AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

Devon Witherspoon, Derick Hall, Byron Murphy and the rest of Mike Macdonald’s ferocious unit pummeled Drake Maye, and the Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 on Sunday to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl.

“We never waver, man. We believe in each other. We love each other, and now we’re world champions," Macdonald said.

Darnold threw a touchdown pass to AJ Barner, Kenneth Walker III ran for 135 yards and Jason Myers set a Super Bowl record by making all five of his field-goal tries.

“To do this with this team, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Darnold said. “So proud of our guys, our defense. I mean, I can’t say enough great things about our defense, our special teams.”

Bad Bunny brings Gaga, Martin and Puerto Rican pride to Super Bowl as Green Day, Puth play pregame

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Stars were front-and-center at Super Bowl 60, with Chris Pratt and Jon Bon Jovi introducing the teams, a series of soaring pre-game performances and Bad Bunny's much-anticipated halftime show featuring a tour of Puerto Rican culture and a real-life marriage.

Before the game at Levi's Stadium, Blue Ivy Carter and her sister Rumi leaped in an end zone and Green Day delivered a tribute to the Super Bowl's 60th anniversary.

Brandi Carlile kept it sincere and simple for “America, the Beautiful,” Charlie Puth made “The Star-Spangled Banner” big and soulful and Coco Jones brought a bit of the elements of both to “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Bad Bunny brought Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and a whole lot of his native Puerto Rico to his halftime show.

“God bless America!” he shouted toward the end, a rare English phrase in the 13-minute halftime show. Then he gave a roll call of the nations of North, South and Central America, including Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the United States and Canada.

Lindsey Vonn's fall explained: A reverse banked section, an unfortunate bump and an inflated air bag

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn knows the Olympic downhill course better than anyone.

She’s won a record 12 World Cup races on the Olympia delle Tofane track — split evenly between six downhills and six super-Gs — and has a total of 20 podium results there, stretching back to her very first podium on the entire circuit in 2004.

So how did the 41-year-old American standout lose control just 12.5 seconds into her run and crash so spectacularly at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Sunday?

Here’s what happened and why:

The highlight of the downhill course is the Tofana schuss, a narrow chute between two walls of Dolomite rock where the skiers accelerate to 80 mph (130 kph).

Hong Kong ex-publisher Jimmy Lai's sentence raises international concerns as China defends it

HONG KONG (AP) — The sentencing on Monday of Hong Kong's onetime media magnate Jimmy Lai raised concerns from foreign governments and rights groups, but Chinese and Hong Kong authorities defended it, saying it reflected the spirit of the rule of law.

Lai, a 78-year-old prominent democracy advocate, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. His co-defendants, who entered guilty pleas to the collusion-related charge, received prison terms ranging between six years and three months, and 10 years.

Some foreign governments and rights groups called for the release of Lai, a British citizen. But China's Foreign Ministry maintained that Lai is a Chinese citizen, and urged other countries to respect its sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong.

Here's what they said:

The EU reiterated its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Lai, citing his advanced age and health condition.

Israeli forces capture a local Sunni Islamist official and Hamas ally in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — In an operation in southern Lebanon early on Monday, Israelis forces seized a local official with a Sunni Islamist group and an ally of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and took him to Israel for questioning, the Israeli military and Lebanese state media reported.

Also on Monday, an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern Lebanese village of Yanouh, killing three people, including a child, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strike.

According to the NNA agency, Atwi Atwi — a local official with the Sunni Islamist group al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group in English — was taken in the southern village of Hebbarieh, in the region of Hasbaya and close to the border with Israel.

A statement from the Israeli military said Israeli troops apprehended an Islamic Group official in a “targeted intelligence-based operation.” It did not release the official's name.

The Islamic Group condemned the seizure, saying it was part of Israel’s daily attacks and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty. It called on the Lebanese state to work for the release of Atwi.

UK leader Starmer fights for his job as Mandelson-Epstein revelations spark a leadership crisis

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s position hung by a thread on Monday as he tried to persuade his Labour Party’s lawmakers not to kick him out of his job after just a year and a half in office.

