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House Democrats on offense: Expand 2026 map with 5 new Republican targets
This is performative politics again.

Emboldened congressional Democrats are once again expanding their battleground map for this year's midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the House.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) on Tuesday added five more offensive opportunities in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, South Carolina and Virginia to their list of what they consider are vulnerable Republican-held House districts.
That brings the total number of districts Democrats are hoping to flip to 44. The DCCC notes that all five of the new districts they're adding to their list of "offensive targets" were carried by President Donald Trump by 13 points or fewer in the 2024 elections.
Republicans currently control the House by a 218-214 majority, with two right-tilting districts and one left-leaning seat currently vacant. Democrats need a net gain of just three seats in the midterms to win back the majority for the first time in four years.
FOX NEWS POLL: AN EARLY LOOK AT THE 2026 MIDTERMS
The move by the DCCC comes as Democrats are energized, despite the party's polling woes. Democrats, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation, scored decisive victories in the 2025 elections and have won or over performed in a slew of scheduled and special ballot box contests since Trump returned to the White House over a year ago.
Republicans, meanwhile, are facing traditional political headwinds in which the party in power in the nation’s capital normally suffers setbacks in the midterm elections. And the GOP is also dealing with Trump’s continued underwater approval ratings and national polls — including the latest Fox News survey — that indicate many Americans feel things are worse off than they were a year ago and remain pessimistic about the economy.
"Democrats are on offense, and our map reflects the fact that everyday Americans are tired of Republicans' broken promises and ready for change in Congress," DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene emphasized in a statement. "Healthcare, housing, groceries, energy bills — they are all going up, and it's directly because of Republican policies that favor the wealthiest few while leaving hardworking families behind."
HOUSE GOP'S ALREADY FRAGILE MAJORITY TO FURTHER SHRINK AFTER DEMOCRATS' BALLOT BOX VICTORY
And DelBene predicted, "Going into the midterms, Democrats have the winning message, top-tier candidates, and the public on our side, paving the way for a new Democratic House Majority under the leadership of a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries."
But the rival National Republican Congressional …

Republicans look to usher through voter ID legislation for third time with SAVE America Act
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

A proof of citizenship and voter ID bill is hitting the floor for the third time in the House, granting Republicans another opportunity to push one of its strongest, election-tested messages as the party scrambles to recapture public opinion on immigration.

Eyes will also be on House Democrats to see whether they support the bill, entitled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, America Act. The legislation is an altered version of the SAVE Act, which has passed the House twice and required proof of citizenship to register to vote. 

The SAVE America Act requires both citizenship proof and voter ID at the time of registration, and eliminates mail-only registrations, as well.

Democrats have mostly come out against both of these bills, expressing concern that the bills would impede individuals from voting, such as women who changed their name upon marriage and those who don’t have birth certificates. Many lawmakers have also said it opens the door for immigration agents and officers hanging out around polling places.

It comes as public support plunged for deportation operations carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A recent survey from PBS News/NPR/Marist Poll found 6 in 10 people disapprove of ICE’s work. While 73% of Republicans approve of the agency’s work, 66% of independents and 91% of Democrats do not. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has called the bills “Jim Crow 2.0,” which caused some backlash in GOP circles. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called the SAVE America Act “worse” than the original SAVE Act.

“Republicans have adopted voter suppression as an electoral strategy,” Jeffries told reporters on Monday. “That’s what the so-called SAVE Act is all about.”

But Republicans have been quick to point out data from recent polls that show a majority of the public supports requiring identification to vote. A survey from Pew Research in August 2025 found 83% of U.S. adults support requiring some form of government ID to vote, including 71% of Democrats and 95% of Republicans. 

Republicans had a winning immigration message in the 2024 elections, with border security remaining a top priority among voters. The party’s immigration stance was one of the significant factors that pushed President Donald Trump to victory against former Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as helped Republicans flip the Senate majority to secure a GOP trifecta.

The vote on the SAVE America Act is set for …

Scathing report reveals Antifa-linked org passing out material to K-12 students: 'Political revolution'
People are fed up—do they even notice?

