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Casandra Ventura, the R&B singer and model who has accused Diddy of physical and sexual abuse, faced cross-examination today from Anna Estevao, one of the rapper’s lawyers. Estevao set out to portray Ventura as a willing participant in Diddy’s “freak offs,” challenging the singer’s insistence that she was coerced into the drug-fueled, voyeuristic sexual encounters.

• Ventura, who is visibly pregnant, acknowledged that the early years of her off-and-on relationship with Diddy were “loving,” though sometimes riven by jealousy. She remembered him as a “charismatic” and “larger-than-life” personality who could be “sweet” and “attentive.”
• Estevao showed jurors text messages the defense team believes rebut Ventura’s claims. “I’m always ready to freak off,” Ventura wrote in 2009. “I can’t wait,” she wrote before one such event that same year. Ventura testified yesterday that she never wanted to participate in the marathon sex sessions but felt she needed to keep Diddy happy.
• Diddy and Ventura argued about infidelity, and “it was a little scary” when he accused her of cheating, she told jurors. Ventura said she had “some jealousy” toward the late Kim Porter, one of Diddy’s ex-partners and the mother of three of his kids; Diddy was “irate” about Ventura’s brief relationship with rapper Kid Cudi, she said.
• Estevao attempted to connect Diddy’s drug use to his alleged pattern of violent behavior. Ventura said the hip-hop mogul was once addicted to opiates and overdosed in 2012. The painkillers he took were “a part” of his mood swings, she said. Ventura testified that she was dependent on drugs during the relationship, too. 

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The view from inside

By Adam Reiss and Doha Madani

When cross-examination started, Ventura spoke with trepidation and caution. But she seemed to gain confidence as the day went on, answering questions calmly and politely. She occasionally expressed confusion about certain queries. Estevao initially appeared to struggle to find a rhythm, repeatedly starting and stopping, but she settled into a steady groove after lunch. 

Diddy’s three sons as well as his mother, Janice Combs, sat in the gallery today. The rapper’s mom has been in the federal courtroom in downtown Manhattan every day this week, listening to extraordinarily graphic testimony about her son’s alleged history of violent abuse and sexual proclivities.

Judge Arun Subramanian looks determined to keep the trial moving at a brisk clip. He promised jurors they would be done with their service before July 4 — and he appears mindful of the fact that Ventura is potentially days away from giving birth. He sternly reminded the defense it was given a day and a half to question her, and scolded Diddy’s lead attorney after he pushed back.

“In what universe did you not understand that this was important,” Subramanian asked the attorney, Marc Agnifilo.

In other news: The prosecutors and defense lawyers seemed to have a cordial rapport during pretrial hearings. But it has quickly evaporated this week. The tension in the courtroom ramps up dramatically whenever the jury isn’t seated. This morning, for example, the lawyers on opposing sides got into a heated dispute over which text messages the defense can introduce as evidence.

Diddy, meanwhile, took notes on a pad while those arguments unfolded.

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Analysis: Consent or coercion?

By Danny Cevallos

Ventura’s testimony on cross-examination will read well for the prosecution on the transcript. It might not have sounded as good to the jury. That’s because a transcript doesn’t capture the cadence, inflection and mood of the answers. For jurors, who are listening to her testimony live and watching her body language, Ventura’s testimony could go either way. 

On the one hand, she is answering the questions — and she is mostly saying what the prosecution needs for its case. But on the other hand, some questions have no good answers. When the defense confronts her with text messages that suggest she was a willing participant in the “freak off” lifestyle, there really is no perfect response for Ventura.

It’s entirely possible jurors will see her as a victim who was unable to extricate herself from Diddy’s clutches. They may see her as someone coerced into the lifestyle. But it’s also possible that one or more jurors might conclude that Ventura repeatedly chose to be with Diddy and join in “freak offs,” sometimes with enthusiastic messages to him. It takes only one juror to deadlock.

