MON SEVEN

Once again, there will be five Olympic figure skating medal events: men's singles, women's singles, pairs, ice dance and the team event.

There is no doubt that all eyes will be onIlia Malinin, who will be the overwhelming favorite to take home the gold medal in the men's singles. The Americans are striving for back-to-back gold medals in the event afterNathan Chen topped the podium at the 2022 Gamesin Beijing and helped the USA score gold in the team event.

The last American woman to win gold in the women's singles competition was Sarah Hughes, who stunned the sport with her victory at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Here is the schedule for the figure skating events. All times listed are Eastern and will stream onPeacockunless otherwise noted.

Alysa Liu poses for a photo during the U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in preparation for the 2026 Milan Olympic Winter Games.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Alysa Liu competes in the women's free skate competition during the 2026 U.S. figure skating championships at Enterprise Center.

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Alysa Liu, world champion figure skater and 2026 Olympic gold hopeful

Alysa Liu poses for a photo during the U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in preparation for the 2026 Milan Olympic Winter Games.

Friday, Feb. 6, 2026

• 3:55–8:55 a.m.: Team Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan)

  • Team Event, Ice Dance/Rhythm Dance: 3:55 a.m. (USA Network)

  • Team Event, Pairs' Short Program: 5:35 a.m. (USA Network)

  • Team Event, Women's Singles Short Program: 7:35 a.m. (USA Network)

Saturday, Feb.y 7, 2026

• 1:45 p.m.: Team Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan)

  • Team Event, Men's Singles Short Program: 1:45 p.m. (NBC)

  • Team Event, Ice Dance Free Dance:  4:05 p.m. (NBC)

Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026

• 1:30–5 p.m.: Team Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) | Medal Event 

  • Team event, Pair Skating, Free Skate: 1:30 p.m. (USA Network)

  • Team event, Women Singles Skating, Free Skate: 2:45 p.m. (USA Network)

  • Team event, Men Singles Skating, Free Skate: 3:55 p.m. (USA Network)

Monday, Feb. 9, 2026

• 1:20–4:55 p.m.: Ice Dance - Rhythm Dance | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026

• 12:30–4:45 p.m.: Men's Short Program | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026

• 1:30–5:05 p.m.: Ice Dance - Free Dance | Medal Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Friday, Feb. 13, 2026

• 1–5:10 p.m.: Figure Skating – Men's Free Skate | Medal Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026

• 1:45–4:55 p.m.: Figure Skating — Pairs' Short Program | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

• 2–5:15 p.m.: Figure Skating — Pairs' Free Skate | Medal Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026

• 12:45–5 p.m.: Figure Skating — Women's Short Program | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (USA Network, NBC)

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026

• 1 p.m.: Figure Skating — Women's Free Skate | Medal Event | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (NBC)

Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026

• 2 p.m.: Figure Skating — Exhibition Gala | Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan) (NBC)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Here's full Olympic figure skating schedule for 2026 Winter Games

Richardson, 25, an Olympic gold medalist, pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of dangerous excessive speeding of 100 mph or more, according to Orange County court records.

She was pulled over on Jan. 29 and accused of hitting speeds of 104 mph on State Road 429 in the area of Stoney Brook Parkway in Winter Park, which has a posted speed limit of 65 mph, according to the arrest affidavit.

Richardson changed lanes several times, flashed her lights at other cars and drove too close to other vehicles, the affidavit said.

After the Orange County Sheriff's Office pulled her over, she said she was speeding because a back tire was underinflated. She said that her car was new and that she did not mean to go the speed she was traveling, the affidavit said.

Shortly afterward, fellow Olympian Christian Coleman, 29, stopped his black Jeep on the shoulder of the road in front of Richardson's car. He told the deputy he was her boyfriend and walked into the area of the traffic stop, the filing said.

At first he complied with orders to wait by his car, but later he returned and defended Richardson's driving, it said.

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Later, another vehicle, driven by fellow Olympic sprinter Twanisha Terry, stopped on the side of the road. Terry, 27, was also told to wait by her car, but both she and Coleman started to speak with Richardson, the affidavit said.

Both were cited for stopping on a limited access highway. Terry complied with the deputy and presented her identification, was cited and left the scene, the affidavit said.

Coleman refused to identify himself and was arrested on a charge of resisting, the affidavit said.

Inside his car, a sergeant found "a glass smoking device" with "green leafy plant material clinging to the bowl area" in the center console, the affidavit said.

Coleman was issued citations for stopping on a limited access roadway and having an expired registration over six months. He was further charged with resisting an officer without violence and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also pleaded not guilty Monday, court records show.

He and Richardson were taken to the Orange County Booking and Release Center, and both were released after they posted bond that day. Their attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Court records did not list an attorney for Terry. A representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

USA Track and Field said it had no comment Wednesday.

Delanie Walker, a former tight end who played for San Francisco from 2006 to 2012, told The California Post on Wednesday a substation near the 49ers' training facilities in Santa Clara, Calif. is absolutely not the reason so many Niners over the last few years have been getting hurt.

"That power plant has nothing to do with injuries," Walker said, matter-of-factly. "It can't have anything to do with injuries. If it had something to do with injuries, all the houses that are right across the street from it, people would have been suffering injuries.

