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MILAN — Alysa Liu glided past her boards and held her hand out. She high-fived her coaches with a wide smile on her face.

She was ready.

Liu calmly skated through minor technical missteps on two jumps in her short program of the team competition at Milano Ice Skating Arena to finish second and earn nine points for the United States that leads the team competition after the first day.

Led by 10 points from rhythm dance leaders Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the United States has 25 points entering Saturday’s men’s short program to lead over second-place Japan (23 points) and third-place Italy (22). Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto finished first with a score of 78.88 ahead of Liu’s 74.90.

After the men’s short program, the top five teams advance to the long program portion. The United States selected two-time world champion Ilia Malinin to skate in the men’s short program.

Liu, competing in her second Olympics, was selected for the team competition for the first time. The reigning world champion worked through slight errors, including on her tricky triple lutz, triple loop combination. Her coach Phillip Diguglielmo grabbed the arm of choreographer Massimo Scali nervously as Liu floated through the air on the crooked loop. When she finished her program to a loud ovation, Diguglielmo wiped his brow in relief.

Liu was the second world champion competing for the United States on Friday. Chock and Bates edged out French pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron by less than two points in an early showdown of individual gold medal contenders.

In March 2025, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron rocked the ice dance world by announcing their partnership. He was the reigning Olympic champion. She was a former Canadian champion. But it wasn’t just that the pair became instant gold medal contenders 11 months before the Olympic Games. The reason for the sudden pairing caused a stir.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. finished first in the ice dance portion of the team competition Friday.

(Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)

In October 2024, Fournier Beaudry’s partner Nikolaj Sorensen was suspended by Skate Canada for at least six years for alleged sexual assault. The pair competed for both Denmark and Canada over their decade-long partnership, winning three Danish championships and a Canadian national title and placing ninth in the 2022 Olympics.

Cizeron hadn’t skated since 2022. He and his ice dance partner of 20 years Gabriella Papadakis announced their retirement in December 2024, but wanted to return to competition. He had trained in Canada for more than a decade and maintained a friendship with Fournier Beaudry. The opportunity was open, but it would be complicated.

After pairing with Fournier Beaudry to launch Cizeron’s comeback, the new team expressed support for Sorensen in an interview with Canadian French-language newspaper La Presse. Fournier Beaudry continues her romantic relationship with Sorensen.

When asked of the allegations Friday, Fournier Beaudry said she did not have anything to add to her previous comments. The pair proceeded through the mixed zone.

Since teaming up, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron have won five of six competitions, a nearly inconceivable rise for such a new pair. The only blemish is a silver medal finish at the Grand Prix Final.

Chock and Bates’ 15-year partnership has yielded three world championships, a record seven U.S. titles and four trips to the Olympics. On one of the most talented teams the United States has ever sent to an Olympic Games, Chock and Bates still stand out for their experience. Of the 14 other U.S. figure skaters, only Liu has participated in the Games before.

“I think we have the best generation of figure skaters within the U.S. right now,” said pairs skater Danny O’Shea, who finished fifth with his partner Ellie Kam to earn six position points toward the team total. “Amazing people helping each other, supporting each other, and Madi and Evan leading the charge being the just experienced elders.”

O’Shea, making his Olympic debut at 34, laughed as he clarified Chock, 33, is younger than him.

MINNEAPOLIS — The sites of the three consequential deaths span just over two miles of south Minneapolis. George Floyd in 2020, Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month.

The death of Floyd, after a police officer dug a knee into his neck for more than nine minutes, was a catalyst for the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that sought law enforcement reforms and accountability.

Those of Good and Pretti, shot by federal immigration agents, have similarly sparked demands that federal agents to stop using violence in pursuit of President Trump’s mass deportation effort.

The sites are close enough to walk in an hour. So, on Sunday, I did.

Mementos, drawings, signs and flowers are covered by fresh snow outside of Unity Foods where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis.

George Floyd

Floyd was killed just outside of Cup Foods, since renamed Unity Foods. On a wall outside the convenience store, Esther Osayande’s painting “Sankofa” depicts a bird with its head turned back, surrounded by flames.

The description says it is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people of Ghana to express “the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present.”

“Sankofa tells us that we as a people can rise above conflicts of ego and treat all beings we meet as brothers and sisters,” it states.

On the same wall, someone spray painted, “My cries are 4 humanity.”

The memorial, known locally as George Floyd Square, encompasses a nearby covered bus stop, where a visitor had written that “race is a made up idea to keep ppl down.” Against the shelter glass, someone had taped a typed notice of emergency. It lists “martyrs” killed by authorities — Good, Floyd, Philando Castile and others before them.

“This ICE operation is somehow simpler AND more malicious than the kill count accumulated by our PD,” the notice reads. “This is slave catching. This is gestapo.”

A memorial to Renee Good at the location where she was shot in Minneapolis.

Nearly six years after Floyd’s death, some of the memorial art has begun to fade under the sun. A metal archway gives way to a plastic A-frame board describing Floyd and the global movement that his murder inspired.

“George’s name has become a rallying cry for those who believe in a better future, one where all people are treated with dignity and respect,” it reads.

Few people gathered at the memorial Sunday morning, but real and fake flowers, blanketed by snow, covered the site. A family with children got out of an SUV and walked around. A young photographer snapped some shots. And a couple took their time weaving through the makeshift garden.

Floyd’s cousin Paris Stevens is co-chair of Rise and Remember, which preserves the memorial and leads tours of the area. She said the organization wanted to give the community a safe space to grieve, “because everybody has lost someone.”

The thread linking the deaths of her cousin, Good and Pretti, Stevens said, is that they all could have been prevented. The fact that people have begun to visit all three sites is a sign of how unjust killings bring out the humanity in people, she said.

“How do we care for one another in times of need?” she asked. The answer, in part, is found in the artwork, writings and flowers at the three memorials.

“For this to happen, it’s like we’re picking up the ball and running again,” she said. “We’ve been here before and we know what to do.”

A memorial for Renee Good marks the location the 37-year-old woman was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Portland Avenue near East 34th Street in Minneapolis.

Renee Good

Portland Avenue, where Good died less than a mile from Floyd, is lined with Craftsman-style homes. Many displayed “ICE OUT” or “Black Lives Matter” signs — or both — in their front windows.

One window posed a question: “How many weren’t filmed?”

Stapled to a telephone pole was a letter addressed to federal agents: “It might be hard to understand why almost all Our City’s residents are angry with Your Mission (which has changed radically over the past year). This handbill intends to resolve confusion. I hope it finds you well.”

Another telephone pole struck a different tone:

“ICE ARE
TERRORISTS
KIDNAPPERS
MURDERERS.”

On a wooden fence, Good’s portrait accompanied those of Floyd and other Black men killed by police in Minnesota in recent years, among them Daunte Wright, Winston Boogie Smith Jr. and Amir Locke.

A handwritten sign quoted Good’s last words: “I’m not mad at you, dude.”

Keeping snow off of Good’s memorial — not far from where George Floyd was killed — has been a losing battle.

In the center of Good’s memorial, a man gingerly brushed snow from cardboard signs, shook out bouquets of flowers and wiped off teddy bears. It was a losing battle. Snow was falling, leaving fresh white dots on everything he cleared.

A woman walked up with a handful of yellow tulips. “Hello, is there somewhere I should put these in particular?”

“Anywhere is fine,” said the man.

American, Mexican and LGBTQ+ flags hung from the site. One handwritten note, signed by “A DHS employee,” stated: “We will never forget you.”

A sign hangs between two trees near the Good memorial and reads, “The resistance is rooted in love — ICE out!”

Some mourners had shared small tokens of positivity. “Please take a pocket heart,” read one laminated sign. “Keep it with you to be a constant reminder that you are loved!”

Others, knowing Good had been a poet, wrote poems of their own:

Towards new ages imagined yet still out of hand

We’ll build a place safe for us all where you stood

Where love’s lyrics echo we’ll compose what we can

To that I offer these words, would they were as good as

Good’s.

Among the couple dozen people at the site were Kayla Gardner, 29, and three friends. Gardner said she had brought flowers to place at each of the three memorials.

