博客

How much gold is in an Olympic gold medal, and how much is it worth?

February 9, 2026 / 4:36 PM EST / CBS News

The medals athletes win during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan could be far more valuable than in past games because of soaring gold and silver prices.

Olympic gold medals are no longer made of solid gold. The last time a pure gold medal was awarded was at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, Bobby Eaton, an Olympics memorabilia expert at Boston-based RR Auction, told CBS News. Now, the International Olympic Committee only requires that gold medals consist of at least 92.5% silver, according to IOC guidelines.

Olympic gold medals today are composed of 500 grams of silver plated with six grams of pure gold. Silver medals contain 500 grams of silver and no gold plating. Bronze medals are solid bronze.

At current precious metal prices and based solely on the mineral contents, the so-called “melt value” of an Olympic gold medal is around $2,500.

On Monday, the price of gold rose to $5,090 per ounce. Six grams is equal to 0.2 ounces, giving the gold contained in the Winter Olympic medals a value of $1,018. At $83 an ounce, the silver contained in a gold medal is worth about $1,463. That would make a gold medal worth $2,481, just based on the value of its components.

Gold prices soared to record highs last month, surpassing $5,000 for the first time, as investors flocked to the precious metal to hedge against risks related to geopolitical uncertainty and rising global debt.

Athletes who sold medals

Of course, Olympic medals typically have a far greater financial value because of their historical significance and collectability. If an athlete were to try to sell their medal soon after the games, they could fetch between $50,000 and $80,000, Eaton told CBS News.

“There is a discrepancy between the melt value and actual collectible value,” he said.

While most Olympic athletes hold on to their hard-earned medals, some prize winners resell them for prices that can reflect their prestige and significance. In 2013, one of four gold medals won by U.S. track and field athlete Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin was auctioned for $1.47 million — a record for an Olympic medal, according to SCP Auctions, which handled the sale.

Greg Louganis, the famed American diver who won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympics, also parted ways with three of his five medals. In 2025, his Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics gold medal for 10-meter platform diving sold for over $200,000, according to RR Auction, which handled the sale.

Louganis’s Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics gold medal for 3-meter springboard diving sold for just under $200,000, while his Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics silver medal for the 10-meter platform event sold for more than $30,000. The medal sales allowed Louganis to move to Panama, Eaton, who handled the sale, told CBS News.

“He said the money he got from selling his medals let him start his life back up again so he could do what he wanted to do,” Eaton said.

More recently, swimming champ Ryan Lochte in 2022 auctioned six of his medals — three silver, three bronze — to raise money for a children’s charity. Over four Olympics, he won a total of 12 medals, including six gold.

“I’m not one to be all sentimental about medals,” Lochte told The Associated Press at the time. “My medals are just sitting in my closet collecting dust. The memories that I have is what means the most.”

Handle with care

This year’s medals are drawing attention for another reason that could presumably take some of the shine off. The Olympics Organizing Committee said it is investigating an “issue affecting a small number” of the prizes after some athletes complained that their medals had broken.

“Don’t jump in them,” Breezy Johnson, who won the gold medal in downhill skiing for Team USA on Sunday, told reporters after her race.

“I was jumping in excitement and it broke. I’m sure somebody will fix it — it’s not like crazy broken — but it’s a little broken,” she said.

Starbucks adds internationally inspired menu items as part of turnaround effort

February 9, 2026 / 4:01 PM EST / CBS News

Starbucks unveiled new internationally inspired menu items at its stores on Monday, marking the coffee chain’s latest attempt to win back customers at its brick-and-mortar locations.

The menu refresh comes amid CEO Brian Niccol’s yearlong “Back to Starbucks” turnaround effort, aimed at reversing consecutive quarterly declines in the company’s same-store sales. The effort is showing some results: Starbucks reported Jan. 28 that same-store sales rose 4% in the most recent quarter.

The February menu additions include six bakery items — including new loaf, tart and croissant flavors — and a dark roast coffee. Starbucks also debuted two fruit-flavored matcha beverages last week as part of its Valentine’s Day offerings, which will have a permanent place on the coffee giant’s menu.

