On Sunday, the United States men's hockey team delivered one of the most dramatic Olympics finales in recent memory, beating Canada 2-1 in overtime. Forty-six years to the day that a scrappy group of underdogs beat a powerhouse Soviet team in the "Miracle on Ice," Jack Hughes' golden goal and Connor Hellebuyck's incredible goaltending provided American fans a rare moment of sheer joy. For a few minutes, we could put aside politics, the ugliness of our government's actions at home and abroad, and simply celebrate the boys in red, white and blue. But that moment was fleeting. Shortly after the game, video surfaced of President Donald Trump calling the players to congratulate them and invite them to attend his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. To the audible amusement of at least some of the gathered athletes, the president then joked about having to invite the women's team, too, or risk being impeached.

Before leaving for the airport to catch my flight to Milan, I bought one full-size American flag, four 8-by-12-inch flags and two backup smaller flags, just in case. Then — because of Minneapolis, because U.S. Olympic officials had to change the name of its athlete hangout from Ice House to Winter House, because of the Donroe Doctrine and because many Americans, including some Olympians, are struggling with what it means to represent and root for their country right now — I wondered how comfortable I should be about waving them. Maybe I could try turning the Stars and Stripes upside down, the way Martha-Ann Alito did shortly after Joe Biden had been elected president? Did I need to invent some kind of semaphore to convey support for Team U.S.A. combined with opposition to annexing Greenland or Canada?

Adrian Livelten hunched over a sewing machine last March on the eve of the men's ski jumping competition at the Nordic World Ski Championships. The suit technician for Norway's national ski jumping team brazenly made alterations to suits belonging to the country's two top contenders after those suits had already passed inspection. Livelten did this in plain view of Norway ski jumping head coach Magnus Brevik, seated in a chair halfway across the room. What neither Livelten nor Brevik realized at the time was that someone was recording them in secrecy from behind a curtain, someone who intended to distribute the video far and wide the following day. The damning footage shared by the anonymous whistleblower shook the sport of ski jumping, bringing out into the open the cheating that happened behind closed doors.

Donald Trump's State of the Union address drew around 28 million viewers across eight major news networks, according to preliminary data from Nielsen. The final numbers will be available on Thursday. Last year, when the president delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress, the final data showed that he drew almost 32 million viewers across those networks.

Hilary Knight, the captain of the gold medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team, said Wednesday that President Trump's "distasteful" joke about her squad should not overshadow their accomplishments. "I just thought the joke was distasteful and unfortunate, and I think just the way women are represented, it's a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats," Knight told reporters Wednesday, according to KING-TV in Seattle.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it plans to halt $259 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota over concerns about fraud in the state's social services programs, the latest chapter in the federal government's crackdown on the state. The announcement comes one day after President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, where he zoomed in on fraud in Minnesota and announced Vice President JD Vance would be leading efforts to combat the issue. It also follows the wind-down of Operation Metro Surge, a immigration crackdown in the state initially prompted by allegations of fraud.

Rep. Ilhan Omar said one of the guests she invited to the State of the Union address on Tuesday was arrested and "forcibly removed" from the House gallery — as she slammed the "heavy-handed" Capitol Police response. Omar (D-Minn.) claimed software engineer Aliya Rahman, who was dragged out of her vehicle while driving to a doctor's appointment during a Minnesota anti-immigration protest last month, was hauled out of the House gallery after standing up "silently" during President Trump's address. "My guest, Aliya Rahman, stood up silently in the gallery during the president's speech for a short period of time, part of which other guests were also standing," Omar said in a statement Wednesday. "For that, she was forcibly removed, despite warning officers about her injured shoulders and ultimately charged with 'Unlawful Conduct.'"

Former US treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers is retiring from his roles at the Ivy League university after its review into his ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Harvard said it had accepted Summers's resignation as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and that he would retire from his other academic and faculty posts.

President Donald Trump unveiled a new retirement savings plan for workers during his State of the Union address. During the Tuesday night address, Trump said that, despite the typical 401(k) retirement savings account rising under his administration, millions of working people still do not have access to a retirement plan that includes matching employer contributions.

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