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What’s next

Tomorrow: Ventura will return to the witness stand for more cross-examination by Diddy’s team. The judge and prosecutors have made clear they’d like questioning to wrap by the end of the day.

WASHINGTON — As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., was categorical that the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands.

“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said. “We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on. … But there’ll be changes in a number of areas.”

It wouldn’t surprise House members to learn that their Senate colleagues want to put their own fingerprints on the final multitrillion-dollar package. But Republican senators have already begun to identify a variety of provisions in the House measure that they’re targeting for revisions — from Medicaid concerns to clean energy funding to spectrum policy and overall red ink.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., came out against the emerging House legislation this week, saying it will explode the U.S. budget deficit.

“I don’t see any scenario where it’s going to be deficit-neutral. That’s my problem,” he told NBC News. “By my calculation, this is going to increase the deficit by $4 trillion.”

“The amount that they’re looking to reduce spending is about 1.3%. It’s a rounding error. It’s completely inadequate,” Johnson said as he insists federal spending be at least lowered to pre-pandemic levels.

Republicans have 53 senators, meaning they can only lose three votes before the bill collapses int he chamber, as they have no hope of winning Democrats. They’ve already lost Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wants steeper cuts. And Democrats are dialing up the heat on GOP attempts to cut energy funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, highlighting the 2022 law’s economic and national security benefits.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, led a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., last month with three other Republicans warning that “termination” of certain clean energy tax credits enacted in 2022 “would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy.”

The House committee tasked with writing the tax provisions of the package is seeking to repeal significant subsidies for electric vehicles and aims to phase out other clean energy tax incentives that were passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, Murkowski told NBC News she, John Curtis, R-Utah, Thom Tillis, R-NC, and Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, “made clear that we needed to take a cautious approach to the energy tax credits and make sure that we don’t lose out on some of the good investments that we built.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has also been warning against Medicaid cuts as the House bill seeks to impose work requirements and provider funding limits that have been panned by critics.

“I will not support Medicaid benefit cuts,” Hawley told NBC News on Tuesday, adding that he has “concerns with pieces” of the House bill because of what it would mean to rural hospitals in his state.

He later wrote on X: “I don’t want to see rural hospitals close their doors because funding got cut. I also don’t like the idea of a hidden tax on the working poor. That’s why I’m a NO on this House bill in its current form.”

Hawley’s concerns are shared by Murkowski as well as Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted against the budget framework last month, citing concerns about Medicaid cuts harming her state.

Another issue Senate Republicans want to revise are provisions that House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said would renew “the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction authority and provide resources to modernize federal information-technology systems,” and save $88 billion.

“I’ve had a chance to actually look at the language on the spectrum issue. It clearly has to be corrected,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said the policy needs “to go much further, much further” and she “cannot accept it as it came out of the” House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is hoping to steer the measure through the House Budget Committee on Friday and pass the entire bill through the chamber — with some changes — before Memorial Day.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who faces re-election next year in a competitive state, said the Senate will need to review the House language on Medicaid cuts, clean energy money and other policies before making a decision.

Tillis also said the Senate isn’t enthused by the draft House bill’s policy to raise the cap on the state and local tax deduction to $30,000, up from $10,000. Unlike in the House, there are no GOP senators in the high-tax blue states where “SALT” is a big issue.

“I think that’s an area where we’re going to need some consideration,” Tillis said.

Mexican beauty influencer Valeria Marquez was shot and killed on camera during a TikTok live stream. 

Marquez, 23, was sitting inside a beauty salon in Zapopan when live stream footage caught the shocking incident. The influencer, who was wearing the same bodysuit she wore in her latest Instagram photo, was seen holding a stuffed pig in her lap in the moments before her death. 

She was heard saying in Spanish, “They’re coming,” before a voice offscreen greeted her with, “Hey, Vale?” Marquez then answered “yes” and muted the sound on the stream. Seconds later, she appeared to be shot by a firearm. 

Her Instagram following ballooned from less than 100,000 to nearly 260,000 in the wake of the news as a mix of support and shock poured into the comments of her recent posts. 