“Customers told me that our menu needed to feel more relevant,” Niccol said at the company’s investor day on Jan. 29.

Niccol’s turnaround plan has included eliminating the extra charge for nondairy milk, adding personal touches such as hand-written notes on coffee cups and introducing a new dress code for employees to help improve the coffee giant’s image. Last month, it revamped its loyalty program into three tiers, with the higher levels providing bigger benefits to members.

The company also announced in September that it would shut down some stores with weak financial performance.

The chocolate pistachio loaf is among the new internationally-inspired menu items Starbucks launched in stores on Feb. 9. Courtesy of Starbucks

New menu items

---

• Dubai chocolate bite

• Cookie croissant swirl

• Berry blondie

• Strawberry matcha loaf

• Yuzu citrus blossom

• Chocolate pistachio loaf
• 1971 Roast, a new dark roast coffee
• Iced double berry matcha
• Iced banana bread matcha

The food and drink reboot follows several menu updates from Starbucks, including the introduction of protein lattes and expanded fall menu offerings last year.

The coffee chain also trimmed weaker performers last February, in what it said was an effort to streamline its menu and better respond to shifting consumer preferences.

“It became really clear to me that to turn this business around and build a platform for long-term growth, we had to change the way our business ran and the fundamentals of how we worked,” the Starbucks CEO said at the company’s investor day.

Edited by Aimee Picchi

Numerous women urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a high-profile Super Bowl ad on Sunday to release more files from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking cases, signaling their dissatisfaction with the Department of Justice’s efforts to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., immediately elevated the ad, which came in the wake of the DOJ releasing more than 3 million pages of files and concluding its review.

Schumer shared a video of it on X, calling it “the most important ad” of the day.

“You don’t ‘move on’ from the largest sex trafficking ring in the world. You expose it. #StandWithSurvivors,” Schumer wrote.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who has been leading Democrats’ inquiries into Epstein matters in the House, shared a similar message.

The women in the commercial conveyed their disapproval of the DOJ as the words “Tell Attorney General Pam Bondi it’s time for the truth” flashed across the screen.

The commercial comes after the DOJ announced last month the release of more than 3 million pages from the case files. The department said it started with more than 6 million pages but withheld a major portion for a variety of reasons, including because the information could identify alleged victims or was protected by legal privileges.

The omitted files led top supporters of the Epstein legislation, including Epstein’s victims and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to contend that the DOJ failed to comply with the transparency law.

The DOJ has disputed that claim, saying its review was “very comprehensive” and that it did not hide any information for the purpose of protecting President Donald Trump or other wealthy and politically connected people, including former President Bill Clinton, who were once friends with Epstein but were never accused of crimes associated with him.

Massie is among lawmakers who said they planned to visit the DOJ on Monday to review undisclosed files.

The Super Bowl commercial was created by World Without Exploitation, a project of the Tides Center, a progressive nonprofit.

It flashed images of several women holding photos of their younger selves and images of redaction marks, a nod to frustrations surrounding the DOJ heavily redacting some files while neglecting to redact names in others.

“After years of being kept apart, we’re standing together,” one of the women says. “Because this girl deserves the truth.”

The department said it has moved swiftly to correct any redaction mistakes that have been brought to its attention.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on the commercial.

Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.

OpenAI starts testing ads in free version of ChatGPT

February 9, 2026 / 5:00 PM EST / CBS News

OpenAI’s free version of ChatGPT has a new look: Users who don’t pay to upgrade will now see ads when using the artificial intelligence platform.

The company said on Monday that it is testing ads with ChatGPT users in the U.S. with “free” and “go” subscription tiers. The “Go” plan costs $8 monthly.

OpenAI said in January that it would start piloting ads as the company looks for ways to further monetize its widely used chatbot, along with subscription fees for premium users. Customers who pay for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education subscription tiers will not see ads when using ChatGPT, OpenAI said.

The company also vowed that the presence of ads wouldn’t influence or change how ChatGPT responds to user prompts.

