face

League A

Group A1: France, Italy, Belgium, Turkey

Group A2: Germany, Netherlands, Serbia, Greece

Group A3: Spain, Croatia, England, Czech Republic

Group A4: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Wales

League B

Group B1: Scotland, Switzerland, Slovenia, North Macedonia

Group B2: Hungary, Ukraine, Georgia, Northern Ireland

Group B3: Israel, Austria, Republic of Ireland, Kosovo

Group B4: Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Sweden

League C

Group C1: Albania, Finland, Belarus, San Marino

Group C2: Montenegro, Armenia, Cyprus, Gibraltar/Latvia*

Group C3: Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Faroe Islands, Moldova

Group C4: Iceland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Luxembourg/Malta*

League D

Group D1: Gibraltar/Latvia, Luxembourg/Malta, Andorra

Group D2: Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

*Gibraltar and Latvia, and Luxembourg and Malta, will contest play-offs in March to determine who will play in Leagues C and D.

Visitors to the sunny island of Tenerife have shared their experiences of the airport amid claims of three-hour queues, and while some have breezed through, others have found themselves facing long delays to the start of their holidays

Brits visiting the popular holiday island of Tenerife have reported ‘horrendous’ and long queues and issues getting through the airport, both when arriving and departing.

Unhappy holidaymakers have told the Mirror that they’ve been stuck in the automatic doors and made to queue outside on the tarmac, with elderly passengers kept waiting for two hours.

The issues partly stem from the newly introduced Entry/Exit System (EES), which Brits have had to use when travelling into EU countries since October 12, 2025. It seems to have led to long waits for passengers on the Spanish island. Local news outlet Canarian Weekly reports that only five of the 36 new eGates are in use in Tenerife South Airport.

When contacted about the issue, airport operator AENA stated that border control is the responsibility of Policía Nacional. The spokesperson said: “The European Commission determined that the Entry Exit System starts on October 12. Its implementation will be gradual over a period of 180 days, until April 10, when its deployment will be fully completed.”

Recent holidaymakers to Tenerife have had mixed experiences using the airport. Anne Ramsey, a frequent visitor to the island, said that when her party arrived on December 19 on an early morning flight from Glasgow Prestwick Airport, “we went straight through”.

However, a few weeks later on January 23, Anne arrived on a plane from Manchester and described the queues as ‘horrendous’. “They had to keep us on the transfer bus as the queue into the terminal was queuing outside, and there was nowhere for anyone else to go.”, she said.

Annie revealed the chaos outside the airport, saying: “People were getting stuck in the glass doors entering the terminal as they kept opening and shutting them in an attempt to control the passenger numbers.”

During this trip, Annie was accompanied by her 90-year-old mother, and said they “queued for nearly two hours.” At this point, it was term time, so the family lanes designed for groups with children under 12 were less busy, but Annie claims there was “no attempt to move people from the longer queue to the shorter one.”

She also faced technical difficulties, with eGates crashing, meaning passengers needed to wait until they were up and running again. However, her sister, who had arrived on the same date just two hours later, faced no queues.

Larry Hicken, a member of the popular Facebook group Tenerife Holiday Forum, shared two images showing long queues upon arrival at the airport. He said he landed at 4pm on January 26, but it wasn’t until 6.10pm he made it through border control.

However, a few people said they’d had positive experiences at the airport. Pip Jane Tolliss said she flew out on December 10, 2025, and had a smooth experience on arrival. Her fingerprints weren’t taken, but a photo was, and she got through in 10 minutes.

On the way back on January 3, she said it was busier, but “security moved quickly. Went through gate C and no machines just a small queue moving very quickly as just stamping passport.”

Pip admits that experiences at the airport can vary. “Having spoken to many people during our stay, it seems the experience can be very different from day to day. We were lucky, I guess!”

Representatives of the Policía Nacional España have been contacted for comment.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Feb. 9 (UPI) — The fuel shortage in Cuba began to simultaneously impact air transportation and tourism after an international aviation alert reported that Havana’s José Martí airport will not have fuel for one month.

The government also began to close hotels and relocate tourists as part of an emergency plan in the face of one of the worst energy crises in the island’s history, worsened by the end of oil shipments from Venezuela and pressure from the government of Donald Trump on crude oil supplies.

An operational notice from the international NOTAM system Sunday confirmed that Havana’s José Martí international airport will not have Jet A-1 fuel, the standard for commercial aviation, for one month between Tuesday and March 11, digital outlet CiberCuba reported.

The notification not only warns of the fuel shortage, but also of temporary limitations in landing aid systems, in addition to the inoperability of the runway visual range system, which is used to measure visibility when weather conditions are unfavorable.

The restriction is not limited to the capital. Similar notifications indicate fuel shortages at the country’s nine other airports.

Aviation authorities warned airlines that reserves could run out within a short period if supplies are not restored.

The measure compromises commercial, charter, cargo and executive aviation flights, and forces companies to arrive with extra fuel, make refueling stopovers in other countries or reschedule operations, reported Cuba Noticias 360.

This situation contrasts with recent statements by Transport Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, who had said operations at ports and airports remain guaranteed.

So far, international airlines have not communicated how they will deal with the contingency.

The impact is projected directly on tourism, the island’s main source of foreign currency.

Cancellations, delays and reduced air connectivity threaten the arrival of visitors from key markets such as Canada, Russia and Europe, in a context in which traveler confidence already shows signs of deterioration.

According to official figures, the arrival of international tourists to Cuba fell to 1.8 million in 2025, 17.8% less than in 2024. The result fell well short of the government target of 2.6 million visitors and marked one of the lowest records in more than two decades.

The energy crisis has as its backdrop the interruption of oil supplies from Venezuela, the island’s main supplier, following the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

This was compounded by the recent decision of the United States to declare a national emergency regarding Cuba and warn that it could impose tariffs on countries that supply oil to the Caribbean nation, in an escalation of pressure that has further complicated Havana’s access to fuel.

In parallel with the airport problem, the government has begun to close hotels in key tourist destinations and relocating foreign guests. The measure is part of an emergency plan to reduce energy consumption and reorganize facilities.

At least eight hotels closed in Cuba’s main tourist destinations and their clients are being relocated to other resorts amid the worsening national crisis and the shortage of fuel and supplies, Diario de Cuba confirmed from the island.

The hotel closures are occurring in the middle of the high season but amid travel advisories over the deterioration of internal conditions. The reduction of flights, energy uncertainty and hotel reorganization add pressure to an industry that is strategic for the Cuban economy.

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said on state television that the executive branch “has designed a plan in tourism to reduce energy consumption, compact tourist facilities and take advantage of the high season,” digital outlet Cuba LLama reported.

Sources from the sector indicated that destinations such as Varadero and the northern cays concentrate much of these measures, where international chains operate.

Authorities are maintaining an emergency plan that includes broader energy restrictions, a reduction of state activities and measures to manage available fuel.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday he was willing to initiate a negotiation process “without pressure” with the United States to help economic difficulties facing the island.

He acknowledged that the lack of Venezuelan oil has placed the country in a “complex” energy situation, affecting not only electricity generation, but also the population’s basic economic activities.

While the United States has sent more than $5.95 million in humanitarian aid managed by the Catholic Church, a measure criticized by Havana because of its “grossly opportunistic political purposes,” it has insisted on the blockade regarding hydrocarbons.

Meanwhile, countries have sent assistance. China was behind a financial package of about $81 million and a food shipment of 60,000 tons of rice in January. Mexico, sent two Navy vessels Sunday loaded with 800 tons of humanitarian aid.

The photograph is so intimate, so vulnerable, it’s painful to look at.

It depicts a woman in her early 20s lying on a hospital bed twisted to the side, her wrists and ankles restrained. The black-and-white image — nearly five feet wide — is so crisp that bits of the woman’s toenail polish glimmer and the hair on her thigh appears to spark. Most pronounced: the loneliness and resignation on her face.

“I was 20 or 21 then. I’d had a psychotic episode and was taken to a public hospital in Massachusetts,” says Palm Springs-based artist Lisa McCord of the self-portrait she later staged. “I’m very transparent and I wanted to share my experience afterward. It was the ‘70s. I’d tell people, in school, I’d been in a psychiatric hospital and no one wanted to hang out with me — it was a very lonely time.”

McCord’s work is part of an exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Photography addressing the idea of loneliness, now considered an epidemic in America. The exhibition, “Reservoir: Photography, Loneliness and Well Being,” was curated by LACP‘s executive director, Rotem Rozental, and includes participation from more than 40 artists representing “a wide array of geographies, approaches, ages, nationalities and lived experiences,” she says.

Rozental had been thinking about loneliness in our society — how increasingly pervasive it is — since the start of the pandemic. In late 2024 she began having conversations about it with LACP board chair and artist Jennifer Pritchard. Art reflects the world that we live in and Rozental felt that, as a photography center, LACP had an obligation to amplify “some of the larger issues” our society is grappling with.

