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  • Bruce Springsteen said ICE should leave Minneapolis at New Jersey charity show Saturday

    Bruce Springsteen said ICE should leave Minneapolis at New Jersey charity show Saturday

    At a charity concert Saturday night in Red Bank, N.J., rock legend Bruce Springsteen said ICE needs to get out of Minneapolis — only he didn’t say it quite that nicely.

    Well into his set, Springsteen introduced the song “The Promised Land,” from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, which he said he wrote “as an ode to American possibility.” Springsteen said American values and ideals of the past 250 years are being tested like never before.

    “Those values, those ideals, have never been as endangered as they are right now,” Springsteen, 76, told the crowd at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in a video posted by NJ.com.

    “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it,” Springsteen continued, “if you stand against heavily armed, masked federal troops invading an American city, using gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president, and as the mayor of that city has said, ‘ICE should get the f— out of Minneapolis.”

    To a cheering crowed, Springsteen dedicated the song to the memory of Renee Good, calling her “a mother of three, and American citizen.” Good, 37, was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis — a moment, widely seen on video, that has inflamed tensions over the Trump administration’s use of the federal agency.

    High school students protest federal agents and the fatal shooting of Renee Good in St. Paul.

    Springsteen was not on the official performers’ list for the “Bob’s Birthday Bash” concert, which raises money for research to help people living with Parkinson’s, ALS, and other diseases. But he’s been a frequent “surprise” guest at the annual event, as New Jersey music reporter Bobby Olivier noted.

    Springsteen has long found himself involved in political discourse, including in 1984 when he called out Republican President Ronald Reagan for misunderstanding the point of his hit song, “Born in the U.S.A.” while on the campaign trail.

    Kicking off his 2025 European tour in Manchester, England, he called the Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.”

    That time around, President Donald Trump responded in kind.

    “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

  • In Iran crisis, Trump confronted limits of U.S. military power

    In Iran crisis, Trump confronted limits of U.S. military power

    It was late morning Wednesday and much of the Middle East and official Washington seemed certain President Donald Trump would launch punishing airstrikes against Iran, his second major use of American military power in as many weeks after the daring Delta Force raid into Venezuela to seize leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

    Trump had not officially given the strike order, but his top security advisers expected him to imminently authorize one of the military options presented to him and were girding themselves for a late night.

    The Pentagon advertised that a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Roosevelt, had entered the Persian Gulf. Allies had been alerted that a U.S. strike was likely, according to a person familiar with the matter, and ships and planes were on the move. Personnel at the sprawling al-Udeid U.S. air base in Qatar were advised to evacuate to avoid an expected Iranian counterstrike.

    “HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump had promised Iranian protesters, encouraging them in a social media post Tuesday morning to “take over” regime institutions. While many U.S. and foreign officials took that to mean the United States would intervene militarily, Trump remained open to help in the form of pressuring Iran to stop killing demonstrators.

    The key moment came Wednesday, when Trump received word through envoy Steve Witkoff that Iran’s government canceled the planned executions of 800 people, according to a senior U.S. official. “We’re going to watch and see,” Trump then told reporters in the Oval Office. On Thursday, U.S. intelligence confirmed the executions didn’t happen, the official said.

    Trump’s rapid evolution midweek, which left many of his advisers feeling whiplashed and Iranian dissidents feeling abandoned, reflected intense domestic and foreign pressures, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. and Middle Eastern officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic conversations and ongoing military preparations.

    The president came face to face with the unpredictability of potentially destabilizing another Middle Eastern country and the limitations of even the vast American military machine, several of them said. Having deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and an accompanying armada to the Caribbean on Trump’s orders, Pentagon officials worried that there was less U.S. firepower in the Middle East than would be ideal to repulse what was expected to be a major Iranian counterstrike.

    Israel shared that concern, having expended vast numbers of interceptor rockets against incoming Iranian missiles during their 12-day war in June, one current and one former U.S. official said.

    Key U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt, contacted the White House to urge restraint and diplomacy, a senior Arab diplomat and a gulf official said. Those Sunni Muslim-majority nations have long felt threatened by Shiite-majority Iran, but they fear spasms of instability across their region even more.

    Perhaps most of all, several officials said, Trump realized that Iran strikes would be messy and might bring possible economic convulsions, wider warfare, and threats to the 30,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East — not like the “one and done” operations he has ordered to destroy alleged drug boats and seize Maduro, target Islamic State fighters in Syria, or damage Iran’s nuclear program.

    “He wants [operations like] Venezuela,” said a former U.S. official briefed on the decision-making. “This was going to be messier.”

    The Iranian protests, the largest in the Islamic republic’s 46-year history, appear to have subsided for now in the face of a violent government crackdown that human rights groups estimate has killed more than 3,000 people. A true accounting of the toll is difficult, as Tehran maintains a total shutdown of internet and telecommunications.

    “The regime looks to have dodged a bullet,” said a senior European official in direct contact with Iranian leadership. But Iranians who risked going out in the streets to demonstrate are furious with Trump’s step-back, he said. They “feel betrayed and are utterly devastated.”

