Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has been charged with two counts of second degree assault which occurred in February, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(FOXBOROUGH, Mass.) — New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and assault charges, according to court records.
The complaint was made by a woman who worked as a private chef for the NFL player, according to court documents. During a Dec. 2 dispute over money that she claimed Diggs owed her, he allegedly “smacked her across the face” and “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck,” the complaint says.
“She said that as she tried to pry his arm away, he tightened his grip. At that point, the male threw her onto the bed,” the documents said.
Diggs’ attorney, David Meier, said the NFL player “categorically denies these allegations … because they did not occur.”
“They are unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, and were never investigated — because they did not occur,” Meier said in a statement. “The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction.”
The Patriots are standing behind Diggs, saying in a statement, “Stefon has informed the organization that he categorically denies the allegations.”
“We support Stefon,” the team said. “We will continue to gather information and will cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities and the NFL as necessary.”
The NFL added in statement that it’s “aware of the matter and have been in contact with the club.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(NEW YORK) — Stargazers will soon have an opportunity to view six planets in alignment in the night sky, according to NASA.
Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter will take part in a rare planetary parade on Saturday, the space agency said.
Planets are always on the move, so the viewing window will be brief. The best time to see the planets align will be just after sunset.
For the best view, astronomy guides recommend looking toward the western horizon about 30 minutes after sunset. This will give viewers the highest probability of spotting at least three planets at the same time, since Saturn, Mercury and Venus set in the west right after the sun.
The six planets will appear low in the western sky, with Mercury and Venus appearing the lowest and sinking below the horizon shortly after sunset, according to astronomers. Mercury and Venus are usually tricky to spot but will be visible on Saturday.
Saturn and Neptune will appear just above Mercury and Venus, while Jupiter and Uranus will appear a bit higher in the western sky, to the left of the others.
Viewers will need optical assistance via telescope or binoculars to see Uranus and Neptune, but the remaining four planets will be visible to the naked eye, NASA said.
Planets can sometimes appear “bunched together in the sky” because they orbit the sun in the same plane, known as the ecliptic, according to NASA. The planets will form a clear line along the ecliptic plane.
On the same day last year — Feb. 28, 2025 — seven planets were in alignment: Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, Saturn and Venus.
NASA says these planetary alignments happen every few years. The last one was visible from Earth in August 2025.
This year’s parade of planets is one of the first notable astronomical events taking place in 2026, according to NASA.
A total lunar blood moon eclipse will be visible from North America on March 3, especially for viewers on the West Coast. This will be the first lunar eclipse visible in the Americas since 2025.
A rare blue moon — which signifies the rare occasion of having a second full moon in the same month — will take place on May 31.
From June 8 to 9, the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, will be in conjunction, appearing “only a pinky finger apart,” according to NASA.
The Perseids meteor shower, considered the best meteor shower of the year due to its swift and bright meteors, will be best seen from Aug. 12 to 13, during a darker sky courtesy of the new moon.
And the Geminids, the most reliable meteor shower of the year, will take place from Dec. 13 to 14.
A Christmas Eve supermoon — when a full moon is closest to the Earth — rounds out the most spectacular astronomical events in 2026, according to NASA.
ABC News’ Briana Alvarado contributed to this report.
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(NEW YORK) — Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced on Wednesday that he would resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard University at the end of the academic year.
Summers — who has been on leave from the university since November — also resigned from his role as the co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, according to a Harvard spokesperson.
The resignation was made “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,” the spokesperson said.
“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers, a former Harvard president, said in a statement. “I will always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
He added, “Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”
The news was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.
Summers announced in November he was stepping back from public life after his apparent conversations with Epstein, the late sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019, were released by the House Oversight Committee.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement at the time.
ABC News previously reported that Summers maintained a relationship with Epstein for many years, particularly during Summers’ term as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006.
He flew at least four times on Epstein’s aircraft, according to flight records made public during litigation against Epstein and he was the top official at Harvard during a time when the university received millions in gifts from the disgraced financier.
All of those gifts were received prior to Epstein’s guilty plea in Florida in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, according to the university’s review of its Epstein connections.
No Epstein survivor has alleged wrongdoing by Summers and there is no public record evidence to suggest Summers was involved in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Summers served as U.S. treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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