“There’s something about photography that really brings people together around their vulnerabilities,” Rozental says. “Even if it just means you’re seeing, through an image, that someone else is experiencing what you’re experiencing.”

In this case: loneliness — “something that is looming heavy on everybody,” Rozental adds.

Asiya Al. Sharabi’s “Inward” (2025) addresses the uncertainty, and sometimes loneliness, of being a woman and an immigrant.

(Asiya Al. Sharabi)

Chronic loneliness is a serious, growing public health concern, says Dr. Jeremy Nobel, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and author of the 2023 book “Project UnLonely: Healing Our Crisis of Disconnection.”

“Most recent studies indicate that 50% of Americans are often lonely,” Nobel says, adding that a December 2025 study found that “loneliness is increasing, even after the pandemic. And it’s driving a change in behavior, the big one being that people are disengaging from each other and community activities, so that also isolates them.”

What’s more, chronic loneliness has tangible, dangerous effects on our health, he says.

“Loneliness increases the risk of heart attack and stroke and general early mortality by up to 30%. Dementia risk goes up by 40%, diabetes risk goes up 35% from being chronically lonely. That’s increased the urgency to address it as a public health crisis.”

It’s important to note, Nobel says, that there’s a difference between being alone and being lonely, with the former potentially good for your health.

“Being alone means you don’t have social connection. Loneliness is the subjective feeling that you don’t have the social connections you want,” Nobel says. “You can be lonely in a crowd, you can be lonely in a racist workplace, you can be lonely in a failed relationship or marriage. But being alone can actually be quite positive — solitude. You can be in touch with thoughts and feelings and can have emotional growth.”

Nobel consulted with many of the artists during the development of “Reservoir.” It was a natural pairing as his more than 20-year-old nonprofit, the Foundation for Art & Healing, explores how creative expression helps individuals and communities heal. The experience “definitely validated ‘how do creative people use their creative orientation to further explore and reveal what’s going on with loneliness,’” he says. “That’s the power of this exhibit.”

A detail shot from Diane Meyer’s “The Empty Space of Nothing #43” (2025)

(Diane Meyer)

To create the exhibition, Rozental selected six photographic mentors, all established artists, each of whom chose a theme around loneliness — “aging,” “immigration,” “technology and hyper-consumerism” or “the solo creative process,” for example. The mentors then invited artists to create new work responding to their themes. Over nine months last year, the groups of artists met monthly on Zoom — “six countries and seven time zones,” says Rozental — along with therapists, scholars and others to plumb the topic.

The resulting exhibition features mostly two-dimensional photography but also includes multimedia works and 3D installations.

L.A.-based artist Diane Meyer sourced about 100 old black-and-white photographs from private collections. Then she hand-painted each of them, blocking out most everything in the image except select figures with white paint. The individuals in the photos appear to float in a sea of clouds or snow, disconnected.

In one image, two young boys teeter on a seesaw, as if suspended in midair; in another, a middle-aged man lies on a blanket in the fetal position, white paint spilling over onto his blanket and body, as if he is sinking into a void. The creative process — which the work speaks to — is evident here, the artist’s hand noticeable. The paint is splotchy in places and the photographs are pinned delicately to a dark surface, their edges curling, giving the overall installation a textured materiality.

Meyer’s work is in stark contrast to Jacque Rupp’s installation on the opposite wall. Rupp’s slick multimedia work speaks to both technology and societal perceptions of aging women. After recently becoming a grandmother, the Bay Area-based artist asked AI to “imagine a grandmother in 2025.” The result is a black-and-white photo grid of several hundred female faces staring blankly into the camera, mouths closed and eyes vacant. Beside it is a TV monitor on which their faces morph into one another, without audio. The overall effect is polished and high-tech, touching on the perceived invisibility of women as they age.

“I felt that these two works needed to be in conversation,” Rozental says.

Julia Buteux’s “Have We Said Hello” (2025)

(Rotem Rozental)

Nearby, Julia Buteux’s three-dimensional installation of transparent fabric panels hang from the ceiling, shimmying in the air and inviting guests to walk around it. The Rhode Island-based artist downloaded images from social media and deleted the people from them. The backgrounds are colorful but all that’s left of the subject is a transparent imprint of their face and upper body. “So you’re getting the absence of the user,” Rozental says. It speaks to how isolating online social milieus can be.

Asiya Al. Sharabi — who is Yemeni American and lives between Egypt and Virginia — created large-scale, conceptual self-portraits that she manipulated in the printing process. One is a double exposure depicting the front and side of her face. It addresses issues of duality and the uncertainty of her standing in society as both a woman and an immigrant. In another, the artist sits in a rocking chair in a home beside a vase of dead flowers — but her body is transparent. “She almost disappears within the domestic space,” Rozental says.

McCord’s photograph is part of a larger interactive installation that includes a “visual diary” guests can flip through featuring photographs of her life over the decades paired with handwritten diary entries from 1977 to 2021. McCord narrates snippets from the diary, which visitors may listen to on headphones.

“Reservoir” aims, of course, to shine a light on the condition of loneliness. But it also hopes to serve as a public health intervention by hosting creative workshops — incorporating the photography in the exhibition — to address loneliness and spark connection.

“Creative expression changes our brains,” Nobel says. “It reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol, it increases the levels of the feel-good hormones, so you’re less anxious about the world and in a better mood. It’s then easier to engage with others. It invites us to be less lonely and more connected, not just to other people, but ourselves.”

The exhibition, which closes March 14, is planned to travel internationally, including to the Museo Arte Al Límite in Chile, the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in South Africa and to the Karuizawa Foto Fest in Japan. The goal is to use the workshop element as a model that can be replicated in community arts organizations around the world.

Rozental says photography is the perfect conduit for that, calling the medium “a language, a space for connection and communication.”

“We hope that people will walk into this space and see themselves on the walls,” she says. “Maybe their burden will ease a little bit by knowing that they might feel lonely, but they’re not alone.”

SIR Idris Elba is due to give evidence in the trial of a woman who allegedly stalked him and his wife.

The defendant is to face court next year after being arrested and charged.

The Sun told last year how actor Idris, 53, and his wife Sabrina, 36, had allegedly received unwanted emails and other communications.

The woman was also said to have turned up at private events in London, which the couple attended separately on different days.

A source said: “These events were seriously distressing for Idris and his family.

“He had no choice but to report it to the authorities.”

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The woman, in her 30s, was arrested in October and in November denied five harassment-related charges at Kingston crown court, South West London.

She has been released on bail.

Luther star Idris is expected to take the stand in the trial pencilled in for May 2027.

The Met Police said: “A woman has been charged following an investigation.

“The charges follow an arrest on Sunday, 26 October, 2025.”

A UK travel company known for selling trips to Disneyland has shut down.

The UK travel company based in Glasgow, Simply Florida Travel Ltd, sold bucket list adventures to North America amongst other destinations.

Customers now face their dream holidays to destinations such as Universal Studios, New York City, Toronto, Niagara Falls and Miami being cancelled.

The company was dissolved on January 6 and ceased trading as an ATOL-protected provider on January 20.

This came after the travel agency filed to be removed from the register on October 13 last year, according to Companies House.

 The UK’s financial protection programme for British travellers, ATOL, Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing scheme confirmed that Simply Florida Travel operated under a franchise agreement with The Travel Trust Association (TTA).

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Holiday makers who have had their plans ruined by this news have been advised to contact TTA directly to organise any refunds they may be owed.’

Simply Florida Travel Ltd’s website no longer exists, although their social media channels are still active.

The company joins a growing list of UK travel companies collapsing.

Just last month Regen Central Ltd, founded in 2011 in Hertfordshire went bust too.

The package holiday company ran packages to Italy, Bali, and Thailand, as well as the Middle East, including Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

It is understood by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that Regen Central Ltd had no outstanding ATOL-protected bookings.

However, it did say that bookings sold as flight only, accommodation only and non-flight packages are not protected by the ATOL scheme.

Customers who booked invalid travel packages were asked to wait patiently until the agency provides information on how to submit refund claims.

Feb. 6 (Asia Today) — South Korea could face a shortage of up to 4,800 physicians by 2037, the government said Thursday, as it moves closer to deciding how much to expand medical school enrollment amid mounting opposition from doctors’ groups.

The estimate was presented at the sixth meeting of the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee, where the Health Ministry selected a supply-based projection model using the so-called inflow-outflow method. The model estimates future physician supply by factoring in new medical licenses and mortality rates.

Under the model, South Korea is projected to have about 135,369 practicing doctors by 2037. Even with that increase, officials estimate a shortfall ranging from 4,262 to 4,800 physicians, depending on assumptions.

Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong said strengthening physician training is a prerequisite for rebuilding regional, essential and public healthcare systems. “Appropriate workforce development is the first step toward restoring healthcare delivery outside major urban centers,” she said.

