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NEED TO KNOW

• Nazgul, a 2-year-old pup, was caught on camera running to the finish line of a women's cross-country team sprint qualifier at the 2026 Winter Olympics

• Nazgul allegedly escaped from his home at a nearby bed and breakfast

• His surprise appearance left one skier shocked, with her saying, "I was like, 'Am I hallucinating?"

The furry four-legged local who made his bid for gold during the 2026 Winter Olympics after escaping his doghouse has become somewhat of a household name – Meet Nazgul.

Nazgul first made headlines during a women's cross-country team sprint qualifying race on Wednesday, Feb. 18, when the Czechoslovakian wolfdog was seencrashing the courseas some of the 2026 Winter Olympians were reaching the finish line.

As members of Team Croatia and Team Australia crossed the finish line, Nazgul first took a peek at the cameras before joining what he appeared to have thought was a game of chase.

"Anybody lost their dog?" the on-course announcer jokingly said, after noting, "it's a fairly nice mutt there, not hindering anybody's progress. One of those moments you have to laugh about."

Adding, "But you know, better it happened now than during the group sprints, let's put it that way."

After the race, Nazgul went over to say a quick hello to the Olympians who crossed the finish line and volunteers before heading to the post-finish area with the other athletes.

"I was like, 'Am I hallucinating?" Tena Hadzic, a 21-year-old Croatian skier who saw the Nazgul during the race, toldNPR. "I don't know what I should do, because maybe he could attack me, bite me."

After receiving a few quick pets, the unharmed two-year-old pup was returned home to a nearby bed-and-breakfast, but not before his 15 seconds of fame with numerous media outlets and social media users sharing his unexpected appearance.

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Nazgul's owner, who decided to remain anonymous, spoke to NPR while driving to watch an Olympic biathlon race at another venue.

"He was crying [that] morning more than normal because he was seeing us leaving — and I think he just wanted to follow us," the owner said. "He always looks for people."

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Nazgul didn't appear to affect the preliminary qualifying round.

Although no one has seemingly blamed the "stubborn, but very sweet" Nazgul for inserting himself in the team sprint, Hadzic said she believes that had the event been the finals, her reaction might've been different.

"It's not that big a deal, because I'm not fighting for medals or anything big," she said. "But if that happened in the finals, it could really cost someone the medals, or a really good result."

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come topeople.comto check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.

Read the original article onPeople

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball is not listed on the team's injury report and is expected to play Thursday night against the Houston Rockets, one day after beinginvolved in a two-car crashin Charlotte.

The Hornets are one of the NBA's hottest teams having won 10 of their last 11 games and Ball is a big reason for that success.

Ball appeared to be driving through an intersection when his camouflage-colored, custom-made Hummer collided with another vehicle Wednesday, according tovideo obtained by WSOC-TVin Charlotte. The station later posted video of Ball, wearing anaqua-colored Hornets hoodie, getting out his truck and into another car before being driven away. Police were on the scene at the time.

A police report has not been made available.

There was no information available on the person in the other car involved in the collision, although video showed that driver calmly get out of his car and begin walking toward Ball's truck after the crash.

Video showed the left front tire of Ball's truck was missing.

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Ball is just the latest professional sports athlete to be involved in a car crash in Charlotte.

Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newtonfractured his backin a 2014 crash in which he flipped his pickup truck near Bank of America Stadium — less than a mile from where Ball's crash occurred.

And in 2024, Panthers current backup quarterback Andy Daltoninjured his thumbwhen he was involved in a two-car crash in Charlotte.

Former Hornets guard Bobby Phills was killed in a car crash at age 30 following a practice on Jan. 12, 2000.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Baltimore Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg was not on the field with the team for a spring training workout on Thursday, and manager Craig Albernaz doesn't know when his status will change.

"He's unable to participate right now," the first-year manager said Thursday. "Getting evaluated by our medical team and also outside people. See what's going on with Jordan and get him ready to go."

Westburg, 27, felt his oblique tighten on the right side early in spring training. Albernaz did not specifically point to the muscle injury as the reason for his absence and wouldn't say if he had a different injury.

Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias said earlier this month that Westburg's oblique injury dates to January.

The Baltimore Banner reported Thursday, however, that Westburg had imaging done on his elbow.

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"Just physically unable to go," Albernaz said. "We want to make sure we do our due diligence. Make sure Jordan has the best chance to play this year."

Injuries have been a hindrance in Westburg's three seasons in Baltimore, which drafted him 30th overall in 2020 out of Mississippi State.

