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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an “age of authoritarianism”, as she condemned his administration’s foreign policy in front of its allies’ top policymakers at the Munich security conference.

Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an “alternative vision” for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration’s shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US’s increasingly nationalist – and militaristic – global posture.

She also condemned the US capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and the US’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

“I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense,” Ocasio-Cortez said during another panel discussion. “I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza, and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”

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As Donald Trump seemed to endorse regime change in Iran, embracing a long-term goal of his ally, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reports that the US military “is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations” against Iran’s theocratic government.

When Trump was asked on Friday: “Do you want regime change in Iran?” the president replied: “Well, it seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.”

Trump then pointed out that the US had deployed a large force to the region. “We have tremendous power has arrived, and additional power, as you know, another carrier is going out shortly, “ he said.

“If we could get it settled for once and for all, that’d be good,” the president said, after describing casualties Iran’s government was responsible for, without saying where.

Asked, “Who would you want to take over?” Trump said: “I don’t want to talk about that.”

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The Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to rescind $602 million in public health grants from four Democratic-led states, a federal judge in Illinois ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah determined the four states — Colorado, Illinois, California and Minnesota — were likely to succeed in their claim that the government’s desired termination of the grants was based on “arbitrary, capricious, or unconstitutional rationales.”

Shah, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked the administration from taking any action for 14 days while litigation is ongoing.

The states’ attorneys general sued several Trump officials on Wednesday, about a week after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced it had ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to claw back millions in funding from blue states.

Those cuts were targeted at “states fraught with waste and mismanagement,” according to an OMB spokesperson.

The states framed the administration’s directive as “part of their ongoing campaign to punish Plaintiff States using the tool of federal funding for partisan political purposes,” arguing that it would harm “essential public health infrastructure” as well as the testing and treatment of deadly diseases.

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President Donald Trump insisted in a Truth Social post on Feb. 13 that voter identification would be required for the upcoming midterm elections, even if it is not approved by Congress. He said he would "shortly" lay out the legal reasons for it "in the form of an Executive Order."

"The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple — They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired," he wrote. "There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not! Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability,

House Republicans passed legislation on Feb. 11 that would require proof of U.S. citizenship for voters ahead of the midterm elections. But the measure is expected to face major pushback in the Senate.

Previous versions of the bill failed to gain traction in both chambers last year. This latest iteration, which builds on the 2024 version by adding a voter ID provision, must get 60 votes to pass.

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New Jersey progressive candidate is the projected winner of the Democratic nomination in the race for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s (D) former House seat, Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) announced Friday.

Her closest rival, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), conceded the race on Tuesday.

Mejia declared victory hours later, thanking supporters and pledging to represent her district’s interests in Congress if she sails through the general election in April.

“People will say that this district is not the kind of district in which a progressive or a lefty could win. But it’s not about left-right. It’s about right and wrong,” she told supporters. The director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, Mejia was the most high-profile progressive candidate in the race, having scored endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Her apparent victory in the primary sets her up as the favored candidate in the April general election in a district that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 9 points in 2024. It’s the latest boost for the party’s left flank and represents a stunning upset against Malinowski, who outraised her and had a higher name ID in the state by virtue of his previous two terms in Congress, ending in 2023.

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President Donald Trump met for more than two hours behind closed doors with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and said he'd insisted that negotiations with Iran continue as the U.S. pushes for a nuclear deal with Tehran

Netanyahu entered the White House out of the view of reporters and left without issuing a statement on what was said. But Trump, in a subsequent post on his social media site, called it "a very good meeting" but said "there was nothing definitive reached, other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated."

"If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference," Trump wrote. "If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be."

He added, "Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal" and were hit by U.S. strikes.

"Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible," Trump wrote.

The visit from Netanyahu — their seventh meeting in Trump's second term — comes as both Tehran and Washington are projecting cautious optimism after holding indirect talks in Oman on Friday about how, once again, to approach negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

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Russian infantry assaults against Ukrainian positions fell off moderately following loss of access to the tactically critical Starlink satellite communications system by Kremlin forces and the widely-used Telegram messaging app – but they have not stopped, news and field reports, and official statements over the past week have shown.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company on Feb. 4 shut down gray and black market Starlink terminals operating in Russia and Ukraine, following a Ukrainian government request.

The switch-off did not significantly damage the ability of the Ukrainian military, widely using white market Starlink terminals, to digitally share battle intelligence and targeting information instantaneously, and in some sectors it gave piloted strike drones immune to jamming.

The access denial at the same time turned hundreds of gray and black market Starlink terminals used by Russian combat units for their own enciphered information-sharing and drone operations in Ukraine, into useless junk.

On Tuesday, Russian users of the Telegram messaging app reported critical slowdowns in access and data transfer speed, following a reported Russian state move to pressure Russian Telegram-users to shift to the state-developed app Messenger Max.

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A new report from Congress has raised the alarm about children with mental health conditions being held in juvenile detention, rather than getting treatment.

"Prolonged Incarceration of Children Due to Mental Health Care Shortages," released Thursday by the staff of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, is based on a survey sent to administrators of public juvenile detention facilities around the country. About half of those who responded to the survey reported they had, at some point, kept children incarcerated when they could have been released into offsite mental health care.

"This should shock America's conscience," Ossoff says. "Children with special needs, locked up for extended time instead of getting the mental health care that they need."

According to the survey, 75 juvenile detention centers in 25 states reported holding youths for days or even months until space became available at a long-term psychiatric residential treatment facility.

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