Minorkys Hoyos Ruiz lights coals to cook dinner during a scheduled blackout to ration energy in Santa Cruz del Norte, home to one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants, late afternoon Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

SANTA CRUZ DEL NORTE, Cuba (AP) — The smell of sulfur hits hard in this coastal town that produces petroleum and is home to one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants. Yet, even as the plant cranks back to life, residents remain in the dark, surrounded by energy sources they cannot use.

As tensions deepen between Cuba and the U.S. after it attacked Venezuela and disrupted oil shipments, so have the woes of Santa Cruz del Norte.

People in this town east of Havana are plunged into darkness daily and forced to cook with coal and firewood, but not everyone can afford this new reality.

Kenia Montoya said she recently ripped the wooden door off her bathroom in the crumbling cinderblock home that she shares with her children because she needed firewood, and they needed to eat.

“Things are getting worse for us now,” she said. “They don’t supply us with petroleum. They don’t supply us with food. Where does that leave us, then?”

A faded purple sheet now hangs over their bathroom. Nearby, only a handful of coal remains in a small bag.

The 50-year-old mother doesn’t know how she’ll cook once the coal runs out because supplies in the region have dwindled.

It’s one of many uncertainties gripping towns like this one across Cuba after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

“Well, it’s a failed nation now,” Trump said this week. “And they’re not getting any money from Venezuela, and they’re not getting any money from anywhere.”

‘How are we going to live?’

Near the main entrance to Santa Cruz del Norte, a sprawling mural is emblazoned with the following message in all caps: “NO ONE GIVES UP HERE. LONG LIVE A FREE CUBA.”

But people wonder how long they can hold out.

The island’s crisis is deepening: severe blackouts, soaring prices and a shortage of basic goods.

Meanwhile, the Cuban government remains mum over its oil reserves, offering no word on whether Russia or anyone else would increase their shipments after oil supplies from Venezuela were disrupted when the U.S. attacked and arrested its president.

On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the situation as “complex” as he called the U.S. stance “aggressive and criminal,” saying it’s affecting things like transportation, hospitals, schools, tourism and the production of food.

He said that in a week, he would provide details about how Cuba will deal with the crisis.

Cuban officials recently lauded a phone call they had with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, although they did not share details. Meanwhile, Mexico has pledged to send humanitarian aid, including food, after Trump said he asked that it suspend oil shipments to the island.

Many in Santa Cruz del Norte feel the worst is yet to come.

“With all those tariffs they’re going to impose on countries, no oil will come in, and how are we going to live?” said Gladys Delgado.

The 67-year-old had cracked open her front door on a recent chilly afternoon to get some fresh air as she sewed small, colorful rugs made of clothing scraps to make extra cash because her pension is only $6 a month.

A couple of houses down, Minorkys Hoyos dropped a handful of cassava cubes into an old pot she filled with water from a barrel and placed it over a tiny, makeshift grill inside her home.

“You live with what you have,” she said, noting she had no other food available at that moment.

The few rechargeable items that used to light her small, disheveled home have broken down, and she began to bump into things until a neighbor gifted her an improvised lantern made with fuel and a reused baby food jar.

“When it’s dark, I don’t see,” said the 53-year-old diabetic.

It was late afternoon as she cooked, but her home was already dark.

Outside, two children sat on a dusty sidewalk. They stacked dominoes one atop the other to see how high they could go before the whole thing tumbled down.

For the past three months, Santa Cruz del Norte had electricity while most of Cuba was hit with constant outages stemming from aging infrastructure and fuel shortages at power plants.

People like Iván Amores were wary of rejoicing, fearful they would be plunged into the dark again like most of last year. Their fears materialized a week ago, when the outages hit again.

“This used to be wonderful,” he recalled of his town when it had electricity. “Now, it’s truly torture.”

He uses a tiny, makeshift barbecue pit to cook for himself, his daughter and young granddaughter, buying pricier coal at $3 a bag because it generates less smoke inside their tidy home.