FIRST ON FOX: A newly unearthed training guidebook from the far-left activist group Sunrise Movement calls on both college and K-12 students to engage in monthly disruptions and "mass non-cooperation" as part of a coordinated effort to spark a "political revolution" across the United States.
The 25-page document, obtained by Defending Education, focuses on mobilizing youth against what it describes as a "regime" and a "system captured by billionaires," urges students to walk out of classrooms and boycott businesses in an attempt to prove that the country cannot function without their cooperation.
"We’re not going to get there overnight, and we’re not here to get back to the status quo," the guidebook says. "We’re here to win a political revolution. This is your guide to start winning at your school right now."
Pushing back against ICE is a major theme in the document that appears to have been spread to students in Minnesota and across the country and has made that central pillar of its recent advocacy, framing the agency as an "occupying army" and a "personal gestapo" for the Trump administration. 
GOT A SCOOP ON CAMPUS? SEND US A TIP HERE
In early 2026, the group spearheaded the "ICE Out For Good" campaign, which utilizes "Wide Awake" noise demonstrations, involving drums, whistles, and horns, outside hotels believed to be housing ICE agents, particularly in the Minneapolis region.
The Defending Education report claims, "The January 18, 2026, ‘TC Students ICE Response Coordination Call’ presentation includes a slide stating ‘Trump is experimenting on Minnesota: How far can he take his authoritarian agenda?’ Another slides states the goals of the movement which include ‘Flex our power now to kick ICE out of Minnesota’ and ‘Build long-term student power in schools here and across the country.’ The document also lists ‘options for ‘Day of Action' such as a ‘mass buy and return’ at a local Target store or rallying at a state government building."
Organizers behind the movement are building toward a massive "May Day" mobilization on May 1, 2026, where they intend to have millions of students and workers "disrupt business as usual."
TEACHERS UNION PRESIDENT CALLS TRUMP A ‘DICTATOR’ ON UNEARTHED CALL WITH ANTIFA-LINKED GROUP
Leading up to that date, the manual instructs students to take action on the first Friday of every month, starting with smaller escalations like wearing red or "dorm storming" before moving to "bigger, more creative" disruptions.
Beyond simple protests, the training manual provides a tactical roadmap for radicalizing school environments. …

Thomas Massie and Todd Blanche trade barbs over redactions in Epstein files
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is taking the Justice Department to task for redacting the names or personally identifiable information of alleged co-conspirators to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after the congressman viewed unredacted versions of the Epstein files on Monday.

Massie disclosed the latest revelations from his first viewing of the Epstein files in a series of social media posts late Monday. The posts were directly aimed at Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who maintains the department is complying with a law passed by Congress late last year.

Providing a summary of his findings after looking at the government files, Massie said the DOJ “unredacted an FBI file that LABELS two individuals as co-conspirators,” “unredacted a file that lists several men who might be implicated,” and “tacitly admitted that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the sender of the torture video.”

Bin Sulayem, who leads logistics company DP World, allegedly emailed Epstein about a “torture video” that Epstein said he “loved” in 2009. The Emirati businessman’s email address was redacted in one of the recently released investigative documents.

A Sultan seems to have sent this.
DOJ should make this public.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 9, 2026

Blanche said only the sultan’s email address was redacted instead of his name, which can be seen in a separate document. An email address is considered a piece of personally identifiable information, for which the deputy attorney general noted redactions are required under law.

“Be honest, and stop grandstanding,” Blanche told Massie. The congressman later fired back.

“Until tonight no one knew who sent the torture video to Epstein,” Massie said. “I went to DOJ, unredacted the email, and reverse searched the email to discover it was a Sultans. Our law requires VICTIM’s information to be redacted, not information of men who sent Epstein torture porn!”

Blanche also faced pushback from Massie over the DOJ’s redactions of nonvictims’ names in documents that contain victims’ names too. Massie argued that both types of information do not have to be hidden. In response, Blanche said “all non-victim names” were “unredacted” from one particular document and insisted the department “is committed to transparency.”

Massie felt otherwise after visiting the DOJ with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to view the Epstein files.

