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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several dozen protesters were arrested Saturday outside a federal building in Minneapolis, breaking up a protest marking the one-month anniversary of a Minnesota woman's death at the hands of an immigration officer.

Immigration Enforcement Minnesota

Renee Good was killed on Jan. 7 as she was driving away from immigration officers in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Her death and that of another Minneapolis resident, Alex Pretti, just weeks later have stoked outrage nationwide over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Scores of protesters gathered across the street from the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building around midday, throwing bottles and sex toys at a line of police guarding the property. The Hennepin County Sheriff's office said that the arrests began after the crowd started throwing chunks of ice and some property was damaged. A deputy was hit in the head, and a squad vehicle's windshield was smashed, the sheriff's office said on its Facebook page.

Police declared the gathering unlawful and ordered protesters to leave. Many complied, the Star Tribune reported, but about 100 remained in a standoff with deputies, state troopers and state conservation officers.

The sheriff's office later told television station KSTP that at least 42 arrests were made. No one from the sheriff's office responded to email, voicemail and text messages from The Associated Press on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile on Saturday, hundreds gathered on a snow-covered field in a Minneapolis park to honor Good and Pretti. Event organizers echoed recent criticisms of the immigration crackdown across Minnesota, characterizing it as a federal occupation.

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A Lakota spiritual leader, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, led a ceremony at the front of the crowd filled with people holding signs and American flags. Others shared music and poetry to honor the two people who have become central figures in the polarizing immigration debate in recent weeks.

A federal immigration officershot and killed Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Three agents surrounded her Honda Pilot SUV on a snowy street a few blocks from Good's home. Bystander video show an officer approaching the SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.

The vehicle began to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulled his weapon and immediately fired at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moved toward him. The Trump administration called Good as a domestic terrorist who tried to run over an officer with her vehicle. State and local officials have rejected that characterization.

Pretti was killedon Jan. 24 during a scuffle with immigration officers on the street. Bystander video shows a half-dozen officers took Pretti to the ground. One spotted Pretti's gun, which he was licensed to carry, and shouted "He's got a gun." Two officers then opened fire.

The Trump administration's border czar, Tom Homan, on Wednesday announced the administration wouldpull 700 immigration officersfrom Minnesota — roughly a quarter of the officers deployed to the state — after state and local officials agreed over the past week to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants. Homan did not say when the administration would end its crackdown in the state, however.

Good's wife, Becca Good, issued a statement Saturday saying that the immigration effort is hurting people in Minneapolis and no one knows their names.

"You know my wife's name and you know Alex's name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don't know — their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don't look like mine," Becca Good said in the statement. "They are neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates. And we must also know their names. Because this shouldn't happen to anyone."

HONG KONG —Hong Kongpro-democracy activistJimmy Laiis set to be sentenced Monday after hisconviction in a landmark national security trialthat has drawn international attention and become a symbol of Beijing'scrackdown on dissentin the Chinese territory.

Lai, a 78-year-old media tycoon who was one of the most prominent critics of China's ruling Communist Party, faces possible life in prison. The case has been criticized by the U.S. and other governments as politically motivated and a sign of shrinking space for dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony thatreturned to Chinese rulein 1997.

"The eyes of the world will be on Hong Kong," Aleksandra Bielakowska of Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, said in a statement Friday. "The outcome will resonate far beyond Jimmy Lai himself, sending a decisive signal about the future of press freedom in the territory."

Rights groups and members of Lai's family have also expressed concern about his health after he's spent more than 1,800 days in custody, much of it in solitary confinement. Hong Kong officials say Lai has received appropriate medical care and that he had requested to be kept separate from other prisoners.

Lai was arrested and charged in 2020, shortly after Beijing imposed asweeping national security lawin response to months of anti-government protests the previous year. Hong Kong authorities say the law was necessary to restore stability after the protests, which sometimes turned violent, and that Lai's case has nothing to do with press freedom.

The case has drawn scrutiny from foreign leaders including PresidentDonald Trump, who hadvowed to secure Lai's releaseand said he felt "so badly" after Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and colluding with foreign forces. British Prime MinisterKeir Starmer, who met with Chinese leaderXi Jinpingin Beijing last month, also said he had raised the issue of Lai, who is a British citizen.

Hong Kong officials have defended the independence of the local judicial system, which is separate from that of mainland China, and accused foreign governments of interfering in internal affairs. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Hong Kong's top judge, said in a speech last month that calls for Lai's premature release "strike at the very heart of the rule of law itself."

