MON SIX

While much of the debate (and excitement) centers on the selection ofPuerto Rican artist Bad Bunnyas the headliner, punk rock fans are eager to see how and whatopening band Green Daywill do with its moment in the national limelight.

Fans got their first taste of what's to come ahead of Sunday. Playing at a pregame party in San Francisco on Feb. 6,Green Day's frontman Billy Joe Armstrongused the moment to give some pointed career advice to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers expected at the game. "To all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are, quit your [expletive] job. Quit that [expletive] job you have."

Bad Bunny has touched down in the Bay Area ahead of his highly anticipated, and contested, Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show on Sunday, Feb. 8, in Santa Clara, California.

The Puerto Rican superstar appeared at the Apple Music press conference with hosts Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden to chat all about what fans can expect from his solo halftime show debut (he previously hit the stage with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira in 2020).

"I feel more excited about all of the people than thinking about me," he said onstage, visibly nervous, and taking it all in. "My family and all my friends."

Scroll through for more photos of star sightings this Super Bowl weekend.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> From left: Charlie Puth, Coco Jones, and Brandi Carlile attend the Super Bowl LX Pregame & Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show press conference at Moscone Center West on Feb. 5, 2026, in San Francisco.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Octavia Spencer visits SiriusXM on Radio Row at Super Bowl LX on Feb. 4, 2026, in San Francisco, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> WWE Champion CM Punk

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Caroline Fenton on the SiriusXM radio set at the Super Bowl LX media center in San Francisco on Feb. 4, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Too Short and E-40 during the Bay Area host committee press conference at the Super Bowl LX media center at the Moscone Center on Feb. 2, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Coco Jones

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Brandi Carlile

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Bad Bunny, Alix Earle, more stars flock to Bay Area for Super Bowl 60

Bad Bunnyhas touched down in the Bay Area ahead of his highly anticipated, and contested, Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show on Sunday, Feb. 8, in Santa Clara, California.The Puerto Rican superstar appeared at the Apple Music press conference with hosts Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden to chat all about what fans can expect from his solo halftime show debut (he previously hit the stage with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira in 2020)."I feel more excited about all of the people than thinking about me," he said onstage, visibly nervous, and taking it all in. "My family and all my friends."Scroll through for more photos of star sightings this Super Bowl weekend.

Formed in California in 1987, Green Day - consisting of frontman Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool - has been putting out albums for decades and is often credited with reinvigorating the punk rock genre in the U.S. mainstream in the 1990s and 2000s.

Why are fans expecting something explosive? The trio isn't exactly known for being quiet about the political climate of the day - they are a punk band that has been performing since pre-9/11, after all.

Armstrong, historically, does not shy away from an FCC fine or contentious topic. In fact, his most recent public criticisms of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement actions will beless than a month oldat the time of the big game.

From offending an entire city so badly thatlocal stations boycotted their musicto dropping so many expletives on live radio that even shock jock Howard Stern clutched his pearls, Green Day has been nothing if not consistent in its nearly two decades as a band. Here's a look back at some of its most controversial and memorable performances.

2001 Howard Stern performance

In an early show of peak Green Day rebellion, the band performed a now-legendary act of defiance during a 2001 Howard Stern performance.

According to a 2020 retelling by Stern, the show's producers spoke with Green Day's label ahead of their appearance to confirm which songs the band planned to perform. Because Stern's show aired on public radio at the time, the conversation may have addressed using profanities on-air. The band misunderstood this as an attempt to dictate what they were able to play, said Stern, and in a protest of censorship, proceeded todeliver one of its most expletive-filled performancesto date. ("Platypus (I Hate You)," if you were wondering).

"Actually, that song was kind of a '(expletive) you' to the FCC and everything else in censorship," Stern said. "You know, Green Day takes that (as) seriously as I do too." Even so, the band didn't return to the show for another 15 years after its stunt.