“I wanted to get to Renee and Alex’s,” she said, “but we didn’t want to leave out George, too. He’s right here.”

A memorial for intensive care nurse Alex Pretti.

Alex Pretti

On a traffic pole down the street, above a “Lost Cat” sign, a note in Spanish warns residents of increased immigration police presence since Dec. 22. It advises residents not to leave their homes unless necessary, to have groceries delivered and to establish an emergency plan for their children.

“These are difficult and uncertain moments for our community,” it says.

Lake Street, a hub of Latino businesses, is about halfway between where Good and Pretti were killed. Murals on side streets depict women cooking tortillas on a comal and musicians playing guitar and accordion. Businesses there have responded to the immigration raids in a variety of ways.

A notice in Spanish posted on the door of a western wear shop says, “Closed for the security of our clients.”

A nearby Ecuadorean restaurant, meanwhile, offers delivery but not sit-down service.

A person wipes tears away while visiting the Pretti memorial on Feb. 1.

Pretti died near Glam Doll Donuts, along another vibrant stretch of diverse, immigrant-owned restaurants known as Eat Street. As the days went on after his killing, fewer news cameras turned up, but mourners kept coming.

Standing over the memorial that has grown to take up the length of a building, a man in a The North Face jacket sobbed quietly. Another lighted incense sticks and stuck them in the snow.

Votive candles depicted Jesus, the Virgin of Gudalupe and Mister Rogers.

Candles burn near the Pretti memorial. Some depicted Jesus, the Virgin of Guadalupe and Mister Rogers.

A letter offers a source of comfort: “If I have two rooms, one dark, the other light, and I open the door between them, the dark room becomes lighter without the light one becoming darker. I know this is no headline, but it’s a marvelous footnote.”

Also on display were lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s new protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” which call out White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Home Security Secretary Kristi Noem:

It’s our blood + our bones

And these whistles + phones

Against Miller +

Noem’s Dirty Lies.

New artwork appears daily. An oil painting depicting a smiling Pretti in glasses, a beanie and a scarf, was among the most recent.

Leah Dunbar, 50, was moved to tears looking at it. Dunbar, who lives nearby, had brought Somali chicken sambusas for fellow mourners standing in the cold.

The George Floyd memorial marks the spot at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where he was killed in 2020 at age 46.

Reflecting on his death, she had asked herself, “What is the good that is coming out of this? Do we have space in our lives to see the good?”

“Of course we do,” she said. “Look — people are making, people are creating, people are sharing.”

A college hockey star expected to be one of the top picks in this year’s NHL draft has been charged with felony assault after allegedly striking another man in the face during an altercation last weekend in State College, Pa.

Penn State freshman Gavin McKenna, 18, was arraigned Wednesday and released on $20,000 unsecured bail, according to the State College Police Department.

He is charged 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 simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11.

According to police, the incident occurred around 8:45 p.m. Saturday near the Penn State campus. The man allegedly struck by McKenna suffered facial injuries that required corrective surgery, police said.

Earlier that day, McKenna had a goal and two assists during the Nittany Lions’ 5-4 overtime loss to Michigan State in an outdoor game played in front of 74,575 fans at Beaver Stadium, home of the Penn State football team.

McKenna is tied for the team lead with 32 points this season. He has 11 goals and a team-high 21 assists. His availability for the Nittany Lions’ next game, Feb. 13 at Michigan, is unclear.

“We are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment,” Penn State said in a statement emailed to The Times on Thursday morning.

A native of Whitehorse, Yukon, McKenna had four goals and 10 assists to help Canada win the bronze medal at the 2026 World Junior Championships, played from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Minnesota. He is listed as the No. 1 North American skater on NHL.com’s midseason draft prospect rankings and is said to be making around $700,000 in an NIL deal this season at Penn State.

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of cyberstalking and threatening to kill or assault Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers involved in the crackdown in Minnesota.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that Kyle Wagner, 37, of Minneapolis, was charged by complaint, and that a decision to seek an indictment, which is necessary to take the case to trial, would be made soon.

Court records in Detroit, where the case was filed, did not list an attorney who could speak on Wagner’s behalf. The complaint was filed Tuesday and unsealed Thursday.

Atty. Gen. Pamela Bondi alleged in a statement that Wagner doxed and threatened law enforcement officers, claimed an affiliation with antifa and “encouraged bloodshed in the streets.”

And at the White House on Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt held up Weber’s photo at the daily briefing and said such conduct by “left-wing agitators” won’t go unpunished.

“And if people are illegally obstructing our federal law enforcement operations, if they are targeting, doxing, harassing and vilifying ICE agents, they are going to be held accountable like this individual here who, again, is a self-proclaimed member of antifa. He is a domestic terrorist, and he will be held accountable in the United States,” Leavitt told reporters.

President Trump announced in September that he would designate antifa a “major terrorist organization.” Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. It consists of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.

When Trump administration border policy advisor Tom Homan announced Wednesday that about 700 federal officers deployed to Minnesota would be withdrawn immediately, he said a larger pullout would occur only after there’s more cooperation and protesters stop interfering with federal personnel.

According to prosecutors, Wagner repeatedly posted on Facebook and Instagram encouraging his followers to “forcibly confront, assault, impede, oppose, and resist federal officers” whom he referred to as the “gestapo” and “murderers.”

The complaint alleges Wagner posted a video last month that directly threatened ICE officers with an obscenity-laden rant. “I’ve already bled for this city, I’ve already fought for this city, this is nothing new, we’re ready this time,” he said, concluding that he was “coming for” ICE.

The complaint further alleges that Wagner advocated for physical confrontation in another post, stating: “Anywhere we have an opportunity to get our hands on them, we need to put our hands on them.”

It also details how Wagner used his Instagram account to dox a person identified only as a “pro-ICE individual” by publishing a phone number, birth month and year, and address in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park. The complaint says Wagner later admitted that he doxed the victim’s parents’ house.

Federal prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on why the case was filed in Michigan instead of Minnesota. The alleged doxing was the only Michigan connection listed in the complaint.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been hit by the resignations of several prosecutors in recent weeks amid frustrations with the surge and its handling of the shooting deaths of two people by government officers. One lawyer, who told a judge that her job “sucks,” was removed from her post.

Trump’s chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, Dan Rosen, told a federal appeals court in a recent filing that his office is facing a “flood of new litigation” and is struggling to keep up just with immigration cases, while his division that handles civil cases is down 50%.

Rosen wrote that his office has canceled other civil enforcement work “and is operating in a reactive mode.” He also said his attorneys are “appearing daily for hearings on contempt motions. The Court is setting deadlines within hours, including weekends and holidays. Paralegals are continuously working overtime. Lawyers are continuously working overtime.”

Karnowski writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Eric Tucker and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

Leonardo is the latest in a series of half a dozen storms to batter the Iberian Peninsula this year.

A man has lost his life in Portugal after floodwaters engulfed his car, and in Spain, a girl has been reported missing after being swept away by a river as Storm Leonardo has battered the Iberian Peninsula with torrential rain and gale-force winds.

Leonardo is the latest in a wave of half a dozen storms to sweep across Portugal and Spain this year, causing several fatalities, destroying infrastructure and leaving thousands of homes without power.

Portuguese authorities confirmed on Wednesday that a 70-year-old man died in the southern region of Alentejo after floodwaters swept his vehicle off a road near a dam.

In southern Spain’s Malaga province, a girl remains missing after she was dragged away by the Turvilla River in Sayalonga while trying to rescue her dog. The animal reportedly managed to reach safety, and emergency teams resumed the search for the girl at first light on Thursday, according to local and national news reports.

“We spent the whole afternoon and night yesterday searching in the river from the place where the girl fell in until the very end of the river. We found the dog, but not her,” Malaga fire chief Manuel Marmolejo said on Spanish television on Thursday.

Spain’s State Meteorological Agency has warned that Storm Marta, the next front in the ongoing “storm train”, is expected to reach the region this weekend.

Portuguese Economy Minister Manuel Castro Almeida stated that reconstruction efforts after Storm Kristin alone may exceed 4 billion euros ($4.7bn).