Lai — the founder of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy tabloid that wasforced to shut downin 2021 — was convicted on one charge of conspiring to publish seditious articles and two charges of conspiring to lobby foreign governments to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile measures againstChinaand Hong Kong.

In their 855-page verdict, the three handpicked judges cited Lai's interactions with senior U.S. government officials, including meetings he had at the height of the 2019 protests with Vice PresidentMike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and multiple members of Congress.

Lai pleaded not guilty to all charges. Also being sentenced in the case on Monday are six former Apple Daily journalists and two activists, some of whom testified against Lai, and all of whom pleaded guilty in the hope of receiving reduced sentences.

Lai had already been convicted separately on a number of lesser charges including fraud and unlawful assembly. In December 2022, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison in the fraud case.

Japan's ruling party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is set to seal a decisive win in Sunday's snap election, exit polls suggest.

The country's first female prime minister is seeking a clear public mandate just four months after becoming Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) leader.

Her predicted success is in marked contrast to her two predecessors, under whom the party lost its parliamentary majority because of corruption scandals and rising costs.

An LDP-led coalition has governed Japan for much of its post-war history due to the lack of a strong opposition.

Takaichi has pledged to step down if her party fails to secure a majority, and some have called the snap election a big gamble.

In 2024 the LDP lost its majority in both houses of parliament, and its decades-old coalition with the Komeito party collapsed.

But Takaichi's personal popularity appears to have helped the party, with approval ratings for her government mostly hovering above 70%.

The LDP and its current coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, could secure as many as 366 of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, according to a poll by broadcaster NHK.

People across Japan braved snow to vote in the country's first mid-winter poll in 36 years.

Japan's transport ministry said 37 train lines and 58 ferry routes were closed and 54 flights cancelled as of Sunday morning. There was rare snowfall in Tokyo as people headed out to vote.

"People want their lives to be better and more comfortable because we are so accustomed to not having inflation [costs rising]... so people are very worried. I think we need a long-term solution rather than short-term fixes," Ritsuko Ninomiya, a voter in Tokyo told the BBC.

Takaichi's enthusiasm, populist spending promises and nationalist rhetoric appear to have energised voters.

Her social media presence has also cultivated new followers, particularly among young voters. She regularly shares clips of her daily life and political activities, and a video of her playing the drums with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is one of many clips that have gone viral.

"I think this election is more important for the younger generation, people like us," Daniel Hayama said, adding that the cold weather was not a hurdle for young people who want to vote.

Takaichi and the LDP faced a more unified opposition than before. LDP's former coalition partner Komeito has joined forces with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to form the largest opposition bloc in the lower house.

Takaichi has pushed to toughen the immigration system, review rules around foreign ownership of Japanese land, and tackle any non-payments of tax and health insurance by foreign nationals.

But in a country where only 3% of the population are foreign nationals, critics have accused her of creating anxiety and division.

Critics, including businesses, are sceptical that her pledge to spend more and cut taxes can revive the sluggish Japanese economy. The country's government debt is already one of the highest among developed nations.

Relations with China - Japan's largest trading partner - have been strained as well, after Takaichi suggested last November that Japan could intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan.

Takaichi has courted Donald Trump, who has publicly endorsed her - an unusual move by a US president - and they both seem to agree that Japan should spend more on defence. That relationship too was on voters' minds as they headed to the polls on Sunday.

"I am concerned with what President Trump is doing as well as the national defence issues. I am not sure where the money is coming from to cover that. So balancing budget spending between defence and people's life is a major concern for me," Yuko Sakai says.

Additional reporting by Kelly Ng and Chika Nakayama.

• Will Sunday's snap election gamble pay off for Japan's first female premier?

• Meet Japan's drum-playing, Thatcher-loving first female prime minister

Diamonds are the ultimate status symbol, but are they really forever?

For over five centuries, Antwerp's diamond district in Belgium has been the cornerstone of the global diamond trade, through which 80% of the world's rough diamonds have passed. Now, that legacy is under strain in ways the city — and the industry itself — has never seen.

Phil Hoymans, managing director of Bonas, one of the companies that helps run Antwerp's diamond auctions, said people aren't aware of what's happening to the$60-billion-a-year diamond industry.

"Antwerp trades products that come directly from the mine," Hoymans said

Mines in places like Botswana and Canada send their uncut gems to Antwerp to be traded around the world.

"It kind of works like a Swiss watch," Hoymans said. "We're operating here in a square mile where [there are] 1,200, 1,300 diamond companies – many, many different communities and nationalities of people working here.

