February 3, 2026
Polls
Newsweek- A new Harvard Harris poll released this week shows the potential top candidates for 2028, with former Vice President Kamala Harris leading Democrats and Vice President JD Vance outpacing the Republican field.
... According to the poll, Harris leads the pack for Democrats with 39 percent, ahead of California Governor Gavin Newsom with 30 percent, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York with 12 percent, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's 9 percent and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's 7 percent. The survey shows that 4 percent say someone else.
For Republicans, Vance has a commanding 53 percent of the potential vote, leading Donald Trump Jr. with 21 percent, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's 17 percent and former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson's 5 percent. Three percent of poll respondents say someone else.
.... The survey also shows Vance with a 38 percent favorability rating versus Rubio's 34 percent, Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez's 32 percent and Tucker Carlson's 27 percent.
American life expectancy up to 79
Indpeendent, UK - U.S. residents are now living to the ripe old age of 79 on average, federal officials say — the highest point ever recorded. The CDC announced on Thursday that American expectancy set records in 2024, reflecting the nation's slow but decisive recovery from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The milestone also reflects a major drop in drug overdoses, as well as declining death rates from commonly fatal conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
"It’s pretty much good news all the way around," Robert Anderson of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics told AP, though he cautioned that the U.S. still trails behind other developed nations such as Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, and Canada.
"Seventy-nine years is impressive for us, but not so much for most of these other developed countries," he said.
U.S. life expectancy last peaked in 2014 at just under 79 years and then stagnated for a while. Then came Covid, which as of this January has killed an estimated 7.1m people across the world, as well as potentially tens of millions more if indirect deaths are included.
Trump’s Kennedy Center Shutdown Plan Jolts Workers and Performers
NY Times - The abrupt announcement by President Trump that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would close this summer for a two-year construction project plunged the Washington cultural institution into uncertainty Monday, raising questions about where its orchestra would play and what would happen to its subscribers and its hundreds of employees.
“We’re kind of in shock right now,” said Anne Vantine, the president of a union local that represents box office workers. She said she had spent much of the night after the president’s announcement fielding calls and texts from Kennedy Center employees who were fearful of losing their jobs.
Leaders of the National Symphony Orchestra, who had not joined an exodus of performers protesting Mr. Trump’s actions at the center — which included the Washington National Opera — told its musicians that the center had assured them it would help find other venues where they can perform while the renovation takes place....
... Mr. Trump’s announcement asserting that the center was dilapidated and needed to be closed and renovated into a “new and spectacular Entertainment Complex” caught center executives, patrons, musicians, and even some members of the institution’s board of directors by surprise. The closing date, on July 4 as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, is just five months away.
Millions of Americans Could Have Tax Refund Payments Delayed
Newsweek - Millions of Americans could see their tax refunds delayed as the Internal Revenue Service breaks away from paper checks. While previously Americans could easily opt for their refund as a physical check, the IRS is now instructing most Americans to add direct deposit information to receive their refunds.
In 2025, the IRS issued more than 93.5 million tax refunds, and 93 percent of those, or around 87 million, were issued through direct deposit. That means there are likely 6.5 million Americans who need to switch over to direct deposit, as the paper check phaseout occurred late last year.
Under the new rules, tax returns filed without direct deposit information will still be processed, but the IRS will temporarily freeze the refund until the taxpayer provides direct deposit information or specifically requests a paper check.
The IRS will also freeze most direct deposits rejected by banks and will not automatically reissue them as paper checks, potentially delaying some refunds by weeks.
Donald Trump
Mother Jones - President Donald Trump spent Thursday morning posting—not for the first time—about how his predecessor Barack Obama should be arrested, and how Georgia election workers should be prosecuted, in both cases citing unsubstantiated claims.
Trump’s fixations on going after Obama and Georgia aren’t new, but they now come at a moment of intense backlash across the country over his administration’s violent campaign targeting both immigrants and citizens in Minneapolis and nationwide.
Trump shared a screenshot of a “breaking” social media post that accused the former president of attempting a “coup” and working with “CIA agents to manufacture false intelligence” and “erode Americans’ confidence in our democracy and President Trump’s LANDSLIDE VICTORY” in 2016. In that election, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by a margin of nearly three million.
