Rubio tells Orban ‘your success is our success’ during Hungary visit ahead of elections  —  During a visit to Budapest Monday, just weeks before Hungary's parliamentary elections, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that the nationalist leader's “success” was a success for the US.

Rubio to Europe: We Hit You Because We Love You  —  Barack Obama kicked off a minor social media frenzy last week when he told the liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen that aliens are real.  “They're real, but I haven't seen them,” he said, adding that they're certainly not “being kept” in “Area 51.”

Trump donor who criticized offshoring to close Ohio plant and move work to China  —  Workers decried John Paulson's plan after billionaire painted himself as advocate for domestic manufacturing  —  John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire and one of Donald Trump's earliest Wall Street backers …

Exclusive: Pentagon threatens Anthropic punishment  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the AI company a “supply chain risk” — meaning anyone who wants to do business with the U.S. military has to cut ties with the company, a senior Pentagon official told Axios.

Statement from BCA Superintendent Drew Evans on Alex Pretti shooting investigation … The FBI formally notified the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) on Feb. 13 that it will not provide the BCA with access to any information or evidence that it has collected in the Jan. 24 shooting death of Alex Pretti.

Newsom signs California-UK clean energy pact  —  The deal includes greater collaboration on offshore windfarms — a great bugbear of Donald Trump.  —  LONDON — California will carry on making the case for “climate action” on the global stage, Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday, as he signed a new clean energy pact with the U.K.

The Case for Keeping ICE and CBP Defunded  —  Democrats should not provide one thin dime to MAGA storm troopers.  — Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email  —  Senate Democrats, somewhat to my surprise, have held the line and refused to support funding the Department …

Civil rights groups ask court to protect Fulton County voter data seized by FBI  —  A group of civil rights organizations including the NAACP and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law have asked a federal court to protect voters' personal information after the FBI seized ballots …

Trump threatens kidnappers with death penalty if Nancy Guthrie isn't returned alive in call with The Post  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump told The Post Monday that those responsible for kidnapping Nancy Guthrie must release her unharmed or they will face the “most severe” federal penalties.

You Know What?  Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid  —  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sure looked like a presidential candidate this weekend.  She attended a policy conference in Munich that often draws potential White House hopefuls, including Governor Gavin Newsom and Senator Ruben Gallego this year.

In First Months as Governor, Abigail Spanberger Kicks Up Heat From the Right … Abigail Spanberger ran for governor of Virginia on her record as one of the most bipartisan members of the House and as a mother of three who worked undercover for the C.I.A. It was the disciplined campaign of a centrist Democrat in a purple state.

Libertarians warned about the ‘imperial presidency.’ Too few actually warned about Trump.  —  When I saw the headline “Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump” atop a New York Times op-ed last Monday, I thought, “Hmmm, that's not quite how I remember it.”

Mitch McConnell is taking a beating in the race to replace him  —  Three GOP candidates, all former McConnell interns, are keeping their distance as they seek to align with President Donald Trump.  —  One Republican candidate to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell introduced himself with an ad …

Epstein sympathized with Kavanaugh during supreme court confirmation, emails show  —  Files show convicted sex abuser messaged with Ken Starr and others about Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford  —  Jeffrey Epstein sympathized with Brett Kavanaugh during the then-supreme court nominee's …

Turning Our Back on Clean Energy  —  Why does MAGA hate the planet?  —  Source: Berkeley Earth  —  It has been a brutal winter in much of the United States.  Weather is a chaotic system in which extreme events are always happening somewhere.  But as I am sure you have noticed …

Tax Deadlines Accidentally Got Turned Off for Three Years.  Now What?  —  Attorneys race to file refund claims after IRS loses court case  —  WASHINGTON—Oops.  So it turns out that Congress may have turned off tax-filing and payment deadlines for more than three years.

With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules  —  The E.P.A.'s killing of the “endangerment finding” caps a year of deregulation that is likely to make cars thirstier for gas and less competitive globally, experts say.  —  The momentous end to the federal government's legal authority …

Editor's Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations … On Friday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article containing fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them.  That is a serious failure of our standards.

“Just making s**t up” — David Roberts sounds off on the EPA  —  PN is supported by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🏭 Subscribe to PN 🏭  —  On the heels of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency announcing that it's repealing the endangerment finding …

Trump wants the Fed to cut rates.  Kevin Warsh has bigger plans. … That policy, he says, has distorted the market and enriched Wall Street rather than ordinary Americans by propping up stocks and bonds, which are overwhelmingly owned by the wealthy.  —  But any effort to significantly reduce …

Agreements that allow local police to work with ICE skyrocket  —  There were 1,168 agencies with officers signed up to help ICE, up from 135 during the Biden administration and 150 at the end of Trump's first term, according to an analysis of ICE data.  —  Listen to this article with a free account