Partial shutdown hits DHS: What to know about negotiations, potential impacts

A partial government shutdown is in effect for the Department of Homeland Security, where funding ran out at the end of day Friday as lawmakers remain at an impasse over immigration enforcement.

Earlier Friday, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought directed DHS to begin implementing its shutdown plans.

Members of Congresshave left Washingtonfor a weeklong recess or to head overseas to Munich for a security conference.

It's the third time since October that the federal government has experienced a lapse in funding.

A record 43-day shutdown last fall -- the longest in U.S. history -- heavily disrupted agencies and impacted millions of Americans. A partial government shutdown ensued for several days between the end of January and early February that temporarily affected funding for the Defense, Education, Treasury, Labor and State departments.

Now, caught in a funding fight are key areas of DHS -- the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Coast Guard -- as Democrats demand reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Officials from those agencies warned lawmakers that teh lapse in funding will leave thousands of personnel working without pay, disrupt disaster reimbursements, delay cyber protections and more.

ICE, meanwhile, will largely continue operating because of $75 billion infusion provided in President Donald Trump's so-called "one big beautiful bill" that was passed by Congress last summer.

Democrats are calling for judicial warrants before agents can enter private property, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks, requiring the use of body cameras and new laws for use-of-force standards.

Talks are expected to continue over the weekend.

President Trump on Friday told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce he will be personally involved in the DHS funding negotiations.

"I will. But you have to remember, if you look at Homeland Security, if you look at what they've done, if you look at what ICE has done, and Border Patrol, we have the safest border in the history of our country," Trump said.

When asked how long he's preparing to let this funding battle play out or if he's willing to make any concessions, Trump said that he wants to "protect" law enforcement and is "always" in favor of them.

The White House and Democrats have been sending proposals for ICE reforms back and forth. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the latest White House proposal, the details of which have not been released publicly, "unserious." Democrats are expecting to make a counterproposal this weekend.

Jeffries told ABC News on Friday the shutdown is a "confrontation on behalf of the American people" as Democrats dig in on making changes to immigration enforcement.

"The reason why we have to have this confrontation on behalf of the American people is because in a spending bill, we have the ability to legislate dramatic change. That's what we're doing," Jeffries said.

"Every single change needs to be ironclad and part of the law," he added.

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How DHS agencies will feel the effects

Overall, more than 90% of the Department of Homeland Security's 272,000 employees would continue to work during a shutdown, according to the agency's September shutdown plan, though many without pay.

Officials from several DHS agencies testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee earlier this week on how they would be impacted by a shutdown.

TSA:A majority of TSA employees will still be required to show up for work, as around 95% of TSA employees are deemed essential. Many, however, would work without pay.

Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said putting those workers through another shutdown would be "unconscionable."

"Twelve weeks later, some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown. Many are still reeling from it. We cannot put them through another such experience," McNeill told lawmakers on Wednesday.

FEMA:Gregg Phillips, associate administrator of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, said emergency response operations would continue and that the Disaster Relief Fund currently has sufficient resources for near-term response.

Although he did warn that a catastrophic event would quickly strain available funding.

CISA: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency faced one of the biggest hits within DHS in the 2025 shutdown with 65% of the division placed on furlough.

"When the government shuts down, cyber threats do not and our adversaries work 24/7," warned Dr. Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director.

Coast Guard: Pay would be halted for 56,000 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel, but they would still be required to show up for work.

Vice Admiral Thomas Allen warned a lapse in appropriations "requires the Coast Guard to suspend all missions except those for national security or the protection of life and property."

He said a lack of funding has "severe and lasting challenges" for their workforce, operational readiness and long-term capabilities.

Secret Service:Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said protective and investigative missions would continue, as 94% of Secret Service workforce is considered mission-critical.

"There is no pause button on our mission. Paychecks may stop but the work will continue," Quinn said.

Though he warned of long-term consequences, especially for needed reform.

"The impacts may not be seen tomorrow, but I assure you, we will feel the ripple effects for some time. Delayed contracts, diminished hiring, halted new programs will be the result," Quinn said.

ABC News' Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

Partial shutdown hits DHS: What to know about negotiations, potential impacts

A partial government shutdown is in effect for the Department of Homeland Security, where funding ran out at the end of d...

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Law enforcement block road near Nancy Guthrie's home during investigation into her disappearance

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Law enforcementinvestigating the disappearanceof "Today" show hostSavannah Guthrie's mother sealed off a road near Nancy Guthrie's home in Arizona late Friday night.

