Notable reactions to Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych being banned from the Milan Cortina Games because of his insistence on wearing a helmet that pays tribute to athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia:
“No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a powerful message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.” — International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry.
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A scoreboard, that indicates that Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych did not start, is seen at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych arrives at the finish during a men's skeleton training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych left, holds his crash helmet at the mixed zone of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych sits in a car at the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
“I thank our athlete for his clear stance. His helmet, bearing the portraits of fallen Ukrainian athletes, is about honor and remembrance. It is a reminder to the whole world of what Russian aggression is and the cost of fighting for independence. And in this, no rule has been broken.” — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"I want to believe that the reason is that she really felt sorry as an athlete, as a former athlete, and that she really wants me to compete. But we have what we have and we’ll see what is next.” — Heraskevych, on his meeting with Coventry.
“I think I'm just left with a real sense of sadness, and real surprise." — 2014 and 2018 women's skeleton Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold, speaking on the BBC.
“He trained wearing a helmet bearing the faces of Ukrainian athletes and friends killed by Russia. He wanted to remind the world that this war continues. That it has names. Faces. Stories. He was excluded from the Olympics. Excluded by the same Olympic Committee that allowed 20 Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag.” — Katarina Mathernova, European Union Ambassador to Ukraine, on Instagram.
“The IOC has banned not the Ukrainian athlete, but its own reputation. Future generations will recall this as a moment of shame.” — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
“It’s just a shame that he’s missed out on a chance of being able to compete at an Olympics, which is very sad.” — Olympic men's skeleton leader Matt Weston of Britain.
“The International Olympic Committee destroyed our dreams. It's not fair.” — Mykhailo Heraskevych, the slider’s coach and father.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
A scoreboard, that indicates that Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych did not start, is seen at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych arrives at the finish during a men's skeleton training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych left, holds his crash helmet at the mixed zone of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych sits in a car at the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll that suggests political independents are increasingly uncomfortable with his tactics.
Views of Trump’s handling of immigration — which fell over the course of his first year — remained steady over the past month, with about 4 in 10 saying they approve of the president’s approach. But the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also found that the Republican Party’s advantage on Trump’s signature political issue has shrunk since October.
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults trust Republicans to do a better job handling immigration, while a similar share say the same of Democrats. An additional 3 in 10, roughly, don’t think either party would do a better job handling the issue, and about 1 in 10 say both parties would handle it equally well.
The Republican president’s core supporters remain overwhelmingly supportive of Trump’s immigration tactics. But there are signs that more independents think he’s going too far.
Here's the latest:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a large U.S. delegation this week to the Munich Security Conference where increasingly nervous European leaders are hoping for at least a brief reprieve from President Trump’s often inconsistent policies and threats that have roiled transatlantic relations and the post-World War II international order.
A year after Vice President JD Vance stunned assembled dignitaries at the same venue with a verbal assault on many of America’s closest allies in Europe, accusing them of imperiling Western civilization with left-leaning domestic programs and not taking responsibility for their own defense, Rubio plans to take a less contentious but philosophically similar approach when he addresses the annual gathering of world leaders and national security officials Saturday, U.S. officials say.
The State Department’s formal announcement of Rubio’s trip offered no details about his two-day stop in Munich, after which he will visit Slovakia and Hungary. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip, said America’s top diplomat intends to focus on areas of cooperation on shared global and regional concerns, including in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as China, an economic powerhouse seeking to take advantage of the uncertainty in U.S.-European ties.
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— Matthew Lee
The Interior Department has distributed only a fraction of the $150 million Congress set aside in last year’s sprawling spending bill for the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
A spokesperson for the department said Wednesday that the single biggest recipient of funding is America250, which has gotten $25 million of the money set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for celebrations and commemorations of America 250. The money went to Interior to distribute but did not specify recipients or amounts. The spokesperson said decisions are being made on how to disperse the money.
The acknowledgement comes one day after a congressional subcommittee hearing where Democrats raised questions about how much public funding Freedom 250, created by President Donald Trump, has received and whether that was to the detriment of America250.
Freedom 250 has received less than $4 million from the pool, said someone with knowledge of the money that organization has received.
Four members of Idaho’s congressional delegation sent a joint letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last September requesting money be dispersed to A250 commissions in all 56 states and territories to support local history organizations. The congressional delegation hasn’t received a response.
— Gary Fields
“I can tell you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president,” Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez said in an NBC News interview.
With the comments, Rodriguez is continuing to make the case that last month’s U.S. operation to capture Maduro last was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty even as the Trump administration says she’s cooperating with their effort to overhaul Venezuela’s vast oil industry.
U.S. forces whisked Maduro and his wife to New York to face drug conspiracy charges. Rodriguez in the interview said the Maduros are “innocent.”
Rodriguez met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday in Caracas.
A new AP-NORC poll also finds the Republican Party’s advantage on Trump’s signature political issue has shrunk since October.
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults trust Republicans to do a better job handling immigration, while a similar share say the same of Democrats. An additional 3 in 10, roughly, don’t think either party would do a better job handling the issue, and about 1 in 10 say both parties would handle it equally well.
In October, 39% of U.S. adults said they trusted the Republicans to better handle immigration, while 26% said that about the Democrats, giving the GOP a 13-point edge. In the new poll, the difference between the parties is only 4 points.
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
The new polling comes as the nation watches the human impact of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where thousands of heavily armed masked agents have descended upon the capital city to find and remove immigrants in the country illegally.
There have also been numerous violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in recent weeks.
About 6 in 10 Americans also believe Trump has “gone too far” when it using federal law enforcement at public protests in U.S. cities, the poll found.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on coal power in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on coal power in the East Room at the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