In Alcacer do Sal in southern Portugal, residents were forced to wade through waist-deep water after the Sado River breached its banks following a series of storms. Restaurant terraces were submerged, and shopkeepers and homeowners used stacked sandbags in an attempt to protect their properties from the rising floodwaters.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s surreal,” resident Maria Cadacha told the Reuters news agency. “There are a lot of people here, very good people, many shopkeepers, homes with damage. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.”

Andalusia’s emergency services reported attending to more than a million incidents by midnight on Wednesday.

Antonio Sanz, head of the regional government’s interior department, confirmed that 14 rivers and 10 dams were at “extreme” risk of overflowing due to the severe conditions.

In Portugal, the National Civil Protection authority registered at least 70 incidents by early Thursday as the region continued to monitor the impact of the storm.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison after a federal prosecutor said his crime was unacceptable “in this country or anywhere.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.

“American democracy does not work when individuals take it into their own hands to eliminate candidates. That’s what this individual tried to do” Assistant U.S. Atty. John Shipley told the judge.

Routh’s new defense attorney, Martin L. Roth, argued that “at the moment of truth, he chose not to pull the trigger.”

The judge pushed back, noting Routh’s history of arrests, to which Roth said: “He’s a complex person, I’ll give the court that, but he has a very good core.”

Routh then read from a rambling, 20-page statement. Cannon broke in and said none of what he was saying was relevant, and gave him five more minutes to talk.

“I did everything I could and lived a good life,” Routh said, before the judge cut him off.

“Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil,” she said. “You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man.”

She then issued his sentence: Life without parole, plus seven years on a gun charge. His sentences for his other three crimes will run concurrently.

Routh’s sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to move the date back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.

Routh was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, using a firearm in furtherance of a crime, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and using a gun with a defaced serial number.

“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologized for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memo said.

His defense attorney had asked for 20 years plus the mandatory seven for the gun conviction.

“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”

Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican presidential candidate played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.

In the motion requesting an attorney, Routh offered to trade his life in a prisoner swap with people unjustly held in other countries, and said an offer still stood for Trump to “take out his frustrations on my face.”

“Just a quarter of an inch further back and we all would not have to deal with all of this mess forwards, but I always fail at everything (par for the course),” Routh wrote.

In her decision granting Routh an attorney, Cannon chastised the “disrespectful charade” of Routh’s motion, saying it made a mockery of the proceedings. But the judge, nominated by Trump in 2020, said she wanted to err on the side of legal representation.

Cannon signed off last summer on Routh’s request to represent himself at trial. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have the right to represent themselves in court proceedings, as long as they can show a judge they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney.

Routh’s former federal public defenders served as standby counsel and were present during the trial.

Routh had multiple previous felony convictions, including possession of stolen goods, and a large online footprint demonstrating his disdain for Trump. In a self-published book, he encouraged Iran to assassinate him, and at one point wrote that as a Trump voter, he must take part of the blame for electing him.

Fischer writes for the Associated Press.

On Monday, BBC News reported figures from the Home Office stating a total of 933 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in January.

Guardiola said: “The people who have to do that, run away from their countries, go in the sea and then go on a boat to get rescued – don’t ask if he is right or wrong, rescue him. It is about a human being.

“After we can agree, criticise but everyone is right, everyone has an idea and you have to express it. People are dying, you have to help him. Protecting the human being and human life is the only thing we have.”

Last month, two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents carrying out US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis over the past month.

Fan group Football Supporters Europe (FSE) says it is “extremely concerned by the ongoing militarisation of police forces in the US” before this summer’s World Cup in North America.

Guardiola added: “When I see the images, I am sorry it hurts. That is why in every position I can help speak up to be a better society, I will try and will be there. All the time. It is for my kids, my families, for you.

“From my point of view, the justice? You have to talk. Otherwise it will just move on. Look what happened in the United States of America, Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been killed. Tell me how you can defend that?

“There is not a perfect society, nowhere is perfect, I am not perfect, we have to work to be better.”

Cameron Mofid completed his quest to travel to all 195 UN-recognised countries and territories in 2025, and has now named three standout cities from his travels

A man who’s visited all 195 countries in the world has named a European city akin to a “living crossroads of history” as one of his favourites. San Diego’s Cameron Mofid set off on a quest to travel to all 195 UN-recognised countries and territories while struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

On April 3, 2025, Cameron completed his journey by visiting his final destination, North Korea—often referred to as the “hermit kingdom.” With this, he achieved his goal of travelling to every country in the world, all by the young age of just 25.

Cameron, who previously discussed some of his favourite countries with The Mirror, has also recently shared a list of three cities around the world that he particularly loves, including one located in Europe.

In a first-person piece for Business Insider, Cameron revealed that he has a particular fondness for the vibrant city of Sydney, Australia, and the breathtaking Krabi in the sun-drenched Southeast Asian nation of Thailand.

For those who might feel discouraged by the long journeys required to reach these two far-flung destinations, Cameron has also suggested an alternative favourite, which is much more accessible for Brits: Valletta, Malta.

Cameron wrote in Business Insider: “Valletta felt like a living crossroads of history from the moment I arrived. Sitting at the centre of the Mediterranean, the city reflects centuries of Italian, Arab, British, and North African influence, all packed into a compact, walkable capital.

“I’d walk past waterfront cafés and, minutes later, find myself standing on the city’s fortified walls, looking out over waters once travelled by Phoenician traders, Ottoman fleets, and British warships.

“What surprised me most about Valletta was how under-visited it felt compared to much of southern Europe. Even during peak season, it never felt overrun. A short ferry ride away, I spent time on the island of Gozo, where life moved even slower.”

Cameron detailed how he visited temples older than the pyramids in Egypt and experienced villages where fishing and farming continue to “shape daily life”, but travelling to the island also served to make Valletta feel even “more special”.

In further remarks about the European city, he went on to describe how the “historic” capital offered simple access to what he termed the “quieter, older side of the Mediterranean”.

Located south of Sicily in the central Mediterranean, Malta is an archipelago boasting a rich history. Over the centuries, it has been occupied by the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, and even France and Britain.

Some of the highlights in Valletta include St John’s Co-Cathedral, the National Museum of Archaeology, the stunning Upper Barrakka Gardens, and St Catherine’s Monastery.

The Met Office states that Malta enjoys “typically Mediterranean” weather, with hot and dry summers with temperatures hitting 32C in July and August and falling to 15 to 17C in December to February.

If you’d like to take a trip to Malta, you can expect an average flight time of 3 hours, 19 minutes (London Gatwick to Malta International Airport in Valletta), according to Booking.com.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Carlos Alcaraz is 22, he’s the youngest man ever to win all four of the major titles in tennis, and he had to achieve what no man previously has done to complete the career Grand Slam in Australia.

The top-ranked Alcaraz dropped the first set of the Australian Open final in 33 minutes Sunday as Novak Djokovic went out hard in pursuit of an unprecedented 25th major title, but the young Spaniard dug deep to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

“Means the world to me,” Alcaraz said. “It is a dream come true for me.”

Djokovic had won all 10 of his previous finals at Melbourne Park and, despite being 38, gave himself every chance of extending that streak to 11 when he needed only two sets to win.

Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after defeating Novak Djokovic to win the Australian Open on Sunday.

(Asanka Brendon Ratnayake / Associated Press)

Alcaraz rose to the challenge.

“Tennis can change on just one point. One point, one feeling, one shot can change the whole match completely,” he said. “I played well the first set, but you know, in front of me I had a great and inspired Novak, who was playing great, great shots.”

A couple of unforced errors from Djokovic early in the second set gave Alcaraz the confidence.

He scrambled to retrieve shots that usually would be winners for Djokovic, and he kept up intense pressure on the most decorated player in men’s tennis history. There were extended rallies where each player hit enough brilliant shots to usually win a game.

Djokovic has made an art form of rallying from precarious positions. Despite trailing two sets to one, he went within the width of a ball in the fourth set’s ninth game of turning this final around.

After fending off six break points in the set, he exhorted the crowd when he got to 30-30. The crowd responded with chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole!”

