DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues.
U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology. Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive crown prince has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.
“Nuclear cooperation can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency, but the devil is in the details,” wrote Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association.
The documents raise “concerns that the Trump administration has not carefully considered the proliferation risks posed by its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia or the precedent this agreement may set.”
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to questions Friday from The Associated Press
The congressional document, also seen by the AP, shows the Trump administration aims to reach 20 nuclear business deals with nations around the world, including Saudi Arabia. The deal with Saudi Arabia could be worth billions of dollars, it adds.
The document contends that reaching a deal with the kingdom “will advance the national security interests of the United States, breaking with the failed policies of inaction and indecision that our competitors have capitalized on to disadvantage American industry and diminish the United States standing globally in this critical sector.” China, France, Russia and South Korea are among the leading nations that sell nuclear power plant technology abroad.
The draft deal would see America and Saudi Arabia enter safeguard deals with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. That would include oversight of the “most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation,” it added. It listed enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing as potential areas.
The IAEA, based in Vienna, did not immediately respond to questions. Saudi Arabia is a member state to the IAEA, which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs.
“This suggests that once the bilateral safeguards agreement is in place, it will open the door for Saudi Arabia to acquire uranium enrichment technology or capabilities — possibly even from the United States,” Davenport wrote. “Even with restrictions and limits, it seems likely that Saudi Arabia will have a path to some type of uranium enrichment or access to knowledge about enrichment.”
Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.
The United Arab Emirates, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the UAE did so without seeking enrichment, something nonproliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.
The push for a Saudi-U.S. deal comes as Trump threatens military action against Iran if it doesn’t reach a deal over its nuclear program. The Trump military push follows nationwide protests in Iran that saw its theocratic government launch a bloody crackdown on dissent that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands more reportedly detained.
In Iran’s case, it long has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful. However, the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003. Tehran also had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — making it the only country in the world to do so without a weapons program.
Iranian diplomats long have pointed to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran won’t build an atomic bomb. However, Iranian officials increasingly have made the threat they could seek the bomb as tensions have risen with the U.S.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, has said if Iran obtains the bomb, “we will have to get one.”
The recovery of skiers killed in the deadliest U.S. avalanche in almost 45 years is dragging out because of what experts say is a prime rule for rescuers: Don’t make yourself a victim.
A storm that continued lashing California’s remote Sierra Nevada wilderness Thursday meant more avalanches were possible in the backcountry area where authorities said eight people died and one was still missing two days after their group was caught in the deadly slide. Six people survived.
Rescuers faced the same potential perils that killed the backcountry skiers and professional guides, as they pursued a sport with inherent risks that were compounded by several feet of new snow. Recovery efforts were set to resume Friday.
Backcountry winter travelers from skiers and snowboarders to snowmobilers and mountaineers lean on avalanche forecasts to help them gauge the danger. Yet conditions quickly shift because of turbulent mountain weather.
To supplement forecasts or if none is available, experienced skiers and guides will dig a pit in the snow to test how stable it is. They can also search out less-hazardous terrain, such as slopes that are not as steep or that are sheltered from known avalanche routes.
As the snow from the storm system hitting the Sierras this week piled up, the group of 15 skiers caught in Tuesday’s avalanche were on the last day of a multiday trip and heading for the trailhead.
“It was, quite likely, very necessary for them to leave the backcountry so their hazard wasn’t increased further,” said Anthony Pavlantos of Utah-based Prival USA, who makes avalanche safety equipment and runs mountain safety programs.
“What’s really hard to say is like ‘why were they moving?’ You can’t ever start placing blame on events like this because we can all be there.”
It’s not uncommon for people to venture into the backcountry to ski or snowboard during times of heightened danger: A dangerous storm also means lots of fresh snow that many skiers crave.
And because fatal accidents are rare, the risk takers most often survive, said Dale Atkins, who has been involved in mountain rescues and avalanche forecasting and research in Colorado for five decades.
“It’s not about not going; it’s about where and when you go,” Atkins said.
But Atkins added that coming out of the backcountry unscathed can create a false sense of security in a pursuit where luck – or not enough of it – also plays a role.
“It’s really easy to be fooled by the snow and avalanches,” he said. “We keep going out even in the worst of storms because that’s what we did last time, and then our luck runs out.”
Typically the best hope for someone to survive burial in an avalanche is to dig themselves out or be rescued by a companion. That is because slides often occur in remote areas.
It took rescuers six hours to reach the victims of Tuesday’s avalanche after the first report came in. By comparison, the chances of survival for someone buried for an hour is only about one in 10, Atkins said.
The surviving skiers in California found three of the victims while they awaited rescue. Authorities haven’t given a detailed account about how they located the other victims.
A debris field from a major avalanche like the fatal one in California will stretch over a huge area, making it difficult to figure out where someone ends up if they are caught and dragged beneath the surface.
The first thing to look for is clues such as a glove or ski pole that could reveal a victim’s location, said Anthony Stevens, chief adviser for the search and rescue team in Teton County, Wyoming, home to Grand Teton National Park.
Skiers in guided groups typically carry transceivers, known as avalanche beacons, that send out signals showing where they are. The devices can also receive other signals, displaying the direction and approximate distance to a victim.
If that doesn’t work, rescuers can line up and use long, slender poles to probe into the snow in hopes of finding someone, said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Time is of the essence throughout a rescue, and once someone is found they have to be dug out. The average depth of burial is roughly a meter, or just over 3 feet, Atkins said. And because snow and ice in an avalanche get heavily compacted, digging out someone from that depth requires moving at least a ton of material, he said.
Rarely will people survive being buried for long. Atkins said he knew of two people who survived being buried 22 and 24 hours respectively following an avalanche in the 1990s in Washington state. A third member of their party did not survive.
“It’s very unusual for a rescue team to find a buried person alive. But it happens, and that gives us hope,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
In a stretch of Louisiana with about 170 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, premature death is a fact of life for people living nearby. The air is so polluted and the cancer rates so high it is known as Cancer Alley.
“Most adults in the area are attending two to three funerals per month,” said Gary C. Watson Jr., who was born and raised in St. John the Baptist Parish, a majority Black community in Cancer Alley about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. His father survived cancer, but in recent years, at least five relatives have died from it.
Cancer Alley is one of many patches of America — mostly minority and poor — that suffer higher levels of air pollution from fossil fuel facilities that emit tiny particles connected to higher death rates. When the federal government in 2009 targeted carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as a public health danger because of climate change, it led to tighter regulation of pollution and cleaner air in some communities. But this month, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency overturned that “endangerment finding.”
Public health experts say the change will likely mean more illness and death for Americans, with communities like Watson’s hit hardest. On Wednesday, a coalition of health and environmental groups sued the EPA over the revocation, calling it unlawful and harmful.
“Not having these protections, it’s only going to make things worse,” said Watson, with the environmental justice group Rise St. James Louisiana. He also worries that revoking the endangerment finding will increase emissions that will worsen the state’s hurricanes.
The Trump administration said the finding — a cornerstone for many regulations aimed at fighting climate change — hurts industry and the economy. President Donald Trump has called the idea “a scam” despite repeated studies showing the opposite.
Growing evidence shows that poor and Black, Latino and other racial and ethnic groups are typically more vulnerable than white people to pollution and climate-driven floods, hurricanes, extreme heat and more because they tend to have less resources to protect against and recover from them. The EPA, in a 2021 report no longer on its website, concluded the same.
The finding’s reversal will affect everyone, but “overburdened communities, which are typically communities of color, Indigenous communities and low-income communities, they will, again, suffer most from these actions,” said Matthew Tejada, senior vice president for environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former deputy with the EPA’s office for environmental justice.
Hilda Berganza, climate program manager with the Hispanic Access Foundation, said: “Communities that are the front lines are going to feel it the most. And we can see that the Latino population is one of those communities that is going feel it even more than others because of where we live, where we work.”
A study published in November found more than 46 million people in the U.S. live within a mile of at least one type of energy supply infrastructure, such as an oil well, a power plant or an oil refinery. But the study found that “persistently marginalized” racial and ethnic groups were more likely to live near multiple such sites. Latinos had the highest exposure.
The EPA, in that 2021 report, estimated that with a 2-degree Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) rise in global warming, Black people were 40% more likely to live in places with the highest projected rise in deaths because of extreme heat. Latinos, who are overrepresented in outdoor industries such as agriculture and construction, were 43% more likely to live where labor hour losses were expected to be the highest because of heat.
Julia Silver, a senior research analyst at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Latino Policy and Politics Institute, found in her own research that California Latino communities had 23 more days of extreme heat annually than non-Latino white neighborhoods. Her team also found those areas have poor air quality at about double the rate, with twice as many asthma-related emergency room visits. Other research shows that Latino children are 40% more likely to die from asthma than white children in part because many lack consistent health care access.
“What we’re risking with a rollback like this at the federal level is really human health and well-being in these marginalized groups,” Silver said.
Armando Carpio, a longtime pastor in Los Angeles, has seen firsthand how vulnerable his mostly Latino parishioners are. Many are construction workers and gardeners who work outside, often in extreme heat. Others live and work near polluting freeways. He sees children with asthma and elders with dementia, both linked to exposure to air pollution.
“We’re regressing,” he said. “I don’t know how many years back, but all of this really affects us.”
It is difficult to quantify how much more communities of color could be impacted by the finding’s revocation, but experts who spoke with The Associated Press all said it would be significant.
“You will see statistically significant increases in excess morbidity and mortality when it comes to climate impacts and health impacts associated with co-pollutants” in communities of color, said Sacoby Wilson, a University of Maryland professor and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health INpowering Communities.
Beverly Wright, founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in New Orleans, said at least four Black communities in Cancer Alley no longer exist because of the expansion of industrial facilities. The repeal will bring more pollution, higher cancer rates, more extreme weather and the disappearance of more historic communities, she said.
“It has us going in the wrong direction, and our communities are now at greater risk,” she said.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
The co-executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate have agreed to settle a class action lawsuit filed against them by survivors of Epstein’s abuse for at least $25 million, without admitting any wrongdoing, according to court documents filed on Thursday.
Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn — who served as Epstein’s personal lawyer and accountant, respectively — were accused in the complaint of “facilitation, participation, and concealment of Epstein’s illegal conduct” for their own financial gain, according to federal court records in New York.
By agreement of the parties, the settlement will be paid from the remaining assets in Epstein’s estate, rather than directly by Indyke and Kahn, who are the named defendants in the lawsuit.
FILE – Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.
Jon Elswick/AP
The proposed settlement — which a federal judge will have to approve — does not include an admission of wrongdoing.
“Neither of the co-executors has made any admission or concession of misconduct,” said Dan Weiner, an attorney for the defendants, in a statement to ABC News. “That is not surprising — not a single woman has ever accused either man of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she reported to them any allegation of Mr. Epstein’s abuse.”
Indyke and Kahn were selected as co-executors of Epstein’s will, which he updated two days before his death in August 2019.
To be eligible for the settlement, victims would agree to release any future claims and cannot have received any prior settlement from the Epstein estate or the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund.
According to the proposed settlement terms, the estate will pay out $25 million if less than 40 class members qualify and $35 million if more than 40 meet the requirements.
The complaint, filed in 2024, alleged that Indyke and Kahn helped conceal Epstein’s sex trafficking operation for years by structuring his bank accounts so that Epstein and his associates could “access large amounts of cash in furtherance of sex trafficking.”
“Knowing that they would earn millions of dollars in exchange for facilitating Epstein’s sex abuse and trafficking, Indyke and Kahn chose money and power over following the law,” the complaint said.
The plaintiffs alleged that Indyke and Kahn “organized, controlled, and directed almost every aspect of the Epstein sex-trafficking enterprise,” according to the complaint.
They were also accused of participating with Epstein “in coercing and inducing” at least three of Epstein’s victims into “arranged and forced sham marriages in order to obtain immigration status for the foreign women so that they could continue to be available to Epstein for his abuse,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit contained no allegations that either man directly participated in any sexual exploitation.
Indyke and Kahn have denied any role in or knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
“Neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn socialized with Mr. Epstein, and both men reject as categorically false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of his actions while they provided professional services to him,” Weiner told ABC News in December.
Counsel for the lead plaintiff in the case said in the proposed settlement documents that they remained “confident in her claims” but acknowledged that “trying her case to a jury as a class action would present risk.”
“The settlement is demonstrably the product of well-informed negotiations and vigorous advocacy on behalf of victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” wrote Sigrid McCawley, an attorney for the lead plaintiff.
The estate’s assets remain tied up in probate court in the U.S. Virgin Islands, pending the resolution of all outstanding claims against the estate.
“Accordingly, upon the Court’s final approval of the settlement and as a means of achieving finality as to any claims against it, the Epstein Estate will fund the entire amount of the settlement to be received by the putative class,” Weiner said in his statement.
According to a court filing last October, approximately $127 million remained in the estate. Following his death, Epstein’s estate was valued as much as $650 million, though it has decreased as other lawsuits were resolved.
Documents disclosed last month by the Justice Department included a copy of Epstein’s “1953 Trust,” which detailed Epstein’s plans to distribute his considerable wealth among an array of friends, family, employees and associates upon his death. To his longtime lawyer Indyke and his accountant Kahn, Epstein planned to give $50 million and $25 million, respectively, the document shows.
Indyke is due to testify next week in a closed door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, which is conducting a broad inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations in Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking operation.
Kahn is slated to appear before the committee in March.
A lawsuit against Amazon alleging the retailer sold a chemical on its website that played a role in the suicides of several teenagers and adults can proceed to trial, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
In their complaint, four families whose loved ones died after consuming sodium nitrite allege that Amazon sold the compound despite being aware it could be used for suicide.
Sodium nitrite is an ingredient used in curing salt for meat preservation and metal refinishing and is typically sold at lower concentrations.
The plaintiffs allege that those who died of sodium nitrite poisoning used Amazon’s e-commerce platform to buy versions of the chemical with 98% purity or higher. Amazon also didn’t adequately display warning labels for the sodium nitrite products sold on its site, according to the suit.
“Big Tech companies must be held accountable when their platforms facilitate predictable and preventable harm,” Naomi Leeds, lead partner at C.A. Goldberg, the law firm representing the families, said in a statement.
C.A. Goldberg said it represents a total of 28 families with relatives who died after consuming sodium nitrite they bought on Amazon’s website.
Amazon’s response
In a statement to CBS News, an Amazon spokesperson said the company is committed to a “safe shopping experience” and that it requires sellers on its platform to abide by applicable laws.
“High-concentration sodium nitrite is not intended for direct consumption, and unfortunately, like many products, it can be misused,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon said it began prohibiting sales of sodium nitrite in concentrations greater than 10% in November of last year.
The court’s ruling on Thursday reverses an earlier decision by an appeals court that found Amazon could not be held liable for the deaths because they had died by suicide.
Amazon’s “argument that plaintiffs may have misused the product does not eliminate Amazon’s duty,” the Washington Supreme Court justices wrote in Thursday’s ruling.
While Amazon sells multiple brands of sodium nitrite on its website, the case centers on two products from chemical companies Loudwolf and HiMedia, according to the court ruling.
Carrie Goldberg, the lead attorney in the case, alleged in a previous interview with CBS News that Amazon knew “as early as 2018” that minors were buying sodium nitrite on its website. She said usage of the chemical was discussed on an internet forum where people can discuss suicide methods.
Forum users advised people to go to the “jungle” — a purported code name for Amazon — to purchase sodium nitrite, Goldberg said.
Companies like eBay, Walmart, and Etsy also formerly sold sodium nitrite on their sites, but removed it years ago when they realized people were using it for suicide, according to Goldberg.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here. For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
A California judge admonished members of Mark Zuckerberg’s team for wearing Ray Ban-Meta AI glasses, which are equipped with a camera, as they entered a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday for a landmark trial over the impact of social media on children.
“The judge upbraided the Meta team and said if you guys have recorded anything, you have to dispose of it or I will hold you in contempt,” Jacob Ward, a technology journalist and the host of the Rip Current Podcast, told CBS News, calling the incident “an extraordinary misstep” by Meta.
It’s unclear if Zuckerberg’s team had the glasses on inside the courtroom or how long they were wearing them. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The use of recording devices and cameras is generally banned in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Judicial officers have the discretion to place limitations on video recording and photography in their courtroom,” a Superior Court of Los Angeles County spokesperson told CBS News, citing local and state rules.
Judge Carolyn Kuhl, who is presiding over the trial, ordered anyone in the courtroom wearing AI glasses to immediately remove them, noting that any use of facial recognition technology to identify the jurors was banned.
“This is very serious,” she said.
Meta’s glasses, retail for between $299 and $799, are equipped with a camera that can take photos and record video.
Zuckerberg was in court to testify as part of a trial over whether Meta and Alphabet-owned YouTube deliberately designed their social media platforms to encourage compulsive usage by young people.
The plaintiff behind the suit, identified only by her initials “KGM,” alleges that using social media from a young age caused her to become addicted and harmed her mental health.
NASA and contractor engineers pumped more than 750,000 gallons of supercold propellants into the agency’s huge Space Launch System rocket Thursday without any signs of hydrogen leaks in a major step toward launching four astronauts on a flight around the moon as early as March 6.
The practice countdown began Tuesday night, kicking off a carefully choreographed series of steps to ready the world’s most powerful operational rocket for what amounted to a simulated launch Thursday at 8:30 p.m. EST. Controllers then carried out additional tests to make sure the team can recycle, hold and restart an actual launch countdown as needed to handle unexpected problems.
Hydrogen gas vented from the Space Launch System rocket’s liquid hydrogen fuel tanks flares in the night (far right) as the huge rocket stands loaded with more than 750,000 gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants. Unlike a dress rehearsal countdown and fueling test earlier this month, engineers detected no out-of-limits hydrogen leaks the second time around. Feb. 19, 2026.
NASA
The initial stages of the rehearsal countdown went well and at 9:35 a.m. Thursday, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave her “go” to begin the multi-hour process of pumping 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen fuel into the SLS rocket’s first stage. The second stage was loaded with another 22,500 gallons of oxygen and hydrogen propellants.
Unlike the rocket’s first fueling test earlier this month, when hydrogen leaks forced the team to call off the countdown, sensors detected no significant leaks the second time around and the rocket’s tanks were topped off without incident.
For the remainder of the dress rehearsal, propellants were added as needed to make up for the relatively small amounts of hydrogen and oxygen that normally warm and “boil off” in their tanks. Another milestone presumably was reached in the final 10 minutes of the countdown when the propellant tanks were to be pressurized as they would be for an actual launch. Again, no problems were noted.
The grey structure at left is a tail service mast, one of two that feed propellant lines, nitrogen gas, electrical cables and data lines into the base of the Space Launch System rocket (seen here during preparations for the Artemis I launch in 2022).
NASA
While detailed analysis remains to be completed, the preliminary results were a positive sign NASA Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen may, in fact, be cleared for launch in just two weeks. Hoping for the best, the crew planned to enter pre-flight medical quarantine Friday.
It will be the first piloted flight to the moon since the final Apollo landing in 1972, carrying the crew farther from Earth than any astronauts in history. Wiseman and his crewmates will also be the first to ride into space atop the 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket, making only its second flight, and the first to fly aboard an Orion deep space crew capsule.
More important, the flight will serve as a major step toward the follow-on Artemis III mission to land astronauts near the moon’s south pole in 2028.
NASA originally planned to launch the Artemis II mission early this month, but NASA engineers and contractors ran into problems during an initial dress rehearsal countdown when hydrogen leaks were detected near the base of the rocket.
Sensors in a cavity between umbilical plates where the fuel lines are attached to the SLS first stage began detecting hydrogen gas buildups when flow rates were increased after an initial “slow fill” period.