Savannah Guthrie Mom Missing

A parade of sheriff's and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock that was set up about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the house.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department said the activity was part of the Guthrie case. But it said further information was unavailable since it was a joint investigation with the FBI.

Guthrie, 84, was reported missing on Feb. 1. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch of her Tucson-area home. Purportedransom noteswere sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.

Authorities have expressed concerns Guthrie's health because she needs daily medication. She is said to have a pacemaker and has dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff's dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

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Investigators have studied surveillance video, sorted throughthousands of tipsand submitted DNA and other evidence for laboratory analysis.

The FBI said it has collected more than 13,000 tips since Feb. 1, the day Guthrie was reported missing. The sheriff's department, meanwhile, said it has taken at least 18,000 calls.

On Tuesday, authorities released footage showing an armed, masked person at Guthrie's doorstep on the night she was abducted. The videos — less than a combined minute in length — gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Guthrie's home in the foothills outside Tucson.

Experts say the video could containa mountain of clues. ___

Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

Law enforcement block road near Nancy Guthrie's home during investigation into her disappearance

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Law enforcementinvestigating the disappearanceof "Today" show hostSavannah Guthrie's m...

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‘I thought they were just going to execute me’: American held in Venezuela during Maduro’s last days tells all

James Luckey-Lange has been spending a lot of time looking at the names he carved on a bar of soap he smuggled out of a Venezuelan prison in his underwear.

The 28-year-old New York native spent just over a month detained by Venezuelan officials, whom he says beat him, deprived him of food and only released him on January 13 following theUS captureof the country's then president, Nicolás Maduro.

At one point, he said, "I thought they were just going to execute me. That was the scariest time. Besides that, I was just really frustrated, really aggravated [and] angry."

Now back at his aunt's home in New Jersey, Luckey-Lange is looking up the names of his former prison mates on his soap and searching for their families on Facebook to let them know they might be alive.

He was held in solitary confinement for long stretches and didn't get a good look at many of his prison mates. "I've never seen a lot of these people's faces. It's hard to find their families if you don't know what they look like," Luckey-Lange told CNN.

"I hope they don't think I'm up there getting tortured right now," he said of those he was held with. "I hope they know I got out."

Dozens of Americans have been arrested and detained in Venezuela over the last several years — part of a long campaign by the former Venezuelan leader to use Americans as political pawns. But Luckey-Lange's detention and release came at an unprecedented moment in US-Venezuela relations. President Donald Trump sent special operations forces to snatch Maduro in early January. His administration is now exerting huge amounts of influence on the interim Venezuelan government led by former Maduro acolytes.

Like many Americans detained in Venezuela, Luckey-Lange was accused of espionage and subjected to the harsh conditions of Venezuela's notorious prisons. The experiences take a physical toll on the inmates that can last for months, if not years, and a mental toll that may never go away.

But Luckey-Lange has no regrets about traveling to Venezuela. "I got to learn something" and see "what's really going on" there, he said wryly on a recent Zoom call from a coffee shop in New Jersey.

'I'm not the type of guy that really wants to be confined'

The US government urges Americans not to travel to Venezuela in part because of "a very high risk of wrongful detention."

The warning didn't resonate with a wanderlust like Luckey-Lange.

"I'm not the type of guy that really wants to be confined," he said.

Luckey-Lange is the son of the late Diane Luckey, a singer known as Q Lazzarus whose single was featured in the film "The Silence of the Lambs." Following her death in 2022, Luckey-Lange traveled throughout Latin America, learning Spanish andbloggingabout his adventures. Venezuela was meant to be his last stop on that trip.

Luckey-Lange wanted to visit Mount Roraima, a plateau in the east of Venezuela with views of Guyana and Brazil. The authorities detained him, he said, in December after he crossed the border from Brazil to ask about a visa.

He was flown several hundred miles from a military base in eastern Venezuela to the capital of Caracas, where he said he was held at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, known as the DGCIM.

Veneuelan prisons generally don't meet "the minimum rules for the treatment of international inmates," much less "the national standards of hygiene, sanitation, care, nutrition, etcetera, that should be met in our prisons," Gonzalo Himiob, vice president of the Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal, told CNN. Foro Penal confirmed that Luckey-Lange was held at a DGCIM facility.

Luckey-Lange said his fellow prisoners were from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, among other places.

"They starved me and didn't give me any water" for days, Luckey-Lange recalled. "I was chained up in solitary with the camera in my room. Every time I would break out of the restraints from the waist, because it was tied by rope and I would untie it, they'd come in, beat me, throw me back in."

