Employers added 517,000 jobs in January, astonishing labor market growth  —  January marked the 25th straight month of solid job growth, and the unemployment rate edged down to a new low of 3.4 percent.  —  The labor market shattered expectations in January, as the economy added 517,000 jobs …

Blinken postpones China trip as suspected spy balloon detected over U.S.  —  Hours before the secretary of state was scheduled to depart for Beijing, the diplomatic visit was called off  —  President Biden postponed his top diplomat's first official trip to China on Friday in response …

Republicans rally around conservatives who lost their elections  —  The GOP base lionizes some defeated candidates as wronged warriors and avatars of legitimate grievances  —  Donald Trump — the former Republican president who lost his 2020 reelection bid — spent last Saturday pinging between …

House Republicans float one spending cut in a debt ceiling bill: unspent Covid money  —  WASHINGTON — There's no Republican plan, let alone a bill, to resolve the debt ceiling problem.  But some GOP lawmakers are floating one idea to include in a package: rescinding approved but unspent Covid relief funds.

A packed 2024 field could hand Donald Trump the nomination.  He still hates it.  —  Republicans opposed to Donald Trump are complaining that a massive pile-up in the 2024 presidential field is set to hand him the nomination.  But you won't see Trump, who has publicly and privately groused …

Hunter Biden Claims His Laptop  —  And asks his dad's government to target his critics.  —  WSJ Opinion: The Biden Classified-Document Payback  —  YOU MAY ALSO LIKE  —  Created with sketchtool.  —  1x  —  Hunter Biden did some reckless things, is unhappy people found out, and so is now doing something equally reckless.

AOC decries vote to remove Omar from House Foreign Affairs Committee  —  Moments before House Republicans voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over what a resolution said was a series of antisemitic remarks, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. …

All shook up: Why Dems see sliver of opportunity in deep-red Mississippi  —  Republicans have had a lock on the Mississippi governorship for decades.  But Democrats hope that a candidate with one of the most famous last names in America can change that.  —  Democrats are coalescing around …

Clyburn says Democrats should compromise on policing bill  —  Good morning, Early Birds.  Do you ask people what they do for work?  Do you help strangers parallel park?  Do you put out bowls of cigarettes at the parties you throw (and do you let guests smoke indoors)?  We're dying to know.

Confidence in police practices drops to a new low: POLL  —  Just 39% are confident that the police are trained to avoid excessive force.  —  Americans' confidence in how police are trained and their  —  treatment of Black people  —  both have fallen to new lows in an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Leaked Audio And Staff Dispute Show Chaos Inside George Santos' Office  —  Start your day with TPM.  —  After a little over a week working with embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Derek Myers was informed that he would not be getting a permanent job.  During that tense conversation, Santos also offered some parting advice.

Questioned on Biden documents, his press secretary has only one answer  —  Karine Jean-Pierre, eight months into her tenure as White House press secretary, has frustrated reporters with her inability to shed light on the classified documents probe, raising doubts about her own access.

Matt Gaetz wants to make poor Americans work for their health care  —  Rep. Matt Gaetz is trying to convince his fellow Republicans to demand new work requirements for Medicaid as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling.  —  The Florida congressman, who has been enjoying new influence within …

I'm a teacher in Florida.  Here's what the DeSantis book bans look like in my classroom  —  A new crackdown on books in Florida schools has had a chilling effect in classrooms.  —  “I'm done!  I'm done!  What do I do now?”  Every teacher, in every classroom, hears this many (thousands) of times daily from their students.

Former Trump Executive, Already Jailed, Could Face More Fraud Charges  —  Manhattan prosecutors warned that they might charge Allen H. Weisselberg with insurance fraud to pressure him to cooperate in an investigation of the former president.  —  Manhattan prosecutors this week warned …