Immigration
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Not Your Average Liberal |
NY Times - Trump Administration Sued Over Ban on Immigration
NBC News - A federal judge indefinitely postponed the termination of protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S.
Trump in the Epstein files
NY Times - Using a proprietary search tool, The New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and other related words and phrases in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Justice Department. Previous installments of the Epstein files, which the department released late last year, included another 130 files with Trump-related references.
Many of the documents released on Friday that mention Mr. Trump are news articles and other publicly available materials that had landed in Mr. Epstein’s email inbox. None of those files include any direct communication between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. (Few of the files date back as far as the early 2000s, when the two men were friends.) Here is what our review of the files has found so far
Here is what our review of the files has found so far.
Meanwhile...
Health.com - Costco has issued a recall for a bakery item sold in 22 states. Packages of mini beignets filled with caramel actually contain beignets with a chocolate-hazelnut filling, the company warned customers. The labeling error resulted in an undeclared hazelnut allergen, posing the risk of life-threatening allergic reactions for people with hazelnut allergies or sensitivities
Health
Axios - Nearly 6 in 10 commercially insured patients had at least one chronic condition in 2024, with many having "clusters" of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and obesity, a new FAIR Health analysis of claim records finds.
Pre-existing conditions drive up health spending: The average amount a health plan allowed to treat a patient with one chronic condition ($3,039) was nearly double the amount for someone with none ($1,590).
High cholesterol was the most common condition in the commercially insured population, with a prevalence of 21.2%.
- 57.5% of insured patients had at least one chronic condition, while 11.5% had two and 9.1% had three.
- Lung cancer had the highest average allowed amount per year ($22,740) and ADHD the lowest ($4,175).
- People with lower household incomes were likelier to have more chronic diseases — particularly in the Southeast.
Best states for women's health
SmileHub - With over 169 million women in the U.S., and over one-third of them skipping necessary medical care because of the cost, the non-profit organization SmileHub today released new reports on the Best States for Women’s Health in 2026 and the Best Charities for Health & Wellness.
To highlight the best states for women’s health and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from the maternal mortality rate to the quality of women’s hospitals to the affordability of a doctor’s visit.
To highlight the best states for women’s health and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from the maternal mortality rate to the quality of women’s hospitals to the affordability of a doctor’s visit.
Best States for Women’s Health | States in Need of Improvement |
| 1. Massachusetts | 41. Wyoming |
| 2. Connecticut | 42. Nevada |
| 3. Hawaii | 43. Louisiana |
| 4. New York | 44. Alabama |
| 5. Vermont | 45. Mississippi |
| 6. Minnesota | 46. Tennessee |
| 7. New Jersey | 47. Texas |
| 8. California | 48. West Virginia |
| 9. New Hampshire | 49. Arkansas |
| 10. Maryland | 50. Oklahoma |
Key Stats
- Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate among women – 7.8 times lower than Texas, which has the highest rate.
- New Jersey has the lowest depression rate for women – 2.3 times lower than West Virginia, which has the highest rate.
- California has the lowest maternal mortality rate – 3.9 times lower than Tennessee, which has the highest rate.
Word
Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian - The Trump regime calls those it kills and abuses “terrorists.” Renee Good was defamed as a “domestic terrorist.” She was a mother, a daughter, a wife, a neighbor. Alex Pretti was also labeled a “domestic terrorist.” He was a beloved ICU nurse at the VA. Approximately 125 people that the Trump regime illegally killed on the high seas were dubbed “narco-terrorists.” That too is a lie. Indeed, whenever you hear “domestic terrorist” uttered by this administration, you should understand that means ‘someone a fascist government had no right to kill.’
US non-payment has UN on life support
MS NOW - The United Nations is running desperately low on money — and without a much-needed cash infusion, it may need to close the doors of its New York headquarters by August. The cash crunch is one that President Donald Trump could easily rectify by simply paying the money that the U.S. owes the U.N. But by withholding billions of dollars, Trump is putting tens of thousands of lives on the line, furthering the destructive rampage he set into motion last year.
