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

In a post on his social media site, Trump said he had agreed with the head of NATO on a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security, potentially defusing tension that had far-reaching geopolitical implications.

He said “additional discussions" on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defense program, a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space.

Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out. But one idea NATO members have discussed as part of a compromise with Trump was that Denmark and the alliance would work with the U.S. to build more U.S. military bases on Greenland.

That's according to a European official familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear if that idea was included in the framework Trump announced.

Immigration enforcement arrives in Maine as a court freezes restrictions on tactics in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Maine became the latest target of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown, while a federal appeals court on Wednesday suspended a decision that prohibited federal officers from using tear gas or pepper spray against peaceful protesters in Minnesota.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was persuaded to freeze a judge’s ruling that bars retaliation against the public in Minnesota, including detaining people who follow agents in cars, while the government pursues an appeal. Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities, has been underway for weeks.

Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the appeals court on X, saying the Justice Department "will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom.”

After the stay was issued, Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the administration’s big-city immigration campaign, was seen on video repeatedly warning protesters on a snowy Minneapolis street “Gas is coming!” before tossing a canister into the crowd that released green smoke.

Minnesota is a major focus of immigration sweeps by agencies under the Department of Homeland Security and is where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 7. State and local officials who oppose the campaign were served with federal grand jury subpoenas Tuesday for records that might suggest they were trying to stifle enforcement.

ICE activity increases in Maine as anxiety grows in immigrant communities

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration is now targeting its mass deportation campaign on Maine, a state with relatively few residents in the United States illegally but a notable presence of African refugees in its largest cities.

The Department of Homeland Security named the operation “Catch of the Day,” an apparent play on Maine’s seafood industry, just as it has done for other enforcement surges, like “Metro Surge” in Minnesota and “Midway Blitz” in Chicago.

Reports of a surge in immigration arrests have struck fear in immigrant communities of Portland and Lewiston and prompted backlash from Gov. Janet Mills and other Democrats, including a refusal to help ICE agents obscure the identity of their vehicles by issuing undercover license plates.

Citizens have formed networks to alert neighborhoods to the presence of ICE agents and bring food to immigrants in their homes. Portland's superintendent said the school district is developing an online learning plan for its students — more than half of whom aren't white. Many businesses have posted signs saying ICE agents aren't welcome.

“While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach,” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said at a news conference Wednesday where he was joined by other local officials. “This council doesn’t stand apart from our immigrant communities, we stand with them.”

Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.

For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.

The memo itself has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ICE officers who are being deployed into cities and towns to implement the president’s immigration crackdown. New ICE hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo’s guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo, according to the whistleblower disclosure.

Republicans and some Democrats back contempt for the Clintons in House Epstein probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee advanced resolutions Wednesday to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.

In bipartisan votes, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee approved the contempt of Congress charges, setting up potential votes in the House early next month. In a rare departure from party lines, some Democrats supported the contempt measures against the Clintons, with several progressive lawmakers emphasizing the need for full transparency in the Epstein investigation.

The votes were the latest turn in the Epstein saga as Congress investigates how the late financier was able to sexually abuse dozens of teenage girls for years.

“No witness, not a former president or a private citizen, may willfully defy a congressional subpoena without consequence. But that is what the Clintons did and that is why we are here,” Rep. James Comer, the chairman, said at the session on Wednesday.

The repercussions of contempt charges loomed large, given the possibility of a substantial fine and even incarceration. Still, there were signs of a potential thaw as the Clintons appeared to be searching for an off-ramp to testify. In addition, passage of contempt charges through the full House was far from guaranteed, requiring a majority vote — something Republicans increasingly struggle to achieve.

Supreme Court seems inclined to keep Lisa Cook on Fed board despite Trump attempt to fire her

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed inclined to keep Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook in her job, casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s bid to wrest control of the nation's central bank.

The justices heard arguments over Trump’s effort to fire Cook based on allegations she committed mortgage fraud, which she denies. No president has fired a sitting governor in the 112-year history of the Fed, which was structured to be independent of day-to-day politics. The case presented the court with one of the more extraordinary efforts by Trump to expand presidential power. Though the court has frequently sided with him on emergency petitions, Cook's case could prove to be an exception.

Allowing Cook's firing to go forward "would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees on the nation's highest court.

