding the EMD contract limited to one performer in accordance with the acquisition strategy to achieve an accelerated Initial Operational Capability (IOC),” per the Joint Explanatory Statement report released today. “The agreement supports the Navy’s efforts to develop the F/A-XX sixth generation fighter and understands the program’s unique capability in delivering air superiority to the fleet, including greater operational range, speed, stealth, and enhanced survivability.”

It is worth noting that the Senate Appropriations Committee had previously moved to add $1.4 billion to the Fiscal Year 2026 defense budget for F/A-XX. That figure aligned directly with a call for additional funding for the program that the Navy had reportedly included in its annual Unfunded Priority List (UPL) sent to Congress last year.

“The agreement notes the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 provided $453,828,000 to align to the program’s acquisition schedule which assumed a March 2025 award for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD),” the statement adds. “However, rather than proceeding with a Milestone B award, the Department expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program.”

“Further, the Secretary of the Navy is directed, not later than 45 days after the enactment of this Act, to submit a report to the congressional defense committees that details: (1) the current acquisition strategy and updated schedule for awarding the EMD contract; (2) a revised development and fielding, imeline for the F/A-XX program to meet IOC; (3) any programmatic, budgetary, or policy barriers that have delayed execution of prior-year funds; and (4) a spend plan for the active year additional funds that have been appropriated to the Department of Defense for this program,” it continues.

In addition, the text of the draft legislation includes an explicit provision that compels the Secretary of Defense to obligate funding “for the purpose of executing the engineering and manufacturing development contract for the Next Generation Fighter aircraft in a manner that achieves accelerated Initial Operational Capability.” It blocks the use of any funding appropriated for F/A-XX to “pause, cancel, or terminate” the program, as well.

House and Senate appropriators had already expressed their displeasure over the Pentagon’s decision regarding F/A-XX last year.

“The [House Appropriations] Committee is deeply concerned by the Navy’s declining investment in strike fighter aircraft, particularly at a time when carrier air wings are sustaining high operational tempo across global theaters,” lawmakers wrote in another report last June. “This shortfall comes as the People’s Republic of China is rapidly out-producing the United States in advanced fighters and threatens to surpass U.S. air superiority in the Indo-Pacific, as the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command recently testified. China’s continued advancements in carrier aviation underscores the urgent need to modernize and enhance the Navy’s carrier air wing.”

It is worth remembering that the U.S. Air Force considered cancelling the program that led to the F-47. The service ultimately decided not to after assessing that the next-generation fighter would be essential for ensuring U.S. air superiority in future conflicts, especially high-end fights like one against China in the Pacific.

Despite the Pentagon’s desire to put F/A-XX on hold, the Navy has continued to argue very publicly in favor of moving ahead with the program as planned, too.

“It’s my job to inform the secretary of war’s team about that imperative,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, told members of the press at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in December, according to Breaking Defense. “I’m part of those discussions, but my job is to pressurize that decision because the warfighting imperative, I think, is there, and I’m trying to build a compelling case to get that decision made quickly.”

“Does it need to be done at [sic] a cost-effective way? Does it need [to] be done [in a way] that doesn’t clobber our other efforts? Does it need to be done so it actually delivers in the relevant time frame? Yes,” Caudle had also said at the forum, according to Aviation Week. “So hopefully some of this acquisition reform and production improvement can help us get those decisions.”

“I do think there’s a commitment for us to deliver this capability,” Michael Duffey, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said separately at the Reagan National Defense Forum, per Aviation Week. “There’s an interest to make sure that we can, from our standpoint, [ensure] that the industrial base is able to support it, and I think we’ll be working through that question as quickly as we can.”

Executives from both Boeing and Northrop Grumman have publicly said they are ready to move ahead with F/A-XX if chosen. Boeing has more explicitly pushed back on the idea that the U.S. industrial base cannot simultaneously support work on F/A-XX and the F-47.

Navy Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, and more commonly referred to as the service’s “Air Boss,” also told TWZ he was still “eagerly awaiting” F/A-XX back in August.

In the meantime, the Trump administration has made major calls recently regarding major Navy programs, some of them controversial, while FA-XX, seen by some as essential to winning a fight in the Pacific and making the best use of America’s very costly carrier force, has remained in purgatory. These have included cancelling the Constellation class frigate in favor of a design with a similar armament package to the service’s current Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and embarking on what could be a gargantuan investment in building huge new ‘battleships.’ These decisions will have their own impacts on the Navy’s budget priorities going forward that could impact other efforts.

The House and Senate do still have to pass the consolidated spending bills, and there is always the possibility of last-minute changes. Afterward, President Donald Trump would then have to sign the final version of the legislation into law, as well.

