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US President Donald Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon on Thursday, alleging he was wrongly “debanked” for political reasons, according to a civil complaint.Trump is seeking at least $5 billion in damages in a civil suit filed in a Florida state court. The complaint focuses on the nation’s biggest bank’s moves to cut ties following the January 6 siege on the US Capitol after Trump refused to concede following his loss in the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.JPMorgan said the case has “no merit,” but called for regulatory reform to “prevent the weaponization of the banking sector.”Trump was notified on February 19 that JPMorgan was closing several accounts, resulting in “considerable financial harm,” according to the complaint.Trump and his businesses were hurt “not only by the interruption to their access to JPMC’s banking services, but also by the devastating impact of plaintiff’s ability to transact and access their monies, and by having to enter into less favorable business arrangements with other financial institutions,” the complaint said.”Plaintiffs are confident that JPMC’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations, and JPMC’s unsubstantiated ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Donald Trump and his conservative political views.”Trump’s suit said the president raised the issue with Dimon, who “assured” the president he would offer a detailed response. But Dimon “ultimately never did” get back to Trump, according to the complaint.JPMorgan said it would fight the litigation, adding it does “not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” according to a statement.”We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so,” said the bank, adding that it favors reform to “prevent the weaponization of the banking sector.””While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit,” the bank added. “We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves — that’s what courts are for.” Trump’s suit describes his experience with JPMorgan as part of a “systemic and widespread” practice of debanking in the United States over political viewpoints, an allegation that has also been heavily promoted by Republican-led congressional committees. Banking industry officials reject charges that they debank people over political viewpoints but have echoed JPMorgan’s statement in calling for reform.- Rewriting January 6 -While the suit targets a specific commercial actor in JPMorgan, the complaint is part of a broader move directed by Trump and his allies to reframe the events of January 6, 2021.Trump called supporters to Washington to protest Congress’s certification of his election defeat.Following a rousing speech from Trump, several thousand breached the Capitol grounds, overwhelming police lines and wounding more than 140 officers, smashing windows and doors, ransacking offices and forcing lawmakers into hiding as the electoral count was halted for hours before Biden’s victory was certified.Upon retaking the White House in January 2025, Trump granted pardons to more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol. Earlier this month, the White House unveiled a website labeling the rioters as “peaceful patriotic protesters” and accusing police of provoking the violent clashes. At a congressional hearing Thursday, former special counsel Jack Smith defended his handling of criminal investigations into Trump, rebuffing Republican lawmakers who cast his prosecutions as politically motivated.”No one should be above the law in this country and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith told the panel. “President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.”

The US attorney general announced Thursday the arrest of three people for allegedly disturbing a church service while protesting the massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, as Vice President JD Vance blamed local leaders for disorder.Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly were arrested in connection with a Sunday protest at Cities Church in the state capital St. Paul, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X.St. Paul and the neighboring metropolis of Minneapolis have been the epicenter of a major deployment of federal agents by the Trump administration to the Democratic-led northern US state.Tensions have flared in the state over a wave of arrests and the killing of protester Renee Good, 37, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.Vance, who has aggressively defended the officer who shot Good in her car on January 7, was in Minnesota Thursday and blamed local Democratic leaders for the chaotic rollout of ICE raids in the state.”Yes, protest. Protest me. Protest our immigration policy, but do it peacefully. If you assault a law enforcement officer the Trump administration and the Department of Justice is going to prosecute you,” Vance said, flanked by ICE officers and vehicles.He attacked elected local leaders, both political and policing, in Minneapolis which is a sanctuary city, meaning police do not cooperate with federal immigration sweeps. Vance claimed these leaders were hindering ICE efforts.”The lack of cooperation between state and local officials makes it harder for us to do our job and turns up the temperature,” Vance said.Trump made cracking down on undocumented migrants the centerpiece of his campaign for reelection and has overseen a rapid expansion of ICE’s ranks and immigration sweeps, with Maine in the northeast singled out this week for intensified enforcement.Department of Homeland Security and FBI “agents executed an arrest in Minnesota,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X.”So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church,” Bondi said.”Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” she warned.- Tear gas -She later wrote that officers had also arrested Allen and Kelly for the action where an immigration official was apparently leading a service, according to US media.”WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIP,” she posted.FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that Armstrong had been arrested under the FACE Act, a law intended to protect those seeking to access abortion clinics and places of worship.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application Monday.There have been confrontations between federal agents and protesters who have demanded a full investigation of Good’s killing, with officers frequently deploying pepper spray and tear gas.A number of school children have walked out of classes in protest at the ICE operation in the city.ICE has detained at least four children from the same Minneapolis school district this month, including a five-year-old boy, administrators said according to local media Wednesday.”The five year old was not arrested… his dad was an illegal alien, and then they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” Vance claimed.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged with any crime. Trump and his officials quickly defended his actions as being legitimately made in self-defense.The federal immigration sweeps in Minneapolis have occurred amid a highly politicized fraud investigation in Minnesota.