    While a strike appears off for now, Trump and his senior advisers are keeping their options open — and possibly buying time — as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group is dispatched to the Middle East, two officials said. The Lincoln was in the South China Sea on Friday, officials familiar with the matter said, putting it more than a week away from the Middle East.

    “Nobody knows what President Trump will do with respect to Iran besides the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “The President has smartly kept many options on the table and as always, he will make decisions in the best interest of America and the world.”

    ‘A cost-benefit analysis’

    Inside the White House, Trump was receiving conflicting advice.

    Vice President JD Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign entanglements, supported strikes on Iran, a U.S. official and a person close to the White House said. Vance reasoned that Trump had drawn a red line by warning Iran not to kill protesters and had to enforce it, the person close to the White House said.

    In the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, an Iran hawk, used a secure iPad reserved for presidential intelligence briefings to show Trump clandestinely acquired videos of regime violence against Iranian protesters and bodies in the streets, the former official briefed on the decision-making said. Emotive images have swayed Trump in past crises: Disturbing images of a Syrian chemical weapons attack on its own people in 2017 moved Trump to order missile strikes.

    The CIA had been tasked with collecting intelligence on the violence, though it is unclear whether Ratcliffe offered his views on military strikes.

    Other Trump advisers urged caution, including Witkoff and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the person close to the White House said. Witkoff in particular had heard directly the concerns of Arab allies in the region and wanted to avoid another round of tit-for-tat violence, said a senior U.S. official. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued for waiting and letting economic sanctions on Iran work, another person said.

    Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a trusted Trump adviser, was at the White House throughout the day, a person familiar with the matter said.

    Trump was given presentations by the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence agencies of his available attack options. But he determined that the benefit was not there and that the consequences were too great, an individual close to the Trump administration said.

    “Would a strike have resulted in regime change? The answer is clearly ‘no,’” this individual said. “The negative impact of any attack outweighed any benefit in terms of punishing the regime. And I mean, at the end of the day it’s a cost-benefit analysis.”

    Iran had become aware that the United States was moving military assets, making a strike look imminent. Tehran contacted the Trump administration. A text from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to Witkoff “kind of also defused the situation,” according to the individual.

    Soon after learning of that message, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he learned the killings would stop, according to a U.S. official. “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled,” Trump said Friday as he prepared to leave the White House for his Mar-a-Lago estate.

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators have been arrested and are in Iranian prisons, which human rights groups say are known for torture and other abuses.

    The message: ‘Avoid military action’

    Iran wasn’t the only concerned country to urgently communicate with the White House.

    Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and other Arab allies united to urge Trump to maintain his diplomatic options with Iran, said the senior Arab diplomat and gulf official.

    “The message to Washington is to avoid military action,” the gulf official said. “Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt were on the same page in the sense that there will be consequences for the wider region in terms of security and the economy as well, which will ultimately impact the U.S.”

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader, spoke to Trump by phone during the week to plead his case, according to a Saudi diplomat and a U.S. official. Salman and the leaders of other U.S. allies in the Middle East were concerned about how Iran would retaliate in the event of U.S. strikes.

    Iran had begun warning gulf states that its retaliation would not be as calibrated as it had been after the U.S. attack on its nuclear facilities in June, when Iran telegraphed its intentions and then lobbed roughly a dozen missiles at the Al-Udeid Air Base, according to multiple officials. There were also concerns that Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah, could launch their own attacks, which would pose a more serious risk without an American aircraft carrier strike group in the region.

    Israel wasn’t ready either, particularly without a large supporting U.S. naval presence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had launched a massive military and intelligence operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientists in June, called Trump on Wednesday and asked him not to strike because Israel was not fully prepared to defend itself, the person close to the White House said. The leaders spoke twice, a U.S. official said.

    A key factor contributing to Israel’s vulnerability was the absence of major U.S. military assets, which Israel has relied on increasingly to shoot down retaliatory strikes from Iran in exchanges between the two nations over the past 21 months, a U.S. official said. The U.S. support has come at a rising cost to Washington’s stockpile of interceptors, the official said.

    Throughout Wednesday, Washington’s Arab allies were unsure whether their overtures would succeed. But a factor in their favor was Trump’s uncertainty that the military options in front of him would have a decisive and predictable outcome, and wouldn’t result in problematic consequences for the region — or his own sterling track record of using U.S. military power quickly and cleanly, the senior Arab diplomat said.

    The diplomatic lobbying encouraged Trump to stand down, according to a Saudi diplomat, two European officials, and an individual briefed on the matter.

    At the Pentagon on Wednesday, aides to senior leaders were prepared to stay late into the night in anticipation of U.S. strikes. Around 3:30 p.m., they got word they could go home as normal.

    Vance ultimately agreed with the president’s decision to hold off, a person familiar with the process said.