Still, and despite not having done so with the NDAA in December, Congress now looks very much poised to save F/A-XX from being gutted and to compel officials to finally pick a winning design to be the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based fighter.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

EX-CORRIE star Helen Flanagan was “desperate” for throuple-loving ex-boxer David Haye to dump his girlfriend for her, the Sun on Sunday can reveal.

Last night pals of David said Helen was “besotted” with him and wanted him to leave Sian Osborne, 33, whom he has dated since 2020, in order to have a monogamous relationship with her instead.

The 35-year-old actress embarked on a passionate fling which “consumed” her and led to a string of liaisons at a hotel with the 45-year-old sports­man, who practices poly­amory, or having multiple partners with his partner’s consent.

It began in the aftermath of her split from her fiance, the former Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester City footballer Scott Sinclair, with whom she has three children.

But while Helen believed she was in love with David, he confessed to her: “All I want from you is your body, that’s enough for me”.

She reveals she had a breakdown after their relationship — which she described as “toxic” — acrimoniously ended.

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‘Mad about him’

The pal told The Sun on Sunday: “Helen wanted David to leave Sian for her. She was mad about David and desperately wanted him to herself.

“But David cares deeply for Sian, and he was simply never going to leave her for Helen.

“That was out of the question.”

Helen, who played Rosie Webster on the ITV soap for 12 years until 2012, has lifted the lid on her relationship with David in her upcoming book Head & Heart: Break-ups, Breakdowns and Being Rosie.

He was the first person she dated after the end of her 13-year relationship with fiance Scott, with whom she has Matilda, 10, Delilah, seven and Charlie, four.

Having first met when they were both contestants on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2012, Helen and David exchanged occasional messages over the years.

But in YEAR?? the spark between them was lit when David made contact after he saw a lingerie shoot Helen had done for underwear brand Ann Summers. He messaging her that she looked “hot” in the lace and stockings.

He then seduced her over a series of messages and calls telling her she was a “classy queen”.

Their first night together was at a luxury hotel — where Helen dressed up for him in a blue pyjama set — after he freely admitted he was in an open relationship.

Then, over a period of months they regularly met for a series of romantic encounters. He called her nearly every day for seven months.

She said: “He made me feel like I was the most beautiful girl in the world.

“I was in love with him.

“I believed for a while that he might leave Sian for me. He even started talking about wanting a baby together.”

David — who was previously said to have been in a throuple with Sian and ex-Saturdays singer Una Healy — asked Helen a number of times if she would meet Sian, but she refused.

She said: “I didn’t feel comfortable with that idea. I’m not a prude, but I’ve never been into that.”

I think David’s plan had possibly been to get me and Sian involved in a threesome.

Helen Flanagan

But when he invited her to join him at a boxing match at Wembley in 2023 she met Sian. However she feared that David wanted to embark on a threesome in what became a watershed mo­ment in their relationship.

She told The Daily Mail which is serialising her memoir, that David told her model Sian was excited to meet her. And when they met she was friendly.

Recalling the encounter, Helen added: “Then David joined us and said to Sian, ‘She’s hot, isn’t she?’, which was so cringe, and made me want the ground to swallow me whole.

“I think David’s plan had possibly been to get me and Sian involved in a threesome that night, but when I made it clear that wasn’t going to happen, he told her that he was ‘just going to take Helen home’.”

While she and David spent the night together, the events led her to a dawning realisation. On the one hand she felt guilt, but on the other envy that she was the other woman.

She said: “She was the one he was devoted to. I was just the bit on the side.

Distressing thoughts

She also said: “But I always felt like I could be the girl who was able to change him.”

Helen also courageously reveals in her memoir that since her childhood in Bolton she has struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The condition causes distressing and unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviours, along with anxiety and “spirals of emotion”.

It began before she joined the cast of the ITV soap.

She said that as a child attending church, sometimes “sexual thoughts would flare up”. During adulthood, when she was driving in her car at night, she would fear a knifeman was hiding in the back seat.

She was also wracked with fear that instead of sticking to the Coronation Street script, she would say something “absolutely horrific”.

The devoted mum also poignantly revealed that her OCD returned with a vengeance after the birth of her eldest daughter Matilda.

Helen stressed she was speaking out so others who have the condition realised they were not alone.

While she was “on cloud nine” at becoming a mother, she feared her daughter would die, and she had an irrational terror of exposing her to germs.

She admitted: “At my lowest points I thought about taking my own life.

“I want to emphasise here that I truly loved being a mum, but when the anxiety and the OCD barged their way in and took control of my head I was defenceless.”

The release of Rafael Tudares, son-in-law of president-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, should not be read as an act of goodwill or as evidence of political normalization. It tells us something else. It tells us that the Venezuelan regime is operating under constraints it does not fully control anymore.

