By SAM McNEIL

BRUSSELS (AP) — The ambitious free trade agreement between the European Union and India underscores the EU’s efforts to ink new global partnerships at a time when the Trump administration has rattled a continent deeply tied to Washington on trade, defense and diplomacy.

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The agreement announced Tuesday reflects a new priority for the 27-nation EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs because of opposition to American control of Greenland, only to back off days later. It follows trade deals struck or pending over the past year with India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and the five Mercosur nations of South America.

“The international order we relied upon for decades is no longer a given,” said Nikos Christodoulides, president of Cyprus, in a speech last week at the European Parliament. He was outlining Cyprus’ priorities as the island nation begins its six-month term at the helm of the EU.

“This moment calls for action, decisive, credible and united action. It calls for a union that is more autonomous and open to the world,” said Christodoulides, echoing widespread sentiment across the bloc.

Brussels’ deals across the world

After attending a military parade in New Delhi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the free trade agreement to deepen economic and strategic ties with India. She called it the “mother of all deals.”

The pact could affect as many as 2 billion people and slash tariffs on nearly 97% of EU exports to India like cars and wine, and 99% of India’s shipments of goods like textiles and medicines to the EU.

“Europe and India need each other today like never before,” said Garima Mohan, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She said that both Brussels and New Delhi had long sought closer ties as a counterweight to China’s economic rise. But the Trump administration’s newly aggressive stance on economic and security issues clinched the deal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, welcomes European Council President Antonio Costa, left and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before their meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Jan. 27,2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

“This movement towards diversification, looking for new partners as well as building self-reliance was precipitated by the tensions with China and really driven home by the fracture of the trans-Atlantic partnership,” Mohan said. The deal “only came to pass at this particular geopolitical juncture, and that says something of the world we live in.”

The EU struck its first trade deal in July with Indonesia. Two weeks ago, von der Leyen signed a deal with the Mercosur nations of South America that was decades in the making to create a free trade market of more than 700 million people – and she’s said she has the authority to implement it despite objections raised by European Parliament.

The EU has also upgraded ties with Japan, South Korea and Australia, Pacific nations wary of Beijing’s strategic ambitions and Washington’s turbulent politics. Canada is “knocking on our door” to do the same, said Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, Europe’s largest political bloc.

“There is a hope that things will change given the importance of the U.S. for us … but there is a realization now that we are a bit more alone in this world,” said Ivano di Carlo, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre.

A burgeoning continental defense industry

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove the EU to create financial tools to boost the bloc’s defense industry and infrastructure like trains, roads and ports — but the Trump administration’s criticism of the continent’s low levels of defense spending kicked those initiatives into overdrive.

Denmark’s prime minister has said Russia could pose a credible security threat to the EU by the end of the decade and that defense industries in Europe and Ukraine must be able to thwart that threat.

France has led calls for Europe to build “strategic autonomy,” and support for its stance has grown since the Trump administration warned last year that its security priorities lie elsewhere and that the Europeans would have to fend for themselves.

Shortly after Trump began his second term in the White House, EU leaders agreed to increase their own defense budgets. As a priority, 150 billion euros ($162 billion) in loans are designated for air and missile defense, artillery systems, ammunition, drones and air transport, as well as cyber systems, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare.

Industry leaders and experts across Europe have said truly self-sufficient military power would require overcoming a decades-long reliance on the U.S. as well as the fragmentation along national lines of Europe’s own defense industry.

Stocks in Europe’s major arms makers like Leonardo (Italy), Rheinmetall (Germany), Thales (France) and Saab (Sweden) have all been on the rise.

An energy dependency

While trying to cut its energy ties with Russia, the EU began buying more U.S. energy, according to the Institute for Energy Economic and Financial Analysis. But that too is risky for the bloc, said Dan Jørgensen, European commissioner for energy and housing, during a North Sea Summit in Hamburg, Germany on Monday.

The EU imports 14.5% of its oil and 60% of its liquefied natural gas from the U.S, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Jørgensen said the EU should seek further energy independence by investing in energy production and alternate suppliers.

“We do not want to replace one dependency for another — we need to diversify,” Jørgensen said.

Brussels is eyeing sources in the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, where negotiations are underway for a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates.

“Decoupling is easier said than done,” but forging new global relationships gives the EU an edge in dealing with Beijing, Moscow and Washington, Mohan said.

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and LAURA BARGFELD

The man who sprayed an unknown substance on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at a town hall in Minneapolis has a criminal history and has made online posts supportive of President Donald Trump.