A closeup look at the business end of the Space Launch System rocket with two of its four upgraded space shuttle-era main engines at center, flanked by the lower segments of two extended solid-fuel strap-on boosters. At liftoff, the hydrogen-fueled engines and solid rocket boosters will generate a combined 8.8 million pounds of thrust, making the SLS the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
NASA
After troubleshooting, engineers were able to press ahead with the test, keeping leak rates within acceptable limits by varying flow rates and temperatures. That allowed them to safely fill the first and second stage propellant tanks and then to replenish them as needed.
But late in the countdown, when engineers began pressurizing the first stage as they would for an actual launch, the leak rate in the fueling umbilical suddenly shot up, climbing toward concentrations of 16% in the inert nitrogen gas flowing through the cavity. Beyond that, the risk of fire becomes a real threat.
The dress rehearsal was called off before the team could work through the planned countdown recycle options.
After studying test data, engineers decided to replace two seals that were thought to be responsible for the leak. A second “mini” tanking test was carried out last Thursday when a small amount of liquid hydrogen was pumped into the core stage to confirm a leak-free environment.
But a filter in the ground system apparently froze, reducing the flow rates. Even so, NASA said in a blog post, “the test provided enough data to allow engineers to plan toward a second wet dress rehearsal this week.” No other details were provided, but the seals apparently worked as required during the fueling exercise Thursday.
President Trump on Thursday directed his administration to release files on UFOs and any “alien and extraterrestrial life,” an issue that has drawn decades of public fascination — and spawned more than a few wild theories.
In a Truth Social post, the president told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other agency heads “to begin the process of identifying and releasing” any relevant files.
Mr. Trump also called for the release of “any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”
It’s not clear what files on UFOs might be released — or what information they might contain. The Pentagon has tracked reports of what it calls unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, for decades. But the military said in a 2024 report there’s no evidence that any government investigation into UAPs has confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Mr. Trump’s announcement came just days after one of his predecessors, former President Barack Obama, made waves by telling a podcaster that aliens are real. He later clarified that he never saw evidence of contact between humans and extraterrestrial life during his time in the White House, and he primarily believes that extraterrestrial life is real because “statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”
Asked Thursday about Obama’s comments, Mr. Trump told reporters he isn’t sure whether or not aliens exist, but added that the former president “made a big mistake” and “gave classified information.”
“I may get him out of trouble by declassifying,” Mr. Trump said.
Public interest in UAPs has grown in recent years. Pilots and military service members have reported spotting hundreds of unexplained objects in the sky, leading some lawmakers to press the Pentagon to investigate the phenomena and determine whether they pose a threat to safety or national security.
Last year, one House Republican released a whistleblower video of a U.S. missile striking an unidentified glowing orb in the sky and bouncing off it. And in another case, a former Navy pilot told “60 Minutes” about frequent sightings of strange, fast-moving objects in restricted airspace.
A large number of UAP reports can be explained by birds, balloons, drones, satellites and other everyday phenomena, according to the military’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. But many cases remain unresolved.
“It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology,” the office said in a 2024 report. The office also noted that it has “no indication or confirmation that these activities are attributable to foreign adversaries.”
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Servite all-league and All-County offensive lineman Elisha Mueller has enrolled at St. John Bosco, Braves athletic director Vince Brown confirmed Thursday.
Mueller, a 6-foot-4, 295-pound sophomore, has been a two-year starter for the Friars.
Last season, he delivered several of his best blocks while playing right tackle. He earned first-team All-Trinity League and second-team All-Orange County honors after helping the Friars finish 6-5.
Mueller is ranked as the No. 2 recruit in California’s Class of 2028 by Rivals/On3.
He has been offered by USC, Oregon, Alabama, Mississippi, LSU and Ohio State among others.
Mueller is the second first-team All-Trinity League player to depart Servite this offseason.
“You don’t just attend Gaga,” Tatiana Leiva, a lifelong Lady Gaga fan, said beneath the glow of the Kia Forum lights on the first of three nights of the Mayhem Tour. “You become part of it.”
Long before Lady Gaga took the stage for her nearly two-and-a-half-hour spectacle, the transformation was already happening outside the Inglewood venue.
Leiva arrived in a powder-blue strapless dress with cascading ruffles and fire-red heels, her re-creation of the custom sky-blue gown Gaga wore during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show alongside Bad Bunny. For Leiva, who is Puerto Rican and now lives in Houston after growing up in Downey, the look wasn’t just about fashion.
“There was no other option,” she said, laughing as fans stopped her with compliments and emotional reactions. “When I watched the Super Bowl, I cried. I screamed. I was dancing in my pajamas.”
Her mother filmed that reaction — jumping up and down in front of the television — a moment she said reflected what many Latinos felt seeing that cultural tribute unfold on one of the world’s largest stages.
Houston-based fan Tatiana Leiva poses in her recreation of Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime gown outside the Kia Forum on opening night of the Mayhem Tour.
(Photo by Holly Alvarado)
Sisters Karen and Tarot Sparza pose outside the Kia Forum in coordinated black looks inspired by Lady Gaga’s darker Mayhem aesthetic.
(Photo by Holly Alvarad)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
Lady Gaga brings the Mayhem Tour to the Kia Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
(Photo by Nicko Guihal)
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Houston-based fan Tatiana Leiva poses in her recreation of Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime gown outside the Kia Forum on opening night of the Mayhem Tour.
(Photo by Holly Alvarado)
Leiva and her best friend, both flight attendants for United Airlines, flew in from Houston just for the show and were scheduled to return the next morning, saying the quick trip was the perfect way to spend the evening. She pieced the outfit together online, determined to honor a performance that made her feel seen.
“It’s important to see ourselves represented like that,” she said. “Gaga supports our community in so many ways.”
If Leiva’s sky-blue homage shimmered in pride, the broader mood outside the arena leaned into shadow.
Black dominated the plaza, with leather, mesh, gloves, chains and platform boots reflecting the gothic, red-and-black palette of the “Mayhem” era. Nearly every fan seemed dressed in the tour’s darkness.
Sisters Karen and Tarot Sparza stood in coordinated black looks beneath the red marquee. “She raised us,” one said. “We’ve been ‘Little Monsters’ since we were in elementary school.” For them, Gaga was part of their coming of age.
“She made us feel safe,” Tarot Sparza said, as her sister agreed. “Being here feels like family.” They glanced around at the sea of fans gathering at the doors.
“I don’t think anyone here just casually likes Gaga,” one added. “We’ve all been here for years. We’re die-hard.”
Inside, the devotion was matched by spectacle.
Structured in theatrical acts — “Of Velvet and Vice,” “And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream,” “The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name” and more — the show unfolded like a Broadway production staged at arena scale. Operatic intros bled into hits like “Poker Face,” “Born This Way” and “Bad Romance.” Extended orchestral arrangements, dramatic transitions and choreography turned the nearly three-hour performance into something closer to gothic pop theater than a standard concert.
And to fans’ surpise, it was also being filmed, adding another layer of excitement to the night. After “Zombieboy,” Gaga paused midshow. “Hi, can you hear me? It’s Gaga,” she called out from the center of the stage. “I missed my cue, so we’re going to take it back 30 seconds if that’s OK.”
The crowd erupted in cheers, chanting her name as she reset. Earlier, she’d joked about possibly needing to redo a song to get it right. When she mentioned needing pins for her hat, she walked off stage laughing as fans screamed encouragement.
The imperfection only made the moment feel more communal and less distant, a more shared experience. Throughout the night, she returned repeatedly to that theme.
“Where’s the queer community? This is for you,” she said at one point, dedicating ‘Born This Way.’ “You are so beautiful, to us, to the world. You don’t need to hear me say how special you are. You already know.”
Before singing “The Edge of Glory,” she told fans, “You always taught me to be exactly who I am.” Later, she reflected on the longevity of her own career and the fans who have followed.
“Some of you have been coming to see me for almost 20 years, is that true?” she asked. “You’ve shown up for me no matter what I was doing.” Then she added a quieter confession. “I used to be a girl in school where no one would come to my party — and now you are all here at this party. So thank you.”
Midway through the set, after an alternate version of “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born,” Gaga sat alone at her piano in the center of the stage. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked out at the arena. “It’s so beautiful to look at all of you,” she said. “You invited us into your community everywhere we go, and it’s our community, and we feel really grateful to have one.”
For fans like Leiva and the Sparza sisters, that gratitude was reciprocal. As the night drew to a close and Gaga stepped into the crowd to sign vinyl records, posters and magazines, the line between performer and audience blurred once again.
The “Mayhem” tour may be built on darkness, drama and spectacle but inside the Forum, the prevailing theme wasn’t chaos.
It was community, and at the core of what Gaga represents, it always has been.
And for many in attendance, that community has been growing for nearly two decades.
As the search for Nancy Guthrie stretches into its third week, there is growing concern that the trail to find the missing 84-year-old is rapidly growing cold.
Investigators have detained two people since Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson home in the early hours of Feb. 1. But both were released after questioning and no suspects have been publicly identified.
Authorities insist the case is still very much active, with the FBI receiving more than 19,000 tips. But the case is branching off into some new directions.
Look at Mexico
Law enforcement sources told The Times that investigators have been in touch with Mexican authorities in the case given Tucson’s close proximity to the border, but there is no evidence that the abductors crossed with Guthrie.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case candidly.
The Guthrie home in Tucson is only about an hour’s drive from the border. Source stressed the request for help from Mexico was to exhaust all options but there is not any clear evidence suggesting either Guthrie or the kidnappers are there.
State of the investigation
DNA on a glove discovered 2 miles away from Guthrie’s home that matched those worn by a masked man seen on Nest camera footage didn’t return any matches in the national DNA database used by law enforcement, CODIS. Biological evidence that was found at Guthrie’s home is still being tested, but did not produce a match in CODIS, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News this week.
An anonymous donor this week gifted $100,000 to 88-CRIME for information that would lead investigators to arrest the individual involved in Guthrie’s disappearance. This is in addition to the $100,000 reward for information being offered by the FBI.
