Tag: national news

Lawmakers Seek Quieter Ads and Less … Free Speech?
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State lawmakers are telling streamers to shhhhhh their ads. Online gamblers are flooding Florida help lines now that sports betting is legal. Some Sunshine State lawmakers want to target people based on their speech. The mighty state of Vermont steps up to help snowbound neighbors.

As we mention here regularly, Decision Points primarily focuses on national and international news. But we also occasionally deliver a roundup of local, regional or under-the-radar news with a political dimension – something unusual or interesting, or that may illustrate a broader trend.

Our guiding principle is that the definition of politics includes how a society organizes itself to allocate finite or scarce resources, manage internal disagreements and blunt external threats.

Here’s this week’s look ‘round.

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Netflix and Chill, Meet Hulu and Hush?

Federal law stipulates that broadcast, cable and satellite advertisements can’t be louder than the programming they interrupt. Streamers are not subject to the same rules … for now. Via the always amazing Pluribus News, I learned this week that several states are trying to make the same rule apply across the board.

“The bills in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia follow the passage of a first-in-the-nation California law last year,” Pluribus reported. “There is also federal legislation.”

Not a lot is getting through Congress these days, so states are stepping in on a range of policy issues. Streaming ad volume may not seem like an emergency, but it is a quality of life issue.

Florida Bets on Gambling Help

Via the Tampa Bay Times, we learn that calls to Florida’s problem gambling help line have more than doubled since the state legalized sports wagers in 2023.

Last year, more than 2,400 Floridians sought help from the service provided by the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, 1,400 for help with online gambling, making that the top reason for reaching out.

In previous years, electronic machines like slots were the main cause of calls, the Tampa Bay Times said.
Sports betting is the primary problem, 73% of online gamblers told the council.

Callers are getting younger. Two-thirds are under 30, and the number under 21 has soared since sports betting was legalized.

“Almost half of those calling about sports betting reported having lost more than $25,000. Nearly 1 in 4 reported losing more than $100,000,” the newspaper said.
Legalizing betting from basically anywhere, especially on sports, appears to be fueling a boom in gambling. And gambling creates a winner and a loser. Is this a public policy problem yet?

Targeting Speech in ‘Free’ Florida?

Via WGCU News comes word of sweeping state legislation that, at least at first blush, would seem to target people for surveillance based on their speech.

HB 945 aims to create a new counterintelligence and counterterrorism unit inside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

What’s raising eyebrows is that the list of potential targets of new surveillance and other law enforcement activity includes people “whose demonstrated actions, views, or opinions are a threat or are inimical to the interests of this state and the United States of America.”

Actions? OK. “Views or opinions”?

Green Mighty State

Permit me a little Vermont pride: My home state, never a stranger to blizzards, has sent snow-clearing equipment and crews to Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

“Having Vermont come in to help out with their crews is really, really pivotal, and it just shows that we’re able to work across state lines,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, according to WJAR.

The state’s Agency of Transportation “sent over 30 pieces of equipment and 33 employees to its neighbor to the south Tuesday to aid with snow removal, according to Greg Smith, the agency’s district transportation administrator for the capital region,” VTDigger reported.

“The fleet included dump trucks, bucket loaders for scooping snow and, of course, plows,” the outlet said.

It’s nice to see this kind of interstate cooperation. A blizzard is snow laughing matter.

The Week in Cartoons Feb. 23-27
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Olivier Knox

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February 26, 2026
NASA moves its Artemis II moon rocket off the launch pad for more repairs

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA moved its grounded Artemis moon rocket from the launch pad back to its hangar Wednesday for more repairs.

The slow-motion trek at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center was expected to take all day. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket had spent a month at the pad ready for potential liftoff, but encountered a series of problems serious enough to require a return to the Vehicle Assembly Building, about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away.

Managers ordered the rollback over the weekend after the rocket’s helium pressurization system malfunctioned. Already delayed a month by hydrogen fuel leaks, the launch team had been targeting March for astronauts’ first trip to the moon in decades. But now the Artemis II lunar fly-around by a U.S.-Canadian crew is off until at least April.

All four astronauts were at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as invited guests, since the flight delay means they no longer need to quarantine.

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Marcia Dunn

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February 25, 2026
Bill Gates apologizes for Epstein ties, admits to affairs with Russian women

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates issued an apology for his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a townhall for the Gates Foundation, during which he also confessed to having two affairs while married to his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, according to reports.

Speaking to foundation staffers on Tuesday, Gates admitted to traveling on Epstein’s private jet as well spending time with the disgraced financier at home and abroad, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a recording of the town hall meeting. He also denied any wrongdoing, going as far as to say that he did not witness anything “illicit” while spending time with late billionaire.

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,” Gates said. “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”

Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says

He added: “To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him.”

Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011, a couple years after the late financier was convicted in Florida of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008. Gates said Tuesday that he’d been aware of some “18-month thing” that had limited Epstein’s travel, but did not look into the matter further. He also credited his former wife, Melinda, “who was always kind of skeptical” of Epstein.

Gates wanted to take “responsibility for his actions,” a foundation spokesperson told the WSJ, explaining that he chose to do so during the townhall, one of two held each year. It comes after the United States Justice Department dumped a round of evidence related to its investigation into Epstein. The documents included an unsent email accusing Gates of having sexual relations with two “Russian girls” and getting sexually transmitted infection.

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” Gates said on Tuesday.

Gates also told his staff that the last time he had contact with Epstein was in 2014. “After that, he continued to email me,” he added.