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence, and has had numerous traffic citations, Minnesota court records show. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

Police say Kazmierczak used a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar during Tuesday’s event after she called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement officers. Officers immediately tackled and arrested Kazmierczak, who was jailed on a preliminary third-degree assault charge, police spokesperson Trevor Folke said.

Photos of the syringe, which fell when he was tackled, showed what appeared to be a light-brown liquid inside. Authorities haven’t yet publicly identified the liquid.

After the attack, there was a strong, vinegarlike smell in the room, according to an Associated Press journalist who was there. Forensic scientists were called in, but none of the roughly 100 people who were there had a noticeable physical reaction to the substance.

Omar continued speaking for about 25 minutes after Kazmierczak was ushered out, saying she wouldn’t be intimidated. While leaving, she said she felt a little flustered but wasn’t hurt, and that she was going to be screened by a medical team.

She later posted on X: “I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”

A Trump supporter

Kazmierczak hadn’t been formally charged or scheduled for an initial court appearance as of Wednesday morning. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has until Thursday to charge him but could seek an extension. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office didn’t immediately return a call seeking further information.

It isn’t clear if Kazmierczak has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. The county’s chief public defender, Michael Berger, said the case hasn’t been assigned to his office.

In social media posts, Kazmierczak described himself as a former network engineer who lives in Minneapolis. Among other things, he made comments critical of former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.”

“Trump wants the US is stronger and more prosperous,” Kazmierczak wrote. “Stop other countries from stealing from us. Bring back the fear that enemies back away from and gain respect that If anyone threatens ourselves or friends we will (expletive) them up.”

In another post, Kazmierczak asked, “When will descendants of slaves pay restitution to Union soldiers families for freeing them/dying for them, and not sending them back to Africa?”

Often at odds with the president

Omar, a progressive, has been a frequent target of Trump’s barbs since she joined Congress in 2019.

That year, Trump urged Omar and three other freshmen congresswomen of color known as “the squad” to “ go back ” to their countries if they wanted to criticize the U.S. Omar was the only one of the four born outside of the U.S., having immigrated to the country as a child when her family fled violence in Somalia.

Trump stepped up his criticism of Omar in recent months as he turned his focus on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent — nearly a third of the Somalis living in the U.S. During a Cabinet meeting in December, he referred to her as “garbage.” And he has linked the Twin Cities immigration crackdown to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots in the East African country.

The White House did not respond to a Tuesday message seeking comment. But, when asked about the attack Tuesday night, he told ABC News that he hadn’t watched the footage and accused her of staging the attack. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” Trump said.

Earlier Tuesday, the president criticized Omar as he spoke to a crowd in Iowa, saying his administration would only let in immigrants who “can show that they love our country.”

“They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar,” he said, drawing loud boos at the mention of her name.

He added: “She comes from a country that’s a disaster. So probably, it’s considered, I think — it’s not even a country.”

Lawmakers face rising threats

The attack came days after a man was arrested in Utah for allegedly punching U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, in the face during the Sundance Film Festival and saying Trump was going to deport him.

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol before dipping slightly only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

Following Tuesday’s attack on Omar, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that the agency was “working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society.”

Lawmakers have discussed the impact of the threatening political climate on their ability to hold town halls and public events, with some even citing it in their decisions not to seek reelection.

___

Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter R.J. Rico in Atlanta contributed.

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By MARIA SHERMAN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 68th annual Grammy Awards are Sunday, airing live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on CBS and Paramount+. What can viewers expect?

According to the Recording Academy: some new, some old and a lot of excitement. Executive producers Raj Kapoor, Ben Winston and Jesse Collins are returning for a different show from last year, when the event was completely transformed to help those affected by the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires.

Here are four big questions — and answers — ahead of the event.

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What’s new at the 2026 Grammys?

A lot! A best album cover category is back for the first time in 53 years. Best country album has been renamed to best contemporary country album and a best traditional country album category has been added.

“In this case, we got a proposal that wanted an additional country category. It made its way through the proposal process — again, voted on by members, evaluated by members, submitted by members but ultimately voted on my members — and we deploy what the members ask for,” Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. tells The Associated Press.

When the change was announced, some viewed it as backlash to Beyoncé’s 2025 win for best country album. “It’s not accurate,” says Mason jr. “It’s something we’ve been talking about for a number of years.”

Also, in the last few years, the Grammy Awards have made a concerted effort to diversify its electorate. Last year, all Latin Grammy voting members were invited to join the Recording Academy.