At least five other justices on the nine-member court also sounded skeptical about the effort to remove her from office.

Both Cook and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell sat through nearly two hours of arguments in the packed courtroom.

Meteorologists blame a stretched polar vortex, moisture, lack of sea ice for dangerous winter blast

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warm Arctic waters and cold continental land are combining to stretch the dreaded polar vortex in a way that will send much of the United States a devastating dose of winter weather later this week with swaths of painful subzero temperatures, heavy snow and powerline-toppling ice.

Meteorologists said the eastern two-thirds of the nation is threatened with a winter storm that could rival the damage of a major hurricane and has some origins in an Arctic that is warming from climate change. They warn that the frigid weather is likely to stick around through the rest of January and into early February, meaning the snow and ice that accumulates will take a long time to melt.

Forecasts have the storm, expected to hit starting Friday, stretching from New Mexico to New England and across the Deep South. About 230 million people face temperatures of 20 degrees (-7 degrees Celsius) or colder and around 150 million are likely to be hit by snow and ice, with many Americans getting both, according to the National Weather Service.

“I think people are underestimating just how bad it’s going to be,” said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, now a private meteorologist.

The polar vortex, a patch of bitterly cold air that often stays penned up in northern Canada and Alaska, is being elongated by a wave in the upper atmosphere that goes back to a relatively ice-free part of the Arctic and snow-buried Siberia. As the bone-chilling temperatures sweep through the U.S., they'll meet with moisture from off California and the Gulf of Mexico to set up crippling ice and snow in many areas.

Trump's Board of Peace is dividing countries in Europe and the Middle East

JERUSALEM (AP) — Divisions emerged Wednesday over U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as its ambitions have grown beyond Gaza, with some Western European countries declining to join, others remaining noncommittal and a group of Muslim countries agreeing to sign on.

The developments underscored European concerns over the expanded and divisive scope of the project — which some say may seek to rival the U.N. Security Council's role in mediating global conflicts. Trump is looking to form the board officially this week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Norway and Sweden said they won’t accept their invitations, after France also said no, while a bloc of Muslim-majority nations — Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said in a joint statement that their leaders would join.

It was not immediately clear how many countries would accept. A White House official said about 30 countries were expected to join, and about 50 had been invited. Two other U.S. officials, who similiarly spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal plans not yet made public, said roughly 60 countries had been invited but only 18 had so far confirmed their participation.

Trump was sunny about the prospects ahead of an event Thursday tied to the board, saying of the countries that were invited that “some need parliamentary approval but for the most part, everybody wants to be on.”

Trump to meet with Zelenskyy as Ukraine endures a bitter winter after Russian attacks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — About 4,000 buildings in Kyiv lacked heat Wednesday and nearly 60% of the Ukrainian capital was without power, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after days of Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid and as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to hold talks with the Ukrainian leader.

Trump's delegatesalso were expected in Moscow later this week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With temperatures falling as low as minus 20 C (minus 4 F) in Kyiv, Ukraine is seeing one of the coldest winters in years, deepening the hardship of Ukrainians almost four years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.

A yearlong push by the Trump administration to stop the fighting hasn’t yielded any breakthrough, despite the American president issuing a series of deadlines, though efforts were set to continue.

Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that he would meet Thursday with Zelenskyy.

US stocks recover half of the prior day's plunge after Trump calls off Greenland-related tariffs

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market bounced back from its worst day since October on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said he reached the framework for a deal about Greenland, an island he’s long coveted, and won’t impose tariffs he had threatened on several European countries.

The S&P 500 rallied 1.2% after Trump said the deal, “if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America” and its allies in the North Atlantic region. The announcement triggered an immediate move higher in the stock market, which found solace earlier in the day after Trump ratcheted down his rhetoric and told business and government leaders in Europe that he would not use force to take “the piece of ice.”

The de-escalation in tensions helped the S&P 500 recover just over half of its 2.1% drop from the day before and pull closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 588 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%.

Treasury yields also eased in the bond market in another signal of reduced worries among investors. Besides the progress on Greenland, they also got help from a calming of yields in Japan’s jumpy bond market. The value of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, clawed back some of its declines against other currencies after sliding the day before.

Trump himself acknowledged how the U.S. stock market sold off on Tuesday because of his desire for Greenland, but he called it “peanuts compared to what it’s gone up” in the first year of his second term and said it would go up further in the future.