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New York’s typically bustling streets were almost deserted Monday after a huge snowstorm carpeted the city, where a nonessential travel ban inconvenienced some but offered a fun day out for others. Buses and ambulances equipped with snow chains rolled through a quieter-than-usual Manhattan, while many shops and restaurants were shuttered in Brooklyn and other boroughs.With schools closed across the city of 8.5 million people, many children took advantage of the free day by sledding down snowy hills in Central Park.”I really love it, it’s really fun to play in the snow,” said Dylan, 11, who added it was the most snow he had seen in his life. Behind him, three-year-old Chloe burst out laughing as she lay in the powder before her dad Eddie, 41, helped her back to her feet. “We had some snow about a month ago. But it’s probably the most we’ve had in a decade or two. Everybody loves it,” Eddie told AFP. Elsewhere, parkgoers threw snowballs from a bridge onto a frozen lake to test the strength of the ice. Central Park, New York’s official reporting station, measured 19.7 inches (50 centimeters) of snow as of 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) — the largest amount in over a decade. Some locals used skis to navigate the powder, even walking their dogs at the same time. Major tourist hubs like Times Square were almost empty on Monday but for a scattering of people bundled up in coats. – ‘Frustrating’ -Hannah Baade, a finance worker living in Brooklyn, said she enjoyed seeing the city covered in snow. “I like it,” she told AFP. “I would prefer to get snow in the winter, it makes it seem like winter.””It’s just funny that we haven’t had snow for a few years and then we get these two massive storms this year.”But other New Yorkers were annoyed to see more snow, which fell weeks after a January winter storm was starting to thaw out. “The snow had just melted and now we’re getting a ton more,” said Alexa, 36, who didn’t want to share her last name.”So it’s a little frustrating, but it’s also wintertime, so it’s OK.”Sixty-year-old Joe Schultz was rushing to shovel snow from a buried footpath in Brooklyn.”[It’s] not bad for now, but later… when the temperature drops, it’ll be harder because we’ve got ice underneath it,” he said.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case brought by oil and gas companies seeking to block climate change lawsuits.Dozens of lawsuits have been filed across the United States seeking to hold fossil fuel producers liable for damages caused by climate change.Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy (USA) are appealing a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that a climate change lawsuit filed by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, should be allowed to proceed in state court.The energy giants argue that such claims should be heard in federal — not state — court and that federal environmental laws should apply.”Boulder, Colorado, cannot make energy policy for the entire country,” they said in their petition asking the Supreme Court for review.”State law cannot impose the costs of global climate change on a subset of the world’s energy producers chosen by a single municipality.”Exxon Mobil and Suncor said energy companies are being sued for “billions of dollars in damages for injuries allegedly caused by the contribution of greenhouse-gas emissions to global climate change.””But as the Court has recognized for over a century,” they said, “the structure of our constitutional system does not permit a State to provide relief under state law for injuries allegedly caused by pollution emanating from outside the State.”The Justice Department under President Donald Trump, reversing the stance of the Biden administration, asked the conservative majority Supreme Court to weigh in through a friend-of-the-court brief in the Colorado case.Reacting to the decision to hear the case, Alyssa Johl, vice president at the Center for Climate Integrity, urged the Supreme Court to uphold the Colorado Supreme Court ruling.”No part of the Constitution, or any state or federal law, gives corporations the right to lie to the public about the dangers associated with their products simply because those products are fossil fuels,” Johl said in a statement.”The Court should uphold what the Colorado Supreme Court and others have made clear: communities like Boulder have the right to seek accountability in their state courts when corporations have knowingly caused local harms.”Many of the lawsuits filed against oil and gas giants by state and local authorities are modeled on successful legal actions taken against the tobacco industry in the 1990s.None have yet gone to trial.The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case in the fall term, which begins in October.

