Topline:
Post Malone's new album makes it sound like that rockstar lifestyle is losing its luster. It's titled Austin — after his real name, Austin Post. We talk about what he's accomplished so far, and what's next.
On fatherhood: We asked the rapper how it made him want to change how he lives his life.
On being liked: "He says: "I mean, my dad told me when I was a kid, 'Not everybody's going to like you.' And that stuck with me. I do the best for the people that do.
It's hard to describe Post Malone as anything other than a rockstar. He's lived like it: jewelry, face tattoos and his ever present cans of Bud Light.
But Post Malone's new album makes it sound like that rockstar lifestyle is losing its luster. It's titled Austin — after his real name, Austin Post.
A Martinez, a co-host of NPR's Morning Edition, spoke with Post Malone shortly before the album's release. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
A Martinez: Let's just start off with the name of the album. You named it after yourself: Austin. So what about what you were writing and recording made you think, Yeah, this is Austin.
Post Malone: We were about to go on tour and we initially wanted to record an acoustic record. We ended up making half the record in that week. And towards the end, you know, the development of it, we were like, 'Well, let's add some drums. Let's do some fun stuff to it.' So it just kind of became its own record and not strictly an acoustic record.
But I guess... That's my name! So we figured, you know, this is a record done by me. And also we couldn't think of another name.
A Martinez: So that's the ultimate reason? "I just couldn't think of anything."
I want to give you guys a smarter answer, but that's about it. We had a lot of options: "Don't Eat the Chicken Nuggets, There's Plastic in It." But see, that's, like, way too long.
A Martinez: It also sounds way more intensely personal. The very first song — "I Don't Understand" — you sing, "I don't understand how you like me so much because I don't like myself." Millions of people feel the same way. It's like that Groucho Marx line, "I don't want to be part of a club that would have someone like me as a member."
To be honest, I have a lot of self-confidence issues, and they came around kind of late. As I got older, I started looking at things differently, trying to take my time. And then you start thinking, "You have so much riding on everything!" You don't want to be disrespectful and super crazy because you have so many people that work with you and people that you love. So, you just try to take time to really think through things. It's a lot of anxiety, and a lot of different emotions come with that.
A Martinez: I think a lot of people couldn't possibly understand that someone like you, that has millions of fans — that does a job that people dream of doing — they think, 'Well, how could you possibly not like yourself when we like you so much?'
Sure. That not only has to do with relationships, but also performing and being in the public light. It's super introspective. I always questioned things, and now I have a tendency to second-guess myself. And I know I shouldn't. I love the music that I make. I love making music. I guess that's the takeaway from that song — just try your best. I mean, my dad told me when I was a kid, "Not everybody's going to like you." And that stuck with me. I do the best for the people that do.
A Martinez: I think dads tend to say that more than moms. My mom says, "Everyone loves you." My dad's like, "Maybe people don't like you so much.
That's all right.
A Martinez: Being a father changes things, doesn't it?
Post Malone: Very much so. Very much so. It put everything into perspective.
She is about 14 months now, and she just started running around and walking. I used to not really care about a lot of stuff, but that really turns it around super quick, man. I don't leave the house anymore. I don't really want to do anything. I want to hang out with the baby and play video games when she goes to bed.
I want to work my ass off, you know, and it's such a hard thing to do, especially going on tour. Going on tour is really hard because she just did ten steps the other day, and her mom sent me a video. I really, really, really wish that I could have seen that.
But I hope one day, she understands that, you know, me and my super bust ass just try to give her the best life that we can.
A Martinez: So she knows your voice? She knows that's daddy singing?
Post Malone: She knows and it's so cute because her mom has all the songs. I sent her all the songs. And whenever she hears, she does this kind-of shoulder dance.
She loves "Chemical." She gets so pumped. It's so funny to watch her. And that makes me, like, the proudest man in the world.
You got someone that loves you unconditionally, and then you have someone you love unconditionally as well. And for the longest time, we had a hard time. "We," as in me — I don't know why I'm doing that — but we had a hard time where we lost a lot of focus and were super sad and down in the dumps. And this baby... It's the most amazing thing to happen to me in a long time.
A Martinez: How did it make you want to change your life, or change how you lived your life?
Post Malone: I used to drink a whole lot, now I drink to celebrate, to have a good time. And now I don't smoke inside anymore. I save my money and take care of stuff that I need to do. And get everything prepared and just make sure that she has the coolest life that she can. I guess that's what all dads want to do is just make it beautiful for their baby.