    The president will have another opportunity to sign off on strikes against Iran in the next two to three weeks, when U.S. assets headed toward the region will be in place, helping allay Israel’s concerns about its own protection, officials said.

    The threat level is not expected to subside soon: The U.S. military’s Central Command has been directed to plan staffing for 24/7 high-level support “for the next month,” a person monitoring the situation told the Washington Post.

  • How Gen Z is making millennials look cool again

    How Gen Z is making millennials look cool again

    Step inside a Hollister store today and get a millennial retrospective: low-rise baggy and flare jeans, baby doll tops, fur-trimmed cable-knit V-necks, and sweatpants with numbers and words like “Senior” printed on the backside.

    Walk outside, and you may notice teens sporting Longchamp totes and Ugg slippers. Or digital cameras, which are seeing a resurgence after years of being sidelined by smartphones.

    These are the markers of “Millennial Core” — or the “Y2K aesthetic,” depending on whom you ask — a Gen Z reimagining of the trends its elders (now roughly 29 to 45 years old) made mainstream in the late 1990s and early aughts. Though it’s not unusual for teens and young adults to resurrect styles of the past — fashion trends tend to have 20-year cycles — the current moment speaks to a yearning for what they perceive as simpler times, when people their age weren’t tied to their phones, endlessly scrolling, and battling brain rot, industry experts say.

    “It is such a foreign concept to Gen Z and younger because it’s a world they will never be able to experience,” said Jenna Drenten, a marketing professor at Loyola University Chicago. “Some of these consumer choices … are a tangible way of trying to capture some of what that culture was.”

    Teens are taking cues from influencers and peers on social media. And brands are capitalizing on this, reacting quickly to emerging styles and sending products to TikTok stars to show off to their followers.

    But it’s more than just staying on-trend — curating a modern Y2K style is both a creative outlet and a form of escapism for Gen Z, who run from approximately age 13 to 28, said Michael Tadesse, a marketing professor at George Washington University. During times of social, economic, climate, and political instability, they search for “an emotional anchor.”

    “So when they go to Coach, Longchamp, and others, [the brands] are familiar, comforting and also safe to experiment” because older generations have shopped there, said Tadesse, who studies how technology and psychology shape marketing and retail. “Our brains are wired to find comfort in things that we’ve seen repeatedly.”

    It’s no coincidence that Gen Z is drawn to these brands, said Mark Silverstein, the chief business officer and co-founder of Cafeteria, an app that pays teens and young adults to offer their insights on brands, retailers, and trends. The most successful brands are known for quality and value, do frequent-enough discounting, and have physical stores. They also marry nostalgia with modern style, he said.

    “If you don’t have all these elements, you’re not capturing this group,” Silverstein said.

    The payoff is clear when you do: Birkenstock’s revenue rose 16% in fiscal 2025. Tapestry, which owns Coach, said net sales surged 13% last quarter, year over year. Notably, of the 2.2 million new customers it acquired globally during that time, 35% were Gen Z.

    Hollister, which is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, outperformed the namesake store in its last quarter, A&F chief executive Fran Horowitz said in a November earnings call. Same-store sales at Hollister grew 15% year over year.

    Industry experts expect that this nostalgic style will only grow in 2026.

    “It’s going from trend to acceptance,” Silverstein said.

    Vicarious nostalgia

    Though the idea of feeling nostalgia for an era you didn’t actually experience might be counterintuitive, Chris Beer said it’s a “constant rule” for marketers.

    “Younger people are almost paradoxically more nostalgic,” said Beer, a senior data journalist at global insights company GWI. “It’s to do with life disruptions, and of course when you’re young you go through so many milestones and rites of passage.”

    Drenten, who as a teenager in the late 1990s and early 2000s remembers her mom saying she had the same halter top at her age, calls it “vicarious nostalgia” when a cultural zeitgeist gets reformed for a new generation. But the difference now is that tweens, teens, and young adults have more exposure to former trends and cultural touchstones than their predecessors, who had to draw inspiration from old photos, magazines, album covers, and TV shows.

    “Gen Z — and even Gen Alpha — has a much bigger access portal to this generational hand-me-down, which is the internet,” said Drenten, who studies digital consumer culture. “Now you have social media, you have search, Google, and Pinterest.”

    They can still find 2006 outfit inspiration boards on Pinterest with baggy, low-rise jeans, slim sunglasses, miniskirts, and Ralph Lauren polos.

    There are other triggers outside social media that are filtering into the marketplace, Drenten said, with current economic uncertainty amid a slowing job market and inflation, and geopolitical instability in the Middle East and Russia being reminiscent of the early 2000s: “There’s a bigger bubble or radius of where there’s millennial comparisons being made.”

    Ironically, Silverstein said, many of the teenagers and young adults his company surveys talk about a desire to “retreat to nostalgia” to get away from these conditions, as well as feeling chained to technology and AI that “are just flooding the internet with junk.”

    They’re not just expressing Y2K aesthetic in their clothes and handbags — they’re also buying analog media such as vinyl, CDs, and cassettes, as well as digital and disposable cameras, coloring books, charm bracelets, and collectible cards and figurines.