The entire 'American Idiot' album that dropped in 2004

"American Idiot" includes hits like the titular "American Idiot," "Holiday," "Jesus of Suburbia," and "Favorite Son" with pointed and vocal criticisms of the Bush administration, American military action in Iraq and mainstream early aughts American culture as a whole.

When it dropped in 2004, "American Idiot" was a conversation piece, both as a chart topper and a scathing rebuke of the White House administration's political ideology. Alongside artists like The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) and P!nk, Green Day became known as one of the era's biggest Bush critics.

The album later became a full-fledged Broadway musical.

2016 American Music Awards

Less than two weeks afterDonald Trumpwas elected to his first term, Green Day led a chant of "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA"at the 2016 American Music Awards. The refrain has endured and been repeated at many of the band's subsequent performances.

Armstrong made his view of Trump clear before the election, comparing the then-presidential candidate to Hitler in an August 2016 interview with the magazineKerrang.

"He just said, 'You have no options and I'm the only one, and I'm going to take care of it myself.' I mean, that's Hitler, man," he said, referring to Trump's speech accepting the Republican nomination. "I don't even know how else to explain it," he continued. "I wish I were over exaggerating. And sometimes maybe I do over exaggerate with Bush. But with Trump, I just can't wait 'til he's gone."

"Troubled Times," 2017

After the infamous "Unite the Right" rally in August 2017, known best for images of white supremacists carrying tiki torches, Green Day dropped a music video for the song "Troubled Times," which included clips from the rally and references to Trump.

Advertisement

Heposted to Facebookat the time, "I feel like what happened in Charlottesville goes beyond the point of anger. It makes me sad and desperate. shocked. I (expletive) hate racism more than anything."

iHeartRadio Music Festival 2019

While it's unclear if it's the first time the band opted for what would become a very familiar lyric change, Green Day's performance at the2019 iHeartRadio Music Festivalmarked one of the earlier times that Armstrong swapped the lyrics in the song "American Idiot."

Instead of the original "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda," which at the time it was written referred to the Bush administration, Armstrong sang "I'm not a part of a MAGA agenda." The swap has since become fairly standard in the band's performances.

Renouncing US citizenship after Dobbs 2022

Armstrong expressed disgust at the overturning of Roe v. Wade during a London show in June 2022, telling the audience he wanted to renouncehis U.S. citizenship.

"(Expletive) America, I'm renouncing my citizenship. I'm coming here," he said. "There's just too much stupid in the world to go back to that miserable excuse for a country," Armstrong added. "Oh, I'm not kidding. You're going to get a lot of me in the coming days."

Armstrong still appears to live in the U.S. as of 2026, so it seems the statement may have been more symbolic than literal.

'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve' 2023

While the lyric swap to "I'm not part of a MAGA agenda" became something of a mainstay for the band during Trump's first presidency, Armstrong broadcast the refrain to perhaps the largest audience yetduring "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" in the final hours of 2023.

Trump was beginning his campaign for re-election at the time and Green Day had just returned from a hiatus. Trump-aligned figures, including Elon Musk and Lara Trump, criticized the move on social media.

In later renditions of songs from "American Idiot," Armstrong swapped in more names from Trump's orbit, including inserting"I'm not a part of the Elon agenda"into the titular song during a South African concert andinvoking Stephen Miller in "Holiday"alongside lyrics describing government-sanctioned violence.

Months before that, in August 2023, the band alsoreleased a limited-time shirtwith a picture of Trump's mugshot with the phrase "nimrod" printed across the front, a reference to its 1997 album by the same name. The money raised from the T-shirt sales was donated to charities helping the victims of the Maui wildfires. The sales purchased 50,000 meals for the Greater Good Music wildfire relief,according to the charity.

Coachella 2025

If you haven't caught on by now, Green Day likes to keep hits from its original protest album "American Idiot" fresh by switching lyrics up here and there.

Armstrong did just that at the 2025 Coachella festivalwhen he tweaked the lyrics to the song "Jesus of Suburbia," singing, "Runnin' away from pain, like the kids from Palestine / Tales from another broken home." The original lyrics were "Runnin' away from pain when you've been victimized."

