By JENNIFER McDERMOTT

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — It takes an immense amount of energy to power venues and make snow for the Winter Olympics and, for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, organizers pledged that virtually all of the electricity would be clean.

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The organizing committee said that energy use is where they can make the most meaningful impact, since it has been one of the main drivers of planet-warming emissions at major events. And Italy’s largest electricity company, Enel, guaranteed the supply of entirely certified renewable electricity for event venues.

Here’s a look at what that means:

To guarantee 100% renewable energy, Enel bought certificates

The organizing committee said in its sustainability report from September that its Games-time electrical energy would be 100% green, fed by certified renewable sources. In rare cases where temporary power generation is required, hydrotreated vegetable oil would be substituted for traditional diesel fuels, it said.

“This is also an opportunity to contribute to a broader shift — showing athletes, spectators and future host cities that cleaner energy solutions are increasingly viable for events of this scale,” the committee said Friday in a statement to The Associated Press. “We hope the steps taken for these Games can support ongoing progress across major events.”

Enel said it is supplying 85 gigawatt-hours of power for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. It bought “guarantee of origin” (GO) certificates on the market from renewable energy plants to cover the entire Games’ energy demand.

GO certificates are a European mechanism created in 2001. Each certificate corresponds to 1 megawatt hour of electricity produced using a certified renewable source.

Certificates are a way to prove your energy is green

These certificates are traded on the power market, in negotiations between companies or through brokers.

Once used, they are canceled to prevent the same megawatt hour from being claimed twice. This system is meant to support the development of renewable sources, by helping companies meet their green energy targets.

Enel told the AP in a statement that its commitment to cleanly lighting up the events “translates the values of sustainability and inclusion inherent in the Games into concrete terms, combining technological innovation and environmental protection.”

While many say GOs are vital to promote Earth’s decarbonization, the system has its detractors. Matteo Villa, who leads the data lab at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, said it is a “great way to promote your event,” but it’s not making Italy cleaner or more renewable.

The Games can only be as clean, or as sustainable, as the whole of Italy, Villa added.

Enel says it’s producing a lot of clean electricity in Italy

Nearly three-quarters of the electricity Enel produced in Italy in 2025 was carbon-free, according to its preliminary full-year operational data. About 50% came from hydropower, followed by 17% geothermal and less than 10% from wind, solar and other renewables. The remainder was mostly from gas-fired power plants.

Many power plants that use water to produce electricity are in northern Italy, where mountains and rivers make for highly productive facilities. But Italy’s national grid is still largely reliant on fossil fuels, according country-specific data from the International Energy Agency.

Enel built new primary substations in Livigno and Arabba, so electricity could be distributed throughout the territory. It also built and upgraded distribution infrastructure in the Livigno, Bormio and Cortina areas, which will benefit residents after the Games end.

Enel has a spot in the fan village in Cortina, where events are livestreamed.

Another challenge: emissions from spectators and athletes traveling

Sustainability has been a major focus for the Games, as both the organizers and the International Olympic Committee seek to model how to cut carbon pollution while running a major event. Researchers say the list of locales that could reliably host a Winter Games will shrink substantially in the coming years.

“Every Games we strive to push innovation in sustainability, reduce the overall impact and the carbon footprint,” Julie Duffus, the IOC’s head of sustainability, told the AP Friday. She highlighted the use of clean power, upgrades to the energy system and the way these Games were designed so that most venues would be existing or temporary.

Matteo Di Castelnuovo, a professor of energy economics at the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, said he expects the Olympics will stay committed to clean energy, and that “the challenge lies somewhere else to make them greener.” The thornier issue for Olympic organizers, and for any business, is figuring out how to reduce the emissions they do not have direct control over, notably those stemming from transportation, he added.

The amount of greenhouse gases estimated to be released into the atmosphere as a result of the Games is similar to the emissions of 4 million average-sized, gasoline-fueled cars driving from Paris to Rome, the organizing committee said in its greenhouse gas management strategy. The largest share of the carbon footprint are activities indirectly related to the Games, such as accommodations and spectator travel. Air travel is a significant contributor because burning jet fuel releases carbon dioxide.

Karl Stoss, who chairs the Games’ Future Host Commission, has said they may need to eventually reduce the number of sports, athletes and spectators who attend.

Many skiers, including Team USA members Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, expressed concern during the Games about climate change accelerating melt of the world’s glaciers.