“I never went to the island, I never met any women,” the tech giant said. “And so, the more that comes out, the more clear it’ll be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.”

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Jessica Schladebeck

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February 25, 2026
Nancy Guthrie kidnapping suspect appeared to have made a previous visit

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The man suspected of kidnapping Nancy Guthrie on Feb. 1 appears to have made a prior visit to the missing woman’s southern Arizona home.

Investigators released photos and video retrieved from a damaged doorbell camera on Feb. 10 showing an armed man wearing a backpack, ski mask and gloves in the early morning hours before the 84-year-old mother of NBC News host Samantha Guthrie disappeared.

ABC News reported Monday that a separate image of the person they believe to be a suspect showed him outside Guthrie’s home at some point before her apparent abduction. He is not carrying a backpack in that photo.

Authorities released images of a masked man in the Nancy Guthrie case. (FBI)

The suspect might’ve been surprised to see Guthrie’s doorbell camera during his first visit and changed his mind, ABC sources speculated. During his return trip, the subject tried to obscure the camera with foliage.

Authorities have announced few breaks in the case that’s remained a mystery for more than three weeks. A $200,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to finding Guthrie or her kidnapper.

Investigators have asked Guthrie’s neighbors to review their home security systems dating back to Jan. 1 for possible clues.

In an aerial view, road crews set up signs and barricades in front of Nancy Guthrie’s residence to turn the two-lane road into a one-lane road on February 21, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. The road was turned into a one-way due to heavy traffic in the area. Law enforcement officials continue to search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, after she went missing from her home on the morning of February 1st. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Brian Niemietz

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February 24, 2026
4 Questions About Trump’s State of the Union

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President Donald Trump will give the first State of the Union address of his second term tomorrow. He’s expected to defend his economic record and restate his position in the tense standoff with Iran, but there could be some surprises in the prime-time speech.

I’ve written about these supernovas of presidential rhetoric for three decades – my first was President Bill Clinton’s State of the Union in 1998. To put in perspective how much time has passed, the federal budget ran a surplus of $69 billion that fiscal year. The fiscal 2025 deficit is projected to hit $1.9 trillion.

This year’s speech comes days after the Supreme Court struck down the sweeping tariffs Trump imposed under a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. While the 6-3 ruling was a body blow to his signature economic policy, he says he will try to impose some tariffs in other ways.

If any justices attend, they’ll be seated right in his line of sight.

With the benefit of experience, I’m offering four questions about Trump’s remarks – and hopefully at least a couple of answers.

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Does It Still Matter?

Technically, we’ll be tuning in because the Constitution (Article II, Section 3) says the president has to provide this assessment “from time to time.” It does not specify a speech. This could be done in writing.

But that would be political malpractice. As countless White House aides have told me over the decades, this is probably the largest audience an American politician will get all year, even if recent ratings are down from their heyday.

The most recent State of the Union speeches haven’t been just for TV or radio. People follow along on their phones. Clips of key moments zip around social media for days. And I, for one, am very curious to see how the remarks do on YouTube, our most-watched television platform.

So yes, it very much matters, even if it does not move the needle much in our hyper-polarized political context.

What Does He Need to Say?

One frequent inside-the-Beltway jibe is that any president might as well declare, “Tonight, I come before you to speak in ringing tones and stare into the middle distance.” The chief executive is expected to defend their record and offer some clues about how they view the way forward.

But tomorrow’s speech will be a window into how seriously the White House and the unpopular president view the challenge of selling his economic record in a midterm election year. (I separate the two because what the speechwriters craft and what Trump delivers are often at odds.)

Will this be more of the same language that he has used, in vain, to try to reverse his slide in the polls? Or will he try a new tack?

There can always be surprises. In 1996, seeking reelection, President Bill Clinton declared, “The era of big government is over.” A few months after 9/11, President George W. Bush lumped Iran, Iraq and North Korea in an “axis of evil.” In 2006, Bush called for legislation to prevent the creation of “human-animal hybrids.”

In an era of off-the-cuff presidential moments, pity the speechwriters – like Raymond Price, the aide in charge of writing President Richard Nixon’s 1970 speech. History records that Price pulled several all-nighters thanks to amphetamines known as “greenies,” courtesy of the White House doctor.

What Will Democrats Do?

Well. Last year’s response when Trump addressed a joint meeting of Congress included a cane-waving outburst, which led to an ejection from the House chamber. It was pretty cringey.

But it was an effort to get beyond responding with a live televised speech of their own, a tradition for decades. These deliveries from both parties have been unmemorable at best. Those that stand out often do so for the wrong reasons, like then-Senator Marco Rubio’s 2013 remarks, which he famously interrupted to take a gulp of water.

This year the task falls to Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

At least a dozen Democratic senators and representatives have already said they will boycott Trump’s speech, according to NBC. Some will attend a counter-programming rally, dubbed the “People’s State of the Union,” on the National Mall near the Capitol, the New York Times says.

What’s a Skutnik?

That’s D.C. jargon for the special guests who sit in the gallery above the House floor, waiting to be invoked by the president.

We owe the term to President Ronald Reagan’s 1982 speech, which came two weeks after an airliner crashed into the icy Potomac River. Reagan gave one of those seats to Lenny Skutnik for his heroic efforts to save survivors and paid tribute to him in his remarks.

Trump has been adept at those moments, whether stoking partisan passions by giving right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom or drawing a bipartisan standing ovation by reuniting a soldier with his family after a deployment overseas.

Both were surprises. What’s in store tomorrow?