“The idea was to make sure that the academy and the Grammys are representative of what’s going on in music,” says Mason jr. “Making sure that our membership was diverse around genre and geography and everything was really important to us. We acknowledged that Latin music is huge and it’s omnipresent in the industry at this point.”

Bad Bunny could become the first Spanish-language artist to win Grammy Awards for Album, Song and Record of the Year on Feb. 1, one week before he headlines the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show. He is shown here hosting the Oct. 4, 2025, telecast of “Saturday Night Live” in New York. (Will Heath/NBC via AP)

What can we expect from the performances?

Surprises and variety, says Mason jr. “The new up-and-coming group is so incredible. The legends and the icons are so, so special to have around. And then the superstars, having some of them on our stage, and that mixture, I think, makes for a really fun show.”

Winston is a bit more specific: “18 or 19″ performances, he counts, “In 3 ½ hours. Yeah, so it’s packed. … We keep it tight and sharp and we put less other stuff in the show this year so we can have a bit more music.”

“We definitely try to maximize the music performances on the show,” adds Kapoor. “It’s something that we challenge our team with every year.”

And on an abridged timeline. Rehearsals start Thursday for Sunday’s live event. It’s “Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and that’s it,” Kapoor continues. “Everything that you see, those 19 performances, all happen between Thursday afternoon and Saturday evening. And it’s kind of one of the most amazing processes you’ve ever seen, and it’s absolutely insane how much work we get done, and how cooperative the artists are.”

The artists confirmed to perform so far are Clipse, Pharrell Williams, Sabrina Carpenter and all of the best new artist nominees: Katseye, Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, Addison Rae, Sombr, Lola Young, The Marías and Alex Warren.

FILE – Olivia Dean performs during weekend two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Oct. 11, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP, File)

Who might make history at the 2026 Grammys?

So many people. Kendrick Lamar leads nominations with nine, including an album of the year nod. If he wins for “GNX” — or if Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia” or Clipse’s “Let Got Sort Em Out” wins — it will be only the third time a rap album has taken home the top prize, following Outkast in 2004 for “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” and Lauryn Hill in 1999 for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

If Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” wins album of the year, it will be the first all-Spanish-language album to do so. It is only the second time an all-Spanish-language album has been nominated for the top prize. The first was also a Bad Bunny release — in 2023, for “Un Verano Sin Ti.” Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” won that year.

No K-pop artist has ever won a Grammy, but that may change. Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” and the “KPop Demon Hunters” track “Golden” are both nominated for song of the year, a first for any K-pop act. “APT.” is also up for record of the year, also a K-pop artist first.

There are also a number of intriguing first-time nominees. Timothée Chalamet is up for best compilation soundtrack for visual media for “A Complete Unknown.” Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Dalai Lama are up for audio book, narration and storytelling recording. Steven Spielberg is also nominated in the music film category, for “Music By John Williams.”

“There’s history that could be made across the board,” Winston says.

That competitiveness — and excitement — will be reflected in the show’s production.

“This year we are just going to enjoy great performances and great music and tight races,” he continues. “We’re leaning very much into just making these music performances spectacular and also trying to push the boundaries in how we shoot them as well for a live show.”

FILE – Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

After 2025’s wildfires, how will the Grammys transform?

“We were living in hotels,” Winston reflects on the 2025 Grammys. “In this office, looking at the fires on the hills literally right there outside this window … there was no rundown because we didn’t know what we had. So, it’s just a very different year for us.”

Logistically, he says, this year his team has been able to “really appreciate the ability to finesse performances.”

Kapoor says the fires taught his team “just how flexible we can be.”

“And … we got to spotlight what else the Recording Academy does. Because so much of their work is actually helping people,” he adds.

Relief efforts were at the heart of the show, including highlighting small businesses affected by the wildfires.

“The fires last year brought some incredible challenges but also presented an amazing opportunity for us to see how we can amplify our work and our mission,” Mason jr. said. “Which is to serve people, to serve music people, to serve the world.”

MusiCares — the Recording Academy’s philanthropic arm, which helps music professionals who need financial, personal or medical assistance — announced that it directed more than $15 million toward fire relief efforts.

“The good thing about the organization as we stand now is there is never a business-as-usual mindset,” Mason jr. adds. “Everything every year gets looked at. It gets improved.”

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Science Writer

HOUSTON (AP) — Winter’s brutal grip on the U.S. East is not letting up, with coming days bringing subfreezing temperatures that will plunge deep into what had been a toasty Florida peninsula and a powerful blizzard forecast that may strike the Atlantic coast.