While the reference to the war in Gaza caused the biggest stir, the band took several other creative liberties during their Coachella run, such as swapping the phrase "Am I (stupid) or am I just overjoyed?" also from"Jesus of Suburbia"to "Am I (stupid) or am I just JD Vance?" and the ever-popular "I'm not part of the MAGA agenda."

Armstrong later added, "Don't let these political bastards get you down. We don't stand for fascism."

2026 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO

Green Day apparently isn't shy when performing at iHeartRadio events. The band took the opportunity to criticize the current administrationas recently as Jan. 17,when they performed a fiery finale at the 2026 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO concert.

"Hey, everybody, please look out for your neighbors. Make sure you take care of each other. Make sure you love one another, protect each other," Armstrong said between the final verses of the finale song "Time of Your Life."

Contributor: USA TODAY's Terry Moseley

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Green Day's controversial history: What to expect at Super Bowl

"I'm proud of everything that he's been standing up for against ICE and everything,"Cardi Btold The Associated Press ahead of her performance at Michael Rubin's star-studdedFanatics Super Bowl Partyon Saturday, which featured performances by SZA, Don Toliver and Travis Scott.

The Grammy winner spoke with admiration and unity about Bad Bunny, who appeared with J Balvin on her chart-topping hit, "I Like It." The collaboration helped propel Latin music further into the global mainstream.

Bad Bunnyis set to take the Super Bowl stage on Sunday, one week after winning album of the year at the 2026 Grammys for"Debí Tirar Más Fotos."It is thefirst time an all-Spanish-language albumhas taken home the top prize.

At the Grammys, the Puerto Rican superstar said "ICE out" while accepting an award, criticizing President Donald Trump's administration for its dramatic expansion of immigration arrests.

"It just feels like everything is aligned right now," said Cardi B, who is of Afro-Caribbean descent with roots in Trinidad and the Dominican Republic. "It just shows how Hispanics, Latinos. ... We standing. They standing. We all standing."

With Super Bowl buzz swirling around "I Like It" and the possibility of surprise guests, Cardi B was asked what it would mean to share the stage with Bad Bunny on such a massive platform.

"That'd be exciting," she said.

As Bad Bunny readies for his halftime moment, Cardi B is preparing for the launch of her highly anticipated tour, which opens Feb. 11 in Palm Desert, California. The run marks her first headlining arena tour and her first tour in six years.

The tour arrives on the heels of her sophomore album,"Am I the Drama,"just four months after the birth of her first child with New England Patriots wide receiverStefon Diggs, her fourth child overall.

Her preparation has centered on long rehearsal days that double as physical training, building momentum and confidence ahead of life on the road, Cardi B said.

"The rehearsing is my workout," she said. "I'm just doing my job."

With her recent project connecting strongly with fans and plans to work on her new album while on tour, Cardi B said the momentum has sharpened her excitement for returning to the stage.

"I feel really confident," she said. "Knowing the fans are going to be there and know the music. It's exciting."

Invited as one of the headline performers for the Milan-Cortina Games, Carey sang the Italian classic,Nel blu, dipinto di blu,better known asVolare,before transitioning into her own song,Nothing Is Impossible.

While some viewers praised the ambition, otherscriticizedthe performance, questioning her song choice and why an American singer was chosen to open Italy's biggest global moment.

"Absolutelyunbelievablethat Italy chose an American to open. So bizarre," wrote one netizen.

Mariah Carey took the 2026 Winter Olympics stage in Milan with an Italian classic that immediately divided viewers

Image credits:Elsa/Getty Images

Image credits:rareAURA9

Careyappeared early in the ceremony, standing alone beneath a spotlight as she deliveredVolareentirely in Italian.

In a conversation withVogue,thesingershared, "It's one of the largest and most anticipated global events, and being part of a moment that brings the world together like that is a great honor."