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Olivier Knox

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February 23, 2026
Trump administration to stand by tough Biden-era mandates to replace lead pipes

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Friday it backs a 10-year deadline for most cities and towns to replace their harmful lead pipes, giving notice that it will support a tough rule approved under the Biden administration to reduce lead in drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court in Washington that it would defend the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in three decades against a court challenge by a utility industry association.

The Trump administration has typically favored rapid deregulation, including reducing or killing rules on air and water pollution. On Friday, for example, it repealed tight limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal plants. But the agency has taken a different approach to drinking water.

“After intensive stakeholder involvement, EPA concluded that the only way to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s mandate to prevent anticipated adverse health effects ‘to the extent feasible’ is to require replacement of lead service lines,” the agency’s court filing said.

Doing so by a 10-year deadline is feasible, the agency added, supporting a rule that was based in part of the finding that old rules that relied on chemical treatment and monitoring to reduce lead “failed to prevent system-wide lead contamination and widespread adverse health effects.”

The EPA said in August it planned to defend the Biden administration’s aggressive rule, but added that it would also “develop new tools and information to support practical implementation flexibilities and regulatory clarity.” Some environmental activists worried that that meant the EPA was looking to create loopholes.

Lead, a heavy metal once common in products like pipes and paints, is a neurotoxin that can stunt children’s development, lower IQ scores and increase blood pressure in adults. Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water. The previous Trump administration’s rule had looser standards and did not mandate the replacement of all pipes.

Standards aimed at protecting kids

The Biden administration finalized its lead-in-water overhaul in 2024. It mandated that utilities act to combat lead in water at lower concentrations, with just 10 parts per billion as a trigger, down from 15. If higher levels were found, water systems had to inform their consumers, take immediate action to reduce lead and work to replace lead pipes that are commonly the main source of lead in drinking water.

The Biden administration at the time estimated the stricter standards would protect up to 900,000 infants from having low birth weight and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths a year from heart disease.

“People power and years of lead-contaminated communities fighting to clean up tap water have made it a third rail to oppose rules to protect our health from the scourge of toxic lead. Maybe only a hidebound water utility trade group is willing to attack this basic public health measure,” said Erik Olson, senior director at the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

The American Water Works Association, a utility industry association, had challenged the rule in court, arguing the EPA lacks authority to regulate the portion of the pipe that’s on private property and therefore cannot require water systems to replace them.

The agency countered on Friday that utilities can be required to replace the entire lead pipe because they have sufficient control over them.

The AWWA also said the 10-year deadline wasn’t feasible, noting it’s hard to find enough labor to do the work and water utilities face other significant infrastructure challenges simultaneously. Water utilities were given three years to prepare before the 10-year timeframe starts and some cities with a lot of lead were given longer.

The agency said they looked closely at data from dozens of water utilities and concluded that the vast majority could replace their lead pipes in 10 years or less.

Replacing decades-old standards

The original lead and copper rule for drinking water was enacted by the EPA more than 30 years ago. The rules have significantly reduced lead in water but have been criticized for letting cities move too slowly when levels rose too high.

Lead pipes are most commonly found in older, industrial parts of the country, including major cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee. The rule also revises the way lead amounts are measured, which could significantly expand the number of communities found violating the rules.

The EPA under President Donald Trump has celebrated deregulation. Officials have sought to slash climate change programs and promote fossil fuel development. On drinking water issues, however, their initial actions have been more nuanced.

In March, for example, the EPA announced plans to partially roll back rules to reduce so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water — the other major Biden-era tap water protection. That change sought to keep tough limits for some common PFAS, but also proposed scrapping and reconsidering standards for other types and extending deadlines.

PFAS and lead pipes are both costly threats to safe water. There are some federal funds to help communities.

The Biden administration estimated about 9 million lead pipes provide water to homes and businesses in the United States. The Trump administration updated the analysis and now projects there are roughly 4 million lead pipes. Changes in methodology, including assuming that communities that did not submit data did not have lead pipes, resulted in the significant shift. The new estimate does correct odd results from some states — activists said that the agency’s initial assumptions for Florida, for example, seemed far too high.

The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment. The AWWA pointed to their previous court filing when asked for comment.

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Michael Phillis

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February 20, 2026
ICE, Inflation and AI Ethics: The Week in Review
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Hello and happy Friday! We have just one more week of February, which means we’re inching ever closer to spring. I’m Sidney Slon, and here’s the news we covered this week.

Tuesday

After the Presidents’ Day holiday, Olivier began the week looking into the partial government shutdown – the third in only three months. This time, congressional disagreements over immigration enforcement took center stage.

Following two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis this January, Democrats want changes that would allow more oversight of ICE and Border Patrol agents. They want agents to wear visible identification and body cameras, obtain judicial warrants and stop using face coverings. Republicans call these restrictions “burdensome” as they hold the partisan line.

While some Department of Homeland Security operations are paused, many of its agencies are considered essential and will continue functioning despite workers being unpaid, including the Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard.

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Wednesday

In our midweek column, Olivier dove into affordability. After months of relatively stable prices, multiple companies recently indicated they will raise prices on their goods due to tariffs and rising health insurance costs. That may be bad news for Republicans heading into the midterms this year.

While other parts of the economy are doing well under the Trump administration, like employment levels and the stock market, cost of living remains one of the most important issues for voters. There’s also the issue of promises. While President Donald Trump has promised to decrease prices for American consumers across the board, the Consumer Price Index has only shown signs of lower inflation, not lower prices. In other words, prices are still higher than when Trump began his second term last year.