Amores also invested in a single tube light that a Cuban man in another town builds and sells; it can be charged and even comes with a USB port.

But even those kind of brilliant inventions Cubans are known for are out of reach for people like 67-year-old Mariela Viel; she and her husband still cannot afford to add a bathroom to their cinderblock home with a dirt floor.

Growing up, Viel said she never knew what a blackout was: “We were living well. We had food, money.”

She worked more than 40 years at the cafeteria of Cuba’s power company and now receives $8 a month in pension.

“What can I afford? Nothing. Not even a package of chicken,” she said.

When there’s power, she cooks rice and beans and listens to her favorite music: Cuban big bands.

Viel sat outside one recent afternoon, watching a couple neighbors walk briskly with buckets of warmed up water so their families could take showers during a cold snap that began in late January, with a record low of 32 degrees (0 degrees) recorded in a town southeast of Santa Cruz del Norte.

Celebrations also start earlier now, with one family organizing a boy’s 15th birthday — a milestone age across Latin America — mid-afternoon before he and his friends opted to finish partying outdoors under a big yellow moon.

It glowed on a group of people nearby who danced and sang outside next to a scooter blasting music from its speakers to celebrate the birthday of Olga Lilia Laurenti, now 61.

“I’m telling you, whatever’s meant to be, let it be, because we can’t stop it,” she said as she paused dancing.

“You’re not going to waste part of your life on something that’s out of your control. If only we could do something, but what are we going to do? We can’t suffer. You need laughter, you need joy.”

Best Reporter
News Reporter

Photograph by: Peter Casey
Fans leave in the snow from the ice hockey game between the Norfolk Admirals and Trois-Riveres Lions at Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026.

Four homes blasted by icy winds on an eroding North Carolina island collapsed into the ocean and Florida farmers anxiously waited for frozen plants to thaw Monday as people across the eastern half of the United States coped with more than a week of sub-freezing weather.

Thermometers hovered below freezing throughout the day Monday across the northern U.S. from the Dakotas to Maine, and sub-freezing temperatures were forecast to return to the Southeast overnight, reaching into parts of northern Florida.

As residents of the Carolinas and Virginia dug out from deep snow, more than 70,000 homes and businesses in Tennessee and Mississippi began a second week without electricity since an earlier snow and ice storm inflicted severe damage on power lines and utility poles.

In hard-hit Nashville, Tennessee, Terry Miles said Monday was his ninth day without power. Miles said he has been living with his wife and their dog in a bedroom that he tried to insulate by hanging up blankets. He’s cooking and heating water outdoors on a propane grill. On Sunday someone loaned him a small gas generator with enough power to run a couple of space heaters.

“We’re roughing it,” Miles said. “I’ve been camping before and had it easier than this. I feel like Grizzly Adams.”

The death toll has surpassed 110 in states afflicted by the dangerous cold since Jan. 24.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that hypothermia played a role in the deaths of 13 people found dead outside in the bitter cold, according to preliminary findings. More than a dozen other suspected hypothermia deaths were reported in Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas.

On the East Coast, where a weekend bomb cyclone brought heavy snow and fierce winds, the National Park Service said four unoccupied homes along North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean since Sunday. A bystander recorded one of them toppling into the water. Photos taken by the agency showed piles of debris along the shoreline in the village of Buxton.

The Outer Banks’ narrow, low-lying barrier islands have been eroding for years as rising seas swallow the land. Prior to the latest storm, more than two dozen houses, usually built on stilts at the water’s edge, had collapsed since 2020. Most fell in extreme weather.

In Florida, where some farmers spray water on their fruit trees and plants ahead of freezing weather to help protect them from even deeper cold, fern growers were waiting Monday for a protective layer of ice coating their plants to melt away so they could assess damage. Florida got so cold over the weekend that the Tampa-St. Petersburg area saw snow flurries and cold-stunned iguanas were motionless on the ground.