When Djokovic earned a breakpoint chance — his first since the second set — he whipped up his supporters again. But when Djokovic sent a forehand long on the next point, Alcaraz took it as a reprieve.

A short forehand winner, a mis-hit from Alcaraz, clipped the net and landed inside the line to give him game point. Then Djokovic hit another forehand long.

Alcaraz responded with a roar, and sealed victory by taking two of the next three games.

As he was leaving the court, Alcaraz signed the lens of the TV camera with a recognition: “Job finished. 4/4 Complete.”

Manchester United produce stunning winner to beat Fulham 3-2 in Premier League thriller at Old Trafford.

Manchester United interim manager Michael Carrick extended his perfect start as Benjamin Sesko’s stoppage-time strike sealed a pulsating 3-2 win over Fulham on Sunday.

United took the lead through Casemiro’s first-half header and looked in command when Matheus Cunha netted after the interval at Old Trafford.

In an incredible finale, Raul Jimenez’s penalty with five minutes left gave Fulham hope before Kevin’s wonder-goal hauled the visitors level in stoppage time.

To United’s immense credit, they hit straight back as the much-maligned Sesko’s fourth goal in his last four games sealed Carrick’s third successive victory.

After new manager Carrick masterminded surprise wins over Manchester City and Premier League leaders Arsenal, this remarkable encounter suggested the former United midfielder might have the Midas touch.

Unbeaten in their last seven league matches, United moved up to fourth place as their bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League gathers pace.

Reaching the Champions League would be a significant statement for Carrick, who was sacked by second-tier Middlesbrough last year.

Only once in former manager Ruben Amorim’s turbulent 14-month reign did United win three games in a row. And Carrick has matched that run within weeks of his appointment until the end of the season.

United’s hierarchy may have to consider hiring Carrick on a permanent basis if he can continue his impressive run.

Whether that is enough to appease the 1958 Manchester United fans group is another matter after they staged a protest against the owners outside Old Trafford before kickoff.

Hundreds of fans, some wearing clown masks, gathered to express their frustration with United’s decline under the Glazer family and the lack of improvement since co-owner Jim Ratcliffe took charge of football operations.

The group claimed United are “being dragged through chaos by clown ownership” and are “run like a circus”.

Fans chanted against the owners and held aloft banners as flares filled the air on Sir Matt Busby Way.

When the smoke cleared, Carrick’s intuition paid off as he brought Cunha into the starting lineup to replace the injured Patrick Dorgu after the Brazilian scored the winner at Arsenal last weekend.

Only Arsenal had taken more points than in-form Fulham over the previous eight games, but United found the formula to end that strong spell.

United thought they had won a penalty for Jorge Cuenca’s foul on Cunha.

But a VAR check showed the offence took place just outside the area.

It was only a temporary reprieve for Fulham as United took the lead from the resulting free kick in the 19th minute.

Bruno Fernandes swung his delivery to the far post, and Casemiro rose highest to thump a towering header past Bernd Leno.

United struck again in the 56th minute with Cunha’s sixth goal this season.

It was a goal made in Brazil as Casemiro’s clever no-look pass found Cunha inside the Fulham area, and he smashed a fine finish past Leno from an acute angle.

Fulham were controversially denied a lifeline when VAR disallowed Cuenca’s 65th-minute goal.

Samuel Chukwueze was ruled offside by the narrowest of margins when he prodded Jimenez’s free kick to Cuenca.

But United were wobbling and Jimenez converted an 85th-minute penalty after the Mexican was fouled by Harry Maguire.

United looked to have collapsed in stoppage time when Kevin cut in from the right wing and curled a sublime strike into the far corner from the edge of the area.

Two minutes after Kevin’s leveller, United showed their spirit as Sesko took Fernandes’s pass and drilled high into the net from 12 yards to spark wild celebrations.

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick has praised the backing he has received from the club’s fans and says he is “not offended” by the protest planned before Sunday’s Premier League encounter with Fulham.

Carrick has a 100% record in his second spell in charge following unexpected wins against Manchester City and Arsenal.

Despite the improvement following Ruben Amorim’s dismissal and the fact United moved into the Premier League top four for the first time this season following the Arsenal success, the 1958 fans’ group is pushing ahead with its protest.

The group claims it expects between 5,000 and 6,000 fans to attend the protest march, although given it will start an hour before kick-off from either side of the stadium and meet in the middle by the ‘Law, Best, Charlton’ statue outside Old Trafford, exact numbers will be difficult to quantify.

Organisers say they have “a few surprises in store”.

“Our protest has never been about performances on the pitch, not now, and not once in the last 21 years,” they argue.

“We are judging a dysfunctional ownership model that has repeatedly failed.”

In his autobiography, Carrick said the Glazer family were “great owners”.

Few fans agree with those sentiments, regardless of whether they intend to join the protest or not.

Anti-Glazer songs are a feature of every game United play, while recently minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been the focus of negative supporter sentiment.

Asked for his thoughts on the issue, Carrick preferred to focus on the support both he and his team have received rather than address the wider issue.

“I don’t think it [the protest] connects with the two wins, to be honest,” he said.

“I fully respect the supporters. I’m not offended by it or anything, and the players certainly aren’t.

“Within the stadium, the support we’ve felt, and that’s been there for all the games that I’ve watched for quite some time, has been of the highest level and I’m sure it will continue to be like that.

“The connection we’ve had over the last couple of weeks has been pretty special and we’ve both fed off that. That’s exactly how we wanted it to be and is something we need to keep building on moving forward.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release.

But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.

“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” said one of the nurses, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”

The explanation from ICE is an example of recent run-ins between immigration officers and healthcare workers that have contributed to mounting friction at Minneapolis hospitals. Workers at the Hennepin County facility say ICE officers have restrained patients in defiance of hospital rules and stayed at their sides for days. The agents have also lingered around the campus and pressed people for proof of citizenship.

Since the start of President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, ICE officers have become such a fixture at the hospital that administrators issued new protocols for how employees should engage with them. Some employees complain that they have been intimidated to the point that they avoid crossing paths with agents while at work and use encrypted communications to guard against any electronic eavesdropping.

Similar operations have been carried out by federal agents in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities, where opponents have criticized what they say are overly aggressive tactics. It’s not clear how many people have required hospital care while in detention.

Injuries appeared inconsistent with ICE account

The AP interviewed a doctor and five nurses who work at Hennepin County Medical Center who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about Castañeda Mondragón’s case and conditions inside the hospital. The AP also consulted with an outside physician who affirmed his injuries were inconsistent with an accidental fall or running into a wall.

ICE’s account of how he was hurt evolved during the time that federal officers were at his bedside. At least one ICE officer told caregivers that Castañeda Mondragón “got his [expletive] rocked” after his Jan. 8 arrest near a St. Paul shopping center, the court filings and a hospital staff member said. His arrest happened a day after the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the first of two fatal shootings in Minneapolis by immigration officers.

The situation reached a head when ICE insisted on using handcuffs to shackle his ankles to the bed, prompting a heated encounter with hospital staff, according to the court records and the hospital employees familiar with the incident.

At the time, Castañeda Mondragón was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured, one of the nurses said. ICE officers believed he was attempting to escape after he got up and took a few steps.

“We were basically trying to explain to ICE that this is how someone with a traumatic brain injury is — they’re impulsive,” the nurse said. “We didn’t think he was making a run for the door.”

Security responded to the scene, followed by the hospital’s chief executive and attorney, who huddled in a doctor’s office to discuss options for dealing with ICE, the nurse said.

“We eventually agreed with ICE that we would have a nursing assistant sit with the patient to prevent him from leaving,” the nurse said. “They agreed a little while later to take the shackles off.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries. A deportation officer skirted the issue in the court documents, saying that during the intake process at an ICE detention center, it was determined he “had a head injury that required emergency medical treatment.”

Gregorio Castañeda Mondragón said his older brother is from Veracruz, Mexico, and worked as a roofer. He has a 10-year-old daughter living in his hometown he helps support.

According to his lawyers, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. in 2022 with valid immigration documents. Minnesota incorporation filings show he founded a company called Castañeda Construction the following year with an address listed in St. Paul.