Political prisoners were never hidden, and they were never quiet. Everyone knew they existed, and everyone knew what they were for. For years, they generated exactly what the regime wanted, instilled fear, and discouraged people from testing the limits. That logic held, especially after the astronomical repression that followed July 28, when the government made a point of showing that even the smallest act of dissent, printing T-shirts, organizing vigils, speaking too loudly, would be punished.

What has changed is not the visibility of repression, but its effectiveness. For much of the last decade, political imprisonment functioned as a kind of currency. Detainees were bargaining chips, reminders that the state answered to no one, signals that consequences were final. That system depended on a relatively closed circuit of authority. Decisions were made internally, enforced vertically, and rarely explained. As long as that circuit held, repression worked not because it was subtle, but because it was definitive. Detention meant disappearance, uncertainty stretched over months or years. Tudares’ year-long disappearance is a good example. It produced exactly the reaction the regime expected, a broad recalculation of risk, fewer protests, more caution.

After Maduro’s removal, that circuit did not disappear, but became weaker. The regime did not stop repressing. It still , still intimidates, still punishes, more than 700 political prisoners remain unjustly detained. But it no longer does so from a position of uncontested control. It no longer acts as if it answers only to itself. Increasingly, it has to answer outwardly, and upward.

This is where Donald Trump enters the picture. Whatever one thinks of the arrangement taking shape, Caracas no longer governs in isolation. Trump’s own allies, many of them already uneasy about leaving figures like Delcy Rodríguez and Diosdado Cabello in positions of power, have grown increasingly uncomfortable with a slow, opaque process in which hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars. In that context, prolonged detention no longer signals strength. It starts to look like defiance without cover. The White House at some point will wonder when do Venezuela’s political prisoners begin to look like Trump’s political prisoners?

That shift matters at home as well. Fear hasn’t disappeared, but it no longer dominates everything. Students are back in the streets, political figures are reemerging from hiding. Even the so-called colaboracionistas seem to be reassessing how much silence is worth. The question is no longer whether repression is real, but whether it’s still decisive.

Tudares’ release wasn’t the regime executing a plan. It was a reaction, in a context where the regime seems to have lost some control over political timing. More revealing still, it was a reaction through intermediaries, not institutions.

The speed and manner of Tudares release make this hard to miss. What followed the surge of public scrutiny around figures like former Fedecámaras president Ricardo Cusanno and Caracas Archbishop Raúl Biord was not a drawn-out negotiation or a carefully managed announcement. It was fast, happened within hours, in the middle of the night, and outside of formal institutions, and perhaps, more strikingly, it came with no explanation. That sequence matters. It suggests the system did not need time to think. It needed a release valve. That reaction was triggered when Mariana González de Tudares published an explosive statement pointing to several actors allegedly involved in the release of political detainees after the 2024 post-electoral crackdown.

Midnight decisions, diplomatic handoffs, releases carried out quietly and offstage are rarely signs of confidence. They are about containment. This was not the regime executing a plan. It was a reaction, in a context where the regime seems to have lost some control over political timing. More revealing still, it was a reaction through intermediaries, not institutions. Tudares was not released publicly from a detention center. No senior official stood next to him. No one wanted to own the decision.

That does not mean the regime suddenly became fragmented, as it was always dispersed. Different security bodies and political actors have long controlled different sets of prisoners. That dispersion is one reason releases have historically been slow and uneven, with individual detainees effectively tied to specific figures. What makes this episode different is that someone gave in quickly, and did so without wanting to be seen doing it.

This was not an assertion of authority, the decision was fast, and the execution was evasive. It reads more like damage control. A concession made quietly, designed to minimize visibility and avoid setting a precedent in daylight. The release of Rafael Tudares looks less like sovereignty and more like containment, a move taken not because it fits a strategy, but because delay had become riskier than action.

The regime’s weakest points are not at its core, but at its edges, among the intermediaries who must explain, manage, and deflect on its behalf.

What this reveals is not confusion about who holds power, but clarity about where pressure works. The regime did not need agreement on principle. It needed someone to absorb the cost, quickly, and without fanfare. That is the behavior of a system that understands its own exposure and is governing less through displays of strength and more through tactical retreats.

For the opposition, this matters. It shows that the regime is more exposed to public pressure than it has been in years, not because it has lost the capacity to repress, but because it has lost its monopoly over timing, narrative, and accountability. As explored in “María Corina vs. the Realpolitik of Trump and Delcy,” Machado is operating in a narrower, more brittle political landscape. The Tudares episode suggests that this landscape does not absorb pressure well. When scrutiny becomes public, targeted, and reputational, outcomes can be forced quickly and awkwardly.

