◼ The latest jobs report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) offers some good news: The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January. Consequently, the national unemployment rate declined slightly from 4.4 to 4.3 percent. These figures represent a turnaround from 2025, in which only 181,000 jobs were created, on net, in the entire year. BLS had previously reported much greater employment gains for 2025 but revised them downward in subsequent months. This prompted Trump to fire the agency’s commissioner on the ground, for which no evidence was produced, that she was manipulating the data to dent his political standing. Now that the same procedures have found better jobs numbers, Trump is of course touting them as proof of his economic prowess. What the data truly reveal, however, is an economy whose composition is changing as the nation ages. The bulk of January’s employment gains were concentrated in health-care and social assistance organizations, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and residential care facilities. Such jobs are likely to be indirectly funded by government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Meanwhile, employment in several sectors that are more reliant on private demand either declined or stayed flat. As the oldest Baby Boomers become octogenarians this year, and the youngest approach retirement age, we might just be getting the “care economy” that Biden failed to sell us not long ago.

◼ As of this writing, Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, the anchor of NBC’s Today show, is still missing. Guthrie was last seen at her home in Catalina Foothills, an unincorporated community just north of Tucson, Ariz., on January 31. FBI Director Kash Patel released new images and short videos that were recovered from the doorbell camera at Guthrie’s home, showing a masked individual with a backpack and what appears to be a gun in a holster at his waist. Several anonymous ransom notes have been sent to Arizona television stations and the tabloid news site TMZ. Heath Yonke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, said at a press conference, “This is an 84-year-old grandma that needs vital medication for her well-being.” It is fair to observe that Nancy Guthrie’s connection to a celebrity is one reason that her case is receiving such intense media coverage. But local and federal law enforcement don’t mind; the more people who know she’s missing, the more likely it is that someone will come forward with information. For now, we can only pray that Guthrie is found safe.

◼ A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., thwarted the Trump Justice Department’s attempt to indict six congressional Democrats over a video that, while potentially disruptive of military discipline, was legally unimpeachable. Led by Senators Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.), the lawmakers—all of whom have intelligence or military experience—declared that our troops are not required to obey illegal orders. Our forces of course needed no such reminder. The Democrats neglected to point to any specific allegedly illegal order, though they seemed to hint at the air strikes against drug boats in the Caribbean. It was crass political messaging. Trump’s response was unhinged. He accused the six of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” His prosecutors—who by now know the drill—tried to prosecute. Worse, the armed forces joined in the lawfare by administratively proceeding against Kelly, a retired Navy captain still subject to military law. The case was patently meritless: It is not incitement of insubordination or lawlessness to urge troops to follow the law. And the executive’s leveraging of law enforcement powers against members of Congress in the absence of an obvious crime profoundly offends the separation of powers. The Democrats will certainly impeach Trump if they retake the House, but he is writing the articles for them.

◼ At 11:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration halted all flights to and from El Paso International Airport for ten days for “special security reasons.” This would have been the biggest shutdown of flights in the U.S. since 9/11, which understandably raised a great deal of public concern. Then, at 8:54 a.m. Eastern time, the FAA abruptly lifted the closure. Less than an hour later, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X, “The FAA and [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” CBS News reported that the airspace closure was not because of cartel drones but because of a planned test by the Pentagon of new anti-drone technology: “Two sources identified the technology as a high-energy laser,” it reported. About 100 flights a day take off and land at El Paso’s airport. You’d figure that the Pentagon could find a testing site that isn’t adjacent to a major civilian airport. But if this disruption was in fact caused by a cartel drone incursion, that’s deeply disturbing and warrants further explanation to the public. In any event, everyone involved needs a refresher on clear and timely communication.

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◼ The media world recoiled in shock at the news of massive layoffs at the Washington Post. The cries are utterly predictable and notable only for their monolithic nature: Owner Jeff Bezos is truly to blame, not only for his “sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump” (in the words of ex–Post editor Marty Baron) but for his unwillingness to pay for these journalists to write work that goes unread. Why can’t one of the world’s richest men just continue to stroke checks to the Post’s reporters and be content with losing money? Implicit in the complaint is the idea that the Washington Post is a “public good” of a higher sort—like a waterworks or highway system. It is not. Since recasting itself as a “Democracy Dies in Darkness” organ of resistance to the first Trump administration, the Post has dug itself a very large hole in terms of branding. Without a doubt, it is deeply unfortunate when people lose their jobs, particularly in an industry where there are fewer jobs than ever to go around. But Bezos is a businessman. He is not required to absorb limitless financial losses, particularly to maintain an institution whose ideological focus he feels is misplaced. Demanding that he act otherwise reeks of entitlement.

◼ The Trump administration revoked the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 finding that six greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public by exacerbating global warming. Under the Clean Air Act, which grants the EPA its authority to regulate air pollutants, this “Endangerment Finding” fulfilled the statutory requirement that the agency needed to issue manifold rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from sources across the U.S. economy. Most notably, the finding was cited to justify ever-tightening standards for new vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions, including the electric vehicle mandate that the Biden administration tried to sneak through the regulatory back door. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, a natural and eternal component of the atmosphere, cannot be considered air pollutants. Neither are such substances threatening, if the word has any limits to its meaning, as they do no injury to those who breathe them in. America has a federal government of limited powers and even more limited capabilities. Controlling the trajectory of global temperatures was never one of either. The Trump administration deserves credit for finally telling the EPA to stick to actual air pollution.

◼ Trump escalated his attacks on Canada by threatening to prevent the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is currently under construction and stretches across the border from Detroit to Ontario. Explaining his decision on social media, the president rattled off a list of perceived offenses he had taken from Canada in the trade war he initiated with it. He then demanded that Canada fork over ownership of at least half of the bridge. The Canadian government has funded the construction of the bridge entirely on its own. It has spent billions of dollars and plans to recoup this investment by collecting tolls. The U.S. government has contributed nothing to the project and is therefore owed nothing. Although Michigan won’t be able to charge tolls on its end, the state will greatly benefit from the completion of another corridor that connects it to its largest international trading partner. Should Trump follow through on blocking the bridge, it would be a terrible self-inflicted wound. Stinking up this dishonorable episode are reports that, hours before Trump tried to extort Canada, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick met with the owner of a competing bridge located three miles upstream of Gordie Howe. The owner’s family had spent years unsuccessfully lobbying the U.S. and Canadian governments to halt the project. It would be outrageous for Trump to grant them their wish now that the new bridge is nearly complete.

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◼ Communist Cuba has for decades tried to turn Venezuela into its personal fuel depot. With the decapitation of the Chavista junta in Caracas, and amid the Trump administration’s efforts to lobby fuel producers like Mexico to cut Havana off, Cuba is now all but bereft of energy. The tourism-dependent nation can no longer refuel commercial jets, which only compounds its overlapping economic cataclysms. Its GDP is imploding. Inflation is on the rise. Basic goods are hard to come by. By some estimates, about one-quarter of Cuba’s population has fled in the past four years. The likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claim that the Cuban people’s ordeal is America’s fault. She likened the Trump administration’s approach to the island’s regime to its Gaza policies, accusing the White House of seeking to “starve and deprive a people” in both cases. The assumption that this socialist prison state would thrive in the absence of American hostility can only be a product of ignorance. For almost 70 years, U.S. strategic policy toward Cuba has been to undermine the Communist Party’s regime and hand the power it seized in 1959 back to the people. Only then will Cubans enjoy a brighter future. It cannot come soon enough.

◼ Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won big in a snap parliamentary election. Her conservative Liberal Democratic Party gained 316 seats in the 465-member House of Representatives, the lower house of Japan’s bicameral parliament, marking the first time since World War II that a party has won more than two-thirds of the seats. Takaichi has spoken openly about Japan’s willingness to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan. What’s more, she is an enthusiastic fan of Trump. The president responded to her election by wishing her “great success.” A lot of traditional U.S. allies in Europe are irked with the Trump administration, and with good reason. But in a world full of trouble, at least the U.S.-Japanese relationship is still going strong.

◼ Edward H. Crane’s influence on the cause of liberty was profound. In 1974, he became chairman of the Libertarian National Committee and shaped the identity of the Libertarian Party. His most consequential decision came in 1977, when he left the committee to found the Cato Institute alongside Charles Koch and Murray Rothbard. Crane was Cato’s president from its founding until 2012, and his leadership transformed the organization into one of the world’s most influential think tanks. A tireless advocate of political and economic freedom, he has died at 81. R.I.P.