Nanos has tried to dispel concerns that investigators are hitting nothing but dead ends, telling NBC News that “as long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it’s not cold.”
“We have thousands of leads we’re looking at,” he said. “We’re going to find Nancy, and we’re going to find who did this.”
So far, experts say investigators’ best bet to solving the case quickly would be if someone recognizes the suspect in Nest video footage of a masked man seen on Guthrie’s porch the morning she was abducted.
At 1:47 a.m. Feb. 1, the individual appears at the door of Guthrie’s home. The man is wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack. A gun is holstered by the man’s waist, positioned at the front of his body and easily visible.
At one point, the man, who authorities describe as approximately between 5’9” and 5’10” with an average build, notices the camera on the front porch and tries to cover the lens with his hand. The man scouts around the patio and yard area apparently for something to obstruct the camera before settling on some greenery found in the yard.
In the video, the man is wearing a black, 25-liter ‘Ozark Trail Hiker Pack’ backpack that can be purchased at Walmart, according to the FBI. Investigators have been working with Walmart leadership to see if they can identify who purchased the backpack.
Authorities are also canvassing gun shops showing the video released by the FBI to see if anyone recognizes him, according to the sheriff’s department.
Investigators employ genetic genealogy
DNA found inside the Guthrie home could also prove fruitful in the case, experts say.
While law enforcement did not get any hits in the federal database, they are also employing genetic genealogy in an effort to identify a suspect in the case.
“If they actually have the suspect’s DNA—Nancy’s kidnapper’s DNA—he will be identified through genetic genealogy,” said CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist and co-founder of DNA Justice. “It’s just a matter of time.”
Authorities can compare DNA collected from Guthrie’s home to publicly accessible databases containing the genetic profiles of millions of people who have given them over for family history research and other reasons. From there, investigators can sometimes find distant relatives to help piece together a family tree that can point to a suspect.
The technology has helped solve some of the nation’s most high-profile cases in recent years. Investigators used genetic genealogy to identify Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. as the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s. It was also used to secure the conviction of Bryan Kohberger, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering four college students in Idaho in 2022.
There’s limitation to the technology, but law enforcement sources told The Times it’s likely the best way forward.
Law enforcement does not have easy access to the roughly 50 million genetic profiles contained in Ancestry.com, 23andMe and MyHeritage databases. The companies have barred authorities from accessing such information and said they would release it only if compelled by a court order or warrant.
Databases GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA and DNA Justice are open to law enforcement use, but contain less than 2 million genetic profiles, Moore said.
With fewer genetic profiles to work with there is more legwork involved, but Moore said it will likely be key to identifying a suspect.
“It could happen in minutes, hours, days, weeks, but I don’t think it’ll stretch much longer than that because of all the resources available for this case,” she said.
Searching for her pacemaker
Law enforcement has also deployed “signal sniffer” technology in the search for Guthrie.
Parsons Corp confirmed this week that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department requested its help early this month deploying BlueFly units to search for Guthrie. BlueFly is a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensor that can be used on air and ground vehicles for search and rescue operations in challenging environments, providing authorities with a heat map to identify signals within a specific area, according to the company.
BlueFly can detect medical devices like Guthrie’s pacemaker.
Last spring, victims of the Los Angeles wildfires complained loudly and en masse over how State Farm General was handling their insurance claims, especially for smoke damage.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara urged them to lodge formal complaints with the department.
“That’s how we track and how we monitor, and we make sure that we follow through … make sure that those claims are being addressed,” he told several hundred fire victims in a Zoom forum in May.
Nearly a year later, however, many homeowners and their representatives say the promise was hollow. They voice mounting frustration over how the California Department of Insurance investigated their complaints about State Farm.
More than a dozen homeowners and their representatives told The Times that the department did little to resolve a wide range of complaints, or prevent new problems, in State Farm’s handling of their claims.
“Seventy percent of insured Eaton and Palisades fire survivors are facing delays and denials that are impeding their recovery,” said Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, citing a survey by the nonprofit Department of Angels. “That is evidence of the failure of this department to do its job.”
Policyholders shared complaints lodged against State Farm over denials to pay for the cleanup of fire toxins, rebuild estimates well below actual construction costs and delayed checks for living expenses. To the state they cited frequent turnover in adjusters and demands to sign legal papers agreeing to forego future reimbursement for personal items without itemized receipts.
Now, they said, State Farm is cutting off prepaid rentals and leases for fire victims who aren’t close to returning home.
Len Kendall, right, poses for a portrait .
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Most of the fire victims said they were left in the dark about their cases, and were told to stop trying to communicate with their complaint handlers. Some said their cases were closed before their insurance disputes were settled.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s an actual, legitimate organization that’s meant to protect consumers,” said Len Kendall, who lost his home to the Pacific Palisades fire.
Kendall initially complained to the state about State Farm in July, citing delays in handling his total loss claim, dealing with multiple adjusters and struggles to get reimbursed for living expenses. Later he said he was told to stop communicating with the state and to send his records “directly and solely” to State Farm.
“We’re told that they’re tracking information and speaking to the insurers, but we have no idea what is happening,” Kendall said. “ When it comes to the [insurance department], we’re all totally in the dark.”
A spokesperson for State Farm declined to address complaints from L.A. fire victims.
A representative for the state insurance department declined to comment on its handling of complaints against State Farm.
The agency did say it had “recovered” more than $210 million for fire victims “through its intervention and aggressive advocacy on these complaints.”
“We do our best to approach every wildfire survivor with empathy and understanding,” Michael Soller, spokesman for the insurance department, said late Wednesday. “Our goal is helping people recover fully, fairly, and quickly. We hold ourselves to the highest standards.”
He encouraged those with insurance disputes to contact the department. “We will do our best to expedite their claims,” he said.
The mistrust between fire victims and the department has been deepened by newly released records showing the department disciplined one of its senior complaint handlers after she criticized State Farm over its claims handling, according to personnel records reviewed by The Times.
In a July letter to a State Farm case manager, Coleen Vandepas — a 32-year-veteran of the department who had previously been commended for her work on behalf of policyholders — accused the insurer of “shoddy” and “shameful” handling of an L.A. fire claim, including claiming it did not have test results within the insurer’s possession. She demanded the company apologize to its policyholder. In another policyholder’s case, she said State Farm engaged in a “pattern and practice” of delay.
Records show that days later, a State Farm lawyer called a top-level executive at the insurance department to complain about Vandepas’ statements.
Vandepas’ State Farm caseload was subsequently reassigned and she was docked 10% of her pay, according to personnel records. Her supervisors said Vandepas had made “accusatory” and “improper” remarks about State Farm, and cited a LinkedIn post State Farm had called attention to, in which she characterized insurance company threats to leave California as “wailing” by companies that wanted to “make huge amounts off the backs of the citizens of California.”
A state personnel board law judge reviewing the discipline called Vandepas’ remarks “rude and disparaging” and the full board this month rejected her appeal. A new appeal has been filed with the California Public Employee Relations Board, noting Vandepas was also protected as a union steward and was in part punished for raising internal workload issues.
The workplace action has angered advocates for wildfire victims.
“This sends a message to every single person who works at [the California Department of Insurance]: ‘You may be next,” said Chen, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles.
Through its corporate media office in Illinois, State Farm declined to comment on the sanctions against Vandepas.
“We are not a party to the case in question,” the Illinois-based insurer said in a statement. “We have ongoing relationships with state regulators so we can best meet the needs of our customers.”
Investigations into State Farm
State Farm was in the midst of dropping some 72,000 policies in California, and seeking a $1.3-billion rate hike, when the Jan. 7, 2025, firestorm ravaged Los Angeles. The disaster killed 31, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and left many others unable to return to their homes. As of November, the insurance department reported more than 42,000 home and commercial insurance claims.
By far, the largest share of those claims are with State Farm General, the California subsidiary of State Farm Mutual. A survey of about 2,300 five victims by the Department of Angels noted State Farm policyholders reported higher rates of claim denials, low estimates and other complaints than customers of other insurers.
Los Angeles County in November opened its own investigation into State Farm’s claims handling, demanding the insurer turn over reams of information, including company policy guides, training materials for handling fire and smoke claims, among other documents.
In June, Lara launched what he called an expedited market conduct exam of State Farm. The findings have yet to be released.
Lara rejected pressure from wildfire victim advocates to delay an interim 17% emergency hike until State Farm’s claims practices could be examined. He said they would be taken up in the full rate review. There has been no public hearings on the full hike. The case could be settled by the end of the month, state lawyers told a judge this week.
The insurance giant has a history of pushing strongly against regulators.
The company has refused to provide financial records sought by California actuaries attempting to judge the merit of its pending rate hike, including plans to drop another 11,000 policies, according to public rate filing records obtained by The Times.
The insurance department tracks complaints by disaster, as well as by insurer, but has rejected public record requests for that data. Its consumer complaint group has just 34 employees and hasn’t changed staffing levels despite the surge in wildfire claims in 2025, according to California payroll records.
Internal agency emails show a State Farm executive in May 2025 told Lara the insurer had received less than 310 policyholder complaints among 10,359 Los Angeles fire claims at the time. (Most of the cases reviewed by The Times were filed later.)
“SFG is not an outlier with respect to the number of complaints received in relation to the number of claims from the January 2025 wildfires,” State Farm General CEO Dan Krause wrote to Lara.
Insurance companies have 21 days to respond when a complaint is filed, and then state compliance officers can review the record for adherence with insurance law. They cannot make a determination of fault, or the size of an award. In a process kept confidential, they can challenge insurers with questions, asking them to explain their decisions. If they see violations, they cannot take action against an insurer. And they cannot tell the policyholder.
The insurance department contends the complaint process has resulted in the reversal of claim denials, increased payouts and agreements in individual cases to test for the toxic residues of wildfire smoke.
But interviews and records reviewed by The Times revealed inconsistencies in how wildfire disaster complaints were handled.
