Consumer confidence edged higher in February as Americans expressed a more optimistic view of the labor market and other facets of the economy, a new survey shows.
The Conference Board, a nonprofit research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index increased by 2.2 points in February, rising to 91.2.
That’s an improvement over January, when confidence fell sharply amid concerns over household income and job prospects. Still, February’s reading remains below the peak reached in November 2024, the Conference Board said.
An improving job market
A higher share of survey respondents now say jobs are “plentiful” versus “hard to get,” a sign that consumers may be adopting a more favorable outlook of the labor market.
The improved February reading comes after the Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed robust hiring in January. Employers added 130,000 jobs last month, according to the latest jobs report. Still, the economy gained just 181,000 jobs in 2025, a fraction of the more than 2 million added in 2024.
Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market also rose, although they remain well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. It’s the 13th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.
The measure of consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation also fell by 1.8 points to 120.
Inflation concerns
The consumer confidence data shows that Americans are still wary about high costs. Dana Peterson, chief economist for the Conference Board, noted in a press release that write-in responses reflected a growing pessimism towards prices, inflation and the cost of goods.
Consumers’ 12-month inflation expectations were little changed but remain elevated. Mentions of trade and politics increased, while references to labor market conditions eased as perceptions of the job market improved modestly this month.
According to the Conference Board’s February survey, consumers’ plans to buy big-ticket items over the next six months rose, with plans to buy used cars, furniture, TVs and smartphones leading the way.
Home-buying expectations were little changed in February, generally a slow time for the housing market, which has been mired in a years-long slump.
Parents are often caught off guard by what their teens are doing in daily life — and when it comes to AI, the “perception gap” might be larger than they thought, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday.
The survey found a significant gap exists between parents’ perceptions and their teens’ actual use of AI chatbots. About 64% of U.S. teens reported using AI chatbots, while 51% of parents said their teens use them.
“Technology is not just a teen issue or a parent issue — it’s a family issue,” said Pew senior researcher Colleen McClain. She said researchers surveyed both teens and parents and heard different perspectives on managing AI usage.
Just over half (54%) of the teens surveyed said they’ve used AI chatbots for help with schoolwork, while about 1 in 10 said they’ve gotten emotional support from an AI chatbot.
Teens, often at the forefront as users of new technology, told researchers they see AI as a tool in their daily lives, and they were more positive than negative in their views of about how AI will impact them personally.
Parents have a “lot to juggle,” McClain said, and many are concerned about their children’s use of AI chatbots — especially after several high-profilecases in which teens died by suicide after prolonged interactions with the new technology.
“It’s complicated, it’s nuanced, it’s not a one-size-fits-all,” McClain said.
She said the survey — the most in-depth yet on teens and AI — found many parents don’t speak to their teens about their AI usage; just 4 in 10 parents said they do. Many don’t make managing screen time their first priority amid other life demands, and some parents said they feel judged for doing so.
Dr. Amber W. Childs, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, told CBS News the question shouldn’t be if teens are using AI but how they are using the technology.
She said most teens are using technology for mundane daily tasks but parents need to know if “they’re using it in the absence of other sources of connection or coping skills and support.” Around 12% said they’ve gotten emotional support through chatbots, and Childs said teens using the tech for sole emotional support is concerning.
Psychologist Joshua Goodman, an associate professor at Southern Oregon University, said teens who don’t feel comfortable talking to parents or others about their sexuality or orientation might feel more comfortable speaking to AI about their sexual health. These teens are “not reaching out for support” from adults in their lives, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, Goodman said.
He said parents need to look for warning signs around teens constantly using AI and the technology replacing their critical thinking, or if they are showing signs of depression.
“You want to get curious,” Childs said, “but you also want to be communicating to connect.” She cautioned parents not to just pass down information and warnings to their teens, but to use the conversation to understand how AI is being used in their lives. Parents can set up boundaries and expectations around the usage of the technology that align with family expectations, she said.
She said most teens are probably using AI to improve their life skills, like learning new languages or doing schoolwork.
About a quarter of teens surveyed said chatbots have been extremely or very helpful for completing their schoolwork, while another 25% say they’ve been somewhat helpful. Most said they use the technology for research or help with math problems.
About 1 in 10 teens said they do all or most of their schoolwork with chatbots’ help.
More than half of teens say they’ve used chatbots to search for information and almost half say they’ve done so for fun or entertainment.
Some, however, are wary about the way the technology will affect their lives. One teenage boy told Pew, “It’s already being used to spread propaganda, there’s no end to what it can do, it’s hard to tell what’s real or AI online anymore.”
Pew surveyed 1,458 U.S. teens and their parents from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9, 2025.
President Trump is planning to honor a 100-year-old veteran Tuesday night by awarding E. Royce Williams the Medal of Honor for his actions in a secret mission during the Korean War, sources with knowledge of the matter told CBS News.
This would mark the first time that a president has awarded the medal, the U.S. military’s highest honor for valor in combat, during a State of the Union address.
White House spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment. The plan, which has not previously been reported, could change.
Williams, a retired Navy captain, was part of the longest aerial engagement in U.S. Navy history when he fought seven Soviet MiG fighter jets, shooting down four, during a half-hour dogfight in 1952.
Soviet involvement was top secret at the time, so the records of the event were classified for decades. At the height of the Korean War, Williams and another American pilot were flying off the coast of the Korean Peninsula when they encountered seven Soviet miG-15 fighter jets. The Soviet aircraft opened fire, he would later recall: “Since they started the fight, he said, “I shot back.”
Williams struck one of the MiGs, and his fellow American pilot pursued it. Then, flying alone, he engaged the remaining aircraft, downing three more Soviet planes while maneuvering through what military accounts later described as hundreds of rounds of incoming fire. In recent years, the U.S. military has published detailed descriptions of the encounter, portraying it as one of the most intense aerial engagements of the war.
“In the moment I was a fighter pilot doing my job,” Williams told news outlet Task & Purpose in a 2022 interview. “I was only shooting what I had.”
After his aircraft was struck, Williams turned back toward an American aircraft carrier, guiding the damaged plane in for a landing at high speed. He later said he had considered ejecting but concluded that the frigid conditions over the water made such a decision perilous.
Williams has said that he was instructed to keep the airborne clash a secret — a rare and politically fraught confrontation between American and Soviet forces at a moment when the two Cold War adversaries were intent on avoiding open war. For decades, he spoke of it to no one, not even his wife.
Details of the operations surfaced only years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as archival records and military histories were made public. Three years ago, Williams was awarded the Navy Cross, the highest combat award that can be given to a service member of either the Navy or Marine Corps for valor in combat.
Republican Rep. Darell Issa of California, whose San Diego-area district includes Williams home, pressed for the retired Navy pilot to receive the Medal of Honor. Last year, lawmakers authorized the president to bestow the decoration, waiving the longstanding requirement that it be awarded within five years of the act of valor.
“The heroism and valor he demonstrated for more than 35 harrowing minutes almost 70 years ago in the skies over the North Pacific and the coast of North Korea unquestionably saved the lives of his fellow pilots, shipmates, and crew,” Issa wrote in a statement earlier this month.
The timing of the medal presentation is notable as Mr. Trump is set to award the Medal of Honor to a veteran recognized for killing Russian pilots decades ago, on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago —a conflict now shadowed by negotiations in which Kyiv has faced pressure to consider ceding territory seized by Moscow.
Savannah Guthrie and her family are offering an additional reward of up to $1 million for any information leading to the whereabouts of their mother, Nancy Guthrie. The “Today” show co-host made the announcement on social media Tuesday.
In a new video posted to Instagram, Savannah Guthrie expressed hope that her mother will be found but also acknowledged that she “may be lost.”
“She may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and with her beloved brother Pierce and with our daddy,” Guthrie said. “And if this is what is to be, then we will accept it, but we need to know where she is. We need her to come home.”
“It is Day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, and every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony since then of worrying about her and fearing for her and aching for her and most of all just missing her,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie urged people to continue praying for her mom’s return.
“We still believe in a miracle,” Guthrie said. “We still believe that she can come home. Hope against hope, as my sister says. We are blowing on the embers of hope.”
Savannah Guthrie speaks on her Instagram account where she offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her mother Nancy Guthrie, who was taken from her home 24 days ago, in this screen grab taken from a video.
Savannah Guthrie via Instagram via REUTERS
Guthrie has posted other social media videos with her sister Annie and brother Camron throughout the ordeal. In some of the videos, the family spoke directly to those who sent an apparent ransom note to CBS Tucson affiliate KOLD-TV demanding payment in bitcoin.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a statement last week that all of the Guthrie siblings and their spouses were cleared as possible suspects in the case.
The FBI is also offering a $100,000 reward, and encouraged anyone with information to contact the tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
“Someone out there knows something that can bring her home,” Savannah Guthrie said in the video. “Somebody knows, and we are begging you to please come forward now.”