And yeah, it's changed a lot. Making those changes has made me the happiest I've ever been. So it's pretty amazing.
A Martinez: You've described yourself at certain points "not feeling like Austin." Now with this album, where you live... are you back to being Austin?
Post Malone: I think so. Yes, sir. I'm in the best spot that I have been in ten years, if not my whole entire life mentally. It takes a lot of work. And it takes a lot of getting your ass kicked to say, "This is not even what I wanted in the first place."
And the cool thing is that now, I know what I want. I have a purpose. I spent so long looking for a purpose. Like, Who am I? What do I want to do? What is this?
Now I feel like Austin. Yeah, I feel like Austin. I think the goal of every person is to be as happy as a kid and just be like, eat those chicken nuggets! You know what I'm talking about? I think at the end of the day, my goal is to just be happy and be able to run around with my daughter and just be a kid and have fun.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s drug interdiction efforts during a San Diego news conference Monday that contrasted the state’s public safety efforts with combative tactics by President Donald Trump’s administration.
National Guard: Since 2021, Newsom said, National Guard troops have seized 34,357 pounds of fentanyl worth an estimated $506 million at California ports of entry. Newsom argued that California is combatting crime and patrolling its border, while responding to disruption in the wake of the administration’s mass deportation campaign. “This is what the National Guard should be doing,” Newsom said at the event at “This is the kind of partnership that makes sense.” He argued that Trump’s deployment of the Guard diverted them from duties including drug enforcement and wildfire prevention.
What else did Newsom discuss?: Newsom weighed in on a wide-range of topics, from his efforts to seek $33.9 billion in wildfire disaster assistance for Los Angeles, to his rejection of Trump’s bid to restart offshore oil drilling.
Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s drug interdiction efforts during a San Diego news conference Monday that contrasted the state’s public safety efforts with combative tactics by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Since 2021, Newsom said, National Guard troops have seized 34,357 pounds of fentanyl worth an estimated $506 million at California ports of entry.
“This is what the National Guard should be doing,” Newsom said at the event at “This is the kind of partnership that makes sense.”
Last month a federal judge ended federal control of the National Guard troops in Los Angeles and returned them to Newsom’s command, six months after President Donald Trump ordered 4,000 troops to the city to quell protests against federal immigration raids in California. Newsom argued that Trump’s deployment of the Guard diverted them from duties including drug enforcement and wildfire prevention.
Newsom terms out after eight years as governor this year, and is expected to launch a campaign for president in the 2028 election. He has positioned himself as a resistance figure against Trump’s intensified immigration crackdown and heightened federal control over states.
On Monday, Newsom argued that California is combatting crime and patrolling its border, while responding to disruption in the wake of the administration’s mass deportation campaign.
“It's the kind of thing that we should be doing more,” he said. “It's not about politics. It's not about creating anxiety and fear.”
CalMatters could not reach the White House for comment Monday.
Newsom denounced sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles and other California cities, noting that one of the early ICE actions involved arrests of kitchen staff at the San Diego restaurant Buona Forchetta last May.
The ICE surge escalated in Los Angeles, prompting public demonstrations, then a crackdown by the Trump administration.
“We saw the federalization of the National Guard, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted of taxpayer money,” Newsom said.
As the Department of Homeland Security draws down its controversial "Operation Metro Surge" in Minneapolis, where ICE officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Newsom lamented that the operation’s leader, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, was sent back to California.
“We're hardly celebrating that,” he said.
Newsom said that earlier Monday he spoke with residents of El Centro, where Bovino originally held command. Community leaders described how local organizations are helping children left in charge of households after parents are detained in immigration raids, and aiding people in ICE custody.
Newsom pointed to CalMatters reporting that immigration arrests in San Diego have quietly surged by 1,500% over last year, “but without the fanfare of what you're seeing in your living room and on your screen happening in places like Minneapolis.”
He said the state is responding with lawsuits challenging the administration’s mass deportation efforts, and distributing money to community organizations for legal aid, counseling and mental health support for people affected by immigration raids.
In the wide-ranging press conference, Newsom weighed in on topics from his efforts to seek $33.9 billion in wildfire disaster assistance for Los Angeles, to his rejection of Trump’s bid to restart offshore oil drilling. He cited Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ shared misgivings about the proposal.