Ravi Bhansali, the managing director of Rosy Blue, one of the world's largest diamond companies, is part of a family that's been in the trade for generations.

"My grandfather would cut and polish diamonds, and his nephew used to sell them, and that was the whole company. So from that to going to today, where we're about four thousand employees, it's a beautiful story behind there," Bhansali said.

Challenges facing the diamond industry

Today, Antwerp now confronts challenges on multiple fronts.

First, "blood diamonds."

For years, the industry was plagued with exploitation in developing countries — a history that has led to some of the strictest oversight requirements in the global luxury market today.

Second, geopolitics.

For decades, a significant share of the world's rough diamonds flowed into Antwerp from Russia. That ended abruptly with sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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"That's about three billion dollars of Russian diamonds that stopped flowing through here," Bhansali said.

Then came tariffs.

"If they have been cut and polished in India, it's Indian American tariffs that we have to pay, which are at fifty percent at the moment," Bhansali said.

And then there's the fastest-moving challenge of all: Lab-grown diamonds.

Once a novelty, now mass-produced, chemically identical and indistinguishable to the naked eye. Bhansali has to scan all of his diamonds — millions per year — to make sure no lab-growns have been snuck in the mix.

If you can't tell the difference, then why would customers pay the markup for a real gem?

"That same statement can be said for any good counterfeit," Bhansali said. "This is a finite resource. And I think that forever story holds a special power over something that was grown two weeks ago in a factory in China and cut and polished."

Plus, there's another challenge to the industry: marriage rates are declining worldwide. Fewer engagements mean fewer engagement rings.

Fortunately, Jennifer Elliot, the owner of the boutiqueElliot & Ostrich, says there's also a new market: adivorcering. It's a piece of jewelry created from a ring from a past marriage, taking the original stone and redesigning it into a new setting that expresses the new you.

Antwerp is evolving. And the rest of the jewelry box of a city isn't ready to call it quits, wagering that some things are still worth taking their time, and come out stronger under pressure.

" I have no doubt in my mind that we will have an industry here tomorrow," Bhansali said. "Did you know that the youngest diamonds are a billion years old? The youngest diamonds. So that predates trees on planet Earth. How many things do you carry or hold in your home or wear on your body can you say the same thing for?"

White House says it removed Trump post with racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama

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Racist video shared by Trump depicting Obamas as apes taken down

Will Heath/NBC; Sabrina Lantos

Saturday Night Liveis on a break during the2026 Olympics, but the show will be back with a first-time host set to heat things up soon enough.

While someSNLstars are taking part in NBC's coverage of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games, other cast and crew are enjoying some time off after last week'sAlexander Skarsgård-hosted episode. The legendary sketch show won't air new episodes for the next three weeks, butHeated RivalryheartthrobConnor Storrieis already on the bench to host its Feb. 28 return.

The actor, who plays the sexy but stoic Ilya Rozanov on HBO Max's horny hockey drama, will be making hisSNLdebut. He'll be joined by musical guest Mumford & Sons, who are old pros by now after three previous stints on the Studio 8H stage.

No word yet on whether Storrie's onscreen boyfriendHudson Williamsis lined up for a cameo, butSNLalum Jimmy Fallon has already vouched for him to host, so we'd be shocked if it didn't happen. Thankfully, there's already an ice rink right outside 30 Rock — although we're a little afraid to see the racyMighty Duckssketch the show might cook up with star Kenan Thompson.

Sabrina Lantos

Based on Rachel Reid'sGame Changersbooks, the queer romance series about a pair of pro hockey players who go from enemies to lovers became a breakout success for the streamer, skyrocketing the lead actors to fame. Both Storrie and Williams were working in the service industry prior to landing their lead roles onHeated Rivalry, which was originally created for the Canadian streaming platform Crave before being picked up for U.S. distribution by HBO Max.Storrie also had a small but pivotal role inJoker: Folie à Deuxopposite Joaquin Phoenix in 2024.

SNL's 51st season kicked off Oct. 4, withhost Bad Bunnyand musical guest Doja Cat. Other episodes this season have been fronted bySNLalum Amy Poehler with musical guest Role Model, Sabrina Carpenter doing double duty as host and musical guest, Miles Teller with Brandi Carlile, comedian Nikki Glaser with Sombr,The Running Manstar Glen Powell with Grammys 2026 Best New Artist winner Olivia Dean, Melissa McCarthy with Dijon, Josh O'Connor with Lily Allen, and Ariana Grande with Cher capping 2025 andBowen Yang's last episode as anSNLcast member.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

Will Heath/NBC

Season 51 continued in January withStranger Thingsstar Finn Wolfhardjoined by rapper A$AP Rocky, 2026 Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor with the band Geese, and Skarsgård overseeing the show's milestone 1,000th episode.

