Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:35 PM ET, February 18, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Barak Ravid / Axios:
Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran  —  The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize.  It could begin very soon. … - The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope …
RELATED:
New York Times:
U.S. Military Moves Into Place for Possible Strikes in Iran  —  President Trump has given no indication that he has made a decision about how to proceed, as diplomatic talks continue.  —  The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump …
Wall Street Journal:
Iran Is Getting Ready for War With the U.S.
Discussion: Fox News, NewsMax.com and Semafor
Christian Paz / Vox:
The FCC (probably) didn't censor Stephen Colbert  —  For the 12 of us who woke up Tuesday morning wondering what we had missed on Monday's late-night shows, CBS greeted us with a concerning development.  —  Overnight, Stephen Colbert had laid into his network, dedicating time at the top …
RELATED:
John Hendel / Politico:
Carr dismisses Colbert uproar as a ‘hoax’
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Colbert defies CBS over interview with Texas Senate candidate
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Late-night host Stephen Colbert isn't backing down from public dispute with CBS bosses
Paul Krugman:
Billionaires Gone Wild  —  Understanding the oligarchs' power grab and the dire threat to American democracy  —  A few stories about centibillionaires — men whose net worth exceeds $100 billion — and their role in our society:  —  · In 2022 Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, purchased Twitter.
Discussion: Mock Paper Scissors
RELATED:
Carol Ryan / Wall Street Journal:
Billionaires' Low Taxes Are Becoming a Problem for the Economy
Discussion: The Hill and The Guardian
Robert Reich:
Memo to Kathy Hochul and Gavin Newsom: Why taxing the rich makes enormous sense
Discussion: The Hill
Reuters:
Exclusive: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere  —  The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda …
Dareh Gregorian / NBC News:
Billionaire Les Wexner tells lawmakers that he was ‘conned’ by Jeffrey Epstein and did ‘nothing wrong’  —  The 88-year-old former Victoria's Secret CEO denied he was Epstein's “co-conspirator,” and said he “was duped by a world-class con man.”  —  Listen to this article with a free account
RELATED:
Emily Brooks / The Hill:
Les Wexner denies knowledge of Epstein crimes in deposition with skeptical Democrats
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Angry Trump Humiliated as Effort to Prosecute Dems Backfires Again  —  Let's start with some good news: Donald Trump's efforts to jail his Democratic enemies have thus far mostly been marked by ham-fisted, buffoonish failure.  The targeting of people like Senator Adam Schiff …
RELATED:
Emily Peck / Axios:
Trump's economic adviser says authors of tariff study should be “disciplined”  —  White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the authors of a New York Fed study that found that Americans pay for tariffs should be disciplined, in an interview with CNBC Wednesday morning.
Discussion: Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, MS NOW and Joe.My.God.
RELATED:
Victoria Guida / Politico:
Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for reporting the US pays tariff costs
Nature:
The political effects of X's feed algorithm  — Germain Gauthier orcid.org/0009-0000-4262-7483 1 na1, - Roland Hodler orcid.org/0000-0001-8402-8243 2 na1, - Philine Widmer 3 na1 & - - Ekaterina Zhuravskaya orcid.org/0000-0002-3496-2086 3,4 na1 Show authors  —  Abstract
Discussion: Gizmodo
Phillip Nieto / Daily Mail:
Tucker Carlson ‘DETAINED’ in Israel: Journalist ‘dragged into interrogation room’ as explosive interview sparks diplomatic firestorm  —  Conservative podcasting titan Tucker Carlson says he and his staff were detained in Israel on Wednesday following an interview with Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump's current ambassador to the country.
Hafiz Rashid / New Republic:
Pope Rejects Trump's “Board of Peace” Invite  —  The Vatican will not be joining Donald Trump's “Board of Peace,” announcing Tuesday that it was turning down a January invitation from the White House.  —  “For us, there are ... some critical issues that should be resolved,” …
RELATED:
New York Times:
Colorado Democrats Push to Rip Up 2028 House Map for an Extra Edge  —  A proposed ballot measure to give Democrats more seats for the 2028 and 2030 elections signals that the nation's gerrymandering fight is likely to persist for years.  —  A group allied with Colorado Democrats is beginning …
RELATED:
Laura Kelly / The Hill:
Trump has prepared speech on extraterrestrial life, Lara Trump says  —  President Trump is holding onto a speech detailing extraterrestrial life and spaceships, according to his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who said the president is waiting for the right time to deliver it.
Karina Petrova / PsyPost:
High IQ men tend to be less conservative than their average peers, study finds  —  The stereotype of the eccentric genius with radical political views is a common trope in fiction.  A new study challenges this assumption by suggesting that highly intelligent adults may hold political views …
Discussion: Raw Story
Carol Leonnig / MS NOW:
White House directing DHS to hunt for voter fraud by naturalized citizens: Sources  —  The Department of Homeland Security's chief investigations arm this week launched a broader nationwide campaign to investigate and prosecute naturalized citizens who may have improperly voted in past elections …
Jay Kuo / The Status Kuo:
Theres's Credible Evidence of Trump's Sex Crimes  —  The evidence, once brought together, tells a compelling, disturbing story.  —  In her sworn testimony before Congress, Attorney General Pam Bondi made a sweeping claim.  Asked by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) whether Donald Trump had ever attended …
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Hegseth invited Christian nationalist Doug Wilson to preach at Pentagon  —  The self-described “paleo-Confederate” has argued that wives should submit to their husbands, women should be denied the vote and Christian slaveowners were on “firm scriptural ground.”
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Democrats Plan to Counter Trump's Speech to Congress With Rally  —  The House Democratic leader has asked rank-and-file members to sit quietly at the speech or skip it altogether, wary of creating a distraction.  —  Democrats knew in real time last year that they had bungled their response …
RELATED:
Arthur Delaney / HuffPost:
GOP Lawmaker Reportedly Had Affair With Aide Who Died By Self-Immolation  —  Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) accused his primary opponent of using the story to smear his aide's memory.  —  WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker's apparent affair with an aide who later died by suicide has roiled a close primary election in Texas.
Pranav Baskar / New York Times:
Journalists Arrested in Cameroon While Reporting on Trump's Secretive Deportation Program  —  An Associated Press reporter was beaten and held with three other journalists and a lawyer, two detainees said, while at a center for migrants secretively deported from the United States.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The ‘Most Massive Attack On Free Speech’ Is Happening Right Now, And The Twitter Files Crew Is Mighty Quiet  —  For the last five years, we had to endure an endless, breathless parade of hyperbole regarding the so-called “censorship industrial complex.”  We were told, repeatedly and at high volume …
Bridget Bowman / NBC News:
John Cornyn warns of a GOP ‘massacre’ in Texas if Ken Paxton beats him in their Senate primary  —  Cornyn is locked in a hotly contested primary race against state Attorney General Ken Paxton and GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt.  — ADD NBC NEWS TO GOOGLE  —  Listen to this article with a free account
TMZ.com:
FBI Contacts Mexican Authorities in Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping, New Ransom Demand  —  The FBI has reached out to authorities in Mexico, in the hunt for Nancy Guthrie and her kidnapper, TMZ has learned ... and TMZ has received a new ransom note.  —  Law enforcement sources involved …
Timothy Pratt / The Guardian:
Conservative Georgia town pushes back against ICE detention center: ‘We are Americans after all’  —  Social Circle, a mostly Maga town, builds strange bedfellow coalition against plans to convert warehouse  —  On a recent morning Eric Taylor, city manager for a small Georgia town …
Zack Beauchamp / Vox:
How one country stopped a Trump-style authoritarian in his tracks … BRASÍLIA, Brazil — André Borges's aunt was pregnant when they took her.  —  Borges, now 50, grew up under Brazil's military dictatorship.  In power from 1964-1985, the regime was violently censorial …
Helena Hind / Media Matters for America:
Compared to other cable news channels, Fox News is hiding the latest Epstein revelations from their audience  —  If you exclusively watch Fox News, you likely have no idea about the latest fallout from the Epstein files release … The DOJ's January 30 release of over 3 million pages of files …
Discussion: Daily Mail
Philip Bump / MS NOW:
The right's obsession with American ‘heritage’ is all about who gets to be seen as ‘white’  —  What Elon Musk was really getting at when he incorrectly claimed “American culture” is of “English-Scotts-Irish origin.” … At the outset, it's appropriate to recognize that the recent uptick …
Discussion: KVIA-TV
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 8:35 PM ET, February 18, 2026.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Media Matters for America:
Fox's Brian Kilmeade pleads with Trump to drop tariffs on clothing
Discussion: CBS News
Associated Press:
Trump, weeks after backlash over racist post, hosts Black History Month reception
Tim Dickinson / The Contrarian:
Inside Trump's ICE Concentration Camps
Discussion: New York Times
Joseph Goldstein / New York Times:
Manhattan Hospital Ends Medical Treatment for Transgender Youth
Sophie Brams / The Hill:
RFK Jr., Kid Rock go shirtless in new HHS ad
 Earlier Items: 
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
N.I.H. Director Will Temporarily Run C.D.C. in Leadership Shake-Up
New Republic:
Minneapolis Mayor's Emotional Message to Trump: You Failed to Break Us
Discussion: Raw Story
Janna Brancolini / The Daily Beast:
Manic Trump, 79, Unleashes Deranged Conspiracy Posting Rampage
Stephanie Koithan / San Antonio Current:
Report: Staff at Dilley raiding cells to confiscate kids' letters and drawings detailing conditions inside
Discussion: New Republic and Joe.My.God.
Lizzy Lawrence / STAT:
STAT+: FDA reverses course, agrees to review Moderna's flu vaccine
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Julianna Bragg / Axios:
Stephen Colbert's interview on YouTube with US Senate candidate James Talarico draws 7M+ views after it was posted on Monday, bypassing TV restrictions

Rohan Goswami / Semafor:
In a letter, six Democratic senators ask David Ellison to save communications with Trump, his family, lobbyists, and the DOJ about Paramount's pursuit of WBD

Michael Lynton / Wall Street Journal:
Book extract: ex-Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton recounts how greenlighting The Interview sparked North Korea's massive 2014 cyberattack

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page