From the start, Venezuelan authorities accused him of being a spy, Luckey-Lange said. His hiking boots were military-style, they claimed. They drew maps in his notebook of roads and military bases in an effort, he said, to frame him as some sort of James Bond.

"No matter what I'd say, they say they didn't believe me because they really wanted to catch a spy," he recalled. "They all wanted to go home and tell their wives, tell their higher-ups, that they had caught a spy."

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Some four days later after arriving at DGCIM headquarters, Luckey-Lange was transferred to El Rodeo, a prison complex where Maduro imprisoned scores of political prisoners. He languished there for weeks and was only allowed outside once, he said.

"I was making a joke in there, all we have is books and soap," he told CNN. "All the dominoes, all the chess pieces, everything is made out of soap."

Thinking there was a good chance he would get out of prison before the others, "I started carving the names on soap so I can talk to their families, talk to somebody about getting them out," Luckey-Lange said.

About 10 days before his release, US special forces captured Maduro and his wife. Luckey-Lange and his fellow inmates at El Rodeo had no idea what happened until days later. They got fragments of rumors through a game of prison telephone. Cries from people outside on the street suggested something big was afoot. Military and prison officials told Luckey-Lange and other inmates that Maduro would return to power, he said, even though the deposed leader was already in custody in New York.

After Maduro's ouster, the interim Venezuelan government pledged to release political prisoners, including Venezuelans and foreign nationals, without specifying how many or who would be released. The Trump administration had publicly pressed for the release of all political prisoners.

'You're famous'

Luckey-Lange didn't know he was being freed until he was out.

He had heard his name whispered the night before, he recalled. But when the prison director came to his cell, Luckey-Lange thought he might be taken to the "fourth floor," where he said people were tortured.

In the second week of January, Venezuelan officials drove him from El Rodeo to a private airplane hangar on the outskirts of Caracas. US State Department and Drug Enforcement Administration officials were waiting to help him out of the country, he said.

"You're famous," one of the State Department officials told him, dispelling the impression he had that the outside world didn't know he had been thrown in a Venezuelan prison. His story was already being told without him.

Luckey-Lange eventually ended up in Texas, where he and other Americans held in Venezuela took part in the US government readjustment program known as PISA, or Post Isolation Support Activities. It's typically offered to Americans who have been designated as wrongfully detained to help them acclimate after being imprisoned abroad.

A US official confirmed Luckey-Lange participated in a variation of the program.

Luckey-Lange's health had deteriorated in Venezuela, he said. He had a parasite and his teeth were in bad shape.

Still, outward signs that Luckey-Lange had been through such a harrowing experience were minimal.

Sometimes, in moments alone, it hit him.

"I had a breakdown in the shower the second night [after being released]. That was it," he said.

Luckey-Lange said he wants to travel again. Maybe go from Morrocco all the way down to South Africa.

But not before he reaches as many family members of his former prison mates as he can.

"I had promised all those guys that I was going to help them get out, but I didn't know it was going to be so difficult."

CNN's Uriel Blanco and Mauricio Torres contributed reporting.

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byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

‘I thought they were just going to execute me’: American held in Venezuela during Maduro’s last days tells all

James Luckey-Lange has been spending a lot of time looking at the names he carved on a bar of soap he smuggled out of a V...

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Akshay Bhatia ties Ryo Hisatsune for lead at Pebble Beach

Akshay Bhatia fired a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course to tie Japan's Ryo Hisatsune for the lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Friday in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Hisatsune was the solo first-round leader thanks to a 62 at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Thursday but settled for 67 at Spyglass Hill that featured his first two bogeys of the tournament. He and Bhatia sit at 15-under 129 for the week so far.

Rickie Fowler is in the hunt for his first win in more than 2 1/2 years after shooting 64 at Spyglass Hill. He moved to 14 under for the tournament, one back of the leaders and tied with Sam Burns (67, Spyglass) for third.

The field played one round apiece at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill before spending the weekend rounds at Pebble Beach. There is no 36-hole cut at the $20 million signature event.

Bhatia, 24, is searching for his third career title and biggest achievement on tour. He tied for third last week at the WM Phoenix Open.

"Yeah, just building off last week. Played really nice last week," Bhatia said. "Then, yeah, just starting to kind of catch my groove or my stride."

Bhatia's round began on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 10 and 11 before he chipped in for eagle from the greenside rough at the par-5 14th. He made four more birdies the rest of the way and remained bogey-free for the tournament.

