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U.S. men’s hockey team cruises to 5-1 win over Latvia in their first game of 2026 Winter Olympics

Updated on: February 12, 2026 / 8:43 PM EST / CBS/AP

The U.S. goal song — “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd — blared seven times over arena speakers on Thursday night. Twice, the celebration was only short-lived.

Bouncing back from having a pair of goals wiped out by coach’s challenges, the U.S. opened the Olympics by rolling past Latvia 5-1 in a dominant showcase of some of the country’s best NHL players. Brock Nelson scored twice, four players had two assists apiece, and there was production up and down the lineup.

“We believe in the depth we have,” winger Jake Guentzel said. “There’s good players on every line. That’s just where American hockey is right now.”

Brock Nelson of the United States celebrates his goal with teammates during the men’s Group A match against Latvia in the Winter Olympics at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 12, 2026, in Milan, Italy. Maryam Majd / Getty Images

After a weird first period with a couple of video reviews and a tying goal by Latvia, the Americans found their groove and for long stretches barely let their opponents have the puck. The U.S. outshot Latvia 38-18 and needed starter Connor Hellebuyck to make only 17 saves.

“I felt like we controlled the play,” center Jack Eichel said. “We’re going to continue to get better every game in this tournament, every period in this tournament. That’s our goal, and it’s a good start for us.”

Elvis Merzlikins was under siege at the other end, and after Nelson’s second goal he sat in the crease with his head bowed in his lap. An odd-man rush became a version of the Harlem Globetrotters on ice with pass after pass: Jack Hughes to brother Quinn to Matthew Tkachuk, back to Jack and then to Nelson to tap into a half-open net with 11.1 seconds left in the second period.

“I don’t think there’s much to do,” Merzlikins said. “If that guy wouldn’t score, probably the other guy would score because I felt completely two open guys, and it’s hard to save something like that.”

Arturs Silovs of Team Latvia reacts after conceding a goal to the U.S. in the third period of their Group A match in the Winter Olympics at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 12, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images

Brady Tkachuk scored the first U.S. goal of the tournament less than six minutes in, and Tage Thompson roofed a nifty backhander on the power play, making coach Mike Sullivan look smart for putting the 6-foot-6 winger on the loaded top unit. Four goals on 32 shots was enough to chase Merzlikins, who was pulled to start the third for Arturs Silovs.

Captain Auston Matthews welcomed Silovs to the Olympics with a power-play goal, assisted on by Eichel and Quinn Hughes. Each of them had two assists, along with Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Hughes.

“I just think the depth that we have, it showed,” Brady Tkachuk said. “I thought everybody played a great game tonight. You just see the buy-in. You see the buy-in of every line playing the right way.”

Speaking to CBS News after the game, Jack Hughes noted that the smaller ice rink used in the Winter Olympics has not been a major issue.

“Talking about it beforehand, you think it would be a much bigger deal,” Jack Hughes said. “You know, so, the rink’s pretty nice. I’m sure as the tournament gets along, the ice will get better. When you’re out there, the size isn’t too big of a difference.”

And asked by CBS News about the NHL’s in-season pause during the Olympics, and whether he believes Olympic hockey is better, Thompson responded: “I just think it’s best on best, you know, I think any time you’re taking all the best hockey players and having them represent their country, there comes another level of pride when you wear your colors. And obviously, the intensity gets heightened.”

The U.S. plays Denmark on Saturday night before wrapping up the preliminary round 24 hours later against Germany.

韩国就无人机事件表遗憾 金与正评价为“较符合常理”

2026年2月13日 09:14 / 联合早报

朝鲜劳动党副部长[金与正]发表谈话，就韩国统一部长官郑东泳对[韩方无人机入朝事件]表示遗憾，评价为“比较符合常理的行动”，并敦促韩国制定对策防范类似事情重演。

朝中社星期五（2月13日）报道，金与正12日说，很庆幸郑东泳10日对新年伊始发生的无人机渗透朝鲜事件正式表示遗憾。她强调称，韩国有关部门不应仅以表示遗憾等方式掩盖其制造的危机，必须采取措施确保侵犯朝鲜领土和主权的事件不再重演。