He appears to have no criminal record. His lawyers told a court that Castañeda Mondragón was racially profiled during the crackdown, and that officers determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa.

“He was a brown-skinned, Latino Spanish speaker at a location immigration agents arbitrarily decided to target,” his lawyers wrote in a petition seeking his release from ICE custody.

Eight skull fractures

Castañeda Mondragón was initially taken to an ICE processing center at the edge of Minneapolis. Court records include an arrest warrant signed upon his arrival by an ICE officer, not an immigration judge.

About four hours after his arrest, he was taken to a hospital emergency room in suburban Edina with swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain, according to court documents. He was then transferred to Hennepin County Medical Center.

Castañeda Mondragón was alert and speaking, telling staff he was “dragged and mistreated by federal agents,” though his condition quickly deteriorated, the documents show.

The next week, a Jan. 16 court filing described his condition as minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.

AP shared the details of Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries with Dr. Lindsey C. Thomas, a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years. She agreed with the assessment of hospital staff.

“I am pretty sure a person could not get these kinds of extensive injuries from running into a wall,” Thomas said, adding that she would need to see the CT scans to make a more definitive finding.

“I almost think one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall,” she said.

ICE officers stay with hospitalized detainees for days

ICE officers have entered the hospital with seriously injured detainees and stayed at their bedside day after day, staffers said. The crackdown has been unsettling to hospital employees, who said ICE agents have been seen loitering on hospital grounds and asking patients and employees for proof of citizenship.

Hospital staff members said they were uncomfortable with the presence of armed agents they did not trust and who appeared to be untrained.

The nurses interviewed by AP said they felt intimidated by ICE’s presence in the critical care unit and had even been told to avoid a certain bathroom to minimize encounters with officers. They said staff members are using an encrypted messaging app to compare notes and share information out of fear that the government might be monitoring their communications.

The hospital reminded employees that ICE officers are not permitted to access patients or protected information without a warrant or court order.

“Patients under federal custody are first and foremost patients,” hospital officials wrote in a bulletin outlining new protocols. The hospital’s written policy also states that no shackles or other restraints should be used unless medically necessary.

“We have our policies, but ICE personnel as federal officers don’t necessarily comply with those, and that introduces tension,” said a doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment for the hospital.

Hospital spokeswoman Alisa Harris said ICE agents “have not entered our facilities looking for individuals.”

On Saturday, more than two weeks after Castañeda Mondragón was arrested, a U.S. District Court judge ordered him released from ICE custody.

“We are encouraged by the court’s order, which affirms that the rule of law applies to all people, in every corner of our country, including federal officers,” said Jeanette Boerner, director of Hennepin County Adult Representation Services, which filed the lawsuit on Castañeda Mondragón’s behalf.

To the surprise of some who treated him, Castañeda Mondragón was discharged from the hospital Tuesday. A hospital spokeswoman said she had no information about him.

The Justice Department filed court documents this week affirming Castañeda Mondragón is no longer in custody. Prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment on the man’s injuries.

Castañeda Mondragón has no family in Minnesota and co-workers have taken him in, the man’s brother said. He has significant memory loss and a long recovery ahead. He won’t be able to work for the foreseeable future, and his friends and family worry about paying for his care.

“He still doesn’t remember things that happened. I think [he remembers] 20% of the 100% he had,” said Gregorio Castañeda Mondragón, who lives in Mexico. “It’s sad that instead of having good memories of the United States, you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth about that country because they’re treating them like animals.”

Brook, Mustian and Biesecker write for the Associated Press and reported from Minneapolis, New York and Washington, respectively. AP reporters Steve Karnowski and Sarah Raza in Minneapolis; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

The ICE officers descended on Compton, targeting immigrants convicted of theft, child abuse and selling drugs.

There were no protesters. No whistles alerting targets to the officers’ presence. No face masks. In some cases, residents opened their doors to let the officers inside their homes. One man thanked them for not arresting him in front of his children.

The Los Angeles area operation ended with 162 arrests, including a Mexican national convicted of rape and a Salvadoran national convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said almost 90% of the people arrested had criminal convictions.

It was June 2018, more than a year into Donald Trump’s first term as president. More than seven years later, carrying out the same operation in L.A. or other U.S. cities feels almost impossible without drawing angry crowds and requiring multiple officers, at times across federal agencies, to detain a single target.

In the years since Trump’s first term, ICE and the government’s immigration enforcement apparatus expanded raids well beyond those against known criminals or suspected ones. Increasingly, immigrants with no criminal records and even legal residents and U.S. citizens found themselves stopped and sometimes arrested.

The uncertainty over who is being targeted has fueled a growing pattern of community protests and rapid response mobilizations, even when officials say they are targeting convicted felons, reflecting a widening gap between how enforcement is described and how it is experienced. That gap has become most visible on the ground.

In recent months, sightings of ICE or other federal agents have drawn crowds of protesters, legal observers and community organizers. In many cases, residents say they can’t distinguish between targeted enforcement actions — against child molesters, human smugglers and other serious criminals — and broader sweeps, responding instead to the mere presence of agents whose role and authority are no longer clearly understood.

Experts say the Trump administration’s hostile rhetoric against immigrants and often seemingly indiscriminate targeting of people in neighborhoods has hurt the reputation of its immigration enforcement agencies, including ICE and Border Patrol, like never before. And it has inspired a mass movement of resistance that has seen Americans shot by federal immigration officers. In the last month, two U.S. citizens — Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti — were shot dead by ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.

The fatal shootings forced Trump to recalibrate his immigration enforcement tactics, in part by sidelining Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, who first launched the aggressive raids in California, and putting border policy advisor Tom Homan in charge.

“I’m not here because the federal government has carried out this mission perfectly,” Homan said during a Thursday news conference. “Nothing’s ever perfect, and anything can be improved on. And what we’ve been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book.”

He said street operations in Minnesota would “draw down” if the agents were given access to local jails and that agents would focus on specific targets.

“We will conduct targeted enforcement operations — targeted,” he added. “That has traditionally been the case and that’s what we’re going to continue to do and improve upon that with the priority on public safety threats.”

An internal memo reviewed by Reuters showed ICE officers operating in the state were directed to avoid engaging with “agitators” and only target “aliens with a criminal history.”

Even if the Trump administration were to pull back ICE and Border Patrol’s aggressive tactics to focus more on known criminals, experts question whether too much damage has been done to their reputations.

“The brand of the agency is becoming so toxic,” said John Sandweg, who headed ICE under President Obama. “It’s going to impact the agency for years to come. It’s going to take a long time for that trust to rebuild.”

Another former ICE official, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, said the agency used to be able to say it was focused on criminals and wasn’t conducting random sweeps.

“For years we always said, ‘We don’t have the resources to go after everybody, so we’re going to focus on just the worst of the worst,’” he said. “They can’t say that now. They’re still trying to do that, but it’s getting overshadowed by Home Depot and car washes and all this other stuff and Border Patrol’s heavy-handed tactics. Now it’s leading to shootings and all these other things. It’s just horrible.”

In Willowbrook, an unincorporated neighborhood nestled in South L.A., just blocks from Compton city limits, federal agents found themselves locked between angry crowds recording them last week. Two people held a sign that read: “ICE / Soldiers off our streets.”

Federal agents clear the way for an authorized car to pass while investigating a shooting involving a federal agent in Willowbrook.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The agents were there to arrest a man they say had been “involved in human trafficking” and had a final removal order. They alleged the man had two prior arrests for domestic violence. Homeland Security officials later said the man used his vehicle to ram federal agent vehicles in an attempt to evade arrest, prompting an agent to open fire.

But as news spread that the operation was targeting a suspected criminal living in the country illegally, most residents shrugged it off. They said federal officials had made false claims against other people they had arrested or shot at, including labeling Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists.

“They’ve shown us that they’re not trustworthy,” Rosa Enriquez, 39, said while holding a Mexican flag.

Similar scenes have played out across the country. This month, a journalist posted a video of agents — who she identified as working for ICE — calling out a driver for honking during an operation St. Paul, Minn.