The ministry opted for a license-based supply model that relies on relatively stable indicators, such as new entrants and deaths, rather than more variable demand-side projections. A task force advising the committee said the model has been validated through multiple domestic and international studies.

Only the scale of enrollment expansion remains undecided. The government plans to announce next week the medical school quota for the five-year period starting in the 2027 academic year.

The proposal, however, continues to draw resistance from medical groups, including the Korean Medical Association, which argue the projections are flawed. Critics say the estimates fail to reflect differences by region and specialty, underestimate future productivity gains from artificial intelligence and rely on overly limited variables.

KMA spokesperson Kim Seong-geun warned this week that if the government pushes ahead based on what he called “distorted data,” the association would take action and hold the government fully responsible for the consequences.

Education experts also cautioned that any expansion must be accompanied by measures to protect training quality. One academic noted that overlapping cohorts from recent academic years have already strained teaching capacity and said closer monitoring will be needed to prevent deterioration in medical education and residency training.

At Thursday’s meeting, officials also reviewed discussions from a recent Medical Innovation Committee session and consultations with medical educators. Based on those talks, the ministry said it plans to cap enrollment increases to avoid excessive strain on schools and apply different standards to national universities and smaller medical colleges.

Jeong said the next committee meeting will outline not only physician training numbers but also broader policy measures to support regional healthcare staffing.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260206010002529

Penn State hockey star Gavin McKenna will not face a felony assault charge after allegedly striking another man in the face twice during an altercation last weekend.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday by the State College Police Department charged McKenna with first-degree felony aggravated assault — which in Pennsylvania is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines — as well as misdemeanor simple assault, summary harassment and summary disorderly conduct.

The District’s Attorney’s Office of Centre County, Pa., said Friday that it is withdrawing the felony assault charge against the 18-year-old Canadian, who is expected to be one of the top picks in this year’s NHL draft,

“In order to establish probable cause for the crime of Aggravated Assault, the Commonwealth must establish that a person acted with the intent to cause serious bodily injury or acted recklessly under circumstances showing an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” the DA’s office said in a news release.

“Both the District Attorney’s Office and the State College Police Department have reviewed video evidence of this incident and do not believe that a charge of Aggravated Assault is supported by the evidence.”

The office added that “prosecution will go forward with the misdemeanor Simple Assault and other summary charges as they relate to the serious injuries suffered by the victim.”

The alleged incident took place around 8:45 p.m. Saturday near the Penn State campus, hours after McKenna had a goal and two assists during the Nittany Lions’ 5-4 overtime loss to Michigan State in an outdoor game played at Beaver Stadium.

“The complaint alleges that the victim was punched twice on the right side of his face by the defendant following an exchange of words between the alleged victim’s group and the group of people with Gavin McKenna,” prosecutors wrote. “The complaint further alleges that the victim sustained fractures to both sides of his jaw which would require surgery and that he was missing a tooth.

“Follow-up by State College Police has confirmed that the victim suffered two fractures to one side of his jaw, as opposed to both sides of his jaw, and that he is not missing a tooth. The victim has had surgery and is recovering.”

From Broderick Turner: The biggest news for the Lakers on Thursday was that All-Star guard Luka Doncic was unable to play in the second half against the Philadelphia 76ers because of left leg soreness, the team announced in the third quarter.

Doncic left the game in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 119-115 win at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers were undaunted by Doncic’s departure, coming back from 14 points down and holding on for the win by following the lead of Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and a strong defensive effort led by Marcus Smart and Jarred Vanderbilt.

After the game in which Reaves led the Lakers in scoring with 35 points off the bench, the biggest concern for the Lakers was the health of Doncic.

“He felt some soreness in his hamstring so he didn’t feel like it was good enough to go back in [and] neither did [our medical team,] ” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “So, we held him out and they [are] going to do some imaging. It’s too early to say if there’s an injury, but [he] just had a sore hamstring.”

Continue reading here

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Stafford announces decision while accepting MVP award

From Gary Klein: Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will be back for an 18th NFL season.

And he’ll do it as the reigning NFL most valuable player.

On Thursday night, Stafford was announced as the MVP during NFL Honors at the Palace of Fine Arts.

And then he made a big announcement of his own.

Stafford, wearing a black tuxedo with a black shirt and black bow tie, accepted the award on stage with his four young daughters, who attended most games this season. He thanked his wife, Kelly; family; teammates; coaches; and those who helped him reach the milestone.

“I’m so happy to have you at the games on the sideline with me and I can’t wait for you to cheer me on next year when we’re kicking a—,” Stafford said to his daughters, before turning his attention to the audience.

“And so I’ll see you guys next year,” he said as a crowd that included coach Sean McVay and several teammates began to roar. “Hopefully, I’m not at this event and we’re getting ready for another game at SoFi.”

Continue reading here

MORE RAMS NEWS

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How to watch the Super Bowl

Sunday

at Santa Clara

Seattle vs. New England

3:30 p.m. PT, NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, KLAC AM 570

Halftime show: Bad Bunny

National anthem: Charlie Puth

Odds: Seahawks favored by 4.5 points

Over/Under: 45.5 points

Dodgers to visit the White House

From Ana Ceballos and Ed Guzman: The Dodgers will make a return trip to the White House in recognition of their latest World Series title.

President Trump is planning to host the team, but no date has been set for the ceremony, a White House official confirmed Thursday morning.

The Dodgers went to the White House following their two previous World Series championships, hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump last April.

Continue reading here

U.S. women’s hockey makes history as it wins Olympic opener

From Kevin Baxter: Laila Edwards finally got out from under the spotlight and onto the ice for the U.S. women’s hockey team Thursday. It was a simple act, but one that made history.

Yet for Edwards, it was just another day at the office.

“It didn’t feel different at all,” she said. “It’s still hockey at the end of the day. Even though it’s the highest level, it’s still hockey.”

With her first shift in Thursday’s 5-1 win over Czechia, on the first day of hockey at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, Edwards became the first Black woman to play for the U.S. national team in an Olympic tournament. On a team full of record-breakers, it was a significant milestone, one that has become a storyline for the world’s top-ranked team.

Continue reading here

Alysa Liu returns to Olympics after a brief retirement

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Alysa Liu wore a hollow smile on the ice. She had achieved a dream, skating at the Beijing Olympics at just 16, but in a mostly empty arena, few were there to see the moment.

Perhaps that was what Liu secretly wanted.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to be seen,” Liu said. “It’s just I had nothing to show.”

The 20-year-old now proudly presents Alysa Liu 2.0.

Four years after shocking the sport by retiring as a teenage phenom, the Oakland native could win two gold medals at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. She is a title contender in her individual event that begins Feb. 17 as the United States tries to end a 20-year Olympic medal drought in women’s singles figure skating, and she will skate Friday in the women’s short program of a team competition the United States is favored to win.

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Olympics newsletter

Starting Saturday, you will receive a separate newsletter containing all the Olympics news from our reporters in Italy, including a medal count and TV listings. Sports Report subscribers will automatically get this newsletter, and it should arrive around 3 a.m. in your inbox.

Friday’s Olympic TV/streaming schedule

Friday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific.

OPENING CEREMONY: 11 a.m.| NBC, Peacock
(replay at 8 p.m. on NBC)

MULTIPLE SPORTS
7 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Figure skating, curling, hockey, skiing and more.| NBC

ALPINE SKIING
2:30 a.m. — Men’s downhill, training | Peacock
2:30 a.m. — Women’s downhill, training | Peacock

CURLING
Mixed doubles (round robin)
1:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Canada | Peacock
1:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Switzerland | Peacock
1:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. Britain | Peacock
5:35 a.m. — Czechia vs. U.S. | Peacock
5:35 a.m. — Estonia vs. Italy | Peacock
5:35 a.m. — South Korea vs. Britain | Peacock
5:35 a.m. — Sweden vs. Norway | Peacock
5:55 a.m. — Czechia vs. U.S. (in progress) | USA

FIGURE SKATING
Team competition
1 a.m. — Rhythm dance | USA
2:35 a.m. — Pairs, short program | USA
4:35 a.m. — Women, short program | USA

HOCKEY
Women (group play)
3:10 a.m. — France vs. Japan | Peacock
5:40 a.m. — Czechia vs. Switzerland | Peacock

USC extends its winning strea

From The Times staff: The USC women’s basketball team rolled to an 83-65 victory over Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Thursday night, extending their win streak to three games.

USC freshman Jazzy Davidson and redshirt freshman Laura Williams helped the Trojans open the game on an 11-0 run, claiming a lead they would never relinquish.

“I feel like as a team with these last couple of games, we’ve improved a lot,” sophomore guard Kennedy Smith said. “We’ve stayed consistent and are playing together and growing as a team, and that starts in practice. Just a lot of conversations about being better, obviously through that stretch of losses, but that doesn’t define us. I think the games matter the most in February and March, so we’re here to be better from here on out.”

