Josh Sargent joined Toronto from Norwich City in England's second-tier League Championship on Friday, ending a difficult situation in which the striker was exiled to the under-21 squad after he refused to play in an FA Cup match last month.
Sargent, 26, was signed as a designated player through the 2030-31 Major League Soccer season. He had eight goals this season and 56 goals in 157 appearances with the Canaries overall.
“Regardless of the manner of his departure, Josh has been a significant part of the club’s recent story, contributing greatly and captaining the team on many occasions," Norwich sporting director Ben Knapper said in a statement. "He now moves on and we wish him well for his next step, and for his future beyond.”
Sargent is a Missouri native who signed with Germany’s Werder Bremen in 2018 and joined Norwich three years later. A member of the 2022 U.S. World Cup team, he appears to be behind Folarin Balogun, Haji Wright, Ricardo Pepi and Patrick Agyemang in the competition for forward spots on the 2026 World Cup roster.
“He brings high-level experience in some of the strongest leagues in the world and international pedigree at just 26 years old. He is a proven goal scorer, with a winning mentality and the intelligence that will lead our attack for years to come," Toronto general manager Jason Hernandez said. “Josh will just begin to enter the prime of his career while representing our club and our city.”
Sargent has five goals in 29 international appearances, scoring in his U.S. debut against Bolivia on May 28, 2018. He played in all three group stage matches at the 2022 World Cup.
But he hasn't scored an international goal since November 2019 and was not on the U.S. roster for last summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup. His last international appearance was when he started in a September friendly against South Korea.
Toronto acquired St. Louis' right of first refusal for Sargent in exchange for $500,000 in General Allocation Money over the next two years and additional funds if performance metrics are met.
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FILE - United States's Josh Sargent looks on prior to a friendly soccer match against Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean, file)
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges Friday against 30 more people who are accused of civil rights violations in a January protest inside a Minnesota church where a pastor works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bondi said on social media that 25 people were in custody and more arrests would follow. The new indictment comes a month after independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong were charged for their alleged roles in the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you,” Bondi wrote in the post. “This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith.”
In total, 39 people now face charges of conspiracy against religious freedom and interfering with the right of religious freedom.
The new defendants will have an initial court appearance and a magistrate judge will set conditions for their likely release. Lemon and Fort said they were at the church as journalists covering news. Levy Armstrong was the subject of a doctored photo posted by the White House showing her crying during her arrest. The three have pleaded not guilty.
Protesters descended on Cities Church on Jan. 18 after learning that one of the church’s pastors also serves as an ICE official. The protest drew swift condemnation from Trump administration officials and conservative leaders for disrupting a Sunday service.
The indictment says the “agitators” entered the church in a “coordinated takeover-style attack” and engaged in acts of intimidation and obstruction.
“Young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” the indictment says.
A lawyer for the church praised the Justice Department for charging more people.
“The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside,” Doug Wardlow said in a statement.
The revised indictment adds new allegations when compared to the original filed in January.
It says two people “conducted reconnaissance” outside the church a day before the protest and recorded their visit on video, with one saying, “My thoughts are to be able to close up this whole alleyway right here.”
The court filing quotes one protester as chanting in the church, “This ain't God's house. This is the house of the devil.”
Separately, a woman who was at the church service has filed a lawsuit against some people who were charged, alleging emotional trauma and an inability to exercise her religion that day.
The protest came at a tense time in Minnesota, where the Trump administration sent thousands of federal officers for Operation Metro Surge after a series of public fraud cases where the majority of defendants had Somali roots. Officers frequently deployed tear gas for crowd control in neighborhood clashes with residents, often detaining them along with immigrants.
On Jan. 7, a federal officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis. In another fatal shooting a week after the church protest, a federal officer killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted in response, followed by a change in Operation Metro Surge’s leadership and the eventual wind-down of the immigration enforcement operation. Roughly 400 ICE officers and Homeland Security agents were expected to remain in Minneapolis by early March, down from roughly 3,000 at the peak, according to a court filing.
Since then, the Twin Cities have grappled with the impact to communities and the local economy. The city of Minneapolis said it suffered an impact of $203.1 million due to the operation, with tens of thousands of residents in need of urgent relief assistance.
Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
FILE - Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, Minn. where activists shut down a service claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