City police officers and paramedics confirmed Marquez’s death upon arriving at the scene, according to the Jalisco state attorney general’s office. The office stated on Tuesday that the slaying is being investigated for potential femicide, which is defined by the UN as “an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation.” 

Research by the data gathering platform Statista ranked Mexico as the second-highest nation for femicides in Latin America in 2023. The country recorded nearly 800 cases in 2024, a decrease from previous years. Victims tended to have preexisting familial or communal relationships with their aggressors, according to Statista. 

Initial investigations for Marquez’s killing found that a man had entered the premises and apparently fired a weapon at her. Investigators are continuing to gather evidence. According to Tuesday’s statement, Marquez’s body was set to be transferred to the facilities at the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences, where it would await official identification and an autopsy. 

“You can’t ban a personal story from a competition,” she told NBC News in a Zoom interview earlier this month. “So you really get two for one,” she said, with a talented singer performing what sounds like “an old French chanson” paired with a story that makes clear the song is actually about “both a personal trauma and a national trauma, and how you sort of come out of this.”

But much as Israel takes part in various European sports leagues, its inclusion in Eurovision is an example of the Middle Eastern nation viewing itself as part of the European cultural community, an idea that Press-Barnathan says is an important “part of the Israeli societal imagination.”

‘Should be a happy occasion’

On Wednesday evening in central Basel, some 200 protesters demanded Israel be expelled from Eurovision and for an end to the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The crowd, some wearing Palestinian flags, marched in silence down a street ringing with music, The Associated Press reported.

For many critics, Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision is tantamount to accepting its military campaign, which has prompted the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli leaders for “crimes against humanity and war crimes,” charges that Israel denies.

Those pushing for the country to be kicked out of the contest — much as Russia was following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — include former participants, more than 70 of whom signed a joint letter earlier this month.

“It should be a happy occasion that Eurovision is finally in Switzerland, but it’s not,” Lea Kobler, a protester from Zurich in Basel, told the AP. “How can we rightfully exclude Russia but we’re still welcoming Israel?”

Participation in Eurovision has long pushed the geographical boundaries of Europe itself. While the contest started with seven countries in 1956, it has vastly expanded and now includes not only Israel, but countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan and even Australia.

Around the edges of last year’s festival in Malmö, Sweden, protests against Israel’s participation reached a fever pitch. Police scuffled with pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to make themselves heard over the pop music blaring outside the stadium as fans lined up to enter.

This year in Basel, demonstrators were highly visible at the opening ceremony of the contest, with large Palestinian flags being waved in the crowd. There were some boos for Raphael as she walked the carpet, and Israel’s X account posted a video of a pro-Palestinian protester making a throat-slitting gesture at the Israeli delegation.

Brigitte Vogel, a spokesperson for the police in Basel, told NBC News in an emailed statement, “The Cantonal Police is aware of the incident and will draw up a report for the responsible prosecution authorities.”

“By continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes,” the letter reads. “The EBU has already demonstrated that it is capable of taking measures, as in 2022, when it expelled Russia from the competition. We don’t accept this double standard regarding Israel.”

Some participating national broadcasters, including those from Spain, Iceland and Slovenia, have also questioned whether Israel should take part. Senior leadership from the Irish broadcaster RTÉ last week met with the EBU to raise its own concerns.

In an emailed statement, the EBU said it “will continue to listen to all members. As we did in 2024, we will have a broader discussion when the Contest concludes with all participating broadcasters to reflect on all aspects of this year’s event.”

More protests are expected when Israel competes in Thursday’s semifinal.

Participation amid criticism, Press-Barnathan says, is a way for Israel to fight against its detractors. “It’s the pushback against criticism, delegitimization, all that stuff.” And for a domestic audience, she said, it’s a way of saying, “We’re still here. You know, we’re not going anywhere.”

Meanwhile, the Swiss hosts may just be hoping that by their refusal to take sides, the contest goes off without too much controversy.