Continue reading here

USC summary

Big Ten standings

Kings lose to Golden Knights

From the Associated Press: Mark Stone had a goal and two assists and the Vegas Golden Knights took control early Thursday night by scoring four times on their first six shots for a 4-1 victory over the Kings.

Vegas heads into the Olympic break with back-to-back victories after losing seven of eight games. The Kings have lost four of five.

Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev each had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights. Mitch Marner scored a goal for his 799th career point and Ivan Barbashev extended his points streak to five games with two assists.

Barbashev’s four-game goal streak, however, ended. Eichel extended his points streak to four games and now has 200 assists in a Golden Knights uniform.

Continue reading here

Kings summary

NHL standings

This day in sports history

1943 — Montreal’s Ray Getliffe scores five goals to lead the Canadiens to an 8-3 triumph over the Boston Bruins.

1958 — Ted Williams signs a contract with the Boston Red Sox for $135,000, making him the highest paid player in major league history.

1967 — Muhammad Ali successfully defends his world heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ernest Terrell in the Houston Astrodome.

1970 — The NBA expands to 18 teams with the addition of franchises in Buffalo, Cleveland, Houston and Portland.

1981 — Wayne Gretzky scores three goals and three assists in a 10-4 Edmonton victory over the Winnipeg Jets, giving him 100 points in the season.

1985 — Seventeen-year-old Dianne Roffe becomes the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal in a World Alpine Ski Championship race, capturing the giant slalom in 2:18.53.

1988 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan wins the NBA Slam Dunk contest with a perfect score of 50 on his final dunk, in front of a hometown crowd at Chicago Stadium.

1990 — Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues scores his 50th goal, making him and his Hall of Famer father, Bobby Hull, the only father-son combination in NHL history to reach that milestone.

1993 — Riddick Bowe easily wins his first defense of his WBA and IBF heavyweight boxing titles by beating Michael Dokes in the first round of their championship bout held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

2000 — Randy Moss sets records with nine catches for 212 yards, and Mike Alstott scores three touchdowns in the NFC’s 51-31 victory over the AFC, the highest-scoring Pro Bowl.

2000 — Pavel Bure records the 11th hat trick in All-Star history and goalie Olaf Kolzig plays a shutout third period as the World team routs North America 9-4 in the NHL’s 50th All-Star game.

2005 — The New England Patriots win their third Super Bowl in four years, 24-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s their ninth straight postseason victory, equaling Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.

2011 — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady becomes the first unanimous choice for The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award. Brady gets all 50 votes since the AP began using a nationwide panel of media members who cover the league.

2011 — Aaron Rodgers throws three touchdown passes and Nick Collins returns an interception for another score, leading the Green Bay Packers to a 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

2022 – NFL Pro Bowl, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada: AFC beats NFC, 41-35; MVPs: Justin Herbert, QB LA Chargers; Maxx Crosby, DE LV Raiders.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

If you do not declare banned food products, you could be fined up to £5,000

With Easter on the horizon, many Brits will likely jet off abroad for some much-needed sunshine. However, it’s crucial to be aware of the rules on returning to England, as a single mistake could result in a hefty fine.

You may be surprised to learn that this pertains to what you’re allowed to pack in your suitcase. While there are no restrictions on bringing food items such as bread, biscuits, and chocolate, other products are either banned or require declaration.

Official Government guidance has said: “There are restrictions on bringing meat, dairy, fish and animal products and fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds into Great Britain from abroad. If you’re bringing in any food or animal products protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), you may need to apply for a CITES permit.”

Generally, the rules regarding the importation of meat, dairy, fish, and other animal products into Britain largely depend on their country of origin. At present, there are tight restrictions on importing certain meat or dairy products from any EU country into Great Britain for personal use.

This ban is part of an effort to prevent further spread of animal-related diseases following recent outbreaks in Europe. It specifically applies to the following food items:

• Mutton
• Goat
• Venison
• Other products made from these meats, for example, sausages
• Milk and dairy products like butter, cheese and yoghurt
• Pork
• Beef
• Lamb

However, it is understood that holidaymakers can still bring fish, poultry, eggs, or honey from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland for personal use.

Food restrictions for nations beyond the EU are somewhat more stringent. Existing regulations stipulate that travellers cannot bring back any meat or meat products, or milk or dairy products.

Exemptions do exist, particularly for powdered infant milk, baby food or anything required for medical purposes. Additional Government guidance has also clarified that you may bring in ‘up to 2kg per person’ of:

• Honey
• Powdered infant milk, infant food, or special food (including pet food) needed for medical reasons – you can only bring it in if it does not need to be refrigerated before use, and is in branded, unopened packaging (unless in current use)
• Shellfish, such as mussels or oysters
• Snails – these must be preserved or shelled, cooked and prepared
• Frogs’ legs – these must be the back (hind) part of the frog with the skin and internal organs removed
• Insect meat

Travellers may bring up to ’20kg per person in total of fish’ too, including:

• Fresh fish – must be gutted
• Fish products
• Processed fish – must be dried, cooked, cured or smoked
• Lobsters
• Prawns

It is vital to understand that the Government also enforces restrictions concerning plant products. Holidaymakers are permitted to transport fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds from the EU, Switzerland, or Liechtenstein into the UK.

However, restrictions vary considerably for countries beyond the EU. The Government’s advice continued: “You cannot bring in most fruit or vegetables unless you have a ‘phytosanitary’ (plant health) certificate for them. You can get a certificate from the plant health authorities in the country you’re leaving.”

Anyone travelling to the UK from countries outside the EU can only take these items back without a certificate:

• Pineapple
• Kiwi
• Coconut
• Citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit
• Kumquat
• Persimmon
• Durian
• Curry leaves
• Banana and plantain
• Mango
• Dates
• Passion fruit
• Guava
• Processed and packaged plant products, such as packaged salads or frozen plant material
• Peeled and processed nuts or nut butters
• Certain grains, such as rice

“If you declare banned food products to Border Force officers at customs, they’ll take them away and destroy them,” the Government has added, according to the Express. “If you do not declare banned food products, you could be fined up to £5,000 (in England) or you could be prosecuted.

“Border Force can take away (‘seize’) your products if they think: you’ve brought something into the country illegally, you’ve brought in too much of a restricted product, it’s been cross-contaminated, for example with blood from meat – if any clothing or a bag the item’s in is contaminated, it’ll be destroyed.

“If you’re not sure about any of the products you’re bringing in, speak to a Border Force officer in the ‘red channel’ at customs or on the red point phone.”

For more information, head to the Government’s website here.

What other items face no restrictions?

You are allowed to bring the following items into Great Britain from any country without restrictions:

• Bread, but not sandwiches filled with meat or dairy products
• Cakes without fresh cream
• Biscuits
• Chocolate and confectionery, but not those made with a lot of unprocessed dairy ingredients
• Pasta and noodles, but not if mixed or filled with meat or meat products
• Packaged soup, stocks and flavourings
• Processed and packaged plant products, such as packaged salads and frozen plant material
• Food supplements containing small amounts of an animal product, such as fish oil capsules

ACTRESS Florence Pugh revealed her bloody face and welts on her forehead in new photos after undergoing “Botox and fillers.”

The A-list star got candid about the beauty treatments she’s endured and their shocking side effects in a series of social media posts.

Earlier this week, Florence, 30 – who is set to star in the first James Bond Amazon spin-off – shared several snapshots from her recent visit with her plastic surgeon, showing herself receiving injections in her forehead and lips.

One pic captured the Oppenheimer star sticking her tongue out at the camera while her doctor smiled as she injected a needle into her forehead, which already showed multiple red bumps.

“Just mama Pugh freezing her forehead like a responsible adult,” the Thunderbolts star teasingly wrote over the clip.

A second snap showed Florence with a neutral expression as she received filler injections in her top lip.

The Don’t Worry Darling star then showed the after-effects of the injections, including visible marks on her face.

“I wasn’t stung by a bee. I repeat: I wasn’t stung by a bee. Just had some tox and fillers,” Florence jokingly clarified in her caption.

The Pretty Woman star appears to have made a habit of prioritizing herself from a young age.

Last February, during an appearance on the National Geographic series No Taste Like Home, Florence opened up about her childhood battle with severe respiratory issues.

“I wasn’t supposed to live,” the United Kingdom native revealed.

“When I was born, they told my parents that it wasn’t going to happen, and just enjoy the time whilst you have it.

“I had many struggles growing up with my breathing, constantly being ill. Going in and out of the hospital,” Florence added.

The We Live in Time star previously revealed that she was diagnosed with tracheomalacia as a baby, a condition that causes the windpipe to collapse and makes breathing difficult.

Her parents uprooted their lives to Spain when she was three years old after doctors suggested that a warmer climate would help her breathe better.

“We were in Spain because I have a breathing issue,” Florence said in a past interview.