She also said the family would be donating $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“We know there are millions of families that have suffered with this kind of uncertainty,” Guthrie said, adding, “We are hoping that the attention that has been given to our mom and our family will extend to all the families like ours who are in need and need prayers and need support.”
LA VERNE, Calif. /California Newswire – NEWS/ — Hillcrest, a senior living community in La Verne, Calif., is hosting nationally recognized solo aging expert Dr. Sara Zeff Geber, PhD, founder of LifeEncore, for an educational seminar focused on preparing solo agers for the future. The free event will take place on Thursday, Feb. 26, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will cover legal and financial strategies for maintaining independence. A solo ager is defined as anyone, single or partnered, who does not have children or is aging alone for any reason.
The interactive presentation is based on Dr. Geber’s 2018 book, “Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers.” Participants will receive helpful planning resources as they look toward the future.
“Hillcrest is home to many solo agers, and we’ve built a thriving community to support them,” said Shirley Turner, Director of Sales and Marketing at Hillcrest. Under Turner’s guidance, Hillcrest has responded to the rise in solo aging by creating programs specifically for this group, including a complimentary Summer Camp event and focus groups to better understand solo agers’ goals, interests and what matters most in this stage of life. As a result of Hillcrest’s efforts, the community’s population of solo-aging residents has increased.
In the presentation, Dr. Geber will share advice on how to be your own best advocate in the years ahead and outline the steps to build a rich life, regardless of family support. She’ll
share options and decisions necessary to create a fulfilling life now and a secure future in the years ahead, including:
* Identifying what matters most
* Finding resources beyond family to provide for your needs as you age
* Considering how and where you want to live
* Navigating post-retirement life
“Looking at aging as a solo ager requires a robust approach to planning to meet unique needs in later life. We know older adults have peace of mind knowing their plans align with their goals and lifestyle, and that is the goal of our conversation at Hillcrest,” said Dr. Geber.
Hillcrest is an upscale 501(c)(3) nonprofit continuing care retirement community (CCRC) centrally located in the San Gabriel Valley, less than 30 minutes from Los Angeles, Anaheim, Pasadena, and San Bernardino and at the gateway to the Inland Empire. Located in a quiet residential neighborhood just off Foothill Boulevard in La Verne, California, Hillcrest offers independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing, with an emphasis on wellness and health. For more information, visit: https://liveathillcrest.org/.
LONDON (AP) — The U.K. Parliament on Tuesday will debate calls for greater accountability from a member of the royal family as the arrest of the former Prince Andrew and his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein force British society to re-examine its deference to the monarchy.
Lawmakers will confront the issue when they consider a motion calling for the release of confidential documents related to Andrew’s appointment as Britain’s special envoy for international trade in 2001.
King Charles III’s younger brother, who was stripped of his princely title last year due to revelations about his relationship with Epstein, was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office amid allegations that he shared confidential documents with Epstein during his time as trade envoy. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, was released without charge and the investigation continues.
A history of deference
Tuesday’s debate marks a departure for the House of Commons, where the rules of the house have historically prohibited members of Parliament from criticizing members of the royal family. Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats and the lawmaker who introduced the motion, wants to change that.
“One thing the Liberal Democrats stand for is to hold the powerful to account,” Davey told the BBC. “And I think we’ve seen too often in the past that people, because of their title or their friend or whatever, have not been properly held to account.”
The debate comes as the U.S. Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of documents related to Epstein exposes how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women. Nowhere has the fallout been felt more strongly than in the U.K., where the scandal has raised questions about the way power is wielded by the aristocracy, senior politicians and influential businessmen, known collectively as “the Establishment.”
Investigations continue
British police on Monday arrested Peter Mandelson, a one-time government minister who later served as ambassador to the United States, on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to allegations that he, too, shared confidential information with Epstein. Mandelson was released early Tuesday morning after more than nine hours of questioning. He hasn’t been charged, and the investigation is continuing.
While they haven’t spoken publicly about the investigations, both Mountbatten-Windsor and Mandelson have previously denied any wrongdoing. Epstein died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
For the House of Windsor, Tuesday’s debate is a reflection of a crisis that shows no sign of abating.
Buckingham Palace has tried to insulate the monarchy from the scandal, drawing a clear bold line between Mountbatten-Windsor and the rest of the royal family. In addition to removing his royal titles, Charles forced his brother to move out of the 30-room estate near Windsor Castle where he had lived rent free for more than 20 years.
But that may not be enough to quell the voices demanding change. The loudest of those comes from the campaign group Republic, which has long called for the monarchy to be replaced by an elected head of state.
Soft power, and a lot of it
While the U.K.’s constitutional monarchy no longer wields political power, it remains hugely influential at the apex of British society. The king is a symbol of continuity who serves as head of state for Britain and 14 other independent countries with ties to the former British Empire. Working members of the royal family support him by making hundreds of public appearances each year, visiting charities, military bases and community groups that still clamor for their attention.
Commentators have compared the pressures facing the House of Windsor to 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the thrown to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
“Unlike the last significant family crisis of the modern monarchy, the abdication of 1936, this is not an immediate matter of constitutional crisis, yet its implications may well prove more significant for the monarchy, and so they should,’’ royal historian Anna Whitelock wrote this week in the Sunday Times newspaper. “It is the last of our public institutions to face the full glare of public scrutiny, with questions raised about its role, purpose, governance, financing and accountability.’’
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WASHINGTON — New whistleblower documents detail substantial cuts by the Trump administration to the training requirements for new immigration officers.
Among the cuts are the elimination of practical exams, use of force and legal training courses, and an overall reduction in training time, contrary to an official’s testimony to Congress earlier this month.
The documents, provided to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) by whistleblowers from the Department of Homeland Security, were publicly revealed ahead of a forum Monday with congressional Democrats — the third in recent weeks probing what the members view as abusive and illegal tactics used by federal agents.
Lauren Bis, deputy assistant public affairs secretary at Homeland Security, said no training hours have been cut.
“Our officers receive extensive firearm training, are taught de-escalation tactics, and receive 4th and 5th Amendment comprehensive instruction,” she said. “The training does not stop after graduation from the academy. Recruits are put on a rigorous on-the-job training program that is tracked and monitored.”
Earlier this month, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified to Congress that while the agency had reduced the number of training days to 42 from 75, “We went from five days a week to six days a week. Five days a week was five eight-hour days and we’ve gone to six 12-hour days.”
But the documents appear to contradict Lyons’ testimony.
“The schedules reflected on these documents indicate that current ICE recruits receive nearly 250 fewer hours of training than previous cohorts of recruits,” according to a 90-page memorandum from minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Blumenthal is the top Democrat on that committee.
Blumenthal’s office also disclosed the identity of one whistleblower: Ryan Schwank, an attorney who most recently served as an instructor for new Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruits at the ICE Academy within the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia.
Schwank, who resigned Feb. 13, is one of two whistleblowers who made a confidential disclosure to Blumenthal’s office last month regarding an ICE policy allowing agents to forcefully enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant.
In his testimony Monday, Schwank said that for the last five months, he watched ICE leadership dismantle its training program. What remains, he said, is a “dangerous husk.”
Schwank said the assertion by Homeland Security leaders that cadets receive the same training in a shorter time frame “is a lie.”
“This means that cadets are not taught what it means to be objectively reasonable, the very standard which the law requires them to meet when deciding whether or not to use deadly force,” he said. “Our jobs as instructors are to teach them so well they can make split-second decisions about what they can and cannot do in life-or-death situations. Yet in the name of churning out an endless stream of officers, DHS leadership has dismantled the academic and practical tests that we need to know if cadets can safely and lawfully perform their job.”
Schwank said he was shown the secret memo authorizing forceful home entry on his first day as a training instructor. He was told to teach its contents but not to take notes on it or discuss its existence.
“Never in my career had I ever received such a blatant unlawful order, nor one conveyed in such a troubling manner,” he said. “Incredibly, I was being shown this memo in secret by my supervisor, who made sure that I understood that disobedience would cost me my job.”
“So in effect, you were told, as an instructor on the law, that you were to train ICE agents how to break the law,” Blumenthal told Schwank.
Schwank told Blumenthal that the reason he received the training position was because the lawyer in the position before him had been forced to resign on their refusal to teach the contents of the memo.
Another witness at the forum was Teyana Gibson Brown, whose husband, Garrison Gibson, was arrested in Minneapolis last month after agents burst through their door with guns drawn. She said she and her husband repeatedly asked to see a warrant but were ignored.
“I heard the door pop and I realized we were no longer protected,” she said. “Ten officers that were all armed were standing in front of me and my family. Words can never be sufficient for me to portray what sorts of horror we felt in this moment.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said the notion that “ICE wants to write its own permission slip, without a judge, to break down your door and to violate your rights” should terrify all Americans. Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, led the forum with Blumenthal.