He played 85 games last season and required injured list stints due to a left hamstring injury and a sprained ankle. He also missed parts of 2025 spring training with back tightness. He played 107 games in 2024 and was named an All-Star, but also missed seven weeks with a fractured hand.

In 260 career games, Westburg has a .264 batting average with 38 home runs and 127 RBIs.

--Field Level Media

A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally.

Federal Enforcement Tear Gas Housing

Citing the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also "extended its violence on its own citizens."

"The threats posed by the executive branch cannot be viewed in isolation," U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California said in a scathing decision issued late Wednesday.

Sykes said the administration had violated her December ruling that found it was illegally denying many detained immigrants a chance for release. She ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide them with notice that they may be eligible for bond and then give them access to a phone to call an attorney within an hour.

She also threw out a September ruling by an immigration court that the administration had cited for continuing its mandatory detention policy.

The White House referred comment Thursday to the Homeland Security department. The department said in a statement that the Supreme Court had "repeatedly overruled" lower courts on the issue of mandatory detention.

"ICE has the law and the facts on its side, and it adheres to all court decisions until it ultimately gets them shot down by the highest court in the land," the statement said.

Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. PresidentDonald Trump's White House reversed that practice.

With access to bond hearings cut off, immigrants by the thousands filedseparate petitions in federal courtseeking their release. More than 20,000 habeas corpus cases have been filed since Trump's inauguration, according to federal court records analyzed by the AP.

Judges have granted many of those petitions, but then later found the administration was violating their orders to release people or provide them with other relief.

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A federal judge in Minnesota took the rare step Wednesday of finding a Trump administration lawyer in contempt of court over the government's failure to comply with an order to return identification documents to an immigrant the judge had ordered released.

A federal judge in New Jersey this week ordered the administration to explain what procedures are in place to ensure court orders in his district are followed consistently and on time. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Tuesday that Trump officials failed to meet court ordered deadlines for bond hearings in immigration court in 12 of roughly 550 cases since December 5.

"Judicial orders should never be violated," he wrote.

Sykes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat,ruled in Novemberand again in December that the mandatory detention policy violated an act of Congress. She extended her decision to immigrants nationwide. The Republican administration, however, continued denying bond hearings.

Sykes said Wednesday failing to provide immigrants with due process "harms their families, communities, and the fabric of this very nation."

She also slammed the claim that the administration's immigration crackdown was removing the worst criminals, saying most of the people arrested did not fit that description.

"Americans have expressed deep concerns over unlawful, wanton acts by the executive branch," she wrote. "Beyond its terror against noncitizens, the executive branch has extended its violence on its own citizens, killing two American citizens— Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota."

Matt Adams, an attorney for plaintiffs in the lawsuit before Sykes, said he was hopeful her latest ruling would do away with mandatory detention.

"Certainly in the normal course of things, the immigration judges would return to granting bond hearings," he said.

Associated Press writers Cedar Attanasio in Seattle and Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky contributed to this report.

A federal judge in Minnesota held a Trump administration attorney in civil contempt for "flagrant disobedience of court orders" in the case of a noncitizen swept up in the immigration crackdown there earlier this year.

The contempt finding by US District Judge Laura Provinzino on Wednesday appears to mark the first time a federal attorney has faced court-ordered sanctions during President Donald Trump's second term.

It comes as judges in the Twin Cities and elsewhere have grown increasingly impatient with the administration's repeated violations of court orders, particularly in fast-moving immigration cases.

The appointee of former President Joe Biden said that starting Friday, the lawyer, Matthew Isihara, must pay $500 each day that the immigrant is not given back identification documents that weren't initially returned to him when he was released last week from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, as she had ordered.

As Provinzino imposed the sanction, she brushed aside Isihara's attempt to explain that the violation wasn't intentional, but instead a result of the case slipping through the cracks amid an "enormous volume of cases" stemming from Operation Metro Surge.

"The government's understaffing and high caseload is a problem of its own making and absolutely does not justify flagrant disobedience of court orders," the judge said during a hearing Wednesday, according to a transcript obtained by CNN.

"I don't believe I need to do additional hand-holding on this. I think it's clear what needs to happen," she added. "Petitioner needs to get his documents immediately, and there will be a $500 sanction any day beyond tomorrow that they are not received by his attorney."

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Isihara is amilitary attorney who went to the Twin Cities to helpthe Justice Department handle a flood of immigration cases brought by noncitizens seeking to be released from ICE custody, which had overwhelmed its team on the ground, leading to non-compliance issues in other cases.