US President Donald Trump headed home from Davos on Thursday after unveiling his new “Board of Peace” and once again casting himself as a global peacemaker, despite widespread scepticism over a plan that aims to rewrite the world order.Trump officials also unveiled ambitious plans for a “New Gaza” during the ceremony at the World Economic Forum, the US leader describing the devastated Palestinian territory as “great real estate”.Trump later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both describing their talks as good and the US leader saying Russia’s nearly four-year-old war with Kyiv “has to end”.Zelensky announced “trilateral” talks between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv in the coming days, and said he had reached agreement with Trump on post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine — though he conceded that dialogue with the US president was “not simple”.And the Ukrainian leader hit out at European allies for being too slow to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking: “What’s missing: time or political will?”- ‘Board of Peace’ -Trump’s “Board of Peace” was created after he expressed frustration at failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize and ramped up accusations the United Nations had failed to resolve a host of international conflicts.”Well this is exciting,” Trump said as he was joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign the board’s founding charter in the Swiss ski resort.”This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created,” he said.The body, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the strip after the war between Hamas and Israel.But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, sparking concerns that Trump wants to create a rival to the UN.Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts.Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, and the invitation for Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has drawn criticism.Trump said the organisation would work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.- Gaza ‘master plan’ -A large part of the ceremony was devoted to talking about its plans for shattered Gaza.Gaza’s newly appointed administrator said in a video message that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip would reopen in both directions next week.Then Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, like the president a former property developer, showed slides of what he billed as a “master plan” for Gaza’s reconstruction.They included maps of new settlements and artist renderings of gleaming seafront hotels and apartments under the caption “New Gaza”.”It could be a hope. It could be a destination,” Kushner said.Trump told Hamas to disarm under the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire accord or it would be the “end of them”. He added that he was ready to “talk” with regional foe Iran.- ‘Not so popular’ -The representatives of the 19 countries on stage with Trump included two close populist allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentine President Javier Milei, and officials from a host of Middle Eastern monarchies keen to curry favour.Trump said he expected around 50 countries to join — including Putin, though the latter said he was still studying the invitation.Zelensky, also invited, has said he could not envisage working alongside the Russian leader.Trump said he was hopeful of a deal soon to end the Ukraine war, and Zelensky told the forum that documents being drafted with Washington to end the war were “nearly, nearly ready”.Zelensky has voiced concern that Trump’s push to seize Greenland — which dominated Davos on Wednesday — could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion.Tensions over Greenland eased, however, after Trump announced a “framework of a future deal” over the Danish territory and dropped his threat to hit European allies with new tariffs.Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the Arctic island wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with Washington and it wanted to remain part of Denmark for now.”We have some red lines,” he told a press conference. “We have to respect our territorial integrity. We have to respect international law, sovereignty.”Global stock markets rallied with relief at Trump’s Greenland climbdown, riding what some called the “TACO” trade — for “Trump Always Chickens Out”.But as European leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit, worries lingered over lasting damage to transatlantic ties.burs-dk-lt/jhb/jj

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok generated an estimated three million sexualized images of women and children in a matter of days, researchers said Thursday, revealing the scale of the explicit content that sparked a global outcry.The recent rollout of an editing feature on Grok, developed by Musk’s startup xAI and integrated into X, allowed users to alter online images of real people with simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”A flood of lewd deepfakes exploded online, prompting several countries to ban Grok and drawing outrage from regulators and victims.”The AI tool Grok is estimated to have generated approximately three million sexualized images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, after the launch of a new image editing feature powered by the tool on X,” said the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit watchdog that researches the harmful effects of online disinformation.CCDH’s report estimated that Grok generated this volume of photorealistic images over an 11-day period — an average rate of 190 per minute.The report did not say how many images were created without the consent of the people pictured.It said public figures identified in Grok’s sexualized images included