She further explained thatVolarehas long been a favorite song of hers.

Image credits:Sarah Stier/Getty Images

"Rearranging it and learning to sing it in Italian was definitely a challenge, but it felt important to honor the host country in a meaningful way," she said.

"I also chose my song 'Nothing Is Impossible' because its message is hopeful and uplifting, which felt perfectly aligned with the spirit of theOlympic Gamesand what they represent."

However, the restrained staging and slow tempo caught many viewersoff guard.

Social media quickly filled with confusion and sarcasm.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by LEVUMA (@levuma)

Image credits:octoplay_real

"I think I've never seen anything funnier," one person wrote, while another bluntly commented, "It's not Christmas yet," referencing Carey's long-standingassociationwith the holiday season.

Others questioned her emotional engagement, with one viewer adding, "She stood there looking afraid while she was lip-syncing."

At the same time, fans pushed back hard against thecriticism.

"She's American and a world star, not Italian," one supporter wrote.

"She got invited and performed a classic song from your country, in your language, in front of millions ofpeople. People don't realize how difficult that is."

Beyond her performance, the 56-year-old's diamond look also became the night's most-talked-about visual moment

Image credits:Xavier Laine/Getty Images

Carey stepped onto theOlympic stagewearing more than 300 carats of diamonds valued at roughly $15 million.

She paired the jewelry with a custom winter-white bustier gown by Roberto Cavalli designer Fausto Puglisi. The ensemble featured a feathered stole draped over her shoulders as emerald-cut diamond jewelry caught the stadium lights.

Her jewelry alone became the focal point of her appearance as the massive necklace pendant weighed over 20 carats, while her bracelet and drop earrings added tens of carats more.

Image credits:RoseWahabi

Image credits:FelXandre

However, her statuesquefashion momentwas largely criticized by netizens who felt the styling worked against her.

"Pretty embarrassing to be honest—was she stuffed on a pole so she couldn't move?" one critic wrote, suggesting the rigid look made the performance feel distant.

Another added, "Your hair was sprayed stiff, you lip-synced most of it; not your best performance."

Carey'sVolareperformance sparked debate over cultural respect, authenticity, and lip-sync accusations

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝗗'𝗢𝗿𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗼 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 | D'Orazio & Associates (@dorazioworld)

Carey's decision to performVolarebecame the most polarizing element of the opening night.

Written and first performed by Domenico Modugno in 1958, the song is one of Italy's most treasured musical exports, famously winning two Grammy Awards and topping charts worldwide.

Some viewers felt Carey's rendition lacked warmth. "Playback and very bad interpretation of one of the most famous Italian songs. Shame," one person wrote.

Image credits:Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Yet defenders argued that the scrutiny ignored the scale of the challenge.

"What's funny about it?" one user asked. "Every singer usually has a teleprompter, especially when singing in a different language they don't speak." Another added,

"Performing in Italian, on Italian soil, at the Olympics—only the Queen could pull this off," added a third. "The Winter Olympics just got its golden moment!"

Besides Carey, the Winter Olympics inauguration night also featured performances from Italian artists

Image credits:Xavier Laine/Getty Images

Credo di non aver mai visto niente di più divertente sto morendopic.twitter.com/wz6pdC3BMz

— Nicolò (@sononicolo_)February 6, 2026

As the ceremony progressed, Italian artists Andrea Bocelli and Laura Pausini took the stage and were met with noticeably warmer responses.

Bocelli's performance ofNessun Dormaduring the lighting of the Olympic flame emerged as one of the ceremony's most widely praised moments.

"Greatest song ever. Andrea is the best voice for that song. Awesome," wrote one user.

The Milan-Cortina Games are set to continue through February 22. You can watch the Games and Paralympics onNBCandPeacock.

