ALULA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Mitch Guthrie won his first major Dakar Rally stage and led overall for the first time after a stunning second half drive in the Saudi desert on Tuesday.
Guthrie wasn't among the fastest cars until the checkpoint 167 kilometers into the 421-kilometer loop outside AlUla but was up front from that point and led without peer after 300 kilometers.
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Rider Adrien Van Beveren competes during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Ronan Chabot and co-driver Gilles Pillot compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Mitch Guthrie and co-driver Kellon Walsh compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Edouard Boulanger compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
The American won by 2 1/2 minutes from Czech Martin Prokop. Guy Botterill, who was running ninth with 100 kilometers to go, crashed the party in third place. Prokop and fifth-placed Cristina Gutiérrez achieved their best major stage results in their 11th and 10th Dakars respectively.
“Best day ever,” Guthrie said. “I wasn’t expecting it, we just had a really clean day.”
Tosha Schareina of Spain won the motorbike stage to remind the field of his ambition and threat. Schareina overcame two crashes and a collarbone injury to press Daniel Sanders to the end of the 2025 Dakar, finishing second to the Australian by less than nine minutes.
Schareina's Honda was now just over a minute behind Sanders' KTM in the general standings.
The four-hour stage three promised difficult navigation and sandy canyons and blew up the car rankings.
Of the top six leading drivers at the start of the day, only Nasser Al-Attiyah remained in the top 10. He crawled home after two punctures with 100 kilometers to go and fell from first overall to 10th, nearly 12 minutes behind Guthrie.
Dacia teammate Sebastien Loeb also suffered two punctures and ran out of spare tires but with 300 kilometers left. He's five more minutes after Al-Attiyah.
“I'm just really happy to be at the finish because at one point I didn't think we'd make it,” Loeb said.
The new top five, led by Guthrie, were all in Fords. Prokop, Mattias Ekström, four-time champion Carlos Sainz and one-time champion Nani Roma were within four minutes of Guthrie.
Seth Quintero, second overall overnight, dropped to more than an hour behind, while motorbike rider Stefan Svitko, a top-10 finisher the last two years, withdrew after crashing and injuring a collarbone.
Honda claimed before stage three that Schareina hadn't gone hard but that changed on Tuesday in the hardest stage yet. He became the leader after more than 100 kilometers and gradually increased his gap to 22 seconds after 200, one minute after 300 and 2 minutes, 17 seconds by the finish.
Schareina's third career stage win was where he won his first in 2024, and he believed he was ideally placed for the marathon stage starting on Wednesday.
“I have a good position and I'll try to open all day,” he said. “It's just the third day, anything can happen, but we are there in the battle.”
Teammate Ricky Brabec, who caught Sanders opening the way about 80 kilometers from the finish, was second and Sanders third thanks to more than six minutes in bonus time. Luciano Benavides and Skyler Howes were the only other riders within 10 minutes of Schareina.
Brabec and Schareina improved to second and third overall, just over a minute behind defending champion Sanders. Edgar Canet dropped from second to fourth, nearly nine minutes behind.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Rider Adrien Van Beveren competes during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Ronan Chabot and co-driver Gilles Pillot compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Mitch Guthrie and co-driver Kellon Walsh compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Edouard Boulanger compete during the third stage of the Dakar Rally with a start and finish in Alula, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.
The 37-year-old woman was shot in front of a family member during a traffic stop in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of hundreds of angry protesters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while visiting Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
Frey said he had a message for ICE: "Get the f--- out of Minneapolis.”
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.
After the shooting, emergency medical technicians tried to administer aid to the woman.
“She was driving away and they killed her,” said resident Lynette Reini-Grandell, who was outdoors recording video on her phone.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis driver, whose name wasn't immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Noem confirmed Wednesday that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota,” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he's prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He said a family member of the driver was there to witness the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable." He also said like many, he was outraged by the shooting, but he called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. ... At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off," the chief said. "At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
Dell'Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, and Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas contributed.
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers work the scene of a shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
Photographer King Demetrius Pendleton has his eyes flushed after being hit with chemical irritants in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
A bullet hole and blood stains are seen in a crashed vehicle on at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers work at the scene of a shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
Law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
Law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
FILE - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Federal law enforcement officers stand near a roadblock at Portland Avenue and East 32nd Street, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, after reports of a shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis, where immigration enforcement has been conducting a major crackdown. (AP Photo/Tim Sullivan)
Federal law enforcement officers stand near a roadblock at Portland Avenue and East 32nd Street, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, after reports of a shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis, where immigration enforcement has been conducting a major crackdown. (AP Photo/Tim Sullivan)