Blumenthal’s office did not confirm whether Schwank or the other whistleblower, who is still anonymous, provided the documents that were released Monday and included in the 90-page memo.
The documents show ICE has eliminated more than a dozen practical exams that ICE officers previously needed to graduate. In July 2021, a cadet needed to pass 25 practical exams to graduate. Now, nine are required.
Eliminated exams include “Judgment pistol shooting,” “Criminal encounters,” and “Determine removability.”
“All of these are now instead evaluated, if at all, mainly by open-book, multiple-choice written exams and without any graded practical examinations,” the memo states.
During the hearing, Blumenthal raised a poster showing the two lists of exam topics. The longer list, Schwank told him, was a vital lesson on things like “how to use their firearms safely, how to encounter an individual they intended to detain, much like Mrs. Gibson Brown’s husband.”
Tests that used to be closed-book became open-book, he said. As a result, he watched cadets graduate despite using excessive force in practical exercises.
Comparisons between the program’s syllabus table of contents and general information sections from July 2025 — before the surge in hiring — and this month show that ICE appears to have cut whole courses, such as use of force simulation training, U.S. government structure, criminal versus removal proceedings, and use of force.
In a statement, Homeland Security said no training requirements have been removed and that new recruits get 56 days of training and an average of 28 days of on-the-job training. The agency said training was streamlined to cut redundancy and incorporate technological advancements without cutting subject matter content.
Candidates still learn the same elements always required, the agency said, including multiple classes on use-of-force policy, as well as safe arrest techniques and de-escalation.
The training reductions come as ICE plans to bring up more than 4,000 new Enforcement and Removal Operations officers this fiscal year, which ends in September. One of the documents notes that ICE had graduated 803 new officers in 2026 as of Jan. 29 and projected 3,204 more graduates by the end of the fiscal year.
In its statement, Homeland Security said the agency is prepared to train 12,000 new hires this year, and that the majority of new hires are experienced law enforcement officers who have already gone through a police academy.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) asked Schwank about the new officers ICE has hired.
“Are they police officers that already have this training, so they don’t have to worry about it?” she asked. “Is it individuals that don’t have any law enforcement background?”
Schwank said the cadets he met genuinely wanted to learn and to do their jobs correctly but didn’t arrive with a law enforcement background.
“I’ve had cadets who are 18 years old,” he said. “I had a cadet who celebrated her 19th birthday in her classes. We have cadets who don’t have college degrees. We have cadets for whom English is not their primary language.”
As Paramount moved Monday to sweeten its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a high-stakes political battle is playing out behind the scenes.
Paramount’s latest offer enhanced its earlier $30-a-share bid, valued at $108 billion, said a person familiar with the process who was not authorized to comment publicly. Details of the revised proposal, first reported by Bloomberg, were not immediately available.
The firm is leveraging both the dynastic wealth of Larry Ellison’s empire and his ties to the Trump administration to dismantle Netflix’s rival $82.7-billion deal for Warner, which owns CNN, HBO and the premier Hollywood film and television studios, according to people close to the auction.
Over the weekend, President Trump turned up the heat, demanding that Netflix “IMMEDIATELY” fire Susan Rice — a former Obama and Biden administration official — who serves on Netflix’s 13-member board or “pay the consequences.”
Trump previously said he would not get involved in the pivotal Warner Bros. auction, instead leaving the matter to the Department of Justice, which is investigating whether a Netflix takeover, or Paramount’s alternative bid, would harm competition. Trump has been an outspoken critic of CNN and many of its on-air hosts.
Netflix won the bidding for the storied studio and HBO in December, prompting the spurned Paramount executives to launch a multipronged strategy to scuttle the Netflix deal.
Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos sought to downplay the latest controversy, saying during a BBC interview Monday: “This is a business deal, it’s not a political deal.”
But Paramount, which declined to comment for this article, has not been shy about playing its political cards.
Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The company, overseen by Larry Ellison’s son, David, is trying to convince Justice Department regulators and Warner Bros. shareholders that the Netflix deal is too dicey and that they should instead side with Paramount, said sources who were not authorized to comment publicly.
Paramount has attempted numerous maneuvers to gain the upper hand.
“This deal was never going to be decided on the merits of the offer or rigid antitrust considerations,” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “This was a classic Trump administration deal where proximity to the president counts a lot more than financial terms.”
Trump’s Saturday night outburst came after Rice, during a podcast interview last week, said that “it is not going to end well” for corporations, media outlets and law firms that “bent the knee” to Trump should Democrats regain control in Washington.
The comments of Rice, a Netflix director for eight years, came as Paramount-owned CBS was involved in a headline-grabbing dust-up with late-night talk-show host, Stephen Colbert, over Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair‘s threat to modify a rule requiring that broadcasters to give political candidates equal time. Colbert has accused his company of kowtowing to Trump, which CBS has denied.
Netflix’s Sarandos and Paramount’s David Ellison have made separate treks to the White House.
In October, Paramount hired a former Trump administration official, Makan Delrahim, who oversaw the Justice Department’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term, to quarterback Paramount’s campaign to win over regulators and politicians.
A formidable ally — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — recently visited Delrahim on Paramount’s Melrose Avenue lot in Los Angeles. While there, Cruz said he was a fan of the CBS show “NCIS,” which prompted Paramount executives to put together an impromptu tour of the “NCIS Origins” soundstages, according to a person familiar with the visit.
In December, Delrahim made a tactical move to apply for Justice Department approval of Paramount’s deal — despite the absence of a signed agreement with the Warner Bros. board and the consent of its shareholders. The gambit was meant to speed the agency’s approval should the Netflix deal crumble. Warner stockholders are expected to vote March 20.
Last week, Paramount announced that a major deadline had passed without pushback from the Justice Department. “There is no statutory impediment in the U.S. to closing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD,” Paramount said in a regulatory filing.
Paramount faces a separate deadline late Monday to improve the finances of its proposed takeover to shake the support of Warner Bros. Discovery’s board members for the Netflix deal.
Paramount wants to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN.
Netflix, in contrast, does not want the bulk of cable TV channels beyond HBO, and has offered $27.75 a share. It has the right to match any improved Paramount proposal.
Warner is planning to spin off the bulk of its channel portfolio, including HGTV, TBS and Cartoon Network, in a separate company. Its shareholders will receive stock in that entity, slated to be called Discovery Global.
Concerns over Netflix’s deal have been mounting.
Department of Justice regulators have sent inquiries to the three companies, according to one senior executive who was not authorized to speak publicly. The department is said to be looking at Netflix’s historic business strategy of steering most of its film releases to its streaming platform, often bypassing movie theaters. Sarandos has promised to maintain a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films.
Bloomberg has reported that regulators also are trying to determine whether Netflix has exerted leverage over creators in negotiations when acquiring programming to build its catalog.
This month, Republican lawmakers blasted Sarandos during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights hearing to explore antitrust implications of the Warner Bros. sale. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent Netflix a series of pointed follow-up questions, including: “If allowed to proceed, what effect will the merger have on future competition?”
Ted Sarandos, left, and David Zaslav at the 2026 Golden Globes.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The hearing also veered into culture wars, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) suggesting Netflix was promoting a “transgender ideology” to children, which Sarandos denied.
Another Missouri Republican, Sen. Eric Schmitt, accused Netflix of making some of “the wokest content in the history of the world.”
“Netflix has no political agenda of any kind,” Sarandos told the lawmakers.
David Ellison also was invited to appear at the Feb. 3 hearing, but he declined — which raised the eyebrows of some members of the panel.
Skydance Media founder and Chief Executive David Ellison, who leads Paramount, is shown in 2023 in New York.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) challenged Ellison for failing to answer lawmakers’ questions under oath, including about his dealings with the president.
Ellison instead responded with a statement but Booker and other lawmakers wrote back, saying Ellison’s statement “failed to address” the issues raised by Booker.
“The pattern of evasion, combined with Paramount’s apparent confidence that a politically sensitive transaction will clear without difficulty warrants serious scrutiny,” Booker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others wrote in the Feb. 19 letter.
The Democrats instructed Ellison “to preserve records related to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery transaction.”
The move came days after Gail Slater, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, was bounced from her job, reportedly after becoming a thorn in the side of some business interests. Slater’s former top deputy, who also left the Justice Department, publicly warned that antitrust decisions are being influenced by corporate lobbyists — not in the interest of ordinary Americans.
“We see this happen again and again,” USC’s Kahn said.
“Let’s not forget that Larry Ellison’s Oracle was part of the consortium that purchased the U.S. operations of TikTok. Repeated complaints from the FCC about content at CBS have been heeded by the Ellison regime,” Kahn said, adding: “This is the reality of trying to do any business in the Trump administration: It’s about payoffs and proximity.”
