Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Strange News: The FAA’s Big Whoopsie (or Conspiracy), Epstein Updates, Sketchy Phone Calls

With no warning to the public or the local government, the FAA suddenly announced airspace in El Paso would be completely shut down until February 20th -- only to rescind the order less than 11 hours afterward. Cue the conspiracy theories. The guys review some of the recent Epstein revelations, mysterious phone call cover-ups, the story of a mysterious biolab in Vegas, and more in this week's strange news segment.

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Up First from NPR - DHS Shutdown, Ukraine Peace Talks, Olympics Stars Stumble

Congress is out on recess as a partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security is underway after talks collapsed over immigration enforcement reforms.
Officials from the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine prepare for new peace talks in Geneva as Moscow presses territorial demands and Kyiv insists on security guarantees.
And at the Winter Olympics in Italy, American speed skater Jordan Stolz is making history while other superstar athletes struggle with the intense pressure of competing on the world’s biggest stage.

Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.

Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Kate Bartlett, Tina Kraya, Eric Whitney, Mohamad ElBardicy and Adam Bearne.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. And our technical director is Simon-Laslo Janssen.

(0:00) Introduction
(01:57) DHS Shutdown
(05:38) Ukraine Peace Talks
(09:26) Olympics Stars Stumble

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The Daily - When A.I. Comes to Town: The Backlash Over Data Centers

Tech companies are racing to build thousands of huge data centers to power the artificial intelligence revolution. To find the land they need, they are barreling into rural communities across the United States with the promise of good jobs. But not everyone is buying that pitch.

Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, tells the story of one county pushing back against Big Tech. 

Guest: Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

Photo: AJ Mast for The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


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Start the Week - Breakage and repair

When society, financial systems and human beings fall short, how can we repair the damage? Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, exploring the social, moral and political contradictions of the world we face today, with US novelist George Saunders, Turkish writer Ece Temulkuran and investigative journalist Oliver Bullough,

The Booker Prize winning novelist, George Saunders new book Vigil deals with the moral ambivalence of a greedy oil executive; the death bed reckoning of a man who resists facing his life and legacy. The Turkish writer, Ece Temulkuran's new book Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding a Home in the 21st Century explores the rising global displacement of people who will need to forge stronger connections amid political and social upheaval.

In an investigation of money laundering, Oliver Bullough's Everybody Loves Our Dollars sets out the scale of the problem and why we are failing to tackle the global systems that allow illicit money to move freely using sites as varied as Bicester Shopping Village in Oxfordshire and a casino in Vancouver, Canada.

Producer: Ruth Watts

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Kids Sports Are Now Adult Driven—And Incredibly Expensive

Youth sports have grown into a $40-billion dollar per year industry, where eager parents shell out for private coaches, off-season practice, and travel leagues, in the hopes of giving their child a competitive edge. 


Guest:  Anna North, senior correspondent at Vox. She writes Kids Today, a newsletter about kids.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


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The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 2.16.26

Alabama

  • Sen. Tuberville warns about mass migration to US and the chaos it causes
  • Sen. Britt talks about negotiations between Dems and WH over DHS funding
  • Governor Ivey to sign bill that increases penalties for fatal DUI cases
  • A 3rd civil lawsuit filed re: Madison childcare center and sex abuse 
  • House Majority Leader Scott Stadhagen on leave of absence for a few weeks

National

  • SoS Marco Rubio delivers impassioned speech to European leaders in Munich
  • TN Senator says SAVE Act has 51 votes: work underway to get to floor vote
  • Border Czar says defends ICE policies of masking agents during raids
  • Thomas Massie of KY says Epstein files/names not going away

Strict Scrutiny - S7 Ep19: Is Sam Alito On His Way Out?

The legal news just kept coming this week, and Melissa, Leah, and Kate break it all down. Could Friend of the Pod Sam Alito be retiring? Possibly! Can Pete Hegseth retaliate against Senator and veteran Mark Kelly for free speech? No! Just how wild was Pamela Jo Bondi’s Epstein files testimony in Congress? Pretty flippin’ wild! They also cover the latest out of Minnesota, Democratic representatives tearing the head of ICE a new one, some very bad news for humans who enjoy clean air, the Heritage Foundation’s crusade against birth control, and other legal flotsam and jetsam. Finally, Kate speaks with Elliot Williams about his new book, Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation.

Favorite things:

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 


  • 3/6/26 – San Francisco
  • 3/7/26 – Los Angeles

Short Wave - Could this vaccine trial mean a future without HIV?

Early last year, a hundred researchers, clinicians and other experts on HIV discussed the development of an innovative vaccine that could prevent the disease. But just as the meeting was about to wrap up, the mood darkened. A new executive order signed by President Trump on Inauguration day had frozen all foreign aid, pending a review. Soon, DOGE would begin its decimation of USAID — and with it, this vaccine trial. That is – until the South African researchers came up with a new plan. 

Read more of freelance science reporter Ari Daniel’s story here.

Interested in more on the future of science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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NPR's Book of the Day - After 100 years of Mount Rushmore, its biographer says the landmark is incomplete

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the first drilling at Mount Rushmore, the iconic American landmark in South Dakota. But Matthew Davis, author of the new book A Biography of a Mountain, says the project is actually unfinished. In today’s episode, he joins NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer for a conversation about the original vision for Mount Rushmore, which was intended to diversify a struggling South Dakota economy after World War I.


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