American actress Selena Gomez, singers Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj as well as politicians such as Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch and former US vice president Kamala Harris.”The data is clear: Elon Musk’s Grok is a factory for the production of sexual abuse material,” Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of CCDH.”By deploying AI without safeguards, Musk enabled the creation of an estimated 23,000 sexualized images of children in two weeks, and millions more images of adult women.” There was no immediate comment about the findings from X. When reached by AFP by email, xAI replied with a terse automated response: “Legacy Media Lies.”Last week, following the global outrage, X announced that it would “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal.It was not immediately clear where the tool would be restricted.The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into xAI over the sexually explicit material and several countries opened their own probes.”Belated fixes cannot undo this harm. We must hold Big Tech accountable for giving abusers the power to victimize women and girls at the click of a button,” Ahmed said.Grok’s digital undressing spree comes amid growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI nudification apps.Last week, the Philippines became the third country to ban Grok, following Southeast Asian neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia, while Britain and France said they would maintain pressure on the company.On Wednesday, the Philippines’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said it was ending the short-lived ban after xAI agreed to modify the tool for the local market and eliminate its ability to create “pornographic content.”

After a year of tearing down global norms and withdrawing from UN bodies, US President Donald Trump is trying his hand at international institution building with his self-styled “Board of Peace” — to wide skepticism.Unlike the United Nations, where every member has a say and five big powers wield vetoes, the nascent board is unambiguously led not just by the United States but personally by Trump, who will hold final say and can remain in charge past his presidency.Trump first conceived of the board for Gaza, where Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-backed ceasefire in October.But Trump quickly raised eyebrows by sending out wide invitations including to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Ukraine invasion Trump has failed to stop, and to countries far removed from traditional Middle East diplomacy.Launching the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Trump said the new body could “spread out to other things as we succeed with Gaza,” with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the “possibilities are endless.”Trump boasts of ending eight wars in his year back in office — a claim viewed by many as overstated — and has loudly complained about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.In Davos, Trump said he envisioned his board playing a role “coupled with the United Nations” but again bashed the global institution, to which he has ordered major US cuts.”On the eight wars that I ended, I never spoke to the United Nations about any of them — and you would think that I should have,” he said.Also raising suspicion is the question of money, as Trump already faces allegations of self-enrichment from the presidency.The board’s charter says that members of the executive board will pay $1 billion for a permanent spot.A US official clarified that members would not have to fork over the massive sum for a temporary two-year stint on the board and promised “highest financial controls and oversight mechanisms,” although where the money will actually go remains unclear.- ‘Galaxy far, far away’ from reality -Major European nations have shunned the board, which is heavy on longstanding US partners in the Middle East, ideological allies of Trump and smaller countries eager for Trump’s attention.”This thing doesn’t have the bandwidth and doesn’t have the set of guiding principles that would enable serious countries to join,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.He said Trump felt emboldened after ordering the US raid that seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, and was convinced that existing global institutions “don’t understand that the central driving feature of the international system today is US power.”The board is “tethered to a galaxy far, far away and not to the realities of conflict resolution back here on Planet Earth,” he said.Britain has historically been among the most eager to sign on to US initiatives, but Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a BBC interview there was a “huge amount of work to do” and questioned inviting Putin.France has made clear it will not join, leading Trump to threaten a 200 percent tariff on French wine unless President Emmanuel Macron joins the voluntary board.A group of Muslim-majority countries — Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — welcomed the board but in a joint statement highlighted that it should be a “transitional administration” for Gaza.Richard Gowan, program director for global issues and institutions at the International Crisis Group, said the “Board of Peace” offered a sign of how Trump wants to pursue diplomacy in his remaining three years in office.”He seems to be putting the boot into existing multilateral institutions like the United Nations and switching to his own boutique organization that he can control completely,” Gowan said.But he noted that the board’s first task was Gaza, where Trump has proposed glitzy development but which lies in rubble with a fragile ceasefire.”If Gaza implodes, the Board won’t have a lot of credibility elsewhere.”