金与正说，不管投放无人机的主犯是个人还是民间团体，朝方都不感兴趣。朝鲜所要强调的问题是，侵犯朝鲜领空的严重主权侵犯行为源自韩国。若主权侵犯行为再次发生，朝鲜必将采取严厉的应对措施。

金与正是朝鲜领导人[金正恩]的胞妹。

郑东泳10日在首尔明洞教堂出席一场弥撒时致辞称，李在明政府追求韩朝彼此认可、和平共处，他就韩方无人机渗透事件向朝鲜深表遗憾。这是韩国高官首次就无人机事件向朝鲜表示遗憾。

CIA pitches Chinese military officers on helping the US in new video amid officer purge in China

By Zachary Cohen | 18 min ago | PUBLISHED Feb 12, 2026, 8:44 PM ET

The CIA is ramping up its efforts to recruit Chinese spies by releasing a new Mandarin-language video on Thursday that appeals directly to the country’s military officers who may be disillusioned with the corruption in their current government and President Xi Jinping’s extensive purges of top generals.

It portrays a fictional mid-level military officer “making the difficult decision to stay true to his values and forge a better path for his family by contacting CIA,” a CIA official told CNN.

“Anyone with leadership ability will inevitably be feared and ruthlessly eliminated,” the video’s narrator says. “I cannot allow these madmen to shape my daughter’s future world.”

The new video seeks to build upon a recruitment push that the agency launched last year and helped cultivate new sources within China that are critical for collecting human intelligence, the CIA official said, suggesting the agency has had some recent success targeting a government it has historically struggled to penetrate.

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CIA Video on Chinese Military Officers

1:35 • Source: CNN

CIA Video on Chinese Military Officers

1:35

“We’re going to continue offering Chinese government officials and citizens an opportunity to work toward a brighter future together,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement to CNN.

During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe emphasized that China would be a top priority for the agency, and US officials have indicated that the CIA has made strides in reestablishing its network of sources inside the country that was thought to be lost just a few years ago.

Starting in 2010, the US lost a string of spies in China as part of a two year counterintelligence campaign that the New York Times described as “crippling intelligence gathering.” Rebuilding that network has been a yearslong campaign for intelligence chiefs.

A CIA official told CNN that the videos have successfully led to the recruitment of new intelligence sources inside the country.

“The videos are working, and their wall isn’t perfect,” the official said, referring to the perception that Xi’s government had largely shielded itself from the prying eyes of US intelligence agencies.

The CIA believes it has an opportunity to potentially expand its visibility into Xi’s government — in part — by exploiting his intensifying crackdown on China’s military leadership.

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has consistently sought to keep China’s military hierarchy in check through periodic purges of top leaders, which are part of a broader anti-corruption drive that has punished more than 200,000 officials to date.

In recent years, Xi’s purge has depleted the military’s upper echelon, with more than 20 senior military officials placed under investigation or ousted since 2023.

And now, US officials believe Xi may be moving to consolidate power even further — pointing to the removal of China’s top general earlier this year in an unprecedented shake-up that analysts say was likely intended to further ensure the loyalty of officers within the military’s ranks.

The new recruitment video is part of a broader effort to counter what American officials say is the foremost strategic threat facing the US today and weaken a Chinese government that has historically proven to be one of the most difficult intelligence targets to penetrate.

特朗普起诉BBC诽谤案定2027年2月开庭 | 联合早报

发布/2026年2月13日 10:23

特朗普起诉BBC诽谤案定2027年2月开庭

2024年播出的BBC纪录片《特朗普：第二次机会？》将特朗普2021年1月6日的两段讲话拼接在一起，使他看起来似在煽动支持者制造骚乱。 （法新社）

美国佛罗里达州南区联邦地区法院法官星期四（2月12日）驳回英国广播公司（BBC）提出的暂缓美国总统特朗普起诉BBC诽谤案一项审前程序的请求，并宣布案件定于2027年2月开庭审理。

新华社报道，BBC于1月提出申请推迟特朗普起诉BBC诽谤案证据开示程序，证据开示程序可能需要BBC提交大量与其对特朗普报道相关的电邮和其他材料。美国佛州联邦法官认为，上述申请“为时尚早”。

英国《每日电讯报》网络版去年11月独家披露一份BBC内部备忘录的部分内容。备忘录显示，BBC《全景》栏目2024年播出的纪录片《特朗普：第二次机会？》，剪辑拼接特朗普在2021年1月6日的两段讲话，使他看起来似在煽动支持者制造骚乱。

