Author: Media Team

President Donald Trump has signaled that he could activate the Insurrection Act — a rarely used federal law that permits the deployment of U.S. military forces domestically — in response to growing protests in Minneapolis. The unrest has been fueled by demonstrations against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city, which intensified after two recent shootings involving ICE agents, including one that left a man wounded. In posts on social media, Trump urged Minnesota officials to stop what he called “agitators and insurrectionists” targeting ICE personnel. He said if local authorities fail to control the situation, he…

Pop star Ariana Grande and actor Jonathan Bailey are reuniting for a major theatrical production in London. The pair, who recently starred together in the Wicked films, confirmed they will lead the cast of Sunday in the Park with George, a celebrated musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. The revival is scheduled to open in the summer of 2027 at the Barbican Centre in London’s West End. Grande is expected to take on the role of Dot, while Bailey will portray the artist Georges Seurat, the fictionalized painter at the heart of the story. Directed by acclaimed theatre director…

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have unsealed charges against 20 individuals, including 15 former NCAA Division I basketball players, alleging they were part of a sophisticated betting operation that manipulated the outcomes of college games and matches in the Chinese Basketball Association. According to the indictment, authorities say the conspiracy ran from around late 2022 through early 2025 and involved bribe payments to players—often between about $10,000 and $30,000 per game—to deliberately underperform or otherwise influence game results for the benefit of illegal wagers placed by others. In addition to the former collegiate players, the other defendants are described as “fixers”…

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, integrated into his social platform X, has been updated to prevent it from producing explicit or revealing images of real people after widespread criticism and regulatory scrutiny. The change comes amid a global backlash over the tool being used to create so called “digital undressing” content, including non consensual images of adults and minors. X’s safety team announced that the platform has put technological safeguards in place to block Grok from editing photos to depict individuals in provocative clothing such as bikinis or underwear, particularly in regions where such imagery is illegal. These protections apply…

Nationwide protests continued across Iran as demonstrators have taken to the streets for the 18th day in a row, marking one of the most sustained challenges to the country’s leadership in years. The unrest, which began in late December 2025 amid skyrocketing inflation and economic hardship, has spread to dozens of cities and provinces and prompted a near total internet blackout that has severely limited communications inside the country. Activist groups report that more than 2,600 people have died in the government’s crackdown on protesters so far. In response to the ongoing violence, the United States announced sanctions targeting senior…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has faced scrutiny for images and messaging used in a campaign to recruit new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff amid a tense law enforcement environment in Minnesota. As DHS expands its presence in Minneapolis and the surrounding area with what it calls its largest immigration enforcement effort ever, critics have raised questions about how the department is portraying agents and the public response to recent events, including fatal and non fatal shootings involving ICE officers that sparked protests. In the wake of the Minneapolis shooting of a 37 year old woman by an…

Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado arrived at the White House to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, marking a significant diplomatic engagement amid ongoing political shifts in Venezuela. Machado, a longtime critic of the former Maduro government and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, traveled to Washington to press her case for U.S. support in advancing democratic elections and shaping her country’s future. Her visit comes in the wake of a U.S. military action that led to the capture of Venezuela’s previous president, and as Trump has publicly questioned her domestic influence while showing support for Venezuela’s…

A Tennessee college basketball player was killed in a shooting on a Nashville interstate, and police are actively seeking information about the suspects involved, authorities said. The victim, 20-year-old Andre Bell, was a sophomore at Fisk University and was driving with two friends on Interstate 65 north after attending an event when the incident occurred. A dark sedan pulled up beside their vehicle, and shots were fired, striking Bell in the head, police reported. After being hit, Bell’s car slowed and spun into traffic before colliding with a pickup truck. The shooter’s vehicle then fled the scene. Bell was rushed…

The University of South Florida’s leadership has voted to raise tuition and fees for students who are not Florida residents, a change that will take effect in the fall of 2026. At a recent meeting, USF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a 15 % hike in non-resident tuition and related charges after receiving approval from the Florida Board of Governors. The increase will apply to both out-of-state and international students, while tuition for in-state students will remain the same. University officials explained that this change represents the second phase of a state-allowed two-year adjustment strategy. Last year, a 10 %…

A widespread outage affecting Verizon’s network on January 14, 2026 caused many users across the United States to lose normal cell service and see their phones display “SOS” or “SOS only” — a sign that the device isn’t connected to its carrier’s network but can still make emergency calls. Reports of service problems began climbing around midday, with tens of thousands of customers noting issues with voice calls, mobile data, and signal strength on the outage tracking site Downdetector. Verizon acknowledged the disruption on social media, saying engineers were actively working to fix the problem and apologizing for the inconvenience.…