“We have a well-established opposition in the state of California,” Newsom said. “I find it ironic and interesting that so does the governor of Florida. When Donald Trump advocates for offshore drilling off the coast of Mar-A-Lago, I'll know the sincerity of these efforts.”
Newsom distanced himself from former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, saying “My opinion was a little different than the prior administration’s on border security.” He called for reforming the immigration and asylum systems to account for long-time residents without legal status, mixed status families and workforce needs.
“Those things need to be front and center in our conversation and debate around immigration, but unfortunately, it's not, because it's been bastardized,” Newsom said.
He pointed to the state’s seizure of half billion dollars worth of fentanyl, along with methamphetamine, guns and cash, as evidence that California’s approach is working.
Since October the National Guard has seized 3,005 firearms and $34 million in cash, Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers of the California National Guard said, freeing other law enforcement to perform their duties.
“What it means is that my team enables sworn law enforcement officers to get on the street and do the hard work that they have to do,” Beevers said. “It also enables Customs and Border Protection agents to be able to be on the border where they belong.”
Newsom described California Highway Patrol officers and National Guard troops as “Swiss Army knives” that fill multiple roles in disaster response and public safety. In August, the governor deployed California Highway Patrol officers on crime suppression teams in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, to seize illegal weapons and drugs.
“Everybody knows that we are proud to be partners and part of the solution,” California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee said. “I look at it as the National Guard is the first line of defense.”
The highway patrol, Duryee said, is “the last line of defense before those narcotics are in our communities.”
Newsom said he’s committed to working with the Trump administration on “legitimate public safety concerns,” but cast doubt on the potential for such a partnership.
“That's not again what this is about,” he said of Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign. “It's about terrorizing the community. It's about chaos. It's about fear.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
There's no shortage of Winter Olympics storylines to watch — and we're not just talking about sports.
The backstory: Hundreds of athletes will vie for medals in 16 different sports over the course of a jam-packed 2 1/2 weeks in the Milan Cortina Games.
Where things stand: Rising stars — and one new sport — are making their Olympic debuts, while familiar fan favorites are returning, some in pursuit of a comeback after many years away. Lifelong dreams are on the line, but there are also geopolitical tensions, environmental questions and so much more.
Keep reading... for some of the threads we're following.
Want more Olympics updates? Get NPR's behind-the-scenes newsletter for what it's like to be at these Games.
There's no shortage of Winter Olympics storylines to watch — and we're not just talking about sports.
Hundreds of athletes will vie for medals in 16 different sports over the course of a jam-packed 2 1/2 weeks in the Milan Cortina Games. They will compete at venues spanning a nearly 9,000-square-mile swath of northern Italy, in front of in-person spectators (a welcome return after the COVID-19 restrictions in Beijing in 2022) and on an even bigger world stage.
Rising stars — and one new sport — are making their Olympic debuts, while familiar fan favorites are returning, some in pursuit of a comeback after many years away. Lifelong dreams are on the line, but there are also geopolitical tensions, environmental questions and so much more.
Here are some of the threads we're following:
Legendary American athletes — many of them women — across multiple sports are returning to the Olympic stage after years away. They could include Lindsey Vonn, who retired as the winningest female skier in history in 2019 but returned to competition after a partial knee replacement in 2024. She qualified for the Games at age 41 amid a triumphant World Cup season, though her participation was cast into doubt when she crashed during a competition a week before the opening ceremony. She still plans to compete — in at least her first race — despite a ruptured ACL, calling it her "most dramatic" comeback in a career full of them. Figure skater Alysa Liu reversed her teenage retirement and now brings a 2025 world title and renewed love of the sport to her second Olympics. Another former teenage phenom, halfpipe snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, clinched a spot in her first Olympics at age 31, over a decade after retiring from burnout in 2015. And Alpine skier Breezy Johnson is aiming for redemption on the same Cortina slopes that destroyed her knee and her last Olympic dreams just weeks before she was set to compete in Beijing in 2022.
— Rachel Treisman
There's always a political dimension to the Olympic Games, but this year, U.S. athletes could face a uniquely tense atmosphere. The Trump administration has sparred with European athletes over a wide range of issues, including repeated threats against Denmark's sovereign territory in Greenland. (The U.S. and Denmark men's hockey teams are scheduled to face off on the ice on Feb. 14.) Some Italian politicians have also voiced concern about the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who plan to help with security at the Winter Games. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala told local media that after the violence in Minneapolis, ICE agents are "not welcome" in his city. Vice President Vance, a frequent critic of European leaders, is expected to attend the opening ceremony at the Games on Feb. 6.