“We’re here to arrest a child sex offender and you guys are out here honking,” the agent said. “That’s who you guys are protecting. Insane.”

“Just go. You’re lying!” a woman shouts.

Homeland Security has made it a point to tout the arrests of criminals across the country. The “worst of the worst arrests” in L.A. this month, according to the agency, included a man convicted of second-degree murder, another for voluntary manslaughter and one with multiple convictions for driving under the influence and disorderly conduct.

“We will not let rioters or agitators slow us down from removing murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

But experts say the general public has clearly witnessed a shift in who is being targeted.

In May, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly directed top ICE officials to go beyond target lists and have agents make arrests at Home Depot or 7-Eleven convenience stores as they sought to crank up their daily arrest numbers to 3,000.

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, center, marches with federal agents to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

The following month, Border Patrol agents led by Bovino were on the ground in L.A., tackling car wash workers, arresting street vendors and chasing down day laborers.

“The pressure of those numbers on enforcement agencies and mobilizing the whole of government and other law enforcement agencies, well beyond the traditional ICE and CBP, has created pressures that have led to extensive overreach,” said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, is the agency that includes ICE and Border Patrol.

At the peak of arrests in L.A in June, around 75% of people had no criminal conviction. A Times analysis found that in the administration’s first nine months, from Jan. 1 to Oct. 15, of the more than 10,000 Los Angeles residents who were arrested in immigration operations, about 45% had a criminal conviction and an additional 14% had pending charges.

In November the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reported that, nationwide, 5% of detainees from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15 had been convicted of violent crimes. Most detainees with convictions were found guilty of vice, immigration or traffic infractions.

“They’ve painted to the American people that they were going after the worst of the worst, and that is nothing like what is happening,” said Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), who represents the district where the recent shooting in L.A. unfolded. “We have seen all across America where they have harassed, they have murdered, assassinated not only citizens but also people who have not had any arrest, who have not fit the bill or the description of what they have painted to the American people.

“When you turn on the news right now, the trust is absolutely gone. We don’t trust the White House, we don’t trust ICE, and the people are afraid because the trust is gone.”

Santa Maria Councilmember Gloria Soto echoed that sentiment, in part because she has seen raids in her Central Coast town.

“That’s part of the frustration,” Soto said. “There’s no transparency. There’s no information being shared before or after these enforcements have taken place.”

“We know for a fact that there are individuals who are getting picked up who did not have a criminal record, whose only quote-unquote crime was, you know, either having an expired visa, or crossing without the required immigration documentation that is needed, so it makes it really difficult for us, for me as an elected official, to trust what this agency is doing because so far there is no communication,” she said.

The challenges ICE officers are facing appear to center on cities that have been targeted with surge operations — like in Minneapolis, Sandweg said. Across the country, he said, officers are conducting operations “but not with the same amount of controversy.”

People take part in a vigil at a memorial for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

“In Minneapolis we’re at the point now when, if agents are going to go after someone with a very serious violent criminal history, they’re likely to pick up observers and a lot of attention,” he said. “The way in which they wanted to do these operations in such an overt, in-your-face kind of fashion, has created a dynamic that makes it really hard for the agents to execute their duties. … You have these protests following the agents everywhere they go.”

While there has always been consternation over immigration enforcement, Sandweg said that “the widespread tactics and the targeting of people with no criminal record just really galvanized people in a way they’ve never been galvanized before.”

“To where now it probably is starting to bleed into and impeding operations that most of those protesters are probably not opposed to — the idea of ICE getting someone with a violent criminal history off the streets,” he said. “I think it’s created an environment where it puts the officers and the public in harm’s way.”

This week, protesters came out in force when word spread that ICE officers were eating at a restaurant in Lynwood. A video shows the crowd jeering at the officers as they’re being escorted out of the area by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

Almost immediately, Lynwood City Councilmember Luis Gerardo Cuellar posted a video on Instagram to inform the public.

“This was not ICE, these were … TSA air marshals.”

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has refused to order the pretrial release of a man charged with placing two pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled on Thursday that Brian J. Cole Jr. must remain in jail while awaiting trial. Ali upheld a decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh, who ruled on Jan. 2 that no conditions of release can reasonably protect the public from the danger that Cole allegedly poses.

Cole, 30, pleaded not guilty to making and planting two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.

Cole, who lived with his parents in Woodbridge, Virginia, has been diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His attorneys say he has no criminal record.

Cole has remained jailed since his Dec. 4 arrest. Authorities said they used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect in a crime that confounded the FBI for over four years.

Prosecutors said Cole confessed to trying to carry out “an extraordinary act of political violence.” Cole told investigators that he was unhappy with how leaders of both political parties responded to “questions” about the 2020 presidential election — and said “something just snapped,” according to prosecutors.

“While the defendant may have reached a psychological breaking point, his crimes were anything but impulsive,” they wrote. “Indeed, the defendant’s pipe bombs — and the fear and terror they instilled in the general public — were the product of weeks of premeditation and planning.”

Defense attorneys asked for Cole to be freed from jail and placed on home detention with electronic monitoring. They say a defense expert concluded that the devices found near the RNC and DNC headquarters were not viable explosive devices.

“In fact, there was no possibility of death, injury or destruction as the devices were harmless,” they wrote.

If convicted of both charges against him, Cole faces up to 10 years of imprisonment on one charge and up to 20 years of imprisonment on a second charge that also carries a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Justice Department has charged a man who squirted apple cider vinegar on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at an event in Minneapolis, according to court papers made public Thursday.

The man arrested for Tuesday’s attack, Anthony Kazmierczak, faces a charge of forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding and intimidating Omar, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Authorities determined that the substance was water and apple cider vinegar, according to an affidavit. After Kazmierczak sprayed Omar with the liquid, he appeared to say, “She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart,” the affidavit says. Authorities also say that Kazmierczak told a close associate several years ago that “somebody should kill” Omar, court documents say.

It was unclear whether Kazmierczak had an attorney who could comment on the allegations. A message was left with the federal defender’s office in Minnesota.

The attack came during a perilous political moment in Minneapolis, where two people have been fatally shot by federal agents during the White House’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

Kazmierczak has a criminal history and has made online posts supportive of President Trump, a Republican.

Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has long been a target of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. After she was elected seven years ago, Trump said she should “go back” to her country. He recently described her as “garbage” and said she should be investigated. During a speech in Iowa this week, shortly before Omar was attacked, he said immigrants need to be proud of the United States — “not like Ilhan Omar.”

Omar blamed Trump on Wednesday for threats to her safety.

“Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar told reporters.

Trump accused Omar of staging the attack, telling ABC News, “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”

Kazmierczak was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and has had numerous traffic citations, Minnesota court records show. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

In social media posts, Kazmierczak criticized former President Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.” Trump “wants the US … stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote. “Stop other countries from stealing from us.”

In another post, Kazmierczak asked, “When will descendants of slaves pay restitution to Union soldiers’ families for freeing them/dying for them, and not sending them back to Africa?”

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters before dipping slightly, only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

Officials said they investigated nearly 15,000 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against Members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol Complex” in 2025.

Richer and Karnowski write for the Associated Press. Richer reported from Washington.

MINNEAPOLIS — The man who sprayed an unknown substance on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at a town hall in Minneapolis is a convicted felon who has made online posts supportive of President Trump.

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence, and has had numerous traffic citations, Minnesota court records show. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

Police say Kazmierczak used a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar during Tuesday’s event after she called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement officers. Officers immediately tackled and arrested Kazmierczak, who was jailed on a preliminary third-degree assault charge, police spokesperson Trevor Folke said.

Photos of the syringe, which fell when he was tackled, showed what appeared to be a light-brown liquid inside. Authorities haven’t yet publicly identified the liquid.

After the attack, there was a strong, vinegarlike smell in the room, according to an Associated Press journalist who was there. Forensic scientists were called in, but none of the roughly 100 people who were there had a noticeable physical reaction to the substance.

Omar continued speaking for about 25 minutes after Kazmierczak was ushered out, saying she wouldn’t be intimidated. While leaving, she said she felt a little flustered but wasn’t hurt, and that she was going to be screened by a medical team.