Political prisoners have become a liability not because they are invisible, but because they are contested. They no longer function as a one-way threat. They sit at the intersection of domestic mobilization, international pressure, and reputational risk. The regime still represses. What it no longer fully controls are the consequences.

This does not mean collapse is imminent, but signals something more practical. The regime’s weakest points are not at its core, but at its edges, among the intermediaries who must explain, manage, and deflect on its behalf. When those actors are exposed, when delay becomes more costly than action, results can come fast. The release of Rafael Tudares should not be mistaken for closure. It shows that the fear-based equilibrium that sustained the system for years is wearing down, and that public pressure, when aimed correctly, now moves faster than authority. That is not a victory, but it is useful knowledge.

It’s tax season.

Not just the time when you pay your personal taxes, but also when political groups, labor unions and even elected officials propose new taxes — either for specific programs or to keep the overall budget in the black.

On Tuesday, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo presented the City Council’s budget committee with several ideas for bringing in more money — some potentially for the June 2 ballot. He offered a half-cent sales tax hike and an increase in the tax on short-term vacation rentals. He proposed a higher tax on parking and a new levy on unlicensed marijuana dispensaries.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said Los Angeles needs to rein in its spending before bombarding voters with even more financial requests.

“Is there going to be tax or ballot fatigue? I think there very well could be,” Coupal added.

It’s a “crowded ballot,” Szabo admitted while presenting his options to the committee.

“We probably have to do a study about the number of measures we put on and how voters might respond to multiple measures,” said Melissa Krantz, who works for the city administrative officer, during the meeting.

Polls show Southern California voters may be souring on additional taxes.

Just outside the city of L.A., in Long Beach, a city-commissioned poll showed that 80% of residents said it was not the right time to raise taxes, even for city services.

Despite those hurdles, Szabo said, the city needs to consider new revenue streams for the general fund so that it can balance its budget year after year not only by making cuts.

“Traditional revenue sources that have supported the operating budget are eroding and/or being outpaced by expenditure obligations,” Szabo wrote in his proposal to the council. “The City must consider permanent options, and specifically new taxes, to increase the City’s General Fund Revenue.”

But the potentially council-backed tax proposals are not the only taxes in town.

There’s also the proposal from the firefighters union for a half-cent sales tax that would raise revenue specifically for the fire department. There’s a similar proposal for a sales tax that would fund city parks. Then there’s a countywide sales tax proposal to fund health care.

Separately, voters in November may have to consider an “Overpaid CEO Tax” in Los Angeles that the hotel workers union Unite Here Local 11 is gathering signatures for. Meanwhile, there’s the potential for a statewide, one-time tax on the wealth of California billionaires.

With city voters already likely to consider all these options on their November ballots, Szabo told the council his options could get on the June ballot, giving them a better chance to pass.

The committee quickly disposed of the half-cent increase to the city’s sales tax as an option. The funds from the increase, which would have totaled more than $300 million per year, would have gone directly into the city’s general fund, Szabo said.

But there is limited space for an increased sales tax in the city. The city’s sales tax is currently at 9.75%, lower than some neighboring cities. The maximum percentage the city can grow to is 10.75%, meaning Los Angeles still has 1% it can potentially increase the sales tax.

But the sales tax hike for the overall city budget could have ended up competing with the firefighter union half-cent sales tax increase proposal, which already has support from some councilmembers.

“The thing I hear most in my district is affordability and no new taxes,” said Katy Yaroslavsky, the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.

Though Yaroslavsky said she liked the idea of new revenue for the general fund, she recommended the city not move forward with the sales tax recommendation.

Yaroslavsky and the committee moved forward with the three other proposals from the city administrative officer, which, together, could bring in more than $200 million per year through 2028. Those proposals will go before the full city council next week.

Szabo also encouraged the committee to study additional taxes on ride shares, meal deliveries, major event tickets and vacant properties — possibly for the November ballot.

The proposals that did move forward Tuesday also face pushback from business groups.

Parking lot owners are opposing the potential ballot measure to increase the parking occupancy tax by 50% — from 10% to 15%. The tax is imposed on anyone who uses a parking lot in the city.

The Los Angeles Parking Association said the measure would hurt consumers and the city’s economy. The group called on the city to collect the current tax from parking lot scofflaws.

The hotel and short-term rental industry, meanwhile, opposed the potential 4% increase in the transient occupancy tax that Szabo put forward.

“This proposal creates a cost spiral. As fees stack up, Los Angeles risks becoming the most expensive option in a competitive market,” wrote Laura Lee Blake, the president and CEO of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, in a letter to the council.

State of play

— HIGHER HIRES: On Wednesday, the council finally approved the hiring of up to 410 officers after hearing back from the city administrative officer that the money used to fund the positions this year will come from the LAPD’s budget.

