Julie Laumann ❌ 👑

Trump administration live updates: Lawmakers view unredacted Epstein files at Justice Department Trump administration live updates: Congress members may begin viewing unredacted Epstein files at DOJ

“Raskin also said that he saw ‘references to 17-year-old girls, 16-year-old girls, 14-year-old girls, 11-year-old girls, 10-year-old girls, and I saw a reference today to a 9-year-old girl. So it is a really gruesome and grim story.’“ www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Expert insight: U.S. withdrawal from WHO could affect global health - Western News History professor Mitchell L. Hammond explains how the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization could affect global health and disease threats.

HORRIFYING -
Dismantling USAID & cancelling >80% of aid caused ~750,000 deaths by mid-2025

🧸Most were children
⌛️ Many died within the first year

😰 Preventable deaths were mainly from:
- HIV, TB, malaria
- Maternal & fetal deaths
- Malnutrition

news.westernu.ca/2026/01/u-s-...

“.. He said he had no interactions with Epstein after 2005, yet we now know they were in business together,” Garcia said. “Lutnick must resign or be fired.”

@financialtimes.com
www.ft.com/content/2264...

Russia's second highest ranking intelligence officer, Vladimir Alexeyev, was nearly assassinated in Moscow. Ukraine denies involvement and more signs indicate this was an internal Russian dispute.

209. The Modern Emergency Docket Turns Ten The February 2016 rulings blocking the Clean Power Plan were unprecedented; in retrospect, they were harbingers of a paradigm shift in the Supreme Court's role.

Ten years ago today, #SCOTUS issued five unsigned and unexplained 5-4 rulings granting emergency applications to block President Obama’s Clean Power Plan—a completely unprecedented move that helped to usher in the Court’s modern … (mis)adventures … with its shadow docket.

Me in today’s “One First”:

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

A Raid in a Small Town Brings Trump’s Deportations to Deep-Red Idaho www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...

From New York to New Mexico: new Epstein files shed light on his sprawling ranch outside Santa Fe Several men appear in photos on the nearly 10,000-acre Zorro ranch, which included a 26,700 sq ft mansion

For years, Epstein abused teenage girls and young women on this ranch with impunity, according to testimony from several women. In court proceedings, survivors detailed horror after horror they say unfolded on this isolated expanse of land.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer says his client will only speak if Trump grants her clemency

Massie Calls For Lutnick To Resign Over Epstein Connection Massie accused Lutnick of being in business with Epstein “many years after” his conviction in 2008.

Massie accused Lutnick of being in business with Epstein “many years after” his conviction in 2008.

Bezos Loses His Will The abrupt exit of Washington Post publisher Will Lewis served as a cathartic moment for staff in the wake of mass layoffs—but did little to lift the dark clouds hanging over the paper’s future.

Will Lewis’ abrupt exit from WaPo, days after mass layoffs, prompted relief and rage inside the newsroom with little love lost for the departing exec

“Will’s legacy can be summed up as nothing more than having destroyed an institution in American media”

www.status.news/p/washington...

Opinion | Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump

I feel like I'm losing my goddamnned mind.

This op-ed was written by Kathrine Mangu-Ward. Katherine is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine.

Reason fired @shikhadalmia.bsky.social for being too anti-Trump.

A tale told in two screenshots :)

Yes, some of us did, but the libertarians at Reason were not prominent among them, except for the one who got fired for it.

Judge strikes down old Arizona abortion restrictions that clash with voter-backed guarantees A judge has ruled that Arizona must stop enforcing abortion restrictions that predate and contradict a 2024 voter-approved constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights.

Arizona must stop enforcing abortion restrictions that predate and contradict a 2024 voter-approved constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights, a judge ordered in a ruling released Friday.

One dead, three others, including two children, hurt in shooting west of Tonopah One person is dead, and three others, including two children, are hurt after a shooting west of Tonopah on Sunday afternoon.

America's gun psychopathy continues: *41* mass shootings so far in 2026. 💔😡💔 #GunsDontMakeUsSafer

The latest: A woman killed and a man and 2 children gravely wounded in an apparent domestic-related shooting in Tonopah, Ariz:
www.abc15.com/news/crime/o...

ICE Uses Disguises and Fake Plates for Immigration Enforcement in Minnesota A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to inquiries about whether the men were federal immigration officers. As the sweeping imm...

There are a growing number of reports of agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers & anti-ICE activists, heightening fears in the state.

That's deceptive & unconstitutional, because they use trickery to get around warrant & consent protections.

The end of DOE’s grid work in Puerto Rico The Trump administration has canceled all eight of the remaining awards devoted to distributed energy on the island.

Just a few weeks ago, the administration cancelled all remaining department of energy grid resilience projects in Puerto Rico. All of them. www.latitudemedia.com/news/the-end...

Remember that under the first Trump administration, Puerto Rico had to suffer through the longest power blackout in U.S. history bsky.app/profile/cost...

Washington’s Corruption Has Created Another Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico The island’s earthquakes are its latest man-made disaster.

If you didn’t catch the significance of the exploding transformers in Bad Bunny’s halftime show, I gotcha. Here’s one of a bunch of pieces I wrote from/on Puerto Rico about the crisis—and Trump’s role in it. slate.com/news-and-pol...

NSA detected foreign intelligence phone call about a person close to Trump Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff

DNI Gabbard reportedly attempted to sweep a call between a foreign agent & someone close to Trump under the rug. The call and its attempted coverup are grave threats to our national security.

Who was trying to influence Trump? Were they successful? Tulsi must go—we need answers.

This has happened exactly a week after Democrats got an overperformance of 30 percentage points in a special election in Texas, flipping it.

ok I don't think most people here understand the gravity of *where* this happened so I'll try to explain: yall remember True Detective season one

The 20 Elections to Watch This February - Bolts Democrats hold the narrowest of majorities in Maine and Pennsylvania’s state Houses. They now need to defend vacant seats to retain their edge in each through the end of the... Read More

GOP failed to flip ANY Dem district in 2025 (Dems flipped a lot), & none in 2026 so far. This was as clear an opening as you can imagine. Big blow to Rs.

This was one of the 20 races I identified as important to watch in February.

Details: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

RESULT: Democrat Chasity Martinez wins a special election for a legislative seat in Louisiana, 62% to 38%.

This was a district that Trump carried by 13% last year, so a big overperformance by Dems, but the seat was already Dem-held.

Late result for anyone still awake: Na’Cole Thompson, the Democratic candidate in the mayoral race today in Leander, Texas, has won the election.

She got 57% and won’t need a runoff, with two Republicans adding up to 43%.

2️⃣ And in Texas, the Democratic-endorsed candidate easily won the mayoral race in Leander, a suburb of Austin.

(Trump narrowly carried the city in 2024.)

There were two elections I was watching yesterday—and both ended up as clear Democratic wins.

Let's recap for those who weren't glued on here last night.

1️⃣ In Louisiana, Dems very easily held a seat that had gone for Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024.

Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.

This is not a sane person.

fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...

The release on Saturday, August 10th appears to have two differences. The date, and the addition of “of an apparent suicide” www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...