The U.N.’s annual budget for 2026 totals $3.45 billion, covering its work supporting human rights, international development and peace and security. But unlike national governments, which raise taxes to pay for projects, the U.N. depends on contributions from its members to function. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spelled out the severity of the crisis in a letter to the body’s 193 member states last week, warning that the current cash crunch is “deepening, threatening program delivery and risking financial collapse.”
The cash crunch is one that President Donald Trump could easily rectify by simply paying the money that the U.S. owes the U.N.
The annual dues that states are required to pay are based on GDP. As the largest economy in the world, the U.S. pays the lion’s share — 22% of the total funding the U.N. receives each year. China is close behind at 20% with Japan way back in third at only 6.9% of the U.N. budget resting on its shoulders. All told, the U.S. owes $2.2 billion to the U.N., a combination of the $760 million it owes for this year and unpaid dues from 2025.
February 2, 2026
Student journalism
The Nation - Since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, student journalists have been instrumental in covering his administration’s attacks on everything from the gutting of the Department of Education, to the rollback of diversity and equity initiatives, to the crackdown on free speech and attempted deportation of international students speaking out on Palestine. During this time of increased repression, we remain proud—as well as astonished—to be alone among national news outlets in regularly publishing student perspectives. As the resources and opportunities for emerging writers continue to dwindle, it has never been more important to support the next generation of journalists.
StudentNation published nearly 100 original articles in 2025; we’ve selected three of these pieces to highlight their extraordinary range and reporting. Read more at TheNation.com/content/studentnation.
Coastal regions subsiding faster than oceans are rising
Yahoo - Research from the University of California, Irvine revealed that many of the planet's most populated coastal regions are subsiding faster than the oceans are rising.
In the study, published in the journal Nature, researchers analyzed satellite radar data across 40 major river deltas, including the Mississippi, Nile, and Yellow River deltas.
They found that land in these regions is constantly shrinking and that more than 236 million people now face increased flooding risk due to delta subsidence alone.
The researchers said human activity is the main driver. According to the University of Southampton, which was involved in the study, about 35% of the 40 studied deltas were primarily sinking due to groundwater extraction, while others were impacted by sediment loss and urban development.
"The dominance of subsidence over sea-level rise was more pervasive than anticipated," said Leonard Ohenhen, lead author of the study, in a statement. "In every delta we monitored, at least some portion is sinking faster than the sea surface is rising."
In the U.S., the Mississippi River Delta is sinking at an average of 3.3 millimeters per year, with some areas dropping more than 3 inches per decade.
Why is delta subsidence happening?
River deltas support massive populations, major ports, agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems that people and wildlife rely on, yet they make up less than 1% of Earth's land surface, according to the Geological Society of America.
As deltas sink, flood exposure worsens, storm surges become more destructive, and drinking water sources are increasingly contaminated by saltwater. Entire communities may eventually be forced to relocate, as has already begun in parts of coastal Louisiana.
This sinking is made even more dangerous by rising seas driven by human-caused pollution from burning oil, coal, and gas. Meanwhile, warming temperatures are melting polar ice and expanding ocean water.
ICE Teargasses Peaceful Crowd at Portland Protest
Contrarian - Tim Dickinson reports from a protest at a park in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, January 31, where hundreds of cyclists gathered for a rolling vigil to honor Alex Pretti who was gunned down so brutally by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis a week ago. During the course of the peaceful protest, ICE launched chemical agents at the crowd, which included children.
Clintons agree to testify in House-led Epstein probe after defying subpoenas
NBC News - Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The announcement by a spokesperson for the former president came as House Republicans planned a vote to hold the Clintons in contempt for defying subpoenas seeking their testimony in the probe.
Donald Trump
NY Times - Using a proprietary search tool, The New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and other related words and phrases in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Justice Department. Previous installments of the Epstein files, which the department released late last year, included another 130 files with Trump-related references.
Many of the documents released on Friday that mention Mr. Trump are news articles and other publicly available materials that had landed in Mr. Epstein’s email inbox. None of those files include any direct communication between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. (Few of the files date back as far as the early 2000s, when the two men were friends.)