BBC剪辑拼接特朗普讲话引发巨大舆论争议。特朗普律师团队随即要求BBC撤回相关纪录片并道歉，否则将提起诉讼，并索赔至少10亿美元（约12亿6361万新元）。

BBC随后就误导性剪辑向特朗普道歉，但拒绝赔偿要求。此后，特朗普对BBC提起诉讼，共索赔100亿美元。BBC一直寻求驳回此案。

延伸阅读

特朗普起诉默多克和新闻集团 索赔百亿美元 特朗普要起诉《纽约时报》诽谤 索赔150亿美元

2021年1月6日，来自全美各地约2000多名特朗普的支持者暴力硬闯美国国会大厦，引发致命骚乱。

CBP officer faces federal charges over allegations he harbored an unauthorized immigrant who was also his girlfriend and niece

February 12, 2026 / 9:22 PM EST / CBS News

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer is facing federal criminal charges over allegations he harbored an immigrant who officials say is in the country illegally and is also the officer’s girlfriend and niece.

The Justice Department alleges that CBP officer and supervisor Andres Wilkinson was living in Laredo, Texas, with a woman who had overstayed her visa and is now in the U.S. illegally. The woman entered the U.S. on a temporary visa in August 2023, according to the criminal complaint filed earlier this month.

Wilkinson allegedly provided her “financial support, including housing, credit cards, assistance with financial obligations and access to vehicle,” the Justice Department said. The criminal complaint states they traveled together through Border Patrol checkpoints near the Texas border.

The Justice Department said Wilkinson was “aware of her unlawful immigration status yet maintained a romantic relationship with her.”

According to the complaint, officials collected information “indicating” that the woman is actually Wilkinson’s niece, and that she’s married to another man. But the complaint also says that her husband, who had filed a green card application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on her behalf in January 2024, canceled the petition in April 2025. A month later, the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility observed Wilkinson, the woman and her daughter together and investigated their relationship for months.

CBP OPR investigators found that the woman was the daughter of a man named J. Santos Garcia-Moreno, whom Wilkinson had listed as his brother in his 2023 background investigation. And when CBP OPR detained the woman in February 2026, she admitted she had been living with Wilkinson since August 2024.

CBS News reached out to an attorney listed as Wilkinson’s lawyer and has yet to hear back. CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If convicted, Wilkinson, 52, could face up to 10 years in prison and potentially a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said. He made an initial appearance and remains in custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday, officials said.

Wilkinson has been with CBP for almost 25 years and was promoted in 2021 to a supervisory role, where his duties included overseeing the enforcement of immigration laws, according to the Justice Department.

US senators sharply question Trump officials about Pretti shooting, use of force

February 12, 2026 7:11 PM UTC / Reuters

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott sits next to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons as they attend a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in… [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]Read more

• Summary

• Top Republican and Democrat play Pretti shooting video for Trump officials
• Trump officials defend enforcement actions amid scrutiny
• Public support for Trump’s immigration agenda has declined

Feb 12 (Reuters) – The top Republican and Democrat on a U.S. Senate committee played video showing the lead-up to the shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti to Trump immigration officials at a hearing on Thursday, sharply questioning whether the use of force was appropriate.

The committee’s Republican chairman, U.S. Senator Rand Paul, said the video clearly showed Pretti was backing away when a border officer doused him with pepper spray at close range during the January encounter, which sparked nationwide scrutiny of Trump administration immigration tactics.

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“He is retreating at every moment. He’s trying to get away, and he’s being sprayed in the face,” Paul said, adding that the officer’s use of pepper spray was “escalatory.”

PRETTI ‘FIGHTING BACK’: CBP COMMISSIONER

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, one of the Trump officials testifying, said a full investigation would be needed to determine whether the use of force was appropriate.

“What I’m seeing is a subject that’s also not compliant. He’s not following any guidance. He’s fighting back nonstop,” Scott said.

In a later exchange, Scott and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons agreed that spraying someone who is backing away was not proper procedure.