The son of US movie director Rob Reiner pleaded not guilty to the fatal stabbing of both of his parents when he appeared in a Los Angeles court on Monday.Nick Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder over the double killing that sent shockwaves through Hollywood days before Christmas.The 32-year-old was arrested on December 14 after the bodies of his filmmaker father and his mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered at their home in the upmarket Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.Prosecutors said 79-year-old Rob Reiner — who helmed huge hits including “When Harry Met Sally” and “A Few Good Men” — and his wife, 70, were stabbed to death.Nick Reiner, who has a history of addiction, appeared in a downtown courtroom where he was formally told what charges he faces and had his rights explained. A plea of “not guilty” is common at this stage, regardless of what the defense later does.Reiner, who remains in jail and has not been granted bail, was ordered to return to court on April 29.An arraignment would usually take place much sooner, but Reiner was unable to appear at the first scheduled attempt.Another hearing last month was halted after the court heard that lawyer Alan Jackson was no longer representing Reiner. The judge appointed an attorney from the public defender’s office in his stead.Jackson, a high-profile attorney who has previously represented Hollywood clients including Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, told reporters he was “legally and ethically” barred from explaining why he had stepped back.”Circumstances beyond our control, but more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick’s control have dictated that, sadly, it’s made it impossible for us to continue our representation of Nick,” he said.Jackson said he and his team remained committed to Reiner’s best interests and had faith that the legal process would “reveal the true facts of the circumstances surrounding this case.””We’ve investigated this matter top to bottom, back to front. What we’ve learned — and you can take this to the bank — is that pursuant to the laws of this state, pursuant to the law in California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”If convicted as charged, Reiner could face life in prison without parole, or the death penalty, although California does not routinely carry out capital punishment. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters outside court his office would be examining the circumstances around the killings before making a decision on whether to ask for the death penalty if Reiner is convicted.- Erratic behavior -Reiner, who lived in a guest house on his parents’ property, had attended a party at the home of comedian Conan O’Brien on December 13 with his parents, where some attendees reportedly spoke of his behaving erratically.The New York Times, citing a source close to the family, said the couple had been due to dine with former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on Sunday evening, and had seemingly booked an in-home massage for that day.The paper said that when no one answered the door for the appointment, the therapist contacted the couple’s daughter, Romy Reiner.When she arrived with a friend, she discovered her father’s body, and emergency services were called. Paramedics told her that her mother’s body was also at the property.Police arrested Nick Reiner several miles (kilometers) away from the scene of the crime later that night.Rob Reiner, the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, started his showbiz career in acting.He won fame as the oafish son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic on groundbreaking 1970s sitcom “All in the Family,” before transitioning to directing. As a director, he struck Hollywood gold.His output included classic films like 1984’s rock music mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” fantasy gem “The Princess Bride” from 1987, and seminal coming-of-age movie “Stand By Me.””A Few Good Men,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

US President Donald Trump is either a “traitor” or an “exceptional” leader in his dealings with Russia, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa told AFP on Monday. “On the surface, today, he seems to be Russia’s lackey, simply a traitor. That’s one way of looking at it,” said the former Polish president on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Walesa stated that there may also be a possibility that Trump is “an extremely intelligent political leader” who “knows that if the United States joined the anti-(President Vladimir) Putin chorus, (he) would have no choice but to use nuclear weapons”.”Putin is irresponsible,” said Walesa, whose activism as the former leader of the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union helped to bring down the Iron Curtain.”It’s a very cunning, very clever game: not pushing Putin to use nuclear weapons, playing the friend,” he added.By doing so, Walesa argued, Trump was buying time and “forcing Europe to organise itself against Putin without the United States”.”If the United States enters the game, it’s nuclear war,” he said. “So there are two ways of looking at it: a traitor, or an extremely intelligent man. To this day, I still don’t know which applies to Trump.”- ‘I should have acted sooner’ -Should Trump turn out to be “exceptional”, Walesa argued that he would merit the Nobel Peace Prize — which the Polish politician himself received in 1983. “But if he is a traitor, he doesn’t deserve it,” Walesa added, arguing that for the moment, “it’s too early to judge”. Walesa told AFP he recently met Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Marina Corina Machado in the United States. In January, Machado offered Trump, who has made no secret of his desire for the prestigious award, her prize medal in Washington. On that occasion, “I told her she had rushed things,” Walesa said. At 82, the former electrician with his legendary handlebar moustache is still receiving visitors in an office at the heart of the former Gdansk shipyards. It was in this city along Poland’s Baltic coast where the union leader twisted the arm of the communist authorities.He forced it to negotiate legalising trade unions — and, eventually, the first semi-free elections in the Polish People’s Republic. Walesa has held no official posts since his 1990-1995 presidency and is no longer a unifying figure in his own country. But he remains a well-known voice of authority abroad, where he gives numerous lectures, which now more than ever focus on the Ukrainian cause.”We must help Ukraine with all our might,” said Walesa, who admitted to feeling “remorse” about his past decisions regarding his country’s neighbour.”When I was president, I had a simple idea: We (Poland and Ukraine) would join the European Union and NATO together,” he explained. Fearing that this might jeopardise Poland’s membership of the bloc, however, he decided to keep the plan secret until he had won a second term.”I lost the presidential election and the whole thing fell through,” he said.”I should have acted sooner.” – ‘Neither Putin nor Stalin’ -The bloodiest conflict on European soil since the Second World War, the war in Ukraine, triggered by the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, enters its fifth year on Tuesday. Russians and Ukrainians have been negotiating since 2025 for a cessation of hostilities, under the impetus of Donald Trump, which has so far been in vain. A political product of the Cold War, Walesa said he believes that since the collapse of the Soviet world, three opposing blocs “have been trying to take the lead in the world: the United States, Russia and China”.But, he argued, “if Russia conquers Ukraine, we can start learning Chinese and Russian. The United States will lose for good.”If, on the contrary, “we manage to defeat Russia, it will recover in 10 years and our grandchildren will have to fight Russia again.”In his view, Russia’s aggression has its roots in the absence of democracy in a country whose “authorities, for centuries, have kept alive the idea that an external enemy threatens (them)”.”The problem with Russia lies neither in Putin nor in Stalin, but in a bad political system.”

“One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson won top honors at the Directors Guild of America Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, solidifying his film’s position as a strong favorite for the Oscars.Anderson, whose movie follows a former revolutionary who tries to protect his teenage daughter when the past comes back to haunt him, won the feature-film prize — the award considered a key indicator of what might happen at the Academy Awards, which cap off the Hollywood awards season.”It’s a tremendous honor to be given this,” Anderson said upon accepting the award at the gala held in Beverly Hills.”We’re going to take it with the love that it’s given and the appreciation of all our comrades in this room,” he added.Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the film, which depicts a timeless America where white supremacists plot behind the scenes, immigration raids sweep through communities and revolutionary groups take up arms, also won recognition in January at the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes.”One Battle After Another” will enter the Oscars as the second-most-nominated film, with 13 nominations. It is behind only the vampire film “Sinners” directed by Ryan Coogler, which garnered 16 nominations, a record for the Academy Awards.Coogler was also nominated for the feature-film prize at the Directors Guild Awards.Anderson received the statuette from Sean Baker, who won last year with his dark comedy “Anora,” which went on to be an Oscar winner.Twenty of the 22 winners of the Directors Guild Awards have subsequently won the Oscar for best director, including the winners of the last three years: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Oppenheimer” and “Anora.” Also on Saturday, Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker and journalist Mstyslav Chernov won the award for best documentary film. His film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” follows a Ukrainian platoon on a campaign to liberate a Russian-occupied village and offers a glimpse into the harsh realities of war.”It’s scary to live in a world where, instead of a camera, you have to get a gun to defend your home, to defend what you believe in,” Chernov said at the event hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani.”I want to thank… every soldier, every civilian, every filmmaker who made a choice to leave the camera for now and get a gun and go and fight so I have a chance,” he added.