"Some days are easier than others but I have such a good feel with just trying to get the golf ball in play now, don't care necessarily like how my golf swing looks aesthetically," Bhatia said. "I would love it to look perfect, but I'm just trying to be myself and play a bunch of shots and that's how I play good golf."

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Hisatsune was also in contention at Phoenix but settled for a T10. His performance there helped him qualify for this week's elite field through the Aon Swing 5 pathway.

He called his consecutive bogeys at Nos. 18 and 1 a "missed decision" and was satisfied with how he recovered, including making a 10-footer for eagle at his third-to-last hole.

Fowler, who spread nine birdies and one bogey across his card, said he's in this position right now thanks to the work he put in last season to make the top 50 of the FedEx Cup playoffs, earning him a spot in the first two signature events this year.

"My body and shoulder feel a lot better than it did last year," Fowler said. "So it was nice to be able to play the way I did during the summer and grind that out, ultimately get inside the top-50 to kind of secure some starts for the year. So to have that time off to kind of rest, work on some things, be a dad at home, I enjoy it. I was excited to get back out."

Burns finished both Thursday and Friday one off the pace. He could be ready to win his sixth PGA Tour title and his first in nearly three years.

"That's what we train for, that's what we practice for," Burns said. "I'm always excited when I'm up there and I have a chance to win. So it's going to be a great weekend, a good test of golf, and it's always fun to get to do it at Pebble Beach."

Min Woo Lee of Australia had a 65 at Pebble Beach to move into a tie for fifth place at 12 under. The low round of the day belonged to Harris English, whose 63 at Pebble Beach represented a 10-stroke improvement from his over-par round at Spyglass the day before. English is 8 under.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (67, Pebble) is part of a group tied at 9 under, while Scottie Scheffler is tied for 34th at 6 under. Scheffler followed a pedestrian 72 at Pebble with a 6-under 66 at Spyglass, highlighted by a five-hole stretch on his second nine where he made three birdies and an eagle.

--Field Level Media

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

Akshay Bhatia ties Ryo Hisatsune for lead at Pebble Beach

Akshay Bhatia fired a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course to tie Japan's Ryo Hisatsune for the...

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BYU says star wide receiver charged with felony rape is no longer a student there

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Brigham Young University said Friday that standout wide receiver Parker Kingston is no longer a student at the Utah private school after he wasarrested this weekon a first-degree felony rape charge.

Kingston, 21, made his initial court appearance Friday in St. George, where prosecutors say a woman who was 20 years old at the time told officers that Kingston assaulted her at her home last February. He was arrested following a yearlong investigation in which detectives collected digital and forensic evidence and interviewed witnesses, Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger said.

"I found by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Kingston was a danger to the community," Judge John Walton said during the hearing.

Still, Walton allowed Kingston to be released Friday on a $100,000 bond with $10,000 cash immediately paid to the court after he was held initially without bail.

His defense attorney, Cara Tangaro, agreed that Kingston could have no contact with his accuser or any potential witnesses, must stay off social media and would wear a GPS ankle monitor to ensure he doesn't return to the southwestern Utah county, except for court appearances. He appeared before the judge by remote video link from jail Friday.

If convicted, he could serve five years to life in prison.

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BYU spokesperson Jon McBride said the administration and coaches were only made aware of the investigation and the allegations against Kingston after his arrest this week. He declined to answer whether Kingston was kicked out or left the school voluntarily.

Tangaro told The Associated Press on Friday night that she had not yet talked to BYU and could not comment about the case, per a court order.

Kingston told St. George Police that "all sexual activity" with the woman accusing him of rape was "consensual," according to an affidavit unsealed Thursday. The woman told investigators she had made clear to Kingston before he came to her house that she did not want to have sex with him, and she told him to stop several times when he initiated sex, the affidavit said.

BYU, the flagship university of theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church, has a strict honor code for students that prohibits all sexual relations outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. Those who violate it can face suspension, and for athletes, many weeks riding the bench.

Other top athletes including Tulane quarterbackJake Retzlaffhaveopted to leave BYUwhen faced with lengthy suspensions for violating the honor code.

Kingston was BYU's leading receiver last season.

He is expected to make his next court appearance Feb. 25.

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

BYU says star wide receiver charged with felony rape is no longer a student there

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Brigham Young University said Friday that standout wide receiver Parker Kingston is no longer a stu...

