Music: Lars Danielsson — ‘Orange Market’
DOJ withheld and removed files relating to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor
NPR reports: The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump. Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of…
The State of the Union for small business is dismal
Matthew A. Winkler writes: Donald Trump’s State of the Union is unlike any of the President’s preceding him because America isn’t working the way it used to. Small businesses, which have fewer than 500 employees and account for almost half of private sector payrolls, are suffering record bankruptcies and “still waiting for noticeable economic growth” as US gross domestic product continues to climb, the Republican-leaning National Federation of Independent Business reported last month. The agricultural economy is sliding, with barely…
A New York congressional candidate feared by the tech oligarchs
Michelle Goldberg writes: If I were a voter in New York’s 12th Congressional District, a recent attack ad against the candidate Alex Bores might make me think twice about considering him. Bores, a 35-year-old member of the New York Assembly, is a reliably progressive candidate in the coming Democratic primary to succeed the liberal stalwart Jerry Nadler, who is retiring. But the spot, paid for by a political action committee called Think Big, points out something seemingly sinister in Bores’s…
Massive investment in AI has contributed nothing to economic growth last year, Goldman Sachs has calculated
The Washington Post reports: A new economic indicator has captivated Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington. Technology companies’ massive spending on artificial intelligence accounted for half or more of U.S. growth last year, some economists calculated, effectively propping up an otherwise anemic economy. To President Donald Trump and his advisers, the figures showed that AI is helping spark an economic renaissance that must not be impeded by regulation. To some critics, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), the data revealed…
Elon Musk’s destruction of USAID has left massive death and destruction in its wake
Bill McKay writes: This decade has seen the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in violent conflicts: in the Tigray War in Ethiopia, in civil war in Myanmar, in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and most recently in the RSF massacres in the Sudanese city of Al-Fashir, to name just a few. Yet the largest act of mass murder of this decade, and of this century so far, was not…
How the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them
Shaun Walker writes: William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden dispatched Burns, his CIA director, to warn Putin that the economic and political consequences if he did so would be disastrous. Fifteen years…
Ancient artifacts hint at earliest protowriting
Science reports: In a series of caves at the base of the Swabian Alps in southwestern Germany, archaeologists have uncovered bone flutes, tools to make rope and clothes, the oldest known Venus figurines, and hundreds of handheld objects etched with intricate geometric designs. These engraved items, first discovered in the 1860s, were carved from mammoth ivory and bones of cave lions, cave bears, and other animals now long extinct. According to an analysis published online today in the Proceedings of…
Music: Lars Danielsson — ‘Day One’
‘Peaceful dissent is not a crime’: A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers
NPR reports: Last month, Colleen Fagan was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine, when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and appeared to record her car license plate number. In a social media video she recorded, Fagan can be heard asking why the agent was taking her information. What the agent said next made the video go viral. “Cause we have a nice little database,” the masked agent said. “And now you’re…
Trump’s top general foresees acute risks in an attack on Iran
The Washington Post reports: As the Trump administration weighs an attack on Iran, the Pentagon’s top general has cautioned President Donald Trump and other officials that shortfalls in critical munitions and a lack of support from allies will add significant risk to the operation and to U.S. personnel, according to people familiar with internal discussions. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed his concerns at a White House meeting last week with Trump and his top…
New polling data shows immigration enforcement is costing the GOP their own voters
Austin Kocher writes: I came across a fascinating new national survey today from Morris Predictive Insights that I wanted to share. I have been paying closer attention to polling data lately, especially anything that tracks the relationship between immigration enforcement and how voters perceive the parties heading into 2026. This one stood out. It is a poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted February 6-10, and it offers some of the clearest evidence yet that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda…
Musk’s xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems
Axios reports: Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has signed an agreement to allow the military to use its model, Grok, in classified systems, a Defense official confirmed to Axios. Why it matters: Up to now, Anthropic’s Claude has been the only model available in the systems on which the military’s most sensitive intelligence work, weapons development and battlefield operations take place. But the Pentagon is threatening Anthropic in a dispute over safeguards and may soon need a replacement. Anthropic has refused the Pentagon’s demand that they…
How AI agents could destroy the economy
Bloomberg reports: Delivery, payments, and software stocks slid sharply Monday after Citrini Research published a report laying out the potential risks that artificial intelligence could pose to various segments of the global economy. DoorDash Inc., American Express Co., KKR & Co Inc. and Blackstone Inc all slumped more than 8%. Shares of other companies name-checked in the article, including Uber Technologies Inc., Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Apollo Global Management Inc. were all lower by at…
Peter Mandelson’s downfall is one of fastest ever seen in British public life
Matthew Weaver writes: Just six months ago Peter Mandelson seemed unassailable as the UK’s ambassador to the US, one of the most vaunted positions in British diplomacy. As our man in Washington, Mandelson appeared to have used his skill for schmoozing, learned over years as a cabinet minister and a European commissioner, to secure a good relationship with the tricky Trump administration. He was considered instrumental in securing a relatively favourable US trade deal for the UK. He was also…
The ideological connections between Stephen Miller, Calvin Coolidge, and Hitler
To the following question, What are the ideological connections shared by Calvin Coolidge, Hitler, and Stephen Miller? Google AI responded: The ideological connections between Calvin Coolidge, Adolf Hitler, and Stephen Miller are primarily centered on strict immigration restriction based on eugenics, nativism, and the pursuit of national “homogeneity” or “racial purity”. While separated by different political contexts—1920s American conservatism, 1930s Nazism, and 21st-century American populism—they are linked through a chain of influence and shared admiration for the Immigration Act of…