Venezuelan lawmakers on Thursday began debating plans to throw open the country’s lucrative oil sector to private investors, paving the way for the return of US energy majors as pushed by President Donald Trump.The draft bill, seen by AFP, ends decades of state control over Venezuela’s biggest industry by allowing “private companies domiciled in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” to engage independently in oil exploration and extraction.It comes less than three weeks after the US ouster of socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, whose predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez forced the nationalisation of foreign-owned oil companies in the mid-2000s.The bill has been promoted by Maduro’s former deputy, acting leader Delcy Rodriguez, who has presided over a lightning-fast thaw in US ties.In a sign of the speed of the changes unfolding in Caracas, Washington named a new head for its mission in Venezuela.The US embassy page listed Laura F. Dogu — a former ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras — as the new charge d’affaires to Venezuela, in what was seen as another step on the road to the restoration of full diplomatic ties.- Warming relations -Caracas and Washington severed ties after Maduro’s widely disputed claim to reelection in 2019, and the US embassy has been mostly deserted since then, barring a few local employees.Within days of Maduro’s capture in Caracas, US diplomats visited the city to discuss reopening the embassy.Trump has said he was working “really well” with Rodriguez, who was vice president in Maduro’s rabidly anti-US government.On Wednesday a US official said Rodriguez would visit the United States soon.Maduro was toppled on January 3 after a months-long US pressure campaign and flown to New York with his wife to face trial on drug trafficking charges.Trump claims Washington now effectively runs Venezuela and controls its oil industry.Rodriguez has appeared ready to comply so far.- Dollar influx -This week she ploughed $300 million from a US-brokered oil sale into propping up the ailing national currency, the bolivar.The mere anticipation of the injection drove down the price of dollars, the currency in which many Venezuelans conduct their business.But economists warned that true relief from spiralling prices would require a sustained influx of dollars — which in turns requires foreign investment.Venezuela has the world’s largest proven reserves of oil.Legislation liberalizing the sector is expected to sail through parliament, where Rodriguez’s socialists have a majority.It ends a two-decade-old requirement for private companies to form joint ventures with state-owned oil firm PDVSA, which insisted on holding a majority.”This completely changes the landscape,” Dolores Dobarro, former vice minister of petroleum and an expert in oil legislation, told AFP.The law also makes the royalties regime more flexible, based on the success of the oil exploration project.Rodriguez was petroleum minister under Maduro — a position she still holds.To win the support of both Venezuelans and Washington, she needs to quickly show improvements in the economy and also signal an end to a decade of worsening repression under Maduro.In the past two weeks, her government has released dozens of political prisoners from among the hundreds behind bars.On Thursday, authorities released the son-in-law of  opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who was serving a 30-year sentence on terrorism charges.Tudares was arrested in January 2025 while on his way to school with his two children.Gonzalez Urrutia, in exile in Spain, is widely considered the rightful winner of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, which Maduro claimed to win.Since Maduro’s ouster Trump has ramped up pressure on another Latin American arch-foe, communist Cuba.He has vowed to cut off all oil supplies to the island, which has relied for years on heavily-subsidized Venezuelan oil and cash to remain afloat.Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Thursday he spoke by telephone with Rodriguez and expressed Havana’s “support and solidarity.”

