4 Feb 2026

PWHL moving into spotlight at Winter Games

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The Professional Women’s Hockey League was but a pipe dream in February 2022 when Kendall Coyne Schofield emphatically declared the urgency needed to address a fractured sport with unrealized potential.

“We need to push for visibility,” Coyne Schofield said then, choking back tears after the United States’ 3-2 gold-medal loss to Canada at the Beijing Winter Games. “We need to continue to fight for women’s hockey because (the status quo) is not good enough. It can’t end after the Olympic Games.”

Four years later, the women’s pro hockey landscape has undergone a seismic shift following the PWHL’s launch in 2023. The league’s presence and expanding success validates Coyne Schofield’s vision as the PWHL prepares for its international coming-out party at the Milan Cortina Games.

“I look at the growth of the women’s game, even from my first Olympics in 2014, and it’s been exponential,” said the 33-year-old captain of the two-time Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost.

“To be a small part of that growth and just to live through that growth has been one of the greatest things I’ve been able to be a part of,” she added, in having played a key behind-the-scenes role in the league’s formation. “And I’m excited to see what happens after these Games.”

The PWHL is banking on it. The eight-team league, financially backed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, is placing a major emphasis on marketing the PWHL through advertising spots during the two-week women’s tournament opening on Thursday.

The PWHL is well represented with 61 players among the 10 competing nations’ rosters, and most notably filling out a majority of the U.S. and Canadian teams.

The objective is twofold: Introducing PWHL fans to the elite level of Olympic play and luring casual viewers tuning in once every four years to the PWHL.

“Previous years, everybody falls in love with the Olympics. They hear stories about players, we have huge viewership numbers, and then it’s sort of like ‘What now?’” Hockey Hall of Famer and PWHL executive vice president Jayna Hefford said. “It’s a big opportunity to educate, direct back and make sure they know where they can find the players.”

Though much is being made of NHL players competing at the Olympics for the first time since 2014, these Games mark the debut of true professional women’s hockey players.

Their sport has gone through many iterations of so-called pro leagues, many in name only. Canadian Women’s Hockey League players weren’t paid a salary. A majority of the game’s elite eventually balked at competing in the National Women’s Hockey League, which later became the Premier Hockey Federation before being bought out to pave way for the PWHL.

The Olympics serve as the next launching point of growth for a league that began with six franchises and now has eight spanning the continent from Boston to the Pacific Northwest. More expansion is on the horizon, with the PWHL set to add up to four more teams next season.

Attendance is up. After soaring past the 1 million mark in just under two seasons in March, the PWHL has already surpassed 500,000 fans alone nearing the halfway point of its third season.

Challenges remain. Though every game is available on TV in each U.S. team’s market, and across America and much of the globe via YouTube, the PWHL lacks a national broadcaster in the U.S.

The PWHL also lags in international talent in its attempt to market itself as the world’s top league. Only 25 of the league’s 200-plus players this season come from outside North America. They include New York Sirens forward Krystyna Kaltounkova, who is from the Czech Republic and in June became the first European player to be chosen No. 1 in the draft.

Hefford is confident expansion, coupled with an Olympic tournament featuring PWHL stars, will be a vehicle to attract more international players. League executive Stan Kasten previously said the PWHL is eying playing exhibition games in Europe and one day establishing teams there.

“Europe is a big part of our future,” Kasten told The AP in May.

Boston Fleet forward and veteran Swiss national team player Alina Muller said she believes the PWHL’s growth and stability will gradually lure more international players. Europeans who came to North America to play collegiately before returning home now they have a league to further their careers.

“Now being able to watch our games and think, ‘Yeah, I want to end up playing professionally,’ will change the attitude toward the sport completely,” said Muller, who played college hockey at Northeastern. “Hopefully in Europe people see that it’s worth the investment, and it’s not just a side gig or charity.”

4 Feb 2026

Study shows particle pollution from wildfire smoke was tied to 24,100 deaths per year in the US

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By DORANY PINEDA, Associated Press

Chronic exposure to pollution from wildfires has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States, according to a new study.

The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that from 2006 to 2020, long-term exposure to tiny particulates from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states.

“Our message is: Wildfire smoke is very dangerous. It is an increasing threat to human health,” said Yaguang Wei, a study author and assistant professor in the department of environmental medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Other scientists who have studied the death toll from wildfire smoke were not surprised by the findings.

“The estimates they’re coming up with are reasonable,” said Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental health science at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the study. “We need more of them. It’s only if we’re doing multiple studies with many different designs that we gain scientific confidence of our outcomes.”

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‘These are real lives’ being lost due to wildfire smoke

The paper’s researchers focused on deaths linked to chronic exposure to fine particulate matter, or PM2.5 — the main concern from wildfire smoke.

These particles can lodge deep into lungs and enter the bloodstream. Short-term exposure can trigger coughing and itchy eyes, but longer term, they can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly health issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.

“Wildfire smoke PM2.5 has emerged as significant environmental hazard in the U.S., and it’s driven by increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires due to climate change,” said Min Zhang, a postdoctoral student at the Icahn School and a study author.

Along with decades of forest mismanagement, growing development in fire-prone areas has expanded the “urban wildland interface,” increasing wildfire risk with real consequences for human health, said Jerrett.

