Tracy Mumford

troops have arrived on the ground there.

part of a non-combat deployment that's expected to include about 200 personnel.

Ruth McLean is the Times West Africa bureau chief.

In Los Angeles, the head of a powerhouse talent agency is bowing to backlash over his name showing up in the Epstein files.

Casey Wasserman, who comes from a legendary Hollywood family, said he's starting the process of selling the Wasserman Group, which represents thousands of artists and athletes, from Coldplay to Brittany Griner.

Over the last week or so, dozens of those clients, including Chapel Roan and the soccer star Abby Wambach, announced they were leaving the agency, saying they were outraged over flirtatious emails Wasserman had sent to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime companion and co-conspirator.

The emails were from 2003, several years before Epstein was first arrested.

In them, Wasserman wrote to Maxwell, quote, I think of you all the time.

In a memo apologizing to his staff, Wasserman said he only had, quote, limited interactions with Maxwell and Epstein.

And he has said that even as he steps back from the talent agency, he still intends to stay on in another high-profile role.

He's the chair of the organizing committee for the 2028 Olympics in L.A.

Last week, the home security company Ring put out what was supposed to be a heartwarming Super Bowl ad, showing how its cameras could help find a lost pet.

But the reaction was not all, aww.

Critics found the tech invasive, showing how a whole neighborhood's worth of cameras linked up to look for the dog.

On social media, people asked if authorities would be able to use it, potentially tapping into thousands of cameras to track people's everyday movements.

Now, amid that fresh wave of scrutiny of its products, Ring has announced that it's ending a partnership with another surveillance tech firm, one that provides tools like license plate readers to police departments across the country.

The partnership would have linked Ring's tech with theirs and helped homeowners share footage with law enforcement during investigations.

Ring, which is owned by Amazon, did not say that the breakup of the deal was because of the Super Bowl reaction, saying only that the partnership would have needed significantly more time and resources than anticipated.

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who has long been critical of Ring's data privacy practices, called it an important step in, quote, "...guarding against the ever-expanding network of surveillance technologies in this country."

Those are the headlines.