The hiring of the officers, which will bring the police force to around 8,555 by the end of the fiscal year, delivers a modest victory to Bass, who promised she would find the money for additional police hires when she signed the budget in June.

— FIRE PR: The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation paid for a celebrity public relations firm that has represented Reese Witherspoon and Charlize Theron to help LAFD leaders shape their messaging after the Palisades fire. Fire Chief Jaime Moore said he met with the Lede Company, but did not know exactly what work it had done for the department.

— BEUTNER DEATH: The daughter of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner died earlier this month, and authorities have not yet determined the cause. Emily Beutner, 22, died at a hospital on Jan. 6, according to information posted on the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s website. “My family has experienced the unimaginable loss of our beloved daughter. We ask for privacy and your prayers at this time,” Beutner said Wednesday in a statement to The Times.

— 25% OFF 405: Metro’s board of directors approved an underground heavy-rail option for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project on Thursday, with some saying the project could take a quarter of the commuters off the 405 Freeway. The rail corridor would connect the Westside and the San Fernando Valley.

— GOV v. PRES: Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the Trump administration of authoritarianism, saying his appearance at a World Economic Forum event was canceled to suppress his dissent on the global stage. “Is it surprising the Trump administration didn’t like my commentary and wanted to make sure that I was not allowed to speak? No,” said Newsom, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run. “It’s consistent with this administration and their authoritarian tendencies.”

— SEX ABUSE SCANDAL: The State Bar of California is investigating Downtown LA Law Group, which represents thousands of victims in the country’s largest sex abuse settlement. The investigation follows reporting by The Times on allegations that some of the firm’s plaintiffs were paid to sue, including some who said they made up their claims.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program housed more than 30 Angelenos throughout the city this week, visiting Hollywood, South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, according to the Mayor’s Office.
• On the docket next week: The City Council on Tuesday will take up a motion from Councilmember Nithya Raman that could change Measure ULA in an effort to spur housing production.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Harlequins: Green, David, Northmore, Bradley, Murley, Smith, Friday; Kerrod, Walker, Delgado, Treadwell, Petti, Cunningham-South, Kenningham, Dombrandt

Replacements: Riley, Hobson, E Williams, T Williams, Driscoll, Lawday, Green, Evans

Sin bin: David (42 mins)

Leicester: Steward, Hamer-Webb, Wand, Bailey, Hassell-Collins, Searle, van Poortvliet; Smith, Clare, Heyes, Henderson, Chessum, Liebenberg, Reffell, Ilione

Replacements: Blamire, van der Flier, Hurd, Moro, Cracknell, Allan, O’Connor, Perese

Referee: Adam Leal

BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 23 (UPI) — The trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur, hailed as one of the most significant economic accords in decades, entered an unexpected political pause this week, exposing deep internal divisions within Europe over agriculture and trade liberalization.

Just four days after the deal was signed in Asuncion, the European Parliament voted to submit the text to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union, a move that effectively halts the start of the ratification process.

The decision interrupts the path of a treaty designed to create the world’s largest free trade area, encompassing nearly 700 million consumers, after almost 25 years of negotiations. It also highlights tensions inside the European bloc that extend well beyond legal scrutiny or tariff schedules.

At the heart of the delay is not a technical objection but a structural conflict. Broad sectors of European agriculture fear that greater market access for Mercosur, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, will erode their competitiveness in an increasingly regulated environment. The concern cuts across products and countries, affecting much of Europe’s farming sector.

The discontent is closely linked to the European Green Deal, which imposes strict environmental, sanitary and traceability standards on EU producers, significantly raising production costs. Farmers argue that South American exporters are not subject to the same requirements.

Economist Maximiliano Ramírez, a former Argentine undersecretary for macroeconomic programming, told UPI that European farmers see the agreement as creating an uneven playing field.

“The core argument is that the deal generates unfair competition. It allows products from Mercosur to enter the EU without bearing the same environmental and sanitary costs,” Ramírez said. “They do not see it as free trade, but as a transfer of market share toward producers operating under looser rules, which threatens the profitability of mid-sized farmers in countries like France or Ireland.”

France has emerged as the main axis of resistance, where agriculture carries not only economic weight but also strong symbolic and political value. Opposition, however, extends beyond Paris. Ireland and Austria have taken firm positions to protect their meat industries, while Italy has hardened its stance under the banner of food sovereignty.

According to Ramírez, the shared fear is that an influx of South American commodities could undermine regional value chains. “That would push down domestic prices to levels that European subsidy systems cannot sustain indefinitely,” he said.

Former Argentine undersecretary for agricultural markets Javier Preciado Patiño agreed that pricing is at the core of the dispute.

“Food products from Mercosur would enter the market at more competitive prices than European goods,” he told UPI.