The timing was especially awful for fern growers, who had been busy shipping plants to reach retailers ahead of Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14.

“It is just terrible timing,” said Victoria Register, director of sales and marketing at FernTrust, a growers’ cooperative in Seville, Florida. “It’s right in the middle of our busiest shipping time of the entire year.”

In Tennessee, frustrations were growing with the Nashville Electric Service over lingering outages after the earlier storm knocked out power to about 235,000 homes and businesses — about half its customers. More than 20,000 remained without electricity Monday after more than a week, and won’t be fully restored until Feb. 9, the utility said.

Nashville Electric Service has defended its response, saying the storm packed more damaging ice than expected. The utility has said more than 1,000 linemen from Nashville and seven states are working on repairs. But trees, branches and power lines remained down across the city Monday.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced Monday he’s ordering a review of Nashville Electric Service’s storm preparation and response. O’Connell met with utility leaders Sunday and said afterward they were “unequipped to communicate about a crisis.”

And Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee also criticized the Nashville utility, posting on social media: “whoever is responsible for this breakdown should be fired.”

After more than a week of cold-weather warnings across the eastern U.S., the National Weather Service still had a few alerts in effect, including a freeze warning through early Tuesday in south Georgia and most of Florida. Snow was also expected Tuesday across parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and in Washington, D.C., where low temperatures in the teens (minus 9 C) were forecast this week.

Nearly a foot (29 centimeters) of snow fell over the weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city. The state’s Transportation Department said late Monday that interstates were essentially clear except for some icy spots, but work continued on other roads.

“We are working around the clock to clear roads and get people back to their daily lives as quickly and safely as possible, but because temperatures will remain low overnight, this process takes time,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a news release.

Vonn lost control within moments of leaving the start house, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out soon after medical personnel arrived. She was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line.

She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. She was taken to a clinic in Cortina, then transferred to a larger hospital in

United States’ Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women’s downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south.

She was being “treated by a multidisciplinary team” and “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” the Ca’ Foncello hospital said in a statement. The U.S. Ski Team said Vonn was “in stable condition and ingood hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”

“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport’s brutal and people need to remember when they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”

Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.

“I don’t claim to know what she’s going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die,” said Johnson, whose injury in Cortina in 2022 ruined her hopes of sking in the Beijing Olympics. “I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through and it’s not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else.”

Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.

Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”

All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee, too. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.

Still, no one counted her out even then. In truth, she has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.

Cortina has had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.

“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”

The drama was of a different sort this time. Not since perhaps Hermann Maier’s cartwheeling crash at the 1998 Nagano Games had there been such a high-profile and spectacular fall in Alpine skiing at the Olympics.

“Dear Lindsey, we’re all thinking of you. You are an incredible inspiration, and will always be an Olympic champion,” International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry said.

News of the crash spread quickly, including to the fan zone down the mountain in Cortina.

“It’s such a huge loss and bummer,” American Megan Gunyou said. “I feel like hearing her story and just like the redemption of her first fall and like fighting to come back to the Olympics this year, I mean, I feel so sad for her.”

Dan Wilton of Vancouver, Canada, watched the race from the stands.

“It was frightening,” he said. “Really, your heart goes out for such a champion who is coming to the end of her career. Everyone wanted a successful finish.”

Liam Flenniken
Reporter

More than 30 contestants from across the Bay Area, including men with tight curly hair, women in wigs and fake facial hair and a kindergartener in a fedora, white tank top and bow tie, competed for a $100 prize at a packed Mexican restaurant in the Mission neighborhood.

They channeled the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer through some of his signature looks, donning straw hats known as a “pava” and traditionally worn by Puerto Rican farmers, or a shearling aviator hat like the one the artist has worn at times since the release his 2025 album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” It won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

Photograph by: Beth LaBerge
Bad Bunny look-alike contestants wait to enter the competition at Tacolicious in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. The contest, organized by Mission Lotería as part of Super Bowl LX week festivities, drew dozens of contestants and hundreds of fans celebrating Bad Bunny ahead of his halftime show on Sunday

Adam Fox, 24, and his friend Alejandro Kurt, 23, traveled from Belmont, a city about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, after both men with curly dark hair and dark facial hair were told they look like Bad Bunny.