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The hearing marked the second time this week that Scott, Lyons and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joe Edlow faced scrutiny from a congressional committee over Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

The Trump officials defended their agencies’ actions and said the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good would need to be investigated, a departure from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump officials who quickly cast Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists.”

Paul said the rush to judgment hurt the administration’s credibility.

“People aren’t believing there’s going to be an honest investigation,” he said.

Earlier in the day, White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration would draw down its presence in Minnesota after a surge that has led to mounting criticism. Public support for Trump’s immigration agenda fell to the lowest point in his presidency in January, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls.

Paul, a libertarian from Kentucky, criticized immigration officers drawing weapons in situations where there was no clear threat.

“I don’t think they’re living up to the same standard of the police,” Paul said. “I think the police, frankly, are better trained.”

TENSE EXCHANGES OVER IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan questioned Lyons about whether ICE officers had the authority to be deployed to U.S. polling stations, referencing a recent Trump call to “nationalize” elections.

“There’s no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility,” Lyons said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard from Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Ellison called on Congress to require the FBI to conduct a full investigation into the Good and Pretti killings and for ICE to “provide a full, transparent accounting of everyone stopped, detained, arrested and deported from Minnesota.”

Harry Niska, the top Republican in the Minnesota State House of Representatives, criticized Ellison for issuing legal opinions that made it harder for state authorities to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

“Arresting a suspect in the secure environment of a jail is safe and efficient,” Niska said. “Forcing that arrest to happen in a home or a workplace … drastically increases the risk to officers in the public.”

Paul Schnell, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, said there has been “wide-scale cooperation” with ICE but that the Trump administration surge had strained that collaboration.

Reporting by Ted Hesson; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Rod Nickel

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A timeline of Trump’s Minnesota immigration crackdown

February 12, 2026 8:47 PM UTC / Reuters

节点运行失败

Local police detain a protester against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota, U.S. February 11, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Feb 12 (Reuters) – White House border czar Tom Homan announced on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to end an immigration-enforcement surge in Minnesota, drawing down thousands of federal agents whose presence provoked tumultuous protests for weeks.

Here’s a timeline of events in the operation:

December 1, 2025: The federal government launches Operation Metro Surge “to significantly increase ‘at-large’ arrests of illegal aliens in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.” The move comes after attacks by Trump and other federal officials on Minnesota’s Somali community, which they accuse of fraud involving millions of federal dollars intended for social services. Operation Metro Surge will ultimately send nearly 3,000 additional federal officers and agents to the Twin Cities.

December 18: Minneapolis police chief criticizes federal immigration officers for dragging a woman through a snowy city street and waving a firearm at onlookers, some of whom were recording the scene. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says in a statement that agents arrested two U.S. citizens for assaulting federal officers.

January 7: Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had been observing ICE operations is shot dead in her car by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, setting off protests and a sharp debate about her killing. State investigators say they are shut out of the federal inquiry into the shooting.

January 8: As protests over the shooting of Good reverberate across Minnesota and the U.S., a U.S. border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland, Oregon, while conducting a vehicle stop.

January 11: Tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets of Minneapolis and other U.S. cities as part of more than 1,000 rallies organized to protest the Trump administration’s deportation drive.

January 12: Minnesota sues the Trump administration in an effort to block the surge of immigration-enforcement officers, accusing the Republican administration of racially profiling its citizens and of targeting Minnesota because of its Democratic leanings. Democratic stronghold Illinois, where an immigration crackdown named “Operation Midway Blitz” began in 2025, files a similar lawsuit.

January 13: At least a dozen federal prosecutors indicate plans to leave the U.S. Justice Department over the Trump administration’s handling of Good’s shooting and other civil rights cases.

January 16: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accuse Trump of weaponizing the Justice Department against his enemies after it is reported that the agency has opened a criminal investigation into them and other state officials over an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents.

January 20: ICE agents detain five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Ecuadoreans who both entered the U.S. legally as asylum applicants, as they arrive home from preschool. Both are taken to a family detention facility in Texas. ICE agents apprehend three other students from Conejo Ramos’ school district in the same week.

January 22: Federal agents arrest three Minnesotans who took part in a demonstration inside a church against a pastor they say has a leadership role with ICE. Eventually nine people, including former CNN host Don Lemon who had been covering the protest, will face federal charges of violating religious rights in connection with the demonstration, alarming First Amendment proponents.

