What science says we’ve been getting wrong about exercise

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/02/03/exercise-longevity-stairs-blue-zones/

Doctors and physiologists point to studies that show tiny, regular bursts of effort — like climbing a few stairs — can capture many of the benefits of the gym.

Movement tracking studies show even tiny, regular bursts of effort — as short as 30 seconds — can capture many of the health benefits of the gym. Climbing two to three flights of stairs a few times per day could change your life. Experts call it VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.

“The message now is that all activity counts,” said Martin Gibala, a professor and chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Canada. And perhaps nothing’s better than stairs.

Images of NYC mayor with Jeffrey Epstein are AI-generated. Here’s how we know

 https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-mamdani-mother-epstein-files-ai-photos-4d2adffd9790a83b34abf1eaf6cee349

Multiple AI-generated photos falsely claiming to show New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a child and his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, along with other high-profile public figures, were shared widely on social media Monday.

The images originated on an X account labeled as parody after a huge tranche of new Epstein files was released by the Justice Department on Friday. They are clearly watermarked as AI and other elements they conThe images were created with artificial intelligence. They all contain a digital watermark identifying them as such and first appeared on a parody X account that says it creates “high quality AI videos and memes.”tain do not add up.

The photos began circulating after an email emerged in which a publicist, Peggy Siegal, wrote to Epstein about seeing a variety of luminaries, including Clinton, Bezos and Nair, an award-winning Indian filmmaker, at 2009 afterparty for a film held at Maxwell’s townhouse.

While Mamdani appears as a baby or young child in all of the images, he was 18 in 2009, when Nair is said to have attended the party.

Donald Trump Approval Rating Falls Across Every Major Issue in New Poll

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-falls-poll-3-11457843

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has slipped across every major policy area, according to a new national poll of Americans.

It signals a broad—if modest—shift in public sentiment on multiple fronts as the 2026 midterms move into view, with voters citing inflation and immigration among their top concerns, while also expressing misgivings about immigration enforcement tactics in Minneapolis and across U.S. cities.

Trump’s overall job approval slipped to 45 percent in January, down from 47 percent in December, with ratings declining across key issues including the economy, immigration, and foreign affairs, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.

Approval on “administering the government” declined to 43 percent from 45 percent in the previous survey, and his rating on handling inflation—already a chronic weak spot—fell again to 39 percent from 40 percent in the previous poll, matching his lowest score in a year. Tariffs and trade policy sank to 39 percent as well.

Why Republicans Are Finally Confronting Trump’s Emergency Powers | George Will

Why Trump betrayed his base on Jeffrey Epstein

 https://www.vox.com/on-the-right-newsletter/419784/trump-epstein-maga-rebellion-populism

But there’s something even deeper at work here. In telling his supporters to move on from Epstein, Trump is betraying a fundamental structure of his political movement: its populism. He is showing, in short, that MAGA is not truly a movement of the people against the elites, but rather, a politics that revolves around Trump himself.

Mudde saw, long before Trump, that the future of Western politics would be shaped by populist politics. By “populism,” he did not just mean generic anti-establishment politics, but something more specific: “an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.”

The key word here is “ideology.” Populism is not merely a rhetorical style pitting elites against the people, but a genuine belief that this is the true axis of political conflict. In the populist worldview, the people have a unified set of common-sense beliefs (“the general will”) that would fix politics if implemented. The only reason it is not happening, for the populist, is that malign elites are preventing the people and their champions from holding power.

In a populist movement like MAGA, the “people” are defined narrowly as only those “good” or “true” Americans — meaning typically, though not exclusively, white rural Christian Republicans. Trump presents himself as their champion against the malign forces of globalist liberalism, personified by the Washington political establishment and coastal cultural elite (a construction that easily and regularly shades into antisemitism).

“What about the Epstein story is so uniquely infuriating?...It’s the frustration of normal people watching a certain class of people get away with everything every single time,” Tucker Carlson said in a Friday speech at the Turning Point USA conference.

Boston-area Jewish day school to close after 25 years, saying its model is ‘no longer sustainable’

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-885389

For two decades, MetroWest Jewish Day School eked out an existence in the suburbs of Boston, providing what parents say was a warm and nurturing Jewish education to just dozens of children. Now, the school says it simply cannot go on. MetroWest will shutter at the end of the academic year, officials announced last week.

Located in Framingham, Massachusetts, MetroWest Jewish Day opened in 2003 and enrolls students in pre-K through eighth grade. In its closure announcement, the school said it has served more than 300 students from over 30 towns in the greater Boston area over 25 years. According to social media posts, graduating eighth grade classes are typically between five and 10 students.

Currently, there are only about 20 students enrolled across all grades, school officials said. The school’s website shows 15 faculty and staff members.

The closure follows a spate of recent closures of small Conservative or pluralistic Jewish day schools across the country, including in New Jersey, New York City and Arizona. Many of the schools had seen enrollment dwindle sharply, although Orthodox schools are faring better.

'Highly suspicious': Sen. Whitehouse blasts Trump FBI's raid on Fulton County elections site

Gabbard defends presence at elections raid

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/02/gabbard-defends-presence-at-elections-raid-00761564

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers Monday that President Donald Trump personally asked her to be on site as FBI agents executed a politically sensitive search warrant at an Atlanta-area elections office, according to a copy of a letter sent by Gabbard and obtained by POLITICO.

Trump continues to claim the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden, and Georgia has long been at the center of his unproven claims of widespread fraud.

Even before news emerged about the call, Gabbard’s presence at the raid alarmed Democrats and current and former state election officials because the director of national intelligence is traditionally focused on foreign intelligence matters and rarely if ever plays a direct or highly visible role in domestic criminal investigations.

Judge sides with Democrats against Trump, nixing latest limits on lawmakers’ access to ICE facilities

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5718981-trump-administration-lawmakers-detention-visits/

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s latest bid to limit lawmakers from conducting unannounced visits to immigration detention facilities, ruling that it likely runs afoul of oversight measures that Congress implemented. 

Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/classified-whistleblower-complaint-about-tulsi-gabbard-stalls-within-her-agency-027f5331?mod=hp_lead_pos10

A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower’s lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint. Gabbard’s office rejects that characterization, contending it is navigating a unique set of circumstances and working to resolve the issue.

Donald Trump Denies Being ‘Friendly’ With Epstein

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-denies-being-friendly-with-epstein-11454545

President Donald Trump denied being "friendly" with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a Truth Social post Monday, claiming newly released Department of Justice (DOJ) information reveals Epstein and author Michael Wolff "conspired" to damage him and his presidency.

Trump also said he never visited Epstein's private island while alleging "almost all" Democrats and their donors did, and threatened legal action against unspecified members of "the Radical Left."

The president did not provide evidence to support his claim that Democrats and their donors visited Epstein's private island.

Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, commented in a recent Vanity Fair interview that "there is no evidence" Clinton made repeated trips to Epstein's private island, countering earlier claims made by Trump on social media. She also said Trump "is in the file" but that "he's not in the file doing anything awful."

Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Angel Ureña, issued a statement in December addressing the former president’s appearance in the files: "The White House has not been hiding these files for months, only to dump them late on a Friday afternoon to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they will try and hide forever.

"So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this is not about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton.

"There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continues relationships with him after. We are in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.

Ketogenic Diet’s Hidden Risks Named in Mouse Study

 Ketogenic Diet’s Hidden Risks Named in Mouse Study

While mouse findings do not always translate directly to humans, the study does potentially begin to address gaps in long-term safety data for ketogenic diets—which have been widely adopted for weight loss and diabetes management—despite limited evidence on what happens if a strict ketogenic diet is followed for long periods of time. 

Chaix also said: “One thing that's very clear is that if you have a really high-fat diet, the lipids have to go somewhere, and they usually end up in the blood and the liver.”

Molly Gallop, the study’s lead author and a physiologist, told Science Alert that she “would urge anyone to talk to a health care provider if they're thinking about going on a ketogenic diet.”

Justice Department gets BAD NEWS on Epstein files

ICE Meeting Cold Open - SNL