— Brian Mann
Olympic hockey hasn't included players from the world's top professional league for more than a decade. Finally, that era is over, and we get to see some incredible teams play in a best-on-best format (although the tournament won't include a Russian team, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022). Some of the league's biggest stars, like Edmonton's Connor McDavid, Toronto's Auston Matthews and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon, are well into their careers without having had the chance to play for Olympic gold, and that changes next month. The star power on Team Canada alone runs from MacKinnon and McDavid to the legend Sidney Crosby and the San Jose Sharks' 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini. The Americans are no slouches either, with Matthews, the Tkachuk brothers and a trio of talented goaltenders led by Connor Hellebuyck, last year's NHL MVP — and they'll have their eyes set on the first Team USA gold since the "Miracle on Ice" in 1980.
— Becky Sullivan
These Games feature several new medal events and one entirely new sport: ski mountaineering. In "skimo," as it's called, athletes race both up and downhill, alternately wearing and carrying their skis in backpacks. Alpine countries like Italy, France and Switzerland tend to dominate in skimo (after all, that's where the sport has its roots), but there will be a pair of rising American stars to root for: Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith, who earned the U.S. its inaugural Olympic skimo spot with a historic World Cup mixed-relay win in December in Utah.
— Rachel Treisman
For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. will not be represented by curling legend John Shuster at the Olympics. Shuster competed in every winter Olympics from 2006 to 2022, and led the U.S. men's team to a surprise gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. At the 2025 U.S. Olympic Trials, Shuster's team was defeated by a crew of Gen-Z curlers led by 24-year-old Danny Casper, whose team is currently ranked sixth in the world. On the women's side, Team Peterson — led by sisters Tabitha and Tara Peterson — heads to the Olympics a second time. And Olympics newbies Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, world champions in 2023, will represent the U.S. in mixed doubles.
— Pien Huang
Mikaela Shiffrin is the most decorated skier ever, full stop. Nobody, man or woman, has won more races than Shiffrin, who has 108 World Cup wins, 12 season titles (in three different disciplines) and five overall titles to her name. But Olympic success has proved more elusive for Shiffrin. She has won just three medals in her three Olympic appearances — including a stunning shutout in 2022 when she missed the podium in all five of her events. Then, in 2024, Shiffrin sustained a freak injury that could have derailed her career. In a race that fall, she crashed and sustained a mysterious but severe puncture wound that sidelined her for months. Now, though, Shiffrin has returned to top form in her signature event, the slalom. She has competed in eight World Cup slalom races so far this winter and won all but one (in which she finished second). You'll have to be patient, though: The women's slalom is one of the very last alpine skiing events of the entire Olympics.
— Becky Sullivan
Organizers are calling these the most geographically widespread winter Games in history, spanning an area of roughly 8,495 square miles. They are co-hosted by metropolitan Milan and the Alpine resort town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, dispersed across four main competition clusters and six Olympic villages. Even the opening ceremony is spread out, hosted primarily at Milan's historic San Siro Stadium with simultaneous athlete processions at venues in Predazzo, Livigno and Cortina. And, in a historic first, two Olympic cauldrons will ignite the action: one in Milan and one in Cortina. The Feb. 22 closing ceremony will take place between the host cities, at a Roman amphitheater in Verona.
— Rachel Treisman
Biathlon is the only winter Olympic sport in which the U.S. has never won a medal. Brutal! The sport is way bigger in Europe, and athletes from countries like Norway and France have traditionally dominated. Then, at the 2022 Games in Beijing, Deedra Irwin came closer than any American before her when she finished in seventh place in the women's individual event. Now, she's back for a second try. Like many American biathletes, Irwin took a winding path to the sport. She didn't even grow up around guns — her first memory of firing a gun was at a ladies' night at her college's shooting range — and she didn't attempt the sport until she was in her mid-20s, after pursuing a career as a Nordic skier (and living out of her car). Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Campbell Wright just scored his first ever podium finish in a World Cup race. ("Not gonna lie, I've been wanting a podium pretty bad. Maybe too much … but today it worked out!" he wrote on his Instagram after.) It's the second Olympic appearance for Wright, who's ranked No. 10 in the world, but his first for the U.S. after the dual national switched his national allegiance from New Zealand.