“I have asthma and this thing called tracheomalacia. From a young age, I’ve just had a different breathing system.”

Florence was initially on the show to trace her family’s roots through culinary creations in Oxford.

She then discovered that her 3x great-grandparents, Mauritz and Anna, who emigrated from the Netherlands to London in the mid-1800s, had a daughter, Florence, who died at just four days old.

The actress learned that her relative likely died from tuberculosis, prompting her to reflect on her own health struggles growing up.

Passport control delays are being reported at airports across Europe

Holidaymakers jetting off to European destinations are being cautioned about potential delays at airports and passport control areas. The hold-ups are due to the implementation of a new biometric border system across the European Union (EU). Nations are struggling to adapt to the European Entry/Exit System (EES), which is gradually being rolled out across EU countries.

The EES, set to replace the traditional passport stamp for non-EU visitors, including those from the UK, has been slowly introduced since October 2025, with approximately one third of all EU countries now utilising it.

However, issues such as staffing shortages, kiosk congestion, and terminal layout problems at major airports are believed to be causing delays of up to six hours for some travellers. As a result, the European Commission has discreetly postponed the full implementation date from April 2026 to September 2026.

Three-hour delays have been reported at Geneva Airport, a hotspot for British skiers during this season. A spokesperson acknowledged that implementing the EES had posed a ‘major challenge for Swiss customs and Geneva Airport’, according to the BBC.

Delays are also cropping up in the Canary Islands, another favourite destination among Brits. Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International Europe, stated that border control processing times have increased four to fivefold under the EES, with people typically waiting up to two hours.

He attributed the problems to insufficient staffing and faulty equipment, warning that queues could stretch to six hours during the busy summer months unless improvements were made. However, Markus Lammert, European Commission spokesperson for Internal Affairs, maintained the system had functioned ‘largely without issues’.

READ MORE: Major passport changes begin in weeks as Home Office explains what you will needREAD MORE: Budget traveller’s £44 day trip to Spain – carrying just Lidl sausage rolls and water

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) highlighted that border officials weren’t fully utilising their powers to scale back checks when required. The organisation urged authorities to develop better contingency strategies for peak periods and ensure frontline personnel properly understand regulations and their flexibility to implement them.

An ABTA spokesperson explained: “The underuse of the measures has meant that there have been occasions where passengers have unnecessarily been caught up in lengthy delays going through passport control, which can have a knock-on impact for their onward travel.

“Under the contingency measures, border authorities are allowed to stand down the system, or limit the number or extent of checks, to avoid significant disruption and large queues.”

This development follows the Home Office releasing guidance for the 1.26million Britons who currently possess dual citizenship. Starting 25 February 2026, dual British nationals must present either a valid British passport or Certificate of Entitlement when entering the UK.

The Home Office cautioned that carriers would be verifying passengers hold appropriate documentation.

Ashley Polson, from Swansea, recently climbed a famous mountain. Though he was happy to take on the trek, as was left floored after making an unexpected discovery at the top

Pen y Fan stands as one of Wales’ most beloved hiking destinations, drawing adventurers who’ve braved the ascent in all sorts of conditions. Ashley Polson, from Swansea, is among those who’ve experienced just how demanding the climb can be, having recently shared footage of his morning expedition.

Just days ago, he made his way to the Brecon Beacons to take in the views from the renowned peak, only to encounter an unexpected twist. Upon reaching the summit at 10am, he confessed it was “absolutely Baltic”, and that was merely the beginning of his tale.

Ashley isn’t alone in recording the challenges faced on the mountain. Only months earlier, another hiker revealed that Pen y Fan doesn’t always live up to expectations.

In footage posted to TikTok, Ashley remarked: “While you’re all tucked up in bed, in the warm, I’m up here. Pen y Fan. Oh my god, it is freezing up here.

“I’m up here today for a walk event, some people are running. I’m just walking, I’ve got my sticks. I don’t know if you can hear me, but that’s the top up there.

“It’s snowing. To be honest with you, I feel like I’m going to get blown off before I get back down. I was going to say lovely views up Pen y Fan, but it’s f*****g freezing. So yeah, lovely morning walk, great.”

Ashley cheekily titled his video “scenic walk up Pen y Fan”, seemingly poking fun at the reality that visibility was virtually non-existent. The weather conditions meant he was robbed of the panoramic views, with thick fog obscuring everything.

Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Fortunately, Ashley maintained his sense of humour throughout, appearing upbeat despite being greeted by nothing but a wall of mist instead of the anticipated scenery.

His clip clearly resonated with viewers, racking up hundreds of views. Many were quick to leave comments sharing their own experiences.

One viewer remarked: “I’ve been there. It’s so cold.” Meanwhile, another expressed Welsh pride, commenting: “At our doorstep.”

Ashley responded: “We’re lucky to have all this local.” It’s evident he takes pride in residing in such a stunning nation, though moments like these are undeniably amusing.

Ashley may be familiar to some, as he’s gained recognition for creating viral content about Wales alongside his brother. The duo regularly entertain online audiences with their comedic sketches and humorous footage.

Where is Pen y Fan?

For those unfamiliar, Pen y Fan rises to 886 metres (2,907 ft) and sits within the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. It holds the distinction of being the tallest peak in South Wales and southern Britain.

The location draws countless walkers thanks to its spectacular vistas and demanding yet manageable trails. A four-mile circular path proves particularly appealing to visitors.

In terms of difficulty, the trek ranks as moderately to seriously challenging. Walkers should expect sharp inclines, rocky ground and frequently waterlogged paths.

Although accessible throughout most of the year, its popularity means arriving during morning is advisable to dodge the masses.

If anyone told Mariah Carey ahead of time that Friday night’s MusiCares Person of the Year tribute would feature a live auction — an auction in which a meet-and-greet with the singer in Abu Dhabi was offered to the highest bidder — you sure couldn’t tell by observing her reaction.

Seated near the stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center, a camera feeding close-up images of her face to several screens, Carey appeared genuinely surprised by an auctioneer’s description of the backstage hangout in which she’d be expected to participate next month.

But such is the life of a queen.

Watching Carey respond in real time was actually the best thing about this annual Grammy-weekend gala meant to honor an artist’s work and philanthropy. Though the 56-year-old herself sang for only a minute or so at the end of the show, Carey was a delight to behold as a series of admirers took turns performing some of her many hits (and a handful of deep cuts).

Jennifer Hudson performs.

(Emma McIntyre / Getty Images)

The look of game recognizing game as Jennifer Hudson crushed “Vision of Love.” The tenderness with which she regarded her old friend Busta Rhymes doing their “I Know What You Want.” The slowly dawning realization that this heavily tattooed white man named Teddy Swims was really going to pull off “Without You.”

“That was terrifying,” Swims said when he finished the song — an all-timer of a power ballad with a lengthy chain of custody going back through Carey, Harry Nilsson and the doomed Welsh band Badfinger.

Best of all was the sight of Carey proudly singing along to Foo Fighters and Taylor Momsen as they blazed through a pair of tunes from the cult-fave grunge album she secretly recorded in the mid-1990s under the name Chick.

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, left, and Taylor Momsen perform.

(Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images)

Other acts on the bill included Adam Lambert, who went slow and moody for “Can’t Let Go”; the British girl group Flo, which gave an airy performance of “Dreamlover”; and Laufey, who kept a watchful eye on a giant prompter scrolling lyrics at the back of the room as she did “It’s Like That.”

Then there was Billy Porter, who took “Always Be My Baby” way over the top with wild vocal runs that made up for what they lacked in precision with — well, mostly with volume.

Carey took the stage late in the evening to give her thanks to “so many friendly and familiar faces — people I’ve worked with, people I’ve long admired, even people I thought I’d never see again.” After her speech, Jon Batiste popped out to lead a random assortment of stars through an all-hands finale of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which recently set a new record for the most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Charlie Puth? Gayle King? Rita Wilson? Carey looked pleased(-ish) to see each one.

World number one Judd Trump will take on Ali Carter in the semi-finals of the German Masters after a 5-3 victory over Xiao Guodong in which the pair shared four centuries.

Trump compiled breaks of 107 and 105 open a 2-0 lead and then finished strongly after Guodong recovered with contributions of 104 and 120 before edging ahead by taking the fifth frame.

The world number one, however, would not be denied and took three in a row, with his Chinese opponent failing to score in two of those frames.

Luis Martinez was on his way to work on a frigid Minneapolis morning when federal agents suddenly boxed him in, forcing the SUV he was driving to a dead stop in the middle of the street.

Masked agents rapped on the window, demanding Martinez produce his ID. Then one held his cellphone inches from Martinez’s face and scanned his features, capturing the shape of his eyes, the curves of his lips, the exact quadrants of his cheeks.

All the while, the agent kept asking: Are you a U.S. citizen?