Fox, an aspiring actor who wore a suit, bow tie, and dark sunglasses, said he is a fan of Bad Bunny’s music even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.

His music “is like art. You don’t have to totally understand it. It could just be something that’s beautiful,” Fox said.

Bad Bunny, who sings in Spanish, is sparking huge interest by non-Spanish speakers in Latin music and culture when some communities in the U.S. have voiced anxieties about even speaking Spanish in certain public spaces amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and raids. His Grammy-winning album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which mixes Latin trap and reggaeton with traditional Latin rhythms like salsa and merengue, catapulted him onto the global stage.

The contestants imitated Bad Bunny’s “perreo,” or twerking, and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign with one wannabe-Bad Bunny in a wig and a black tuxedo holding an “ICE Out” sign as she danced through the packed Tacolicious restaurant to roaring cheers from the crowd.

But the artist’s music remained the focus of the look-alike contest organized by Mission Loteria, a group that promotes Latino businesses, with people spilling out to the street where a DJ played Bad Bunny’s most-loved tracks and some in costumes resembling the Puerto Rican crested toad, an endangered species that is featured in one of his music videos, danced with contestants.

Pamela Guo, 33, traveled from San Jose to compete in the contest dressed in an aviator hat, shorts and an athletic jacket. Guo, who had a painted-on beard, said she is such a fan of the singer that she traveled to Mexico City to see him in concert.

“I love to perrear and dance, so I do love that aspect of his music,” she said, adding that his last album has deeper lyrics that speak to her because they talk about our shared humanity.

The grand prize went to Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, a professional Bad Bunny impersonator from Colombia, who was dressed in a red shirt and straw hat on top a tight curly hair wig.

When asked to say a few words after his win, he said “thanks for everything” then broke into song with the crowd singing along Bad Bunny’s “Debi tirar mas fotos.”

Ramirez Arroyave then joined the party outside and took photos with his new adoring fans.

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.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold celebrates after a win over the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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.”

Walker became the first running back to win the Super Bowl MVP award since Hall of Famer Terrell Davis did it with Denver 28 years ago.

Uchenna Nwosu punctuated a punishing defensive performance by snagging Maye’s pass in the air after Witherspoon hit his arm and running it back 45 yards for a pick-6.

“We went through a lot, but we believed,” Witherspoon said. “All of you all doubters out there who said all that other stuff, you all don’t know what’s going on in this building. We’re one of one over here.”

Seattle won its first Super Bowl a dozen years ago behind its “Legion of Boom” defense, then was denied a repeat when New England’s Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line. The Seahawks hadn’t been back to the Super Bowl since.

Darnold become the first quarterback in the 2018 NFL draft class to win a Super Bowl, ahead of Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson.

Labeled a bust, dumped by two teams and considered expendable by two others, Darnold proved his doubters wrong while helping the Seahawks go 17-3.

After leading the NFL with 20 turnovers in the regular season, Darnold didn’t have any in three playoff games. He wasn’t particularly sharp against a solid Patriots defense but protected the ball and made enough plays, finishing 19 of 38 for 202 yards.

“I know we won the Super Bowl, but we could have been a little bit better on offense, but I don’t care about that right now,” Darnold said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling, man. I’m just so happy for the guys in the locker room and the coaches that put in so much effort throughout the whole season.”

The Seahawks sacked Maye six times, including two apiece by Hall and Murphy. Hall’s strip-sack late in the third quarter set up a short field and Darnold connected with Barner on 16-yard scoring toss to make it 19-0.

Julian Love’s interception set up another field goal that made it 22-7 with 5:35 left.

The Patriots (17-4) punted on the first eight drives, excluding a kneel-down to end the first half.