LOS ANGELES — The death of a 34-year-old California Highway Patrol officer following a Culver City traffic crash that occurred while he and his partner were transporting a DUI suspect was caused by the effects of the powerful opioid fentanyl, the county Medical Examiner’s Office announced Monday.
Officer Miguel Cano, 34, was driving a CHP cruiser around 12:30 a.m. July 2, 2025, near Bristol Parkway and Green Valley Circle when the vehicle crashed. According to the CHP, Cano and his partner had arrested a DUI suspect who allegedly had “a large quantity” of cocaine.
Cano told his partner he was feeling ill, and moments later, their cruiser veered off the road and struck a tree. Cano was given the overdose-reversal drug Narcan as a precaution, authorities said.
He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he died. The other officer and the suspect both suffered minor injuries. The crash occurred just blocks from the CHP’s West Los Angeles office, where the officers had been headed.
According to a statement from the Medical Examiner’s Office, Cano’s cause of death was determined to be the effects of fentanyl.
“The time and route of how the fentanyl was introduced into Officer Cano’s system is unknown and cannot be determined,” according to the medical examiner. “The manner of death is accident.”
“We just received and are reviewing the report released today by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Out of respect for Officer Cano’s family and the integrity of the review process, we will refrain from comment until we have thoroughly examined the report,” said CHP Southern Division Sgt. Daniel Keene.
Cano joined the CHP in 2023. He lived in Moreno Valley and had been married for 10 years to his wife, Melissa. They wed in a converted bullfighting ring in Zacatecas, Mexico, her native country. The couple had no children.
The Los Angeles Daily News contributed to this story.
A lawyer who practiced in Los Angeles was sentenced on Monday, Feb. 23 to over seven years in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe while serving as an officer of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company in connection with negotiating favorable drilling rights for a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil company, federal prosecutors announced.
Paulinus “Pollie” Iheanacho Okoronkwo, 58, of Rancho Cucamonga, was also ordered to pay $923,824 in restitution to the IRS and to forfeit $1,039,997, the amount of the net proceeds of the sale of a home involved in the laundering of the bribe money, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
A jury last August found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion and one count of obstruction of justice.
Okoronkwo, a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria, practiced immigration, family, and personal injury law out of an office in Koreatown. He was also a foreign official who served as the general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
The NNPC is a state-owned company that Nigeria’s government used to develop its fossil fuel and natural gas reserves, including through partnerships with foreign oil companies. In this role, Okoronkwo was a public official and owed a fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government, prosecutors said.
In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned petroleum, gas, and petrochemical company, wired a payment of $2,105,263 to an account in the name of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm, statedly for his work as a consultant. According to an indictment, Addax saw that it could lose billions of dollars if its preferred drilling rights were not secured.
An engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office, with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria, was a front meant to hide that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favorable financial agreements in relation to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria, a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release said.
In an affort to hide the scheme, Addax falsely characterized the $2.1 million payment as a payment for legal services, reportedly lied to an auditor about the payment, and fired executives who questioned the payment. Okoronkwo received the payment in a certain trust account to try to create the false impression that the bribe payment was made up of client funds.
After receiving the bribe into the trust account, Okoronkwo routed funds to a company called IPO Capital LLC from February 2016 to 2018. Then Okoronkwo used the bribery funds to pay for family expenses, a car and a home, the news release said.
Okoronkwo also ommitted the $2.1 million bribe payment from his 2015 federal income tax return. He allegedly obstructed justice in June 2022 when he allegedly lied to federal investigators when he told them he did not use any of the $2.1 million to purchase a house, and instead said the money was made up of client funds rather than income to his law office.
The State Bar of California suspended Okoronkwo’s law license in January.
The Riverside City Council is opposing parole for Joseph Neale Jr., seen in 2013, who was convicted of attempted murder for a 1998 shooting at Riverside City Hall. (Courtesy photo)
Riverside leaders are opposing the possible parole of Joseph Neale Jr., who shot seven people — including four council members and the mayor — at City Hall in 1998.
“The violent nature of this crime — targeting elected leaders within City Hall during a public meeting — reflects a grave threat to civic order and government integrity,” the letter states.
The council unanimously agreed Feb. 3 to send the letter to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Board of Parole Hearings.
On the morning of Oct. 6, 1998, Neale walked into a conference room next to City Council chambers and opened fire with a 9mm handgun, he wounded four former council members, former Mayor Ron Loveridge and two police officers.
Neale, who said he was frustrated that the council cut funding for his Eastside chess program and by society’s treatment of African Americans, surrendered after police shot him in the groin and both thighs. He was sentenced in 2002.
“Even though no deaths resulted, the severity is apparent in the intentional and coordinated attack on public officials,” said in the letter signed by all seven council members and Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson. “This was not a momentary lapse or accidental act; it was premeditated violence aimed at causing widespread fear and harm.”
They added that Neale’s behavior indicates a willingness to “use extreme violence in pursuit of personal grievances.”
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to meet Tuesday with the CEO of Anthropic, with the artificial intelligence company the only one of its peers to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.
Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, declined to comment on the meeting but CEO Dario Amodei has made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent.
The meeting between Hegseth and Amodei was confirmed by a defense official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It underscores the debate over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how the technology could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance. It also comes as Hegseth has vowed to root out what he calls a “woke culture” in the armed forces.
“A powerful AI looking across billions of conversations from millions of people could gauge public sentiment, detect pockets of disloyalty forming, and stamp them out before they grow,” Amodei wrote in an essay last month.
The Pentagon announced last summer that it was awarding defense contracts to four AI companies — Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. Each contract is worth up to $200 million.
Anthropic was the first AI company to get approved for classified military networks, where it works with partners like Palantir. The other three companies, for now, are only operating in unclassified environments.
By early this year, Hegseth was highlighting only two of them: xAI and Google.
The defense secretary said in a January speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas that he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”
Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”
OpenAI announced in early February that it, too, would join the military’s secure AI platform, enabling service members to use a custom version of ChatGPT for unclassified tasks.
The uncertainty with the Pentagon is putting those intentions to the test, according to Owen Daniels, associate director of analysis and fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
“Anthropic’s peers, including Meta, Google and xAI, have been willing to comply with the department’s policy on using models for all lawful applications,” Owens said. “So the company’s bargaining power here is limited, and it risks losing influence in the department’s push to adopt AI.”
In the AI craze that followed the release of ChatGPT, Anthropic closely aligned with President Joe Biden’s administration in volunteering to subject its AI systems to third-party scrutiny to guard against national security risks.
Amodei, the CEO, has warned of AI’s potentially catastrophic dangers while rejecting the label that he’s an AI “doomer.” He argued in the January essay that “we are considerably closer to real danger in 2026 than we were in 2023″ but that those risks should be managed in a “realistic, pragmatic manner.”
This would not be the first time Anthropic’s advocacy for stricter AI safeguards has put it at odds with the Trump administration. Anthropic needled chipmaker Nvidia publicly, criticizing Trump’s proposals to loosen export controls to enable some AI computer chips to be sold in China. The AI company, however, remains a close partner with Nvidia.
The Trump administration and Anthropic also have been on opposite sides of a lobbying push to regulate AI in U.S. states.
Trump’s top AI adviser, David Sacks, accused Anthropic in October of “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.”
Sacks made the remarks on X in response to an Anthropic co-founder, Jack Clark, writing about his attempt to balance technological optimism with “appropriate fear” about the steady march toward more capable AI systems.
Anthropic hired a number of ex-Biden officials soon after Trump’s return to the White House, but it’s also tried to signal a bipartisan approach. The company recently added Chris Liddell, a former White House official from Trump’s first term, to its board of directors.
The Pentagon-Anthropic debate is reminiscent of an uproar several years ago when some tech workers objected to their companies’ participation in Project Maven, a Pentagon drone surveillance program. While some workers quit over the project and Google itself dropped out, the Pentagon’s reliance on drone surveillance has only increased.
Similarly, “the use of AI in military contexts is already a reality and it is not going away,” Owens said.
“Some contexts are lower stakes, including for back-office work, but battlefield deployments of AI entail different, higher-stakes risks,” he said, referring to the use of lethal force or weapons like nuclear arms. “Military users are aware of these risks and have been thinking about mitigation for almost a decade.”
TORONTO — Representatives of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI have been summoned to Ottawa after the company said last week that it considered but didn’t alert Canadian police about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Monday that he expects the company’s top safety representatives to explain its protocols and how it decides to forward cases to law enforcement when he meets with them on Tuesday.
OpenAI said last June that the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.”
The San Francisco technology company said that it considered whether to refer the account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, but determined at the time that the account activity didn’t meet a threshold for referral to law enforcement. OpenAI banned the account in June for violating its usage policy.