Provinzino on February 9 ordered the government to release the man, a Mexican national who had lived in Minnesota since 2018, after she determined that he was being unlawfully detained. Her order mandated that he be released in Minnesota no later than February 13 and that all his property be handed over to him. But the government flouted that order in three different ways, the judge said, including by releasing him in Texas, where he was being held, and not giving him back his identification documents.

"It's very troubling, in the court's review of this record," the judge said as she ticked through the various violations. She noted later that Isihara and his colleagues hadn't done any work on the case until that morning.

"It's a capacity issue, your honor, and that's the fundamental underlying issue," Isihara said. "It's not any willful attempt to defy the court."

Provinzino and her colleagues on the bench in Minnesota had regularly been threatening to hold Justice Department lawyers or immigration officials in civil contempt in recent weeks as non-compliance issues in dozens of cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge continued to add up. But the monetary sanctions represent a turning point.

"We've seen other cases in which district judges have opened more formal contempt proceedings, but this is the first time we've seen a court directly use its coercive power to try to compel immediate compliance with a court order," said Steve Vladeck, CNN legal analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

"The notion that lawyers must themselves pay a price for their client's non-compliance with court orders is hardly new, but it may be long overdue in the context of the current administration," Vladeck added.

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Isihara's explanation to the judge mirrored similar statements made earlier this month by a different Trump administration lawyer who found herself in the hot seat over repeated violations of court orders in immigration cases she was handling in the Twin Cities.

That lawyer, Julie Le, wasremoved from her post in Minnesotaafter she told Judge Jerry Blackwell the violations were the result of both a personnel shortage and lackluster procedures intended to ensure orders are followed.

"And, yes, procedure in place right now sucks. I'm trying to fix it," she said. "The system sucks. This job sucks."

Compliance issues in immigration cases are not limited to Minnesota.

In Baltimore on Wednesday, a Trump-appointed judge scrutinized claims that federal immigration agencies had violated a 2024 settlement agreement meant to protect some young migrants with pending asylum claims from being deported.

At least a handful of the young migrants covered by the settlement were deported last year before they were given the opportunity to have their asylum claims heard, as guaranteed by the agreement.

US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher did not rule from the bench on a request from lawyers for the migrants for the government to be held in civil contempt. Instead, she said she would be scheduling an evidentiary hearing to hear live testimony from Department of Homeland Security officials after a DOJ lawyer was not able to answer her questions about why those migrants were deported.

DOJ found more than 50 violations of court orders

In New Jersey, a high-ranking Justice Department official told a federal judge there last week the government had identified more than 50 instances of violations of court orders across hundreds of immigration cases brought in the state since early December.

The accounting was undertaken by two dozen lawyers with the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey after Judge Michael Farbiarz found that the government had violated his order in the case of an Indian national challenging his detention. The judge had directed officials to not transfer the man out of New Jersey while his case played out, but he was nonetheless flown to Texas.

The DOJ official, Jordan Fox, told the judge that many of the violations occurred when a migrant challenging their detention was moved from one facility to another even after a judge had expressly prohibited such a change.

Fox said the violations were accidental and due to "logistical delays in communicating the court order" to the relevant ICE officials or "administrative oversight of the court order."

The other violations included missing filing deadlines or not giving an immigrant a bond hearing within the timeframe outlined by a judge.

Farbiarz, a Joe Biden appointee, is still weighing what to do in the case of the Indian national, but he made clear Tuesday that he is unhappy with the noncompliance identified by the lawyers.

"This falls below the relevant standards," he wrote in an order directing the US Attorney's Office to explain in coming days how it will work to ensure the pattern isn't repeated. "Judicial orders should never be violated. And they very rarely are, especially not by federal officials."

This story has been updated with additional details.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Katherine Eddington was driving in North Las Vegas last week when she thought she saw a big black bird carrying a banana fly across the intersection.

Nevada Toucan

But after a closer look, she realized it was a toucan — a tropical bird native to rainforests in Central and South America known for their large, colorful bills.

"They're beautiful birds, so being able to see something like that so close to home was fascinating," said Eddington, who recognized the bird from social media and contacted animal rescue.

That toucan is named Sam, and he has been living in the area since November, when a resident posted online that he'd escaped from his cage. After surviving the Las Vegas desert for months, Sam has captivated community birding groups, with people posting occasional sightings around town.

A local rescue group has been trying to catch him for months — and the clock is ticking.

"I'm really worried about him," said Skye Marsh, president and co-founder of SouthWest Exotic Avian Rescue. The Las Vegas-based group has spent hours searching for him, only to find the bird 50 feet (about 15 meters) up in a palm tree, limiting rescue options. They have not been in touch with the owner, she said.