Beef, poultry, dairy products and corn from South America could gain market share due to lower costs, he said, despite safeguards included in the agreement to limit volumes.

“That is why European producers are protesting. They know they could be pushed out of the market,” he added.

From Uruguay, foreign trade specialist Gonzalo Oleggini said the resistance is fueled by misinformation about the agreement’s real impact.

“No quota will bankrupt European industry,” Oleggini told UPI. “The beef quota of 99,000 tons, for example, equals about 220 grams per European citizen per year. It is hard to argue that this would destroy an entire sector.”

Oleggini linked the opposition to domestic politics, particularly the approach of elections in France.

“The issue is being used internally, amplifying fears that are far removed from what would actually happen once the agreement enters into force,” he said.

Ramírez argued that the deal follows a logic of productive specialization. Clear winners would be Mercosur’s agro-industrial complex and, on the European side, high value-added manufacturing, especially the automotive and capital goods sectors led by Germany.

On the losing end, he said, would be European family farmers and, within Mercosur, small and medium-sized industries that would lose tariff protection against European technology.

“It is a model that reinforces each bloc’s strengths but deepens relative deindustrialization in our region,” he warned.

For Argentina, the delay undermines trade predictability. Ramírez noted that the agreement offered not only tariff reductions, but also an institutional framework to navigate increasingly strict EU regulations, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation.

“Without that umbrella, our exports remain exposed to unilateral decisions from Brussels, which can impose ‘green’ barriers at its discretion,” he said, adding that uncertainty could stall long-term investment projects aimed at the European market and increase reliance on volatile Asian demand.

Preciado Patiño noted that nearly a quarter-century of negotiations reflects deeper issues.

“The obstacles have more to do with geopolitics than with trade itself,” he said, pointing to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which treats farming as a social and moral pillar of the European project.

“It is an almost untouchable sector. Mercosur, as a largely agri-food exporter, is seen as a disruptive force,” he said.

That sensitivity spans major economies such as Germany, France, Italy and Ireland, and extends into Eastern Europe, where countries like Poland retain strong agricultural profiles.

“The lack of true complementarity between the two regions has consistently stalled this agreement,” Preciado Patiño said.

The political paradox became evident when, just days after the signing, the European Parliament voted by a narrow 334-324 margin to seek judicial review, a scenario previously anticipated by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“It is a way of buying time, with the risk that the agreement ultimately collapses,” Preciado Patiño warned.

While Europe delays its decision, Mercosur countries are moving forward with their internal ratification processes. Argentine President Javier Milei has submitted the text to Congress for debate during extraordinary sessions scheduled for February, while Paraguayan President Santiago Peña announced that the agreement will be sent to parliament for consideration next week.

The ‘legacy’ F-15C/D may now be a dwindling presence in the U.S. Air Force, but the jets still support vital test work with NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. NASA has long flown different F-15 variants for numerous kinds of missions and recently added to its fleet with another pair of jets cascaded down from the Air Force. Meanwhile, older F-15s are also continuing to take on new test assignments with NASA, having already contributed enormously to its military and civilian research programs, including flying alongside legacy F/A-18 Hornets.

Earlier this month, NASA confirmed that it had received two twin-seat F-15Ds, serial numbers 81-0063 and 84-0045, previously operated by the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field. This is the Air Force’s F-15C/D ‘schoolhouse,’ which, as we have reported in the past, will replace its Eagles with F-35As, overturning a previous plan that would have seen the 173rd Fighter Wing assume responsibility for training pilots for the new F-15EX Eagle II.

NASA’s windfall provides new equipment for its flight research fleet at Edwards Air Force Base, California. However, only one of the F-15Ds will go into active NASA service, with the other serving as a source of spare parts for the maintenance-heavy Eagles.

One of the missions that the F-15D will be involved in is tests of NASA’s remarkable-looking X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology experimental test aircraft, or QueSST, which made its first flight in October last year and will be flown out of Edwards. Much is resting on the test program that has now been kicked off, with the future of supersonic passenger flight arguably dependent on its successful outcome.

The QueSST project is one that TWZ has covered in detail over the years and which is planned to demonstrate how careful design considerations can reduce the noise of a traditional sonic boom to a “quieter sonic thump.” If that can then be ported over to future commercial designs, it could solve the longstanding problem of regulations that prohibit supersonic flight over land.

“These two [F-15Ds] will enable successful data collection and chase plane capabilities for the X-59 through the life of the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project,” explained Troy Asher, director for flight operations at NASA Armstrong. “They will also enable us to resume operations with various external partners, including the Department of War and commercial aviation companies.”