It has become a staple of every NFL game’s pre-show coverage — footage of players strutting their way to stadium locker rooms wearing the latest daring sartorial choices.And a VIP fashion show Saturday ahead of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl clash with the Seattle Seahawks was the latest bet by the league that indulging its players’ penchant for high-end designers is also good for the NFL’s bottom line.A sport for decades associated with no-nonsense jocks has in recent years encouraged its stars’ newfound obsession with attire as a way to capture new fans beyond the sport’s traditional base.Female and global supporters are particularly coveted by a league that has essentially saturated its core, male-heavy demographic, with some 125 million Americans already tuning into last year’s Super Bowl.”People who love fashion are paying attention to it. Brands are getting involved. So I think it’s opened another element to the game,” Detroit Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St Brown told AFP at the event.NFL marketing bosses have been pursuing a broader “helmets off” strategy, including behind-the-scenes documentaries and social media clips, that seeks to make players more relatable by emphasizing their personalities and off-field interests.Clubs regularly share footage of their players in designer outfits, or attending events like an Abercrombie & Fitch fashion event in San Francisco, hosted the night before Sunday’s Super Bowl. Guests included league boss Roger Goodell and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.”Fashion is global,” the San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, also in attendance, told AFP.”Especially when you talk about the European market, a lot of the Asian markets where fashion is such a big part of culture.”I think when you add a lot of our walk-out or entrance outfits that guys wear now, it helps reach a global audience.”- ‘Gives us that swagger’ -Abercrombie & Fitch was last year named the NFL’s first official fashion partner, and athletes have countless personal tie-ins with brands like American Eagle.Some of the game’s top players, including Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, have dedicated personal stylists and have popped up at global fashion shows in Paris and at the Met Gala.According to Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, experimenting with haute couture can serve as a confidence booster.”We don’t just do it when we go to the games,” he said. “We put this stuff on because it makes us feel good personally, and just gives us that little swagger, just to go about our day like that.”The adventures into fashion can relax players in the locker room prior to games, as athletes rib one another for their more brash selections.”You’ll always get some comments, especially when your outfit is pretty loud. But guys have fun with it, man,” said McCaffrey.Still, St Brown added, the fun stops when game time arrives.”At the end of the day I’m still there to play football. It’s not a fashion show,” he said.”But I still want to dress nice and feel good.”

The Washington Post said Saturday its CEO and publisher Will Lewis was leaving effective immediately, just days after the storied newspaper owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made drastic job cuts that angered readers.Though newspapers across the United States have been facing brutal industry headwinds, Lewis’s management of the outlet was sharply criticized by subscribers and employees alike during his two-year tenure as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.Lewis, who is English, has been replaced by Jeff D’Onofrio, a former CEO of social media platform Tumblr who had joined the Post as chief financial officer last year, the paper announced.In an email to staff shared on social media by one of the newspaper’s reporters, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.” A statement from the Post said only that D’Onofrio was succeeding Lewis “effective immediately.”Hundreds of Post journalists — including most of its overseas, local and sports staff — were let go in the sweeping cuts announced on Wednesday.The Post did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated, but The New York Times reported approximately 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.The paper’s entire Middle East roster was let go as was its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent as the war with Russia grinds on.  Sports, graphics and local news departments were sharply scaled back and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended, local media reported.Hundreds turned out Thursday at a protest in front of the paper’s headquarters in downtown Washington.