Starmer lost his chief of staff on Sunday and is rapidly shedding support from Labour legislators after revelations about the relationship between former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer is due to address Labour lawmakers behind closed doors later Monday in an attempt to rebuild some of his shattered authority.

The political storm stems from Starmer's decision in 2024 to appoint Mandelson to Britain’s most important diplomatic post, despite knowing he had ties to Epstein.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Critics say Starmer should have known better than to appoint Mandelson, 72, a contentious figure whose career has been studded with scandals over money or ethics.

Prince William and Princess Catherine express deep concern for Epstein victims

LONDON (AP) — Prince William and Princess Catherine expressed concern for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein in a statement released Monday, the latest move by the British monarchy to distance itself from revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s relationship with the convicted sex offender.

Britain’s most popular royals say that they were appalled by the contents of more than 3 million pages of documents released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I can confirm that the Prince and Princess of Wales have been deeply concerned by the continued revelations,’’ the palace said in a statement. “Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.”

The statement released ahead of William’s three-day trip to Saudi Arabia, which begins Monday, is part of the monarchy’s response to the escalating crisis surrounding the former prince, who was stripped of his royal titles in October after previous revelations about his relationship with Epstein. King Charles III’s 65-year-old brother is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The king last week forced Mountbatten-Windsor to leave his longtime home at Royal Lodge near Windsor Castle, accelerating a move that was first announced in October but wasn’t expected to be completed until later this year.

Migrants languish in US detention centers amid dire conditions and prolonged waits

MIAMI (AP) — Felipe Hernandez Espinosa spent 45 days at “ Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration holding center in Florida where detainees have reported worms in their food, toilets that don't flush and overflowing sewage. Mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere.

For the past five months, the 34-year-old asylum-seeker has been at an immigration detention camp at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, where two migrants died in January and which has many of the same conditions, according to human rights groups. Hernandez said he asked to be returned to Nicaragua but was told he has to see a judge. After nearly seven months in detention, his hearing was scheduled for Feb. 26.

Prolonged detention has become more common in President Donald Trump's second term, at least partly because a new policy generally prohibits immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation cases wind through backlogged courts. Many, like Hernandez, are prepared to give up any efforts to stay in the United States.

“I came to this country thinking they would help me, and I’ve been detained for six months without having committed a crime,” he said in a phone interview from Fort Bliss. “It is been too long. I am desperate.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot hold immigrants indefinitely, finding that six months was a reasonable cap.

World shares rally and Japan's Nikkei 225 jumps after a big victory for PM Takaichi's ruling party

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares advanced and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 share index jumped as much as 5% to a record on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s governing party secured a two-thirds supermajority in a parliamentary election.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX gained 0.6% to 24,864.59, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% higher, to 8,288.06. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 10,399.61.

U.S. futures edged higher after the U.S. stock market roared back on Friday as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge. The future for the S&P 500 added 0.1%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rallied 2% for its best day since May. The Dow industrials soared 2.5%, topping the 50,000 level for the first time. The Nasdaq composite leaped 2.2%.

The combination of a rebound in tech shares, Wall Street’s rally and other upbeat news lifted shares early Monday.

Breezy Johnson and Ilia Malinin star for US at Milan Cortina Olympics as Lindsey Vonn crashes

MILAN (AP) — The crash. The gasps. The helicopter.

Lindsey Vonn's frightening fall in the women's downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics couldn't help but overshadow U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson’s feat — winning her country's first gold medal at these Games.

Johnson’s victory Sunday in Cortina wasn't the Olympic comeback story everyone expected, as the focus was on Vonn going for gold despite a torn ACL. Even as Johnson sat in the leader’s box on the verge of securing her first Olympic gold medal, her emotions swung from anticipation to anguish when Vonn went down.

“It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life,” Johnson said.

Still, the 30-year-old Johnson became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill — Vonn won it in 2010 — and it came after her own injury concerns as well as a 14-month ban for violating “whereabouts” rules when it comes to testing for doping.