    Though CDs and DVDs are still niche, revenue declines are leveling. Sales fell 3% in the third quarter of 2025, according to the trade organization Digital Entertainment Group; a year earlier, they tumbled nearly 26%.

    But sales of point-and-shoot cameras climbed 48%, year over year, in the 52 weeks ended Jan. 3, according to market research firm Circana. The number of units sold spiked 89%.

    “Waiting for a photo to develop, or download, or print, increases emotional reward,” Tadesse said. “It’s delayed gratification. … They’re trying to figure out a way to appreciate what they have because everyone’s told them that they want everything now, and life doesn’t work that way.”

    Curators, not consumers

    The brands with the most “iconic Y2K vibes” keep finding new ways to refresh the millennial look, Silverstein said. Ugg launched a line of Mini boots and its Tasman slipper. Birkenstock released more colorways and variations on its popular clogs and sandals. Hollister is constantly refreshing its in-store inventory. Other brands bubbling back up are Juicy Couture, Ed Hardy, and True Religion, Silverstein said.

    The teens and young adults Cafeteria surveys say these brands “‘get it’ as far as modern styling with the aesthetic,” Silverstein said.

    Then there are brands such as Coach and Longchamp, Millennial Core staples that come with a level of “recognizable status,” he said. These shoppers may have spotted these brands in their mom’s closet.

    The Coach Brooklyn purse — a popular tote that ranges in size — goes for $295 to $495. A Longchamp Le Pliage original tote bag costs $180.

    “It’s expensive enough to signal quality and status, but there is this aspirational-purchase language they use around them: ‘I’m waiting to buy this,’ ‘I’m saving up for it,’ ‘I’m having it in my cart for the right time,’” Silverstein said. “They have identified the product they want. … It is the goal.”

    The internet has played a crucial role in how Gen Z has adapted their style. They have endless inspiration and everything they could want on their devices, Tadesse said. Unlike millennials, who were mostly limited to discovering what was cool by reading the same magazines, watching the same TV shows, and visiting the same stores in the mall, Gen Z is less constrained, and it’s reflected in their fashion choices, Tadesse said.

    “They’re curators,” he said. “They’re able to mix and match, and do things their own way. And so that gives them the irony, the play and the ability to control traditional sense [of style], but they bring their own flavor of what’s cool.”

    “Something that could be cringe is also cool,” he said.

  • The National Constitution Center’s head departed after a leadership dispute, The New York Times reported

    The National Constitution Center’s head departed after a leadership dispute, The New York Times reported

    An escalating management dispute and chaotic board meeting preceded Jeffrey Rosen’s departure as head of the National Constitution Center, according to a report from the New York Times.

    The center publicly announced on Jan. 9 that Rosen had stepped down as president and chief executive after more than 12 years leading the private, nonprofit institution at the north end of Independence Mall. Rosen will remain as CEO emeritus; Vince Stango, a 26-year veteran of the center who has served as its executive vice president and chief operating officer, has assumed the role of interim president.

    The Times reported Friday, based on interviews with people who spoke on the condition of anonymity, that friction arose over how Rosen’s and Stango’s roles intersected: Rosen was the center’s public-facing leader, while Stango handled day-to-day operations, according to the Times.

    Jeffrey Rosen steps down as head of National Constitution Center

    A spokesperson for the center declined to comment on the Times’ article and referred The Inquirer to a previous news release, which says Rosen’s new position enables him “to devote his full time and energy to his scholarship and public dialogue.” Rosen — a constitutional scholar, law professor, and author — did not respond to a request for comment via email.

    The leadership system was breaking down, the Times reported, when board members Doug DeVos (former president of Amway) and Mike George (former president of QVC) “quietly intervened” in November, hiring an employment lawyer and pushing Rosen to cede the title of president to Stango.

    According to the Times, Rosen reluctantly agreed in mid-December, but by late December, talks of compromise had collapsed. Rosen submitted his resignation, conditional on the full board accepting it, “while making clear he hoped the board would instead reject it,” the Times article says.

    Then-National Constitution Center president Jeffrey Rosen (left) stands by as Ron Chernow (author of the biography on which ‘Hamilton’ the musical is based) shows off the 2025 Liberty Medal he was awarded at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025.

    Rosen had the backing of board member J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals court judge, who portrayed DeVos and George in emails to the board as trying to unfairly oust the center’s top executive, according to the Times. Luttig threatened to step down if the board accepted Rosen’s resignation, the Times article says.

    The tension boiled over at a board meeting in early January. The Times reported:

    • Rosen wanted to address the board, but George prevented him.
    • Luttig sent an email to the board threatening to file a lawsuit for what he called a violation of Rosen’s due process rights.
    • The meeting then devolved into a debate over Luttig’s involvement and possible conflicts of interest.
    • Luttig continued to participate and withdrew his offer to resign.
    • As of Sunday, the center’s website no longer listed Luttig as a member of its board.

