As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia  —  President Trump's Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen …

Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down  —  A flood of cuts led by Elon Musk has sent the agency into chaos as a new commissioner prepares to take charge.

SignalGate Is Bad; But OPSEC Isn't Even the Worst Part Of It … I haven't had time to comment on the Jeff Goldberg story about the war cabinet planning a military campaign on the Signal app.  So a few brief thoughts.  —  To state the obvious, in any normal administration Hegseth and Waltz …

Law firms refuse to represent Trump opponents in the wake of his attacks  —  The result is an extraordinary threat to constitutional rights of due process and legal representation and a far weaker effort to challenge Trump's actions in court than during his first term.  —  Just now

White House Says Russia and Ukraine Agree to Stop Fighting in Black Sea  —  The agreement announced after parallel sets of talks in Riyadh would be the first significant step toward the full cease-fire the Trump Administration had been pushing, but it still would fall short.

Speaker Mike Johnson floats eliminating federal courts as GOP ramps up attacks on judges  —  Republican lawmakers are setting their sights on the judiciary following court rulings that have halted Trump's agenda.  —  WASHINGTON — Facing pressure from his right flank to take on judges …

Will Democrats finally get a shot at taking out Susan Collins?  —  Captain Ahab had Moby Dick.  Wile E. Coyote had Road Runner.  Senate Democrats have Susan Collins.  Even as ticket-splitting rates have plummeted, Collins has stymied all previous Democratic attempts to oust …

MAGA Influencers May Have Been Paid to Break With RFK  —  Secret cash flies in the MAGA soda wars  —  IF YOU'VE EVER BEEN READING YOUR social media feed and suddenly noticed that conservative personalities have latched on to some obscure issue they've never cared about before …

US Nominates Leo Brent Bozell III as Ambassador to S. Africa  —  US President Donald Trump's administration has nominated Leo Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist and writer, to be the country's ambassador to South Africa.  —  The nomination, published on the US Congress' website, comes amid strained ties between the two nations.

A Rising Democratic Star Is Ready for New Leadership — Without Chuck Schumer  —  Michigan Democrat Mallory McMorrow says it's time for a new generation to take on Trump.  —  Mallory McMorrow doesn't claim to have all the answers for the Democratic Party.  But as the 38-year-old Michigan Democrat gears …

Florida debates lifting some child labor laws to fill jobs vacated by undocumented immigrants  —  New York CNN —  Florida has been working for years to crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants.  But that presented a problem for businesses in the state that are desperate …

Exclusive: Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows  —  A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers, according to job ads and a researcher who uncovered the campaign.

Education Department Reeling After Layoffs  —  The Trump administration said its sweeping cuts would eliminate bloat at the department.  Staff say the “chaotic” process has stalled essential functions and left remaining employees with unmanageable workloads.

Democrat Jasmine Crockett laughingly mocks disabled Republican: ‘Governor Hot Wheels’  —  Progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, mocked a disabled, wheelchair-bound Republican governor, calling him “Governor Hot Wheels” during a pro-LGBTQ benefit dinner this weekend.

Trump Administration Plans to Freeze Family-Planning Grants  —  Tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other groups would be cut off while the administration examines their DEI efforts  —  The Trump administration is moving to freeze tens of millions …

Trump Admin Plans to Cut Team Responsible for Critical Atomic Measurement Data  —  The team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes measurement data crucial for advanced research in areas like astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and semiconductors.

City Employee Charged With Putting Noose On Her Own Desk, Faking ‘Hate Crime’  —  A black city official in Pennsylvania is charged with faking a racist threat that triggered outrage from activists and a response from the FBI.  —  Allentown, Pennsylvania school board member LaTarsha Brown allegedly planned …

Bubble Trouble  —  An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us. … The week of Donald Trump's inauguration, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, stood tall next to the president as he made a dramatic announcement: the launch of Project Stargate, a $500 billion supercluster in the rolling plains …