“Our goal is for ads to support broader access to more powerful ChatGPT features while maintaining the trust people place in ChatGPT for important and personal tasks,” OpenAI said Monday.

ChatGPT users can avoid seeing ads by upgrading their subscription tiers, OpenAI noted. Free tier users can also opt out of ads, but their usage will be limited.

How will ChatGPT ads work?

ChatGPT will clearly indicate when content is an advertisement, as opposed to an AI-generated answer to a user query.

Ads will be tailored to users’ prompt histories and other factors. OpenAI said it decides to show ads by “matching ads submitted by advertisers with the topic of your conversation, your past chats and past interactions with ads.”

For example, a ChatGPT user looking for recipe suggestions might be shown a grocery delivery or meal-kit service ad.

Advertisers will not have access to users’ chat histories or personal details, OpenAI said. The company on Monday also encouraged advertisers to sign up to promote their businesses with the company as it pilots the ad program.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Priests say ICE contractor GEO rejected shareholder vote on human rights review

By Ross Kerber
February 9, 2026 7:34 PM UTC Updated 46 mins ago

A surveillance camera sits outside of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-person detention center operated by private prison company GEO Group for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, U.S., May 10, 2025. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Companies

• Geo Group Inc Follow

Feb 9 (Reuters) – A set of Catholic investors said on Monday private-prison operator GEO Group has rejected a shareholder vote designed to shed light on alleged human rights violations in its operation of ICE detention facilities as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The government contractor has become one of the biggest benefactors in Trump’s expansion of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, including operating a fast-growing detention center in Southern California. Complaints of poor treatment, including dismal sleeping conditions and a lack of fresh air at facilities run by GEO, opens new tab and others,, opens new tab have sparked protests against the administration as it ramps up detentions and pushes for mass deportations.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Report Ad

A group of social activist investors led by Jesuit priests said GEO (GEO.N), opens new tab rejected a proposed shareholder vote to review its human-rights conduct, ended talks on facility visits and reduced its reporting on human rights.

“The fact that the company isn’t transparent with us, that raises red flags. Does it have something to hide?” asked Bryan Pham, a Jesuit priest who leads the investors’ talks with GEO.

GEO said in an emailed statement that it “has had ongoing engagements with a broad group of shareholders for several decades. Our company’s disclosures are constantly evolving, informed by these long-standing broad shareholder engagements, and are developed in compliance with our legal obligations as a federal government contractor.”

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

GEO, based in Boca Raton, Florida, is one of the largest operators of detention centers for ICE, which accounted for 41.5% of GEO’s 2024 revenue. Adam Sawyer, director of research for Relevant Research, which runs the ICE Detention Reports, opens new tab website, says GEO runs the fourth- and fifth-largest ICE facilities: one in South Texas housing about 1,790 and one in Adelanto, California, housing some 1,784 people, as of last month.

A year earlier, in January 2025, the South Texas facility held 1,664 people and the one in Adelanto held just 2 people, Sawyer said.

CALL FOR A RISK REPORT

---

The Catholic investors led by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus hold as little as $53,000 of GEO’s shares, according to disclosures. But they’ve had an outsized influence over larger investors, winning 88% of shareholder support on a vote that pressed GEO to issue an annual human rights report in 2019, opens new tab.

In November, the priests submitted a shareholder proposal that would require GEO to disclose “whether its services contribute to violations of international human rights law and expose the company to material risks.”

The filers mentioned a University of Washington, opens new tab report that detainees have been sent from a GEO-run facility in Tacoma, Washington, to the controversial CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador. A GEO unit buses detainees to deportation flights, the report states.

In a December 30 letter seen by Reuters, a GEO attorney told regulators the proponents’ claims were “false and misleading” and that it would not allow shareholders to vote on the disclosure proposal from the priest group.

“The entire theme and premise of the Proposal is that the Company is engaging in enforced disappearances in violation of international human rights law” through its contracts, GEO attorney Esther Moreno of the Akerman law firm said in the letter. The services “are provided in compliance with U.S. federal immigration law,” Moreno said.