The encounter in a Minneapolis suburb this week captures the tactics on display in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which it describes as the largest of its kind and one that has drawn national scrutiny after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens this month.

Across Minnesota and other states where the Department of Homeland Security has surged personnel, officials say enforcement efforts are targeted and focused on serious offenders. But photographs, videos and internal documents paint a different picture, showing agents leaning heavily on biometric surveillance and vast, interconnected databases — highlighting how a sprawling digital surveillance apparatus has become central to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Civil liberties experts warn the expanding use of those systems risks sweeping up citizens and noncitizens alike, often with little transparency or meaningful oversight.

Over the past year, Homeland Security and other federal agencies have dramatically expanded their ability to collect, share and analyze people’s personal data, thanks to a web of agreements with local, state, federal and international agencies, plus contracts with technology companies and data brokers. The databases include immigration and travel records, facial images and information drawn from vehicle databases.

In Martinez’s case, the face scan didn’t find a match and it wasn’t until he produced his U.S. passport, which he said he carried for fear of such an encounter, that federal agents let him go.

“I had been telling people that here in Minnesota it’s like a paradise for everybody, all the cultures are free here,” he said. “But now people are running out of the state because of everything that is happening. It’s terrifying. It’s not safe anymore.”

Together with other government surveillance data and systems, federal authorities can now monitor American cities at a scale that would have been difficult to imagine just a few years ago, advocates say. Agents can identify people on the street through facial recognition, trace their movements through license-plate readers and, in some cases, use commercially available phone-location data to reconstruct daily routines and associations.

When asked by the Associated Press about its expanding use of surveillance tools, the Department of Homeland Security said it would not disclose law enforcement sensitive methods.

“Employing various forms of technology in support of investigations and law enforcement activities aids in the arrest of criminal gang members, child sex offenders, murderers, drug dealers, identity thieves and more, all while respecting civil liberties and privacy interests,” it said.

Dan Herman, a former Customs and Border Protection senior advisor in the Biden administration who now works at the Center for American Progress, said the government’s access to facial recognition, other personal data and surveillance systems poses a threat to people’s privacy rights and civil liberties without adequate checks.

“They have access to a tremendous amount of trade, travel, immigration and screening data. That’s a significant and valuable national security asset, but there’s a concern about the potential for abuse,” Herman said. “Everyone should be very concerned about the potential that this data could be weaponized for improper purposes.”

Facial recognition

On Wednesday, Homeland Security disclosed online that it has been using a facial recognition app, Mobile Fortify, that it said uses “trusted source photos” to compare scans of people’s faces that agents take to verify their identity. The app, which Customs and Border Protection said is made by the vendor NEC, uses facial comparison or fingerprint-matching systems.

The app was in operation for CBP and ICE before the immigration crackdown in the Los Angeles area in June, when website 404Media first reported its existence.

In interactions observed by reporters and videos posted online, federal agents are rarely seen asking for consent before holding their cellphones to people’s faces, and in some clips they continue scanning even after someone objects.

In two instances seen by an AP journalist near Columbia Heights, Minn., where immigration officials recently detained a 5-year-old boy and his father, masked agents held their phones a foot away from people’s faces to capture their biometric details.

The technology resembles facial recognition systems used at airports, but unlike airport screenings, where travelers are typically notified and can sometimes opt out, Martinez said he was given no choice.

According to a lawsuit filed against the department by the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago this month, Homeland Security has used Mobile Fortify in the field more than 100,000 times. The Department of Homeland Security told AP that Mobile Fortify supports “accurate identity and immigration-status verification during enforcement operations. It operates with a deliberately high-matching threshold,” and uses only some immigration data.

Without federal guidelines for the use of facial recognition tools, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights warned in a September 2024 report their deployment raises concerns about accuracy, oversight, transparency, discrimination and access to justice.

Body-camera footage

Last year, the Trump administration scaled back a program to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials body cameras, but administration officials said some agents tied to the fatal shooting of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti were wearing them and that footage is now being reviewed.

Gregory Bovino, who was the administration’s top Border Patrol official charged with the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis until Monday, began wearing a bodycam in response to a judge’s order late last year.

Body-camera video could help clarify events surrounding federal agents’ killing of Pretti, who was filming immigration agents with his cellphone when they shot him in the back.

Administration officials shifted their tone after independent video footage emerged raising serious questions about some Trump officials’ accusations that Pretti intended to harm agents.

Emerging technologies

Homeland Security and affiliated agencies are piloting and deploying more than 100 artificial intelligence systems, including some used in law enforcement activities, according to the department’s disclosure Wednesday.

Congress last year authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to get more than $2.7 billion to build out border surveillance systems and add in AI and other emerging technologies.

In recent weeks, Homeland Security requested more information from private industry on how technology companies and data providers can support their investigations and help identify people.

Meanwhile, longtime government contractor Palantir was paid $30 million to extend a contract to build a system designed to locate people flagged for deportation. On Wednesday, the Trump administration disclosed it’s using Palantir’s AI models to sift through immigration enforcement tips submitted to its tip line.

Homeland Security has also been exploring partnerships with license-plate reader companies like Flock Safety to expand their tracking capabilities.

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, who directs the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, said more funding for government surveillance tools changes the landscape.

“We are developing these technologies for immigrant enforcement,” she said. “Are we also going to expand it or wield it against U.S. citizens who are engaging in entirely lawful or protest activity?”

Burke and Tau write for the Associated Press. AP freelance photojournalist Adam Gray contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

Newcastle will play Qarabag in a two-legged play-off to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

The Magpies drew 1-1 with defending champions Paris St-Germain on Wednesday in the league phase to seal 12th place.

PSG, who finished 11th, will face Monaco while 15-time European champions Real Madrid will meet former manager Jose Mourinho’s Benfica.

The first legs of the play-offs will take place on 17-18 February, with the second legs one week later.

The Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary will hosts the 2025-26 final on 30 May.

More to follow.

For months, Gregory Bovino has been the public face of President Trump’s sweeping immigration raids across U.S. cities.

When the brash Border Patrol commander charged into Los Angeles last summer with the stated mission of arresting thousands of immigrants, he was unapologetic as agents smashed car windows, concealed their identities with masks, seized brown-skinned Angelenos off the streets, and descended on MacArthur Park on horseback.

In Minneapolis, when a federal officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good on Jan. 7, Bovino’s response to Fox News’ Sean Hannity was, “Hats off to that ICE agent.”

And when a Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, on Saturday, Bovino again defended the killing. Pretti, he said, looked like someone who “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

But as public outrage has swelled against the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics, Bovino’s future is in limbo. On Monday, Trump deployed border advisor Tom Homan to Minnesota, with Bovino reportedly set to depart the region.

Now, the question remains: will Bovino’s departure really change the Trump playbook?

Ariel G. Ruiz Soto — a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank — said Bovino’s exit, if true, could represent a pivotal moment in immigration enforcement in the nation’s interior.

“I think it signals that the tensions have risen so significantly that there’s beginning to be ruptures and fragments within the Trump administration to try to figure out how to do this enforcement more efficiently, but also with more accountability,” Ruiz Soto said.

Other immigration experts, however, question the significance of sidelining Bovino.

“I think it’s a grave mistake to think the change in the personnel on the ground constitutes a change in policy,” said Lucas Guttentag, a professor of law at Stanford University who specializes in immigration. “Because the policy remains the same: to terrorize immigrant communities and intimidate peaceful protesters.”

Even if Bovino is ousted or given a lesser role, Guttentag said, national immigration policy is still shaped by Stephen Miller — the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor who has embraced hardline enforcement tactics.

“They’re still threatening to use military action,” Guttentag said. “They still want to keep the National Guard on call. All of those fundamental policies, as well as deporting people who had legal status, sending people to third world countries without any due process, adopting detention rules that deprive people of hearings to be eligible for release, all of that’s continuing.”

“Simply changing from Bovino to Homan,” he added, “doesn’t signal anything significant in terms of policy.”

::

So far, the Department of Homeland Security has remained publicly tight-lipped about what’s next for Bovino, and did not respond this week to inquiries from The Times.

However, the Associated Press reported Monday that Bovino and some federal agents were expected to leave Minneapolis as early as Tuesday. The Atlantic, citing DHS sources, reported that Bovino had been demoted from his role of Border Patrol commander at large and would return to his former job in El Centro, Calif.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed that Monday, saying on X that Bovino “has NOT been relieved of his duties.” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt described him as a “wonderful person” and “a great professional” who would “continue to lead Customs and Border Patrol throughout and across the country.”

There has been mounting criticism of and public protest against the administration’s activities since the launch of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota last month. Trump said he sent Homan to Minnesota “to de-escalate a little bit.”

“Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy,” Trump said Tuesday during an interview on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.” “And in some cases that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”

::

A pugnacious 55-year-old who was born in California but raised in North Carolina, Bovino’s muscle-bound physique, green military greatcoat and gel-spiked hair seemed straight out of MAGA central casting.