NY Times - Trump called for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters.
President Trump is said to have praised and thanked F.B.I. agents on a phone call brokered by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, the day after the bureau seized ballots from the 2020 presidential contest at an election center in Fulton County, Ga., The New York Times reported.
Politico - Donald Trump’s political war chest grew dramatically in the second half of 2025, according to new campaign finance disclosures submitted late Saturday, giving him an unprecedented amount of money for a term-limited president to influence the midterms and beyond.
Trump raised $26 million through his joint fundraising committee in the back half of last year, and another $8 million directly into his leadership PAC. And a super PAC linked to him has more than $300 million in the bank.
All together, a web of campaign accounts, some of which he controls directly and others under the care of close allies, within the president’s orbit have $375 million in their coffers.
The funds far outstrip those of any other political figure — Republican or Democrat — entering 2026, and have no real historical precedent. And Trump could put them to use this year for the midterms, or to shape future elections, even as he cannot run for president again.
Factcheck - President Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions in recent months that he takes a “large” dose of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease. His comments could perpetuate a common misperception, so we wanted to clarify the current science and what the recommendations are.
Low-dose aspirin is recommended for people who have already experienced a cardiovascular event, but it generally isn’t recommended for those looking to avoid a first heart attack or stroke — and neither is high-dose aspirin.
Trump brought up his aspirin use in a Jan. 22 press gaggle when he was asked by a reporter about some bruising on his hand. “I would say take aspirin if you like your heart. But don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising,” he said. “I take the big aspirin. And when you take the big aspirin, they tell you, you bruise.”
Judge blocks latest limits on lawmaker visits to ICE facilities
Roll Call - A federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing the latest policy requiring a seven-day notice period for members of Congress to make oversight visits at immigration detention facilities.
Judge Jia M. Cobb of the District Court of the District of Columbia issued the temporary restraining order Monday on the newest version of the lawmaker visit policy put in place Jan. 8 for the 13 lawmakers who are challenging it. The order lasts for 14 days as she considers a request from the lawmakers for a more permanent halt to the policy.
Cobb had granted a preliminary injunction to House members in December based on an earlier version of the DHS policy that also had the waiting period.
Physician Assistants Want a New Name and More Power.
NY Times - If you wind up at an urgent care center in America, it’s increasingly likely you will be treated by a P.A. For a long time, P.A. meant the same thing everywhere: “physician assistant,” a licensed medical professional who can perform patient care, including prescribing medicine, under the supervision of a doctor.
But that might be changing. In Oregon, New Hampshire and Maine, P.A. now means “physician associate,” and other states may follow this year.
“Assistant” versus “associate” might sound like a trivial semantic debate, but to many practitioners, and to the American Academy of Physician Associates (which changed its own name in 2021), it’s an important part of the expanding role of P.A.s in health care.
“If it’s ‘physician assistant,’ even the patient thinks, OK, if you’re just assisting, then when’s the real provider going to get here?” said Chantell Taylor, chief of public affairs and advocacy for the A.A.P.A.
Since 2000, the number of P.A.s has quadrupled, while many parts of the country face a shortage of doctors. That means P.A.s are becoming more numerous — and visible — in all fields of medicine, from primary care to dermatology. And along with the name change, they are seeking the ability to operate more independently from doctors.
Trump’s Lawsuit Against I.R.S. Creates ‘Enormous Conflict of Interest’
NY Times - Federal law fiercely protects the confidentiality of Americans’ tax returns. Not only can improper disclosure of tax information carry criminal penalties, but people can also sue the government if the Internal Revenue Service mishandles their data.
Not until Thursday, though, had a sitting president filed such a suit. President Trump’s complaint, filed in federal court in Miami against the I.R.S. and the Treasury Department, created what legal experts said was the unparalleled situation of federal agencies facing a lawsuit from the head of the executive branch. Mr. Trump has demanded at least $10 billion in damages.
“It’s an enormous conflict of interest,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “His own appointees could turn around and say: ‘Let’s give the Trump family a couple of billion. That’s a fair sell.’”