In the 2019 case, GEO asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to skip the shareholder vote, a common corporate practice. The agency, under Trump, put new policies in place in November, making it easier for companies to skip such votes without waiting for regulators’ blessing, enabling GEO to forgo the vote.

Pham said GEO’s claims don’t match the resolution’s language since it only seeks more information, and said GEO has cut back its human rights reporting, opens new tab.

GEO, he said, owes more explanation about its treatment of detainees like Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student arrested in Massachusetts in March over an editorial she co-wrote in the Tufts University student newspaper in 2024 supporting Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza. In a July Vanity Fair, opens new tab article, Ozturk described being held for 45 days at a GEO facility in Louisiana deprived of sleep and fresh air.

GEO did not directly address Pham’s concerns. A representative said GEO “plays no role” in granting ICE facility access and that it offers medical care and legal advice.

“We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” GEO said.

Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Dawn Kopecki and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

41 U.S. states are getting warmer, each in its own way, report says

February 9, 2026 / 5:30 PM EST / CBS News

Researchers at two Spanish universities have found that 84% of the contiguous U.S. states have shown signs of warming over the last 70 or so years, which is more than previously suggested.

In a report published last week in the journal PLOS Climate, the researchers found that 41 U.S. states have gotten warmer since the middle of the last century. Alaska and Hawaii weren’t included in the study.

The states’ warming patterns weren’t uniform, Jesús Gonzalo, an economist and professor at the University of Charles III in Madrid, explained using a riddle. In Spain, the satirical statistics joke goes: “There are two hungry people vying over a single chicken. One eats the entire thing, leaving the other to starve. So, on average, each person has eaten half of a chicken.”

In that scenario, the average amount of food consumed per person failed to convey the important fact that 50% of the pair whose chicken intake was being calculated had nothing to eat at all.

“The average doesn’t say much, no?” Gonzalo said.

Its premise exemplified the main conclusion of the report that Gonzalo co-authored, which urged researchers and policymakers to look beyond mathematical averages when evaluating how temperature trends relate to climate change.

In the report, Gonzalo and his co-author, María Dolores Gadea Rivas of Spain’s University of Zaragoza, wrote that although “the climate system functions on a global scale, its effects are experienced locally, resulting in significant regional variability.”

To detect variations, they analyzed tens of thousands of daily temperature readings collected across the contiguous U.S., some of which dated back to 1950.

The data showed that the effects of climate change on temperature are existent and measurable in a larger swath of the U.S. than previously thought, since a fair amount of climate research quantifies those effects using averages. Also referred to as the arithmetic “mean,” an average is calculated by adding together a certain batch of values — temperatures recorded in the state of California, for instance — and dividing that by the number of values included in that sum.

Averages are meant to generally reflect the tendencies of values involved in their calculations. But they don’t always provide a complete picture, according to Gonzalo, who says relying on them can be misleading in some instances.

“The U.S. is maybe one of the countries with the most heterogeneous climate. And the main message is, if you want to measure heterogeneity, don’t use the average,” Gonzalo said. “If you pay attention to the average, you can make a mistake.”

Gonzalo’s new climate report argued that focusing exclusively on average temperatures, and how they have or haven’t increased over time, can have serious pitfalls for climate scientists and anyone involved in climate policy.

An aerial view of construction of new ski trails and a ski lift on February 8, 2026 in Park City, Utah. Mario Tama / Getty Images

The study found that average temperatures rose in 27 U.S. states between 1950 and 2021, corroborating earlier research. But they also increased significantly in 14 more, which, Gonzalo noted, is a huge difference that could potentially alter the country’s approach to addressing the issue.

“This is consequential when you try to design more efficient mitigation and adaptation policies,” he said.

Instead of averages, the report examined the full range of temperatures in a given state, from lowest to highest, and tracked them over time — the same way one might consider the full range of incomes in a particular place to accurately understand its wealth distribution and progress. The report brought to light what its authors described as “previously hidden patterns” of warming in every corner of the nation.