Barreling into Los Angeles in June to command the Trump administration’s mass immigration raids, he seemed to relish confrontation as protests erupted and troops were deployed across the city.
“All over … the Los Angeles region, we’re going to turn and burn to that next target and the next and the next and the next, and we’re not going to stop,” Bovino told the Associated Press last summer. “We’re not going to stop until there’s not a problem here.”

When Bovino met legal setbacks, he was defiant.

In August, an appeals court upheld a temporary restraining order blocking his agents from targeting people in Southern and Central California based on race, language or vocation without reasonable suspicion they are in the U.S. illegally.

Bovino responded by posting a video on X that first showed L.A. Mayor Karen Bass telling reporters that “this experiment that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed” before cutting to himself grinning. As a frenetic mix of drums and bass kicked in, the video transitioned to footage of federal agents jumping out of a van to chase people down.

“When you’re faced with opposition to law and order, what do you do?” Bovino wrote. “Improvise, adapt, and overcome!”

After Bovino led agents in Los Angeles, he pivoted to Chicago to serve as the commander of Operation Midway Blitz. Then, he went to New Orleans before heading to Minnesota to lead what officials called Homeland Security’s “largest immigration operation ever.”

The fatal shootings of Good and Pretti by federal agents this month sparked outrage and protests, both in Minneapolis and around the nation.

Ruiz Soto said that the controversy over the Trump immigration policy was no longer just about immigrants.

“It’s about constitutional rights and it’s about U.S. citizens,” Ruiz Soto said. “For the broader public, it’s now much more immersive. It’s now much more in their face.”

After Border Patrol agents tackled Pretti to the ground and shot him, many Americans were outraged to hear Bovino and other senior Trump administration officials make false statements regarding the incident.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Pretti approached federal officers on the street with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him.

But according to videos taken on the scene, Pretti was holding a phone, not a handgun, when he stepped in front of a federal agent who had shoved a woman to the ground. The agent shoved and pepper-sprayed him and then multiple agents forced him to the ground. In the middle of the scrum, an agent secured a handgun. Less than a second later, the first shot was fired.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asserted without evidence that Pretti had committed “an act of domestic terrorism,” and said her agency would lead the investigation into his killing.

Federal officials also denied Minnesota state investigators access to the shooting scene in south Minneapolis, prompting local and state officials to accuse the Homeland Security agency of mishandling evidence.

In the days since the shooting, Democrats in Congress have called for Noem to be removed from office.

“The country is disgusted by what the Department of Homeland Security has done,” Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday in a joint statement. “Kristi Noem should be fired immediately or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House.”

When asked by reporters Tuesday whether Noem would step down, Trump said: “No.”

By sidelining Bovino, Ruiz Soto said the Trump administration appears to be sending a larger message.

“They’re going to try to restrict or home in the Border Patrol’s authority or at least the way they participate in operations and are going to now go back,” he said. “Or at least try to emulate more of the prior ICE model.”

Guttentag, however, said that while the public is seeing a tactical retreat on the part of the Trump administration, the problems went beyond Bovino’s leadership.

“So it’s not just the leadership, it’s the lack of training,” Guttentag said. “It’s the message that we’re getting from the very top, the statements from the vice president and others, that they have legal immunity. It’s the instructions to be as aggressive as they can be, and it’s also the lack of quality in the hiring and training process. All of that continues regardless of who the person on the ground is.”

Jan. 27 (UPI) — Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube will face accusers in a series of lawsuits alleging that they intentionally design their platforms to be addictive.

The trials begin in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday, filed by a group of parents, teens and school districts. Once teens are addicted to the platforms, plaintiffs allege, they suffer from depression, self-harm, eating disorders and more. There are about 1,600 plaintiffs involving 350 families and 250 school districts.

“The fact that a social media company is going to have to stand trial before a jury … is unprecedented,” Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and an attorney in the cases, said in a press conference.

The first case involves a 19-year-old identified as KGM and her mother, Karen Glenn. They are suing TikTok, Meta and YouTube because they say the companies created addictive features that damaged her mental health and led to self-harm and suicidal ideation. Snap was also a defendant in the case, but it settled the case last week.

Her case’s outcome could help determine the outcomes of more than 1,000 injury cases against the companies. The case is expected to last several weeks.

The thousands of cases against these tech giants have been lumped together in a judicial council coordination proceeding, which allows California cases to collaborate and streamline pre-trial hearings.

The plaintiffs want financial damages as well as injunctions that would force the companies to change the design of their platforms and create industry-wide safety standards.

Top company executives are expected to testify, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri and more. Experts in online harm are also expected to testify.

“For parents whose children have been exploited, groomed, or died because of big tech platforms, the next six weeks are the first step toward accountability after years of being ignored by these companies,” Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative, which advocates for child safety online, told CNN. “These are the tobacco trials of our generation, and for the first time, families across the country will hear directly from big tech CEOs about how they intentionally designed their products to addict our kids.”

KGM alleges in court documents that on Instagram she was bullied and sextorted, which is when someone threatens to share explicit images of the victim unless they send money or more photos.

For two weeks, KGM’s friends and family had to ask other Instagram users to report the people targeting her before Meta would do something about it, court documents said.

“Defendants’ knowing and deliberate product design, marketing, distribution, programming and operational decision and conduct caused serious emotional and mental harms to K.G.M. and her family,” the suit said. “Those harms include, but are not limited to, dangerous dependency on their products, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and body dysmorphia.”

Tech companies and their CEOs reject the allegation that social media harms teens’ mental health. They argue that it offers a connection with friends and entertainment. They also lean on Section 230, a federal law that protects them from liability over content posted by users.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the college football season has finally, officially come to an end. Indiana is our national champion — a sentence I never thought, as a long-ago IU sports columnist, that I would write under any circumstances. Many have tried since last Monday to make sense of what Indiana’s title says about this new era of college football. But in truth, I don’t know that we learned much more than we already knew.

A great quarterback is, as always, a must. Winning at the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball, is essential. Older, more experienced players — like Indiana’s fleet of 24-year olds — are usually better than younger, inexperienced ones, especially in this age of the transfer portal. And a great coach, in the college game, can make up for pretty much anything.

None of those lessons are really all that revelatory. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to apply. But what Indiana has shown definitively this season is that more programs are capable of winning a national title now than ever before. USC has always been among those annual contenders. Only now, the waiting room is a bit more crowded than before.

But with the college football season firmly in the rearview mirror, let’s set aside football briefly to zoom in this week on USC’s basketball programs, both of which are facing a make-or-break stretch of their schedules.

The return of Alijah Arenas was supposed to be USC’s saving grace midway through the conference slate, as he swooped in just in time for the home stretch. But nothing came smoothly the five-star freshman last week. After Arenas left Galen Center gasping with an early, 360 lay-in, he hit just one of his remaining 10 shots from the field against Northwestern. Then on Sunday, he made three for 12.

He was understandably rusty. Coach Eric Musselman took the blame after the game for putting too much on the freshman’s plate in his debut. But I could understand why he played Arenas as much as he could. Because, in many ways, it feels like the rest of USC’s season hinges on the freshman finding his stride as fast as possible.

Sunday’s road win at Wisconsin, however, offered an alternative case. Arenas continued to struggle, but USC’s offense rolled on without him. Chad Baker-Mazara scored 29, and Ezra Ausar scored 17 as the Trojans charged back to beat the Badgers in front of a hostile crowd.

The win was USC’s first against a Quad 1 team and arguably its biggest statement of the season. Still, the Trojans rank 51st in the NCAA’s NET rankings and are firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble, according to ESPN’s bracketology.

Sunday offered a glimpse of what they’re capable of. But so did Wednesday’s loss to Northwestern.

The truth is that the Trojans, especially in this injury-ravaged form, have to play their best to beat teams like Wisconsin. They have to rely heavily on Baker-Mazara, who has been anything but reliable with his performance the past month, and hope that someone else, such as backup point guard Jordan Marsh, scores in bunches.

In the wake of Wednesday’s loss, it was clear there was frustration in the locker room.

“This is all about habits and consistency,” Ausar said. “That’s where we lack — all around as a team.”

The margin for error is similarly thin for Lindsay Gottlieb and the USC women, who sit at 11-9 and 12th in the Big Ten after a narrow loss to Michigan on Sunday. But the women of Troy are still 25th in the NET rankings, a point that Gottlieb was sure to reiterate to me when we spoke on Friday.

I asked her what silver linings she could see after losing five of six.

“None of [our losses] have been terrible relative to resume. Three of them, we didn’t have Kennedy [Smith]. We still had big leads in some. That doesn’t absolve us from not taking them to the finish line, but what you take from it, other than [the] UCLA [game], we’re not getting blown out.”