An international student in South Dakota, who earned two degrees amid her fight against the Trump administration’s attempt to deport her, has been granted injunction. 

Priya Saxena, who’s from India, received a doctorate in chemical and biological engineering and a master’s in chemical engineering from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology this past weekend. Just over a month ago, Saxena had been notified that her visa and status in the country had been revoked. 

Saxena’s attorney, Jim Leach, told NBC News that her sole infraction was for a failure-to-yield to an emergency vehicle from four years ago, which he described as “the lowest possible traffic offense.”

Saxena, who sued the Trump administration, was granted a temporary restraining order until the end of this week, allowing her to collect her degrees. And on Thursday morning, she was granted a preliminary injunction that keeps the government from attempting to detain or deport her. 

“The rule of law saved an innocent person from unlawful action by this administration,” Leach said. “Dr. Saxena is exactly the kind of person we should want in this country.” 

“The government sent these letters, no matter what the conviction was, even for a traffic conviction,” Leach said of Saxena’s visa and status revocations. “I’ve had more traffic convictions since then than she has.” 

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. 

Saxena had been in the country on a student visa that wasn’t set to expire until 2027. But on April 7, she received an email from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, notifying her that her visa had been revoked, according to court documents.

She was later told by a school official that her record had been terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.

While Saxena received the traffic infraction in 2021, she paid a fine and, upon applying for her most recent visa, disclosed the information to the government, the court documents said. 

“The government reissued her visa and then comes back three and a half years later and says, ‘Oh, wait a minute. Get out of the country now,’” Leach said. “It just makes no sense.”

Because of her loss of status, her school at the time also notified her that she would not be able to receive her Ph.D. degree, which she had been working toward since 2020, as scheduled this year, court documents said. 

While the Trump administration said last month that it would be restoring international students’ legal statuses until Immigration and Customs Enforcement crafts a new framework for terminations, Leach said Saxena’s status was not impacted as ICE had to abide by the judge’s orders in her case. However the judge granted the temporary restraining order last month, extending the timeframe so she could complete her studies.  

Saxena’s graduation coincided with a separate, highly controversial graduation that weekend. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem received an honorary degree at Dakota State University. Protesters gathered at the school to criticize the treatment of international students and the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. 

“You have this woman from India who earned a Ph.D. degree in chemical and biological engineering, which obviously takes an incredible amount of work and brains,” Leach said. “Then you have Kristi Noem receiving an honorary degree for something. And she dodges the protesters while she’s there … It was something out of a really far-out novel.” 

DHS last month revealed in a court hearing in Washington that it used 10 to 20 employees to run the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.

The process, overseen by DHS acting executive director Robert Hammer, populated 6,400 hits, Andre Watson, assistant director of DHS said. And from there, many students experienced terminations of their records in SEVIS. 

Names were also sent to the State Department, and roughly 3,000 students had their visas revoked, Watson said during the hearing.

The development has drawn criticism from immigration attorneys and legal advocates, who point out that the National Crime Information Center may not have the most up-to-date information. The index relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data.

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an attorney and policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute previously mentioned that the database doesn’t always have the final dispositions of cases. And others have mentioned that this is perhaps why students who’ve had cases dismissed or were not convicted have experienced a loss of status. 

HAVANA — Daily blackouts averaging four hours or more have become the new normal across Cuba’s capital of Havana, an unsettling sign of a still-unresolved energy crisis as the sultry Caribbean summer sets in.

Havana’s misfortune follows a string of nationwide blackouts over several months, most recently in March, that plunged the country’s frail grid into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis.

The major commercial hub on the island and a top tourist destination, Havana has long endured occasional blackouts but until this year had been largely shielded from the worst of the outages by the grid operator.

“People are stressed,” said Aramis Bueno, a 47-year-old resident of the densely populated Central Havana neighborhood of Dragones, as he sat on his doorstep during an evening blackout this week.

“It’s not easy living like this. Look at what time it is. We haven’t been able to shower, to eat … because of the blackouts.”