Western states, including California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, saw the largest increases in their highest temperatures, while Central states, like Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and the Dakotas saw relatively greater jumps in lower temperatures than higher ones over the years, the researchers found.

Northern states, across the upper Midwest, Northeast and Northwest, saw similar increases across the whole of their temperature ranges, meaning that cooler temperatures and warmer temperatures rose at comparable paces.

All of those trends appear to be accelerating, Gonzalo said, and tailoring public response strategies to realistically fit the scope of the situation at hand could be especially beneficial.

The anomalous “warming hole”

The only U.S. states that haven’t shown statistically significant signs of warming are Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Arkansas, the report said.

That list of states in the central and southern U.S. is consistent with a known phenomenon called a “warming hole.” It describes a region that hasn’t experienced rising temperatures despite climate change. Scientists have long considered it an anomaly.

Research has suggested that counterintuitive cooling in that area could be induced by aerosols, changes in land use or the water cycle, which may have intensified in certain places as a response to greenhouse gas emissions, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The NOAA said in 2023 that additional studies should be done to answer some of those questions.

See the Olympic medal count for the 2026 Winter Games

February 9, 2026 / 5:39 PM EST / CBS News

The United States is fielding its biggest Winter Olympics team ever for the 2026 Games, with 232 athletes going for the gold. Skier Breezy Johnson won America’s first gold medal of the Games in women’s downhill, and U.S. figure skaters won gold in the team competition.

While Team USA brought home the most medals of any country at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Norway came out on top in the medal count at the last Winter Games and also holds the all-time record for winter medals.

Here is a look at where the medal count stands as the competition heats up in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the two host cities for the 2026 Winter Olympics in northern Italy.

Overall medal count for the 2026 Winter Olympics

The first medal event of the Milano Cortina Winter Games was the men’s downhill competition on Saturday, Feb. 7, with Swiss skier Franjo von Allmen winning the gold.

The chart below is updated hourly with the latest medal count of the 2026 Games.

Spotlight on Team USA’s medal count for the 2026 Olympics

In the first two days after Friday’s opening ceremony, Team USA scooped up two medals, both of them gold.

Breezy Johnson won gold in the women’s downhill, and American figure skaters won gold in the team event, helped by a dominant performance from Ilia Malinin, who is known as the “Quad God” for executing the most difficult jumps.

Team USA poses with their gold medals after the figure skating team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 8, 2026. Ashley Landis / AP

Team USA is also guaranteed to come away with a medal, either silver or gold, in mixed doubles curling as it heads into the finals against Sweden on Tuesday.

What was the medal count for the 2022 Winter Olympics?

At the 2022 Winter Games, Norway took home the most medals, winning 37 in all, including 16 gold.

Next came the ROC, the Russian Olympic Committee team, with a total of 32, followed by Germany with 27 and Canada with 26.

Team USA ranked fifth with 25 medals — nine gold, nine silver and seven bronze.

Who has the most Olympic medals of all time?

While the International Olympic Committee does not compile rankings, the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage does keep a medal tally. It counts one medal for placing first, second or third in an event regardless of how many athletes were on a team.

In the overall medal count from all previous Summer and Winter Games, the U.S. comes out on top with 3,103 medals.

The U.S. is followed in the medal count by the former Soviet Union, which earned 1,204 medals before its breakup in 1991. Germany comes third with 1,091 medals.

The U.S. has also won the most gold medals, with 1,220, according to the Olympic Foundation.

But when it comes to the history of the Winter Olympics alone, the U.S. dips to second place in the medal count behind Norway, a perennial winter sports powerhouse.

Athletes from Norway have taken home a total of 404 medals from past Winter Games. The U.S. has previously won 330, while Germany places third with 286.

Aliza Chasan contributed to this report.

More Argentina beef imports won’t do much to ease costs for consumers, according to experts

2026-02-09T16:08:00-0500 / CBS News

President Trump’s move to boost U.S. imports of beef from Argentina to help ease costs for consumers may have less impact than the White House is hoping for, experts said.