The US attorney general announced Thursday the arrest of two women who allegedly disturbed a church service while protesting the massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, as Vice President JD Vance prepared to visit the state.Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were arrested in connection with a Sunday protest at Cities Church in the state capital St. Paul, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X.St. Paul and the neighboring metropolis of Minneapolis have been the epicenter of a major deployment of federal agents by the Trump administration to the Democratic-led northern US state.Tensions have flared in the state over a wave of arrests and the killing of protester Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.Vance, who has aggressively defended the officer who killed Good, was due in Minnesota later Thursday and is expected to meet ICE officers, as well as community and business figures.Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by the ICE officer on January 7.Homeland Security Investigations and FBI “agents executed an arrest in Minnesota,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X.”So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. We will share more updates as they become available. Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP.” She later wrote that officers had also arrested Allen for the action where an immigration official was apparently leading a service, according to US media.”WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIP,” she posted.FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that Armstrong had been arrested under the FACE Act, a law intended to protect those seeking to access abortion clinics and places of worship.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application Monday.There have been confrontations between federal agents and protesters who have demanded a full investigation of Good’s killing, with officers frequently deploying pepper spray and tear gas.A number of school children have walked out of classes in protest at the ICE operation in the city.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged with any crime. Trump and his officials quickly defended his actions as being legitimately made in self-defense.The federal immigration sweeps in Minneapolis occurred amid a highly politicized fraud investigation in Minnesota.

A day after US President Donald Trump and NATO’s chief purportedly struck a deal on Greenland, residents expressed anger and frustration that the Danish territory was again being sidelined in talks about its future.Carrying two steaming cappuccinos from a popular American coffee chain on Thursday, Niels Berthelsen took the time to stop despite the icy cold winds whipping the streets of Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital.”If they want to make deals about Greenland, they have to invite Greenland to the negotiating table,” the 49-year-old skipper told AFP.”Nothing about Greenland without Greenland,” he insisted repeatedly.Trump backed down on threats to seize Greenland by force after meeting NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, saying they had reached a “framework” deal on the Danish autonomous territory.While details of the agreement made at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos remained scant, many Greenlanders, who fiercely defend their right to self-determination, were disappointed.”It’s obviously a good thing that the military threat has gone down,” Berthelsen said.”But they could just as easily have reached an agreement by inviting Greenland to the table, rather than having Mark Rutte negotiate a deal with Trump by himself. I find that very disrespectful on Mark Rutte’s part.”Fellow Nuuk resident Esther Jensen agreed.”I’m very disappointed, because Rutte cannot make any kind of agreement with Trump without Denmark or Greenland, and Denmark cannot make any decision without Greenland either. So we are very disappointed,” said Jensen.Greenland’s prime minister said he was not aware of the contents of the framework agreement, but stressed no deal could be made without involving the island.”Nobody else than Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark have the mandate to make deals or agreements about Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark without us,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a press conference.”We have some red lines… We have to respect our territorial integrity. We have to respect international law, sovereignty.”Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Rutte had coordinated with her and the Greenlandic government — though Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on social media that Rutte “cannot negotiate an agreement on behalf of Denmark or Greenland”.- Longing for quieter times -A Danish colony for three centuries, Greenland, which today has around 57,000 inhabitants, gradually gained autonomy in the second half of the 20th century.But Denmark’s assimilation policies — including de facto bans on the Inuit language and forced sterilisations — have left Greenlanders bitter and angry.”Our country will neither be given away, nor will our future be gambled with,” Greenland’s Deputy Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a post on Facebook.”It is unacceptable to attempt to hand our land to others. This is our land — we are the ones who shape its future.”In Nuuk, some residents wondered what really went down in Davos.”We know all too well that Trump has a tendency to read too much into some things,” said 80-year-old pensioner Arkalo Abelsen.”When Rutte… says that they’ve spoken about some possible solutions, in Trump’s mind, that becomes a deal,” Abelsen said, leaning on a crutch.”That’s not a deal. There’s no agreement.”The unwelcome surge of interest in Greenland, and the turbulence caused by recent events, has tested locals’ tranquil temperament.”Ever since Trump was re-elected president, we never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next,” said Abelsen.”Especially when he goes after our country like it’s a piece of ice drifting in the sea. It’s very destabilising. We feel powerless.”My wife and I speak about it every day. We say, ‘If only we could go back to the days before Trump.’ Back then, we knew what was going to happen.”Susan Gudmundsdottir Johnsen, a 52-year-old travel agency employee, also said she longed for quieter times.”From now on, we need peace and quiet.”