She later posted on X: “I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”

A Trump supporter

Kazmierczak hadn’t been formally charged or scheduled for an initial court appearance as of Wednesday morning. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has until Thursday to charge him but could seek an extension. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office didn’t immediately return a call seeking further information.

It isn’t clear if Kazmierczak has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. The county’s chief public defender, Michael Berger, said the case hasn’t been assigned to his office.

In social media posts, Kazmierczak described himself as a former network engineer who lives in Minneapolis. Among other things, he made comments critical of former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.”

“Trump wants the US is stronger and more prosperous,” Kazmierczak wrote. “Stop other countries from stealing from us. Bring back the fear that enemies back away from and gain respect that If anyone threatens ourselves or friends we will (expletive) them up.”

In another post, Kazmierczak asked, “When will descendants of slaves pay restitution to Union soldiers families for freeing them/dying for them, and not sending them back to Africa?”

Often at odds with the president

Omar, a progressive, has been a frequent target of Trump’s barbs since she joined Congress in 2019.

That year, Trump urged Omar and three other freshmen congresswomen of color known as “the squad” to “ go back ” to their countries if they wanted to criticize the U.S. Omar was the only one of the four born outside of the U.S., having immigrated to the country as a child when her family fled violence in Somalia.

Trump stepped up his criticism of Omar in recent months as he turned his focus on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent — nearly a third of the Somalis living in the U.S. During a Cabinet meeting in December, he referred to her as “garbage.” And he has linked the Twin Cities immigration crackdown to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots in the East African country.

The White House did not respond to a Tuesday message seeking comment. But, when asked about the attack Tuesday night, he told ABC News that he hadn’t watched the footage and accused her of staging the attack. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” Trump said.

Earlier Tuesday, the president criticized Omar as he spoke to a crowd in Iowa, saying his administration would only let in immigrants who “can show that they love our country.”

“They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar,” he said, drawing loud boos at the mention of her name.

He added: “She comes from a country that’s a disaster. So probably, it’s considered, I think — it’s not even a country.”

Lawmakers face rising threats

The attack came days after a man was arrested in Utah for allegedly punching U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, in the face during the Sundance Film Festival and saying Trump was going to deport him.

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol before dipping slightly only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

Following Tuesday’s attack on Omar, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that the agency was “working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society.”

Lawmakers have discussed the impact of the threatening political climate on their ability to hold town halls and public events, with some even citing it in their decisions not to seek reelection.

Biesecker and Bargfeld write for the Associated Press. Biesecker reported from Washington. AP reporter R.J. Rico in Atlanta contributed to this report.

MINNEAPOLIS — A man sprayed an unknown substance on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and was tackled to the ground Tuesday during a town hall in Minneapolis, where tensions over federal immigration enforcement have come to a head after agents fatally shot an intensive care nurse and a mother of three this month.

The audience cheered as the man was pinned down and his arms were tied behind his back. In video of the incident, someone in the crowd can be heard saying, “Oh my God, he sprayed something on her.”

Just before that, Omar had called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment. Calls are mounting on Capitol Hill for Noem to step down after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two people who protested deportations. Few Republicans have risen to her defense.

“ICE cannot be reformed,” Omar said, seconds before the attack.

Minneapolis police said officers saw the man use a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar. They immediately arrested him and booked him at the county jail for third-degree assault, spokesperson Trevor Folke said. Forensic scientists responded to the scene.

Police identified the man as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak. It was not immediately clear if Kazmierczak had an attorney. The county public defenders’ office could not immediately be reached.

Omar continued the town hall for about 25 more minutes after the man was ushered out by security, saying she would not be intimidated.

There was a strong, vinegar-like smell after the man pushed on the syringe, according to an Associated Press journalist who was there. Photos of the device, which fell to the ground when he was tackled, showed what appeared to be a light brown liquid inside. There was no immediate word from officials on what it was.

Minneapolis City Council member LaTrisha Vetaw said some of the substance came into contact with her and State Sen. Bobby Joe Champion as well. She called it a deeply unsettling experience.

No one in the crowd of about 100 people had a noticeable physical reaction to the substance.

Omar says she is OK and ‘a survivor’

Walking out afterward, Omar said she felt a little flustered but was not hurt. She was going to be screened by a medical team.

She later posted on the social platform X: “I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday night.

President Trump has frequently criticized the congresswoman and has stepped up verbal attacks on her in recent months as he turned his focus on Minneapolis. During a Cabinet meeting in December, he called her “garbage.”

Hours earlier on Tuesday, the president criticized Omar as he spoke to a crowd in Iowa, saying his administration would only let in immigrants who “can show that they love our country.”

“They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar,” he said, drawing loud boos at the mention of her name.

He added: “She comes from a country that’s a disaster. So probably, it’s considered, I think — it’s not even a country.”

Omar is a U.S. citizen who fled her birthplace, Somalia, with her family at age 8 as a civil war tore apart the country.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent — nearly a third of Somalis living in the U.S.

Officials condemn the attack

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed gratitude that Omar was safe, adding in a post on X: “Our state has been shattered by political violence in the last year. The cruel, inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric by our nation’s leaders needs to stop immediately.”

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, also denounced the assault.

“I am deeply disturbed to learn that Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall today” Mace said. “Regardless of how vehemently I disagree with her rhetoric — and I do — no elected official should face physical attacks. This is not who we are.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called the attack “unacceptable.” He said he was relieved that Omar “is OK” and thanked police for their quick response, concluding: “This kind of behavior will not be tolerated in our city.”

The city has been reeling from the fatal shootings of two residents by federal immigration agents this month during Trump’s massive immigration enforcement surge. Intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti was killed Saturday, less than three weeks after Renee Good was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle.

Lawmakers face rising threats

The attack came days after a man was arrested in Utah for allegedly punching U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, in the face during the Sundance Film Festival and saying Trump was going to deport him.

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 in the aftermath of that year’s Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, before dipping slightly only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

Lawmakers have discussed the impact on their ability to hold town halls and public events, with some even citing the threat environment in their decisions not to seek reelection.

Omar has faced the most particular concern, long targeted with harsh language and personal attacks by Trump and other Republicans.

Following the assault on Omar, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that the agency was “working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society.”

It also released updated numbers detailing threats to members of Congress: 14,938 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against lawmakers, their families, staff and the Capitol Complex.”

That is a sharp increase from 2024, when the number of cases was 9,474, according to USCP. It is the third year in a row that the number of threats has increased.

Capitol Police have beefed up security measures across all fronts since Jan. 6, 2021, and the department has seen increased reporting after a new center was launched two years ago to process reports of threats.

Bargfeld and Schoenbaum write for the Associated Press. Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Mike Balsamo, Lisa Mascaro and Michelle Price in Washington, and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed.

WASHINGTON — Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike last October sued the federal government on Tuesday, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign.”

The lawsuit is thought to be the first wrongful death case arising from the three dozen strikes that the administration has launched since September on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The complaint will test the legal justification of the Trump administration attacks; government officials have defended them as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States but many legal experts say they amount to a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.

The complaint echoes many of the frequently articulated concerns about the boat strikes, noting for instance that they have been carried out without congressional authorization and at a time when there is no military conflict between the United States and drug cartels that under the laws of war could justify the lethal attacks.

“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command,” the lawsuit says.

The Defense Department said in an email that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit was filed by the mother of Chad Joseph and the sister of Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian nationals who were among six people killed in an October 14 missile strike on a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The men were not members of any drug cartel, the lawsuit says, but had instead been fishing in the waters off the Venezuelan coast and were returning to their homes in Trinidad and Tobago.

The two had caught a ride home to Las Cuervas, a fishing community where they were from, on a small boat targeted in a strike announced on Truth Social by President Trump. All six people aboard the boat were killed.

“These killings were wrongful because they took place outside of armed conflict and in circumstances in which Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were not engaged in activities that presented a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury, and where there were means other than lethal force that could have reasonably been employed to neutralize any such threat,” the lawsuit says.

The death toll from the boat strikes is now up to at least 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea, the U.S. military confirmed Monday. The figure includes 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September, with 10 others believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.