"Playback and very bad interpretation of one of the most famous Italian song," wrote one netizen

Image credits:blissful_blisss

Image credits:itsmedarco

Image credits:Xrandom_info

Image credits:Pirueta60245842

Image credits:MarieSjlin

Image credits:radnek82

Image credits:jeffsheehan

Image credits:PatriciaLWatts

Image credits:NickLucaTangi

Image credits:jolicoeur11

Image credits:iamjaqueepaes

Image credits:Dannfox_22

Image credits:Dannfox_22

Image credits:JackJoe2000

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invited Herzog to visit as a gesture of unity with Jewish Australians after15 people were killedat a Hanukkah festival near Sydney's Bondi Beach – the worst terror attack committed in the country.

In the weeks after the December 14 attack, the government has repeatedly pushed the need for social cohesion. However, Albanese's decision to invite Herzog – the head of state of a country accused of genocide in Gaza, a claim Israel's government denies – has angered many Australians and even led to calls for the visitor's arrest.

"I really do understand the depth of feeling about this visit, the depth of feeling in the community about what we've seen in Gaza over the last two years… but this visit is about a mourning Jewish community, and I would ask Australians to recall that," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told ABC Radio.

Like many nations across the world, Australia has experienced sharp divisions over Israel's war in Gaza that have spilled into protests – with more planned in as many as 30 cities nationwide on Monday to mark Herzog's visit.

The largest will be outside Sydney Town Hall, where up to 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to gather, despite restrictions on protests in the area imposed after the Bondi massacre.

Police say the protesters risk arrest if they move beyond the Town Hall square. Protest organizer Josh Lees, from the Palestinian Action Group, says demonstrators will not be intimidated.

"We will be there in huge numbers for a peaceful protest to say Herzog is not welcome," he said in a message posted to Instagram.

Major Jewish groups in Australia, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Association, have welcomed Herzog's visit and condemned the planned protests.

"President Herzog is a patriot and a person of dignity and compassion and holds an office that is above party politics," said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive ECAJ, which represents some 200 Jewish groups around the country.

"He is a person who has sadly had to comfort families, police and first responders after terrorist attacks many times, and will know how to reassure and fortify our community in its darkest time."

What the UN commission said about Herzog

As Israel's head of state, Herzog occupies a largely ceremonial role removed from the executive decision-making led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose stated aim to destroy Hamas following the group's October 7 massacre has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The International Criminal Court issuedarrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Then last September, an independent UN inquiry found Netanyahu and Gallant – as well as Herzog – had"incited the commission of genocide."

The inquiry commission pointed to comments Herzog made less than a week after Hamas militantskilled and kidnapped hundreds of Israelison October 7, 2023. Herzog said "an entire nation" had been responsible for the Hamas attack.

His words "may reasonably be interpreted as incitement to the Israeli security forces personnel to target the Palestinians in Gaza as a group as being collectively culpable," the commission found.

After the report's release, Herzog angrily dismissed it as suffering from a lack of legitimacy.

The president's office has not responded to a CNN request for comment. But Herzog has previously rejected claims he blamed all Palestinian people for the attack.

One of the authors of the report, UN commissioner Chris Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner, says the country has a legal and moral imperative to detain Herzog on arrival, though he doesn't think it'll happen.

"I feel quite confident that he would not even be attempting this trip if he had not received assurances from the Australian government that he would not be arrested," he said. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed that Herzog is protected by diplomatic immunity.

An Israeli official told CNN that Israel's justice ministry had assured Herzog and his delegation there was no threat of arrest, partly because it was a state visit and also because no warrants existed for anyone in their party.

Advertisement

One of Herzog's entourage, Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, is also the subject of a formal complaint filed with the AFP by four legal groups including the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.

Almog, a former general in the Israel Defense Forces, reportedly canceled a planned trip to South Africa for fear he'd be arrested there by a country that took a genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.

Unlike Herzog, Almog does not have diplomatic immunity, the lawyers said.

CNN has reached out to the Jewish Agency for comment.

'This does not make Jews safer'

In an interview with The Australian newspaper prior to his arrival, Herzog said he wanted to use the trip to confront "lies and false information" about Israel.