    The center will conduct a national search for its next leader, The Inquirer previously reported.

    The alleged quarrel comes as the center prepares for the nation’s 250th birthday. The nonpartisan museum is known for awarding the annual Liberty Medal to notable figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; legendary boxer Muhammad Ali; and then-Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy.

    The center was also the stage for the only 2024 presidential debate between former Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

  • Trump’s voice in a new Fannie Mae ad is generated by artificial intelligence, with his permission

    Trump’s voice in a new Fannie Mae ad is generated by artificial intelligence, with his permission

    NEW YORK — What sounds like President Donald Trump narrating a new Fannie Mae ad actually is an AI-cloned voice reading text, according to a disclaimer in the video.

    The voice in the ad, created with permission from the Trump administration, promises an “all new Fannie Mae” and calls the institution the “protector of the American Dream.” The ad comes as the administration is making a big push to show voters it is responding to their concerns about affordability, including in the housing market.

    Trump plans to talk about housing at his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and corporate executives meet this week.

    This isn’t the first time a member of the Trump family has used AI to replicate their voice, first lady Melania Trump recently employed AI technology firm Eleven Labs to help voice the audio version of her memoir. It’s not known who cloned President Trump’s voice for the Fannie Mae ad.

    Last month, Trump pledged in a prime-time address that he would roll out “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”

    “For generations, homeownership meant security, independence, and stability,” Trump’s digitized voice says in the one-minute ad aired Sunday. “But today, that dream feels out of reach for too many Americans not because they stopped working hard but because the system stopped working for them.”

    Fannie Mae and its counterpart Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages that meet their risk criteria from banks, which helps provide liquidity for the housing market. The two firms guarantee roughly half of the $13 trillion U.S. home loan market and are a bedrock of the U.S. economy.

    The ad says Fannie Mae will work with the banking industry to approve more would-be homebuyers for mortgages.

    Trump, Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others have said they want to sell shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a major stock exchange but no concrete plans have been set.

    Trump and Pulte have also floated extending the 30-year mortgage to 50 years in order to lower monthly payments. Trump appeared to back off the proposal after critics said a longer-term loan would reduce people’s ability to create housing equity and increase their own wealth.

    Trump also said on social media earlier this month that he was directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he said would help reduce mortgage rates at a time when Americans are anxious about home prices. Trump said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $200 billion in cash that will be used to make the purchase.

    Earlier this month, Trump also said he wants to block large institutional investors from buying houses, saying that a ban would make it easier for younger families to buy their first homes.

    Trump’s permission for the use of AI is interesting given that he has complained about aides in the Biden administration using autopen to apply the former president’s signature to laws, pardons, or executive orders. An autopen is a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature.

    However, a report issued by House Republicans does not include any concrete evidence that autopen was used to sign Biden’s name without his knowledge.

  • $1 billion gets a permanent seat on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza, as India and others invited

    $1 billion gets a permanent seat on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza, as India and others invited

    At least six more countries said Sunday the United States has invited them to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” a new body of world leaders meant to oversee next steps in Gaza that’s showing ambitions for a broader mandate in global affairs.

    A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership on the Trump-led board instead of a three-year appointment, which has no contribution requirement, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity about the charter, which hasn’t been made public. The official said the money raised would go to rebuilding Gaza.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accepted an invitation to join the board, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told state radio on Sunday. Orbán is one of Trump’s most ardent supporters in Europe.

    India has received an invitation, a senior government official with knowledge of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the information hadn’t been made public by authorities.

    Jordan, Greece, Cyprus, and Pakistan also said Sunday they had received invitations. Canada, Turkey, Egypt, Paraguay, Argentina, and Albania have already said they were invited. It was not clear how many have been invited in all.

    The U.S. is expected to announce its official list of members in the coming days, likely during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

    Those on the board will oversee next steps in Gaza as the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10 moves into its challenging second phase. It includes a new Palestinian committee in Gaza, the deployment of an international security force, disarmament of Hamas, and reconstruction of the war-battered territory.

    In letters sent Friday to world leaders inviting them to be “founding members,” Trump said the Board of Peace would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict.”

    It could become a potential rival to the United Nations Security Council, the most powerful body of the global entity created in the wake of World War II. The 15-seat council has been blocked by U.S. vetoes from taking action to end the war in Gaza, while the U.N.’s clout has been diminished by major funding cuts by the Trump administration and other donors.

    Trump’s invitation letters for the Board of Peace noted that the Security Council had endorsed the U.S. 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, which includes the board’s creation. The letters were posted on social media by some invitees.

    The White House last week also announced an executive committee of leaders who will carry out the Board of Peace’s vision, but Israel on Saturday objected that the committee “was not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy,” without details. The statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was rare criticism of its close ally in Washington.

    The executive committee’s members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump’s deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel, along with an Israeli business owner, billionaire Yakir Gabay.

