Weekly News Roundup - 2/20/26
Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs / U.S. prepares possible second strike on Iran / Milan Winter Olympics come to a close
This is the 7th Weekly News Roundup of 2026. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here, which covers 2024 and 2025.
These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
If the city didn’t exactly go to the dogs, the dogs certainly went on the city. - John Leland
If no one asks, then no one answers: That’s how every empire falls. - John Prine
Where religion promised grace and psychology promised coherence, the rite promised nothing. It did not try to interpret me into a different life. It simply named what the others softened. - Jacob Lupfer
Big Stories This Week
President Trump threatened military action against Iran if Tehran does not agree to cease working to make a nuclear weapon.
The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariff regime as unlawful.
The Winter Olympics completed its second and final week.
Week in Review
Friday, Feb. 13
Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler resigns after emails reveal a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, including gifts she receives after his 2008 sex-crime conviction.
President Donald Trump’s $1.5 billion political war chest stands poised to reshape Republican primaries and the midterms, though how aggressively he deploys it remains unclear, the AP reports.
Saturday, Feb. 14
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom assess that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison after being poisoned with a neurotoxin.
“In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January,” the Times reports.
Sunday, Feb. 15
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks at the Munich Security Conference. His message carries many of the same themes that Vice President J.D. Vance touched on in a speech at the same conference a year prior, but Rubio’s tone shows European leaders “respect,” in contrast to Vance, who “scolded” the audience.
A rules controversy intensifies at the Winter Olympics after a British curling team’s stone is removed for the same alleged violation that penalizes Canada earlier in the week.
DNA is found on gloves that match those worn by the masked man captured on Nancy Guthrie’s front door camera the night she was abducted. The FBI says it is testing the DNA.
Families and advocates press to create a separate diagnosis for “profound autism,” arguing that the broad autism spectrum label obscures the needs of people requiring lifelong, round-the-clock care.
Monday, Feb. 16
“The FBI Bent Its Own Rules To Spy on 1,100 ‘Sensitive’ Targets,” Reason Magazine reports.
U.S. forces launch strikes on three alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean during Operation Southern Spear, killing 11 people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth clashes with Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company, over restrictions on the government’s use of the AI technology in military operations. “Anthropic ... wants to ensure its tools aren’t used to spy on Americans en masse, or to develop weapons that fire with no human involvement,” Axios reports. “The Pentagon claims that’s unduly restrictive.”
Tuesday, Feb. 17
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader and former presidential candidate who carries forward Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy for decades, dies at age 84.
“Four journalists investigating a secretive Trump administration effort to deport migrants to the African nation of Cameroon were detained on Tuesday, according to two of the people detained,” the Times reports.
The NAACP asks a judge to restrict the FBI’s use of Georgia voter records seized in Fulton County as part of a 2020 election investigation.
Wednesday, Feb. 18
1 out of every 5 dollars paid by U.S. taxpayers now goes to pay for interest on the national debt, and in 10 years it will be 1 out of every 4 dollars, a new Congressional Budget Office report says. “The fiscal trajectory is not sustainable,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel says.
The U.S. may strike Iran as early as the coming weekend, White House reporters say, based on discussions with administration sources.
Rescuers battle blizzard conditions in Northern California to reach six avalanche survivors near Lake Tahoe while nine others from the group remain missing.
CBS moves a Stephen Colbert interview with Texas Democratic candidate James Talarico to YouTube over concerns it could trigger the FCC’s “equal time” rule for political candidates. Colbert claims CBS executives told him he could not have Talarico on air at all, and “then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this. Let’s talk about this.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declares an emergency and requests help from the federal government in dealing with a massive leak in the city’s sewage system that has so far dumped as much as 250 million to 300 million gallons of raw human sewage into the Potomac River.
Thursday, Feb. 19
U.K. police arrest Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, on suspicion of misconduct in public office following the release of extensive Epstein documents.
Trump says Iran faces military action if it doesn’t make a deal on a halt to its nuclear weapons program. Iran conducts joint drills with Russia as the United States repositions military assets in the region, underscoring escalating tensions as nuclear talks hang in the balance. “America on brink of an actual war - not a one and done strike - with Iran, backed by a massive movement of US war machinery YET Congress yawns and the public scrolls,” Axios‘ Jim Vandehei writes. “Wild moment.”
Governors gather in Washington for their annual meeting as Trump’s selective White House invitations and confrontations with states complicate the traditionally bipartisan event.
The bodies of eight skiers killed by an avalanche are found near Lake Tahoe.
A massive banner showing Trump’s face is hung on the outside of the Justice Department building in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department has historically remained independent of the president to preserve faith in the rule of law.
Alyssa Liu becomes the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal in figure skating in 24 years. The U.S. women’s ice hockey teams defeats Canada 2-1 in overtime to win gold in that sport.
Friday, Feb. 20
The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariff regime as unlawful. Six of the nine justices rule that the tariffs “exceed the powers given to the president by Congress.” Two of the justices who rule against Trump were appointed by him: Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
Interesting Reads
At the Olympics, I Saw the Difference Between Nationalism and Patriotism, by David Litt for The New York Times
AP photographers pick their favorite photos from the Milan Cortina Olympics
Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake, by Robert F. Worth for The Atlantic
Popping the Catholic Bubble (part 1), by Kathleen Basi for Intentional Catholic
Ukraine Has Passed a Point of No Return, by Masha Gessen for The New York Times
How California Is Damaging Faith in Government, by The New York Times editorial board
Dems’ big AI retreat: The politics of AI are evolving almost as rapidly as the technology, by Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein for Axios