President Donald Trump's budget office is telling government agencies to compile data on federal money sent to a group of 14 mostly Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia. The administration says in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that the purpose is to “facilitate efforts to reduce the improper and fraudulent use of those funds.” The memo to the agencies does not explain why it's focusing on those states. The order comes the week after Trump threatened to deny federal funding to states that are home to local governments that resist his immigration policies.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Economic Forum think tank opened its annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos on Tuesday where political leaders and business leaders will discuss issues ranging from economic disparity to climate change to world…

President Donald Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion. He alleges the bank closed his accounts for political reasons after he left office in January 2021. The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County court, claims JPMorgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in February 2021, giving 60 days' notice without explanation. Trump says this cut him off from millions and disrupted his businesses. JPMorgan, in a statement, expressed regret over the lawsuit but denied political motives. A spokesperson said the suit lacks merit, emphasizing accounts are closed for legal or regulatory risks, not political reasons.

Some of Donald Trump’s handpicked appointees who have a say in his White House ballroom project are asking questions about design and scale, even as they broadly endorsed the president’s vision for a massive expansion. Members of the Commission on Fine Arts asked the project's lead architect on Thursday to come back to them with 3D scale models of the White House complex including the proposed addition, and to include the Treasury Department and Eisenhower office buildings that flank the White House. Separately, historic preservationists are challenging the project in federal court.

Harry Styles is getting back out on the road. The English musician announced a 50-date global tour made up of international residencies. Styles will hit Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney from May through December. The news arrives a week after Styles revealed his fourth studio album will arrive March 6. Titled “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” the album is Styles’ first full-length project in four years. It follows the 2022, critically acclaimed synth pop record “Harry’s House." That one which earned the former One Direction star the top prize of album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

The active New York Mets have acquired ace pitcher Freddy Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers from Milwaukee in a trade that sent two top prospects to the Brewers: pitcher Brandon Sproat and minor league infielder/outfielder Jett Williams. Peralta gives the new-look Mets a frontline starter after their rotation faltered in the second half of a hugely disappointing 2025 season. Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA last year, when he led the National League in wins and finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting. He also earned his second All-Star selection. The 29-year-old right-hander is set to make $8 million this year and can become a free agent following the World Series.

Vice President JD Vance is blaming what he calls the "far left" for turmoil surrounding the White House's deportation campaign. Vance is set to visit Minnesota later Thursday. But first he stopped in Ohio, his home state, where he criticized opposition to the administration's immigration enforcement. The vice president will meet in Minneapolis with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Protests have erupted in the city after an agent fatally shot Renee Good this month. Vance has defended that agent and said Good's death was a "tragedy of her own making." Vance also is praising the arrest of protesters who disrupted a weekend church service in Minnesota.

A new study shows how earthquake monitors can better track space junk by tuning into their sonic booms. Scientists reported Thursday that they collected seismic readings from the sonic booms generated when a discarded module from a Chinese crew capsule reentered in 2024. The data allowed them to place the object's path nearly 20 miles farther south than radar had predicted from orbit. The study in the journal Science focused on one debris event. But the researchers already have used publicly available data from seismic networks to track a few dozen other reentries, including those from three failed SpaceX Starship test flights.

This year’s class of Oscar nominees has been announced. Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” led all films Thursday with 16 nominations to the 98th Academy Awards, setting a record for the most in Oscar history. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was second in the tally with 13 nominations.

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith's congressional hearing is underway. Thursday's hearing is expected to focus fresh attention on Smith's two criminal investigations that shadowed Donald Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign. Smith testified behind closed doors last month but returns to the House Judiciary Committee for a public hearing. The hearing is likely to divide along partisan lines between Republican lawmakers looking to undermine Smith and Democrats hoping to elicit new and damaging testimony about Trump’s conduct in the Washington, D.C., and Florida cases. The hearing unfolds against the backdrop of an ongoing Trump administration retribution campaign targeting the investigators who scrutinized the Republican president.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge ticked up in November in the latest sign that price increases remain stubbornly elevated. Consumer prices rose 2.8% in November from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from a 2.7% annual pace in October. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also increased 2.8% in November from a year ago, slightly higher than October’s 2.7%. Inflation has fallen sharply from a four-decade high in 2022 but has mostly leveled off in the past two years.

The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to allow new advertising messages about Zyn, a type of nicotine pouch that's growing in popularity. Agency advisers are holding an all-day meeting Thursday to consider a request from Philip Morris to begin promoting Zyn as a less-harmful alternative for adult smokers. Studies submitted by the company suggest that switching to Zyn can lower the risks of lung cancer, stroke and other smoking-related ailments. But the FDA and its advisers must weigh those benefits against other potential risks, including use by underage teenagers.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says a woman who led an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church has been arrested. Bondi announced the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong in a post on X on Thursday. On Sunday, protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor. The group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month. Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and prominent local activist, had called for the pastor affiliated with ICE to resign.

Christian McCaffrey is the first player to be a finalist for three AP NFL awards, joining Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford in the running for The Associated Press 2025 NFL Most Valuable Player award. McCaffrey and Maye are also finalists for Offensive Player of the Year. McCaffrey and Lawrence are among the finalists for Comeback Player of the Year. The winners will be announced at “NFL Honors” on Feb. 5. A nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league completed voting before the playoffs began. Votes were tabulated by the accounting firm of Lutz and Carr.