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Can Shohei Ohtani win Cy Young Award? He expects to be in conversation

PHOENIX — Fans lined up and raced around the back fields at theLos Angeles Dodgersspring-training complex Friday, shrieking at the sight of him.

Photographers lugged their equipment around the complex, scurrying to see where he was going to go next.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spent his media session talking about him more than anyone.

It was Day 1 of the Dodgers spring training camp, and once again, all the buzz was about Shohei Ohtani.

When will he pitch in spring training? When is he leaving for the World Baseball Classic? Are you sure he won't pitch in the WBC? How can he prepare to pitch while he's with Team Japan for three weeks? Will he continue to bat leadoff on the days he starts for the Dodgers? How often will he pitch this season? Is he the opening day starter?

So many questions, so few answers.

Yep, just like ol' times.

More:Are the Dodgers ruining baseball? Rivals refuse to criticize spending.

The difference this year is that there will be no limitations on Ohtani. He is fully healthy after undergoing two Tommy John surgeries. He had a completely normal offseason where he was able to pitch, as well as hit. And he feels as strong as he ever has in his spectacular career.

"I think it's fair to say he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation,'' Roberts said, "but we just want him to be healthy, make starts, and all of the numbers and statistics will take care of themselves. But man, this guy is such a disciplined worker and expects the most from himself. …

"Regardless of my expectations for him, his are going to exceed those.''

Yes, when you're the winner of four unanimous MVP awards − including three in a row − win two World Series championships, and are the only player to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in the same season, why not try to check off the final box on the Hall of Fame resume?

Cy Young award, anyone?

"If the end result is getting a Cy Young, that's great,'' Ohtani said. "Getting a Cy Young means being able to throw more innings and being able to pitch throughout the whole season. So, if that's the end result, that's a good sign for me. What I'm more focused on is just being healthy the whole year.''

MLB spring training 2026: Sunshine good and vibes in Arizona and Florida

Ohtani, 31, began pitching in games again last June, for the first time in 22 months. He pitched just 47 innings, yielding a 2.87 ERA, but not only was his 100-mph velocity back, so was his control, striking out 62 batters with nine walks.

And while he was coming back from his second Tommy John surgery in September 2023, and shoulder surgery in November 2024, he still hit 55 homers with 102 RBI, leading the National League with 146 runs with a slash line of .282/.392/.622.

"I think the thing that was most surprising was his command,'' Roberts said, "and I'll say that he still feels his command wasn't up to par. But given the Tommy John (surgery) and what typically command looks like the year after … it was impressive. Just his ability to command the couple of different breaking balls, to change the shape of his breaking balls, was pretty impressive. Everything he does is with a purpose.

"So, I'm really excited to see with the full offseason to just prepare and not rehab, what he can do this year. … When you're in rehab mode, it's a little bit of survival going into the season as opposed to just going into a regular offseason preparing for the next season and not in the rebab mode.

"We'll see what it looks like, but I'm pretty encouraged on both sides of the baseball.''

Ohtanti concedes he felt fatigue as a two-way player in the playoffs for the first time. He hit eight homers with 14 RBI as the Dodgers' DH, and pitched 20.1 innings in the postseason, yielding a 7.56 ERA in his two World Series starts.

"It was a really good experience overall, but being able to go deeper into the season as a two-way player,'' Ohtani said, "I did feel the effect of it.''

The Dodgers, wanting to keep Ohtani as fresh as possible, along with the rest of their rotation, tentatively are planning on a six-man rotation to at least start the season.

"How beholden we are to that, for how long, I don't know,'' Roberts said. "But I think it's easy to say that because the early part of the season we're very mindful of giving guys rest to keep guys built up. I think that lends itself to that.''

Yet, even with the short offseason, even being a two-way player the second half of the season, Ohtani feels as fresh and strong entering spring than at any time in his eight-year career. He has already thrown three bullpen sessions since coming to Arizona two weeks ago, and plans to face batters for the first time next week.

"I was finally able to have a normal offseason,'' Ohtani said. "Although the offseason was pretty short, I thought it was a good thing actually to have a shorter offseason.''

Yes indeed, short offseasons mean long postseason runs, and the Dodgers are coming off two World Series titles with dreams of making it a three-peat.

And after watching Ohtani perform in camp, well, the Dodgers know just the man who can lead them back to the promised land.

"He looks strong,'' Roberts said. "Just watching him throw, watching him run, his body moving well, I think he's in a sweet spot.''

Another magical season awaits.