The 18-year-old killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia this month and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
OpenAI said that the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is whether the case involves an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others. The company said that it didn’t identify credible or imminent planning. The Wall Street Journal first reported OpenAI’s revelation, reporting that about a dozen employees debated informing Canadian police.
OpenAI said that it wasn’t until after learning of the school shooting that employees reached out to RCMP with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT
Solomon said that he contacted OpenAI immediately when he read the reports that OpenAI didn’t contact law enforcement in a timely manner.
“I have summoned the senior safety team from OpenAI to come here to Ottawa from the United States,” Solomon said. “Canadians expect, first of all, that their children particularly are kept safe and these organizations act in a responsible manner.”
Solomon said that some of his representatives already met with some OpenAI officials on Sunday. He wouldn’t say whether the Canadian government intends to regulate AI chatbots like ChatGPT, but insists that all options are on the table.
Police said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with police.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
The town of Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students, ages 12 to 13.
The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said it killed three people Monday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers.
Monday’s attack brought the death toll to at least 151 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels in early September.
As with most of the military’s statements on the more than 40 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs but posted a video on X that showed a small boat with outboard engines being destroyed.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southern Command stated in a post on X. “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action.”
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
The boat strikes also drew intense criticism following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the killings were murder, if not a war crime.
LONDON — Britain’s film academy and the BBC apologized to viewers after an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted a racial slur during the British Academy Film Awards.
The highly offensive word could be heard as “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for best visual effects during Sunday’s ceremony. Host Alan Cumming had earlier told the audience that a guest at the ceremony was John Davidson, a Scottish campaigner for people with Tourette syndrome, who inspired the BAFTA-nominated film “I Swear.”
Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations, including the uttering of inappropriate words. Several shouts were audible during the first part of the ceremony, although what was said wasn’t intelligible to an Associated Press reporter in the press room.
After the slur was shouted during Jordan and Lindo’s presentation, Cumming apologized to the audience at London’s Royal Festival Hall for the “strong and offensive language.”
“Tourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language,” Cumming said. “We apologize if you were offended.”
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts referred to Cumming’s statement when asked for comment on Monday.
The epithet could be heard when the BBC broadcast the ceremony about two hours after the live event. The broadcaster apologized for not editing it out before the broadcast, though the offensive word could still be heard on its iPlayer streaming service on Monday morning. The program was later removed, and the BBC said the slur would be edited out.
“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards,” the BBC said in a statement. “This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional.
“I Swear” won two BAFTAs, including best actor for Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson.
Ed Palmer, vice chair of the charity Tourettes Action, said the BBC should have considered bleeping out the slur.
“This is really one of the most acute examples of where something that is a disability can cause quite understandably huge amounts of offense to someone,” he told Times Radio. “So, if it’s being prerecorded now, then bleeping it out, for example, might be a reasonable compromise.”
Stocks slumped on Monday as jittery investors digested President Trump’s plan to raise global tariffs to 15% and amid renewed concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence apps on the technology industry.
The Dow Jones slid 822 points, or 1.7%, to close at 48,804, while the S&P 500 fell 72 points, or 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.1%.
Gold, regarded as a safe haven in periods of market turbulence, rose 3.4% to $5,254, according to FactSet.
Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli, head of Vital Knowledge, pointed to concerns about the AI impact on the software sector and other industries as the main reason stocks sank on Monday.
AI — which until recently had propelled the stock market to a succession of record highs — is “increasingly a net negative for the equity market,” he told investors in a research note.
Wall Street is also fretting over the repercussions the technology could have for white-collar jobs, a fear stoked in part by a viral Substack post published Sunday by Citrini Research, an independent research firm.
In the analysis, Citrini presents a hypothetical scenario from 2028 where rapid AI development begins to chip away at the labor force as companies decide they need fewer workers. In the scenario, unemployment has risen to 10.2%.
Mr. Trump’s move to immediately hike tariffs after the Supreme Court on Friday struck down his administration’s emergency tariffs also injected fresh uncertainty into financial markets, analysts noted. Mr. Trump initially said he would impose a 10% global tariff, but on Saturday upped that levy to 15%.
“Stocks got a boost Friday from the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling, but it quickly became clear that the decision was simply going to open a new chapter in the trade saga — not end it,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.
Despite today’s drop, Wall Street’s response was far milder than in April 2025, when stocks nosedived after Mr. Trump announced a sweeping set of reciprocal tariffs and a baseline 10% tariff on U.S. trading partners.
“Tariffs really aren’t driving the Mon[day] price action, but the enormous uncertainty and confusion associated with the SCOTUS decision and Trump’s subsequent actions and threats (including several social media posts) certainly aren’t helping equity sentiment,” Crisafulli said.
The U.S. dollar’s value edged lower against other currencies. Bitcoin briefly fell below $64,000 but remained above its low point reached earlier this month. Gold continued to rise thanks to its reputation as something safer to own during uncertain times.
Most of the president’s previous levies hinged on a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Mr. Trump is now turning to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to implement his next round of global tariffs, which are scheduled to take effect starting Feb. 24.
While the new round of tariffs may introduce more uncertainty, they are unlikely to have a meaningful impact on economic activity, Angelo Kourkafas, a senior global investment strategist at financial firm Edward Jones, said in an email.
“We advise investors not to overreact to headlines,” he said.
Kyiv – A Russian drone hit a Ukrainian passenger train traveling in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region Tuesday, killing at least five people, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
“In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said in a social media post that, according to preliminary information, the attack involved three Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, which hit the engine and one passenger car, causing a fire.
“There were 291 passengers on board. People were evacuated as quickly as possible,” he said, echoing Zelenskyy in calling the strike “a direct act of Russian terror against civilians. No military target.”
Russia’s government routinely denies targeting civilian infrastructure, but there was no specific reaction from the Kremlin or Russian military to the allegations that it had deliberately struck a train carrying civilians.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire after Russian drones hit a passenger train in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
Russia using Starlink to deadly effect?
Strikes on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure have intensified in recent months, and experts say Russia has adapted its offensive capabilities to evade Ukraine’s air defenses.
Last year, the Ukraine Air War Monitorjournal noted an 18% decline in Ukraine’s drone interception rate.
Oleksii Balesta, Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, told CBS News on Wednesday that Russia has been using larger drones in higher quantities, which is increasing the lethality of its strikes.
But according to a recent report from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, another reason for Russia’s deadlier strikes is its use of Starlink satellite systems to more accurately hit targets.
This week, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski raised the issue with Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns and operates the Starlink satellite network. In a post on Musk’s platform X, Sikorski asked the American businessman to “stop the Russians from using Starlinks to target Ukrainian cities.”
On X, Musk called Sikorski a “drooling imbecile” and said that Starlink’s terms of service “do not allow for offensive military use, as it is a civilian commercial system.” Musk also highlighted Ukraine’s use of the Starlink system for military communications.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire after Russian drones hit a passenger train in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
Two Ukrainian defense analysts have said the train may have been hit by Shaheds – a favorite weapon of Russia amid its ongoing full-scale invasion – equipped with the SpaceX technology.
“Russia has started using Starlink on other drones, and now is using it on Shaheds as well,” analyst Olena Kryzhanivskatold CBS News on Wednesday. “The attack yesterday was not surprising at all. It was expected.”
Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian military analyst and expert on drone warfare, said in a social media post Wednesday that the moving train was hit by, “Shaheds with online control.”
“It was not the locomotive, but the center of the train,” Beskrestnov noted in his post, accusing the Russian drone’s pilot of attacking a passenger car, “intentionally and consciously,” and specifically questioning whether Starlink might have been used.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment by CBS News on the claims that its Starlink technology may have been used in the drone strike on the train, and by Russian forces more widely to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Kryzhanivska said trains make easy targets for precision-guided Russian weapons.
“The territory of Ukraine is not targeted evenly with air defense systems and mobile fire units,” Kryzhanivska said. “There is no protocol in place for what to do when there is a Shahed drone approaching a train. What can the crew do? Should they stop the train? Or continue moving?”
At least 11 people were killed and dozens wounded in strikes across Ukraine overnight on Tuesday, which involved 165 Russian-launched drones, including the ones that hit the train in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
President Trump’s move to invoke an obscure legal tool to impose a global 15% tariff on U.S. imports could face its own legal challenges, trade experts told CBS News.
The White House said in a fact sheet on Friday that the temporary import duty, imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, addresses a “fundamental international payments problem” and that it will help the Trump administration rebalance the nation’s trade relationships.
Mr. Trump’s use of Section 122 to apply new tariffs, which will take effect on Tuesday, is unprecedented, legal experts told CBS News.
“No president has used it until now, so it could be ripe for legal challenges,” Luis Arandia, a partner with Washington, D.C., law firm Barnes & Thornburg focused on customs and international trade partner, told CBS News.