“Here DOJ acts as if they were justified in redacting the …

Hunter Hess should ‘hand in’ Olympic uniform if he’s not proud of US: Joe Concha
This deserves loud pushback.

Washington Examiner senior writer Joe Concha rejected on Monday Olympic skier Hunter Hess’s criticism of the United States.

On Sunday, Hess said his representation of the U.S. in the Olympics “brings up mixed emotions” amid current events. He added that wearing the U.S. flag “doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S,” according to CBS News.

This prompted President Donald Trump to call him “a real loser,” saying Hess said he “doesn’t represent his Country.”

Hess has since issued a statement on Instagram, reiterating that while he loves his country, “there are always things that could be better.” He said the benefit of living in the U.S. is being free “to point that out.”

Conchas said Hess’s initial comments are “a classic example” of there being “a time and place for everything.”

“Hess has the right to speak out, but it is a privilege to be on that Olympic stage, so if he doesn’t appreciate that, maybe hand in your Olympic uniform, go back home to Oregon, in this case, and march with Antifa,” Concha said on Fox Business’s Varney & Co., guest-hosted by Ashley Webster.

Concha then cited statistics that only 40% of Generation Z are proud to be U.S. residents compared to 85% of baby boomers. He said this is a “big, big problem” for young U.S. residents when “they’re the most privileged, entitled generation that we could ever imagine.”

VANCE AND RUBIO GET 2028 PRESIDENTIAL TICKET EXPOSURE IN MILAN FOR OLYMPICS

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) supported Hess after Trump’s statement against him, saying “no one is required to bow down” to the president. He added that Hess is “a proud American.”

Fellow U.S. Olympian Chloe Kim said she was “so happy that so many Olympians are not hesitant to speak out for what they believe in” regarding Hess’s comments. She added, “We need to lead with love and compassion.”

Trump allegedly thanked police for probing Epstein in 2000s, warned Ghislaine Maxwell is ‘evil’: FBI doc
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.

President Donald Trump allegedly called the Palm Beach, Florida, Police Department in the mid-2000s to thank them for investigating Jeffrey Epstein while simultaneously warning them to stay focused on "evil" Ghislaine Maxwell, according to an FBI document recapping an interview with the local department's former chief. 
"TRUMP called the PBPD (Palm Beach Police Department) to tell him 'thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this,'" reads an FBI document reviewed by Fox News Digital recounting a 2019 interview with former Palm Beach, Florida, Police Chief Michael Reiter. 
When approached for comment, however, an official with the Department of Justice pushed back Tuesday that the office was "not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago."
Reiter served as the police chief in Palm Beach, Florida, from 2001 to 2009. Reiter's name was redacted from the FBI document released by the Department of Justice (DOJ), but confirmed to the Miami Herald that he was interviewed by the FBI in 2019 and that Trump called the police department regarding Epstein in July 2006, according to the outlet. 
EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES
Fox News Digital reached out to Reiter and a security and crisis management firm he operates, called Michael Reiter and Associates, Tuesday morning. Reiter declined to comment on the matter. 
The FBI document was among the millions of files, photos and emails released by the DOJ following Trump signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act in late 2025. The DOJ released its latest batch of files on Jan. 30.
The Florida police department began investigating Epstein in 2005 after receiving a call that a 14-year-old girl was allegedly molested by the financier, the Miami Herald reported. The call led to police uncovering other similar sexual abuse allegations and pulled Reiter into the investigation, the outlet wrote Monday. 
The FBI document recapping Reiter's reported interview with federal officials continued that Trump allegedly called Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate, "evil" and warned that police should "focus on her." 
"TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting," the FBI document continued of the interview with the former police chief. "TRUMP said MAXWELL was EPSTEIN's operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her,’ the report continues.  "TRUMP told (redacted) that he was around EPSTEIN once when teenagers were present and TRUMP ‘got the hell out of there.' TRUMP was one of the very …

Progressive backed by Sanders, AOC pulls off upset ballot box shocker in Democratic congressional primary
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