Some compliance officers told policyholders to stop sharing correspondence with their insurance companies or adjusters, saying they would read the claim files for themselves. Policyholders frustrated by the silence sought to file new complaints or have their cases reassigned, only to be refused.
After five months of sending protests about a “non-responsive” compliance officer, one fire victim was told by a bureau supervisor that she had two other alternatives to resolve her insurance dispute: seek a lawyer or file a lawsuit.
Three officers attempted to close policyholder cases even though the insurance claim remained in dispute. In one instance, a compliance officer referenced the wrong insurance company and the wrong issue being contested, letters shared with The Times show.
Andrew Wessels said State Farm prematurely closed this case after he challenged the insurers initial refusal to address toxic residues in his house left standing among the rubble of the Eaton fire, or its failure to pay living expenses.
For months, Wessels repeatedly wrote to alert his compliance officer that State Farm was making false claims. The state reviewer wrote back once to acknowledge receipt of further complaints he would add to the case file. Then in October the case officer tried to close the still-disputed State Farm claim, calling it “in stable condition.”
“The Department would find its task of regulating the insurance industry much more difficult without the help of consumers like you,” the closure letter said.
Wessels protested and his case was reopened. He continues to wrestle with State Farm over safety tests, delayed living expenses and ever-changing adjusters. He emails updates to his state insurance compliance officer.
“I just periodically send an email into oblivion, basically,” he said.
For February, the month of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the Redlands Area Historical Society offers a program about Robert Watchorn, who donated Redlands’ 1932 Lincoln Memorial Shrine.
The community is invited to the program, to be held 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Contemporary Club, 173 S. Eureka St., Redlands.
The lecture will explore the story behind Lincoln and Watchorn, discussing why Watchorn believed that Lincoln’s legacy must be preserved and shared, according to a news release from the Redlands Area Historical Society.
The lecture will also consider the historical relationship between Lincoln and Watchorn and why their stories continue to resonate today, according to the news release.
In addition to its monthly meetings, the Historical Society offers guided downtown business history tours the third Saturday of September, October, January, February, March and April.
The one-hour walking tours begin at 10 a.m. at Ed Hales Park, at Fifth and State streets, and highlight the history, architecture and commerce of Redlands’ downtown core. Cost is $10 for Historical Society members, $15 for nonmembers, payable at the beginning of the tour.
The Redlands Area Historical Society also has an Old House Group, for members only, that promotes the preservation and restoration of older houses in Redlands. The group’s February meeting, at one of Redlands’ older houses, will focus on the love stories that fill the house, as well as architecture and preservation, according to the news release.
For information about the Redlands Area Historical Society, including how to become a member, go to rahs.org.
If you need more evidence of how tricky it is to get around Southern California, note that four of its cities ranked among the 20 worst places for mobility on the planet.
My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a curious scorecard of navigation challenges by cell-service provider Holafly, which tracked 150 cities globally, including 69 from the U.S. and 13 from California. The grades were calculated by assessing mobility variables related to traffic, air quality, crime, walkability, public transit, cellular service and online searches for directions. And note that on this scorecard, the higher the ranking, the more difficult a city is to navigate.
According to this math, Los Angeles ranks as the world’s third-trickiest city to get around. That was also the lowest grade among U.S. cities studied.
You can link L.A.’s dubious distinction to 88 extra hours lost to traffic, the 20th-highest burden globally. Plus, the typical 57-minute commute ranked second-longest among the 150 cities.
But it wasn’t just crowded L.A. freeways that generated such a lowly score. The city had the 42nd-worst air quality and ranked 49th in crime.
To the east of L.A., Riverside ranked No. 11 on this global scorecard, placing it also as the third-hardest-to-navigate city in the U.S.
Riverside had 34 hours of traffic-related delay, the 100th highest globally. Its 54-minute commute was No. 4 of 150. Riverside ranked 39th worst for air quality and No. 99 for crime.
Orange County pair
The 19th-hardest-to-navigate globally was Santa Ana, which also ranked No. 7 in the U.S. in terms of difficulty.
It had 81 hours lost to traffic, ranked No. 24 globally, and a 43-minute commute, ranked the 26th-longest. Air quality was the 64th-worst, and crime was the 47th-highest.
Anaheim was the No. 20 most challenging city for navigation in the world, and the eighth-worst in the U.S. Its residents lost 33 hours to traffic, No. 104 globally, a 42-minute commute, No. 35, and ranked No. 47 for air quality and No. 59 for crime.
Mobility nightmares
Now, mobility nightmares are an almost inescapable part of big city life. And this scorecard highlights the challenges.
But this New York City native will note that congestion can also be a yardstick of popularity. Folks tend to crowd into desirable places, as big cities usually offer plentiful economic and entertainment opportunities.
New York City’s ranking as the world’s 44th most difficult to navigate might seem relatively high. But don’t forget the city’s high walkability and numerous mass transit options – mobility attributes that much of Southern California lacks.
Four other American cities with extremely poor mobility were Houston, sixth-worst globally, Chicago (13th), Miami (16th), and Atlanta (17th).
Elsewhere in Southern California? Long Beach was the No. 27 trickiest globally, Irvine was No. 51 and San Diego, No. 74.
And other California cities? Oakland (25th worst mobility), San Jose (39th), Fresno (78th), Stockton (81st), Sacramento (88th), and Bakersfield (114th).
The world’s worst
The trickiest place to navigate on the planet, by this math, was Delhi, India. No. 2 was Lima, Peru.
Other foreign cities among the 20 worst for mobility: Colombia’s Bogota (4th), Brazil’s São Paulo (5th), Mexico City (7th), South Africa’s Cape Town (8th), Indonesia’s Jakarta (9th), India’s Mumbai (10th), Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro (12th), Argentina’s Buenos Aires (14th), India’s Hyderabad (15th) and South Korea’s Busan (18th).
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA took another crack at fueling its giant moon rocket Thursday after leaks halted the initial dress rehearsal and delayed the first lunar trip by astronauts in more than half a century.
For the second time this month, launch teams began pumping more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of supercold fuel into the rocket atop its launch pad.
It’s the most critical and challenging part of the two-day practice countdown. The outcome will determine whether a March launch is possible for the Artemis II moon mission with four astronauts.
During the rehearsal two weeks ago, dangerous amounts of supercold liquid hydrogen escaped from the connections between the pad and the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket. Engineers replaced a pair of seals and a clogged filter in hopes of getting through the repeat test at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA won’t set a launch date for the Artemis II mission until it passes the fueling demonstration. Like last time, the crew — three Americans and one Canadian — watched the test from afar.
The soonest astronauts could soar is March 6. They will become the first people to fly to the moon — making a 10-day out-and-back trip with no stops — since Apollo 17 in 1972. They won’t orbit or land.
NASA has been battling hydrogen fuel leaks ever since the space shuttle era, which provided many of the SLS engines. The first Artemis test flight without anyone on board was grounded for months by leaking hydrogen before finally blasting off in November 2022.
Going years between flights exacerbates the problem, according to NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman, a tech entrepreneur who financed his own trips to orbit through SpaceX.
Just two months into the job, Isaacman already is promising to redesign the fuel connections between the rocket and pad before the next Artemis III launch. Still a few years away, that mission will attempt to land two astronauts near the moon’s south pole.
“We will not launch unless we are ready and the safety of our astronauts will remain the highest priority,” he said last week on X.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
We all know that contemporary Western culture has largely rejected religion, despite the fact that when not perverted or hollow, religion builds societies and sustains individuals. Of course, religious belief…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025, a year in which President Donald Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries.
The gap the between the goods and services the U.S. sells other countries and what it buys from them narrowed to just over $901 billion from $904 billion in 2024, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Exports rose 6% last year, and imports rose nearly 5%.
Still, the U.S. deficit in the trade of goods such as machinery and aircraft — the main focus of Trump’s protectionist policies — widened 2% to $1.24 trillion last year, partly because American companies raised computer chip and other tech imports from Taiwan to support their investment in artificial intelligence.
Amid continuing tensions with Bejing, the deficit in the goods trade with China plunged nearly 32% to $202 billion in 2025 on a sharp drop in both exports to and imports from the world’s second-biggest economy. But trade was diverted away from China. The goods gap with Taiwan doubled to $147 billion and shot up 44% to $178 billion with Vietnam.
Economist Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the widening gaps with Taiwan and Vietnam might put a “bulls eye” on them this year if Trump focuses more on the lopsided trade numbers and less on the U.S. rivalry with China.
In 2025, U.S. goods imports to Mexico outpaced exports by nearly $197 billion, up from a 2024 gap of $172 billion. But the goods deficit with Canada shrank by 26% to $46 billion. The United States this year is negotiating a renewal of a pact Trump reached with those two countries in his first term.
The U.S. ran a bigger surplus in the trade of services such as banking and tourism last year — $339 billion, up from $312 billion in 2024.
The trade gap surged from January-March as U.S. companies tried to import foreign goods ahead of Trump’s taxes, then narrowed most of the rest of the year.
Trump’s tariffs are a tax paid by U.S. importers and often passed along to their customers as higher prices. But they haven’t had as much impact on inflation as economists originally expected. Trump argues that the tariffs will protect U.S. industries, bringing manufacturing back to America and raise money for the U.S. Treasury.
LOS ANGELES — As national Democrats search for a unifying theme ahead of the fall’s midterm elections, a California proposal to levy a hefty tax on billionaires is turning some of the party’s leading figures into adversaries just when Democrats can least afford division from within.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to campaign for the tax proposal, which has Silicon Valley in an uproar, with tech titans threatening to leave the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is among its outspoken opponents, warning that it could leave government finances in crisis and put the state at a competitive disadvantage nationally.
At an evening rally near downtown, Sanders told cheering supporters that the nation has reached a crisis point in which “massive income and wealth inequality” has concentrated power over business, technology, government and the media within the “billionaire class,” while millions of working-class Americans struggle to pay household bills.
He said enactment of the proposed tax would show “we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power.”
“Enough is enough,” Sanders said to a pulse of applause. “The billionaire class cannot have it all. This nation belongs to all of us.”