What is Section 122?
Section 122 authorizes the U.S. president to impose tariffs to rectify what the statute describes as “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits.”
But trade and legal experts said Section 122 might not apply in the current context because the large U.S. trade deficit, which Mr. Trump has invoked to justify tariffs, does not qualify as a balance of payments deficit. This measure encompasses all the financial and commercial transactions between one country and another.
By contrast, a trade deficit occurs when a country imports more goods and services than it exports, and it is that imbalance that Trump administration officials have pointed to as justifying sharply higher tariffs.
“Section 122 is for a balance of payments crisis, which is when you don’t have enough foreign reserves to pay external debts,” Philip Luck, director of the economics program at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The U.S. has a very large trade deficit, but so long as we can continue to sell assets to the global market, we have no challenge conducting international trade.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on possible challenges to its legal basis for imposing Section 122 levies.
The scope of Section 122 is also much more limited than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — the 1977 law that the Supreme Court ruled last week did not, in fact, legally authorize Mr. Trump to impose more than half of his administration’s tariffs.
Notably, any tariffs implemented under Section 122 can only remain in place for 150 days. giving Mr. Trump’s 15% tariff an expiration date of July 24. After that date, Congress would need to vote to extend the tariffs, and that could prove politically challenging, according to Cato Institute trade expert Colin Grabow.
What is the U.S. tariff rate under Section 122?
The new, global 15% tariff under Section 122 brings the average effective tariff rate to 14.5%, according to Capital Economics, an investor advisory firm.
That figure includes exemptions for goods from Canada and Mexico under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, plus pharmaceuticals, electronics, agricultural goods, and products like steel and aluminum that are already subject to sectoral tariffs.
Can Section 122 tariffs be extended?
Yes, lawmakers can vote to extend Section 122 tariffs an additional 150 days. But even if Congress opts against that, the Trump administration has signaled it plans to use the five-month period to impose more durable tariffs under alternative legal trade laws.
As such, Section 122 tariffs are effectively a fallback plan for the Trump administration as it tries to match the tariffs that were in place under IEEPA, according to Washington, D.C.-based attorney Nate Bolin, head of K&L Gates’ international trade group.
Bolin also thinks the administration’s use of Section 122 is on a stronger legal footing than its reliance on IEEPA to impose tariffs.
“There have to be these balance-of-payment issues, which the White House has demonstrated,” he told CBS News. “This is reflective of the fact that the administration has had this in the works and has been planning on this for many months.”
What does this mean for U.S. businesses?
The move to replace IEEPA tariffs with Section 122 duties sows more uncertainty for businesses as U.S. trade policies remain in flux, experts said.
“It’s more harmful than having higher tariffs, because businesses don’t want to invest when they’re not sure what is going to happen,” international trade economist Asha Sundaram, chair of the economics department at Northeastern University, told CBS News.
“The issue with uncertainty is that companies don’t know if tariffs will remain at that level or change,” she added. “So they will hesitate to make any business decision that’s medium to long-term. They might even stop investing, and that could potentially have negative implications for growth and jobs.”
A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement instructor responsible for educating new ICE officers on proper use of force told Congress Monday the agency’s efforts to rapidly scale up its ranks will place recruits on the streets without the training they need to lawfully carry out immigration enforcement.
“New cadets are graduating from the Academy, despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs,” Ryan Schwank said during a hearing organized by congressional Democrats.
“Without reform, ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority and who do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. That should scare everyone,” Schwank added.
Schwank is an attorney and former career ICE employee who resigned from the immigration agency less than two weeks ago. A spokesperson for Whistleblower Aid, the legal group representing Schwank, said he quit the agency in protest. It stands as one of the first instances of an ICE official who has served under the second Trump administration publicly rebuking the agency and the adequacy of its training. Schwank resigned from ICE on Feb. 13, according to congressional aides.
The hearing, organized by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, comes as calls for accountability grow in the wake of several incidents where federal immigration officers have deployed deadly force, including the January killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Schwank’s testimony will likely fuel Democrats’ refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security until the Trump administration agrees to a number of reforms for ICE, including a prohibition on agents wearing masks.
“I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken,” Schwank said Monday. He alleged ICE officials are lying about the amount of training new recruits receive.
File: Ryan Schwank, a former career ICE employee who resigned in February 2026.
Photo provided by Whistleblower Aid
In addition to Schwank’s testimony, CBS News obtained internal agency documents that were part of a disclosure he and a second U.S. government whistleblower shared with Congress. They include a July 2025 syllabus for the ICE officer training program, and an updated one dated February 2026. Within the 7-month span, training dropped from 72 to 42 days, and multiple courses dealing with use of force appear to be removed.
The documents also include a model daily schedule from January 2026 that shows at least some of ICE’s new recruits are receiving about half the training hours as previous cohorts, according to an analysis by Democratic staff with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. A list of required exams from October 2025 shows cadets are only graded on a fraction of the topics that were necessary to become an officer four years earlier. Eliminated evaluations appear to touch on use-of-force protocols, such as “Encounters to Detention” and “Judgment Pistol Shooting.”
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied that any training requirements for new recruits had been eliminated.
“DHS has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content,” the statement read. “Under these new improvements, candidates still learn the same elements and meet the same high standards ICE has always required. No subject matter has been cut.”
DHS said the training still includes “multiple classes dedicated to use of force policy and the proper use of force.”
Asked about the statement during his congressional testimony, Schwank alleged the department was lying, pointing to specific use-of-force training classes that had been removed.
“What was taken out was 16 hours of firearms training, classes that teach them how to use their weapons correctly and safely,” he said. “What was taken out were classes on how the Constitution works. In fact, the class where we talk to the officers and teach them about the rights of protesters was cut from a two-hour program into about 10 minutes that got shoehorned into a lecture about what the concept of seizure is.”
During a hearing before Congress earlier this month, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said recruits with law enforcement experience are undergoing more abbreviated training.
“We reduced the timeline for the previous certified federal law enforcement officers or special agents — where we went to ones who are already trained in firearms and defensive tactics and criminal procedure, we adapted to a shorter program, so they would just have the extensive Immigration Nationality Act training, immigration law and ICE-specific training,” Lyons said.
According to the documents disclosed to Congress, ICE expects about 4,000 new recruits will graduate from the training program by the end of September. The administration has said it will be hiring 10,000 new officers through the funding allocated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Schwank was first hired by ICE in 2021, according to a biography provided by congressional aides in advance of his testimony. In addition to his role training new recruits, Schwank has also represented the agency during immigration proceedings and served as an on-site legal adviser at ICE’s family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
He first raised concerns anonymously, in a whistleblower complaint shared with Congress in January, where he alleged Trump officials leading ICE have encouraged current immigration enforcement officers to embrace tactics that are unconstitutional.
That earlier disclosure revealed a directive signed by Lyons reversing longstanding rules that barred officers from entering homes without judicial warrants. Historically, ICE told its officers these warrantless entries violated constitutional protections. But Lyons’ memo stated ICE agents could forcibly enter homes, without a judicial warrant, when they are targeting an individual with a deportation order.
Department of Homeland Security general counsel Jimmy Percival has defended the practice, arguing that warrants signed by ICE officials were sufficient because immigrants in the U.S. illegally aren’t afforded the same constitutional rights as U.S. citizens. He noted ICE only uses these so-called administrative warrants when an individual “has received a final order of removal from an immigration judge.”
Stevan Bunnell, a former DHS general counsel who will appear alongside Schwank at Monday’s hearing, said the Supreme Court has found such administrative warrants unconstitutional.
“The police can’t sign their own warrants,” Bunnell wrote in prepared remarks.
Documents the whistleblowers disclosed to Congress also show ICE plans to graduate more than 3,000 new enforcement officers by June. In a statement, Blumenthal said by speaking out, Schwank was meeting “a moral imperative”.
“To anyone else who is repulsed by what you’re seeing or what authorities are asking you to do, please know that you can make a real difference by coming forward,” he wrote.
ICE has been under intense pressure from the White House to ramp up arrests and deportations under the Trump administration, which has promised to oversee the largest deportation operation in American history. Last year, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said ICE should carry out a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day.
In President Trump’s first year back in the White House, ICE carried out nearly 400,000 arrests, or roughly 1,000 per day, well below the 3,000 target but also up from the 300 average in 2024. According to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS News, less than 14% of arrestees had violent criminal records. Overall, 60% of those arrested by ICE over the past year had criminal charges or convictions, and about 40% did not have any criminal records, beyond civil immigration violations.
At a time when many feel weighed down by the pressures of modern life, BetterHelp has launched its first truly global marketing initiative centered on a deceptively simple message: “Feel Lighter.” The campaign, which debuted on December 22, 2025, one day after the winter solstice, positions therapy as the single most meaningful investment people can make for themselves in the new year. More than a marketing effort, the initiative represents a thoughtful attempt to meet people where they are emotionally and guide them toward professional mental health support.