"It's the time to get out of that brainwash campaign that has been going on within the Australian public for quite some time, both against the Jews and against Israelis."

But not all Jewish groups in Australia are poised to welcome him.

The Jewish Council of Australia, a progressive advocacy group, accused Albanese of using Jewish grief as a "political prop and diplomatic backdrop."

Hosting Herzog "risks entrenching the dangerous and antisemitic conflation between Jewish identity and the actions of the Israeli state," Sarah Schwartz, the group's executive officer, said in a statement. "This does not make Jews safer. It does the opposite."

On Monday, the group says a full-page open letter signed by "hundreds of Jews" will be published in two major Australian newspapers to "send a loud message that Herzog is not welcome here."

After the Bondi attacks, many in the Jewish community said Albanese had not done enough to stamp outantisemitism that had worsenedsince Israel sought to avenge Hamas' murderous attack.

In the two years to September 2025, as Netanyahu's government turned much of Gaza to rubble and the Palestinian death toll grew, Jewish groups recorded more than 3,700 "anti-Jewish incidents" in Australia, including arson attacks onsynagogues, car fires, and antisemitic graffiti.

The shaken Jewish community was forced to increase its own security for fear that hatred could turn to bloodshed.

In the days after the Bondi Beach massacre – allegedly committed by afather and sonwho had embraced Islamic State ideology – the government announcedsweeping new gun laws, tougher rules on hate speech, and stronger powers for the home affairs minister to cancel visas on character grounds.

As his political opponents demanded he recall parliament and hold a special federal investigation into the attacks, Albanese asked Australia's governor-general to formally invite to Herzog to the country.

Just over a month later, police spent this weekend in talks with the Sydney-based Palestinian Action Group to try to convince it to accept a compromise protest location, away from the Town Hall.

Sidoti, the UN commissioner, said the Australian government had made a "tragic mistake" by inviting Herzog to the country at a time of deep division.

"This mistake should have been corrected weeks ago. It's still not too late to correct it, but it's increasingly unlikely with every hour that passes, and that's a grave pity," he said.

"This is a visit that will have serious consequences for social cohesion in Australia."

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

Seconds later the lights go out, the ovens switch off and darkness envelops the room. Kutsenko, 31, steps outside into the freezing night, switches on a large rectangular generator and thepower kicks back in. It's a pattern that will be repeated many times as the business struggles to keep working through the power outages caused by Russia's bombing campaign onUkraine'senergy grid.

"It's now more than impossible to imagine a Ukrainian business operating without a generator," said Olha Hrynchuk, the co-founder and head baker of Spelta.

The cost of purchasing and operating generators to overcome power outages is just one of many challenges facing Ukrainian businesses after nearlyfour years of war. Acute labor shortages due to mobilization and war-related migration, security risks, declining purchasing power and complicated logistics add to the pressure, officials say.

Hrynchuk, 28, opened the bakery 10 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. That winter was the first yearRussiatargeted Ukraine's energy system. Hrynchuk says they barely know what it is to work under "normal" conditions, but have never faced the challenges they do now.

Production is entirely dependent on electricity and the generator burns about 700 hryvnias ($16) worth of fuel per hour.

"We run on a generator for 10 to 12 hours a day. You have no fixed schedule — you have to adapt and refuel it at the same time," Hrynchuk said.

'Operate at a loss'

Olha Nasonova, 52, who is head of the Restaurants of Ukraine analytical center, says the industry is experiencing its most difficult period of the past 20 years.

While businesses were prepared for electricity cuts, no one expected such acold winterand it's been especially tough for small cafés and family-run establishments, because they have the least financial resources.

The "Best Way to Cup" project, which has two venues and roasts and grinds its own coffee, is on the brink of permanent closure. Co-founder Yana Bilym, 33, who opened the cafe in May, said a Russian attack shattered all its windows and glass doors in August. Bilym said the cost of renovation was 150,000 hryvnias (about $3,400), half of which she financed with a bank loan that she only recently finished repaying.