The worsening power outages in Havana come as the United States has severely tightened sanctions on Cuba, returning the island nation to a list of state sponsors of terrorism and ratcheting up restrictions on remittances, tourism and trade.

Blackouts in the capital, unlike in much of the rest of the country, are largely scheduled, and far shorter than in the outlying and more rural provinces, where outages sometimes span 15 hours or more per day.

But they are increasingly the talk of the town in Havana.

“It’s terrible, it’s terrible. The electricity system in this country right now just isn’t working,” said Dayamí Cheri, 52, a resident of cramped Old Havana. “With this heat and no electricity, no one can survive.”

Recent outages led to school and workplace closures, reinforcing an already deep shortfall in economic output, which fell 1.9% in 2023. The economy did not expand in 2024, when more severe blackouts set in, though the government has not yet released last year’s growth figures.

There are glimmers of hope, however.

Cuba is making progress this year on a China-backed plan to install more than 50 solar parks capable of churning out more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Eleven such solar parks have been installed since February, offering the promise of a better future, though most Habaneros say they’re still hunkering down for a long summer.

“I was born with blackouts,” said Yasunay Perez, 46, of central Havana. “This is nothing new.”

WASHINGTON — The FBI’s Washington Field Office is folding its federal public corruption squad, the same unit which aided Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation into now-President Donald Trump, three people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office has three units that work on public corruption issues, but this one — known internally as “CR15” — was deeply involved in the bureau’s “Arctic Frost” investigation, which was the precursor to the Smith probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies. That investigation ultimately resulted in one if the two federal criminal cases against Trump, both of which were dropped after Trump’s election.

FBI special agents assigned to the squad will be reassigned.

The move to shutter the unit comes amid a major shift of FBI resources towards immigration enforcement, an area which is primarily the responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. A top leader in the FBI’s Washington Field Office was also recently reassigned, two people familiar with the matter said.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department slashed its Public Integrity Section, which had also worked on public corruption cases. Members of the unit had also resigned after refusing to sign off on dropping the federal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A judge ultimately dropped the case against Adams, adding a condition beyond what the Trump administration had specified: He said that the Justice Department would not be allowed to revive the cases later, because that would give the government leverage over the mayor.

“This is yet another sign that it’s open season for political corruption,” said Stacey Young, the executive director and founder of the group Justice Connection, a network of Justice Department alumni supporting DOJ’s workforce. “The administration gutted the Public Integrity Section, neutered the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., and is now shuttering the FBI’s preeminent federal public corruption squad. This isn’t what voters had in mind when they heard, ‘drain the swamp.’”

An FBI spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chair Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have recently scrutinized the work of CR15, writing letters to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the unit.

“My oversight has shown time and again how the FBI’s CR-15 unit was weaponized to execute one-sided political attacks, particularly against President Trump and his allies,” Grassley said in a statement. “It’s good news it’s been shut down after I exposed the unit for its misconduct. Transparency brings accountability, and the FBI must ensure all records are preserved as my investigations continue.” 

The investigation into the effort by Trump and allies to overturn the 2020 election results was launched in April 2022, before Trump had announced his run for president in 2024. After Trump launched his campaign, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel in late 2022, saying it was in the public interest to have an outsider lead the investigation rather than have Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, oversee the probe.

Trump was indicted in August 2023, but his trial was delayed by appeals, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that gave Trump immunity for his official actions taken as president.

Smith issued a report, writing that Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence“ during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and that Trump had knowingly spread an objectively false narrative about election fraud in the 2020 election.

The 2025 WNBA season tips off Friday, about seven months after the New York Liberty won their first championship in franchise history.

There was a constant stream of roster and coaching upheaval in the offseason, as seven teams changed coaches and multiple All-Stars switched teams. And on top of that, a 13th franchise was added to the league, as the Golden State Valkyries will make their WNBA debut this season.

As the new year gets underway, here are five storylines to keep an eye on before a champion is crowned this fall.