The senator, a democratic socialist, is popular in California — he won the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in the state in a runaway. He’s been railing for decades against what he characterizes as wealthy elites and the growing gap between rich and poor.
A large health care union is attempting to place a proposal before voters in November that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires — including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property — to backfill federal funding cuts to health services for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year.
Debate on the proposal is unfolding at a time when voters in both parties express unease with economic conditions and what the future will bring in a politically divided nation. Distrust of government — and its ability to get things done — is widespread.
The proposal has created a rift between Newsom and prominent members of his party’s progressive wing, including Sanders, who has said the tax should be a template for other states.
“The issues that are really going to be motivating Democrats this year, affordability and the cost of health care and cuts to schools, none of these would be fixed by this proposal. If fact, they would be made worse,” said Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax.
Midterm elections typically punish the party in control of the White House, and Democrats are hoping to gain enough U.S. House seats to overturn the chamber’s slim Republican majority. In California, rejiggered House districts approved by voters last year are expected to help the party pick up as many as five additional seats, which would leave Republicans in control of just a handful of districts.
“It is always better for a party to have the political debate focused on issues where you are united and the other party is divided,” said Eric Schickler, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Having an issue like this where Newsom and Sanders — among others — are on different sides is not ideal.”
With the idea of taxing billionaires popular among many voters “this can be a good way for Democratic candidates to rally that side and break through from the pack,” Schickler added in an email.
It’s already trickled into the race for governor and contests down the ballot. Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, both candidates for governor, have warned the tax would erase jobs. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democratic candidate for governor, has said inequality starts at the federal level, where the tax code is riddled with loopholes.
Sanders did not mention Newsom in his nearly 30-minute speech but name-checked a handful of billionaires, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as examples of a wealthy elite that in many respects “no longer sees itself as part of American society.”
Citing protests against federal immigration raids in Minnesota, he urged the crowd to support the tax, saying Californians can show that “when we stand together, we can take on the oligarchs and the billionaires.”
Coinciding with the Sanders visit and an upcoming state Democratic convention this weekend, opponents are sending out targeted emails and social media ads intended to sway party insiders.
It’s not clear if the proposal will make the ballot — supporters must gather more than 870,000 petition signatures to place it before voters.
The nascent contest already has drawn out a tangle of competing interests, with millions of dollars flowing into political committees.
Newsom has long opposed state-level wealth taxes, believing such levies would be disadvantageous for the world’s fourth-largest economy. At a time when California is strapped for cash and he is considering a 2028 presidential run, he is trying to block the proposal before it reaches the ballot.
Analysts say an exodus of billionaires could mean a loss of hundreds of millions of tax dollars for the nation’s most populous state. But supporters say the funding is needed to offset federal cuts that could leave many Californians without vital services.
NEW YORK — Walmart delivered another standout quarter as the promise of lower prices drew in a broader spectrum of Americans during the critical holiday shopping period, including wealthier households.
The outlook from the Bentonville, Arkansas, company, however, hinted at a volatile economic environment ahead on Thursday.
Shares dipped almost 3% before the opening bell.
Walmart reported fourth quarter earnings of $4.24 billion, or 53 cents per share for the quarter ended Jan. 31. Adjusted per-share results were 74 cents, a penny better than Wall Street expected, according to FactSet.
Last year, the company reported net income of $5.25 billion, or 65 cents per share.
Sales rose 5.6% to $190.7 billion, from $180.6 billion, also edging out expectations.
Comparable sales at Walmart stores, including online sales, rose 4.6% after a 4.5% increase in the previous quarter.
Global e-commerce sales rose 24%.
It is the first quarter time in more than a decade that the retail giant is reporting quarterly earning under a new chief executive.
John Furner, 51, who headed the company’s U.S. operations, took over for Doug McMillon this month. McMillon had turned America’s largest retailer into a tech-powered giant and spearheaded an era of robust sales growth after being named Walmart’s CEO in 2014.
Walmart’s shares rose more than 25% since its last quarterly earnings report and earlier this month it became the first non-tech company to reach a valuation of more than a $1 trillion.
It has done so with many Americans carefully considering where they spend money because of inflation and how the company performs is considered a barometer of consumer spending given its vast customer base. More than 150 million customers are on its website or in its stores every week, according to Walmart.
While inflation has cooled, consumer prices have soared about 25% over the past five years. Many economists expect more companies will begin passing on higher costs from higher U.S. tariffs to their customers in coming months.
Walmart’s promise of lower prices has broadened its base to include wealthier shoppers in that environment, with the biggest gains in market share coming from households with annual income over $100,000.
Walmart has managed higher costs both by shifting what it offers on store shelves while absorbing some higher costs.
The company said that for the current quarter, it expects sales to increase anywhere from 3.5% to 4.5% and earnings per share to be in the range of 63 cents to 65 cents. For the year, it expects sales to reach $706.4 billion and earnings per share to be $2.64.
That is a little cooler than Wall Street had been projecting. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting per-share earnings of 68 cents in the first quarter. For the year, they have been projecting earnings of $2.64 per share on sales of $712.6 billion
Subsidies. Love ’em or hate them, they dominated the news during the Affordable Care Act’s sign-up season, and their reduction is now hitting many enrollees in the pocketbook.
While lawmakers continue to disagree on a way forward, and the politics of affordability keeps the issue front and center, it would be understandable to think these are the only taxpayer-funded health insurance subsidies in the U.S. system.
“The vast majority of people with health insurance get some kind of federal subsidy for it, from Medicaid to Medicare to the ACA to employer-sponsored insurance,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
These broad taxpayer supports are rarely discussed, though, as they apply to work-based coverage. So, let’s take a look.
Adding up the tax breaks
Nearly half of the more than $1.1 trillion annual spending on Medicare, the second-largest program in the federal budget behind Social Security, comes from general federal funds. The rest comes from payroll taxes and the monthly premiums paid by enrollees, who number more than 66 million.
Medicaid — the nation’s largest health insurer, covering more than 70 million low-income people — costs more than $918 billion annually. It’s jointly financed by the federal government (65%) and states (35%).
For both programs, expenses are partially funded with taxpayer dollars. A less obvious form of federal support comes through employer-sponsored health coverage. Here, the impact on the federal bottom line is less visible, as hundreds of billions of dollars never reach the U.S. Treasury because it takes the form of tax breaks for employers and workers.
“It’s a world apart from Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare — from the government writing checks to people,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Job-based insurance provides coverage for at least 154 million people under age 65. (By comparison, about 22.9 million people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans for this year, generally because they don’t have job-based insurance. Extending the enhanced ACA subsidies that expired at the end of 2025 would cost about $350 billion over a decade, or roughly $35 billion annually.)
In fact, contributions to employer-sponsored health plans are the single-largest “exclusion” — a tax policy that allows certain income to be exempt from taxes — in the federal budget. For this fiscal year, the estimated amount is $451 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office.
The money employers spend to offer health coverage to their employees can be written off as a business expense. And workers who receive this benefit don’t have to pay income or payroll taxes on its value.
Those tax savings can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year for workers. The amount varies, with the biggest breaks going to those with the most expensive health plans and those whose wages put them in the upper tax brackets. Contributions to health savings accounts are among other tax breaks related to health insurance.
But the exclusion can be a difficult concept for insured workers to wrap their heads around, as most employees still contribute a portion of their pay to health coverage.
Even though they’re not taxed on that, “it doesn’t necessarily feel like a subsidy to people,” Levitt said. “They do feel like they’re paying.”
Baked into the tax system
The tax treatment evolved along with work-based health insurance policies in the U.S., fueled during World War II, when wage and price controls spurred interest in offering health coverage to lure workers. It was enacted into tax law in 1954.
Backers, which often include labor unions and employers, say it encourages companies to offer health insurance, as most large companies do. Because of the cost, smaller companies are less likely to do so, even with the tax incentive. Also, for workers, getting $1 of health care coverage is worth more than an extra dollar in wages, which would be taxed and, thus, worth less.
Opponents of the tax break, however, note the lost revenue to the Treasury and that the tax exclusion, according to some economists, leads employers and workers to choose the most generous — and expensive — health insurance offered, which they say drives up health care spending. The tax break benefits wealthier workers more than those in lower-income tax brackets, and economists also say the amounts employers pay for health insurance might otherwise be spent on boosting workers’ wages.
While there is currently no pending legislation to modify the tax break, the growing federal deficit has some employer groups worried the policy will change. Benefit experts say the outcome would vary.
“It’s not clear that it would wind up in increased wages for everyone,” said KFF’s Levitt. “Some workers have more negotiating leverage than others.”
“It’s had a bipartisan target on its back for 40 years,” said Paul Fronstin, a director at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.
Any change, however, “would raise some revenue, but it’s also a tax increase for workers,” Fronstin noted. “What would that mean, if their taxes go up? Do wages go up because they’re not getting the same tax breaks? There will be winners and losers in that equation.”
Still, because job-based coverage is the way so many Americans get health insurance, some policy experts warn that eliminating or even lowering the exclusion could remove an incentive for employers to offer coverage. While some employers would likely keep offering coverage even without the tax break — because it is a benefit that helps attract and retain workers — it is a huge expense, so others might drop it. Average family premiums cost an employer nearly $27,000 last year, according to KFF.
“These are businesses, which weigh the costs of offering insurance, which have gone up dramatically,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, an organization of large public and private employers that offer health insurance to their workers. “If there’s not some sort of tax incentive, I would expect them to revisit whether they would bear those costs.”
Cannon, of the Cato Institute, considers the tax policy bad because it takes choice away from workers, who might rather have increased wages, even if they are taxed. Those additional wages, he argues, could then be invested in tax-advantaged health savings accounts, used to pay medical costs.
Under the current tax break approach, “you are effectively saying let the employer control a huge chunk of your earnings and enroll in the plan the employer chooses,” he argues.
Employers counter by saying they are better able to negotiate higher-quality, lower-cost health insurance packages than individuals could on their own.