“Just reminding them that we’re 307 days into what hopefully is a long, successful relationship and program, and it’s OK to be disappointed,” New England coach Mike Vrabel said.

Down 19-0, Maye and the Patriots’ offense finally got going. He hit Mack Hollins over the middle in traffic for 24 yards and then lofted a perfect 35-yard TD pass to Hollins down the left side to cut the deficit to 19-7.

Tom Brady once led Bill Belichick’s Patriots to the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, when New England rallied from a 28-3 deficit against Atlanta for a 34-28 overtime victory.

But Maye, who was runner-up to Matthew Stafford for the AP NFL MVP award in the closest race in two decades, didn’t come close. He had a chance to narrow the gap, but his ill-advised pass into triple coverage was picked by Love and the Patriots trailed by 15 when they got the ball back with 5:35 left.

Then came Nwosu’s touchdown, a fitting way to cap an overwhelming effort by the NFL’s stingiest defense.

“Definitely hurts. They played better than us tonight,” Maye said.

Maye’s 7-yard TD pass to Rhamondre Stevenson late in the game only made the margin smaller.

The Seahawks took a 3-0 lead on Myers’ 33-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive. Myers connected from 39 and 41 yards to extend the lead to 9-0 at halftime. He was good from 41 on Seattle’s first drive of the third quarter to make it 12-0.

Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, known as Abdul Bunny, a professional impersonator, competes in a Bad Bunny look-alike contest at Tacolicious in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

More than 30 contestants from across the Bay Area, including men with tight curly hair, women in wigs and fake facial hair and a kindergartener in a fedora, white tank top and bow tie, competed for a $100 prize at a packed Mexican restaurant in the Mission neighborhood.

They channeled the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer through some of his signature looks, donning straw hats known as a “pava” and traditionally worn by Puerto Rican farmers, or a shearling aviator hat like the one the artist has worn at times since the release his 2025 album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” It won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

Adam Fox, 24, and his friend Alejandro Kurt, 23, traveled from Belmont, a city about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, after both men with curly dark hair and dark facial hair were told they look like Bad Bunny.

Fox, an aspiring actor who wore a suit, bow tie, and dark sunglasses, said he is a fan of Bad Bunny’s music even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.

His music “is like art. You don’t have to totally understand it. It could just be something that’s beautiful,” Fox said.

Bad Bunny, who sings in Spanish, is sparking huge interest by non-Spanish speakers in Latin music and culture when some communities in the U.S. have voiced anxieties about even speaking Spanish in certain public spaces amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and raids. His Grammy-winning album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which mixes Latin trap and reggaeton with traditional Latin rhythms like salsa and merengue, catapulted him onto the global stage.

The contestants imitated Bad Bunny’s “perreo,” or twerking, and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign with one wannabe-Bad Bunny in a wig and a black tuxedo holding an “ICE Out” sign as she danced through the packed Tacolicious restaurant to roaring cheers from the crowd.

But the artist’s music remained the focus of the look-alike contest organized by Mission Loteria, a group that promotes Latino businesses, with people spilling out to the street where a DJ played Bad Bunny’s most-loved tracks and some in costumes resembling the Puerto Rican crested toad, an endangered species that is featured in one of his music videos, danced with contestants.

Pamela Guo, 33, traveled from San Jose to compete in the contest dressed in an aviator hat, shorts and an athletic jacket. Guo, who had a painted-on beard, said she is such a fan of the singer that she traveled to Mexico City to see him in concert.

“I love to perrear and dance, so I do love that aspect of his music,” she said, adding that his last album has deeper lyrics that speak to her because they talk about our shared humanity.

The grand prize went to Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, a professional Bad Bunny impersonator from Colombia, who was dressed in a red shirt and straw hat on top a tight curly hair wig.

When asked to say a few words after his win, he said “thanks for everything” then broke into song with the crowd singing along Bad Bunny’s “Debi tirar mas fotos.”