X-59 Team Reflects on Completing First Flight

“NASA has been flying F-15s since some of the earliest models came out in the early 1970s,” Asher added. “Dozens of scientific experiments have been flown over the decades on NASA’s F-15s and have made a significant contribution to aeronautics and high-speed flight research.”

As part of its diverse test fleet, NASA’s F-15s provide an ideal platform for test and chase duties that demand high-speed, high-altitude capabilities. At the same time, the Eagle’s impressive load-carrying ability means that various experimental payloads can be mounted on it externally, either under the wings or on the fuselage centerline, benefiting from the jet’s generous ground clearance.

The legacy F-15’s 1970s-era technology is also fairly straightforward to modify, meaning that new or adapted software, systems, and flight controls can be integrated to meet particular test requirements.

NASA has also ‘tweaked’ its F-15s to better optimize them for high-performance test work.

Back in 2022, NASA announced that it had made modifications to two of its earlier F-15s to support X-59 chase flights.

The two-seaters received new emergency oxygen bottles and regulators, for the pilot and back-seat technician, to reduce the risk of hypoxia — a lack of oxygen reaching the brain and other tissues of the body, which can happen as the aircraft climbs.

The new positive-pressure breathing system was developed for the F-22 and provides additional pressure compared with the F-15’s original life support system. It means the F-15 can operate safely at up to 60,000 feet.

The X-59 is designed to hit this altitude and cruise at 55,000 feet.

In fact, the revised life support system also shares many components with the X-59. Flight crews wear the same gear, the same panel-mounted regulator, and the same device that reduces the pressure flow from the liquid oxygen tanks to the regulator. The same modification is being made to NASA’s newly acquired F-15D.

This will all help NASA’s QueSST test program, which aims to push the X-59 to a speed of Mach 1.4, equivalent to around 925 miles per hour, over land. Ahead of this, multiple sorties will be flown over the supersonic test range at Edwards, accompanied by F-15s.

In the meantime, NASA researchers continue to utilize earlier Eagles — including NASA tail number 836, a 1974-vintage F-15B, a variant of the jet long since discarded by the Air Force. This particular jet was obtained by NASA in 1993 from the Hawaii Air National Guard. 

Earlier this week, NASA announced it had completed a high-speed taxi test of its F-15B after modification for the Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test.

The CATNLF concept is intended to boost laminar flow over a wing surface, therefore reducing drag and improving efficiency.

For the tests, the F-15B has been fitted with a three-foot scale model of a CATNLF wing design, mounted under the belly, in a vertical position. Earlier this month, the F-15B was taxied at a speed of 144 miles per hour with the wing model fitted. A first flight in this configuration is planned in the coming weeks.

The CATNLF wing is tailored to address a key problem of laminar flow technology, namely the effect of crossflow, an aerodynamic phenomenon that occurs on angled surfaces. Even large, swept wings of the kinds found on most commercial airliners have crossflow tendencies.

According to earlier NASA studies, the CATNLF wing design, if incorporated in a large, long-range aircraft like the Boeing 777, could result in annual fuel savings of up to 10 percent.

While the legacy F-15 continues to provide valuable service to NASA, the Air Force has recently moved to adapt its plans for the phase-out of the jet.

Already, the Air Force has given up its last active-duty F-15C/Ds. The final active-duty squadrons to be deactivated were at Kadena Air Base, Japan, which you can read about here. A handful of test jets remain in use, with all other F-15C/Ds now assigned to the Air National Guard.

Previously, the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget request detailed plans to divest the entirety of the F-15C/D fleet by 2026.

As of last October, however, the service said it planned to retain some of its F-15C/Ds until 2030. The Air Force determined these aging jets are still needed for the homeland defense mission, something it laid out in its Long-Term Fighter Force Structure report.

The report was mandated by Congress in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which called for the Air Force to clarify its long-term fighter plans.

Under these plans, the Air Force wants to keep 42 F-15C/Ds as part of its combat-coded total aircraft inventory through 2028. Thereafter, a reduced fleet of 21 of the youngest jets will continue to serve with the California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing until 2030.

At this point, the Air Force’s legacy Eagles should be fully replaced. The last F-15C/Ds are slated to be superseded by the F-15EX, while some others will have been replaced by F-35s; one A-10 unit is also receiving them. However, it should be noted that the Air Force itself has described its Long-Term Fighter Force Structure document as highly aspirational, and such plans are, by their nature, liable to change.

Whatever the future brings for the legacy F-15 with the U.S. Air Force, the recent arrivals at the Armstrong Flight Research Center confirm the continued value of the Eagle for NASA’s exacting test missions.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

NICOLA Peltz appeared to show her thanks to Beckham family friend DJ Fat Tony for publicly backing her in the fallout.

The 60-year-old – who performed at her wedding party to Brooklyn in April 2022 – spoke out this week to confirm explosive claims about Victoria Beckham’s “inappropriate” first dance.