Vampire period horror film “Sinners” smashed the all-time Oscars record with 16 nominations, the Academy announced Thursday.The blues-inflected race allegory from director Ryan Coogler scored nominations in nearly every category possible, including best picture.In doing so, “Sinners” blasted past the previous record of 14, jointly held by “Titanic,” “La La Land” and “All About Eve.”Coogler told industry website Deadline that the “pretty crazy” record haul of nominations was “so rewarding.” A rare original Hollywood film that is not based on any existing franchise, “Sinners” was viewed with skepticism by many in the business before its April release, but became a $360 million global hit.Coogler said he “did not have any expectations” for awards, adding that “people just showing up to the movies and having a good time, that would’ve been enough.”But its huge tally included a best actor nomination for Michael B. Jordan — who plays twins returning home to the 1930s segregated US South — plus nods for everything from screenplay to score.There was also a nomination for best casting, the first new category to be added to Hollywood’s most prestigious awards in more than two decades.”One Battle After Another” came in second place with 13 nods including best picture, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio and best director for Paul Thomas Anderson.But its female lead, 25-year-old newcomer Chase Infiniti, was surprisingly snubbed by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters.Both of the top two nomination getters came from Warner Bros, the movie studio that is currently the target of a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount.Guillermo del Toro’s monster epic “Frankenstein,” Timothee Chalamet’s ping-pong drama “Marty Supreme” and Norwegian arthouse favorite “Sentimental Value” each bagged nine nominations.”Hamnet,” a period drama in which William Shakespeare and his wife struggle to cope with the loss of their son in plague-ravaged Elizabethan England, secured eight.Jessie Buckley was nominated for playing the Bard’s long-suffering wife Agnes, though the film’s male lead Paul Mescal missed out.”There’s no part of Agnes that exists without Paul… and what he poured into this story,” Buckley told The Hollywood Reporter after the announcement.- Acting races -The nominations set the stage for the 98th Oscars ceremony on March 15.While “Sinners” tops the nominations, “One Battle” remains the frontrunner to win best picture, having won almost every precursor prize going so far this awards season.The zany thriller about a retired revolutionary looking for his teen daughter against a wild backdrop of radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists broke the all-time record for nominations by Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild.DiCaprio, Chalamet and Jordan will do battle for the best actor Oscar, along with Ethan Hawke for Broadway period drama “Blue Moon,” and Wagner Moura from Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent.”For best actress, Buckley will compete with Emma Stone playing an alien — or is she? — in conspiracy theorist drama “Bugonia,” Renate Reinsve in “Sentimental Value,” Kate Hudson in quirky music biopic “Song Sung Blue,” and Rose Byrne as a struggling mom in indie hit “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”- International voters -With the Academy’s overseas voter base rapidly expanding, both “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent” were nominated for best picture.But Persian-language Palme d’Or winner “It Was Just An Accident” missed out in the top category, and will compete for best international film, along with Spain’s nomadic hippie odyssey “Sirat” and heart-wrenching Palestinian docudrama “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”Pop megastar Ariana Grande surprisingly missed out on a best supporting actress nomination for her portrayal of Glinda in “Wicked: For Good,” which failed to pick up any nods.Recently appointed Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor opened the early-morning announcement in Los Angeles with a warning about the threat of artificial intelligence.”We live in a time of limitless technology that enables us to push the boundaries of our cinematic experience,” she said.”And our profound belief is that the heartbeat of film is and will always remain unmistakably human.”

New York City has sued to block a documentary about the police department fronted by celebrity psychologist Dr. Phil that local officials say is “extremely problematic.”In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the city argues episodes of the documentary “Behind the Badge,” which was given the green light by former mayor Eric Adams, “pose an imminent threat to the life and safety of active NYPD officers.” “For example, the faces, voices, and names of undercover officers conducting operations in plainclothes are not obscured,” the complaint alleges.”There are numerous other pieces of harmful footage that cannot be released to the public. For example, the identities of individuals in NYPD custody are depicted in the rough cuts without any blurring or redactions applied to their faces.”The city, now led by Democratic mayor Zohran Mamdani, is asking the court to prohibit the sale, distribution, or broadcast of the material, which a New York State Supreme Court judge temporarily granted on Wednesday.Mamdani has sought to chart a starkly different course from his predecessor Adams, a flamboyant former police captain known for his idiosyncratic style and love of publicity.On Friday, a judge will hold a hearing on the documentary that is produced by TV talkshow host Dr. Phil’s son Jordan McGraw and his production company McGraw Media, court filings showed.