Ramirez Arroyave then joined the party outside and took photos with his new adoring fans.

Sarah Graue
Reporter

Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, known as Abdul Bunny, a professional impersonator, competes in a Bad Bunny look-alike contest at Tacolicious in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Bad Bunny look-alike contest at a San Francisco restaurant snowballed into a street party after hundreds of fans of the global superstar showed up to cheer his doppelgangers and sing along to his music ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show this weekend.

More than 30 contestants from across the Bay Area, including men with tight curly hair, women in wigs and fake facial hair and a kindergartener in a fedora, white tank top and bow tie, competed for a $100 prize at a packed Mexican restaurant in the Mission neighborhood.

They channeled the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer through some of his signature looks, donning straw hats known as a “pava” and traditionally worn by Puerto Rican farmers, or a shearling aviator hat like the one the artist has worn at times since the release his 2025 album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” It won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

Adam Fox, 24, and his friend Alejandro Kurt, 23, traveled from Belmont, a city about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, after both men with curly dark hair and dark facial hair were told they look like Bad Bunny.

Fox, an aspiring actor who wore a suit, bow tie, and dark sunglasses, said he is a fan of Bad Bunny’s music even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.

His music “is like art. You don’t have to totally understand it. It could just be something that’s beautiful,” Fox said.

Bad Bunny, who sings in Spanish, is sparking huge interest by non-Spanish speakers in Latin music and culture when some communities in the U.S. have voiced anxieties about even speaking Spanish in certain public spaces amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and raids. His Grammy-winning album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which mixes Latin trap and reggaeton with traditional Latin rhythms like salsa and merengue, catapulted him onto the global stage.

The contestants imitated Bad Bunny’s “perreo,” or twerking, and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign with one wannabe-Bad Bunny in a wig and a black tuxedo holding an “ICE Out” sign as she danced through the packed Tacolicious restaurant to roaring cheers from the crowd.

But the artist’s music remained the focus of the look-alike contest organized by Mission Loteria, a group that promotes Latino businesses, with people spilling out to the street where a DJ played Bad Bunny’s most-loved tracks and some in costumes resembling the Puerto Rican crested toad, an endangered species that is featured in one of his music videos, danced with contestants.

Pamela Guo, 33, traveled from San Jose to compete in the contest dressed in an aviator hat, shorts and an athletic jacket. Guo, who had a painted-on beard, said she is such a fan of the singer that she traveled to Mexico City to see him in concert.

“I love to perrear and dance, so I do love that aspect of his music,” she said, adding that his last album has deeper lyrics that speak to her because they talk about our shared humanity.

The grand prize went to Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, a professional Bad Bunny impersonator from Colombia, who was dressed in a red shirt and straw hat on top a tight curly hair wig.

When asked to say a few words after his win, he said “thanks for everything” then broke into song with the crowd singing along Bad Bunny’s “Debi tirar mas fotos.”

Ramirez Arroyave then joined the party outside and took photos with his new adoring fans.

Tatiana Zaragosa
Reporter

Astronaut Suni Williams is interviewed at Johnson Space Center on March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

Williams, who has set multiple spaceflight records since joining the agency in 1998, did not give insight into the timing of her retirement in a statement issued by the space agency on Tuesday.

“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” Williams said. “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times.”

Williams first traveled to the International Space Station in 2006 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and returned to orbit in a Russian Soyuz capsule in 2012.

But her latest mission, in which she and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore set out to test fly Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on its first crewed mission, was perhaps her most well-known.

Wilmore and Williams had expected to spend about a week on the space station during the test flight. But the duo ultimately stayed more than nine months because of technical issues that cropped up en route with the Starliner vehicle — which NASA opted to fly home empty due to safety concerns.

Williams and Wilmore garnered international attention for their experience, though both astronauts reiterated frequently that they enjoyed their time in orbit and were well-prepared for their unexpectedly long stay.