"It's football, you're going to get hurt."

Walker — who appeared at Super Bowl LX Radio Row on behalf of Novartis to promote prostate cancer screening awareness — said he understood why fans have latched on to the theory, but he just doesn't see how it's possibly true.

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"I get it," he said. "But, to be honest with you, that's been there since the '80s.

"They won multiple Super Bowls. I went to Super Bowls with the 49ers. We never had injuries like that. I don't know why that is happening, but I do not believe the power plant is the reason why players are getting hurt."

Niners owner Jed York shared a similar sentiment on "Up & Adams" on Wednesday, when he told Kay Adams the power plant has "been there since 1987."

"Jerry Rice was there. It didn't seem to affect Jerry Rice. It seems like Jerry Rice can still play today. I don't believe that that's something that is a real issue."

York later added, "I think we can debunk it."

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Feb 5 (Reuters) - All 166 worshippers kidnapped during attacks on ​two churches in Kurmin Wali in northern Nigeria's ‌Kaduna state last month have been released, the Christian Association of Nigeria ‌said on Thursday.

Reverend John Hayab, chairman of the northern chapter of CAN, said every abducted worshipper had now returned, without giving details on whether a ransom was paid or ⁠how the release ‌was secured.

CAN leader in Kaduna, Reverend Caleb Ma'aji, also confirmed the release, saying he just ‍returned from the government house in Kaduna where the governor is set to receive the worshippers.

"The stage is set for them to ​be brought... His Excellency will meet with them. This ‌is a result of the prayers we have offered," he said.

Nigerian government officials have yet to comment publicly on the release.

The assault on the Kaduna churches was among the latest in a string of mass abductions that ⁠has intensified pressure on the Nigerian ​government. Nigeria has also faced scrutiny ​from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused the country of failing to stop the persecution ‍of Christians. ⁠U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets on December 25.

Abuja says it is working with Washington ⁠to improve security and denies any systematic persecution of Christians.

(Additional reporting ‌by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Writing by Elisha ‌Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up pressure on Iran, suggesting America could attack Iranover the killing of peaceful demonstratorsor if Tehran launches mass executions over the protests. Meanwhile, Trump has pushed Iran's nuclear program back into the frame as well after the June war disrupted five rounds of talks held in Rome and Muscat, Oman, last year.

Trump began the diplomacy initially by writing a letter last year to Iran's 86-year-oldSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneito jump start these talks. Khamenei has warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own, particularly as the theocracy he commands reels following the protests.

Here's what to know about Iran's nuclear program and the tensions that have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump writes letter to Khamenei

Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, 2025, thengave a television interview the next dayin which he acknowledged sending it. He said: "I've written them a letter saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing.'"

Since returning to the White House, the president has been pushing for talks while ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a military strike by Israel or the U.S. could target Iranian nuclear sites.

A previous letter from Trump during his first term drew an angry retort from the supreme leader.

But Trump's letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to face-to-face meetings, thoughno deals to limit Pyongyang's atomic bombsand a missile program capable of reaching the continental U.S.

Oman mediated previous talks

Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has mediatedtalksbetweenIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. The two men have met face to face after indirect talks, a rare occurrence due to the decades of tensions between the countries.

It hasn't been all smooth, however. Witkoff at one point made a television appearance in which he suggested 3.67% enrichment for Iran could be something the countries could agree on. But that's exactly the terms set by the 2015 nuclear deal struck under former President Barack Obama, from whichTrump unilaterally withdrew America. Witkoff, Trump and other American officials in the time since have maintained Iran can have no enrichment under any deal, something to which Tehran insists it won't agree.

Those negotiations ended, however, with Israel launching the war in June on Iran.

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The 12-day war and nationwide protests

Israel launched what becamea 12-day war on Iranin June that includedthe U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Iran later acknowledged in November that the attacks saw ithalt all uranium enrichment in the country, though inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to visit the bombed sites.

Iran soon experienced protests that began in late December over the collapse of the country's rial currency. Those demonstrations soon became nationwide, sparking Tehran to launch a bloody crackdownthat killed thousandsand saw tens of thousands detained by authorities.

Iran's nuclear program worries the West

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officialsincreasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's program put its stockpile at some 9,870 kilograms (21,760 pounds), with a fraction of it enriched to 60%.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so." Iranian officials have threatened to pursue the bomb.

Decades of tense relations between Iran and the US

Iran was once one of the U.S.'s top allies in the Mideast underShah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. TheCIA had fomented a 1953 coupthat cemented the shah's rule.

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule.The Islamic Revolution followed, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran's theocratic government.

Later that year, university studentsoverran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah's extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980ssaw the U.S. back Saddam Hussein.The "Tanker War"during that conflict saw the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, while the U.S. latershot down an Iranian commercial airlinerthat the U.S. military said it mistook for a warplane.

Iran and the U.S. have seesawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. ButTrump unilaterally withdrew America from the accordin 2018, sparking tensions in the Mideast that persist today.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage fromthe Carnegie Corporation of New YorkandOutrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.