— Becky Sullivan
The COVID-19 pandemic restricted in-person spectators and required masks (with some exceptions) at the last Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022. Many athletes have shared that they're looking forward to competing in front of crowds, feeding off the energy of a packed arena and getting to take in the moment with their loved ones by their side. Figure skater Alysa Liu, who competed in Beijing, told reporters: "I had a lot of fun at that one. Everyone's saying, 'Listen, that one's nothing compared to what a real Olympics is like.'"
— Rachel Treisman
The Italian Dolomites are a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, and organizers promised to use the Games to "showcase the importance of protecting sensitive mountain ecosystems." But environmentalists say water resources are being strained, and construction projects have further contributed to the "urbanization" of a mountain system already stressed by overtourism. As the region faces warmer and shorter winters due to climate change, most sporting events will take place on artificial snow and ice. The organising committee estimates it will require 250 million gallons of water — the equivalent of nearly 380 Olympic swimming pools — taken from local rivers, streams and lakes, which environmental groups say could strain the local ecosystem. Eight key environmental organizations in a joint statement denounced the Games' sustainability claims as "greenwashing" and pointed out that the organizing committee has failed to conduct in-depth environmental surveys of the impact of these changes on the Dolomite region.
— Ruth Sherlock
The Milan Olympics open at a time of deep division among international agencies that police athletes to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has long served as the global leader protecting clean sport. But critics say WADA failed to properly investigate doping scandals ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, involving a Russian figure skater, and at the Paris Summer Games, involving a group of Chinese swimmers. "It necessarily and unfortunately clouds the confidence heading into these [Milan] Games," said Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in an interview with NPR. In a statement this month, WADA President Witold Bańka called for unity. "We hope that, like us, you are feeling revitalized and eager to work together to advance clean sport in 2026," he said. But trust remains at a minimum, with the U.S. government withholding its WADA dues in an effort to press for reform.
— Brian Mann
This is arguably the strongest figure skating team the U.S. has sent to an Olympics in years. The stacked roster of Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito could win the U.S. its first women's singles gold since 2002. On the men's side, Ilia "Quad God" Malinin is favored for gold — and poised to become the first person to land a quadruple axel (a jump that only he can do) at an Olympics. In ice dance, seven-time reigning national champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are looking for redemption after finishing just off the podium in Beijing in 2022. The U.S. is also seeking to defend its 2022 gold medal in the team event, with Japan now its main rival in light of Russia's effective exclusion from the Olympics.
— Rachel Treisman
The U.S. won 25 medals in 2022, placing fifth in the overall medal count behind Norway, the Russian Olympic Committee, Germany and Canada. Norway has long dominated the Winter Olympics medal count, going into this year with a total of 405 and a record 148 gold. The U.S. is hoping some of that special sauce might rub off on its ski jumping team, which has won only one medal ever, at the inaugural 1924 Olympics. After 2022, the ski jumping federations of the U.S. and Norway officially partnered to share coaches, training facilities and sports scientists. That has given the U.S. a boost and at least one Olympic medal contender: 20-year-old Lake Placid, N.Y., native Tate Frantz, who moved to Norway to train and work with Norwegian coaches and jumpers. "I'd say it was extremely important," Frantz told NPR. "It pushes you astronomically." The U.S. is also hoping the return of NHL men's hockey players to Team USA will give the men a shot at a gold medal for the first time since 1980.
— Rachel Treisman
Several elite athletes are back at the top of their sport after giving birth. Kaillie Humphries is back on competing in her fifth Olympic Games (her second for Team USA; she represented Canada for her first three competitions — or four, if you count the year she served as an alternate). She has a 1-year-old son, born after several IVF attempts. "I got back in the bobsled 4 1/2 months postpartum, so it wasn't the ideal timeline," Humphries says, "I'm not a spring chicken anymore." Still, Humphries is a top contender in monobob, for which she won a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and won again at the IBSF World Cup in January. She's joined by Elana Meyers-Taylor, the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, and a fellow mom who's also back for her fifth Olympics. Meyers-Taylor returned to competitive bobsledding after the birth of each of her children, now 3 and 6. "It's been quite a bit on my body," she says, citing years of breastfeeding, lack of sleep, back pain, and getting older, "I might not win every race and every day might look crazy and chaotic…But I wouldn't trade it for the world, clearly," she says.