- Editorial interference -Newspapers across the country have cratered under falling revenues and subscriptions as they compete for eyeballs with social media, and as internet revenue pales in comparison to what print advertising once commanded.However, national papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have managed to weather the storm and come out financially solid — something the Post, even with a billionaire backer, has failed to do.In Lewis’s note to staff, shared on X by White House bureau chief Matt Viser, Lewis said “difficult decisions have been taken” during his tenure “in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news.”Bezos, one of the world’s richest people, was quoted in the Post’s statement saying that the paper has “an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”He and Lewis have come under scrutiny for intervening directly in the paper’s editorial processes.Bezos reined in the newspaper’s liberal-leaning editorial page and blocked an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris days before the 2024 election — breaking the so-called firewall of editorial independence. He was widely seen as bowing to Donald Trump, who went on to win the election.The decision also apparently had financial consequences: The Wall Street Journal reported that 250,000 digital subscribers left the Post after it refrained from endorsing Harris, and the paper lost around $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues fell.As president, Trump has heaped direct pressure on journalists, launching multiple lawsuits against media organizations.A withered Post, critics worry, will leave the country’s press corps less able to hold the government accountable.Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said that the job cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”

A detention center in rural Texas has become a harsh symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with disease breaking out among the throng of people held, including some families who entered the United States legally. The Dilley Immigration Processing Center sits in a small town of just 3,200 people, just about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from the Mexico border, but has become a grim global melting pot.Many detainees were picked up as their asylum claims were being processed or as they were checking in with authorities on their cases, lawyers told AFP, as Trump massively expands the scope of who can be targeted for detention and deportation.”I cry all the time. My son tries to wipe the tear from my eyes,” said W, a Haitian woman who along with her son crossed the border legally to seek asylum, under a program run by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.Historically, asylum seekers have generally been allowed to live and work in the United States while their claims work their way through the court system. But W and her son were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and sent to Dilley in October, where W says authorities have tried to force her to sign a deportation order.Her testimony, like that of others in this report, was taken by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a legal advocacy group, and shown to AFP. Many names have been fully or partially withheld.- Bugs in food -Protests have erupted over bugs being found in the detention center’s food, W said, while lights are kept on 24 hours a day, making it difficult to sleep.On Monday, Texas health authorities warned of two measles cases at the facility, prompting ICE to quarantine some people held there.”These families have become a political pawn,” Javier Hidalgo, legal director at RAICES, told AFP.”They were in a process. They had future court dates… there’s no purpose to (detention) other than trying to convince them to give up their legal cases.”CoreCivic, the private company that the government contracts to run the facility, told AFP “the health and safety of those entrusted to our care is the (company’s) top priority.”The Dilley center is the same facility that held Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old Ecuadoran boy who lawyers allege was detained as bait to lure his mother to agents.Liam has since been ordered released, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking to dismiss the family’s asylum claim — lodged after they entered the country legally in 2024 — and deport them.- Family held over father’s arrest -Also held at the facility is the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who is accused of firebombing a protest in support of Israeli hostages last year in Colorado.The Egyptian national told authorities that no one knew of his plans, CNN reported, but his wife and five children have been held at Dilley for months while the government claims it is “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack.””Why would the government insist on detaining us with no evidence?” his daughter Habiba wrote in a letter shared by immigration attorney Eric Lee last month.The family entered the country legally in 2022 and filed for asylum. DHS has said the family is “in our country illegally” and is trying to deport them. None of the other family members has been charged with a crime.Days after speaking to CNN, Habiba was separated from her family.DHS told the broadcaster it was because she had turned 18 and needed to be moved to the adult section, though her birthday had passed months before without any action.- Alleged medical neglect -Other detainees complain of medical neglect. “One of the children had appendicitis last year, and it took days to get him medical care,” lawyer Chris Godshall-Bennett told AFP, adding that the child was told “to take a Tylenol and get over it.”Diana, a Colombian woman, is detained with her 10-year-old daughter who suffers from Hirschsprung’s disease, which causes blocked bowels and can require a special diet.But a doctor “told me that I needed to remember they are not there to accommodate me… that their only responsibility is to ensure that detainees do not go hungry,” she said.CoreCivic said that its medical staff “meet the highest standards of care.””We will be detained for who knows how long,” Habiba Soliman wrote in her letter.”We have been falling apart.”

