Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media.

Senior Republican senator ‘puzzled’ and ‘disturbed’ by Hegseth's Ukraine remarks  —  Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we're having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub.  Follow our exclusive coverage here.

How the Justice Dept. Helped Sink Its Own Case Against Eric Adams  —  A top Trump appointee guided Mr. Adams's legal team as they crafted an argument for dismissing corruption charges against the mayor of America's largest city.  —  President Trump had just taken office when lawyers …

Republicans put health care cuts front and center to advance agenda  —  House Republicans are putting cuts to Medicaid at the top of their list of budget cuts to help pay for their wide-ranging agenda that spans tax cuts, energy production and border security.

The AP provides a model of effective press resistance  —  🧭 🗺️ 🌎 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever.  Public Notice is possible thanks to paid subscribers.

Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten  —  Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote to Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, refusing to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams. … Around the New York Region  —  A look at life, culture, politics and more in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory  —  Tesla and SpaceX both relied on their labor while Musk advocated for a border crackdown.  —  Cristy was in her early 50s when she took a job with a cleaning subcontractor on a construction project …

Nazi flags can fly in Utah schools, but not pride flags, GOP lawmaker says  —  A new bill would allow for Nazi and Confederate flags to be displayed in some instances in Utah schools and government buildings, but pride flags would be banned.  —  An ongoing fight in Utah to ban pride flags …

Louisiana Department of Health says it will no longer promote mass vaccination  —  The Louisiana Department of Health will no longer promote mass vaccination, the state's surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, told state health workers Thursday.  —  “The State of Louisiana and LDH …

This Small Rust-Belt City Holds the Secret to Democrats' Latino Woes  —  During the final, frenzied week of the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both made campaign stops in a place whose significance in the election had largely been overlooked by observers: Reading …

Sweeping cuts hit recent federal hires as Trump administration slashes workforce  —  Federal workers have begun receiving layoff notices as the Trump administration moves ahead with plans to drastically downsize the government.  —  While the full scale of layoffs isn't yet clear …

Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk's Government Initiative  —  Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company's C.E.O.  —  One of Elon Musk's closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump's administration …

Elon Musk's DOGE Targets FOIA Requests at Agency Under its Purview  —  The government efficiency group also wants to be notified when there's any attempt at oversight from Congress, inspectors general, even the Government Accountability Office. … Valentine's Day aside …

DOGE's ‘Nerd Army’ Is Breaking the Government by Threatening to Snitch to Elon  —  “I can't believe this is how they're blowing up the Constitution,” says a federal official on the receiving end of DOGE threats  —  Every regime's enforcement mechanisms rely on threats and politicized intimidation.

How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza  —  First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary  —  | Illustrations by Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ

The Opposition Is Already Growing  —  And they've already started to slow down certain Trump efforts.  —  During his first term in office, Donald Trump loved to complain about judges on social media.  Reliably, whenever his agenda was held up in court or his allies faced legal consequences …

RFK Jr.: I'm Already Planning a Purge of the Health Department  —  The newly confirmed health secretary told Fox News he has a “generic list” in his head.

Trump Wants to Destroy All Academia, Not Just the Woke Parts  —  In 2021, JD Vance gave a speech to the National Conservatism Conference, a gathering of Trumpist thinkers and politicians, titled “The Universities Are the Enemy.”  It contained the usual complaints about critical race theory …

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Resume Foreign Aid Spending  —  The judge faulted the logic of a blanket freeze on foreign aid spending and found that groups that depend on the aid had made a strong initial showing of “irreparable harm.”  —  A federal judge ordered the Trump administration …

Don't Be Fooled, ‘Trump Is a Weak President’  —  Trump lacks the skill to govern in the way the founders intended.  —  How much is President Trump testing the Constitution?  And what are the other branches of government doing about it?  This week on “Matter of Opinion,” …

Kennedy Center staff describe climate of fear as events drop from calendar  —  Issa Rae became the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the center after President Trump took over its board and leadership.  —  The fallout from President Donald Trump's takeover …

Hegseth team invites far-right activist Jack Posobiec on overseas trip  —  The offer triggered alarm among Pentagon officials concerned about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue  —  An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return …

Trump administration directs agency heads to fire most probationary staff  —  Terminations should happen within two days, according to four people familiar with internal conversations.  —  The Trump administration has directed agency heads to fire most trial period and probationary staff within two days …

Russian Drone Damages Radiation Shield at Chernobyl, Ukraine Says  —  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the damage “significant” but said there were no signs of radiation leaks.  A Kremlin spokesman denied that Russia had carried out the strike.

How Democrats should respond to Trump's war on DEI  —  Donald Trump did not campaign on a promise to end the Pentagon's celebration of Black History Month.  Nor did the Republican air advertisements pledging to remove displays honoring nonwhite and female scientists from the National Science Foundation.

TikTok Returns to Apple and Google App Stores  —  The popular social media app was removed to comply with a new law that banned it in the United States.  President Trump has paused enforcement of the ban.  —  Apple and Google restored TikTok to their U.S. app stores on Thursday evening …

“We've Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.