    Members also include representatives of ceasefire monitors Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey. Turkey has a strained relationship with Israel but good relations with Hamas and could play an important role in persuading the group to yield power in Gaza and disarm.

  • Flyers place Rodrigo Ābols on injured reserve, recall Lane Pederson from Lehigh Valley

    Flyers place Rodrigo Ābols on injured reserve, recall Lane Pederson from Lehigh Valley

    LAS VEGAS — As the Flyers try to work their way out of a six-game losing streak, they’ll have to do it without Rodrigo Ābols.

    The fourth-line center and penalty killer was injured Saturday, 6 minutes, 10 seconds into a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Ābols appeared to get his right toe stuck in the ice along the boards in the offensive zone, and his ankle buckled.

    One of the first players named to Latvia’s team for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, Ābols was unable to skate off the ice without help. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said postgame, “It’s not good. I’m not going to get into it, but it’s not good.”

    On Sunday, the 30-year-old was placed on injured reserve. He had three goals and 10 points in 42 games while averaging 10 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time leading up to Saturday. Ābols doubled his point total from last year in 22 games, one of which was his NHL debut.

    Flyers lose their sixth straight to the lowly Rangers amid boos

    In a corresponding move, Lane Pederson was called up from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Although Pederson was not at practice on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena, as he made his way from Allentown after playing for the Phantoms on Saturday night, coach Rick Tocchet said he could get some time in the NHL with the center position now thin.

    “We need a centerman, a quick centerman, some speed through the middle,” the coach said. “Can he supply that for us? Yeah, maybe he can. He’s looking for consistency, and so hopefully we can help him.”

    Signed by the Flyers to a one-year, two-way deal worth $775,000 in the NHL on July 1, Pederson was centering the top line for the farm team — at one point between Denver Barkey and Alex Bump. Pederson has 13 goals and 28 points in 37 games, with three of his goals on the power play, one shorthanded, and two game-winners.

    A career minor leaguer, the 28-year-old has played 71 NHL games across four teams: the Arizona Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Columbus Blue Jackets.

    His tenure in Arizona crossed paths with Tocchet, the team with whom he made his NHL debut on April 2, 2021, during the COVID-19-shortened season. An undrafted forward, Pederson scored his first NHL goal in his debut.

    And they worked together briefly in Vancouver. Tocchet was hired on Jan. 22, 2023, and Pederson was picked up on waivers by Columbus six days later.

    “He’s a good skater,” Tocchet said. “The thing he’s been chasing is consistency. We had him for a couple of games, and then it’s a drop-off, right? So, he’s been around the block. Here’s a chance for him. We need him.”

    McDonald is no longer on the farm

    Hunter McDonald got a front-row seat to the Flyers’ recent woes on Saturday. The hulking 6-foot-4, 235-pound defenseman was pulled aside by assistant general manager Alyn McCauley after the Phantoms game on Friday and told to pack his bags. He watched the loss to New York from the press box before joining the Orange and Black on the flight to Nevada.

    “Obviously, excitement. Called my parents right away and stuff like that. So just sharing the good news and more work to be had,” said McDonald, the Flyers’ sixth-round pick in 2022.

    The recall became official Saturday night after Rasmus Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Although a team source said the early findings were positive and that they may have avoided the worst-case scenario, the defenseman did not make the trip west. He was placed on IR to give the Flyers a seventh defenseman.

    Although his parents are on standby in Western New York, there are no guarantees McDonald gets into one of the three games on the road trip this week, beginning Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights (8 p.m., NBCSP). He skated with forward Nic Deslauriers, who was originally drafted as a defenseman, on the fourth pair at practice.

    “He’s played better,” Tocchet said when asked about the reports he received on McDonald. “I think he had a tough start, from what I’ve heard, but I think the last couple of weeks, I think he’s finding his game a little bit.”

    McDonald has five assists in 33 games and is plus-7 with the Phantoms. He has 61 penalty minutes but has been working at finding the line between being a physical defenseman and not getting sent to the penalty box. But don’t worry, the guy who was called a “throwback” to the Broad Street Bullies days by Jerry Keefe, his coach at Northeastern, is still there.

    “I think a bit. Kind of, hitting people,” McDonald said with a chuckle. “I know that’s kind of like what it is, but coming near our net, I want to get a stick on you, ending plays. I think that’s a super important part of the game. If I can end these plays in the D zone, be a pain to play against, and then we can go play offense.”

    Tocchet wasn’t one to shy away from the physical game during his days with the Flyers and called a player who can toe the line between physical and not taking penalties “the ultimate player.”

    “I think like for him is just being a good first-pass D, being really good in front of the net,” Tocchet said. “And he skates pretty well for a big guy. Big guys, you get a guy that can skate, so there’s something there.”

    From sixth-round pick to the NHL? Danny Brière likes Hunter McDonald’s chances.