The executive order, which Mr. Trump signed on Friday amid a new trade deal between the two countries, allows Argentina to export an additional 80,000 metric tons of beef to the U.S. tariff-free this year, according to the Trump administration. The directive applies to imports of lean beef trimmings, which are used to produce ground beef.

“As President of the United States, I have a responsibility to ensure that hardworking Americans can afford to feed themselves and their families,” Mr. Trump said in the order.

But David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, told CBS News that 80,000 tons of beef represents only 0.6% of the overall U.S. beef supply — too little to move the needle on prices, he said.

“We’re talking about less than 1% of supply,” Ortega said. “And so I wouldn’t expect this to have much of an impact on these prices. Now, it doesn’t hurt, but we’re not talking about any major quantities that we are importing that would immediately suppress prices.”

The U.S. produced nearly 27 billion pounds of beef in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shared on Statista.

What drove up beef prices

---

Average ground beef prices around the U.S. reached $6.69 a pound in December, up 19% from a year ago, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Five years ago, consumers could buy a pound of ground beef for $3.95.

The biggest factor behind the jump in beef prices: Extreme weather conditions that have shrunk the nation’s cattle supply. Droughts, including a recent bout of dry weather in 2022 that affected beef-producing states, have made it harder for farmers to grow crops needed for feedstock and forced many cattle ranchers to sell off their beef cows. Wildfires have also ravaged grasslands used to graze cattle, according to the White House.

By contrast, the cost of chicken and eggs, which spiked in 2022 amid an avian flu outbreak that required the destruction of millions of birds, has recently dipped, St. Louis Fed figures show.

“While prices for other proteins such as eggs, pork and chicken have declined in recent months, beef prices remain elevated,” a Department of Agriculture spokesperson said in an email. “This is due to the perfect storm of sustained increase in consumer demand for beef, coupled with a prolonged decrease in the supply of live cattle.”

The country’s beef cattle supply stood at 27.6 million on Jan. 1, down 1% from a year ago, according to USDA data. Overall, the total number of cattle in the U.S. is at a 75-year-low.

In a fact sheet last week, the White House acknowledged the supply challenges facing the U.S.

“President Trump is responding to market challenges and ensuring a plentiful ground beef supply for American families at affordable prices by taking action on multiple fronts.”

So what would lower costs?

---

Derrell Peel, a professor in the department of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, also expressed skepticism that the executive order will help ease costs for domestic consumers, saying there’s “nothing that the administration can do in the short run to make U.S. beef prices come down.”

That’s because the key to lowering prices will be to rebuild the cattle supply, a process that will likely take several years, Peel explained. Part of that effort will require saving female cows, known as heifers, for breeding, instead of killing them to meet consumer demand for beef, Peel noted.

“We have record-high cattle prices, and we’re going to continue to until we regrow,” he said.

Edited by Alain Sherter

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Palestinian woman hospitalized following seizure in US ICE detention

By Kanishka Singh
February 9, 2026 10:07 PM UTC Updated 36 mins ago

People march to take part in a protest at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, U.S., January 28, 2026. REUTERS/Antranik Tavitian//File Photo

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A Palestinian woman, who lost dozens of family members in the Gaza war, has been hospitalized following a seizure in U.S. immigration detention, the Department of Homeland Security said on Monday.

On February 6, 2026, at about 8:45 p.m., “medical staff at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, notified ICE that detainee Leqaa Kordia was admitted to Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Burleson, Texas, for further evaluation following a seizure,” a DHS spokesperson said.

The Reuters Gulf Currents newsletter brings you the latest on geopolitics, energy and finance in the region. Sign up here.

Kordia, a 33-year-old Muslim Palestinian woman living in the U.S. and whose mother is an American citizen, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities early last year.

She was detained during a meeting with immigration officials at the Newark Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office, where she was accompanied by her attorney. At the time of her detention last year, Kordia was in the process of securing legal residency.

In a weekend statement cited by media, her family and legal team said they have not received communication from U.S. authorities about her health. The family could not immediately be reached for comment. DHS says ICE will ensure she receives proper medical care.

