Barbara Bush, vice president of the NBA’s social impact group, chats with Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade during a meeting in San Francisco last year. The NBA All-Star Game at Intuit Dome is days away, and no one is looking forward to it more than Barbara Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush and the NBA’s vice president of social impact. She found her “dream job” and is loving every minute of it. Judging will be actress Issa Rae, marketing executive Bozoma Saint John, private equity partners Will Bumpus and Ted Oberwager, and Ann Miller, Nike’s executive vice president of global sports marketing. “What I love about my job is I still get to work on health and social justice issues but from a totally different vantage point,” she said.

As of February, model forecasts suggest that global temperatures to start 2026 will be higher than in 2023. According to Trenberth, global temperatures peak about three months after El Niño does — which may make 2027 the year to watch for new global temperature records. Webb added that El Niño onset years also tend to be more active in June across the northern and central Plains. El Niño and La Niña are the most significant drivers of year-to-year climate variability on the planet. And before we can measure the strength of an El Niño, one needs to first form.

In the four months since Takaichi’s election as party leader, Japan has been swept up in “Sanakatsu” (さな活) and “Sana-mania” (サナマニア). Japanese leaders often enjoy a honeymoon period, but Takaichi’s popularity is categorically different than her predecessors: A December Sankei News/FNN poll found 92 percent support among 18-to-29-year-old voters; multiple other surveys put the figure above 80 percent. Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple University Japan, told TMD that Takaichi represented a notable departure from other LDP leaders. “If you look in this century, Japan’s had three strong leaders,” David Boling, a principal at The Asia Group, told TMD. The other notable change in this election was that Takaichi became the first LDP leader to address immigration and improper tourist behavior.

As the Trump administration seeks to sweep away obstacles to developing artificial intelligence, the president’s team has brought its zeal for the new technology to the federal government itself. And the Department of Veterans Affairs is developing an AI program to predict whether a veteran is likely to attempt suicide. Another system is designed to help veterans claim their benefits. Agencies operate at least 180 chatbots designed to not only help federal employees complete mundane tasks such as scheduling travel and IT help, but also support them in more sensitive work like understanding labyrinthine internal rule books. Several agencies are using similar tools to help with writing federal rules and deciding how to award contracts.

Sorry you didn’t snag an invite to President Donald Trump’s Super Bowl party? While the video caption asserts that Trump was watching Bad Bunny at that exact moment, it’s a tough one to verify given the odd cut to the performance. Bad Bunny has previously ripped the administration’s immigration crackdown and openly protested ICE at the recent Grammys. They continued their objections as Bad Bunny finally took the Super Bowl stage. Bad Bunny turned up the energy for his Super Bowl gig.

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Green Day “played it uncharacteristically safe” during its Super Bowl LX pregame performance, “leaving out the politically charged messages it has been voicing,” according to Irshad & Vaziri of the S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/8). Instead, they “went into an instrumental portion and guitar solo after finishing the first chorus and omitted that verse of the song completely.” The performance “made much less of a statement than many had anticipated” (CNN.com, 2/8). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s wrote Puth “delivered the performance in signature Puth style, singing a beautiful rendition” while playing the piano himself. He “hit all the right notes” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/8).

LOADING ERROR LOADINGWASHINGTON — Jeffery Epstein’s former accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sat for a video deposition with members of Congress on Monday but refused to talk. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump,” Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, said in an opening statement he posted on social media. Democrats expressed outrage that Maxwell appeared to be advertising favorable testimony in exchange for a pardon or commutation of her prison sentence. Through her attorney, Maxwell again volunteered that Trump and Clinton did nothing wrong. “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.

LOADING ERROR LOADING“I love my country 🇺🇸,” declared Hess in an Instagram post. “There is so much that is great about America, but there are always things that could be better. I cannot wait to represent Team USA next week when I compete. Trump misrepresented Hess’ comments, claiming that the athlete said “he doesn’t represent his Country” before adding, “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this.”AdvertisementTeam USA's Hunter Hess poses on the podium after finishing second in the Aspen Snowmass Men's Freeski Halfpipe Finals during the Toyota US Grand Prix 2026 last month.

These videos were taken using a built-in camera on his glasses – smart glasses, which look like regular eyewear and, while still relatively niche, are growing in popularity. Smart glasses can play into the hands of these content creators as they offer a clear message about power, she warned. CNNHowever, after telling her sister about the interaction she started to suspect that he might have been wearing a pair of Meta AI smart glasses, which are becoming increasingly popular, with market research suggesting they are the leading smart glasses brand by far. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a speech, as a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses appear on screen, during an event in 2023. “Smart glasses are therefore not an exciting innovation – for women, they present a new threat to our everyday lives.”

Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys: An award-winning law firm with 2,500 Five-Star Reviews and a deep community commitment. Karns & Karns founding partners, Mike Karns and Bill Karns, celebrate their sixth consecutive year (2021-2026) of being recognized by The Best Lawyers in America®. Expert Leadership: The Karns & Karns Specialized DivisionKarns & Karns has met this need by establishing a dedicated Sexual Abuse and Assault Division led by Trial Attorneys Darryl Meigs and Mia Hong. About Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys: Karns & Karns is a family-owned law firm specializing in complex personal injury, wrongful death, and sexual abuse litigation. Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys(1-800-4THEWIN) 1-800-484-3946www.karnsandkarns.comwww.karnsandkarns.com/locations/phoenix-arizona-personal-injury-lawyers/Reference Article: Uber Found Liable in Rape by Driver, Setting Stage for Thousands of Cases by Emily Steel, The New York Times (February 5, 2026).

Investigations are underway to figure out how and why all that money was sitting there undiscovered, while others are pushing to earmark the funds for various projects. The Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) is sitting on $106 million in unspent funds, far more than was previously reported. [image or embed] — Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) February 6, 2026 at 3:27 PM• Speaking of my fine colleague, Mssr. IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:• While Trump may have cried like a swollen, 79-year-old baby about it, Bad Bunny's amazing (yet somehow intimate) Super Bowl halftime show was a global success. If you didn’t catch the significance of the exploding transformers in Bad Bunny’s halftime show, I gotcha.

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Remarkably, however, there is little comparable effort among university leaders to coordinate a political response to attacks on academic independence by the administration. Whatever the organizers’ intentions, the signal sent — to the president and to other university leaders — is that appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not. If America’s university presidents believe that their foremost responsibility is simply to keep their institutions operational — collecting tuition and protecting endowments — they are mistaken. Recent congressional hearings — in which university presidents delivered lawyered, evasive answers to basic moral questions — demonstrate the cost of substituting legalism for leadership. Higher education leaders know how to do this.

A human-resources representative for the watchdog agency told Shaw that the plan “likely will not be available” by the time she expected to have surgery in 2026. She had hoped the short-term disability plan would replace some of her lost income during a recovery that could last three months. Vought told the union that the agency determined those provisions were “not legally enforceable,” and claimed budget cuts passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill made them unaffordable. Asked why the bureau chose to cut the short-term disability plan specifically, a CFPB spokesperson said federal workers have great health care coverage. (Workers were invited to pay for more expensive dental and vision plans through a federal benefits portal.)