Kara Dunn has been on a roll for USC.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Five of the Trojans’ last eight opponents are currently ranked in the top 20, so the recent losing streak doesn’t mean USC is a lost cause the rest of the way. What it does mean is that the ceiling of this year’s squad is looking lower than we might have thought it would be without JuJu Watkins.

That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise with its superstar sidelined. But USC has pieces that could have helped replace her in the aggregate. Freshman Jazzy Davidson continues to improve. Kara Dunn has been a revelation recently on offense, having scored 21 or more in each of her last six games. Smith is still the same lockdown defender as ever.

It’s elsewhere that USC’s roster is lacking this season. And like with the Trojan men, there aren’t many ways to rearrange the hand that Gottlieb has been dealt. The frontcourt has little in the way of firepower (USC’s four-big rotation has taken just 164 shots combined this season, eight fewer than Londynn Jones on her own), and the point guard position has been a problem at times, too.

Both teams still have a path to the NCAA tournament. Both offer some reason to believe. But as both enter a critical stretch of their season, there’s still plenty of time left to stumble as well.

Eric Gentry after last season’s win over Nebraska.

(Bonnie Ryan / Associated Press)

—The Gary Patterson hire could be a huge success. There’s also some risk baked in. Patterson’s credentials, among the coaches accessible to USC in its search, are unmatched. Ask anyone who has been around college football, and they will tell you that he’s one of the best evaluators of defensive talent this century. Few coaches have gotten more out of less on that end than Patterson. But if you’re searching for reasons to be skeptical, the fact that he hasn’t been a full-time coach since 2021 — or that he left his last consultant gig at Baylor right before the 2024 season — might give you some pause. A lot has changed about coaching college football since then. Even at the time, the perception at Texas Christian was that his tenure there had grown stale. Whether the game has passed him by or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But from 2017 through 2020, Patterson still had arguably the Big 12’s best defense, ranking in the top 30 nationally in yards allowed all four seasons. It sounds like he’s been itching to be back in an on-field role. Maybe, at USC, he’ll be reinvigorated. Because if he can get his Trojan defense to that level, USC will be in the Playoff.

—The College Football Playoff is sticking to 12 teams … for now at least. This was the expected outcome, given the ongoing disagreement between the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference over the format. The Big Ten wanted 24 (!!) teams. The SEC wanted 16. The Big Ten wanted more automatic qualifiers. The SEC wanted more at-large bids. The stalemate leaves us with the status quo, which is … really not that bad. A 24-team playoff would totally de-emphasize the regular season to a degree that I personally think would have a negative impact on the game. There’s already a calendar issue, as is, with 12 teams. Imagine how expansion might make that worse.

—Remember Abdul-Malik McClain, the former USC linebacker arrested for EDD fraud? I wrote pretty extensively five years ago on the strange saga that started with his brother, wideout Munir McClain, being suspended from USC’s football team suddenly and without any clear reason. As it turned out, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, it was his brother, Abdul-Malik, who was the target of federal scrutiny for a scheme that sought to defraud the government of over $1 million in COVID-related unemployment benefits. Abdul-Malik McClain, who the DOJ says was responsible for at least three dozen fraudulent applications, pleaded guilty in June 2024 to one count of felony mail fraud. He was finally sentenced last Tuesday to time served and ordered to pay $228,995. But he’ll pay a fraction of that. The Court, in its opinion, ordered McClain to pay just $50 per month.

—Eric Gentry’s measurables at the Shrine Bowl were even more insane than you’d expect. When I first wrote about Gentry, upon his transfer to USC a few years back, I wrote how there wasn’t a linebacker like him in the NFL. His most recent measurables bare that out. He ranks in the 99th percentile in height (6-6 ⅜) and in arm length (35 ¼”), and in the 96th percentile in hand size (10 ½”)

—2026 hoops signees Adonis and Darius Ratliff both shot up 247’s recruiting rankings this week. The twin sons of former NBA player Theo Ratliff moved up 34 spots and 20 spots, respectively, in the site’s latest re-rank. Musselman and his staff were high on both early on – seems like others are getting on board with their evaluation.

Times of Troy survey

After an anxious few weeks for Trojan fans, USC finally has its next defensive coordinator. So after all that anticipation, how do you feel about the Gary Patterson hire?

—Thrilled! We got a Hall of Famer!
—Cautiously optimistic it could work
—Mildly concerned it will fail
—Convinced this will be a disaster

Click here to vote in our survey.

Olympic sports spotlight

USC’s women’s golf team, which opens the spring season ranked No. 2 in the nation, kicked off the spring with a 3 ½ to 1 ½ match play victory over crosstown rival UCLA.

USC did so without its top-ranked player, Jasmine Koo, in the five-woman field. The sophomore ranks No. 9 in the nation at the start of spring. Instead, Elise Lee (No. 16), Sarah Hammett, and Kylie Chong (No. 44) won to edge out UCLA.

In case you missed it

Chad Baker-Mazara sparks USC to rally past Wisconsin

USC women rally from 16-point deficit but fall to No. 7 Michigan

USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb says struggling Trojans are ‘right there’ despite losing five of six

Alijah Arenas’ debut spoiled by USC’s loss to Northwestern

USC hires Gary Patterson to be the Trojans’ defensive coordinator

Secondary coach Doug Belk departs USC, Trojans hire Mike Ekeler to lead special teams

Trespassing charge against ex-USC star Jordan Addison dropped

What I’m watching this week

George R. R. Martin at the world premiere of “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ in Berlin.

(Ebrahim Noroozi / Associated Press)

When HBO decided to green-light a half-dozen ideas for “Game of Thrones” spinoffs, the executives in that conference room were probably imagining someone like yours truly in front of my TV, devouring whatever they put in front of me. So I was pretty much guaranteed to gravitate towards “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms,” the latest Thrones spin-off to premiere on HBO.

But what I didn’t expect was how different the tone would be in this slice of the Thrones universe. The story follows Ser Dunk, a bumbling and abnormally large hedge knight, who resolves to enter a tournament that seems impossible for him to win. The show is much lighter and funnier than its predecessor, and Dunk might actually be a character you’d want to root for. It’s too early to know where this spinoff is headed. But the pilot gave me enough to get me invested.

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

As federal immigration tactics face mounting legal and political scrutiny after a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a Minneapolis man over the weekend, Donald Trump announced Monday he was dispatching his border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota.

Until now, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino has overseen the federal government’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. But as the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security faces widespread criticism for its aggressive tactics since it launched Operation Metro Surge in December, Trump signaled Monday that he could be shifting strategy as he deploys Homan to the region.

“He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump said of Homan on TruthSocial. “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”

Trump’s deployment of Homan comes as a federal judge hears arguments Monday on whether to temporarily halt the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Meanwhile, Democratic senators plan to oppose a funding bill for DHS, raising the possibility of a partial government shutdown, and a small but growing number of Republicans have joined Democratic calls for a thorough investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti

The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, approached federal officers on the street Saturday morning with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. But cellphone videos recorded by eye witnesses contradict that account.

According to videos taken on the scene, Pretti was holding a phone, not a handgun, when he stepped in front of a federal agent who was targeting a woman with pepper spray. Federal agents pulled him to the ground and shot him.

Pretti is the second U.S. citizen in Minneapolis to be killed by immigration officers this month. On Jan. 7, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot in the head by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem raised criticism this weekend when she said that her agency would lead the investigation into Pretti’s killing.

After federal officials denied Minnesota state investigators access to the shooting scene in South Minneapolis, local and state officials in Minnesota accused DHS of mishandling evidence. Late Saturday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension asked a federal court to block Homeland Security and Justice Department officials from destroying or concealing evidence.

It is not immediately clear how Bovino’s role could change as Homan arrives in Minneapolis.

Noem, who has backed Bovino’s aggressive tactics, said Monday it was “good news” that Homan was going to Minneapolis.

“I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team,” Noem wrote on X. Homan’s “experience and insight,” she said, would “help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens” off Minneapolis streets.

But some Democrats in Minnesota oppose sending Homan to Minnesota. Minneapolis City Council member Soren Stevenson said the move would only aggravate tension.

“They are losing the battle in people’s minds,” Stevenson told CNN, noting that people could see video evidence contradict federal accounts of border patrol agents’ actions.

“They’re losing this narrative battle, and so he’s sending in his top guard,” Stevenson added. “And really, it’s escalating, because we just want to be left alone. The chaos in our community is coming from ICE. It’s coming from this invasion that we’re under … and it’s got to stop.”

In a short interview with The Wall Street Journal Sunday, Trump criticized Pretti for carrying a gun during protest activity.

“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”

The President declined to comment on whether the agent who shot Pretti had done the right thing. “We’re looking,” Trump said when pressed. “We’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”

Democratic officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have called on federal immigration officers to leave Minneapolis. On Sunday, Trump suggested they could withdraw, but he did not give a timeline.

“At some point we will leave,” the president said. “They’ve done a phenomenal job.”