Last month, after several consecutive large-scale Russian attacks on the energy sector, her entire building lost its water supply, and soon after the sewer system stopped working.

"We were forced to close. We believe it's temporary. Businesses in December and January, unfortunately, operate at a loss," Bilym said.

Now she has to regularly check the coffee machine and the specialty refrigerators, which she fears may not withstand the cold. Bilym hopes the closure is short-term. Her husband volunteered to serve in the military on the front line and she wants him to have somewhere to come back to when he returns to civilian life.

Generators are expensive to run

Many businesses have become a lifeline for communities struggling with plunging temperatures. Ukraine's government has allowed some firms to operate during curfew hours in the energy emergency as "Points of Invincibility," allowing access to free electricity to charge phones and power banks, drink tea and have some respite from the cold.

Tetiana Abramova, 61, is a founder of the Rito Group, a clothing company that has been producing designer knitwear for men and women since 1991, the year Ukraine became independent.

It participates in Ukraine Fashion Week, the country's biggest fashion show, and exports garments to the United States. Abramova took out a loan in 2022 to purchase a powerful 35-kilowatt generator costing 500,000 hryvnias ($11,500) to keep the business running during blackouts and a wood-fired boiler for heating.

"At work we have heat, we have water, we have light — and we have each other," she said.

But it's not easy. Operating on generators is 15%–20% more expensive than using regular electricity. As a result, production costs are currently about 15% higher than normal. Added to that, customer numbers have dropped by about 40% as many people have left the country, so the focus is now on attracting new clients through online sales.

"Profitability has fallen by around 50%, partly due topower outages," she said. "This affects both the volume and efficiency of our work. We simply cannot operate as much as we used to."

'Main goal is to survive'

A macroeconomic forecast by theKyivSchool of Economics for the first quarter of 2026 says strikes on the energy system are currently the most acute short-term risk to the country's GDP. The analysis says if business manages to adapt, output losses could be limited to around 1% or 2% of GDP. But if the energy system failures are prolonged it could lead to larger losses, of as much as 2% or 3% of GDP.

Abramova, an entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience, says she spent nearly 100,000 hryvnias ($2,300) over two months on generator servicing to maintain production. But she cannot pass all those costs on to retailers.

"For us now, the main goal is not to be the most efficient, but to survive," Abramova said.

Associated Press writer Susie Blann contributed to this report.

They wore high-visibility vests and spotless white hard hats, he noticed, even while parked in their vehicle. His search for the Wisconsin-based electrician advertised on the car's doors returned no results.

On Tuesday, when their Nissan returned to the lot outside his restaurant, Ramirez, 31,filmed his confrontationwith the two men, who hide their faces as he approaches and appear to be wearing heavy tactical gear beneath their yellow vests.

"This is what our taxpayer money goes to: renting these vehicles with fake tags to come sit here and watch my business," Ramirez shouts in the video.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to inquiries about whether the men were federal immigration officers. But encounters like Ramirez's have become increasingly common.

As thesweeping immigration crackdownin Minnesota continues, legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists.

Not all of those incidents have been verified, but they have heightened fears in a statealready on edge, adding to legal groups' concerns about the Trump administration'sdramatic reshaping of immigration enforcement tacticsnationwide.

"If you have people afraid that the electrical worker outside their house might be ICE, you're inviting public distrust and confusion on a much more dangerous level," said Naureen Shah, the director of immigration advocacy at the American Civil Liberties Union. "This is what you do if you're trying to control a populace, not trying to do routine, professional law enforcement."

A 'more extreme degree' of deception

In the past, immigration authorities have sometimes used disguises and other deceptions, which they callruses,to gain entry into homes without a warrant.

The tactics became more common during President Donald Trump's first term, attorneys said, prompting an ACLU lawsuit accusing immigration agents of violating the U.S. Constitution by posing as local law enforcement during home raids. A recentsettlementrestricted the practice in Los Angeles. But ICE deceptions remain legal elsewhere in the country.