“I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, and that is mainly because of all the wonderful love and support I’ve received from my colleagues,” Williams said in a statement. “The International Space Station, the people, the engineering, and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the Moon and Mars possible. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier.”

Williams has logged 608 days in space, the second-most cumulative amount of time by a NASA astronaut behind Peggy Whitson.

She has also accrued 62 hours free-floating in space across nine different spacewalks, making her the highest-ranking woman in that category and fourth in the world.

Williams also claimed several notable firsts during her time in orbit: In 2012, for example, she became the first person to finish a triathlon in space. Williams used a stationary bike, simulated swimming with a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in by a harness so she wouldn’t float away. (Earlier, in 2007, Williams had also become the first person to run a marathon in space.)

“Over the course of Suni’s impressive career trajectory, she has been a pioneering leader,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. “From her indelible contributions and achievements to the space station, to her groundbreaking test flight role during the Boeing Starliner mission, her exceptional dedication to the mission will inspire the future generations of explorers.”

Williams’ exit from the astronaut corps comes months after she and Wilmore returned from the space station, concluding their test flight mission.

Wilmore’s and Williams’ departures from NASA follow the example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission, which did not involve any major technical hangups or issues, marked the last for both Behnken and Hurley, who have each since retired.

It’s common for astronauts who have been with the agency for many years to announce their retirement upon return from a major milestone, such as test piloting a new spacecraft.

It’s not clear when the Starliner capsule will fly again. NASA revealed that it plans to fly the spacecraft’s next mission without crew members, opting to treat the mission as another uncrewed test flight.

The Starliner spacecraft experienced thruster outages and gas leaks during Williams and Wilmore’s flight, but both astronauts said they would fly on Starliner again, given the opportunity.

“The spacecraft is really capable,” Williams said in a post-flight news conference last year. “There’s a couple things that need to be fixed. Folks are actively working on that. But it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have, and to be a part of that program is an honor.”

Sarah Graue
Reporter

Astronaut Suni Williams talks to reporters during a press conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in March 2025. (Ashley Landis/AP)

Longtime NASA astronaut Suni Williams announced her retirement Tuesday — officially making the unexpectedly long Boeing Starliner test flight her final foray to orbit as a member of the astronaut corps.
Williams, who has set multiple spaceflight records since joining the agency in 1998, did not give insight into the timing of her retirement in a statement issued by the space agency on Tuesday.

“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” Williams said. “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times.”

Williams first traveled to the International Space Station in 2006 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and returned to orbit in a Russian Soyuz capsule in 2012.

But her latest mission, in which she and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore set out to test fly Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on its first crewed mission, was perhaps her most well-known.

Wilmore and Williams had expected to spend about a week on the space station during the test flight. But the duo ultimately stayed more than nine months because of technical issues that cropped up en route with the Starliner vehicle — which NASA opted to fly home empty due to safety concerns.

Williams and Wilmore garnered international attention for their experience, though both astronauts reiterated frequently that they enjoyed their time in orbit and were well-prepared for their unexpectedly long stay.

“I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, and that is mainly because of all the wonderful love and support I’ve received from my colleagues,” Williams said in a statement. “The International Space Station, the people, the engineering, and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the Moon and Mars possible. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier.”

Williams has logged 608 days in space, the second-most cumulative amount of time by a NASA astronaut behind Peggy Whitson.

She has also accrued 62 hours free-floating in space across nine different spacewalks, making her the highest-ranking woman in that category and fourth in the world.

Williams also claimed several notable firsts during her time in orbit: In 2012, for example, she became the first person to finish a triathlon in space. Williams used a stationary bike, simulated swimming with a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in by a harness so she wouldn’t float away. (Earlier, in 2007, Williams had also become the first person to run a marathon in space.)

“Over the course of Suni’s impressive career trajectory, she has been a pioneering leader,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. “From her indelible contributions and achievements to the space station, to her groundbreaking test flight role during the Boeing Starliner mission, her exceptional dedication to the mission will inspire the future generations of explorers.”

