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Vance and Rubio set to attend Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Italy. Trump isn’t on the list

ROME, Italy (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance will lead an American delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and attend the opening ceremony, the White House said Saturday.

Vance will be joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second lady Usha Vance, U.S. Ambassador Tilman Fertitta and a group of Olympic gold medalists, the White House said in a statement.

The Milan Cortina Games kick off on Feb. 6. The opening ceremony’s Parade of Nations will feature athletes led by the national flagbearers not only in Milan’sSan Siro stadium, which will be packed with 60,000 spectators, but also, for the first time in Olympic history, in three other locations: the mountain venues of Cortina, Predazzo and Livigno.

U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t on the list of members of the delegation.

The athletes in the Olympic delegation include Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, twin sisters who were members of the ice hockey team that won in 2018. Figure skater Evan Lysacek and Apolo Ohno, who won gold twice in short track speed skating, will also join.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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