January 24: Federal immigration officers fatally shoot Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse trying to help other protesters. Video of the encounter verified by Reuters shows Pretti holding a cellphone as he was wrestled to the ground by agents, and an officer removing a gun from Pretti’s body shortly before the first shots were fired.

January 26: The Trump administration confirms that Homan is taking over Operation Metro Surge from Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official who has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats and civil liberties proponents. After a private phone call, Trump and Walz signal a thaw in their relationship and a mutual effort to defuse tensions.

February 4: The Trump administration withdraws some 700 federal immigration-enforcement agentsfrom Minnesota, leaving about 2,000 agents in place.

Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Cynthia Osterman

Trump nomination for senior diplomatic post in doubt over ‘insensitive’ remarks

February 12, 2026 10:40 PM UTC / Reuters / By Patricia Zengerle

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A general view of a U.S. State Department sign outside the U.S. State Department building in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo

• Summary

• Republican concerned about nominee’s ‘anti-Israel views’
• Objection likely to sink nomination
• Democrats raised concerns about past comments seen as racist
• Trump’s Republicans back almost all of his nominees and policies

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s pick to be assistant secretary of state for international organizations hit a major stumbling block on Thursday when a Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he would oppose the appointment.

Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah said he did not believe Jeremy Carl is the right person to represent the country’s best interests at international organizations. The position manages the U.S. relationship with international organizations including the United Nations.

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Carl is currently a senior fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute think tank. He was a deputy assistant secretary of the interior during Trump’s first term.

“I find his anti-Israel views and insensitive remarks about the Jewish people unbecoming of the position for which he has been nominated,” Curtis said in a statement after Carl’s nomination hearing.

Curtis’ decision was first reported by the Deseret News.

A White House official said that Carl remained the nominee.

At the hearing, Curtis asked Carl about past comments about Jewish people, including an appearance on a podcast in which he responded, “Right, right yeah,” when the host criticized them for “claiming special victim status” because of the Holocaust.

Curtis’ objection leaves Carl unlikely to win the approval of the foreign relations panel, which could sink his nomination.

That would be a departure in the Republican-majority Senate, which to date has backed the vast majority of Trump’s nominations and policies.

There are 12 Republican and 10 Democratic members of the committee, which oversees the State Department. Every Democrat is expected to object to Carl.

During the hearing, Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey asked Carl what he meant when he said he believed in the “Great Replacement” theory, which fosters the belief that non-white immigrants will replace white citizens.

Carl responded that the theory referred to the “international demographic replacement of Europeans in Europe.” Booker asked if Carl believed there is currently “an effort to replace Americans” and Carl said, “I think the Democratic party, through its immigration policies, has certainly sent signs of that.”

Questions about Carl’s nomination have existed for months. In September, CNN reported that Carl had tried to delete at least 5,000 of his comments on X.com, including many that were inflammatory about racial issues.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York opposed Carl’s nomination in a Senate speech this week, saying he had a “long history of racist, white supremacist and antisemitic views.”

A nomination can be sent for a vote by the full Senate if the committee does not vote in his favor, but this is extremely rare. Trump’s Republicans have just a 53-47-seat majority in the chamber.

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Jim Risch of Idaho, the committee’s Republican chairman, said he supported all of the president’s nominees.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sonali Paul

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

American snowboarder Chloe Kim takes silver in women’s halfpipe, falls short of Olympic three-peat

February 12, 2026 / 5:12 PM EST / CBS/AP

Chloe Kim fell short in her bid to become the first Olympic snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals, finishing second to Choi Gaon of South Korea in the women’s halfpipe on Thursday.

Choi dethroned the two-time defending champion after she bounced back from an ugly crash that had silenced the crowd. The 17-year-old drew another collective gasp when she jumped into the lead with a score of 90.25 on her final run.

USA’s Chloe Kim during run two of the Women’s Half Pipe at the Livigno Snow Park, on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images

Kim had one more shot to get back on top, but the 25-year-old American wiped out on her final run and settled for silver. Japan’s Mitsuki Ono claimed bronze.

Kim, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea, had encouraged Choi throughout her young career. Now she has handed over the Olympic title to the teenager she inspired.

“It’s all about passing the torch, so there’s no one else I would have rather stood next to on the podium than her,” Kim said. “I’m so proud of her and I’m so excited to see what she does next.”

Choi’s chances in the final looked to be in jeopardy when she slammed into the incline of the halfpipe and slid to the middle of the course, where she remained for several minutes. After being attended to by medical staff, she rode off the course unassisted.

It wasn’t clear that she would even come back for her second run, but she did and got it down. Then came her turn down the halfpipe that was good for gold.

USA’s Chloe Kim with her silver medal (left), Republic of Korea’s Choi Ga-on with her gold medal (middle) and Japan’s Mitsuki Ono with her bronze medal (right) on the podium after the Women’s Half Pipe on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images

Choi became the youngest X Games winner in 2023 at age 14. Now the first-time Olympian is first non-American woman to win gold in snowboarding’s premier event since Torah Bright of Australia in 2010. Kaitlyn Farrington won for the U.S. in 2014 at the Sochi Olympics, and Kim triumphed in Pyeongchang and Beijing.

Kim injured her shoulder four weeks ago, disrupting her lead-in to the Games. She competed wearing a brace, which didn’t stop her from dominating the field in qualifying.

“Obviously, I’m really disappointed that I can’t snowboard until right before the Olympics, which is going to be hard,” Kim said last month in an Instagram post.

But after Thursday’s final, the California native said she would need surgery on her shoulder — and that winning an Olympic medal of any color was a victory given that she was riding hurt.

“I think that there was a lot of conversation happening about the three-peat,” she said. “I was thinking about it before, but I think the minute I injured myself I was like, that doesn’t matter anymore. So this feels like a win to me because a month ago it didn’t seem too possible.”

Another gold-medal celebration had looked likely after Kim scored 88 points on her first run, while Choi and most of the other finalists wiped out.

But Kim couldn’t stay upright on either of her remaining runs, and her score from the first wasn’t good enough.

In 2018, Kim became the youngest woman snowboarder ever to win an Olympic gold medal. After taking almost two years off to focus on her studies and mental health, she returned to competition and won her second straight Olympic gold in women’s halfpipe in Beijing.

Kim is not alone in letting the milestone of golds in three consecutive Winter Olympics slip away at these Games. Czech Ester Ledecka fell short in Alpine snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom, as did Austria’s Anna Gasser in big air. Both were also two-time defending champions.

American snowboarding great Shaun White won three gold medals on the halfpipe, but not consecutively. He won in 2006, 2010 and 2018. He finished fourth in 2014.

White was in the crowd Thursday and cringed after Kim fell on her final run. Kim’s boyfriend, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, was also in her cheering section, along with Snoop Dogg. Like many in the crowd, they had gathered to watch one of the biggest names in snowboarding go for Olympic history.

Instead, they watched Choi wipe away tears as she held up her medal, one step up on the podium from the rider who has been her idol.

Trump cannot end deportation protections for South Sudanese nationals, US judge rules

February 12, 2026 7:22 PM UTC / Reuters

BOSTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from ending temporary protections from deportation that had allowed hundreds of South Sudanese nationals to live and work in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston concluded that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had likely acted unlawfully by providing a “pretextual” reason for terminating South Sudan’s Temporary Protected Status designation and not disclosing the real factor motivating her action.

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That status is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.

Noem in November published a notice terminating TPS for conflict-ridden South Sudan, saying the country no longer met the conditions for the designation, which was first issued in 2011.

Saris said that notice failed to acknowledge the “real reason” for Noem’s action, which was that she had adopted a “preordained pattern and practice” of terminating TPS designations for all countries.

Saris, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, noted that since Noem took office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has moved to end TPS designations for 11 other countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia.

“It is highly likely that no country will pass muster, no matter how dire its conditions,” Saris said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

The ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of South Sudanese nationals and the non-profit African Communities Together. Another judge earlier in the case had delayed the end of TPS for South Sudan to provide time for Saris to hear the case.

Conflict has ravaged South Sudan since it won independence from Sudan in 2011. Fighting has persisted in much of the country since a five-year-long civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people ended in 2018. The U.S. State Department advises citizens not to travel there.

About 232 South Sudanese nationals have been beneficiaries of TPS and have found refuge in the United States, and another 73 have pending applications, according to the lawsuit.

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot

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