They've Always Known He is A Racist...  Why did it take Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) until Friday, after Trump had posted a video portraying former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, to acknowledge that Donald Trump is a hard-bitten racist?

‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September  —  Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record  —  An Irishman living in the United States for more than 20 years has been held by US Immigration …

Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump  —  Libertarians can be annoying, with our constant bellyaching about privacy and taxes, our obsession with the First Amendment and our fearmongering about jackbooted thugs.  —  But in light of how the past year has unfolded, consider cutting your friendly neighborhood libertarian some slack.

Trump leaves Republicans guessing on midterms plans as outlook darkens  —  The president is said to be eager to increase his involvement, but on some days sounds detached and noncommittal.  —  Republicans looking to the White House to lead in the face of the party's dimming prospects …

Less than 14% of those arrested by ICE in Trump's 1st year back in office had violent criminal records, document shows  —  Add CBS News on Google  —  Less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump's first year back in the White House …

Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in prison after landmark national security trial  —  Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, ending a years-long legal battle that has come to define Beijing's transformational crackdown on the once-freewheeling financial hub.

As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts  —  Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products.  While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient injuries.

1 big thing: Trump's crypto revolt … - Why it matters: Crypto joins a growing number of segments of the Trump coalition — from Epstein-focused populists to farmers to Latino men — now questioning whether his return to power has delivered as promised.  —  🔎 Zoom in: The hyper-online …

A Raid in a Small Town Brings Trump's Deportations to Deep-Red Idaho  —  Wilder, Idaho, prided itself on comity.  Then federal agents stormed a racetrack outside of town in October, and the reverberations are still shaking the community.  —  People in Wilder, Idaho, didn't give much thought …

The Children of Dilley  —  ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas.  Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next.  —  Fourteen-year-old Ariana Velasquez …

UK's Starmer fights for survival as Mandelson-Epstein revelations spark a crisis  —  British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's position hung by a thread on Monday as he tried to persuade his Labour Party lawmakers not to kick him out of his job after just 19 months in office.

Seduced by the Louis XIV Treatment  —  What JD Vance and his entourage in Milan teach us about Epstein's magnetism  —  Charts and numbers are my comfort zone, and even my political writing is usually analytical in style.  But today I'll take a break and write something looser and more self-indulgent …

209. The Modern Emergency Docket Turns Ten  —  The Supreme Court's February 2016 rulings blocking President Obama's Clean Power Plan were unprecedented at the time; in retrospect, they were harbingers of a deep paradigm shift in the Court's role.  —  Welcome back to “One First,” …

Texas Primaries 2026  —  All eyes are on the Lone Star State's primary election slates in 2026.  With a potentially competitive U.S. Senate race in the General Election in November, who will win the Republican and Democratic party nominations in the March primary elections?

Jasmine Crockett Is Not Running a Traditional Campaign.  It's Making Allies Anxious.  —  Rep. Jasmine Crockett's post-Senate campaign announcement fundraising surge never materialized.  She has been outspent nearly 19-to-1 on political ads this year and hadn't run a single broadcast ad as of early February.

Exclusive: Centrist Dems strike back with new group … - Former Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, ex-chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will serve as president.  — The group describes itself as a “hub for center-left policy and advocacy.”

Murkowski says she prefers D.C. gig to running for governor of Alaska  —  After nearly a quarter century in Washington, D.C., Sen. Lisa Murkowski has little interest in surrendering her U.S. Senate seat to run for governor of Alaska.  —  In response to a Feb. 8 question from ForbesTV …

Why Trump Voters Are Torn Over Minneapolis  —  Illegal immigration and government overreach are colliding in Minneapolis, fundamentally changing Trump voters' views of the president.  —  Produced by Caitlin O'Keefe  —  Pat McCusker and Elisheba Ittoop  —  The question of what to do about …

Border czar warned immigration operations should be targeted to ‘keep the faith of the American people’  —  In an exclusive interview for an upcoming book, Tom Homan warned that public support for aggressive immigration tactics could falter.  —  Listen to this article with a free account

Green Day avoids making political statement during Super Bowl 2026 opening performance  —  A rocking start to the Super Bowl.  —  Green Day performed during the opening ceremony of Super Bowl LX that celebrated generations of Super Bowl MVPs including Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, and Peyton and Eli Manning.

Immigration Raids in South Texas Are Starting to Hit the Economy  —  Trade groups are raising alarms about aggressive immigration enforcement hurting businesses in the region  —  WESLACO, Texas—At Monte Cielo, a new housing development in this growing region of South Texas, half-built homes are sitting empty.

2/9/26☀️ AM: … Funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out on Friday.  Just like any good shutdown deadline, this one is bumping up against the weeklong Presidents Day recess.  You'll hear a lot of threats in the coming days about canceling the recess …

Why Washington's all-in on smart rings … It's paying off.  The Defense Department, Oura's largest customer, now provides rings to certain soldiers and civil servants as an employee benefit. … Besides buying the rings, lawmakers have gone to bat to protect Oura from Chinese and Indian competitors.

Dateline Moscow: The Cuban Missile Crisis  —  Never miss an article!  —  On October 28, 1962, a Sunday of crushing tension, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sent an urgent letter to President John Kennedy reluctantly agreeing to “dismantle the arms, which you describe as offensive, and crate and return them to the Soviet Union.”

Bad Bunny Uses Joy to Put Out Political Firestorm at Super Bowl Halftime  —  'We're still here,' Puerto Rican superstar says in Spanish while spiking a football  —  Bad Bunny delivered a pointed message in Spanish to millions of Americans watching the Super Bowl on Sunday night: “We're still here.”