Las Vegas is not a good environment for a toucan to be in the wild with its too-hot summers and cold winters, said Donald Price, a professor and biologist at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas who studies how winged animal species adapt to different environments.

Marsh, who has two toucans of her own, said Sam is starting to show signs of struggle. His eyes are sunken in, and the skin around his beak is starting to get discolored, she said.

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Sam likely lived off figs and pomegranates from trees in the Los Prados neighborhood, located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Las Vegas Strip, when he first escaped in November, Marsh said. Those fruits have since disappeared, and Sam has moved on to citrus, which are harmful to toucans, she said. Their livers cannot process the calcium, and the iron can be deadly.

"This bird is not in good shape," Marsh said.

Bird experts and enthusiasts alike are surprised the toucan has survived so long in Las Vegas. Exotic birds that escape often have difficulty finding food and avoiding predators, and the changing weather in Las Vegas has also likely taken a toll on the toucan.

Birds can thermal regulate, but only for so long. It takes a lot of energy, so the toucan would need more food, Price said.

"If it's still alive, it could be in trouble, I can imagine. So hopefully they catch it," he said.

The toucan has been spotted in one specific location, a sign he's running out of energy, she said. The rescue group set up a cage with food in it and urged neighbors to stop feeding it. The toucan has scoped out the cage but gets spooked when people are around, Marsh said.

The rescue group will rush him to the vet as soon as he's caught, Marsh said. He'll need fluids, and his system will need to be flushed to remove the iron he's eaten.

Marsh urged neighbors to not get close to the toucan or try to trap Sam themselves.

"The more people that are out there, the worse it's going to be because he doesn't like people," she said. "So just let us do our thing, and we'll get him."

By Steve Holland, Simon Lewis and Samia Nakhoul

The U.S. Institute of Peace building prepares to host Trump's first Board of Peace meeting in Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will preside over the first meeting of his Board of Peace on Thursday with unresolved questions on the future of Gaza hanging over an event expected ‌to include representatives from more than 45 nations.

The disarmament of Hamas militants, the size of the reconstruction fund and the flow ‌of humanitarian aid to the war-battered populace of Gaza are among the major questions likely to test the effectiveness of the board in the weeks and months ahead.

Trump is to ​address the group at the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace - a building in Washington the president recently renamed for himself - and announce that participating nations have raised $5 billion for the reconstruction fund.

The money is expected to be a down payment on a fund that will likely need many more billions. Included in the $5 billion is expected to be $1.2 billion each from two of Washington's Gulf Arab allies, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, a U.S. ‌official told Reuters.

Trump's Board of Peace has been controversial. ⁠It includes Israel but not Palestinian representatives and Trump's suggestion that the Board could eventually address challenges beyond Gaza has stirred anxiety that it could undermine the U.N.'s role as the main platform for global diplomacy and conflict ⁠resolution.

Senior U.S. officials said Trump will also announce that several nations are planning to send thousands of troops to participate in an International Stabilization Force that will help keep the peace in Gaza.

Disarming Hamas militants in order for the peacekeepers to begin their mission remains a major sticking point, and the force is ​not ​expected to deploy for weeks or months.

The Palestinian group Hamas, fearful of Israeli reprisals, ​has been reluctant to hand over weaponry as part ‌of Trump's 20-point Gaza plan that brought about a fragile ceasefire last October in the two-year Gaza war.

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"We are under no illusions on the challenges regarding demilitarization, but we have been encouraged by what the mediators have reported back," a senior administration official said.

MOST SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS NOT ATTENDING

Delegations from 47 countries plus the European Union are expected to attend the event, U.S. officials said. The list includes Israel and a wide array of countries from Albania to Vietnam.

It does not, however, include permanent United Nations Security Council members like France, Britain, Russia and China.

Speakers at the event are ‌expected to include Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff ​and Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to have a ​senior role in the board, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. ​Mike Waltz, and High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov, among other attendees.

A member of the peace board, who declined to ‌be named, said the Gaza plan faces formidable obstacles. ​Establishing security in the enclave is a ​precondition for progress in other areas, but the police force is neither ready nor fully trained, said the official.

The official added that a key unresolved question is who would negotiate with Hamas. The peace board's representatives could do so with countries that have influence ​over Hamas - notably Qatar and Turkey - but Israel is ‌deeply skeptical of both.

Another major issue is the flow of aid, which the official described as "disastrous" and in urgent need ​of scaling up. Even if aid surges in, it remains unclear who will distribute it, the official said.

(Reporting By Steve Holland, ​Simon Lewis and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Don Durfee and Lincoln Feast)