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Deep cold is forecast to stick around at least into the first week of February. Meteorologists are also watching what could become a “ bomb cyclone ” — a quickly intensifying storm that’s a winter version of a hurricane — forming off the Carolinas Friday night into Saturday.

“A major winter storm appears to be coming to the Carolinas,” said meteorologist Peter Mullinax of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center.

That storm could dump snow — at least 6 inches with white-out conditions — in the Carolinas, northern Georgia and southern Virginia. After that, it could turn and plow through the Interstate 95 corridor late Saturday into Sunday to dump loads more snow from Washington to Boston, further paralyzing much of the country. Or it could deliver a glancing blow, mostly striking places like Cape Cod.

Alternatively, it could just veer off harmlessly to sea. Meteorologists and forecast models aren’t yet settling on a single outcome.

“The confidence is much higher that in the coastal Carolinas and Virginia that there will be significant snowfall this weekend,” said James Belanger, vice president for meteorology at the Weather Channel and its parent company. “The real question is going to be the trajectory it takes” from there.

Private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former NOAA chief scientist, said for the mid-Atlantic and north it’s a “boom or bust” situation. “If it happens (to go along the coast) it’s going to be a big-time event.”

Models still disagree on storm track

On Tuesday forecast models were all over the place, from out to sea to inward toward Philadelphia. By Wednesday morning they started to agree that “we’re likely to see some form of a powerful coastal storm somewhere east of North Carolina, off the Delmarva coast, but they still disagree as to where,” Mullinax said.

Vehicles move in I-575 during a winter weather event, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Chances of the storm veering away from the East Coast entirely had diminished Wednesday morning, but hadn’t disappeared altogether, Mullinax said.

Of all the options, “from D.C. up to New York is probably the most unclear,” Mullinax said. He said a mere 50-mile difference in the storm’s center will be critical. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said it may be hard for the southern mid-Atlantic to avoid some kind of snow, whether a little or a lot.

This storm will blow harder than the last one

This weekend’s storm will differ from the previous storm, which started with moist air from the Pacific that combined with a deep plunge of Arctic air from an elongated polar vortex supplemented by more moisture from the south and east, meteorologists said. The last storm had little wind. This one will generate high winds, even if the snow misses the Washington area, generating gusts that could still reach 40 mph (65 kph), plunging wind chills near subzero Fahrenheit, Mullinax said.

Rafael Tavares digs his car, which was encased about 20 inches of snow, during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Lawrence, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

“It looks like a pretty strong and explosive storm so everybody is going to have some gusty winds,” Pydynowski said, even inland places that won’t come close to getting snow like Pittsburgh. Strong winds may take daytime temperatures in the teens there down to feeling like they are below zero, he said.

“This is what we’d consider more of a classic nor’easter,” Belanger said, describing a storm forming around the U.S. Gulf Coast crossing into the Atlantic and going up that coast.

Frigid air and warm water combine to make strong storm

In this case, one key is warmer-than-normal water in the Gulf of Mexico — partly from human-caused climate change — and the always toasty Atlantic Gulf Stream, said Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist for the nonprofit Climate Central.

Daniel Love walks home from the convenience store up Delta Avenue during a winter storm, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

When that happens the storm “pulls in more moisture and it gives it more strength,” she said.

Once the core of the storm nears the Carolinas its pressure will drop tremendously, enough to qualify for what meteorologists call “bombogenesis” or “a bomb cyclone,” That will give it the effect of a moderate-strength hurricane, including huge winds, but in the winter, Maue and Belanger said.

If the storm does come ashore, those winds and extra snow could cause massive snow drifts big enough to bury cars, Maue said.

Arctic chill sticks around and goes further south

What is more certain is that the Arctic chill in the Midwest and East will continue through mid-February, with only slight warmups that would still be below normal, meteorologists said.

And this new weekend storm “is going to take that cold and it’s going to spill right down the heart of the Florida peninsula,” Pydynowski said. Orlando is forecast to go well below freezing and only have a high of 48 F, smashing temperature records, while even Miami and Key West will flirt with record cold Sunday and Monday, meteorologists said.

The outlook for Florida was cold enough to raise concerns about damage to the state’s citrus and strawberries.

“We’re going into a brutally cold period,” Maue said.

Storms keep on coming

After this weekend storm, long-range models see another one at the end of the first week of February, Maue said. Meteorologists see the East stuck in a pattern of bitter cold and snowstorms because of the plunging Arctic air and warm water.

East Coast snowstorms don’t happen too often, but “when it happens, it happens in bunches,” said former National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini, who has written meteorology textbooks on winter snowstorms.

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