The lawsuit is the first to challenge the legality of the boat strikes in court, according to Jen Nessel, a spokesperson for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts on behalf of the families, along with the ACLU and others.

Nessel said in an email that the center also has a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the release of the legal justification for the strikes.

Tucker and Finley write for the Associated Press.

HONOLULU — Seven Japanese American soldiers will be promoted to officer ranks in a solemn ceremony Monday, eight decades after they died fighting for the U.S. during World War II despite having been branded “enemy aliens.”

The seven were students at the University of Hawaii and cadets in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, on track to become Army officers, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. They initially served in the Hawaii Territorial Guard, but soon after the attack the U.S. barred most Japanese Americans from service and deemed them enemy aliens.

The seven cadets instead worked with a civilian labor battalion known as “Varsity Victory Volunteers,” which performed tasks such as digging ditches and breaking rocks, until American leaders in early 1943 announced the formation of a segregated Japanese American regiment. The seven were among those who joined the unit, known as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

The combat team, along with the 100th battalion composed of mostly Japanese Americans from Hawaii, went on to become one of the most decorated units in U.S. history. Some of its soldiers fought for the Allies even as their relatives were detained in Japanese American internment camps because they were considered a public danger.

“It is important for us to really kind of give back and recognize our forefathers and these veterans that we stand on the shoulders of,” said 1st Sgt. Nakoa Hoe of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regiment, what the unit is now known as in the Army Reserve. He noted the once-segregated unit now includes a “multitude of cultures.”

The seven “sacrificed so much at a challenging time when their loyalty to their country was questioned and they even had family members imprisoned,” he added.

The seven men — Daniel Betsui, Jenhatsu Chinen, Robert Murata, Grover Nagaji, Akio Nishikawa, Hiroichi Tomita and Howard Urabe — died fighting in Europe in 1944. All but Murata were killed during the campaign to liberate Italy from Nazi Germany. Murata was killed by an artillery shell in eastern France.

They will be promoted Monday to 2nd lieutenant, the rank they would have had if they completed the ROTC program. Relatives of at least some of the men are expected to attend the ceremony, scheduled to be held in a Honolulu park.

Even though Hawaii was not yet a state, the cadets were American citizens because they were born in Hawaii after its annexation in 1898.

“Fighting an injustice at home, these seven men later gave their lives fighting on the battlefields of Europe,” said a news release from U.S. Army Pacific. “They were unable to return to school and finish their commissioning efforts.”

Monday’s ceremony capping efforts to honor the men comes amid growing concern and criticism that President Donald Trump’s administration is whitewashing American history ahead of the nation celebrating 250 years of its independence, including last week’s removal of an exhibit on slavery at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park.

Last year, the Pentagon said internet pages honoring a Black medal of honor winner and Japanese American service members were mistakenly taken down — but it staunchly defended its overall campaign to strip out content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups, which the Trump administration considers “DEI.”

Honoring the seven isn’t about DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — but recognizing them for their merit and that “they served in the ultimate capacity of giving their lives for the country,” said Lt. Col. Jerrod Melander, who previously led the University of Hawaii’s ROTC program as professor of military science.

Melander said he launched the commissioning effort in 2023 during former President Joe Biden’s administration and that the promotions were approved last year during the Trump administration.

The university awarded the men posthumous degrees in 2012. Laura Lyons, interim vice provost for academic excellence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, called their promotions especially important.

“Everyone’s contribution to and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and the security of this country should matter and should be acknowledged, regardless of who they are,” Lyons said.

Kelleher writes for the Associated Press.

Don’t stop me if you’ve heard this one before, since I’m admittedly something of a broken record on the subject, but I very much prefer Marvel’s television series, which tend to be fleet, original and unpredictable, to its movies, which tend not to be. “Loki,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Moon Knight,” “Echo,” “WandaVision” and its spinoff “Agatha All Along” — all (among others) are worth watching, even the ones that are dumped after a season.

Developing longer stories with less money, the TV shows makers need to be inventive, creative with their resources, so they invest in characters and ideas rather than special effects and action. They focus on secondary or ensemble figures who would never be given a theatrical feature of their own to carry, are particular about culture and family and place, and are often less contingent on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with its phases and stages, its crossovers and cross-promotions and long-range marketing plans. At once higher concept and more grounded than the movies, they’re interesting on their own, to the point where, when they finally hitch on to the Marvel multi-mega-serial train, I find them disappointing.

“Wonder Man,” whose eight episodes premiere all at once Tuesday on Disney+, is perhaps the most grounded of these series. Created by Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) and Andrew Guest (who has written for “Community” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), the series is a (generally) sweet, disarming tale of actors in Hollywood, tricked up with picture-business details that you don’t need to be au fait with the MCU to appreciate. There are things it might be helpful to know, but you can work out everything that matters through context. (Locals will enjoy playing Spot the Locations.)

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Simon Williams, who as a child became a fan of a B-movie superhero called Wonder Man — not a “real” superhero, in this reality, merely a fiction. Now in his 30s, he’s a struggling actor in Hollywood, good enough to land a small part in an “American Horror Story” episode, but not clever enough to keep from slowing down the production with questions and suggestions when all he needs to do is deliver a couple of lines before a monster bites his head off. He loses the part and a girlfriend directly afterward.

Taking in a revival house matinee of “Midnight Cowboy,” he meets Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who is back from having played the Mandarin — that is, he acted the part of a terrorist called the Mandarin, believing it was just a job — in “Iron Man 3” and providing appealing comedy relief in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” The character here is more fleshed out, something of a mess (but 13 years sober, he likes to point out), serious but not a joke. Before it all went wrong, Trevor played King Lear (in Croydon), appeared in “Coronation Street” and in a movie with Glenda Jackson, was off-off-off Broadway in “The Skin Our Teeth” and briefly had the lead in a hospital show with Joe Pantoliano, who’s very funny playing himself.

Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), left, and Simon Williams (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II) team up in “Wonder Man.”

(Suzanne Tenner / Marvel Television)

Slattery tells Simon that European art director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić) is rebooting Wonder Man, a role Simon feels born to play. He makes an end run around his unconvinced agent, Janelle (X Mayo), and wheedles an audition — where he again meets Trevor, auditioning for Barnaby, Wonder Man’s pal, or sidekick or something. There are wheels behind wheels in this setup, some of which could use a little grease, but for most of the series they do their squeaking off to the side. It’s a love story, above all — “Midnight Cowboy,” not an accidental choice, is more of a touchstone than any Marvel movie.

Simon does have powers — things shake, break or explode around him when he’s upset, and his strength can become super in a tight spot — which puts him in the sights of the Department of Damage Control, embodied by Arian Moayed as P. Cleary, who would like to contain him. But he struggles to keep them secret, especially in light of something called the Doorman Clause — its history established in a sidebar episode, a cautionary Hollywood fable with Josh Gad as himself — which prohibits anyone with super powers from working in film or television, all Simon lives for.

There is little in the way of action, and you won’t miss it. The fate of the world is never in question, but a callback for a second audition means everything. The only costumed characters are actors playing costumed characters; the only villains, apart from the bureaucracy that seeks to bring him in, are Simon’s own self-doubt and temper. As things progress, Trevor will become a mentor to Simon. As is common in stories of love and friendship, a betrayal will be revealed, but if you have seen even a few such stories, you know how that’s going to go, and will be glad it does.

Whether discussing acting techniques or the traffic they’re stuck in on Hollywood Boulevard (Trevor: “Probably the Hollywood Bowl.” Simon: “It’s too late for the Bowl.” Trevor: “It’s usually the Bowl. I remember seeing Cher there once — breathtaking. Chaka Khan, now there’s a woman”), Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley work well together; their energies are complementary, laid back and loose versus worked up and tight and, of course, each will have something to teach one another about who they are and who they could be. I was genuinely anxious for them, as friends, more so than just wondering how such and such a superhero (or team) might defeat such and such a supervillain (or team).

“Our ideas about heroes and gods, they only get in the way,” says Von Kovak, putting a room of hopeful actors through their paces, and essentially speaking for the series he’s in. “Too difficult to comprehend them. Let’s find the human underneath.”