Now Nicola has shown she’s still on good terms with the DJ after ‘liking’ his Instagram post about “unconditional love”.

Posting a photo of his dogs on a walk, DJ Tony wrote: “It’s good to be back home today. Thought of the day… the power of unconditional love.”

He spoke out after Brooklyn’s sensational claims about his parents David and Victoria in a bombshell six-page social media statement. 

DJ Tony laid blame on wedding singer Marc Anthony, who said he encouraged Brooklyn to place his hands on Victoria’s hips during a dance to one of his Latin pop tracks.

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The DJ revealed he believed the timing of the moment was “inappropriate” as opposed to the dance move.

He said: “There was no slut-dropping, there was no black PVC catsuit, there was no Spice Girl action.

“Marc Anthony was performing and he called Brooklyn onto the stage.

“Everyone then expected Nicola to go up and do the first dance.”

He further confirmed reports that Marc Anthony had asked the “most beautiful” woman in the world to head on up to the dancefloor and then said Victoria’s name instead of bride Nicola Peltz.

DJ Tony revealed this moment left Nicola running out in tears but Marc continued on with the performance anyway.

“Brooklyn was devastated as he thought he was about to get his first dance with his wife,” he added.

“Nicola had left the room crying her eyes out and Brooklyn is stuck there on stage.

“They then do this dance and Marc goes ‘put your hands on your mother’s hips’ and it was a Latin thing.

“The whole situation was very awkward for everyone in the room.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he revealed the day after the main ceremony was “awkward”.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with its China trade deal.

Trump said in a social media post that if Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”

While Trump has waged a trade war over the last year, Canada this month negotiated a deal to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower import taxes on Canadian farm products.

Trump initially had said that agreement was what Carney “should be doing and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.”

Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance. Trump had commented while in Davos, Switzerland, this week that “Canada lives because of the United States.” Carney shot back that his nation can be an example that the world does not have to bend toward autocratic tendencies.

Trump later revoked his invitation to Carney to join the president’s “Board of Peace” that he is forming to try to resolve conflicts in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.

Trump’s threat to take over Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark — has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed the United States as a “51st state.”

He resumed that this week, posting an altered image on social media showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.

In his message Saturday, Trump continued his provocations by calling Canada’s leader “Governor Carney.” Trump had used the same nickname for Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, and his use of it toward Carney was the latest mark of their soured relationship.

Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter U.S. foreign policy under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”

Trump, in his Truth Social post Saturday, also said that “China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life.”

Carney has not yet reached a deal with Trump to reduce some of the tariffs that he has imposed on key sectors of the Canadian economy. But Canada has been protected by the heaviest impact of Trump’s tariffs by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. That trade agreement, which Trump signed in his first term, is up for a review this year.

In the fall, the Canadian province of Ontario aired an anti-tariff ad in the U.S. that prompted Trump to end trade talks with Canada. The television ad used the words of former President Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs. Trump pledged to increase tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%. He did not follow through.

As for China, Canada had initially mirrored the United States by putting a 100% tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100% import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood.

But as Trump has pursued pressure tactics, Canada’s foreign policy has been less aligned with the U.S., creating an opening for an improved relationship with China. Carney made the tariff announcement this month during a visit to Beijing.

Carney has said that Canada’s relationship with the U.S. is complex and deeper and that Ottawa and Beijing disagree on issues such as human rights.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, as are 85% of U.S. electricity imports.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Making your Premier League debut at Manchester City would be a daunting prospect for anyone – even as a referee.

But 32-year-old Farai Hallam, once a professional footballer on Stevenage’s books, earned widespread praise for his performance during City’s 2-0 win over Wolves at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

With the hosts leading 1-0 in the first half, goalscorer Omar Marmoush was convinced the hosts should be awarded a penalty after Wanderers defender Yerson Mosquera appeared to handle the ball inside the area.

Hallam was unmoved, waving appeals away, only to then be sent to the pitchside monitor by the video assistant referee (VAR) to check the incident.

We all know what that normally means. The City fans were already celebrating.

After watching several replays, however, Hallam surprised nearly everyone inside the stadium by choosing to stick with his original decision.

“After review, the ball hits the arm of the Wolves player, which is in a natural position so the on-field decision will remain,” he announced over the tannoy.

Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann said it was “without doubt the correct decision”.

“Hallam, officiating in his first Premier League match, made an excellent and courageous call to stick with his on-field decision of no handball,” Cann told BBC Sport.

“This was without doubt the correct decision as Yerson Mosquera’s arm was in a justifiable position and the ball was played on to his arm from very close range.

“A brave and correct decision in law from a highly regarded referee making his Premier League debut.”