Mr. Trump’s suit accuses the I.R.S. and the Treasury of not doing enough to prevent the leak of his tax returns by Charles Littlejohn, a former I.R.S. contractor who has admitted to giving Mr. Trump’s tax returns to The New York Times. Mr. Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking Mr. Trump’s returns, as well as tax information about ultrawealthy Americans that Mr. Littlejohn separately provided to ProPublica.
Artificial intelligence and blue collar jobs
Axios - It's impossible to know how many blue-collar jobs could be rendered irrelevant, or over what time frame, as AI expands from the virtual to the physical.
- Even if an AI-powered robot can outperform a human, the added hardware and switching costs may outweigh the added efficiency. At least for now. More
Emails reveal new theory about whom Jeffrey Epstein was really working for
NY Post - Thousands of cryptic messages tying Jeffrey Epstein to Vladimir Putin have been discovered in the latest release of files related to the late pedophile financier — raising a new theory about whom he was really working for.
Emails showing unnamed sources discussing meetings between Epstein and the Russian president are prompting questions about whether the disgraced Wall Street figure may have trafficked girls from Russia in a state-backed effort to run the world’s “largest honeytrap” to ensnare the rich and the powerful.
Putin is named almost 1,000 times in the latest tranche of documents released Friday, while there are almost 10,000 references to Moscow.
People close to the Russian tyrant say he maintained his links to Epstein even after the financier’s 2008 conviction for engaging a child in prostitution.
... In May 2013, Epstein wrote that he wanted to help Putin and Russia “reinvent the financial system,” in an email to Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland.
That same month, in an email to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Epstein claimed Putin had tried to set up a meeting with him, which he had turned down.
RFK Jr's effort to end fluoride in public water
Axios - Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push to remove fluoride from public water supplies is playing out on dual tracks, as the EPA advances a fast-track review of health risks and at least 16 states weigh new restrictions.
The efforts show how key parts of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda are being steered outside of the department he oversees.New fluoride limits could upend an 80-year-old standard that's widely credited with reducing tooth decay by 25% and narrowing disparities for people without regular dental care.
The EPA last week released a preliminary plan for a study of potential toxic effects of fluoride exposure, which could be the basis of changes to drinking water standards.The federal government can't require communities to add or remove the mineral, but can set maximum allowable amounts.
....The agency's review of fluoride "will not prejudge any outcomes," EPA biologist Todd Zurlinden said during a webinar about the proposed work plan last week.But Kennedy said in a statement that "a growing body of evidence indicates that ingesting fluoride can cause neurological harm, and other adverse effects." EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he's "working in lockstep with Secretary Kennedy."
U.S. cities have been adding extra fluoride — a naturally occurring mineral — to their drinking water since 1945 to improve dental health and prevent cavities.Excessive fluoride can cause cosmetic tooth damage, and some studies link very high exposure to lower IQ scores in children. Keep reading
The efforts show how key parts of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda are being steered outside of the department he oversees.New fluoride limits could upend an 80-year-old standard that's widely credited with reducing tooth decay by 25% and narrowing disparities for people without regular dental care.
The EPA last week released a preliminary plan for a study of potential toxic effects of fluoride exposure, which could be the basis of changes to drinking water standards.The federal government can't require communities to add or remove the mineral, but can set maximum allowable amounts.
....The agency's review of fluoride "will not prejudge any outcomes," EPA biologist Todd Zurlinden said during a webinar about the proposed work plan last week.But Kennedy said in a statement that "a growing body of evidence indicates that ingesting fluoride can cause neurological harm, and other adverse effects." EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he's "working in lockstep with Secretary Kennedy."
U.S. cities have been adding extra fluoride — a naturally occurring mineral — to their drinking water since 1945 to improve dental health and prevent cavities.Excessive fluoride can cause cosmetic tooth damage, and some studies link very high exposure to lower IQ scores in children. Keep reading
Education
NPR - The Trump administration's attempt to fire staff at the U.S. Department of Education cost taxpayers up to $38 million, a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report reveals. The administration wanted to fire more than half of the department's Office for Civil Rights attorneys and staff. However, when courts blocked the move, the Education Department had to retain the workers and continue paying them, even though the department prohibited them from returning to work.
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