Follow Nightengale on X: @BNightengale

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Can Shohei Ohtani win Cy Young Award? 2026 expectations high

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

Can Shohei Ohtani win Cy Young Award? He expects to be in conversation

PHOENIX — Fans lined up and raced around the back fields at theLos Angeles Dodgersspring-training complex Friday, shrieki...

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Factbox-Chinese AI models festoon Spring Festival a year after DeepSeek shock

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - As China prepares for Lunar New Year holidays starting on Sunday, rivals to DeepSeek are scrambling to releaseartificial-intelligencemodels a year after it burst onto the scene with its game-changing R1 and V3 models.

With DeepSeek set to launch ‌its next-generation V4 model soon, according to tech news site The Information, many other Chinese AI firms have released or are preparing to launch ‌their own models in the hopes of stealing the spotlight - or at least avoid being off-guard again during this year's Spring Festival.

Below are the companies and models looking to make a Spring Festival splash:

The ​Hangzhou-based startup's V4 would replace last year's V3 model, which powered the AI assistant app that overtook ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available onApple's App Store in the U.S. Investors and industry insiders are also on the lookout for R2, successor to the R1 model.

This week DeepSeek fuelled anticipation when its web and mobile chatbot upgraded its "context window" - the amount of information it can remember and handle in a single task, from 128,000 to 1 million tokens, the unit of data processed by ‌the AI model.

This means the chatbot can now process ⁠book-length passages of text to answer a single user command.

The makers of short-video platform TikTok are soon expected to release an upgrade of Doubao, China's most popular AI chatbot, in terms of active users.

Thursday's release of video-generation AI model Seedance 2.0 has generated ⁠comparisons to DeepSeek's global rise, going viral on Chinese social media and drawing widespread praise on X, including from the platform's owner, Elon Musk. Seedance 2.0 can produce high-quality cinematic videos based on a few prompts, or even one.

The tech giant released picture-generation model Seedream 5.0 Lite on Friday.

Alibaba, the first Chinese firm to respond to DeepSeek's viral ascent last ​year, ​with Qwen 2.5-Max, is preparing to launch Qwen 3.5.

The e-commerce giant's Qwen app is riding ​a wave of growing domestic usage after it spent 3 billion ‌yuan ($400 million) last week on a coupon giveaway campaign to promote "agentic commerce", where AI handles consumers' online shopping.

This drove more than 120 million consumer orders in the six days through Wednesday, the company said.

Zhipu AI released its open-source GLM-5 model on Wednesday, with enhanced coding capabilities and the ability to perform long-running agent tasks.

Zhipu is considered one of China's "AI tigers" - promising startups vying with the U.S. to win the AI race. Zhipu went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last month, alongside rival MiniMax, another AI tiger.

Both stocks have rallied strongly as investors bet on the companies benefiting from China's AI boom. Zhipu plans a secondary listing in Shanghai, ‌a regulatory filing on Friday showed.

MiniMax released its M2.5 open-source model on its overseas agent ​website on Wednesday. The company's Hong Kong listing raised HK$4.8 billion ($620 million), higher than Zhipu's $558 million.

Shanghai-based ​MiniMax has developed popular apps like Hailuo AI, a video generation tool, ​and Talkie, a character interaction app that enables users to engage with AI-powered virtual personas.

Tencent's Hunyuan team on Tuesday released a ‌low-storage, compressed AI model, HY-1.8B-2Bit, designed to be used on consumer ​hardware including mobile phones.

iFlytek on Wednesday released ​Spark X2, trained entirely on Chinese-made chips. The company said the upgrade focuses on practical deployment in sectors including education, healthcare, automotive and agent-based applications.

NETEASE YOUDAO

NetEase Youdao on Wednesday launched LobsterAI, a desktop-level personal assistant agent that can perform tasks such as information retrieval, scheduling and data analysis by executing ​workflows locally on a user's computer after authorisation.

The product ‌supports mobile and PC connections and allows remote interaction via enterprise apps popular among Chinese companies such as DingTalk and Feishu.

Embodied-intelligence startup Dexmal on ​Tuesday unveiled DM0, an AI model designed for robot-related scenarios. DM0 integrates multimodal internet data with driving, navigation and robotic operation data, ​and was trained across multiple robot platforms.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by William Mallard)

byDonna Devi

in

February 13, 2026

Factbox-Chinese AI models festoon Spring Festival a year after DeepSeek shock

By Eduardo Baptista BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - As China prepares for Lunar New Year holidays starting on Sunday...

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