Mitchell, at the employer group, said, “It is challenging for an enormous employer to negotiate fair prices with the large consolidated systems. So it’s hard to imagine how an individual would be able to navigate our current system.”
She also disputes arguments that the tax break leads to higher health care prices, driven by overly generous employer plans that lead insured workers to use more health services.
“That’s a tired economic theory that doesn’t apply in health care,” she said. “People don’t shop for health care because they want more of it. They use health care because they need it. It’s fundamentally different.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questioning in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday about Instagram’s under-13 users and Meta’s efforts to boost engagement, as a trial examines whether the company knowingly offered an addictive and harmful product to children and teens.
The landmark trial against Meta and YouTube kicked off in late January. It centers on allegations brought by a plaintiff identified as “KGM,” who claims that using social media from a young age caused her to become addicted and harmed her mental health.
KGM, who is now 20 years old, alleges that Facebook, Instagram and YouTube — with their recommendation algorithms and infinite scrolling — are designed to be addictive.
In the courtroom on Wednesday, Zuckerberg faced questions from KGM’s lawyer Mark Lanier over Meta’s policy for allowing children under 13 to access Instagram. KGM started using Instagram at 9 years old, according to Lanier.
Zuckerberg said users under 13 are not allowed on the platform, but added that it is a difficult rule to enforce because there are “a meaningful number of people who lie about their age to use our services.”
Lanier also pressed Zuckerberg about whether one of the company’s goals is to increase the time users spend on Instagram. Zuckerberg said Meta uses time spent on the app as a proxy to measure its performance against competitors like TikTok.
“It’s different than us trying to just increase time,” he said. “Just us trying to see how we’re stacking up in the industry.”
Zuckerberg also addressed Instagram’s beauty filters, which Meta temporarily shut down after concerns surfaced that they changed people’s appearance in a way that seemed to promote plastic surgery. Zuckerberg said the company decided to allow beauty filters in support of free expression, but said that “we shouldn’t create them ourselves or recommend them.”
This marks the first time Zuckerberg is defending his company before a jury, although he has previously testified before Congress regarding youth safety on Meta’s platforms.
Trial carries implications for similar cases
The outcome of the lawsuit could shape how thousands of similar cases brought against social media giants play out. TikTok and Snapchat were originally part of the lawsuit, but they settled before the trial started.
Some experts have drawn comparisons between the social media trial and the tobacco industry lawsuits of the 1990s, which sought to hold companies accountable for their products and how they were marketed.
“A trial like this one will hopefully uncover the disconnect between what companies say publicly to drive up business and engagement and what is actually going on behind the scenes,” UCLA law professor and tech justice attorney Melodi Dinçer told CBS News senior business and technology correspondent Jo Ling Kent.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives at Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 18, 2026.
Patrick T. Fallon /AFP via Getty Images
Prior to Zuckerberg’s testimony, Meta told CBS News that it strongly disagrees with the allegations and that it is committed to supporting young people who use its platforms. The company also claims that KGM faced mental health struggles before she used social media.
A spokesperson from Google, the parent company of YouTube, also denied the allegations, calling them “simply not true.”
Zuckerberg’s appearance in the LA courtroom follows that of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, who testified in the trial last week. While on the stand, Mosseri said he does not believe people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms, instead referring to what he calls “problematic use,” when people spend more time on Instagram than they feel good about.
Prosecutors also pressed Mosseri over whether Instagram is prioritizing growth and profit over safety. In response, Mosseri said Instagram makes “less money from teens than from any other demographic on the app,” adding that teens don’t tend to click on ads.
The former Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested Thursday for suspected misconduct in public office after revelations in the Epstein files. King Charles III’s younger brother was arrested on his 66th birthday, about two weeks after files released by the U.S. Department of Justice prompted an anti-royal organization to call for police to investigate documents indicating that Andrew shared confidential government information with the late American sex offender when the royal worked as an British trade envoy.
The report of Andrew’s arrest — on his 66th birthday — came after multiple police vehicles were seen arriving Thursday morning at his new residence on Charles’ Sandringham estate in the eastern English county of Norfolk.
Shortly after 8 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern) six unmarked police vehicles were seen arriving at Wood Farm on King Charles’ Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England, where Mountbatten-Windsor recently took up residence.
The Thames Valley Police force confirmed just over a week ago that it was assessing claims against Mountbatten-Windsor that emerged in the latest release of Epstein files released by the Justice Department.
In a statement on Thursday, the Thames Valley Police confirmed that, “as part of the investigation, we have today (19/2) arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.” It said the man, who it did not name in line with police procedures, “remains in police custody at this time.”
A file photo shows Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew.
In an interview earlier Thursday with CBS News’ partner network BBC News, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “nobody is above law” when he was asked about Mountbatten-Windsor.
“I think that’s a matter for the police, they will conduct their own investigations, but one of the core principles in our system is that everybody is equal under the law and nobody is above the law,” Starmer said.
Last week, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on behalf of the king that the royal family would cooperate if police came asking questions about Mountbatten-Windsor.
“The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct,” a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.”
CBS News had sought comment from Mountbatten-Windsor’s representatives repeatedly since the Epstein files first revealed his close ties with Epstein. He did not respond, but in the past had always denied any wrongdoing.
What is in the Epstein files about Andrew?
While earlier allegations about Andrew’s actions in the Epstein files largely centered around the former prince’s alleged encounters with young women in conjunction with Epstein, the anti-monarchy group Republic called earlier this month for a formal investigation over his actions as a British trade official.
Emails among the millions of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department on Jan. 30 appear to show the former prince passed on confidential reports on his visits as an official British trade envoy to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam, including details of investment opportunities.
One email thread shows that after his travel to Asia, on Nov. 30, 2010, Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded official reports on his visits, sent to him by his then-special adviser Amit Patel, to Epstein, just minutes after he received them. There was no message from the then-prince to Epstein accompanying the forwarded message.
Another email exchange between the men, the following month, appears to show Mountbatten-Windsor sharing files he describes as “a confidential brief” on potential investment opportunities in southern Afghanistan where British forces were based at the time.
Then-Prince Andrew said he was sharing the documents with Epstein to seek his “comments, views or ideas as to whom I could also usefully show this to attract some interest” in the opportunities described in the brief.
The allegations echoed similar revelations from the latest tranche of Epstein files that suggest former British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson shared confidential government information with the late American financier. The London Metropolitan Police confirmed an investigation into his actions earlier this month.
Washington — The 15 comments came across a series of eight days in July, posted under pseudonyms alluding to the perpetrators of some of the most infamous mass shootings in U.S. history, including Sandy Hook Elementary School and Aurora, Colorado.
“That POS Judge … MUST have her life ENDED Immediately! Get it done, Patriots!!” read one post, referring to a federal judge in California.
Another named members of Congress: “This is GREAT! Now I can use a, high-powered firearm to take care of [four members of Congress], and the Squad members … for starters! Wish me Luck.”
The posts targeted a Supreme Court justice, seven federal judges and 11 lawmakers, and included what prosecutors said were “thinly veiled racial epithets.”
The comments, posted in response to news articles, were traced back to a Minnesota man, Jeffrey Petersen, who admitted to the FBI that he was behind some of the postings and acknowledged they “got out of hand,” according to prosecutors’ filings. Petersen was first indicted last October on 20 counts and pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer is seeking to have the charges dismissed, arguing that Petersen was engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. While the comments may have expressed wishes of death, they didn’t indicate Petersen had any plans to kill the officials, his defense lawyer said.
Petersen is one of 126 people charged last year for making threats to federal and top state officials, according to a CBS News analysis of court records from all 94 federal judicial districts. CBS News examined cases brought under federal statutes that make it a crime to threaten to kill or harm the president and successors to the presidency, and to transmit threatening communications.
The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Prosecution Project also contributed data.
The threats that have resulted in charges do not discriminate in their targets. They were leveled against officials working in all three branches of government — from judges to members of Congress to law enforcement officers to President Trump and former President Joe Biden — and directed at those in the highest levels of state government.
The volume of cases marks a more than three-fold increase in the number of federal prosecutions arising out of threats to public officials over the past decade. 2025 surpassed 2024 in threats-related cases, according to NCITE.
The rise underscores the current landscape for federal officials who were elected to office, appointed to their roles or hired to enforce the law. In today’s environment, they face a barrage of threats on social media and in voicemails and emails, and have been swatted or doxxed.
“If I were in my 30s or 40s with young children at home and thinking about going on the federal bench, one of the factors [to consider] is that we may be exposing ourselves to possible violence,” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who sits on the court in Seattle, told CBS News.
Coughenour was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and has had security details in response to threats a handful of times in his 45 years as a judge, he said, including when he presided over the trial of leaders of an anti-government group in the late 1990s.
But Coughenour said the threats he has received in recent months are more explicit and more frequent than what he’s experienced before.
The judge said he was swatted, an illegal scheme in which people make fake emergency calls to draw SWAT teams to the homes of public figures. The FBI also told him there was a bomb in his house, Coughenour recalled. He said he’s also received hundreds of threatening voicemails and other communications.
Last year, Coughenour blocked an executive order from Mr. Trump that sought to end birthright citizenship, saying it was “blatantly unconstitutional.” Mr. Trump had referenced Coughenour’s decision in the Oval Office, saying “there’s no surprises with that judge.” Coughenour’s image also appeared on a “wanted” poster displayed outside the office of Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, which described him and other judges as “known get-Trump judicial activists.”
“The prior 40 years that I’ve spent on the bench, from time to time, people would be critical of decisions we make, and that’s to be expected,” Coughenour said. “Half the people that come before us for trial are going to be unhappy with the result. But it had never before reached the level where the president and the attorney general and the president’s staff were making hypercritical comments and calling judges monsters and referring to a judicial coup. Things like that, that’s all new. I’ve never experienced that before.”
A “marked decline in civility”
In the last fiscal year, there were 564 threats against judges, up from 509 in fiscal year 2024, according to data from the U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for providing protection to members of the federal judiciary. From the beginning of October to the end of January, the agency said there were 176 threats to judges.