Are the Indiana Fever title contenders?

Thanks in large part to a stellar rookie campaign by Caitlin Clark, the Fever made the playoffs for the first time since 2016. And this winter, the front office wasted no time in trying to build a more experienced team around Clark in her second season.

The team first parted ways with head coach Christie Sides in the offseason, replacing her with 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year Stephanie White.

Then a roster overhaul began, with guard Sydney Colson and guard/forward DeWanna Bonner signing deals with Indiana in free agency, while guard Sophie Cunningham was acquired via trade. Both Colson and Bonner are two-time champions, and they should help relieve some of the pressure on Clark, who was the target of some physical defense in her first season.

If Clark takes another leap — plus Aliyah Boston continues her All-Star play in the front court — the Fever should be a tough out.

Former champs are loading up

The Las Vegas Aces won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, but were bumped in the second round of the playoffs in 2024 by the eventual champion Liberty. With center A’ja Wilson coming off her best season as a pro (and her third MVP), the Aces made a big splash this winter and acquired a new running mate for Wilson — trading for two-time champ and six-time All-Star Jewell Loyd.

Las Vegas had to part ways with franchise stalwart Kelsey Plum (who was sent to the Los Angeles Sparks) in the deal, but Loyd should be able to form her own potent partnership with Wilson.

Meanwhile, New York didn’t rest after winning its first ring. With a big three of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones already in tow, the Liberty traded two first-round picks for guard Natasha Cloud, who led the league in assists in 2022.

Napheesa Collier is out for revenge

Collier is coming off a historic playoff run in which she became the first player in WNBA history to lead the entire postseason field in points, rebounds, steals and blocks. Collier also broke Diana Taurasi’s record for most points in a single playoffs.

Collier’s efforts ended in heartbreak, however, as the Lynx fell in a tightly contested five-game series to the Liberty. Collier also wasn’t shy about expressing her disappointment with the officiating in that series, posting an Instagram with photos of missed calls after the final game.

While much of the league underwent change, Minnesota kept its roster largely intact headed into this season. Collier was already playing at an MVP level, but now she’ll be playing with the added motivation of last season’s bitter finish.

The Paige Bueckers era begins

The Dallas Wings took former Connecticut Huskies star Paige Bueckers with the first overall pick in April’s draft, and Bueckers will now be tasked with turning around the Wings less than two months after leading the Huskies to a national championship.

Since moving to Dallas in 2016, the Wings have won only one playoff series and zero second-round games.

Bueckers won’t be flying solo, though, as Dallas added solid role players in Dijonai Carrington and NaLyssa Smith in the offseason, and All-Star Arike Ogunbowale is coming off arguably her best year as a pro.

Business is booming

All of this season’s action will take place under looming changes for a league that continues to explode in popularity. While the Valkyries will lace up this year, two more expansion teams will join the W in 2026, the Toronto Tempo and the yet-to-be-named Portland team.

The collective bargaining agreement between the players union and the league is also set to expire next year — as are many star players’ contracts. Expect the players to look for a bigger (and more fair) piece of the growing pie next year, and for stars to be looking to cash in on the upcoming transformation.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the mother of a Black man killed following a routine traffic stop in Houston to pursue an excessive force claim against the police officer who shot him.

The justices faulted a lower court for focusing solely on the moment force was used and not the moments leading up to it.

“Today we reject that approach,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for a unanimous court. “To assess whether an officer acted reasonably in using force, a court must consider all the relevant circumstances, including facts and events leading up to the climactic moment.”

Ashtian Barnes, 24, was killed in April 2016 when the vehicle he was driving started moving forward while he was speaking to the officer.

Roberto Felix Jr., a traffic enforcement officer with the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office, jumped on the car door sill when the vehicle moved and then shot Barnes twice. Barnes died at the scene.