A jury has been confirmed in a landmark social media addiction trial in the US state of California, a process dominated by references to tech giant Meta’s divisive founder Mark Zuckerberg.Meta’s lawyers fought for six days in court to remove jurors who they deemed overly hostile to Facebook and Instagram, two of the social media platforms involved in the case.The plaintiff’s lawyers sought to dismiss people, mostly men, who believed that young internet users’ mental health issues are more attributable to parental failures rather than tech platform designers.With the jury of 12 members and six alternates approved on Friday, arguments in the case are now scheduled to begin Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.The case is being called a bellwether proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the United States.Defendants at the trial are Alphabet and Meta, the tech titans behind YouTube and Instagram. TikTok and Snapchat were also accused, but have since settled for an undisclosed amount.The trial focuses on allegations that a 20-year-old woman identified by the initials K.G.M. suffered severe mental harm because she became addicted to social media as a child.She accuses Meta and YouTube of knowingly designing addictive apps, to the detriment of her mental health. – ‘Start fairly’ -Jury selection was dominated by recurring references to Zuckerberg, the head of Meta and co-founder of Facebook who reached global fame after the Hollywood film “The Social Network.””I feel impartial toward the plaintiff, but based on things Mark Zuckerberg has done objectively — I have strong feelings about — and I think the defendant would start further behind,” said one young woman.Many potential jurors criticized Facebook’s early days — it was designed as a platform for college students to rate women’s looks — and cited the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach of 2018.They also said it would be difficult for them to accept the billionaire’s testimony — expected in the next two weeks — without prejudice.Meta’s lawyer, Phyllis Jones, raised frequent objections to such jurors.She said it was “very important that both sides start fairly, with no disadvantage, that you look at the evidence fairly and decide.”Others were dismissed for the opposite reason.”I like this guy,” said one rare Zuckerberg fan. “I regret not owning Meta shares.” He was dismissed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mark Lanier.Others to be removed included a man who expressed his anger against psychiatrists, and several people whose loved ones suffered from social media addiction or harassment.- Seeking distance -Alphabet’s lawyers were keen to ensure that their platform YouTube was not lumped in with Meta.”Does everybody understand that YouTube and Meta are very different companies? Does everyone understand that (Zuckerberg) doesn’t run YouTube?” asked Luis Li, a lawyer for Google’s video platform.One man said he saw the potential for YouTube to seek to trigger “immediate dopamine” rushes among users through its “Shorts” feature.He said his niece spends too much time on TikTok, which popularized a platform that provides endless scrolling of ultra-short-format videos.The case will focus not on content, on which front platforms are largely protected by US law, but on the design of algorithms and personalization features.The plaintiffs allege that the platforms are negligent and purposely designed to be harmful, echoing a strategy successfully used against the tobacco industry.Meta and YouTube strongly deny the allegations, and also unsuccessfully argued on Friday for the judge to declare statements comparing their platforms to tobacco and other addictive products to be illegitimate.The debate on the platform’s level of responsibility for their effect on users was already underway, even at this early stage of the trial.Alphabet’s lawyer Li asked the panel if people spend too much time on phones, with the majority nodding in agreement.”As a society, is it a problem?” he asked, with most hands again going up.He then asked if this is “because of YouTube?” prompting hesitation from the jurors.

The International Olympic Committee said on Saturday it hoped for “fair play” after US Vice President JD Vance was booed at the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.There were audible boos at the San Siro stadium in Milan when Vance, who was attending Friday’s ceremony with his wife Usha, appeared on a big screen.The US team itself was loudly applauded.”With the vice president, what I would say is that with the next Games coming up in Los Angeles we are super happy that the US administration is so engaged with the Games here and obviously going forward that’s a great thing for the Olympic movement,” IOC communications director Mark Adams told a news conference.”I was in the stadium last night and we’re largely a sports organisation and seeing the US team cheered as they were by the audience, fair play, that was fantastic,” he added.”In general, I would say at sporting events, we like to see fair play but in terms of having a good relationship with the administration, that is only good news for us.”IOC chief Kirsty Coventry, the former Zimbabwean swimmer and sports minister, met Vance for the first time before the ceremony to discuss preparations for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.Adams said the meeting “went incredibly well” and that they had “very good chemistry” but said he could give no further details of the content of their discussions.Hundreds protested in Milan on Friday against Vance’s visit and the presence of some agents from the US immigration enforcement agency ICE who are in Italy to help protect the American delegation.The Israeli team also received a smattering of boos when it entered the stadium for the athletes’ parade.Adams said: “Whatever background they’re from, I don’t think you want to see any booing there.”If you want to get philosophical about it, one of the ideas is that the athletes shouldn’t be punished for whatever their country has done.”