Chief Justice John Roberts said in his 2024 year-end report on the federal judiciary that the number of threats and communications targeting judges had tripled over the prior decade.
“There has been a very marked decline in civility and the respect for the rule of law in our society over the last number of years,” one Trump-appointed federal judge, who asked not to be identified, told CBS News. “When an individual or a group of individuals disagrees with a decision — in this case, a decision by a court — they then begin to attack the institution of the court through the individuals who may be making the decision. That tendency didn’t exist when I started.”
The judge said that over the last year, there have been emailed death threats directed against his spouse and social media posts that accused him of being corrupt.
“When you call a decisionmaker corrupt for no legitimate reason, when you attack them personally, that then causes the public to, at a minimum, question whether their institutions are in fact strong and honest and serving the Constitution and the people as they’re designed to do,” the judge said.
CBS News found that of the 126 prosecutions from last year, 12 included threats against judges. Forty-one involved threats made against Mr. Trump and former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama; and 29 of the prosecutions involved defendants accused of targeting federal law enforcement, including agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Threatening messages directed at members of Congress were cited in 21 cases.
Other government officials — including Cabinet members, senior Trump administration officials, federal employees and unnamed political figures — were cited in 50 cases.
Seamus Hughes, an expert on counterterrorism and extremism at NCITE, said over the last year, there has been a dramatic shift in the volume of threats to law enforcement agents, who have increasingly become a target for people with grievances against the government. The number of prosecutions stemming from threats to those agents likely reflects increased news coverage of Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign and the administration prioritizing protecting officers, he said.
“The federal prosecutions tell you, ‘This is where we have skin in the game, where we’re actually going to put our finger on the scale and try to tamp down on this,'” Hughes said.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, there were more prosecutions involving threats to education and public-health officials. In 2020, cases were brought against those who sought to intimidate election officials, Hughes said.
While the number of threats-related prosecutions marked a new high, the universe of concerning statements directed at people in public service — many of them vile, disturbing and violent — is far broader.
The U.S. Capitol Police reported last month that it investigated 14,923 “concerning statements, behaviors and communications” directed against lawmakers, their families, staff and the Capitol complex itself last year. That figure was up from 9,474 in 2024 and just over 8,000 in 2023.
During a recent hearing from the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California appealed to Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure people menacing lawmakers are held accountable. He recalled several instances of obscene and violent messages directed at him last year, and lamented that prosecutors declined to bring charges. On one occasion, a caller left 11 voicemails with Swalwell’s district office, including one in which he said, “I’m going to hunt him down, that motherf***er, and toss his ass over the Golden Gate Bridge by my f***ing self,” according to Swalwell.
“The president can come after me, it’s fine. I’m in the arena. So are these folks,” he said, referring to his fellow lawmakers. “But we never expected that the Department of Justice would not seek to prosecute and investigate those who are making threats against us, and that would include those on that side of the aisle. I’m asking for your help to protect life because life is at risk with the environment we’re in right now.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell of California questions Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2026.
Getty Images
Bondi agreed that “none of you should be threatened” and said the Justice Department is engaged in ongoing investigations.
“We have a responsibility to prosecute these cases and to protect victims who are the unfortunate recipient of these threats,” Gregory Kehoe, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, told CBS News. “When the person communicating it does it recklessly, and he does it in such a way that he recklessly believes that what he does will be viewed as a threat, then that’s a crime. Then we have to take that quite seriously. So let’s separate the exercise of free speech from threats over the wires or over the mails, etc., because we get both of them, and threats to injure another human being over the wires or in the mails.”
The region Kehoe oversees stretches from Jacksonville, in Florida’s northeast corner, down to Orlando, west to Ocala and Tampa, and south to Fort Myers. CBS News identified at least 17 cases involving threats to government officials and law enforcement that were prosecuted by his office last year, the most from any of the 94 judicial districts.
Kehoe, who served as a prosecutor for more than 20 years and was tapped as U.S. attorney last March, said threats and the criminal cases arising from them have increased dramatically.
“It’s our job to elevate the awareness and say, this is not going to be tolerated, and people that do this are going to be prosecuted,” he said. “If people do this and they’re not prosecuted, people are going to come be of the belief that it’s OK, and it’s not.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, said members of Congress and their families are facing increasing levels of toxicity and violent rhetoric.
In an interview with CBS News, she rattled off defendants who had been convicted for threatening her. One man from New York pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced to three months in prison for making threatening calls to her office. Another man from Georgia claimed he would shoot her in the head. Greene also recalled one incident where a syringe was placed in her mailbox with a death threat.
“It’s too much,” she said. “This isn’t what people run for office for. And no matter whether you agree with a member of Congress or disagree with a member of Congress, they’re representing their district, and their district voted for them. So to some Americans, their views may be extreme, but to that district, they keep getting reelected over and over again. To that district, that’s not extreme.”
In July, a Maryland man who made eight phone calls to Greene’s district office between October 2023 and January 2025 was charged with threatening to assault and murder Greene and her family. The threats escalated over that 15-month span, according to prosecutors, and culminated with a voicemail that warned she and her staff “were as good as dead.”
Then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during a news conference outside the Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The caller, Seth Jason, told Greene to “make your last will ready, because we are coming after you, and the only thing you’re going to hear is bang … I’m yearning to hear you cry for your last breath.” He pleaded guilty in December and will be sentenced in June.
Greene said the time between a guilty plea or conviction to when a defendant ultimately reports to prison to begin serving a sentence can be frightening and frustrating.
“Not only the threat is scary, it’s the fact that this person admits guilt, pleads guilty and then is sent home before they’re ever sent to prison. You wonder, well, they’ve already pleaded guilty to it, are they willing to follow through on it before they go to prison?” she said. “That’s shocking to me. So you can’t let your guard down. You can’t feel safe even though that person has been convicted.”
Members of Congress have taken steps to protect themselves, such as by installing security systems at their homes, arming themselves or hiring personal security. Last November, Congress approved legislation that provided $203.5 million to boost security for lawmakers. Each senators’ office received an additional $750,000 to pay for enhanced security measures, including at their residences. About $100 million went toward bolstering security for House members and their families.
Greene, who served five years in the House and resigned Jan. 5, said she carries a gun and practices shooting.
From threats to action
Shannon Hiller, executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, attributed the current threat environment to the rise of social media and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, local officials reported changes in the tone and volume of vitriolic messages, and that hasn’t subsided in the years since, she said.
Additionally, there has been a climate of dehumanizing rhetoric by the nation’s leaders, as well as a normalization of the use of threats and harassment against those on the other side of an issue, Hiller said.
“You have threats and harassment being used and normalized in politics and you have leaders all the way at the top and down being willing to use it,” she told CBS News. “So even for officials who may want to speak up against it, they’re worried about threats themselves. That creates this continual negative feedback. If there’s no sanction from within either party, within community members, to say, ‘This is unacceptable in our politics,’ then that behavior will continue.”
Hiller warned that a consequence of today’s landscape is fewer people willing to serve in public office and, for those who are serving, a fear that engaging with constituencies in public settings could put them in danger.
“When we see all of these dynamics year after year and continue to worsen, that’s what gets us closer to some incident or escalation creating broader conflict and risk of violence,” she said. “Part of what this climate of hostility in our politics does is create the tinder for more conflict rather than having our civic spaces be a place where we can feel confident, we can peacefully and constructively resolve our differences.”
That risk became reality late last month, when a man assaulted Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, during a town hall in Minneapolis. The alleged perpetrator, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, charged at Omar with a syringe in his hand and sprayed her with a liquid. Police later determined it to be apple cider vinegar and water.
Omar said after the attack that she sees death threats against her “skyrocket” after Mr. Trump uses “hateful rhetoric” to talk about her.
A man is tackled after spraying a substance at Rep. Ilhan Omar during a town hall in Minneapolis on Jan. 27, 2026.
Octavio JONES /AFP via Getty Images
The president has repeatedly demonized Omar in the seven years since she began serving in the House. Mr. Trump has called her a “fake sleazebag” and “garbage,” and suggested on numerousoccasions that she should “go back” to her home country, Somalia.
“It could be anybody in Congress,” Greene said about the Omar attack. “I think most Americans are really getting fed up with just the constant fueling of toxic politics that come from both sides. And I just think it’s unfortunate that it’s fear and anger that is used by political campaigns and politics to drive people to vote and donate.”
Threats targeted at jurists and the president have also materialized into political violence.
Two years prior, after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, an individual from California was detained outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home armed with a handgun, knife and myriad tools. The defendant, who was arrested and charged as Nicholas Roske but now goes by Sophie Roske, pleaded guilty last April to attempting to kill or kidnap a Supreme Court justice.
Prosecutors said Roske aimed to kill three members of the high court and researched their home addresses. Roske was sentenced to 97 months in prison last October.
Two years earlier, Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was shot and killed at their New Jersey home. Her husband, Mark, was shot three times. The gunman, a disgruntled lawyer, had been stalking the family and had information on their daily movements, including the routes Salas took to work and where they attended church, according to the FBI.
“I think of threats like the mood music,” Hughes said. “They always play in the background, they cause a level of concern. And there will be a subset of people from that who see these images and announcements and say it’s time to take action.”
The name of Salas’ son has been invoked by perpetrators of hoaxes known as “pizza doxxing,” which involves sending pizza to a target’s home in an attempt to scare them. Roughly two dozen federal judges have reported receiving unsolicited deliveries for Anderl.
In an interview with CBS News last year, Salas called the attempted pizza deliveries “psychological warfare” against judges.
To combat the rise in political violence, Hiller said there are short-term steps that can be taken, like improving security at public meetings and ensuring there are adequate personal data protections, as well as long-term solutions, such as countering a normalization of hostility and holding perpetrators accountable.
“It sounds basic, but people really have to accept it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said.
Coughenour, the judge from Washington, too, said things must change.
“We can’t go on the way that we are today,” he said. “I’ve often said that I worry that this country is closer to civil war than it’s ever been in my lifetime, but surely this, too, will pass.”