Still, the undercover operations reported in Minnesota would appear to be a "more extreme degree than we've seen in the past," said Shah, in part because they seem to be happening in plain sight.

Where past ruses were aimed at deceiving immigration targets, the current tactics may also be a response to theMinnesota's sprawling networks of citizen observersthat have sought to call attention to federal agents before they make arrests.

At the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the city's central hub of ICE activity, activists told The Associated Press they had seen agents leaving in vehicles with stuffed animals on their dashboards or Mexican flag decals on their bumpers. Pickups with lumber or tools in their beds were also frequently spotted.

In recent weeks, federal agents have repeatedly shown up to construction sites dressed as workers, according to Jose Alvillar, a lead organizer for the local immigrant rights group, Unidos MN.

"We've seen an increase in the cowboy tactics," he said, though he noted the raids had not resulted in arrests. "Construction workers are good at identifying who is a real construction worker and who is dressing up as one."

Using vintage plates

Since the start of the operation in Minnesota, local officials, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, have said ICE agents had been seen swapping license plates or using bogus ones, aviolation of state law.

Candice Metrailer, an antiques dealer in south Minneapolis, believes she witnessed such an attempt firsthand.

On Jan. 13, she received a call from a man who identified himself as a collector, asking if her store sold license plates. She said it did. A few minutes later, two men in street clothes entered the shop and began looking through her collection of vintage plates.

"One of them says, 'Hey, do you have any recent ones?'" Metrailer recalled. "Immediately, an alarm bell went off in my head."

Metrailer stepped outside while the men continued browsing. A few doors down from the shop, she saw an idling Ford Explorer with blacked out windows. She memorized its license plate, then quickly plugged it into a crowdsourced database used by local activists to track vehicles linked to immigration enforcement.

The database shows an identical Ford with the same plates had been photographed leaving the Whipple building seven times and reported at the scene of an immigration arrest weeks earlier.

When one of the men approached the register holding a white Minnesota plate, Metrailer said she told him that the store had a new policy against selling the items.

Metrailer said she had reported the incident to Minnesota's attorney general. A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

A response to obstruction

Supporters of the immigration crackdown say the volunteer army of ICE-tracking activists in Minneapolis has forced federal agents to adopt new methods of avoiding detection.

"Of course agents are adapting their tactics so that they're a step ahead," said Scott Mechkowski, former deputy director of ICE enforcement and operations in New York City. "We've never seen this level of obstruction and interference."

In nearly three decades in immigration enforcement, Mechkowski said he also hadn't seen ICE agent disguising themselves as uniformed workers in the course of making arrests.

Earlier this summer, a spokesperson for DHSconfirmeda man wearing a high-visibility construction vest was an ICE agent conducting surveillance. In Oregon, a natural gas companypublished guidancelast month on how customers could identify their employees after reports of federal impersonators.

In the days since his encounter, Ramirez, the restaurant worker, said he has been on high alert for undercover agents. He recently stopped a locksmith who he feared might be a federal agent, before quickly realizing he was a local resident.

"Everybody is on edge about these guys, man," Ramirez said. "It feels like they're everywhere."

It was Jokic's 19th triple-double of the season. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 23 points for the Nuggets, who capped a three-game road trip with a win after losing at Detroit and New York.

Matas Buzelis scored 21 points and Collin Sexton added 17 for the Bulls, who have lost four straight.

The Bulls led 104-97 after closing the third period on a 16-2 run, but Denver started the final quarter on a 20-2 spurt to take the lead for good. Jokic and Julian Strawther capped the run with consecutive 3-pointers.

Chicago went the first six minutes of the fourth before making its first field goal and finished the final period 5 for 17 from the floor.

Jokic had nine points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in 17 first-half minutes, but the Bulls led 65-59 at the intermission.

Nuggets: Host Cleveland on Monday night.

Bulls: Visit Brooklyn on Monday night.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA