“Republican groups seeking to add U.S. House seats in Florida by challenging the 2020 census suffered a major setback Tuesday as a federal court ruled the lawsuit was filed too late. The suit alleges that the statistical methods used to calculate the census undercounted the state’s population, costing the state two seats in Congress. The legal challenge comes as President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year’s midterm elections. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Tampa threw out the suit but did give the plaintiffs a chance to amend and refile. The judges said the plaintiffs should have mounted their legal challenge within four years from the time the statistical methods were used.” (02/03/26)
“Disney has named its parks chief Josh D’Amaro to succeed Bob Iger as the entertainment giant’s top executive. D’Amaro is the Disney Experiences Chairman, spearheading efforts for the company’s theme parks, cruises and resorts. He steps into the position at a time when Disney is flush with box-office hits like ‘Zootopia 2’ and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ and its streaming business is strong. But the company is also dealing with a decline in foreign visitors to its domestic theme parks, with tourism to the U.S. falling during an aggressive immigration crack down by the Trump administration, as well as clashes with almost all of country’s trading partners. The decision on the next chief executive at Disney comes almost four years after the company’s choice to replace Iger went badly, forcing Iger back into the job.” (02/03/26)
“Keir Starmer will draft a new law to strip Peter Mandelson of his right to sit in Britain’s House of Lords after new revelations about the former British ambassador to Washington’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appeared in the Epstein files. The British prime minister has asked officials to draft legislation to remove Mandelson from the House of Lords ‘as quickly as possible,’ his spokesman told reporters Tuesday afternoon. No.10 Downing Street said the Cabinet Office has also referred material to the police after the newly released files appeared to show Mandelson sharing live government policy deliberations with the disgraced financier. The Metropolitan Police said Monday it is reviewing allegations of misconduct in a public office.” (02/03/26)
“Two workers have been arrested on suspicion of sabotaging several German warships at Hamburg harbour in 2025, German tabloid Bild reported on Tuesday. The accused, a 37-year-old Romanian and a 54-year-old Greek, reportedly tampered with the vessels by pouring steel pellets into an engine block, puncturing fresh-water lines, removing fuel tank caps, and disabling fuses in the onboard electronics, the report said. The sabotage was discovered during pre-departure checks as one of the ships, the corvette ‘Emden,’ was preparing for its inaugural journey to the port city of Kiel. According to Bild, the prosecutor general’s office stated the alleged activities could have led to significant damage if left undetected.” (02/03/26)
“Former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, will testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer said on Monday. The House’s Republican-led oversight committee recommended last week that the Clintons be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein, with several Democrats on the panel agreeing. The Clintons had offered to co-operate with the panel but had refused to appear in person, saying the investigation was a partisan exercise aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives had later this week planned to hold the two prominent Democrats in contempt, a finding that potentially could lead to criminal charges.” (02/03/26)
“Pope Leo XIV is facing his first major crisis with traditionalist Catholics, after a breakaway group attached to the traditional Latin Mass announced plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent in a threatened revival of schism. The Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X … has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, opposed to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. In 1988, the group’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing that it was necessary for the survival of the church’s tradition. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops …. But in the decades since that original break with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with branches of priests, nuns and lay Catholics who are attached to the pre-Vatican II traditional Latin Mass.” (02/03/26)
“Sudan’s military says it has broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli, marking its second major advance in less than a week. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the country, visited Sudan’s public television station in the city of Omdurman on Tuesday to assert that his forces had opened a supply route to the capital. … Al-Burhan insisted that the military government of Sudan supports peace efforts but will not agree to a truce with the RSF, with which it has been fighting a vicious civil war since April 2023, while cities are under siege.” (02/03/26)
“PayPal said on Tuesday it was booting its CEO and replacing him with its board chair Enrique Lores, sparing no ambiguity as to why: ‘The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board’s expectations,’ it said in a statement. One group that was blindsided was HP, where Lores was until Tuesday serving as CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. Lores’[s] switchup sent them rushing to launch a search process, those people said. HP’s board does have internal candidates which it’s considering for the top job, according to a person familiar with the board’s thinking. As chair of PayPal’s board, Lores played a role in a process evaluating internal and external candidates. It was unclear when or if he recused himself from the final decision to name him as CEO.” (02/03/26)
“NASA early Tuesday announced it was pushing the launch date of its Artemis II mission to March, after engineers encountered a liquid hydrogen leak during a critical prelaunch test. … NASA had initially aimed to launch Artemis II in a Feb. 8-11 window. Moving the mission’s launch window will give teams time to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA said in a separate statement.” (02/03/26)
“French state prosecutors have asked appeal court judges to maintain a five-year election ban on the far-right leader Marine Le Pen for embezzlement of European parliament funds in a fake jobs scandal. If the judges decide to grant the request, Le Pen would probably not be able to run in France’s 2027 presidential election. The state prosecutors also recommended a four-year prison sentence against Le Pen, three of which would be suspended, and one served at home with an electronic bracelet. They also requested a €100,000 fine.” (02/03/26)