Thursday

Olivier’s final column of the week covered the latest developments in artificial intelligence, with an emphasis on the ethical conundrums surfaced by the new technology:
Researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI have resigned from their roles, citing potential mental health impacts for users, a lack of government regulation and a world “in peril.”

Anthropic may pull back from its Pentagon partnership. The firm is concerned the tech could be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weaponry, while the military asserts AI can be used for “all lawful purposes.”

ByteDance is adding content restrictions to its AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, after Disney accused it of using copyrighted material.

Meta will spend $65 million via two Super PACs to support AI-friendly candidates at the state level in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
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Sidney Slon

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February 20, 2026
More Price Increases Are Coming in 2026

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What do Levi Strauss, spice-maker McCormick, BMW and Porsche, Cincinnati’s Structural Systems Repair Group and 16 major drug makers have in common? They’re all hiking prices to cope with pressure from tariffs or rising health insurance costs.

The Wall Street Journal has a good rundown of what’s coming: “After holding the line on prices for several months, companies – big and small – have begun a new round of increases, in some cases by high-single-digit percentage points.”

These, of course, are on top of the tariff-driven price hikes from last year, the Journal noted.

“High-single-digit” increases is interesting. The Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, is based on a basket of goods. If enough businesses adopt price increases, we could see CPI rise.

Inflation has slowed from its peak of about 9% under President Joe Biden, but it’s not gone. CPI registered an annual gain of 2.7% in December and 2.4% in January, still above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

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The planned increases signal that, for many businesses, the phenomenon of suppressing prices ahead of Black Friday to avoid alienating customers appears to be done.

Who Pays Tariffs? (Sigh.)

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that foreign countries and businesses pay the tariffs. That’s not true, and it’s never been true, as shown again by new independent data.

Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report showing that American consumers and businesses paid nearly 90% of the cost of Trump’s tariffs through late 2025.

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation found the tariffs cost the average American household roughly $1,000 last year. If current policies remain in place, that is expected to rise to about $1,300 per household in 2026.

Bad News for the GOP

If the mild January CPI reading was good news for Republicans at the dawn of a midterm election year, news that businesses are implementing price increases is bad news. The cost of living continues to be the main issue on voters’ minds.

As many as 7 in 10 Americans rate the country’s economic situation as fair or poor, compared to 28% who say it is excellent or good.

That doesn’t automatically translate to a Democratic romp come November. But the party has done well in special elections over the last 12 months – including in some very pro-Trump areas.

By some measures, Trump’s economy is doing pretty well – it boasts low unemployment and a soaring stock market.

But we’ve been here before. Biden helped engineer the strongest economic recovery of any rich country in the world. Voters still punished Democrats.

Why? A July 2023 poll from the Economist/YouGov did us all the favor of asking Americans what they meant when they talked about “the economy.” Stocks? Just 6% pointed to Wall Street. Jobs? Fifteen percent. The top answer, at 57%? The price of goods and services.

The political challenge for Republicans is that disinflation (a slowing of the rate of price increases across the economy) is not the same as deflation (overall prices falling). Trump promised the latter. While some things are less expensive – eggs, for instance – prices in the main are higher now than when he took office.

Across-the-board deflation is highly unlikely to happen. It’s also not desirable in an economy powered by consumption: If you expect prices to be lower next month, you may put off major purchases, which would slow growth. So how can politicians find the right tone between empathy and overpromising? This year may hold the answer.

The Week in Cartoons Feb. 16-20

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Olivier Knox

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February 18, 2026
Today in History: Jimmy Fallon makes his debut as host of NBC’s ‘Tonight Show’

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Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2026. There are 317 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 17, 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” taking over from Jay Leno.

Also on this date:

In 1801, the U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president.

In 1863, five appointees of the Public Welfare Society of Geneva announced the formation of an “International Committee for the Relief of Wounded Combatants,” which would later be renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sank in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley, in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.

In 1897, the National Congress of Mothers, the forerunner of the National Parent Teacher Association, convened its first meeting in Washington with over 2,000 attendees.

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state must be roughly equal in population.

In 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of 15 counts of first-degree murder.

In 1995, Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings; he was later sentenced to 315 years in prison.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.

In 2013, Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Brenda Fricker is 81. Actor Rene Russo is 72. Actor Richard Karn is 70. Olympic swimming gold medalist and television commentator Rowdy Gaines is 67. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 64. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is 63. Film director Michael Bay is 61. Hockey Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille is 60. Olympic skiing gold medalist Tommy Moe is 56. Actor Denise Richards is 55. Musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 54. Actor Jerry O’Connell is 52. Actor Jason Ritter is 46. Media personality Paris Hilton is 45. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 45. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is 35. Actor Jeremy Allen White is 35. Tennis player Madison Keys is 31. Actor Sasha Pieterse is 30.

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Associated Press

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February 17, 2026
Donald Trump says Board of Peace will unveil $5 billion in Gaza reconstruction pledges at inaugural meeting

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory.

The pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting, he said.

“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History, and it is my honor to serve as its Chairman,” Trump said in a social media posting announcing the pledges.

He did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for reconstruction or would contribute personnel to the stabilization force. But Indonesia’s military said Sunday that up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission. It’s the first firm commitment that the Republican president has received.

Rebuilding the Palestinian territory will be a daunting endeavor. The United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimate that reconstruction of the territory will cost $70 billion. Few places in the Gaza Strip were left unscathed by more than two years of Israeli bombardment.

The ceasefire deal calls for an armed international stabilization force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the fighter Hamas group, a key demand of Israel. Thus far, few countries have expressed interest in taking part in the proposed force.

The Oct. 10 U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones.

It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace will attend the first meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held White House talks with Trump last week, is not expected to be there.

Trump’s new board was first seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But it has taken shape with his ambition for a far broader mandate of resolving global crises and appears to be the latest U.S. effort to sidestep the United Nations as Trump aims to reset the post-World War II international order.

Many of America’s top allies in Europe and elsewhere have declined to join what they suspect may be an attempt to rival the Security Council.

Trump also confirmed that Thursday’s meeting will take place at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which the State Department announced in December it was remaining the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.

The building is the subject of litigation brought by former employees and executives of the nonprofit think tank after the Republican administration seized the facility last year and fired almost all the institute’s staff.

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Aamer Madhani

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February 15, 2026
Searchers find wreck of luxury steamer lost in Lake Michigan more than 150 years ago

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MADISON, Wis. — Searchers have discovered the wreck of a luxury steamer that sank in a Lake Michigan gale in the late 19th century, completing a quest that began almost 60 years ago.

Shipwreck World, a group that works to locate shipwrecks around the globe, announced Friday that a team led by Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn found the Lac La Belle about 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in October 2022.

Ehorn told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Sunday that the announcement was delayed because his team wanted to include a three-dimensional video model of the ship with it, but poor weather and other commitments kept his dive team from going back down to the wreck until last summer.

Ehorn, 80, has been searching for shipwrecks since he was 15 years old. He said that he’s been trying to pinpoint the Lac La Belle’s location since 1965. He used a clue from fellow wreck hunter and author Ross Richardson in 2022 to narrow down his search grid and found the ship using side-scan sonar after just two hours on the lake, he said.

“It’s kind of a game, like solve the puzzle. Sometimes you don’t have many pieces to put the puzzle together but this one worked out and we found it right away,” he said. The finding left him “super elated.”

Ehorn declined to discuss the clue that led to the discovery. Richardson said in a short telephone interview Sunday that he learned that a commercial fisherman at a “certain location” had snagged what Richardson called an item specific to steam ships from the 1800s. He declined to elaborate further how competitive shipwreck hunting has become and said the information could alert searchers to another way to conduct research.

According to an account on Shipwreck World, the Lac La Belle was built in 1864, in Cleveland, Ohio. The 217-foot (66-meter) steamer ran between Cleveland and Lake Superior but sank in the St. Clair River in 1866 after a collision. The ship was raised in 1869, and reconditioned.

The ship left Milwaukee for Grand Haven, Michigan, in a gale on the night of Oct, 13, 1872, with 53 passengers and crew and a cargo of barley, pork, flour and whiskey. About two hours into the trip, the ship began to take on water uncontrollably. The captain turned the Lac La Belle back toward Milwaukee but huge waves came crashing over her, extinguishing her boilers. The storm drove the ship south. Around 5 a.m., the captain ordered lifeboats lowered and the ship went down stern-first.

One of the lifeboats capsized on the way to shore, killing eight people. The other lifeboats made landfall along the Wisconsin coast between Racine and Kenosha.

The wreck’s exterior is covered with quagga mussels and the upper cabins are gone, Ehorn said, but the hull looks intact and the oak interiors are still in good shape.

The Great Lakes are home to anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks, most of which remain undiscovered, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Water Library. Shipwreck hunters have been searching the lakes with more urgency in recent years out of concerns that invasive quagga mussels are slowly destroying wrecks.

The Lac La Belle is the 15th shipwreck Ehorn has located. “It was one more to put a check mark by,” he said. “Now it’s on to the next one. It’s getting harder and harder. The easier ones have been found.”

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Todd Richmond

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February 15, 2026
What to know about Canada’s new bridge to Detroit that Trump hates

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President Donald Trump says he intends to block a new bridge connecting the United States and Canada that aims to ease congestion at the busiest trade corridor between the two nations.

One person who would enthusiastically support Trump’s threat is a Detroit billionaire who owns an almost century-old bridge nearby and has long tried to scuttle the new crossing, which would connect Detroit to Windsor, Ontario.

The billionaire, Matthew Moroun, is a trucking industry scion in Detroit whose family for decades has mounted legal challenges to block or delay the project — one even reaching Canada’s Supreme Court — and aggressively lobbied governments on both sides of the border.

Now Trump has threatened to stop the bridge from opening, saying in a rambling social media post that he wants to punish Canada for exploiting the United States and for reviving its trade relationship with the Chinese government, among other perceived transgressions.

The crossing, called the Gordie Howe International Bridge, is expected to open sometime this year.

What does this mean for trade talks?

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a call with Trump on Tuesday morning and explained that Canada paid for the bridge, though it will share ownership with Michigan.

Canada is Michigan’s largest export market.

“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries,” Carney told reporters. “I look forward to it opening.”

Carney said that Trump asked Pete Hoekstra, who is the U.S. ambassador to Canada and is from Michigan, to “play a role in smoothing the conversation” about the bridge. (On Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, repeated Trump’s insistence that the United States should own half of the bridge.)

The discussion turned to issues that Canada will raise during future negotiations over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to Carney.

The three countries will review the trade agreement this year amid varying signals from the Trump administration about its commitment to its continuation. The current agreement has meant that most Canadian exports have been shielded from tariffs introduced by Trump.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, disputed one of Trump’s claims about the bridge — that no American steel was used to build it — saying in an interview that U.S. steel made up 25% of the construction.

Trump supported the project during his first term.

“All of a sudden, he’s changed his tune,” Ford said. “We have to get this open. If not, it’s going to hurt the American workers.”

Why did Canada build a second bridge?

The catalyst for the new bridge was the closing of the border after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The enormous, miles-long traffic jams of trucks along roads in Ontario underscored the vulnerability created by relying on a single bridge for commercial traffic at North America’s busiest land crossing.

There is a tunnel for vehicles linking Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, but tractor-trailers are too tall to fit.

The Ambassador Bridge, which opened in 1929, was also showing its age. Chunks of it regularly fell off, causing lane reductions on the bridge and street closings below in Windsor.

An expressway that runs across southern Ontario ends on the outskirts of Windsor, forcing trucks to make a slow journey to the bridge on a congested local road.

Investors and both governments floated several proposals, including a plan by the Moroun family to build a second crossing alongside the four-lane Ambassador Bridge.

Who is the Moroun family?

Manuel Moroun purchased the Ambassador Bridge in 1979 after building a fortune largely through the expansion of his father’s trucking company. Matthew Moroun, Moroun’s son, gradually took over as head of the family before Manuel Moroun’s death in 2020.

Manuel Moroun was known for being exceptionally litigious even with other members of his family. He also had a reputation for disregarding government and court orders.

The Moroun family bought properties on both sides of the border near its bridge and was known for leaving the buildings in those areas to decay, leading to disputes with both cities. The family did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A former railway station in Detroit that became a widely known symbol of the city’s decay was among the family’s holdings. It was sold to the Ford Motor Co. in 2018 and was restored.

Who paid for the new bridge?

After finding no interest among U.S. lawmakers, the Canadian government has entirely financed the bridge’s construction and even paid for the highway interchange on the American side. The United States paid for the bridge’s border inspection facility.

The project cost 6.4 billion Canadian dollars ($4.7 billion). The province of Ontario also completed a $1 billion highway expansion that opened a decade ago.

By alleviating traffic on streets in Windsor, the bridge, which has been built roughly six years behind schedule, will benefit both countries, said Dennis Darby, the CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry group.

“Fewer bottlenecks and fewer surprises mean more resilient, competitive supply chains,” Darby said in a statement.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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The New York Times News Service Syndicate

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February 12, 2026
US Olympians speaking up about politics at home face online backlash — including from Donald Trump

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MILAN — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that it is hard to cheer for American Olympians who are speaking out against administration policies, calling one such critic “a real Loser” who perhaps should have stayed home.

It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians at the Milan Cortina Games inviting online backlash with their words.

Reporters on Friday asked U.S. athletes at a news conference how they feel representing the country during the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess replied that he had mixed emotions since he doesn’t agree with the situation, and that he is in Milan competing on behalf of everyone who helped get him to The Games.

“If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hess said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Among those who piled on Hess were YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

“From all true Americans If you don’t want to represent this country go live somewhere else,” he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, he was photographed sitting beside U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the U.S women’s hockey game in Olympic host city Milan.

Trump said the next day that Hess’ comments make it hard to root for him.

“Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

Hess wasn’t the only athlete voicing discontent — or facing blowback

At Friday’s news conference with the athletes, freestyle skier Chris Lillis referenced Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he’s “heartbroken” about what is happening in the U.S.

“I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”

And U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn said the LGBTQ+ community has had a hard time during the Trump administration.

In addition to Paul, conservative figures criticizing the athletes on social media include former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, actor Rob Schneider and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — who Trump has endorsed for the Florida gubernatorial race in November. And there was a flood of vitriol directed at them from ordinary Americans.

Glenn posted on Instagram that she had received “a scary amount of hate / threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel.” She added that she will start limiting her social media use for her well-being.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement Sunday that it is aware of an increasing amount of abusive and harmful messages directed toward the athletes and was doing its best to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement.

“The USOPC stands firmly behind Team USA athletes and remains committed to their well-being and safety, both on and off the field of play,” it said.

Anti-ICE protests in Italy

Support for the U.S. abroad has eroded as the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive posture on foreign policy, including punishing tariffs, military action in Venezuela and threats to invade Greenland.

During the opening ceremony, Team USA athletes were cheered on, but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens, waving American flags from the tribune.

In Milan, several demonstrations have broken out against the against the local deployment of ICE agents — even after clarification that they are from an investigations unit that is completely separate from the enforcement unit at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S.

Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm seen in the streets of the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers were sent to Italy.

A demonstration on Saturday featured thousands of protesters. Toward its end, a small number of them clashed with police, who fired tear gas and a water cannon. That followed another one last week, when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.

Associated Press writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

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Fernanda Figueroa

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February 8, 2026
Voters are worried about the cost of housing. But Trump wants home prices to keep climbing
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By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to keep home prices high, bypassing calls to ramp up construction so people can afford what has been a ticket to the middle class.

Trump has instead argued for protecting existing owners who have watched the values of their homes climb. It’s a position that flies in the face of what many economists, the real estate industry, local officials and apartment dwellers say is needed to fix a big chunk of America’s affordability problem.

“I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, and they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump told his Cabinet on Jan. 29.

That approach could bolster the Republican president’s standing with older voters, a group that over time has been more likely to vote in midterm elections. Those races in November will determine whether Trump’s party can retain control of the House and Senate.

“You have a lot of people that have become wealthy in the last year because their house value has gone up,” Trump said. “And you know, when you get the housing — when you make it too easy and too cheap to buy houses — those values come down.”

But by catering to older baby boomers on housing, Trump risks alienating the younger voters who expanded his coalition in 2024 and helped him win a second term, and he could wade into a “generational war” in the midterms, said Brent Buchanan, whose polling firm Cygnal advises Republicans.

“The under-40 group is the most important right now — they are the ones who put Trump in the White House,” Buchanan said. “Their desire to show up in an election or not is going to make the difference in this election. If they feel that Donald Trump is taking care of the boomers at their expense, that is going to hurt Republicans.”

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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The logic in appealing to older voters

In the 2024 presidential election, 81% of Trump’s voters were homeowners, according to AP VoteCast data. This means many of his supporters already have mortgages with low rates or own their homes outright, possibly blunting the importance of housing as an issue.

Older voters tend to show up to vote more than do younger people, said Oscar Pocasangre, a senior data analyst at liberal think tank New America who has studied the age divide in U.S. politics. “However, appealing to older voters may prove to be a misguided policy if what’s needed to win is to expand the voting base,” Pocasangre said.

Before the 2026 elections, voters have consistently rated affordability as a top concern, and that is especially true for younger voters with regard to housing.

Booker Lightman, 30, a software engineer in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who identifies politically as a libertarian Republican, said the shortage of housing has been a leading problem in his state.

Lightman just closed on a home last month, and while he and his wife, Alice, were able to manage the cost, he said that the lack of construction is pushing people out of Colorado. “There’s just not enough housing supply,” he said.

Shay Hata, a real estate agent in the Chicago and Denver areas, said she handles about 100 to 150 transactions a year. But she sees the potential for a lot more. “We have a lack of inventory to the point where most properties, particularly in the suburbs, are getting between five and 20 offers,” she said, describing what she sees in the Chicago area.

New construction could help more people afford homes because in some cases, buyers qualify for discounted mortgage rates from the builders’ preferred lenders, Hata said. She called the current situation “very discouraging for buyers because they’re getting priced out of the market.”

But pending construction has fallen under Trump. Permits to build single-family homes have plunged 9.4% over the past 12 months in October, the most recent month available, to an annual rate of 876,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Trump’s other ideas to help people buy houses

Trump has not always been against increasing housing supply.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s team said he would create tax breaks for homebuyers, trim regulations on construction, open up federal land for housing developments and make monthly payments more manageable by cutting mortgage rates. Advisers also claimed that housing stock would open up because of Trump’s push for mass deportations of people who were in the United States illegally.

As recently as October, Trump urged builders to ramp up construction. “They’re sitting on 2 Million empty lots, A RECORD. I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!” Trump posted on social media, referring to the government-backed lenders.

But more recently, he has been unequivocal on not wanting to pursue policies that would boost supply and lower prices.

In office, Trump has so far focused his housing policy on lobbying the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rates. He believes that would make mortgages more affordable, although critics say it could spur higher inflation. Trump announced that the two mortgage companies, which are under government conservatorship, would buy at least $200 billion in home loan securities in a bid to reduce rates.

Trump also wants Congress to ban large financial institutions from buying homes. But he has rejected suggestions for expanding rules to let buyers use 401(k) retirement accounts for down payments, telling reporters that he did not want people to take their money out of the stock market because it was doing so well.

There are signs that lawmakers in both parties see the benefits of taking steps to add houses before this year’s elections. There are efforts in the Senate and House to jump-start construction through the use of incentives to change zoning restrictions, among other policies.

One of the underlying challenges on affordability is that home prices have been generally rising faster than incomes for several years.

This makes it harder to save for down payments or upgrade to a nicer home. It also means that the places where people live increasingly double as their key financial asset, one that leaves many families looking moneyed on paper even if they are struggling with monthly bills.

There is another risk for Trump. If the economy grows this year, as he has promised, that could push up demand for houses — as well as their prices — making the affordability problem more pronounced, said Edward Pinto, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.

Pinto said construction of single-family homes would have to rise by 50% to 100% during the next three years for average home price gains to be flat — a sign, he said, that Trump’s fears about falling home prices were probably unwarranted.

“It’s very hard to crater home prices,” Pinto said.

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NEW YORK — There are stages, and then there is the Super Bowl halftime show.

On Sunday, fresh off his historic win at the Grammys for his love letter to Puerto Rico, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Bad Bunny will once again surprise audiences with a performance that is gearing up to be a landmark moment for Latino culture.

But what can you expect from his set?

What can viewers expect from Bad Bunny’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime performance?

What we know

Apple Music’s Zane Lowe mentioned that Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance is 13 minutes long during an interview with the superstar on Thursday. Historically, they run 12 to 15 minutes.

In the same conversation, Bad Bunny offered few specifics about what viewers will see Sunday.

“It’s going to be a huge party,” he said, playfully dodging questions about surprise guests and other details. “What people can expect from me … I want to bring to the stage, of course, a lot of my culture. But I really don’t, I don’t want to give any spoilers. It’s going to be fun.”

Beyond that: A minute-and-a-half long trailer for the halftime show posted last month set a jovial tone for his performance. In it, Bad Bunny approaches a Flamboyan tree — more on that below — and presses play on his single “Baile Inolvidable” (“Unforgettable Dance”).

The song is modern salsa, performed with students from the Escuela Libre de Música San Juan. It is a featured single from “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” an album that marries folkloric tradition in local Borinquen genres like bomba, plena, salsa and música jíbara with contemporary styles like reggaeton, trap and pop.

In the clip, Bad Bunny sways as he’s joined by different dancers across genders, races and ages: Those include a traditional salsa dancer in a red dress, a firefighter, a cowboy and a viejito wearing a pava (“viejito” is an affectionate term for an older man and a “pava” is a kind of straw hat). It’s representative of the superstar’s international appeal; he is currently the most-streamed artist globally on Spotify.

Will Bad Bunny perform entirely in Spanish?

All of Bad Bunny’s music is recorded in Spanish, so it seems like a safe bet. Were he to include English into his set, it would likely appear in a spoken interjection — or it would be featured in text.

In October, Bad Bunny hosted “Saturday Night Live” and said a few sentences in Spanish during his opening monologue. When he concluded, he joked in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn,” a reference to the Super Bowl and his critics.

On Thursday, he joked that fans didn’t actually need to learn Spanish to enjoy his set — but they should be prepared to dance.

What symbols can we expect?

There’s no way to know for sure, but here are a few educated guesses.

Puerto Rican flags: In his song “La Mudanza,” Bad Bunny sings, “Aquí mataron gente por sacar la bandera / Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera.” In English: “Here they killed people for showing the flag / That’s why I bring it everywhere I want now.” It appears to be a reference to Law 53 of 1948, better known as the Gag Law, a ruling by the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly which attempted to suppress the independence movement on the island and criminalized displaying the Puerto Rican flag. It was repealed in 1952. It is also one of many reasons Puerto Ricans are known for waving their flag with pride for their island.

It is almost certain the flag of Puerto Rico will appear in some form on the Super Bowl stage. But its colors are worth noting. If it is shown in red, white and blue, that is the current flag of Puerto Rico and has been since 1952. If there are flags that feature light blue, that is reflective of the Puerto Rican independence movement. A black and white version of the flag has become synonymous with Puerto Rican struggle and resiliency. And if there is a flag that more closely resembles the Dominican Republic’s flag, that is the flag of the Puerto Rican mountain town Lares. It was used in the Grito de Lares, the first short revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico in the 19th century.

Puerto Rican expressions: There may be a few Puerto Rican expressions uttered on stage, beyond just those found in Bad Bunny’s music. That could be anything from “Wepa!” which is used in moments of excitement, not unlike exclaiming “Wow!.” It grew in popularity after the release of Alfonso Vélez’s 1974 salsa song “El Jolgorio (Wepa Wepa Wepa).” Or “Acho, PR es otra cosa,” a phrase that became a fan chant during Bad Bunny’s performance of “Voy a llevarte pa’ PR” during his residency. It translates to “Damn, PR is something else.”

Casita: At Bad Bunny’s residency in Puerto Rico last summer, he performed across two stages. One was built to resemble a casita (“little house”), for the pari de marquesina, a house party. These structures are synonymous with Puerto Rico and the Caribbean at large.

Pavas: A symbol that is likely familiar to Bad Bunny fans everywhere, a pava is a straw hat traditionally worn by jíbaros, or Puerto Rican rural farmers. It has become a symbol of pride for the island. The singer even wore a leather version of the hat on the red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala.

Flamboyan tree: The second of the two stages at Bad Bunny’s residency focused on showcasing the island’s natural beauty with its flamboyan and plantain trees. The former are a common feature in Puerto Rican art for its flowers, most commonly seen in brilliant red, orange and yellow hues. The image of the tree evokes Puerto Rico almost as immediately as the sound of its national nocturnal residents, el coquí (a frog with a distinctive sing-song-y call heard only at night.)

El Sapo Concho: Not to be mistaken with el coquí, el sapo concho is the endangered Puerto Rican crested toad that Bad Bunny has used an animated version of in his visuals for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”

Traditional Puerto Rican instruments: Because much of Bad Bunny’s music pulls from bomba and plena, it is likely that a few of those traditional instruments will be on stage. Look out for a cuatro (a small, four-stringed guitar), güiro/güira (a percussive instrument made of a hollow gourd), palitos (also a percussive instrument resembling two long, wood sticks), cencerro (cow bell) and maracas. For the bomba songs, specifically, there may be a barriel (a barrel) and for plena, a pandereta (tambourine.)

Will there be special guests during the halftime show?

It is impossible to predict, but it would be surprising if Bad Bunny wasn’t joined by other performers — particularly other giants of Latin music, and probably, other Puerto Rican performers. The band Chuwi joined Benito for every night of his San Juan residency; it wouldn’t be out of the question to see them on stage for their collaboration, “Weltita.”

Other potential guests, if the residency is a framework to follow, could include Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Young Miko, Wisin y Yandel, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Alfonso Vélez. But the list goes on and on.

Will it be a political performance?

That is in the eye of the beholder. But there is historical precedent for it at the Super Bowl. In 2020, the NFL asked Jennifer Lopez to cut a segment featuring children in cages during her halftime performance, a critique of U.S. immigration policies. She refused. (Bad Bunny was actually a guest performer during that halftime show, which was headlined by Lopez and Shakira.)

Last year, Kendrick Lamar’s set was an artful confrontation of American history and racial dynamics through metaphor, as the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, complained of a performance that was “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” and reminded Lamar to “play the game.”

Bad Bunny has never steered clear of political messaging. He has criticized President Donald Trump on everything from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his treatment of immigrants. At the Grammys Sunday, he said “ICE out” while accepting his first televised award of the night. His latest tour skipped the continental U.S.; in an interview he said it was at least partially inspired by concerns that his fans could be targeted by immigration agents.

Trump, a Republican, has said he doesn’t plan to attend this year’s game, unlike last year, and he has derided Bad Bunny as a “terrible choice.”

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Maria Sherman

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