Williams’ exit from the astronaut corps comes months after she and Wilmore returned from the space station, concluding their test flight mission.

Wilmore’s and Williams’ departures from NASA follow the example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission, which did not involve any major technical hangups or issues, marked the last for both Behnken and Hurley, who have each since retired.

It’s common for astronauts who have been with the agency for many years to announce their retirement upon return from a major milestone, such as test piloting a new spacecraft.

It’s not clear when the Starliner capsule will fly again. NASA revealed that it plans to fly the spacecraft’s next mission without crew members, opting to treat the mission as another uncrewed test flight.

The Starliner spacecraft experienced thruster outages and gas leaks during Williams and Wilmore’s flight, but both astronauts said they would fly on Starliner again, given the opportunity.

“The spacecraft is really capable,” Williams said in a post-flight news conference last year. “There’s a couple things that need to be fixed. Folks are actively working on that. But it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have, and to be a part of that program is an honor.”

Tatiana Zaragosa
Reporter

Astronaut Suni Williams is interviewed at Johnson Space Center on March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

Starliner test flight her final foray to orbit as a member of the astronaut corps.

Williams, who has set multiple spaceflight records since joining the agency in 1998, did not give insight into the timing of her retirement in a statement issued by the space agency on Tuesday.

“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” Williams said. “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times.”

Williams first traveled to the International Space Station in 2006 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and returned to orbit in a Russian Soyuz capsule in 2012.

But her latest mission, in which she and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore set out to test fly Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on its first crewed mission, was perhaps her most well-known.

Wilmore and Williams had expected to spend about a week on the space station during the test flight. But the duo ultimately stayed more than nine months because of technical issues that cropped up en route with the Starliner vehicle — which NASA opted to fly home empty due to safety concerns.

Williams and Wilmore garnered international attention for their experience, though both astronauts reiterated frequently that they enjoyed their time in orbit and were well-prepared for their unexpectedly long stay.

“I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, and that is mainly because of all the wonderful love and support I’ve received from my colleagues,” Williams said in a statement. “The International Space Station, the people, the engineering, and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the Moon and Mars possible. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier.”

Williams has logged 608 days in space, the second-most cumulative amount of time by a NASA astronaut behind Peggy Whitson.

She has also accrued 62 hours free-floating in space across nine different spacewalks, making her the highest-ranking woman in that category and fourth in the world.

Williams also claimed several notable firsts during her time in orbit: In 2012, for example, she became the first person to finish a triathlon in space. Williams used a stationary bike, simulated swimming with a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in by a harness so she wouldn’t float away. (Earlier, in 2007, Williams had also become the first person to run a marathon in space.)

“Over the course of Suni’s impressive career trajectory, she has been a pioneering leader,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. “From her indelible contributions and achievements to the space station, to her groundbreaking test flight role during the Boeing Starliner mission, her exceptional dedication to the mission will inspire the future generations of explorers.”

Williams’ exit from the astronaut corps comes months after she and Wilmore returned from the space station, concluding their test flight mission.

Wilmore’s and Williams’ departures from NASA follow the example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission, which did not involve any major technical hangups or issues, marked the last for both Behnken and Hurley, who have each since retired.

It’s common for astronauts who have been with the agency for many years to announce their retirement upon return from a major milestone, such as test piloting a new spacecraft.

It’s not clear when the Starliner capsule will fly again. NASA revealed that it plans to fly the spacecraft’s next mission without crew members, opting to treat the mission as another uncrewed test flight.

The Starliner spacecraft experienced thruster outages and gas leaks during Williams and Wilmore’s flight, but both astronauts said they would fly on Starliner again, given the opportunity.

“The spacecraft is really capable,” Williams said in a post-flight news conference last year. “There’s a couple things that need to be fixed. Folks are actively working on that. But it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have, and to be a part of that program is an honor.”

Person McPerson
Reporter