Associated Press writer Colleen Barry and video journalist Brittany Peterson in Milan contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA and MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s request to delay a Friday deadline to restore an exhibit on the history of slavery at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

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The ruling Friday morning came as restoration work begun Thursday resumed at the site of the former President’s House. Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe had set a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for its completion, and she held to that timeline, even as the administration appeals her decision.

The Interior Department has said in court papers that it planned to replace the exhibit with its own narrative on slavery, as the administration works to remove information that it deems “disparaging” to Americans from federal properties. Rufe said it must work with the city on new material under a longstanding cooperative agreement.

“As this court established, “(t)he government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the city,” Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said in Friday’s opinion.

In its own filing Friday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department called her ruling “extraordinary” and “an improper intrusion on the workings of a co-equal branch of government.”

The appeals court asked the city to respond to the request for an emergency stay of Rufe’s order.

One of the panels being rehung Friday morning — titled “History Lost & Found” — details the surprising discovery of artifacts from the building during an archaeological dig in the early 2000s, as work was being done on a new pavilion for the Liberty Bell.

National Park Service employees worked with care on the exhibits, including those on the nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. The Park Service describes the outdoor exhibit as one “that examines the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation.”

The Trump administration abruptly removed the panels in January, leading the city and other advocates to file suit. They had been on display since 2010, the result of years of research and collaboration between the city, the Park Service, historians and other private parties.

Rufe, in denying the federal government’s request for a delay, said that side was unlikely to succeed at trial. And she said the public –- and the city’s reputation — was being harmed with each passing day.

The city, she said, “is responsible for the public trust in the city’s telling of its own history, its own integrity in telling that history, and preventing erasure of that history, particularly in advance of the semiquincentennial.”

Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, which is representing the administration in court, declined to comment on the restoration work Friday.

Kimberly Gegner, a teacher from Philadelphia, visited the site Friday with some of her 6th- to 9th-grade students. As a Black American, she said, it had pained her to see the history removed. But she was grateful to see it going back up.

“This whole case and what happened here — the taking it down and how Mayor Parker and other Pennsylvanians had to go to court to have it restored — is an excellent case of how the Constitution was applied to win this case for Philadelphia,” she said.

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned on Friday that limited strikes against Iran are possible even as the country’s top diplomat said Tehran expects to have a proposed deal ready in the next few days following nuclear talks with the United States.

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In response to a reporter’s question on whether the U.S. could take limited military action as the countries negotiate, Trump said, “I guess I can say I am considering that.” Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a TV interview that his country was planning to finalize a draft deal in “the next two to three days” to then send to Washington.

“I don’t think it takes long, perhaps, in a matter of a week or so, we can start real, serious negotiations on the text and come to a conclusion,” Araghchi said on MSNOW’s “Morning Joe” show.

The tensions between the longtime adversaries have ramped up as the Trump administration pushes for concessions from Iran and has built up the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in decades, with more warships and aircraft on the way. Both countries have signaled that they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fizzle out.

“We are prepared for war, and we are prepared for peace,” Araghchi said Friday.

Trump said a day earlier that he believes 10 to 15 days is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal following recent rounds of indirect negotiations, including this week in Geneva, that made little visible progress. But the talks have been deadlocked for years, and Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups.

Araghchi also said Friday that his American counterparts have not asked for zero enrichment of uranium as part of the latest round of talks, which is in contradiction to what U.S. officials have said.

“What we are now talking about is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and will remain peaceful forever,” he said.

He added that in return Iran will implement some confidence-building measures in exchange for relief on economic sanctions.

In response to Araghchi’s claim, a White House official said Trump has been clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or the capacity to build them and that it cannot enrich uranium. The official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tehran has long insisted that any negotiations should only focus on its nuclear program and that it hasn’t been enriching uranium since U.S. and Israeli strikes last June on Iranian nuclear sites. Trump said at the time that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, but the exact damage is unknown as Tehran has barred international inspectors.

Iran has also insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful. The U.S. and others suspect it is aimed at eventually developing weapons.

Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

The Gophers men’s basketball program has likely suffered its third season-ending injury to a starting player this season. Forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (foot) is out “indefinitely,” head coach Niko Medved said Friday.

The 6-foot-8 junior missed the last two games against Washington and Oregon. He is averaging 13.4 points and 6.8 rebounds in 24 games this year. Minnesota has been without starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr. and center Robert Vaihola since November and used a rotation of six players.

The Gophers (12-14, 5-10 Big Ten) have five regular season games left this season, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday against  Rutgers (11-15, 4-11) at Williams Arena.

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