Axios

Skier Lindsey Vonn says she will compete at the Milan Cortina Winter Games with a ruptured ACL in her left knee.

Threat level: Vonn crashed Friday in a World Cup race in Switzerland, which left her ACL "completely ruptured" along with bone bruising and "meniscal damage," the Park City Olympian said in a Tuesday news conference.

Iran has demanded changes to the venue and format for negotiations with the U.S. this Friday, two sources with knowledge tell Axios.

• Meanwhile, the Iranian military conducted two provocations against U.S. vessels in the Gulf, according to U.S. officials.

Why it matters: The incidents and new demands risk pushing President Trump off the diplomatic path and toward the military option at a time when he has already assembled enormous firepower in the Gulf.

French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices Tuesday and summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for voluntary questioning in a criminal probe tied to Grok's Holocaust denial and explicit deepfakes.

The big picture: The move intensifies a global crackdown on Musk's companies for Grok's generation of explicit images of women and children and its use of antisemitic language.

The Trump administration's aim to build a U.S. strategic reserve of critical minerals for commercial use opens a new front in U.S. efforts to ease reliance on China.

Why it matters: It's designed to protect domestic manufacturers from supply shocks.

A suspected China-based hacking group spun up a phishing campaign around Christmas that mimicked U.S. policy briefings in an attempt to hack diplomats, according to new research from cybersecurity firm Dream Security shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: The campaign successfully infected "a lot of people," Dream CEO Shalev Hulio said in an interview. "We just don't know who and how big [of a] scale," he added.

For the third time since returning to office, President Trump is seeking a nuclear deal with Iran.

• While U.S. officials say the renewed effort is sincere, Trump has veered away from diplomacy and into war once before.

The big picture: Trump heads into the talks planned for Friday with significant leverage: A massive military buildup in the Gulf that presents a credible military threat, and an Iranian regime left weaker and more isolated by massive protests.

A former Google engineer was found guilty of economic espionage and theft of confidential AI technology for the benefit of China's government, the FBI said Monday.

Why it matters: Intelligence and defense officials have long warned of increased efforts by Beijing and others to obtain U.S. intellectual property and use AI against American interests.

More than 500,000 Haitian refugees living under temporary residency in the U.S. can remain and continue working in the country, a federal judge ruled Monday evening.

Why it matters: Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which provides short-term refuge to people fleeing crisis, was set to expire for Haitian immigrants Tuesday — despite ongoing violence and instability in the Caribbean island nation.

College football national champion Fernando Mendoza made the inaugural Latinos in Sports (LiS) Power Players list.

Why it matters: The Heisman Trophy winner's visibility underscores the growing influence of Latino athletes in college sports, as Hispanic participation in NCAA athletics hits record highs.

The last few years have exposed some of the fractures in a world currency system dominated by the U.S. dollar. China's leaders see an opportunity — but achieving it will likely prove easier said than done.

The big picture: For all the gripes that nations around the world have about the United States' stewardship of the dollar, displacing the dollar would require China or any other potential rival to build infrastructure and make sacrifices that would be no easy feat.

White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to meet on Friday in Istanbul together with representatives of several Arab and Muslim countries to discuss a possible nuclear deal, according to two sources with knowledge and a U.S. official.

• A fourth source familiar with the planning said a meeting on Friday was "the best case scenario" but cautioned that nothing is final until it happens.

Why it matters: This would be the first meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials since the collapse of the negotiations and the 12-day war last June. It comes during a massive U.S. military buildup in the Gulf, and with President Trump insisting the only way to avoid military conflict is a swift deal.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) vowed to continue his campaign against the immigration detention of children after picking up 5-year-old Liam Ramos from an ICE facility and escorting him back to Minnesota Sunday.

Why it matters: After Ramos' release, Democrats are now focusing on other children that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and the condition of detention centers.