— Pien Huang
Alaskan Gus Schumacher is the strongest medal contender for U.S. men, who have won only a single Olympic cross-country medal, Bill Koch's silver in the 30K in 1976 in Innsbruck. American women Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall took the first-ever U.S. gold in cross country in the team sprint in Pyeongchang 2018. Diggins won a silver and bronze in Beijing in 2022. On the World Cup tour, Schumacher has shown he can beat the world's best in middle-distance events in the skate skiing discipline. He's having his best World Cup season ever, with two sprint podiums on successive days in the last races before the Olympics. Vermonter Ben Ogden is another to watch. He has turned heads with bold tactics in the more traditional classic technique and has had good results in skate skiing races, too. A hard truth, though, is the dominance of the Norwegian team and a strong field of Europeans. But don't count the U.S. out for a medal in the four-man relay, it's a notoriously unpredictable event and Schumacher, Ogden and John Hagenbuch were on the team that won the event in the 2019 Junior World Championship.
— Eric Whitney
U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim became the first woman ever to win two Olympic gold medals in halfpipe in 2022. Since then, she's added jaw-dropping new tricks to her repertoire, including landing a cab 1260 (3 1/2 revolutions) in competition — another female first — and a 1440 in practice. She's aiming for gold again, even after a last-minute shoulder injury kept her from training in the weeks leading up to the Games. Two other women are also hoping to become the first snowboarders to three-peat in consecutive Winter Games: The Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka in parallel giant slalom and Austria's Anna Gasser in big air.
— Rachel Treisman
The prolific Jordan Stolz — a favorite in the 500, 1000, 1500 meters and the mass start event — is poised to make speedskating history unseen since U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden won five gold medals in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. After a strong finish at the World Cup, Erin Jackson now heads to Milano Cortina to get ready to defend her Olympic title at her third Games, skating fast and turning left in the Women's 500 and 1000. Four-time Olympian Brittany Bowe brings her decades of inline speedskating experience, explosive power and technique to the Women's Team Pursuit. The Women's and Men's Team Pursuit — which involves two teams of three people racing in tandem — is going to be hot at these games. Team USA has dominated this event over the past four years, mastering the precision, technique and grace that consistently yields top results. Skaters are a mirror image of one another during every lap of the race. It'll be much like watching synchronized swimming. Any slight misstep may be the difference between coming in first or 10th.
— Rolando Arrieta
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Russia and its ally Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But it did allow a small number of heavily vetted athletes from those countries to compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes" (AIN) in Paris in 2024, without any national anthems, flags or colors (instead represented by a turquoise logo). Similar rules apply to these Games, with neutral athletes' participation at the discretion of each international sports federation. Russian athletes — even top NHL players like Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov — will be noticeably absent from the hockey rink, while a select handful will compete in sports including figure skating, cross-country skiing and short-track speedskating.
— Rachel Treisman
Women have long struggled to achieve parity at the Winter Olympics, and the 2026 Games mark another milestone. Female cross-country ski racers were first allowed to compete in a single short-track event at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo. This year, women will compete in the same number of events — a total of six — as their male counterparts. They'll also ski the same distances, including the grueling 50k endurance race. "I'm really really excited to have equal distance for men and women at the Olympics," three-time U.S. Olympic medal-winner Jessie Diggins told NPR. Diggins plans to compete in all six events at Milan-Cortina. "I think it's really cool and an important way to show, especially young women in sport, hey, you got this," she said.
— Brian Mann
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
A California appeals court on Monday overturned a sex abuse conviction against a former University of California, Los Angeles, gynecologist and ordered the case to be retried.
Why now: A three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Dr. James Heaps was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his defense counsel a note by the court's foreman pointing out concerns that one juror lacked sufficient English to carry out their duties.
What's next: Prosecutors have 30 days to appeal the ruling. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said in an email to The Associated Press that it plans to retry Heaps as soon as possible.
Read on... for more about this case.
A California appeals court on Monday overturned a sex abuse conviction against a former University of California, Los Angeles, gynecologist and ordered the case to be retried.
A three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Dr. James Heaps was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his defense counsel a note by the court's foreman pointing out concerns that one juror lacked sufficient English to carry out their duties.
Heaps' attorney, Leonard Levine, said he and his team were not aware of the note or that there was any question about a juror's ability to serve until two years later when an attorney working on an appeal discovered it in a court file.
