Eagles deny the Chiefs a Super Bowl three-peat with dominant defense in a 40-22 rout

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Cooper DeJean, Josh Sweat and the Philadelphia Eagles’ ferocious defense denied Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs a Super Bowl three-peat.

It wasn’t even close.

DeJean got a pick-6 on his 22nd birthday, Sweat tormented Mahomes and the Eagles routed the Chiefs 40-22 on Sunday to secure the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship.

Jalen Hurts threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score on a tush push to earn Super Bowl MVP honors, and Vic Fangio’s defense was so dominant that the Eagles didn’t need much from Saquon Barkley.

The game-changing running back finished with 57 yards, breaking Terrell Davis’ record for yards rushing in a season, playoffs included. Hurts threw for 221 yards.

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The Latest: Eagles spoil Chiefs’ three-peat bid, win Super Bowl 40-22

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Philadelphia Eagles have spoiled the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid for a three-peat, winning Super Bowl 40-22.

Here’s the latest:

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Hurts is forever a Super Bowl winner now, but he lauded Philadelphia’s defense in his on-field interview with Fox.

“Defense wins championships,” Hurts said.

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Review: Kendrick Lamar brings America and ‘Not Like Us’ into history-making Super Bowl halftime show

“Salutations!,” the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.

As if there were any doubts of the Pulitzer Prize winning rapper’s ability to put on a show.

He started with “GNX” moving into “Squabble Up.” For just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.

Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colors, they were labeled “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” by Jackson’s Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to “play the game.” Then, he launched into “Humble.,” “DNA.,” “Euphoria” and “man at the garden.”

“Score keeper, deduct one life,” Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into “peakboo,” and then teased a performance of “Not Like Us.”

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Trump says he is serious about Canada becoming 51st state in Super Bowl interview

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he is serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state in an interview that aired Sunday during the Super Bowl preshow.

“Yeah it is,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier when asked whether his talk of annexing Canada is “a real thing” — as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently warned.

“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” he said. “Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?”

The U.S. is not subsidizing Canada. The U.S. buys products from the natural resource-rich nation, including commodities like oil. While the trade gap in goods has ballooned in recent years to $72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely reflects America’s imports of Canadian energy.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st U.S. state — a prospect that is deeply unpopular among Canadians.

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Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump’s agenda faces legal pushback

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as the new president’s sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.

Over the past 24 hours, officials ranging from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance have not only criticized a federal judge’s decision early Saturday that blocks Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records, but have also attacked the legitimacy of judicial oversight, a fundamental pillar of American democracy, which is based on the separation of powers.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning.

That post came hours after Musk said overnight that the judge who ruled against him should be impeached.

“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!” said Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with rooting out waste across the federal government.

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Trump repeats pledge to take control of Gaza even as pressure mounts to renew ceasefire

MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip (AP) — New details and growing shock over emaciated hostages renewed pressure Sunday on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a fragile Gaza ceasefire beyond the first phase, even as U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his pledge that the U.S. would take control of the Palestinian enclave.

Talks on the second phase, meant to see more hostages released and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, were due to start Feb. 3. But Israel and Hamas appear to have made little progress, even as Israeli forces withdrew Sunday from a Gaza corridor in the latest commitment to the truce.

Netanyahu sent a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator, but it included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough. Netanyahu, who returned after a U.S. visit to meet with Trump, is expected to convene security Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump repeated his pledge to take control of the Gaza Strip.

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished,” he told reporters onboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Super Bowl.

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Famine mostly averted but is a danger again if Gaza ceasefire collapses, UN humanitarian chief says

CAIRO (AP) — Famine has been mostly averted in Gaza as a surge of aid enters the territory during a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday. But he warned the threat could return quickly if the truce collapses.

Tom Fletcher spoke to The Associated Press after a two-day visit to Gaza, where hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived each day since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.

“The threat of famine, I think, is largely averted,” Fletcher said in Cairo. “Those starvation levels are down from where they were before the ceasefire.”

He spoke as concerns grow over whether the ceasefire can be extended and talks are meant to begin on its more difficult second phase. The six-week first phase is halfway through.

As part of the agreement, Israel said it would allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza each day, a major increase after months of aid officials expressing frustration about delays and insecurity hampering both the entry and distribution of food, medicines and other badly needed items.

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Ecuador’s conservative incumbent and a leftist lawyer are leading early presidential voting results

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador is likely to choose its next president in a runoff election later this year as early results of a first-round vote Sunday showed a tight difference between conservative President Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.

Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council after 66% of ballots were tallied showed Noboa received more than 3.09 million votes, or 44.7%, while González earned over 3.02 million votes, or 43.8%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.

The election is shaping up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when voters chose the young millionaire Noboa over the González, the protégée of the country’s most influential president this century.

All of Sunday’s candidates promised voters to reduce the widespread crime that pushed their lives into an unnerving new normal four years ago.

The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses were a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years can turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserves more time in office.

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Court grants request to block detained Venezuelan immigrants from being sent to Guantanamo

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the president’s immigration crackdown.

In a legal filing earlier in the day, lawyers for the men said the detainees “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantanamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”

It asked a U.S. District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order blocking their transfer, adding that “the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction.”

During a brief hearing, Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted the temporary order, which was opposed by the government, said Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney for the three men.

“It’s short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come,” Vosburgh told The Associated Press.

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Pope’s point-man on migration and aid concerned about USAID cuts, alarmed at US migrant crackdown

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis’ point-man on migration and development has urged the Trump administration to remember Christian principles about caring for others, saying people are being “terrorized” by the U.S. crackdown on migrants and vital church-run aid programs are being jeopardized by the planned gutting of USAID.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Czech-born Canadian Jesuit, is one of the cardinals most closely associated with Francis’ pontificate and heads the Vatican office responsible for migrants, the environment, the church’s Caritas Internationalis charity and development.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Czerny said every incoming government has the right to review its foreign aid budget, and to even reform an agency like USAID. But he said it’s another thing to dismantle an agency after it has made funding commitments.

“There are programs underway and expectations and we might even say commitments, and to break commitments is a serious thing,” Czerny said Sunday. “So while every government is qualified to review its budget in the case of foreign aid, it would be good to have some warning because it takes time to find other sources of funding or to find other ways of meeting the problems we have.”

USAID is the main international humanitarian and development arm of the U.S. government and in 2023 managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations. The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk have targeted USAID hardest so far in their challenge of the federal government: A sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of USAID’s programs worldwide, though a federal judge on Friday put a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.