In the biggest scandal to rock Norway’s monarchy, the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit goes on trial Tuesday accused of raping four women, as well as drug and assault offenses.
Marius Borg Hoiby, Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son from a relationship before she married Crown Prince Haakon, has been charged with a total of 38 counts, some of which date back to 2018.
He faces up to 16 years in prison if the Oslo district court finds him guilty. The trial, scheduled to last until March 19, is expected to attract intense media coverage.
“When it comes to the Norwegian royal family, it is without a doubt the biggest scandal” in its 120-year history, Trond Noren Isaksen, a historian and expert on Norway’s monarchy, told AFP.
Marius Borg Hoiby, son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, is seen June 16, 2022, in Oslo, Norway.
Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images
“There have been controversies surrounding the choice of spouses, about renovations of the palace and these kinds of things, but never any real scandals involving criminal offences, let alone so many,” he said.
The most serious charges against Hoiby are the four rapes and the physical and psychological abuse of several ex-girlfriends.
He has so far only confessed to some of the more minor charges.
“Hoiby is saving his version of events for the court,” the law firm defending him told AFP.
Some rapes were filmed
A tall blond who cultivates a “bad boy” look with slicked back hair, earrings, rings and tattoos, Hoiby was arrested on Aug. 4, 2024, suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the night before.
Several days later, he admitted he had acted “under the influence of alcohol and cocaine after an argument,” having suffered from “mental troubles” and struggling “for a long time with substance abuse.”
The investigation into that incident uncovered a slew of other suspected offences, including the rapes of four women while they were sleeping or passed out drunk, some of which he filmed.
The four rapes allegedly took place in 2018, 2023 and 2024, the last one after the police investigation began.
Last week, police announced six new counts against him, including a “serious narcotics offence” from 2020 in which he transported 3.5 kilos of marijuana, without financial compensation. He has confessed to that crime.
The case has brought to light the bad company kept by Hoiby, who has no royal title, no official role and no professional career. The crown prince couple provide for him financially.
It has also deeply embarrassed the royal family, especially his mother, who suffers from an incurable lung illness and who is torn between her role as mother and future queen.
Haakon released a statement on Wednesday, saying neither he nor Mette-Marit plan to attend the trial, he said.
“Our thoughts are with everyone who is affected by this case. It has an impact on the individuals, their families and all those who care about them. We understand that this is a difficult time for many of you, and we sympathise,” said the statement from Haakon, which was released by the Royal House of Norway and shared in English.
“At the same time, it is reassuring to know that we live in a state governed by the rule of law. I am confident that those responsible for overseeing the proceedings will ensure that the trial is conducted in as orderly, proper, and just a manner as possible,” it continued.
“Important member of our family”
Prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo has insisted that all people are equal in the eyes of the law, “regardless of their social status, origin or family ties.”
“This means that Hoiby should neither be treated more leniently nor more severely because of his family” affiliations, he told AFP.
Hoiby was raised by the royal couple alongside his step-siblings Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus. Unlike them, he has no official public role.
In his statement Wednesday, Haakon alluded to Hoiby’s “autonomous” status.
“Marius Borg Høiby is not a member of the Royal House of Norway and is therefore autonomous. We care about him, and he is an important member of our family. He is a citizen of Norway and, as such, has the same responsibilities as everyone else — as well as the same rights,” Haakon said.
Marius Borg Hoiby sits next to his mother Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, in a file photo taken on June 16, 2022, in Oslo, Norway.
Lise Aserud/NTB/AFP via Getty Images
The prosecutor said the most serious crimes carry sentences of up to 10 years behind bars, which can be raised to a maximum of 16 years if the court finds him guilty on several counts.
The scandal — which comes on top of the antics of Princess Martha Louise, Haakon’s older sister who married a self-proclaimed American shaman in 2024 — has tarnished the royal family’s image, though it still remains very popular in Norway.
An opinion poll published Wednesday by public broadcaster NRK suggested that 70% of those questioned support the monarchy, compared to 81% in 2017.
“People feel compassion for an aging royal couple, who are obviously completely innocent in this matter,” Carl-Erik Grimstad, a former palace employee-turned-author said in reference to King Harald and Queen Sonja, both 88 years old and seen as unifying figures for the nation.
And “in times of geopolitical turbulence, people often rally around the symbols closest to them,” he added.
The verdict is expected several weeks after the end of the trial.
Metallica have announced the winners of the 2025 Collegiate Edition of their annual Marching Band Competition, celebrating innovative performances of the band’s music from college marching bands across the United States.
Launched last year, the competition challenged bands at all collegiate levels to create the most exciting, unique, and technically impressive interpretations of Metallica songs. This year’s edition introduced a major new incentive: the Division 1 first-place winner will record both a Metallica song and the EA SPORTS College Football Theme Song, which will appear in the next installment of EA SPORTS College Football.
The University of South Carolina was named the Division 1 first-place winner, earning $50,000 in instruments and equipment, along with the opportunity to collaborate with EA SPORTS on the upcoming game.
“Authenticity isn’t just a component, it’s a commitment,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive and President of Music for Electronic Arts. “Because Metallica recognizes the power and importance of both music education and sports culture, our For Whom The Band Tolls Competition is a groundbreaking partnership on so many levels. We look forward to working with my beloved USC Marching Band on EA SPORTS College Football as we enrich the school’s music program and shape the sound of next season’s college football experience.”
Jay N. Jacobs, PhD, Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of South Carolina, called the win a historic moment for the program.
“This is a historic moment in the 105-year history of The Carolina Band,” Jacobs said. “Metallica went the extra mile to spotlight the unique cultural contributions marching bands bring to the world, and our students were thrilled to bring Metallica’s powerful music to 80,000 Gamecock fans.”
Winners in each division received instruments and equipment provided by Metallica and sponsors including Sweetwater, TAMA, Hal Leonard, KHS America, and others.
2025 Metallica Marching Band Competition Winners
Division 1
1st Place: University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC) – $50,000 in prizing + opportunity to record for EA SPORTS™ College Football
2nd Place: Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA) – $25,000 in prizing
3rd Place: University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (Champaign, IL) – $10,000 in prizing
Division 2 / Division 3
1st Place: Riverside City College (Riverside, CA) – $40,000 in prizing
2nd Place: Bridgewater College (Bridgewater, VA) – $20,000 in prizing
3rd Place: Indiana Wesleyan University (Marion, IN) – $10,000 in prizing
Fan Favorite
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign – $10,000 in prizing
The winners were announced via Metallica‘s official YouTube channel. The Metallica Marching Band Competition is an annual national initiative aimed at supporting music education while spotlighting the creativity and cultural impact of collegiate marching bands.
The Justice Department has posted more than 800,000 records so far about its Epstein investigations online, including emails with Elon Musk and Bill Gates.
Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL writer at ESPN. Kalyn reports on a range of NFL topics. She reported about the influence of coaching agents on NFL hiring and found out what current and former Cowboys players really think about the tour groups of fans that roam about The Star every day. Before joining ESPN in July of 2024, Kalyn wrote for The Athletic, Defector, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated. She began her career at Sports Illustrated as NFL columnist Peter King’s assistant. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she was a varsity cheerleader. In her free time, Kalyn takes Spanish classes and teaches Irish dance. You can reach out to Kalyn via email.
Multiple Authors
IN LATE SEPTEMBER, the NFL announced that Puerto Rican superstar rapper and singer Bad Bunny, who has openly criticized the Donald Trump administration for its immigration policies, would perform this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Five days later, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem admonished the NFL for its decision.
“They suck, and we’ll win,” Noem told right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson, who had asked what message she wanted to send to the league. “They won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe. And they’re so weak, we’ll fix it.”
Department of Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski said on the same podcast: “It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game.”
Despite the almost immediate backlash from the Trump administration and its supporters, the NFL has stood by its decision to book Bad Bunny for the Feb. 8 game in Santa Clara, California. It’s a departure from how the league reacted to the president’s criticism nearly a decade ago when some players began kneeling during the national anthem. According to interviews with and public statements by several high-level club and league office executives, the NFL has remained steadfast despite the blowback because Bad Bunny, one of the most popular artists in the world, helps fulfill a top business objective: growing the NFL’s international and Latino audience.
One high-level club executive who regularly attends the NFL’s league meetings said that some owners at first were concerned about Bad Bunny’s fit because he sings primarily in Spanish and that many were unfamiliar with him.
“And then I think everybody was just kind of like, ‘OK, we’re going to get on board, because the goal is global reach,'” the executive said. “And this guy has a massive global reach.”
THE NFL HAS a long-standing goal of growing its international audience. This season, the NFL played a record seven games in five international cities: Sao Paulo, Dublin, London, Berlin and Madrid. The league will add Australia in 2026. In September, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he wants each team to play a game abroad every year.
More specifically, the league has been focused on growing its Latino audience, inside the U.S. and in Latin America. Marissa Solis, the NFL’s senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, told ESPN in November that the league first identified the U.S. Latino population as a “critical growth area” several years ago.
“It is a community of more than 70 million people here in the U.S. … so it was very important for us to ensure that we were relevant,” Solis said.
In 2020, the Super Bowl halftime show was headlined for the first time by two Latina pop stars, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. (Bad Bunny also appeared in the show.) At the time, the NFL hired veteran entertainment and brand marketer Javier Farfan as a consultant to add authenticity to the performance.
“People don’t see it, but to the broader global and Latino community, they’re like, ‘Wow. The NFL gets me,'” Farfan, who still consults for the league, said in an interview with ESPN in December. “And then now, they’re seeing [Bad Bunny] and it’s like, ‘Wow, they really get me.'”
Since 2019, the NFL has partnered with rapper and business mogul Jay-Z and his entertainment company Roc Nation to advise on the selection of halftime performers and promote “culture- and cause-focused initiatives,” according to a statement at the time announcing the arrangement.
Exactly how Roc Nation chooses the Super Bowl artist and what role the NFL plays in that decision isn’t publicly defined. Roc Nation declined ESPN’s requests to comment for this story.
“Jay-Z understands the platform,” Goodell said at an October sports conference regarding his conversations with the rapper about Bad Bunny. “… And so, it doesn’t get real deep because he knows I’m not going to challenge him.”
Solis said that Roc Nation and the NFL’s halftime strategy is to book “the cultural artist of the year.”
This year, that artist is Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who was the top-streamed artist on Spotify in 2025. His sixth studio album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” pivoted from straight reggaeton to a fusion of reggaeton, salsa and Puerto Rican genres. The lyrics discuss his love for Puerto Rican culture, the island’s struggle with gentrification that prices out locals and his desire for the island’s independence from the U.S. (Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.) The album topped the Billboard charts for four weeks. He stayed in Puerto Rico for much of 2025 and performed a 31-show residency in San Juan.
Bad Bunny filmed the halftime show announcement and trailer in Puerto Rico, per his request, said Tor Myhren, vice president of marketing and communications for Apple Music, the performance’s presenting sponsor. When Myhren’s team asked Bad Bunny about his goals for the halftime show, Myhren said Bad Bunny responded, “This isn’t my halftime show, this is for everyone.” The Apple Music trailer shows Bad Bunny dancing to his song “Baile Inolvidable” with people of all races, ages and genders, with the tagline, “February 8 the world will dance.”
Multiple representatives for Bad Bunny did not respond to messages from ESPN seeking interviews with the artist.
Choosing Bad Bunny potentially exposed the NFL to Trump’s ire because the artist has been openly critical of the administration’s vow to remove millions of people from the U.S. via mass deportation programs.
In an interview published in September, Bad Bunny told i-D Magazine that he chose not to take his world tour to the U.S. because he was worried about potential raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“F—ing ICE could be outside [the concert],” he said. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Bad Bunny also appeared to mock Trump on the Fourth of July when he released the music video for his song “NUEVAYoL,” a salsa tribute to the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York. In the video, he sings from the crown of the Statue of Liberty, who wears the Puerto Rican flag on her forehead like a bandanna. In the final scenes, a Trump-sounding voice apologizes to immigrants over a radio broadcast.
“I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants,” the voice says. “This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans.”
In 2024, Bad Bunny endorsed Kamala Harris for U.S. president, criticizing the Trump administration’s 2017 response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
When the NFL announced Bad Bunny as the halftime performer, Noem said ICE agents would be “all over” the Super Bowl. “I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they’re law-abiding Americans who love this country,” she said.
The day after Noem’s comments, Bad Bunny hosted “Saturday Night Live” and addressed the backlash in his monologue. He said in English: “I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl, and I know people all around the world who love my music are also happy.” Then he switched to Spanish and said: “Especially all of the Latinos and Latinas in the world here in the United States who have worked to open doors. It’s more than a win for myself, it’s a win for all of us. Our footprints and our contribution in this country, no one will ever be able to take that away or erase it.”
“And if you didn’t understand what I just said,” he added, switching back to English, “you have four months to learn.”
Trump was first asked about Bad Bunny on Oct. 6. NewsMax’s Greg Kelly asked the president if people should boycott the NFL because of “Bad Bunny Rabbit or whatever-his-name.”
Trump said: “I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it.”
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, R-La., told a reporter in October that booking Bad Bunny was a “terrible decision.”
“There are so many eyes on the Super Bowl, a lot of young, impressionable children. And I think, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood or role models doing that,” he said. Greenwood, who is 83, is famous for his song “God Bless the USA.”
Bad Bunny’s announcement prompted the conservative organization Turning Point USA to counterprogram with its own performance, called “The All-American Halftime Show.” On the show’s website, the group provided a survey for viewers to choose the music they want to hear. “Anything In English” was the first option. Turning Point USA has yet to update its website with any information about the performance, and a spokesperson said in early January that they will not be releasing any artist information ahead of time.
Last weekend, Trump told the New York Post he would not be attending the Super Bowl because it’s “too far away.”
He also shared his opinion about Bad Bunny and Green Day, who will perform before kickoff and whose music has been sharply political: “I’m anti-them. … All it does is sow hatred.”
Trump’s immigration crackdown escalated this month in Minneapolis, with government agents clashing with protestors and fatally shooting two people. The administration has since worked to ease tensions and shift its policy.
Regarding ICE’s presence at the Super Bowl, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said this week that the agency does not disclose operations or personnel plans.
“DHS is committed to working with our local and federal partners to ensure the Super Bowl is safe for everyone involved, as we do with every major sporting event,” McLaughlin said in an email. “Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”
A person with knowledge of the administration’s plans said that ICE agents will be assigned to the Super Bowl because the event requires coverage by multiple federal agencies.
“This is routine,” the person said. “DHS was there last year and in past years. Nothing about this is unusual.”
A source familiar with Super Bowl planning told ESPN that league security officials “have not been told there will be immigration enforcement actions.”
In a statement to ESPN, the NFL said fan safety is its “top priority.”
“We have the utmost confidence in our comprehensive security plans,” an NFL spokesperson said in the statement. “Our security team has worked with federal, state, local and private sector partners over the past two years to develop extensive plans to provide a safe and secure environment at our events and on gameday.”
WITHIN THE NFL, at least one owner met the decision to book Bad Bunny with skepticism, particularly considering the league’s pending agreement to sell the NFL Network and other assets to ESPN in exchange for a 10% stake in the media company.
Shortly after the Bad Bunny announcement, an NFL owner told Goodell that he feared the decision could threaten the government’s antitrust approval of the pending deal, a source with firsthand knowledge of the discussion told ESPN.
“I told Roger he should’ve thought through that better,” the owner said, according to the source.
At the October league meeting in midtown Manhattan, Goodell said the league had no intentions of changing the halftime performer.
“He’s one of the most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell told reporters at a news conference. “… It’s carefully thought through. I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. … We’re confident it’s going to be a great show.
“I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”
At a marketing conference in October, NFL chief marketing officer Tim Ellis also addressed the controversy: “Well, not everyone has to like everything we do. Bad Bunny is f—ing awesome.”
Two sources who have attended owners meetings since the Bad Bunny announcement told ESPN that the artist hasn’t come up in groupwide discussions.
“There’s not some great strife here,” the high-level club executive said. “The league is tasked with setting financial and brand goals, and that’s a lot of what we asked the league to do. … Of course, it is tricky, because you have a room of 32 people that are unfamiliar with the artist or may have political concerns.”
Three club executives told ESPN they think Bad Bunny helps achieve the league’s goal of growing globally.
Dallas Cowboys chief brand officer Charlotte Jones, whose father Jerry Jones owns the team and has donated millions to Trump and his political action committee, told “The Katie Miller Podcast” in November that she supported the Bad Bunny choice.
“I think it’s awesome, and I think our Latino fan base is amazing,” Jones told Miller. “We are on a global stage, and we can’t ever forget that. … We have a mixed culture and our whole society is based on immigrants who have come here and founded our country, and I think we can celebrate that.”
Miller, who was a communications director for former vice president Mike Pence and is married to Trump adviser Stephen Miller, pushed back on Jones: “You don’t think that a time when his comments were divisive as it relates to President Trump — when everyone is just seeking a political unification — that you would want somebody who maybe didn’t touch politics to be on that stage?”
“I don’t think our game is about politics,” Jones replied. “I don’t think people tune in to look at politics. We do everything we can to avoid politics. … This is about bringing people together.”
When Trump was first president in 2017, his criticism of NFL players who chose to kneel for the national anthem — an action started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — created a national political crisis that threatened the NFL’s brand and its business. Trump said NFL owners should fire any player who knelt and encouraged fans to walk out. In response, more players started kneeling, and they resisted the league’s attempts to stop the protest.
According to reporting from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham at the time, owners and Goodell met with players to discuss racial and social injustice. As a result, the NFL created the Inspire Change initiative, committing $89 million to support social causes, and partnered with Roc Nation to reshape the halftime show and help the league be more proactive in social justice work. Goodell ultimately acknowledged the league initially had been wrong in its approach with players.
One club executive and a source familiar with league business said the NFL learned lessons from its interactions with the first Trump administration. The club executive said the league isn’t being as “reactionary.”
“Those are probably just lessons learned,” the executive said. “Drawing the president’s ire, there’s so many things that happen on a daily basis. I think people just have a different opinion this time around.”
Another club executive said the NFL is trying to “double down 1769816887 on an apolitical stance.”
“I think maybe in the past, the league office got a little turned around with some of the owners, or some of the other influential people, saying you have to take a stand here,” the other executive said.
The NFL spokesperson declined to comment on the league’s strategy in dealing with the Trump administration.
Multiple sources said the tension with Trump is less this time around.
“Last time with Kaepernick, that was players and owners and the president. Bad Bunny doesn’t affect any of that,” a club executive said. “It doesn’t affect week-to-week games or television coverage. It’s just a halftime show. And I don’t mean that flippantly, but it’s just a halftime show.”
The league office is engaging with Trump for other upcoming events. In May, Goodell visited Trump at the White House with Commanders owner Josh Harris to announce that Washington, D.C., will host the NFL draft in 2027.
And in November, the NFL announced it would commemorate the United States’ 250th birthday in 2026 with commemorative game balls and on-field markings. The Athletic reported that Goodell is also expected to attend an upcoming America 250 unveiling event at the Oval Office, along with the four other major professional men’s sports commissioners.
“If the league has layups or an easy win, it’s like, take the layup,” the source familiar with league business said.
When asked in November whether the league office has faced any political pressure to change its Latino-focused marketing strategy, Solis told ESPN: “Our strategy has always been to reach every fan in their culture, in their language, to make this sport global, and to make this sport for everyone. So I don’t think that strategy will change regardless of language, country, artists, players. … We have a responsibility with this platform to ensure that we continue to reach everybody.”
Farfan said in December that he wasn’t surprised by the president’s criticism and the larger backlash to Bad Bunny because everyone has the right to express their opinion. “We have the right to do what we need to do for our business and stand tall against that, regardless of the noise happening outside.”
ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report, which also includes information from The Associated Press.
Journalist Don Lemon has been charged with federal civil rights crimes in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday.Lemon was arrested Thursday by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. He was expected to appear in court there Friday afternoon.The veteran journalist is charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor. Another journalist and two protest participants were also arrested in Minnesota.Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as an independent journalist chronicling protesters.”Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement earlier Friday. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the arrest of Lemon and the others who were present during the protest.”At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said on social media.’Keep trying’Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for President Donald Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly: “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene before him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.A magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the veteran journalist. Shortly after, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.”And guess what,” he said. “Here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”Fort, an independent journalist, livestreamed the moments before her arrest Friday on Facebook Live.”I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said.It was not immediately clear if Fort and the two other Minnesotans who were arrested have attorneys.Discouraging scrutinyThe arrests brought sharp criticism from news media advocates and civil rights activists. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Trump administration was taking a “sledge hammer” to “the knees of the First Amendment.”Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said the arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home were intended to intimidate journalists documenting opposition to the president’s policies.In an Instagram post, the National Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and deeply alarmed” by Lemon’s arrest. The group called it an effort to “criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”Crews is a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota who has led many protests and actions for racial justice, particularly following George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.After Trump administration officials said earlier this month that arrests would be coming in the church protest, Crews told The Associated Press there’s a “tradition” of Black activists and leaders being targeted or subjected to violence.”Just as being a Black person, you always have to have that in mind,” Crews said.Protesters charged previouslyA prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.Jordan Kushner, an attorney for Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was in the first group arrested, said the latest prosecutions “are beyond the pale.””Nonviolent protest is not a federal felony,” Kushner said.Lundy is an intergovernmental affairs manager in the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and is married to St. Paul City Council Member Anika Bowie. Bowie and Moriarty could not be reached for comment.Lemon briefly interviewed Lundy, who is also a candidate for state senate, as they gathered with protesters preparing to drive to the church.”I feel like it’s important that if you’re going to be representing people in office that you are out here with the people,” he told Lemon, adding he believed in “direct action, certainly within the lines of the law.”Church leaders praise arrests in protestCities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE’s St. Paul field office.”We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said Friday in a statement.”Make no mistake. Under President Trump’s leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi said in a video posted to social media on Friday. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”___Richer and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Dave Bauder and Aaron Morrison in New York City; Giovanna Dell’Orto, Tim Sullivan, Steve Karnowski and Jack Brook in Minneapolis; and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.
LOS ANGELES —
Journalist Don Lemon has been charged with federal civil rights crimes in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
Lemon was arrested Thursday by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. He was expected to appear in court there Friday afternoon.
The veteran journalist is charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor. Another journalist and two protest participants were also arrested in Minnesota.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as an independent journalist chronicling protesters.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement earlier Friday. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the arrest of Lemon and the others who were present during the protest.
“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said on social media.
‘Keep trying’
Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for President Donald Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly: “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene before him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.
A magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the veteran journalist. Shortly after, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.
“And guess what,” he said. “Here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Fort, an independent journalist, livestreamed the moments before her arrest Friday on Facebook Live.
“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said.
It was not immediately clear if Fort and the two other Minnesotans who were arrested have attorneys.
Discouraging scrutiny
The arrests brought sharp criticism from news media advocates and civil rights activists. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Trump administration was taking a “sledge hammer” to “the knees of the First Amendment.”
Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said the arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home were intended to intimidate journalists documenting opposition to the president’s policies.
In an Instagram post, the National Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and deeply alarmed” by Lemon’s arrest. The group called it an effort to “criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”
Crews is a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota who has led many protests and actions for racial justice, particularly following George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.
After Trump administration officials said earlier this month that arrests would be coming in the church protest, Crews told The Associated Press there’s a “tradition” of Black activists and leaders being targeted or subjected to violence.
“Just as being a Black person, you always have to have that in mind,” Crews said.
Protesters charged previously
A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
Jordan Kushner, an attorney for Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was in the first group arrested, said the latest prosecutions “are beyond the pale.”
“Nonviolent protest is not a federal felony,” Kushner said.
Lundy is an intergovernmental affairs manager in the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and is married to St. Paul City Council Member Anika Bowie. Bowie and Moriarty could not be reached for comment.
Lemon briefly interviewed Lundy, who is also a candidate for state senate, as they gathered with protesters preparing to drive to the church.
“I feel like it’s important that if you’re going to be representing people in office that you are out here with the people,” he told Lemon, adding he believed in “direct action, certainly within the lines of the law.”
Church leaders praise arrests in protest
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE’s St. Paul field office.
“We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said Friday in a statement.
“Make no mistake. Under President Trump’s leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi said in a video posted to social media on Friday. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”
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Richer and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Dave Bauder and Aaron Morrison in New York City; Giovanna Dell’Orto, Tim Sullivan, Steve Karnowski and Jack Brook in Minneapolis; and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.
HAVANA — Cubans are hustling to become more self-sufficient as the U.S. government tightens its economic noose over the communist-run island in a move experts say is meant to force a popular uprising and usher in a new government.
A sharp increase in U.S. sanctions was already suffocating Cubans when critical oil shipments from Venezuela were disrupted after the U.S. attacked the South American country and arrested its leader.
The long-term repercussions of those halted shipments have yet to hit Cuba, but its people are not waiting.
Some are installing solar panels while others are growing their own crops or returning to a simpler way of life, one that doesn’t rely on technology or petroleum.
“It’s how you survive,” said Jose Ángel Méndez Faviel. “It’s best to depend on yourself.”
Méndez recently moved from the center of Havana to a farm in the rural community of Bacuranao because of Cuba’s severe blackouts. At the farm, he can cook with firewood and charcoal, something unthinkable in a darkened city apartment.
Méndez said he doesn’t know what to make of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Cuba, but he’s not taking any chances. He’s stocking up on gasoline, charcoal and produce, which he began planting three months ago at his farm.
Méndez also is thinking of buying back his old horse that he sold in favor of motorized equipment to transport vegetables he sells at local markets.
“You don’t need fuel for a horse,” he said. “We need to go back in time.”
Before the U.S. attacked Venezuela and disrupted oil shipments to Cuba, the island already was struggling with chronic blackouts, soaring prices and a lack of basic goods.
With experts warning of a potentially catastrophic economic crisis, some wonder if Cuba is reaching its breaking point. For Trump, who signed an executive order Thursday that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, it’s all but guaranteed.
“Cuba is really a nation that is very close to failing,” he recently said.
But Cubans scoff at that assertion, especially those who remember the so-called “Special Period,” when cuts in Soviet aid sparked the 1990s deprivation that eased when Venezuela became an ally under former President Hugo Chávez.
Yadián Silva, a nurse and driver of a classic car who has seen tourism plummet, said Cubans aren’t dumb.
“We have problems, and we know we have a lot of problems,” he said. “But when things happen in Cuba, it’s because people truly feel they should happen. Not because someone from the outside says, ‘do this.’”
On a recent weeknight, tens of thousands of Cubans clutched flaming torches and joined an annual march to remember national hero José Martí. Many of them were university students.
“We are a dignified people, a people eager to move forward, eager to prosper, who do not believe in threats and are not intimidated by any reprisals from the enemy,” said Sheyla Ibatao Ruíz, a 21-year-old law student. “If we have to take up arms, we will be the first to do so.”
“This is not an act of nostalgia, it is a call to action,” said Litza Elena González Desdín, president of the Federation of University Students in a speech that included references to Trump.
A day later, Christopher Landau, U.S. deputy secretary of state, noted that the U.S. embraces Martí “because he shared that passion that we have for freedom.”
“We hope that by 2026, Cubans will finally be able to exercise their fundamental freedoms,” Landau said Wednesday in a recording played at a small gathering at the U.S. embassy in Havana. “The communist Castro regime is tottering; it won’t last much longer. After 67 years of a failed revolution that has betrayed the Cuban people, it’s time for the change that the people on the island are yearning for.”
Last September, Ángel Eduardo launched a small business to install solar panels. He called it “Con Voltage,” a word with double meaning in Cuba that can refer to doing something well.
He said he was fed up with studying in the dark and being forced to write in a notebook instead of a computer to obtain his degree as an automation control engineer.
Eduardo started rigging pieces to light a single bulb for his home and ended up learning how to install solar systems thanks to a combination of a friend, Chat GPT and social media.
He now has installed dozens of systems across Cuba, averaging one to two installations a day since November on an island where daily demand for electricity on average surpasses 3,000 megawatts when only about half that is available during peak hours.
Eduardo said he saw a surge in calls from people in Havana seeking solar systems ever since the disruption in oil shipments from Venezuela.
Growing a business is something that 62-year-old Niuvis Bueno Zavala has been pondering. A retired Russian interpreter for the Cuban government, she now runs a small wooden shack near the sea that sells drinks but not food.
“I’ve never had it this hard,” she said, adding that she might start selling homemade food. “There’s always a helping hand to assist us. But now those helping hands can’t reach us. We’re blocked from all sides.”
Many Cubans decry the embargo, including retired pilot Pedro Carbonell.
The 73-year-old recently waited more than two hours to buy gasoline. He said Cubans have to keep fighting.
“If we don’t have fuel, then we’ll ride bicycles,” he said, recalling how Cubans walked a lot during the Special Period. “Our wine is bitter. But it’s our wine. Do you understand? And we don’t want anyone from somewhere else coming here and telling us how to drink our wine.”
Catherine O’Hara, the beloved star of films like Home Aloneand series like SCTV and Schitt’s Creek has died.
O’Hara’s passing was reported by TMZ and confirmed by Variety. O’Hara was only 71 years old. She reportedly died after “a brief illness.”
Born in 1954 and raised in Toronto, O’Hara’s big break in comedy came when O’Hara joined the cast of SCTV, the sketch series from the Toronto branch of Second City. Although she did some work in film and TV through the 1980s, appearing in films like Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, O’Hara’s movie career got a major boost when she played Deelia Deetz, stepmother to Winona Ryder’s Lydia in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. (O’Hara returned to play Delia a second time in 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.)
Two years later, O’Hara appeared in four films in one year, most importantly Home Alone, the generational favorite family comedy about a boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who gets forgotten by his family when they head to Europe for a vacation. As the boy’s mother, Kate McCallister, O’Hara played the heart of the film, the mom who moves heaven and earth to get back to her son on Christmas, and she shares several lovely scenes in the film with Culkin and the late, great John Candy, who she had worked with on SCTV. O’Hara later reprised her role in the sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
In the decades since the Home Alones, O’Hara has rarely gone a year or two without appearing on movie screens. Her funniest work may have come in the improvised films of director Christopher Guest of the 1990s and 2000s, including Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, and Best in Show.
O’Hara was also a prolific voice actor who could be heard in movies like Chicken Little, Monster House, Over the Hedge, Elemental, Frankenweenie, and Where the Wild Things Are. Her best-known voice role was probably the unforgettable Sally from Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
In recent years, O’Hara’s best roles came on television. She won an Emmy for her work on Schitt’s Creek as family matriarch Moira. The show reunited her with another former SCTV co-star, Eugene Levy, who created the series with his son Dan Levy.
After the end of Schitt’s Creek, O’Hara joined Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s The Studio, where she played Rogen’s character’s mentor and former boss, Patty. That show earned her a nomination for another Emmy. She also appeared on the revival of The Kids in the Hall and the second season of The Last of Us.
This is already an impressive resume, but it barely scratchers the surface of her nearly 50-year Hollywood career. Beetlejuice and Home Alone, two very different mother characters from one of the funniest actors of her generation, ensure she will be remembered for decades to come.
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