The ruling means that a civil rights lawsuit filed by Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes, can move forward for now. She claims Felix used excessive force in violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

In ruling for Hughes, the court rejected what has been called the “moment of the threat doctrine,” making it clear to courts around the country that events leading up to an officer’s use of deadly force have to be considered when assessing a claim.

The court reaffirmed existing precedent that says the “totality of the circumstances” have to be taken into account.

The ruling removes one barrier for bringing such claims but Hughes still potentially faces an uphill battle.

Even if lower courts ultimately allow her case to move forward, it would not affect Felix’s ability to invoke the qualified immunity defense, which protects cops if it was not “clearly established” at the time of the incident that their actions were unlawful.

In a January interview with NBC News, Hughes said she was pursuing the case because she wants people to know that “my son was a victim.”

Five years after the death of George Floyd, another Black man killed by a police officer, “nobody’s policing the police,” she added.

Although lower courts ruled against Hughes, both a district court judge and a judge on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that moment of the threat doctrine adopted by some courts that limits consideration of the moments leading up to the use of force was wrong and should be overturned.

Barnes also filed a separate claim against the police department, which is not directly at issue before the Supreme Court.

BOSTON, Mass. — Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger is calling for restraint from all parties amid ICE operations.

The Trump administration is warning Massachusetts communities to stay clear of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations or else. But one local law enforcement leader is urging calm from all parties.

Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger is calling for restraint after recent encounters between federal law enforcement and the public that have become more confrontational, including last week in Worcester and Tuesday in Waltham.

“Everybody just needs to take a step back,” said Coppinger, who formerly served as chief of the Lynn Police Department.

Recent ICE arrests in the Bay State have been met with resistance from members of the public.

“We have to maintain the peace — not take sides, but maintain the peace so nobody gets hurt,” Coppinger said.

He deals with ICE on a regular basis at the county jail. He said his involvement with the federal agency is limited by state law, unable to hold inmates for them who post bail.

He said the lack of collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement shouldn’t limit their communication, especially when agents are out in the streets.

“My request to ICE in general would be notify local police and the district attorneys or any local law enforcement that may be involved, especially in light of all the chaos and all the tension that’s in our communities now over this,” he said.

“You’re separating families. These are hard working people. They’re not criminals,” yelled one woman who confronted ICE agents on Moody Street in Waltham Tuesday morning. “I hope when you die, you know you did the right thing!”

Retired ICE San Antonio Deputy Field Director Julian Calderas said he’s noticed a lot more hostility recently. He warned that a situation can easily turn violent, especially if agents feel threatened.

“If [the public] have a problem with what they’re seeing or observing, there is many different ways that they could express that dissatisfaction, but I certainly would not get involved,” he said.

Calderas added that ICE can arrest people without presenting a warrant.

“If they’re here illegally, and they know they’re here illegally, they can arrest them. I think when people ask for a warrant or an order, I’m not sure people know exactly what they’re asking for,” Calderas said. “If they have an order from the judge that was ordered in absentia, the person didn’t show up for court and they were ordered deported, that’s one order. They’ve got a reinstatement of a prior deportation, that’s another order that’s an administrative order — they’re not all from the judge, you know? And then you’ve got some that may have committed a felony and entry after a felony, that’s a separate thing. So there’s some little nuances, but the common theme is if they go into a place and they’re looking for one person that they have an order of deportation for, and there’s five people there they don’t have an order for, but they’re here illegally, then they can arrest them, too.”

“I think what people are concerned with is when they show up looking for one specific person, ‘Show me the warrant,’ they’re getting a lot of that — they’re not going to come to their door if they don’t have a reason for it,” he added.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley issued a statement Wednesday threatening criminal charges against anyone who interferes.

“The interference with ICE operations around Massachusetts has been disturbing, to say the least. This conduct poses significant public and officer safety risks. It is conduct that should be vilified rather than glorified,” Foley wrote. “I will not stand idly by if any public official, public safety officer, organization or private citizen acts in a manner that criminally obstructs or impedes ICE operations. The United States Attorney’s Office, along with our federal partners, will investigate any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity.”