    Breakaways

    Bobby Brink was a full participant at practice Sunday and skated alongside Matvei Michkov and Noah Cates, with whom he was on a line before suffering an upper-body injury. Brink has missed six games after a blindside hit by Jansen Harkins of the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 6. … Goalie Dan Vladař, who was injured against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, made the trip but did not participate in practice. … It looked like Tocchet mixed up the defensive pairings with Travis Sanheim and Emil Andrae together, and Cam York skating with Noah Juulsen. Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale were reunited. … The Flyers will not face former teammate Carter Hart in Las Vegas. The goalie suffered a lower-body injury on Jan. 8 and went on IR on Jan. 15.

  • Sending soldiers to Minneapolis for immigration crackdown would be unconstitutional, mayor says

    Sending soldiers to Minneapolis for immigration crackdown would be unconstitutional, mayor says

    MINNEAPOLIS — The mayor of Minneapolis said Sunday that sending active duty soldiers into Minnesota to help with an immigration crackdown is a ridiculous and unconstitutional idea as he urged protesters to remain peaceful so the president won’t see a need to send in the U.S. military.

    Daily protests have been ongoing throughout January since the Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers.

    Three hotels where protesters have said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were staying in the area stopped taking reservations Sunday.

    In a diverse neighborhood where immigration officers have been frequently seen, U.S. postal workers marched through on Sunday, chanting: “Protect our routes. Get ICE out.”

    Soldiers specialized in arctic duty told to be ready

    The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers based in Alaska who specialize in operating in arctic conditions to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, two defense officials said Sunday.

    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders.

    One defense official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act.

    The rarely used 19th century law would allow him to send military troops into Minnesota, where protesters have been confronting federal immigration agents for weeks. He has since backed off the threat, at least for now.

    “It’s ridiculous, but we will not be intimidated by the actions of this federal government,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “It is not fair, it’s not just, and it’s completely unconstitutional.”

    Thousands of Minneapolis citizens are exercising their First Amendment rights and the protests have been peaceful, Frey said.

    “We are not going to take the bait. We will not counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos here,” Frey said.

    Gov. Tim Walz has mobilized the Minnesota National Guard, although no units have been deployed to the streets.

    Hotels protesters said are connected to ICE close

    At least three hotels in Minneapolis-St. Paul that protesters said housed officers in the immigrant crackdown were not accepting reservations Sunday. Rooms could not be booked online before early February at the Hilton DoubleTree and IHG InterContinental hotels in downtown St. Paul and at the Hilton Canopy hotel in Minneapolis.

    Over the phone, an InterContinental hotel front desk employee said it was closing for the safety of the staff, but declined to comment on the safety concerns. The DoubleTree and InterContinental hotels had empty lobbies with signs out front saying they were “temporarily closed for business until further notice.” The Canopy was open, but not accepting reservations

    The three hotels have been the site of protests with demonstrators saying federal agents were staying there.

    IHG did not immediately return requests for comment Sunday.

    U.S. postal workers march and protest

    Peter Noble joined dozens of other U.S. Post Office workers Sunday on their only day off from their mail routes to march against the immigration crackdown. They passed by the place where an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, during a Jan. 7 confrontation.

    “I’ve seen them driving recklessly around the streets while I am on my route, putting lives in danger,” Noble said.

    Letter carrier Susan Becker said she came out to march on the coldest day since the crackdown started because it’s important to keep telling the federal government she thinks what it is doing is wrong. She said people on her route have reported ICE breaking into apartment buildings and tackling people in the parking lots of shopping centers.

    “These people are by and large citizens and immigrants. But they’re citizens, and they deserve to be here; they’ve earned their place and they are good people,” Becker said.

    GOP congressman asks governor to tone down comments

    A Republican U.S. House member called for Walz to tone down his comments about fighting the federal government and instead start to help law enforcement.

    Many of the officers in Minnesota are neighbors just doing the jobs they were sent to do, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told WCCO-AM in Minneapolis.

    “These are not mean-spirited people. But right now, they feel like they’re under attack. They don’t know where the next attack is going to come from and who it is. So people need to keep in mind this starts at the top,” Emmer said.

    Across social media, videos have been posted of federal officers spraying protesters with pepper spray, knocking down doors, and forcibly taking people into custody. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that immigration officers can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when they’re observing the officers during the Minnesota crackdown.

  • Why Bernice King sees MLK Day as a ‘saving grace’ in today’s political climate

    Why Bernice King sees MLK Day as a ‘saving grace’ in today’s political climate

    ATLANTA — Against a backdrop of political division and upheaval, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter said the holiday honoring her father’s legacy comes as “somewhat of a saving grace” this year.

    “I say that because it inserts a sense of sanity and morality into our very troubling climate right now,” the Rev. Bernice King said in an interview with the Associated Press. “With everything going on, the one thing that I think Dr. King reminds people of is hope and the ability to challenge injustice and inhumanity.”

    The holiday comes as President Donald Trump is about to mark the first anniversary of his second term in office on Tuesday. The “three evils” — poverty, racism, and militarism — that the civil rights leader identified in a 1967 speech as threats to a democratic society “are very present and manifesting through a lot of what’s happening” under Trump’s leadership, Bernice King said.