A Campaign Rooted in Universal Human Experience
The “Feel Lighter” campaign distinguishes itself through its deliberate departure from the noise and divisiveness that characterize much of today’s digital landscape. According to Ads of the World, the campaign shifts toward calmer, more human storytelling that focuses on a universal desire: feeling lighter after carrying emotional weight. In a content ecosystem often dominated by outrage and conflict, this approach offers something refreshingly different.
The centerpiece television spot features no dialogue at all. A woman enters a dimly lit apartment, and as she opens the BetterHelp app on her phone, the scene gradually transforms with light. The visual metaphor is unmistakable yet powerful: therapy can illuminate the darkness many people experience. The onscreen graphics deliver the campaign’s core message: “Feel lighter. Discover the power of therapy with BetterHelp.”
Sara Brooks, BetterHelp’s Chief Growth Officer, explained to Marketing Daily that the absence of dialogue “really allows the emotional resonance to speak for itself.” The campaign targets the platform’s primary demographic of adults aged 18 to 45, while also reaching potential members, health plans, and therapists through its comprehensive 360-degree approach spanning TV, paid media, social, digital, and strategic partnerships.
Data-Driven Insights Informing the Message
The “Feel Lighter” campaign did not emerge from a creative vacuum. Its messaging was directly shaped by findings from BetterHelp’s inaugural State of Stigma report, released in May 2025. The survey gathered insights from over 16,000 individuals across 23 countries, revealing that anxiety and emotional exhaustion are particularly widespread among younger generations.
The State of Stigma research found that 74% of Gen Z and millennials report experiencing panic attacks or anxiety. Additionally, 30% report days of feeling down, depressed, or hopeless, while 25% report having very little energy more than half the time. These statistics paint a picture of a population carrying significant emotional burdens, often without adequate support systems.
Perhaps more troubling, the research revealed that Gen Z, despite reporting higher levels of mental health challenges, harbors surprisingly persistent stigma around seeking help. Nearly 37% of Gen Z respondents view seeking counseling as a sign of “mental weakness,” compared to just 22% of older generations combined. This disconnect between needing support and feeling comfortable seeking it represents precisely the barrier the “Feel Lighter” campaign aims to address.
“We’re focusing on this universal human truth: the desire to feel lighter after carrying emotional weight,” Brooks explained. The campaign acknowledges that while awareness of mental health issues has increased significantly, stigma and access barriers continue preventing millions from receiving the care they deserve.
Connecting Physical and Mental Wellness Through Strategic Partnerships
One of the most innovative elements of the “Feel Lighter” initiative is its partnership with Strava, the popular fitness tracking platform. The Light The Way Challenge, which ran from January 20 through February 3, 2026, invited users to log 100 minutes of physical activity in exchange for 30% off their first month of online therapy services.
This partnership reflects a growing understanding that physical and mental wellness are deeply interconnected. Many people who prioritize their physical health through exercise may not have considered professional mental health support as an equally important component of overall well-being. By meeting fitness enthusiasts within an app they already use and trust, BetterHelp introduced therapy as a natural complement to existing self-care routines.
The Strava collaboration also served a strategic purpose: it provided a concrete, achievable goal that potential users could work toward. Rather than simply encouraging people to “consider therapy,” the challenge offered a tangible pathway with a clear reward. This gamification element may help overcome the inertia that often prevents people from taking that crucial first step toward seeking support.
Creator Partnerships Amplify Authentic Voices
While the television commercial provides the campaign’s visual identity, BetterHelp has also enlisted content creators to share personalized interpretations of what “feeling lighter” means in their own lives. This multi-channel approach recognizes that the expression of emotional relief looks different for everyone.
YouTube influencer Michelle Choi, who has 2.3 million subscribers, shared how working with her therapist helped her reframe her approach to the new year. “My BetterHelp therapist has helped me shift my mindset and redefine what the new year actually needs to look like for me,” Choi told her audience. “So this year I decided I’m going to ease into it, no rushing… learning that rest does not mean laziness and it is so necessary and that in itself made me feel so much lighter.”
Brooks emphasized that these creator partnerships are designed to inspire specific actions: “trying therapy for the first time, restarting therapy, marking it away for a time when you may need it, or telling a friend about BetterHelp.” By featuring real people discussing authentic experiences, the campaign moves beyond abstract promises toward relatable, achievable outcomes.
The Timing: Winter Solstice and New Year Renewal
The campaign’s launch date was intentional. December 22 marks the day after the winter solstice, when daylight begins its gradual return. This symbolic timing aligns the campaign with a natural phenomenon that has represented hope and renewal across cultures for millennia. As physical days grow lighter, the campaign suggests, emotional burdens can lighten too.
January traditionally represents a period of self-reflection and goal-setting, making it an optimal moment to introduce therapy as an investment in personal growth. However, Brooks acknowledged a practical reality: by mid-January, many New Year’s resolutions have already faltered. The “Feel Lighter” campaign meets this moment directly, offering therapy not as another demanding resolution but as a source of support for navigating life’s ongoing challenges.
Building on a Year of Mental Health Advocacy
The “Feel Lighter” campaign represents the culmination of a year during which BetterHelp expanded its mental health advocacy efforts significantly. Throughout 2025, the platform launched several high-profile initiatives, including partnerships with WNBA teams, collaborations with musicians like Noah Cyrus, and the “Stop the Madness” campaign addressing online harassment faced by student athletes.
These varied partnerships share a common thread: they feature trusted voices speaking openly about mental health within their respective communities. Whether it’s professional athletes discussing performance pressure or musicians sharing recovery stories, BetterHelp has consistently chosen partners who bring authenticity and lived experience to the conversation.
The State of Stigma report itself emerged from this commitment to understanding and addressing barriers to care. Courtney Cope, LMFT and Director of Clinical Operations at BetterHelp, characterized the findings as revealing “the quiet, persistent gaps between belief, behavior, and action. Our responsibility is to close that gap and make care feel not just available, but accessible.”
What Makes the Campaign Different
Mental health marketing often falls into predictable patterns: clinical language, stock imagery of serene landscapes, or heavy-handed messaging about the importance of “asking for help.” The “Feel Lighter” campaign avoids these conventions by focusing on an emotional state rather than a diagnostic category. It doesn’t ask viewers to identify with depression or anxiety; it simply acknowledges that many people feel weighed down and offers a path toward relief.
The campaign’s production quality also signals the seriousness of its purpose. Created by Barcelona-based production company Canada, with facilities in Los Angeles and London, the television spot demonstrates investment in crafting a message worthy of the platform’s scale. BetterHelp handles its own creative and media placement, maintaining control over how the message reaches audiences across linear TV, streaming services, and paid social channels.
Expanding Access to Professional Support
Behind the marketing campaign lies a substantial clinical infrastructure. BetterHelp’s network includes 30,000 licensed mental health professionals practicing across all 50 states and internationally. The platform’s data indicates that 72% of clients experience symptom reduction within their first 12 weeks of therapy, with 69% achieving reliable improvement and 62% reaching symptom remission.
The platform reports that 40% of new members in 2024 were experiencing therapy for the first time in their lives. This statistic suggests that online platforms are successfully reaching individuals who might never have accessed traditional mental health services due to geographical, financial, or social barriers.
BetterHelp continues expanding insurance coverage, now accepting plans in Texas, Virginia, and Florida, with expectations of becoming largely national by the end of 2026. This expansion addresses cost barriers that prevent many from seeking care, even when they recognize the need for support.
The Message Beyond Marketing
At its core, the “Feel Lighter” campaign represents more than an advertising strategy. It reflects a genuine understanding that millions of people are struggling with emotional burdens they may not know how to address. By normalizing therapy through emotionally resonant storytelling rather than clinical messaging, the campaign meets potential users with empathy rather than prescription.
Fernando Madeira, president of BetterHelp, has consistently articulated the platform’s broader vision: “BetterHelp exists to champion the well-being in all of us, and we envision a world where nothing stands between people and the support they need.” The “Feel Lighter” campaign translates this vision into accessible, emotionally intelligent messaging that invites rather than lectures.
As the campaign continues through the first quarter of 2026, its impact will be measured not just in subscriber growth but in whether it succeeds at its stated goal: helping people take that first step toward professional support. For the millions carrying emotional weight they don’t know how to put down, the promise of feeling lighter may be exactly the invitation they need.
Recently, when talking about food with family and friends, the subject of beans has come up in our conversation. Indeed, beans are having their moment. Whether canned, dried, or steamed and packaged in refrigerated containers, it seems that people can’t get enough of them.