“Nobody’s going to have ‘wildfire death’ on their death certificate unless the fire actually burned them or a tree fell on them or something like that,” said Jerrett. “But many of the people that are dying from this exposure are ones that are already more vulnerable. These are real lives that are being lost. This is not some arbitrary abstract statistical concept.”

FILE – A fawn sprints across a road as the Sugar Fire, part of the Beckwourth Complex Fire, burns in Plumas National Forest, Calif., July 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

How researchers approached the study

The study’s authors analyzed the link between annual average exposure to PM2.5 from wildfire smoke and deaths by county in the lower 48. They used federal mortality data across 3,068 counties of all causes of death and several specific ones — circulatory, neurological and respiratory diseases, as well as mental and behavioral disorders, tumors and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases.

They also included deaths related to falls and transport accidents — which are unlikely to be linked to wildfire smoke — to ensure their other observations weren’t biased.

“We found no association for car accidents and falls, while for other diseases we found statistically significant effects,” said Wei. Deaths from neurological diseases saw the biggest increase with exposure to these particulates.

How pronounced the link was between particulate exposure and death varied by season and demographics. A stronger association appeared during cooler periods, and people in rural areas and younger communities appeared to be more vulnerable.

Researchers also found that with every 0.1 microgram per cubic meter increase of PM2.5 across all these places, about 5,594 more people died each year.

Jerrett said the study had the benefit of a large study population and that it includes most causes of deaths in the U.S. But he said the county-level data could have led to over or underestimates because wildfire smoke is very dynamic. “It doesn’t just blanket a large county all at once. There are going to be parts of the county that gets it a lot worse.”

The study also did not account for other important factors, such as whether a person smokes, he said.

Federal rollbacks on climate policy poses risks, authors say

Kai Chen, an associate professor of environmental sciences at the Yale School of Public Health who has also studied the topic, said: “I really like that they examined both the smoke and nonsmoke PM2.5.” Various research has found that PM2.5 from wildfire smoke has bigger health impacts than pollution from other sources, such as car emissions, said Chen in an email, who was not involved in the study.

The Trump administration’s rollbacks in climate change policy, even as the more destructive wildfires become more frequent in large part due to global warming, poses critical risks, the study’s authors said. Quantifying the deadly threat that PM2.5 from wildfires poses to human health shows the need for effective, urgent mitigation strategies, backed by Environmental Protection Agency monitoring and regulation, they said.

“This highlights the importance of controlling wildfire sourced PM2.5, which is currently not regulated by the EPA as it is usually regarded as natural disasters,” Chen agreed.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

4 Feb 2026

Minions music saga leaves Winter Olympic figure skaters ‘hoping and praying’

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By JAMES ELLINGWORTH, AP Sports Writer

MILAN (AP) — It’s the message no figure skater wants to get. At any time, an email could block them from using the music they’ve built their Olympic programs around.

As the skating world grapples with a music standoff involving the lovable, mischievous Minions, U.S. champion Amber Glenn is gripped by “this Minions saga.”

It’s a relatable problem for any skater, and Glenn has a promise to keep.

“I told people they were going to see the Minions at the Olympics. I don’t want to be a liar,” she said Wednesday.

Amber Glenn reacts after competing during the women’s short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Music rights for a single song can be split between numerous artists, companies and other figures. Being a top-level skater means trying their best to secure permission and then hoping there’s no last-minute objections.

“We have tried our hardest to get everything clear, do what we can, and honestly, a producer could just decide, ‘Hey, never mind, no,’” Glenn said.

“I’m honestly just seeing, from what avenues I have available to me, that it is clear and then I’m just hoping and praying that I don’t get an email saying, ‘By the way, they reached out and they said they don’t want you to use it.’ So I think it’s been a very strenuous process for many of us.”

Spanish skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate’s Minion problem is especially complex because his short program is a medley of four different songs from the franchise. He has three of the four cleared as of Wednesday and is working on permission from Pharrell Williams for the fourth, Glenn said.

Glenn says she’s happy to leave it to her team to ask permission for music. Her U.S. teammate, men’s gold medal contender Ilia Malinin, tries a personal touch.

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“It’s something that we all worry about, and for me especially, I like to make really unique pieces of music that I skate to,” Malinin said. “I like to reach out to the artist directly and try that as an option. Most of the time it works out in my favor. Especially this year, everyone was so hopeful and so supportive.”

Glenn skates her short program to “Like A Prayer” by Madonna, so even an objection could make her day, she joked.

“If I do get a message from Madonna saying she doesn’t want me to skate to her music, I’ll just be excited to get a message from Madonna,” she said. “But let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”

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

4 Feb 2026

Supreme Court refuses to block new California congressional districts that favor Democrats

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration.

No justices dissented from the brief order.

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The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in December that it appeared both states had adopted new maps for political advantage, which the high court has previously ruled cannot be a basis for a federal lawsuit.

Republicans, joined by the Trump administration, claimed the California map improperly relied on race, as well. But a lower court disagreed by a 2-1 vote.

The justices’ unsigned order keeps in place districts that are designed to flip up to five seats now held by Republicans, part of a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting battle spurred by President Donald Trump, with control of Congress on the line in midterm elections.

Last year, at Trump’s behest, Texas Republicans redid the state’s congressional districts with an eye on gaining five seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is eying a 2028 presidential run, vowed to respond in kind, though he had to win over voters, not just lawmakers, to do so.

Filing for congressional primaries in California begins on Monday.