    King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, cited efforts to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; directives to scrub key parts of history from government websites and remove “improper ideology” from Smithsonian museums; and immigration enforcement operations in multiple cities that have turned violent and resulted in the separation of families.

    “Everything President Trump does is in the best interest of the American people,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in an email. “That includes rolling back harmful DEI agendas, deporting dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities, or ensuring we are being honest about our country’s great history.”

    Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said King’s words “ring more true today.”

    “We’re at a period in our history where we literally have a regime actively working to erase the Civil Rights movement,” she said. “This has been an administration dismantling intentionally and with ideological fervor every advancement we have made since the Civil War.”

    Wiley also recalled that King warned that “the prospect of war abroad was undermining to the beloved community globally and it was taking away from the ability for us to take care of all our people.” Trump’s administration has engaged in military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats and captured Venezuela’s president in a surprise raid earlier this month.

    Bernice King said she’s not sure what her father would make of the United States today, nearly six decades after his assassination.

    “He’s not here. It’s a different world,” she said. “But what I can say is his teachings transcend time and he taught us, I think, the way to address injustice through his nonviolent philosophy and methodology.”

    Nonviolence should be embraced not just by those who are protesting and fighting against what they believe are injustices, but should also be adopted by immigration agents and other law enforcement officers, she said. To that end, she added, the King Center previously developed a curriculum that it now plans to redevelop to help officers see that they can carry out their duties while also respecting people’s humanity.

    Even amid the “troubling climate” in the country right now, Bernice King said there is no question that “we have made so much progress as a nation.” The civil rights movement that her parents helped lead brought more people into mainstream politics who have sensitivity and compassion, she said. Despite efforts to scrap DEI initiatives and the deportation of people from around the world, “the inevitability is we’re so far into our diversity you can’t put that back in a box,” she said.

    To honor her father’s legacy this year, she urged people to look inward.

    “I think we spend a lot of time looking at everybody else and what everybody else is not doing or doing, and we’re looking out the window at all the problems of the world and talking about how bad they are and we don’t spend a lot of time on ourselves personally,” she said.

    King endorsed participation in service projects to observe the holiday because they foster connection, sensitize people to the struggles of others, and help us to understand each other better. But she said people should also look at what they can do in the year to come to further her father’s teachings.

    “I think we have the opportunity to use this as a measuring point from year to year in terms of what we’re doing to move our society in a more just, humane, equitable, and peaceful way,” she said.

  • Thousands of fans celebrate life of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir in San Francisco

    Thousands of fans celebrate life of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir in San Francisco

    SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of people gathered Saturday at San Francisco’s Civic Center to celebrate the life of Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead who died last week at age 78.

    Musicians Joan Baez and John Mayer spoke on a makeshift stage in front of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium after four Buddhist monks opened the event with a prayer in Tibetan. Fans carried long-stemmed red roses, placing some at an altar filled with photos and candles. They wrote notes on colored paper, professing their love and thanking him for the journey.

    Several asked him to say hello to fellow singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia and bass guitarist Phil Lesh, also founding members who preceded him in death. Garcia died in 1995; Lesh died in 2024.

    “I’m here to celebrate Bob Weir,” said Ruthie Garcia, who is no relation to Jerry, a fan since 1989. “Celebrating him and helping him go home.”

    Saturday’s celebration brought plenty of fans with long dreadlocks and wearing tie-dye clothing, some using walkers. But there were also young couples, men in their 20s, and a father who brought his 6-year-old son in order to pass on to the next generation a love of live music and the tight-knit Deadhead community.

    The Bay Area native joined the Grateful Dead — originally the Warlocks — in 1965 in San Francisco at just 17 years old. He wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night,” and “Mexicali Blues.” He was generally considered less shaggy looking than the other band members, although he adopted a long beard like Garcia’s later in life.

    The Dead played music that pulled in blues, jazz, country, folk, and psychedelia in long improvisational jams. Their concerts attracted avid Deadheads who followed them on tours. The band played on decades after Garcia’s death, morphing into Dead & Company with John Mayer.

    Darla Sagos, who caught an early flight out of Seattle Saturday morning to make the public mourning, said she suspected something was up when there were no new gigs announced after Dead & Company played three nights in San Francisco last summer. It was unusual, as Weir’s calendar often showed where he would be playing next.

    “We were hoping that everything was OK and that we were going to get more music from him,” she said. “But we will continue the music, with all of us and everyone that’s going to be playing it.”

    Sagos and her husband, Adam Sagos, have a 1-year-old grandson who will grow up knowing the music.

    A statement on Weir’s Instagram account announced his passing Jan. 10. It said he beat cancer, but he succumbed to underlying lung issues. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, who were at Saturday’s event.

    His death was sudden and unexpected, said daughter Monet Weir, but he had always wished for the music and the legacy of the Dead to outlast him.

    American music, he believed, could unite, she said.

    “The show must go on,” Monet Weir said.