If the attorney had not seen it, "it still would have remained a secret, which is very unfortunate since it would have been a miscarriage of justice, but thankfully it's been corrected," Levine said.
Heaps was sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison after his conviction on charges he sexually abused female patients.
"Justice is slow but it's finally been done," he said, adding "I believe it's just a matter of time before he is totally exonerated."
Heaps was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of patients during his 35-year career and UCLA made nearly $700 million in payouts over lawsuits connected to the allegations — a record amount at the time for a public university.
He pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts in the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. He was convicted in October 2022 of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients. The jury found him not guilty of seven of the 21 counts and was deadlocked on the remaining charges.
In the 31-page ruling, the appellate court panel pointed out that within about one hour of Juror No. 15 being seated as a substitute for a juror who had a medical issue, concerns were raised about whether the person was qualified to serve. The foreman's note indicated that Juror No. 15 did not speak English well enough to participate in the deliberations, the ruling stated.
Prosecutors have 30 days to appeal the ruling. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said in an email to The Associated Press that it plans to retry Heaps as soon as possible.
The panel stated that the problem was too grave to not order a retrial.
"We recognize the burden on the trial court and regrettably, on the witnesses, in requiring retrial of a case involving multiple victims and delving into the conduct of intimate medical examinations," the ruling stated. "The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice."
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Topline:
A key document laying out how Olympics organizers will address human rights issues like civil rights, homelessness and human trafficking in the summer of 2028 has not been made public, despite a Dec. 31, 2025, deadline.
Why now: Talk of a boycott, fear about ICE agents, and concern about L.A.'s unhoused population have been swirling around preparations for the Olympic Games for months. But last week, some L.A. City Council members said at a committee meeting that they had not seen the report. Neither have local human rights advocates.
The backstory: LA28, the private nonprofit putting on the Games, is responsible for creating a "Human Rights Strategy" in consultation with the city, according to a contract with Los Angeles. It was supposed to be completed by the end of 2025.
Read on... LA28's response to fulfilling its role in the report.
A key document laying out how Olympics organizers will address human rights issues like civil rights, homelessness and human trafficking in the summer of 2028 has not been made public, despite a Dec. 31, 2025, deadline.
Talk of a boycott, fear about ICE agents, and concern about L.A.'s unhoused population have been swirling around preparations for the Olympic Games for months. But last week, some L.A. City Council members said at a committee meeting that they had not seen the report. Neither have local human rights advocates.
" It's just the lack of transparency," said Stephanie Richard, who leads an anti-trafficking initiative at Loyola Law School. "Why wouldn't the reports have been put out the day that they were provided?"
LA28, the private nonprofit putting on the Games, is responsible for creating a "Human Rights Strategy" in consultation with the city, according to a contract with Los Angeles. It was supposed to be completed by the end of 2025.
Spokespeople for LA28 say it has fulfilled its "obligation to the city" and that the organization is working with L.A. on next steps. When asked by LAist, city officials did not disclose who had seen the human rights document or what those next steps were.
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson sets the agenda for the ad-hoc city council committee on the Olympic Games. But his office didn't respond to requests for comment on if he had seen the report. The mayor's office also did not return repeated requests for comment on who at the city has the Human Rights Strategy.
While advocates wait to see the report, some are concerned about what will be in it.
Richard with Loyola Law School said she participated in a call with LA28 to advise on the human rights strategy, but she was disheartened when there was no follow-up conversation.
" It feels like the human rights plans have always been very like big picture and nothing concrete," she said.
Richard also has her eye on the upcoming World Cup, which requires a human rights plan, too. She told LAist she wants to see LA28 and FIFA put money behind these efforts. She compiled her own report with a long list of suggestions ahead of the World Cup and Olympics, including the demand that both organizations negotiate with the federal government to ensure immigration enforcement doesn't conduct raids around sporting venues.
Catherine Sweetser, who directs a human rights litigation clinic at UCLA Law, has been researching the organizing committee's process in putting together its human rights strategy.
Sweetser said LA28 had not called public meetings about its approach to issues like homelessness, and had not to her knowledge engaged people who might be directly affected by the Olympic Games, like people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
"The only way that we're going to get real solutions is to listen to the people who are affected," she said. "And right now I don't see that happening with this human rights process."
LAist has also requested an interview LA28's senior human rights advisor, Julieta Valls Noyes.