The Winter Olympics began Feb. 6 and continue through Sunday, Feb. 22.Saturday Night Livereturns Feb. 28 at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

"TODAY" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie addressed her mother's possible kidnapper in a new Instagram video Saturday, saying the family would "pay" for the 84-year-old woman's safe return.

"We received your message and we understand," Savannah Guthrie said, seated alongside her brother, Camron, and sister, Annie. "We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace."

"This is very valuable to us, and we will pay," Savannah Guthrie said in closing, holding her siblings' hands.

Guthrie's 20-second video did not provide specifics about the message she referenced.

More on Nancy Guthrie's disappearance

• What we know about the search for Nancy Guthrie

• Timeline of the night Guthrie disappeared

• Hoda Kotb joins 'TODAY' amid investigation: 'This whole thing is breaking my heart'

At least three news outlets have received a possible ransom note, and it is not clear if she was referencing that note or another communication. NBC News has reviewed a copy of the note. No law enforcement agency has so far substantiated the note.

The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department said Friday they were aware of a new message regarding Guthrie, which investigators were inspecting for authenticity. It is not known whether the possible ransom note and that new message are connected, or whether they came from the same sender.

Two notes were sent to local TV station KOLD. The station's news director, Jessica Bobula, told NBC News on Saturday that the first message came in to their news tips system on Monday and the second just before noon Friday.

She said neither note provided proof of life, but the first note said Guthrie was fine.

The second note "was certainly not a ransom demand," Bobula said, noting it did not ask for money, and it differed "in almost every way" from the first. One of the notes did not provide an image of Guthrie but "a description," she said.

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Bobula said the author of the second note appeared to be trying to prove that they were the same sender as the first note.

"There is something in the note that we believe they are trying to use to make sure the investigators know that it is the same people," Bobula said. "It seems as though they are trying to indicate only the sender of the previous email would know this detail."

The first note included two deadlines, one for 5 p.m. last Thursday and another for 5 p.m. Monday, and a request for funds.

Asked if the note indicated what might happen if the Monday deadline is missed she said, "They did." When asked if the note indicated Guthrie could be harmed in some way, Bobula said, "Yes."

Both notes were sent to the Pima County Sheriff's Department, along with the IP information, she said.

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her home north of Tucson, Arizona, around noon Sunday after she did not show up at church. She was last seen the night before around 9:45 p.m. after having dinner at Annie Guthrie's home.

The sheriff's department believes Guthrie was taken "possibly in the middle of the night, and that includes possible kidnapping or abduction." State and federal law enforcement officials are involved in the investigation, including the FBI.

In a statement Wednesday, the sheriff's department said investigators have not identified a suspect or a person of interest. Authorities previously said they have no credible information that Guthrie's possible abduction was a targeted incident.

Investigators believe Guthrie is "still out there" and remain committed to bringing her home safely.

An 18-month-old baby held with her parents ata South Texas immigration detention centerbecame so ill last month that she was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening respiratory failure — then sent back to detention days later, where she was denied daily medication doctors prescribed, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

The toddler, Amalia, remained in detention for another nine days and was released only after lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition in federal court challenging her continued confinement. She was freed Friday after the filing.

Amalia had been healthy before immigration officers arrested her family in El Paso in December and transferred them to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a remote, prisonlike facility where hundreds of immigrant children are held with their parents. Advocates and pediatric experts have warned that conditions at the center are unsafe for young children.

Amalia's health quickly deteriorated, the lawsuit says. On Jan. 18, she was rushed to a children's hospital in San Antonio, where doctors treated her for pneumonia, Covid-19, RSV and severe respiratory distress.

"She was at the brink of dying," said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and the director of the school's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, who filed the petition seeking the family's release.

Yet after Amalia's return to Dilley on Jan. 28, federal officials "denied her access to the medication that doctors prescribed for her at the hospital" the lawsuit says, forcing her parents to "wait in long lines for hours outside daily" to request the medicine, only to be turned away.

After days of intensive treatment on oxygen, Amalia began to recover. But her discharge from the hospital was not the end of her ordeal.

Despite warnings from medical experts that the toddler remained medically vulnerable and at high risk of reinfection, immigration officers returned Amalia and her mother to the detention center, the lawsuit says.