A progressive candidate backed by champions of the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., pulled off a major upset victory over the more mainstream front-runner in a Democratic congressional primary for a blue-leaning seat in New Jersey.
Analilia Mejia, a progressive organizer, edged out former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski in the battle for their party's nomination in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, Malinowski announced on X that he had conceded the race.
HOUSE GOP MAJORITY SHRINKS TO JUST ONE VOTE AS JOHNSON SWEARS IN NEW HOUSE DEMOCRAT
Mejia and Malinowski were the leaders among a field of 11 Democratic candidates in last Thursday's primary to fill the seat left vacant after now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning November's gubernatorial election in the Garden State. 
The results in the primary showdown were closely watched by the political world as an early testing ground in the debate between progressives versus the more mainstream elements of the Democratic Party.
The victory by Mejia, who worked as national political director on Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, is the latest boost for the left against the establishment since now-New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.
"She stands for a progressive populist economic agenda," progressive leader Rep. Ro Khanna of California, emphasized last week in a social media post. "She is the future!" 
Mejia, speaking to supporters on primary night, highlighted that "we have to rebuild our party, we have to rebuild what is happening in our nation. We have to reclaim our democracy. We know that our economy is rigged to suit the billionaires."
‘ABOLISH ICE’—WHERE SANDERS AND AOC-BACKED MEJIA STANDS ON THE ISSUES 
Malinowski, an assistant secretary of state in former President Barack Obama's administration who later represented a neighboring congressional district in northern New Jersey from 2018 to 2022 before losing re-election, was considered the favorite in the race heading into primary day.
But Malinowski was the target of a slew of attack ads put out by a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which opposed Malinowski because he said he supports conditions on aid to Israel.
The AIPAC-aligned super PAC United Democracy Project dished out more than $2.3 million to take aim at Malinowski, even though AIPAC had previously supported Malinowski in his past congressional …

How Walmarts and blue-sky thinking were the making and then the undoing of Will Lewis at the Washington Post
The headline tells the story.

Welcome to Washington Secrets, your guide to who’s up and who is less up. Today, we take a look at Will Lewis’s two years at the Washington Post and rate the chances of a full funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security — spoiler: 1% if you are lucky. Plus there’s more from the three-way Republican car-wreck in Texas. Is it only Tuesday?

The fallout from the Washington Post evisceration continues.

Conservatives are lining up to blame the journalists themselves for writing liberal pablum that no one wanted to read, supporters of the paper blame a billionaire owner who got tired of his plaything, and the paper’s remaining executives have had to deny that they fired correspondents in war zones without offering them help to get home.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that Will Lewis, dumped as publisher over the weekend, was responsible for the whole sorry mess.

Lewis was appointed in the fall of 2023. His reputation as a British journalist, who was raised in the hard-charging world of Fleet Street newspapers and had first prospered at the Telegraph, where his team broke the stellar story of MPs’ greedy expenses claims, and later under Rupert Murdoch, made him suspect as far as the genteel newsroom of the Washington Post was concerned.

But he was exactly the sort of editor that Bezos wanted as he tried to work out how to update a business model largely unchanged in a century.

A story that has done the rounds among journalists who worked for Lewis back in the day illustrates his role perfectly.

Back when he was editor of the Telegraph, more than 15 years ago, Secrets is told, he did a tour of the paper’s foreign bureaus.

In the U.S., he outlined his vision for covering one of the biggest, most diverse nations on the planet. What we should do, he mused to a correspondent, is have a reporter in every town and city that has a Walmart.

The reporter did not know quite what to make of it. There were more than 4,000 Walmarts in the U.S. Was Lewis bonkers, in the parlance of British newspaper headlines? Was he suggesting the Telegraph was about to appoint a network of thousands to monitor parking lots and sales of bananas?

On the other hand, maybe it was a genius idea. In 2015, those reporters in small-town America would have charted the rise of Donald Trump and the emergence of a new breed of voter long before the rest of the media establishment in New York and Washington caught up.

It was even a nod to the sort of hyperlocal news that has …

“Shut Up and Serve”: The Professional Tennis Players Fighting a Rigged System
We're watching the same failure loop.

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“Shut Up and Serve”: The Professional Tennis Players Fighting a Rigged System

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StudentNation

/ February 10, 2026

“Shut Up and Serve”: The Professional Tennis Players Fighting a Rigged System

An antitrust lawsuit calls the professional tennis governing bodies “cartels” that exploit players and create an intentional lack of competitive alternatives. Can players hit back?

Takashi Williams

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Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open tennis tournament on February 1, 2026.

(Izhar Khan / Getty)

This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to [email protected].

Holger Rune is one of the most promising young talents that tennis has ever seen. Known for his blistering forehand and fiery on-court personality, the 22-year-old has already made history as the highest-ranked Danish man to play the sport, with a career-high ranking of fourth in the world. Then, during the Stockholm Open semifinals in October, Rune ruptured his Achilles tendon.

Even a sprained ankle, sustained from an awkward landing or a collision, can lead spectators to cringe and cover their eyes. Accidents happen, but Rune’s horrific injury was part of a pattern of overuse that has taken some of the sport’s brightest and youngest stars away from the court. At Grand Slam and Masters events this past season, players saw the largest rate of injury withdrawals or walkovers in over two decades.

Ben Shelton, a top-10 player in the world, was sidelined for more than a month because of a left-shoulder injury, cutting short his highly anticipated 2025 US Open. A stress fracture in his back led 21-year-old Arthur Fils to miss an entire rotation of Grand Slam events. And after bowing out of last year’s US Open, 24-year-old Jack Draper, the number one player in Great Britain, has been away from the sport for over seven months due to a lingering left-arm injury.

In October, players posted on social media in support of Rune, while pointing the finger at the apparent cause for the uptick in injuries: the grueling, 45-week-long schedule. “Injuries are going to happen.… we are pushing our bodies to do things they aren’t supposed to in elite sport,” Draper posted on X. “However, the tour and the calendar have to adapt if any of us are gonna achieve some sort of longevity.”

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) season is …

Trump allegedly thanked police for probing Epstein in 2000s, warned Ghislaine Maxwell is ‘evil’: FBI doc
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.

President Donald Trump allegedly called the Palm Beach, Florida, Police Department in the mid-2000s to thank them for investigating Jeffrey Epstein while simultaneously warning them to stay focused on "evil" Ghislaine Maxwell, according to an FBI document recapping an interview with the local department's former chief. 
"TRUMP called the PBPD (Palm Beach Police Department) to tell him 'thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this,'" reads an FBI document reviewed by Fox News Digital recounting a 2019 interview with former Palm Beach, Florida, Police Chief Michael Reiter. 
When approached for comment, however, an official with the Department of Justice pushed back Tuesday that the office was "not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago."
Reiter served as the police chief in Palm Beach from 2001 to 2009. Reiter's name was redacted from the FBI document released by the Department of Justice (DOJ), but confirmed to the Miami Herald that he was interviewed by the FBI in 2019 and that Trump called the police department regarding Epstein in July 2006, according to the outlet. 
EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES
Fox News Digital reached out to Reiter and a security and crisis management firm he operates, called Michael Reiter and Associates, Tuesday morning. Reiter declined to comment on the matter. 
The FBI document was among the millions of files, photos and emails released by the DOJ following Trump signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act in late 2025. The DOJ released its latest batch of files on Jan. 30.
The Florida police department began investigating Epstein in 2005 after receiving a call that a 14-year-old girl was allegedly molested by the financier, the Miami Herald reported. The call led to police uncovering other similar sexual abuse allegations and pulled Reiter into the investigation, the outlet wrote Monday. 
The FBI document recapping Reiter's reported interview with federal officials contends that Trump allegedly called Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate, "evil" and warned that police should "focus on her." 
"TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting," the FBI document continued of the interview with the former police chief. "TRUMP said MAXWELL was EPSTEIN's operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her,’" 
"TRUMP told (redacted) that he was around EPSTEIN once when teenagers were present and TRUMP ‘got the hell out of there.' TRUMP was one of the very first people to call when people …