By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining within the historically healthy range of the past few years.

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Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 7 fell by 5,000 to 227,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s basically in line with the 226,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which balances out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 7,000 to 219,500.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan. 31 increase by 21,000 to 1.86 million, the government said.

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO, Associated Press

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday expressed concern that China was costing Peru its sovereignty in solidifying control over the South American nation’s critical infrastructure, a blunt warning after a Peruvian court ruling restricted a local regulator’s oversight of a Chinese-built mega port.

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The $1.3 billion deepwater port in Chancay, north of Peru’s capital of Lima, has become a symbol of China’s foothold in Latin America and a lightning rod for tensions with Washington.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on social media that it was “concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners.”

It added: “We support Peru’s sovereign right to oversee critical infrastructure in its own territory. Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.”

The concern comes as the Trump administration seeks to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China has long built influence through massive loans and high trade volumes.

The Chinese government on Thursday strongly rejected the U.S. comments.

“China firmly opposes and strongly deplores the U.S.’s blatant rumor-mongering and smearing of Chancay port,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a daily briefing in Beijing.

Chancay, along the Pacific coast, is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, an infrastructure program that has seen Chinese state-owned banks offer sizable loans or financial guarantees to construct seaports, airports and highways, among other projects, across multiple continents.

As Latin America’s deepest port, Chancay is capable of berthing some of the world’s largest cargo ships traveling between Asia and South America. China has been Peru’s biggest trading partner for more than a decade now.

China’s state-owned shipping and logistics company Cosco, a majority shareholder in the port, dismissed the U.S. claims.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, it said the court ruling “in no way involves aspects of sovereignty” and insisted that the port remains “under the jurisdiction, sovereignty and control of Peruvian authorities, subject to all Peruvian regulations.”

It added there were plenty of Peruvian authorities monitoring the port’s activities, including police forces, environmental regulators and customs officials.

The ruling issued Jan. 29 by a lower court judge orders Peruvian authorities to refrain from exercising “powers of regulation, supervision, oversight and sanction” over the port in Chancay.

The regulator, Ositran, which has oversight over all of the country’s other major ports, said it would appeal the decision, arguing that there was no reason to exempt Cosco Shipping from the agency’s oversight.

“(Cosco Shipping) would be the only company providing services to the public that could not be supervised,” Verónica Zambrano, president of Ositran, told a local radio station Wednesday.

Although it’s privately owned, the Chancay Port covers about 445 acres of Peruvian territory, Zambrano added, making it subject to government efforts to monitor and enforce compliance with local user protection standards.

By DAVE SKRETTA, Associated Press Sports Writer

MILAN (AP) — Ilia Malinin keeps teasing fans at the Milan Cortina Olympics by submitting program plans that have the American figure skating star attempting the quad axel, a 4 1/2-revolution jump so difficult nobody but him has ever landed it in competition.

Ilia Malinin of the United States competes during the figure skating men’s team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Yet through two programs in the gold medal-winning team event and his individual short program Tuesday night, the “Quad God” has yet to attempt the hardest quadruple jump of all, opting instead for the safer triple axel everyone else is doing.

“My lazy part of me,” Malinin said with a smirk, “just forgetting to change the planned elements.”

Or maybe Malinin is saving it for his grand finale.

He has a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa going into the free skate, a margin so big that it seems almost insurmountable, and one that gives him some wiggle room should he attempt the quad axel and fail.

The plan Malinin has submitted for Friday night includes it — naturally — part of what would be a record-tying seven quads in all.

“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it,” Malinin said, more seriously. “But of course I always prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it”

The best laid plans

Planned program content is just that: a plan. Skaters often deviate from it depending upon how they feel.

Ilia Malinin of the United States wobbles while competing during the figure skating men’s team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

It may be they had a hard time with an element in practice and change it. Or, they might make a mistake in the midst of their routine — say, messing up the first jump on a combination pass — and they are forced to change their program on the fly.

What makes the quad axel so difficult is that the axel is the only one of figure skating’s six primary jumps that starts facing forward, giving it an extra half revolution. In fact, the jump is so difficult even elite skaters struggle with the triple version of it.

“I never thought I’d see anybody do a quadruple axel,” admitted 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton. “Not in my lifetime.”

Indeed, most people thought it was impossible.

Then Malinin proved it was.

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In September 2022, during the off-the-radar U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, he stunned the sport by setting down a near-perfect version of the quad axel as part of his winning free skate. Malinin was just 17 at the time.

How does he do it? By spinning at about 340 revolutions per minute, or about as fast as a ceiling fan set to high.

“Seeing what Ilia has done in the last three years has been mind-boggling,” 1994 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi said. “I know several of us — Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton — we’ve talked, saying, ‘We have never imagined we would be alive to see a quad axel performed and landed in competition,’ and here comes Ilia, just whipping it off like it’s nothing.’”

It’s decidedly something. Whereas the triple axel has a base value of 8.0 points, the quad has a base of 12.5. Throw in the additional points Malinin could earn for the degree of execution and the quad axel gives him a massive scoring advantage.

At last year’s world championships in Boston, he landed it along with each of the other five quad jumps, propelling him to his second straight title with the second-largest margin of victory in its 130-year history.

So why would he ever take it out? Besides the inherent risk, the rest of Malinin’s programs are so difficult he doesn’t really need it. Kagiyama has a mere four quads planned for his free skate Friday night. So does Siao Him Fa.

“I want him to be a smart competitor,” said Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion. “I know how much it can mean to a skater to have a clean performance in the Olympics, and I really want him to have a clean performance. Yes, technical — as technical as he wants to be. But if one of the quads he aspires to hit, he isn’t feeling great that day, I want him to be solid.”

The grandest of finales?

The son of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov loves nothing more than to raise the bar, though.

Ilia Malinin of the United States does a back flip while competing during the men’s figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Malinin was among the first to incorporate a backflip into his choreography when its ban was lifted by the International Skating Union last year, for example, and the one he threw down in the team competition Sunday left tennis legend Novak Djokovic in awe.

Malinin even has created a signature jump of his own, a leaping, twirling fan-favorite known as the “raspberry twist.” He named it that because “malina,” from which his last name is derived, quite literally means “raspberry” in Russian.

“When I was younger,” he explained, “I loved to perform, whether it be I’d turn on some random music at home and just start skating a program that I’d do improv to and try doing triples, even though I could barely do doubles. I was really passionate about the performing aspect of skating, and that’s what helps me feel that energy and pressure and almost use it to my advantage.”

Malinin admitted to feeling a different level of pressure at the Olympics in the team event, though. Both of his performances were mediocre by his lofty standards. But he felt much more comfortable during his short program Tuesday night, and it was reflected on the ice, where his score of 108.16 was less than a point off his world-leading mark this season.

Now, Malinin has one more opportunity to perform during the Milan Cortina Olympics on Friday night.

One last chance to throw the quad axel, too.

By TIM REYNOLDS, Associated Press Sports Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, a likely medal contender at the Milan Cortina Games, was not allowed to compete Thursday after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to use a helmet other than the one that honors more than 20 of his country’s athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia.

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)

The decision came roughly 45 minutes before the start of the competition, ending a three-day saga where Heraskevych knew he was risking being pulled from the Games by wearing the helmet, one that the IOC says bans rules against making statements on the field of play.

He received written word Thursday from the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, which said his decision to wear the helmet was “inconsistent with the Olympic Charter and Guidelines on Athlete Expression.” He wore the helmet in training, but the IOC asked — pleaded might be the better word — for him to wear a different helmet in races and offered concessions such as the right to wear a black armband or even the ability to display the helmet once he was off the ice.

“I believe, deeply, the IBSF and IOC understand that I’m not violating any rules,” Heraskevych said. “Also, I would say (it’s) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. … They didn’t face the same things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for the helmet.”

IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who was slated to be in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Thursday to see Alpine skiing, went to the sliding center instead to meet Heraskevych. She was waiting at the top of the track when he arrived around 8:15 a.m., and they met privately a few minutes later. After about 10 minutes, Coventry was unable to change Heraskevych’s mind.

“We didn’t find common ground in this regard,” Heraskevych said.

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)

Coventry spoke with reporters after the meeting, tears rolling down her face at times as she spoke. The Olympic champion swimmer made clear that she wanted a different outcome, and the official statement from the IOC said the decision was made “with regret.”

“As you’ve all seen over the last few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to use his helmet in training,” Coventry said. “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.”

In their meeting, Coventry and Heraskevych agreed that the helmet — which has images of the faces of more than 20 people who were killed in the war — isn’t clearly visible anyway, given that sliders are zipping down the icy chute reaching speeds of more than 75 mph.

That, the IOC hoped, was the window to a compromise. If the faces on the helmet can’t be clearly seen when he’s racing anyway, would he consider not using it while sliding?

He would not budge.

“Sadly, we’ve not been able to come to that solution,” Coventry said. “I really wanted to see him race today. It’s been an emotional morning.”

Heraskevych said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the race is already happening. Medals will be decided Friday. Regardless of what CAS says, if anything, his chance to race in these Games is gone.

After word of Coventry’s emotions, Heraskevych said: “In Ukraine now we also have a lot of tears” and said the decision “plays along with Russian propaganda.”

“Disqualified. I think that’s enough to understand what the modern IOC really is and how it disgraces the idea of the Olympic movement,” Ukrainian skier Kateryna Kotsar wrote on Instagram. “Vladyslav Heraskevych, for us and for the whole world, you’re a champion. Even without starting.”

The IOC had sided with Ukraine’s top slider before. When he displayed a “No war in Ukraine” sign after his fourth and final run at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the IOC said he was simply calling for peace and did not find him in violation of the Olympic charter.

Mykhailo Heraskevych, father of Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, reacts as he sits next to the start house of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

This time, Heraskevych said he believes there are inconsistencies in how the IOC decides what statements are allowed. Among those he cited: U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov bringing a photo of his late parents — former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were among the 67 people killed in a plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025 — to the kiss-and-cry area after his skate in Milan on Tuesday night, and Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone’s decision to appear at the opening ceremony wearing a kippah that bore the names of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed in the 1972 Munich attack.

“A competitor literally placed the memory of the dead on his head to honor them,” Heraskevych wrote on Instagram. “I frankly do not understand how these two cases are fundamentally different.”

Firestone said he admired Heraskevych while noting “the flag on my helmet’s just representing the country.”

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“I think he’s a man with strong values. I think it’s very impressive. As a person I really, really respect him,” Firestone said.

In Milan, IOC spokesman Mark Adams fielded a slew of questions about the case

“It is simply about the sanctity of the field of play,” he said, insisting the rules also protected athletes in some countries from being pressured by “their political masters” to being messaging into Olympic arenas.

“You could see where that would lead to a chaotic situation,” Adams said.

Heraskevych was fourth at the world championships last year and was consistently among the fastest in training leading into the Olympic races. A medal was certainly within reach, but to Heraskevych, the helmet mattered more.

“The International Olympic Committee destroyed our dreams,” said Mykhailo Heraskevych, the slider’s coach and father. “It’s not fair.”

AP journalists Julia Frankel, Vasalisa Stepanenko and Graham Dunbar contributed.