"After baby Amalia had been hospitalized for 10 days, ICE thought this baby should be returned to Dilley, where she was denied access to the medicines that the hospital doctors told her she needed," Mukherjee said. "It is so outrageous."

The Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. It has defended its use of family detention, saying in statements and legal filings that detainees are provided basic necessities and that officials work to ensure children and adults are safe.

CoreCivic, the company that runs Dilley under a federal contract, deferred questions about the facility to DHS and said in a statement that "the health and safety of those entrusted to our care" is the company's top priority.

Amalia's case comes amid heightened scrutiny of conditions at Dilley, which was thrust into the national spotlight last month after immigration authoritiesdetained Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy taken into custody with his father — an episode that drew widespread outrage after a photograph showed the child in a blue bunny hat as he was led away by officers.

Accounts fromdetained families, their lawyers and court filingsportray Dilley as a place where hundreds of children languish while being served contaminated food, receiving little education and struggling to obtain basic medical care. Sworn declarationsfrom dozens of parentssay prolonged confinement takes a heavy physical and psychological toll on children — including regression, weight loss, recurring illness and nightmares — as the federal government expands the use of family detention.

Like many other families held at Dilley, lawyers for Amalia's parents say the family should never have been detained.

Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto entered the United States in 2024 after fleeing Venezuela, where they say they faced persecution for their political opposition to President Nicolás Maduro, according to the lawsuit. During their journey north, Valero Marcano gave birth to Amalia in Mexico.

They applied for asylum through the government-run appointment system CBP One, and immigration authorities allowed the family to live in El Paso while their case moved forward. According to the lawsuit, they checked in regularly with immigration officials and complied with all requirements, including participation in an alternative-to-detention monitoring program.

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That changed on Dec. 11, when the family reported together for a check-in and was taken into custody, according to the lawsuit. Two days later, they were transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a sprawling complex an hour south of San Antonio, more than 500 miles from the community where they had been living.

Once inside Dilley, the parents say their daughter's health deteriorated quickly. In early January, Amalia developed a high fever that would not break. She began vomiting, had diarrhea and struggled to breathe.

As she grew weaker, her parents said they repeatedly took her to the facility's medical clinic — eight or nine times, according to the lawsuit — seeking help. Each visit ended the same way, according to the lawsuit: basic fever medication.

By mid-January, Amalia was barely getting enough oxygen. On Jan. 18, the lawsuit said, her blood oxygen levels plunged into the 50s — ​a life-threatening emergency — and she was taken out of the facility with her mother to a hospital. Her father remained behind at Dilley, unable to communicate with his wife or see his daughter as doctors worked to save her.

She spent 10 days at Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio, much of that time on oxygen, as her lungs struggled to recover. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers maintained constant supervision over Amalia and her mother throughout the hospitalization, according to the lawsuit.

Mukherjee said the girl's mother spent the days praying at her daughter's bedside, terrified she would die — and was later devastated to learn that, once discharged, they would be sent back to detention.

When Amalia was released from the hospital on Jan. 28, doctors gave clear instructions, medical records cited in the lawsuit show: She needed breathing treatments delivered by nebulizer and nutritional supplements to help her regain strength and weight.

Instead of allowing them to return to El Paso, immigration officers drove Amalia and her mother back to Dilley, the lawsuit says.

Once there, detention medical staff confiscated Amalia's nebulizer, albuterol and nutritional supplements. The parents were required to wait daily for hours in what detainees have described in interviews and sworn declarations as the "pill line" — an outdoor queue families must stand in to obtain medicine and other necessities.

Amalia shivered in her mother's arms as they waited in the cold, Mukherjee said, only to be given PediaSure and denied the breathing medication doctors had prescribed.

As Amalia remained in detention, Mukherjee and other immigration lawyers repeatedly urged federal officials to release the family, warning that the child's condition could rapidly worsen.

Medical experts who reviewed Amalia's records submitted affidavits cautioning that returning a medically fragile toddler to detention — particularly without reliable access to prescribed medication — put her at extreme danger. One physician warned that the child faced a "high risk for medical decompensation and death."

Mukherjee's efforts intensified after health officialsconfirmed two measles casesamong people held at Dilley.

When those appeals failed, Mukherjee filed the emergency challenge in federal court seeking the family's release.

Hours later, on Friday evening, the family was freed. Mukherjee said ICE failed to turn over Amalia's prescriptions as well as her birth certificate. The parents weren't immediately available for an interview.

The reprieve brought them relief, Mukherjee said, but she expects the experience will have lasting consequences.

"I imagine they're going to carry the trauma of this experience for the rest of their lives," she said.