Beans are high in protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Important attributes, but there is more to say about their surge in popularity. Many sources tout that they help your gut, your blood pressure, and your cholesterol numbers. Throw frugality into the mix, and you have a winning ingredient. And, of course, they can be very delicious.
Creamy White Bean Soup with Chorizo Oil and Garlicky Crumbs is made with Spanish-style chorizo. (Photo by Carl Tremblay)
Creamy White Bean Soup with Chorizo Oil and Garlicky Crumbs
Spanish chorizo is a cured, dry sausage seasoned with paprika, served sliced like salami, while Mexican chorizo is a fresh, raw sausage seasoned with chili peppers and vinegar that must be cooked and crumbled like ground meat, often used in eggs or tacos. It is the Spanish style chorizo that is used as an irresistible garnish atop this creamy soup.
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, plus extra for seasoning
DIRECTIONS
1. For the chorizo oil and garlicky breadcrumbs: Cook 1 tablespoon oil and panko in 8-inch skillet over medium heat until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and cook until fragrant for about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl and stir in salt. Heat remaining 1/4 cup oil and chorizo in now-empty skillet over medium heat until chorizo is crispy, about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chorizo to paper towel-lined plate and cover skillet to keep oil warm.
2. For the soup: Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until softened but not browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add thyme sprigs, garlic, and cayenne and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add beans and their liquid and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are warmed through and just starting to break down, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and discard thyme sprigs.
3. Process bean mixture and Parmesan in blender on low speed until thick, smooth puree forms, about 2 minutes. With blender running, add 1 cup of broth and butter. Increase speed to high and continue to process until butter is incorporated and mixture is pourable, about 1 minute.
4. Return soup to clean large saucepan and whisk in remaining 1 cup broth. Cover and bring to simmer over medium heat, adjusting consistency with up to 1 cup hot water as needed. Off heat, stir in lemon juice. Season with salt and extra lemon juice to taste. Drizzle each portion of soup with chorizo oil and sprinkle with chorizo and breadcrumbs. Serve.
Source: “Mostly Meatless” from America’s Test Kitchen
Composed Mexican-Inspired Bean Salad can be made with either great northern, cannellini or chili beans. (Photo by Sam A. Harris)
Composed Mexican-Inspired Bean Salad
You can showcase different varieties of canned beans in this quick-to-prepare composed Mexican-inspired salad. Great northern beans are a delicious component, but cannellini or chili beans are a welcome substitute. If you wish to shave off some prep time, use sturdy storebought tortilla chips rather than making chips from scratch (skip step number one and two).
Yield: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
2 large soft corn tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as canola oil or vegetable oil and pinch of coarse salt
3 tomatoes, diced
1 small white onion, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 1/2 cans (15-ounces each) great northern beans, drained, rinsed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 1/2 ounces feta cheese, cut into small dice
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves
Optional: 1/2 to 1 jalapeño chili, seeds and membranes removed, finely diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Arrange strips of tortillas on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon neutral oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp. Cool.
3. Arrange components in a large, rimmed bowl or platter, giving each component its own space. Arrange tomatoes, onion, avocado, and beans. Sprinkle on oregano and feta. Drizzle with olive oil and lime juice. Garnish with cilantro and jalapeno (if using). Season with salt and pepper. Add tortilla chips.
Source: Adapted from “Bold Beanco: Full of Beans” by Amelia Christie-Miller
Cannellini beans provide a starchy-sweet edge to this kale dish, which can made with either sweet or spicy sausage. (Photo by Cathy Thomas)
Kale and Cannellini Beans with Crumbled Sausage
Most supermarkets sell bags of coarsely chopped curly-leaf kale. I couldn’t have imagined such a product when I started writing fruit-and-vegetable cookbooks almost 20 years ago. Back then kale was only available in bundles, if at all. For the most part, the chopped product is free of thick stems, but occasionally a sturdy bit or two sneaks in. That little bit of stem isn’t worrisome. This recipe combines the deep green veg with cannellini beans and crumbled Italian sausage for a quickie one-dish meal. The cannellini beans, large white kidney beans, add a lovely starchy-sweet edge. The sausage? Use the sweet variety for the mildest taste or add spicy attitude with hot sausage. I usually use a turkey sausage, some mild, some spicy.
Yield: 4 main-course servings
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces Italian sausage, bulk or casings removed; see cook’s notes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups (large stems removed) coarsely chopped, washed curly kale
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, undrained
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Cook’s notes: For a vegetarian version, omit sausage and add a good pinch of dried red pepper flakes along with the beans; garnish with chopped fresh basil. OR, substitute vegetarian Mexican-style chorizo for the sausage using 5 ounces and prepare as directed.
DIRECTIONS
1. Put sausage in medium-sized skillet on medium-high heat. Break it up with a spatula, heating until sausage is thoroughly cooked and no pink color remains, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
2. Heat oil in large, deep skillet on medium-high heat. Add kale, garlic and 1/2 cup water; season with salt and pepper to taste. When liquid comes to a boil, cover and cook until kale is tender, about 10 minutes, tossing mixture two- or three-times during cooking.
3. Stir in beans, vinegar, and sausage; cook until beans are hot, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve in shallow bowls.
Source: “50 Best Plants on the Planet” by Cathy Thomas ($29.95, Chronicle)
White Bean Dip with Rosemary, Roasted Garlic and Hot Sauce can be surved as a dip for sliced baguette or sturdy crackers or as a sandwich spread topped with lettuce and tomato. (Photo by Cathy Thomas)
White Bean Dip with Rosemary, Roasted Garlic and Hot Sauce
This tasty concoction can be used as a dip or a sandwich spread topped with sliced tomato and lettuce. It’s handy to have on hand in the refrigerator as a quick snack served with sliced baguette or sturdy crackers.
Yield: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided use
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
1 head of roasted and cooled garlic, see cook’s notes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Frank’s RedHot Original sauce, plus more to taste
About 2 to 3 tablespoons hot water
For serving: raw vegetables, crackers, pita chips, tortilla chips, baguette slices
Cook’s notes: To roast garlic, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut off top (pointed end) of the head of garlic to expose the cloves. Place it on a sheet of aluminum foil and drizzle on 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil. Enclose in foil and place on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes. Cool enough to safely hold.
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet on medium-high heat. Add rosemary and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until slightly golden and toasty. Remove it from heat and transfer it (including oil) to a small bowl. About 1 teaspoon of this rosemary will be reserved for a garnish.
2. In a food processor, add cannellini beans and squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the husks atop the beans. Discard husks. Add all but 1 teaspoon of the toasted rosemary and the oil it cooked in. Add salt and pepper to taste, juice and Frank’s RedHot sauce. Process until smooth, adding enough warm water to have a smooth consistency. Taste and add more Frank’s RedHot sauce if desired.
3. Spoon mixture into a bowl. Top with a drizzle of olive oil. And scatter reserved rosemary on top. Serve with vegetables, crackers, or baguette slices, or pita chips, or tortilla chips.
Source: Adapted from “Easy Everyday” by Jessica Merchant
CAMERON, N.C. (AP) — The 21-year-old North Carolina man who drove through a gate at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun before he was shot and killed worked as a golf course groundskeeper and liked to sketch.
Austin Tucker Martin rarely, if ever, talked about politics, seemed afraid of guns, and came from a family of Trump supporters, according to Braeden Fields, a cousin who said the two grew up together.
“I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said. “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun.”
Martin drove into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday and raised a shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who then opened fire “to neutralize the threat,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
Trump, who often spends weekends at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort, was at the White House at the time.
This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, shows a weapon and gas can found after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed by authorities after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
A fisherman casts his neat near Mar-a-Lago Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service announced Sunday that an armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
A Palm Beach County sheriff deputy talks to a bicyclist on the bridge leading to Mar-a-Lago Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service announced Sunday that an armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
A map showing the layout of Mar-a-Lago. (AP Digital Embed)
A vehicle blocks access to a property in Cameron, N.C., Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
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This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, shows a weapon and gas can found after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed by authorities after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
Investigators have not identified a motive. Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one just a few miles (kilometers) from Mar-a-Lago when a man was spotted aiming a rifle through shrubbery while Trump was golfing.
Following Sunday’s incident, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believe Martin bought his shotgun while driving to Florida. Authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.
Martin was from central North Carolina, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they’d go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told The Associated Press on Sunday.
He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron. No one answered the door Monday, and the large police presence from the day before was gone.
Martin’s sister was killed in a car accident a few years ago and he has an older brother who’s in the military, Fields said.
For the past three years, Martin worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.
“It’s tragic. I feel for his family,” said Kelly Miller, president of the course in nearby Southern Pines. “It’s just unfortunate what transpired. It was totally unexpected.”
Martin last year started a business to sell pen drawings he made, according to state records. A website matching the company name features illustrations of golf courses, buildings and ancient Roman architecture.
Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said
“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”
Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