Rights groups have long reported on detainee complaints about conditions in ICE detention facilities, calling the conditions inhumane. The federal government has denied treating detainees inhumanely.

Amnesty International says 175 members of Kordia’s family have been killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza since late 2023 following an attack by militant group Hamas.

The Homeland Security Department says Kordia, who was raised in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was arrested for immigration violations related to overstaying her expired student visa. The DHS also says she was arrested by local authorities in 2024 during pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University that the department cast as being supportive of Hamas.

Kordia and other protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.

Kordia has said she was targeted for pro-Palestinian activism and cast the conditions in her detention facility as “filthy, overcrowded and inhumane.”

President Donald Trump’s administration cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests by threatening to freeze federal funds for universities where protests occurred and by attempting to deport foreign protesters. It has faced legal obstacles while rights advocates say the crackdown hurts free speech and lacks due process.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Bipartisan Senate bill targets money laundering linked to drug trafficking, terrorism

February 9, 2026 3:05pm EST / Fox News

The act was introduced by GOP Sen Chuck Grassley and Democrat Sen Amy Klobuchar

By Brooke Singman
Fox News

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced a bipartisan measure to crack down on money laundering by increasing penalties and ensuring laws apply to systems used by drug traffickers and terrorists.

Grassley, R-Iowa, and Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Finance and Counterfeiting Act” Friday to enhance criminal money laundering statutes.

ALLEGED SINALOA CARTEL FENTANYL PRODUCER CHARGED IN NEWLY UNSEALED US FEDERAL INDICTMENT

The bill would update counterfeiting laws to prohibit state-of-the-art counterfeiting methods and increase penalties for bulk cash smuggling.

The bill would also ensure money laundering laws apply to informal value transfer systems that are often used by drug traffickers and terrorists.

The introduction of the bill comes as Trump administration officials warn that hostile actors, like cartels and terrorists, are funding operations through complex financial channels across the U.S. border.

Grassley and Klobuchar also said the bill would prohibit the cross-border shipment of blank checks for the purpose of evading reporting requirements.

“Criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations depend on ill-begotten cash to carry out their dark deeds. As money laundering methods have evolved over time, so must the government’s efforts to exact justice,” Grassley said, adding that their bill would ensure law enforcement “has the tools they need to track down dirty money, hold criminals accountable and prevent further crimes.”

Klobuchar added that as criminals and terrorist organizations “develop new methods to launder money, we must provide our law enforcement with the tools they need to keep American communities safe.”

FBI BUSTS ALLEGED MADURO-LINKED MONEY LAUNDERING NETWORK SPANNING MULTIPLE NATIONS

“This bipartisan legislation makes necessary updates to anti-money laundering statutes and counterfeiting laws, ensuring the law enforcement community can stay one step ahead of those working to undermine our nation’s safety and security,” she said.

The bill also would establish a new money laundering violation that would prohibit the transfer of funds into or out of the United States — funds specifically being transferred with the intent to violate U.S. income tax laws.

The bill would also prohibit conspiracies to create illegal money services businesses; grant wiretapping authority to investigate currency reporting, bulk cash smuggling, illegal money services businesses and counterfeiting offenses; and grant the U.S. Secret Service the explicit authority to investigate ransomware crimes and other uses of unlicensed money transmitting; and would ensure compliance with financial institutions.

The measure has wide support in the law enforcement community and has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the National Association of Police Organizations and the National District Attorneys Association.

“By clarifying the law in response to recent court decisions, strengthening penalties and expanding investigative authorities, this legislation will restore critical law enforcement tools and help disrupt transnational criminal organizations,” Patrick Yoes, president of the Fraternal Order of Police said, adding that the organization “strongly supports this bill, which would prevent criminals and terrorists from profiting from their crimes and protect public safety and national security.”

The National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys also endorsed the bill saying the “targeted reforms will strengthen investigations, improve prosecutorial clarity and better reflect how modern money-laundering schemes actually operate.”

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP