By JONEL ALECCIA, AP Health Writer

Federal health officials said Tuesday they will reassess the safety of a chemical called BHA used in foods including potato chips, cereals, frozen meals and meat products.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a new request for information regarding butylated hydroxyanisole, a preservative. The agency’s review “will consider whether BHA is safe under its current conditions of use in food and as a food contact substance,” a statement said.

The move is part of a wider effort by the FDA to review chemical additives in the U.S. food supply. In May, the agency identified BHA as a top priority for review.

“We are taking decisive action to ensure that chemicals in our food supply are not causing harm,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.

The agency first listed BHA as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, in 1958 and approved it as a food additive in 1961. Since 1991, however, BHA has been classified as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” by the National Toxicology Program.

Health advocacy groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest have long urged consumers to avoid products containing BHA because some studies have indicated that the chemical causes cancer in rats, mice and hamsters. BHA has been listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65 since 1990.

Package labeling data indicate that BHA use has declined in recent years, but it remains in many foods, including those marketed to children, the FDA said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he hopes White House Border Czar Tom Homan will announce this week an end to the surge of federal agents in Minnesota.

“It would be my hope that Mr. Homan goes out before Friday and announces that this thing is done,” and that it will be done in a matter of days, Walz said Tuesday at a press conference discussing the economic impacts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the state. “That would be my expectation.”

Walz said that statement is based on conversations he had with Homan on Monday and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday.

“I’m very careful with dealing with this administration,” Walz said. “I’ll let them make the announcements. We have been absolutely clear that they need to reduce these numbers back to the pre-surge level, which has been about 150.”

Homan has said it’s his intention to reach a complete drawdown of the roughly 2,000 federal agents remaining in the state, but that it’s contingent on continued state and local cooperation.

Last week Homan announced the withdrawal of about 700 federal officers — roughly a quarter of the total deployed to Minnesota — after state and local officials agreed to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants.

Homan has said he thinks the ICE operation in Minnesota has been a success with a number of individuals wanted for violent crimes being taken off the streets. Critics say immigration agents have detained legal residents — in some cases based on racial profiling — and have made the Twin Cities less safe.

Trump’s border czar took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal officers and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.

Federal officials began an immigration action in the state with thousands of agents. Since then, masked, heavily armed officers have been met by resistance from residents who are upset with their aggressive tactics. Renee Good was fatally shot by a federal agent on Jan. 7. Alex Pretti was killed on Jan. 24.

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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Sweden’s brother-and-sister team of Isabella and Rasmus Wranå won gold in mixed doubles curling at the Milan Cortina Olympics, beating the United States’ Duluth duo in the final on Tuesday night.

The Wranås won 6-5 over Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, who became the first Americans to medal in Olympic mixed doubles. Thiesse is the first American woman to medal in Olympic curling.

The Wranå siblings grew up as rivals and were coached by their father, Mats Wranå. They’re Sweden’s first sibling team at the Olympics.

The championship game was agonizingly close, with the Swedes pouncing on an opening left by the Americans in the last end.

Throughout the match, the Wranås enjoyed a somewhat silent camaraderie with their small contingent of fans. The two remained stoic while Dropkin played to the crowd, whipping up the loud American supporters.

The Wranås won the world title in 2024. Dropkin and Thiesse won at worlds a year earlier.

The Swedish duo started their Olympic bid on stumbly legs, losing three games in a row in the round robin. The skid prompted the Swedish media to label their Olympic bid a “Curlingfiasko.”

But they soon managed to turn it around, winning most of their remaining matches.

It was a heartbreaker for the Americans, who enjoyed roaring support. An American curler screamed from the rafters, “Show me your biceps!” Dropkin obliged.

Dropkin and Thiesse are based in Duluth, Minnesota, and have full-time jobs. Thiesse is a lab technician and Dropkin a real estate agent. Dropkin is engaged and Thiesse is married.

They were classmates in college. Dropkin asked Thiesse to be his mixed doubles partner after a failed qualification run for the Beijing 2022 Games. She agreed and they were world champions a year later.

Italy wins bronze

Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won bronze, defeating Britain 5-3.

It was a bittersweet result for the Italians, the defending Olympic champions whose fans packed the stands throughout the round-robin in hopes to see a repeat. And it was devastating for the Brits, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who were expected to make the final after exiting the round-robin with the most wins of any pair.

They faltered against exacting throws from Mosaner and Constantini, who hails from Cortina and has become a darling of this stadium. The British duo walked off the ice dejected.

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By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount is again sweetening its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, while again extending the deadline for its tender offer as it scrambles for more shareholder support.

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On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. Paramount also pledged to fund Warner’s proposed $2.8 billion breakup payout to Netflix under its studio and streaming merger agreement.

The value of Paramount’s offer otherwise remains unchanged. The company is offering to pay $30 per share in cash to Warner’s stakeholders, who now have until March 2 to tender their shares.

In a statement, Paramount CEO David Ellison said that the “additional benefits” announced Tuesday “clearly underscore our strong and unwavering commitment to delivering the full value WBD shareholders deserve for their investment.”

Paramount wants to buy Warner’s entire company for $77.9 billion, with a total enterprise value of $108 billion including debt. Beyond studio and streaming operations, that includes Warner’s networks like CNN and Discovery.

But it has a long way to go in terms of getting shareholder support — which, according to recent company disclosures, has appeared to decline over the last month. As of Monday, Paramount said that more than 42.3 million Warner shares had been “validly tendered and not withdrawn” from its bid, down from over 168.5 million Warner shares on Jan. 21.

Warner has about 2.48 billion shares outstanding in series A common stock today. Paramount would need more than 50% to effectively gain control of the company.

Netflix and Warner did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The new March 2 deadline marks the third time Paramount has pushed back the expiration of its tender offer, which it may keep extending. Paramount has also promised a proxy fight. Last month, the company begun soliciting proxies to challenge Warner’s agreement with Netflix.

Warner’s leadership has consistently backed the deal it struck with Netflix. In December, Netflix agreed to buy Warner’s studio and streaming business for $72 billion — now in an all-cash transaction that the companies have said will speed up the path to a shareholder vote by April. Including debt, the enterprise value of the deal is about $83 billion, or $27.75 per share.

Netflix and Warner have maintained that their agreement is better Paramount’s bid. But Paramount argues that its offer is superior — and on Tuesday pointed to a “sliding scale” value of the Netflix merger, which could range from $21.23 to $27.75 per share, depending on debt spanning from Warner’s previously announced spinoff of its networks business.

Unlike Paramount, Netflix doesn’t want to acquire Warner networks like CNN and Discovery. Under Netflix-Warner’ agreement, “Discovery Global” would become its own separate public company before their merger is closed.

The prospect of a Warner sale to either company has raised tremendous antitrust concerns from lawmakers worldwide. The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated reviews of both Warner’s agreement with Netflix and Paramount’s hostile bid — with all three companies disclosing that they’ve been in contact with the DOJ over requests for more information.

The companies have argued their proposed deals will be good news for consumers and the wider entertainment industry, claiming that merging will give streaming customers more content through bigger libraries. But unions and other trade groups have warned that further consolidation in the industry could result in job losses and less diversity in content — with particularly negative consequences for filmmaking.