Top Items:
Jacob Bogage / Washington Post:
Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS — The unusual request would put sensitive data about millions of American taxpayers in the hands of Trump political appointees. — Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system …
RELATED:
NBC News:
DOGE-affiliated employee has accessed IRS system with sensitive taxpayer information — The Integrated Data Retrieval System allows IRS employees to access taxpayer information. — WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service employee who is affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency …
Discussion:
Bloomberg and The Japan Times
Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:
DOGE Mismanagement Principles
Discussion:
The UnPopulist and OutsideTheBeltway
Politico:
The US said Ukraine would meet with Russia to discuss peace. That was news to Kyiv. — “I do not know what it is,” said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. … MUNICH — Ukrainian officials reacted with a mixture of shock and confusion to the news that top Trump administration officials …
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Team Leaves Behind an Alliance in Crisis
Discussion:
Thinking about, The New European and Politico
Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Ukraine Won't Accept a Deal It Didn't Help Negotiate, Zelensky Says
Discussion:
Human Events, Grabien and Semafor
CBS News:
Transcript: Rep. Dan Crenshaw on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Feb. 16, 2025
Discussion:
Raw Story
New York Times:
Ukraine Rejects U.S. Demand for Half of Its Mineral Resources
Discussion:
Breitbart, Atlantic Council, Bloomberg and Associated Press
Emma Burrows / Associated Press:
US presented Ukraine with a document to access its minerals but offered almost nothing in return
Discussion:
NBC News, The Guardian, Boston Herald, Reuters, UPI, Associated Press, CNBC, WALV-TV and Financial Times
BBC:
Ukraine not attending US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, government source tells BBC
Discussion:
Taipei Times, The Indian Express, Fox News, Reuters, New York Times, NBC News, The Hill and Politico
Peter Wade / Rolling Stone:
Zelenskyy: ‘The Risk That Russia Will Occupy Europe Is 100 Percent’ If U.S. Pulls Out of NATO
Discussion:
Politico, Daily Mail, Fox News, The Independent, One America News Network, Metro.co.uk, Agence France-Presse, NBC News, The Guardian, Axios, Breitbart, Grabien and UPI
Politico:
Mass firings continue across nation's health agencies — The cuts have raised questions about the extent of the impact on public health. — The Trump administration carried out more mass firings across the Health and Human Services Department this weekend, continuing a chaotic purge …
RELATED:
Rachel Cohrs Zhang / Bloomberg:
US Health Department Layoffs Expand to Medicare, FDA — Employees at CMS, FDA, CDC received notices in weekend cuts — The Department of Health and Human Services laid off employees Saturday evening across some of its biggest agencies — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services …
Discussion:
Forbes, Associated Press, The Guardian, Talking Points Memo and STAT
NBC News:
CDC ‘disease detectors’ among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts — Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees. — The Trump administration on Saturday terminated hundreds …
Discussion:
Daily Mail
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order — The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause. — The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement …
Minho Kim / New York Times:
Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs? — The administration asked some of the agency's workers, who were part of last week's massive layoffs across the federal government, to come back. — When termination letters were sent …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal — The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation's nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused …
New York Times:
Adams Forcefully Resists Calls to Resign: ‘I Am Going Nowhere’ — Mayor Eric Adams spoke at two Black churches in Queens and pushed back at those who “are dancing on my grave.” — Whenever Mayor Eric Adams has faced adversity, he has sought refuge in the pulpit of Black churches …
Discussion:
Politico, The Independent and New York Post
RELATED:
Gregory Svirnovskiy / Politico:
'I think that's ridiculous': Tom Homan on quid pro quo speculation over Eric Adams
Discussion:
NBC News, One America News Network, Grabien and Townhall
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
The real victims of Eric Adams' NYC corrupt bargain might go to Gitmo
Discussion:
Raw Story and washingtonpost.com
Edward-Isaac Dovere / CNN:
Democrats confront their powerlessness as Trump flexes authority — Amid Democrats' shock and bickering over how much to respond to President Donald Trump is a deeper question rippling through leaders across the Capitol and across the country: How much should they rely on the same institutional …
Discussion:
Politico
RELATED:
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Democrats play blame game with GOP on looming government shutdown
Discussion:
PoliticusUSA, Breitbart, Grabien and Daily Kos
Mother Jones:
DOGE Worker Says He Was Radicalized by Reading Writer Who Later Denied Holocaust — In a since-deleted Substack post, a member of Elon Musk's team praised an essay by Ron Unz—who has called the Holocaust potentially a “hoax” and said Trayvon Martin was “a violent young thug.”
Wall Street Journal:
Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn — Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot
New York Times:
In Moving to Stop Adams Case, Career Lawyer Sought to Stave Off Deeper Crisis — A high-stakes decision for public corruption prosecutors at the Justice Department revealed a generational difference. — The threat of a mass firing was unspoken but loomed over the videoconference call.
Discussion:
emptywheel
RELATED:
Jed Shugerman / Shugerblog:
Birthright Citizenship: Barnett & Wurman's NY Times Essay and their Bates/Blackstone Double Backfire — Randy Barnett & Ilan Wurman had a guest essay in the N.Y. Times on Feb. 15th: “Trump Might Have a Case on Birthright Citizenship.” The bottom line is that their essay backfires …
Discussion:
PJ Media and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Bloomberg:
Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let Him Fire US Agency Head — Justices asked to step in on emergency basis, person says — Trump seeking to remove head of US whistleblower agency — President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court to let him fire the head of an independent US agency …
Julian Borger / The Guardian:
Netanyahu says Israel working closely with US on Trump's plan for Gaza — Israeli PM and US secretary of state express joint support for ‘bold vision’ that would force 2 million people to leave — Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working closely with the US to implement Donald Trump's plan …
Discussion:
Associated Press, CBS News, The Indian Express, New York Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, UPI, Forbes, Reuters, Fox News, The Japan Times, Politico, Semafor and Al Jazeera
Allan Smith / NBC News:
Transportation Department workers with ‘exceptional’ reviews told they're fired for ‘performance’ issues — President Donald Trump's administration has started the mass firing of workers who are new to the civil service or have recently switched jobs. — Letters went out to dozens …
Peter Walker / The Guardian:
John Major: Trump's US isolationism threatens global democracy — Former UK prime minister says US may regret ceding world stage to China and condemns ‘hypocritical’ JD Vance speech — Democracy around the globe is under threat from the retreat of Donald Trump's US into isolationism …
Discussion:
HuffPost and Writing from London
Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post:
Trump asks Supreme Court to allow him to fire independent agency leader — The administration is seeking legal support from the conservative high court to back its efforts to expand the power of the presidency.
Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to greenlight whistleblower office firing — The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to greenlight President Trump's firing of the head of a federal whistleblower protection office, marking the new Trump administration's first appeal to the high court.
Discussion:
Axios and New York Times
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