NPR News: 02-08-2026 1AM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. The publisher and CEO of The Washington Post is leaving just days after mass layoffs at the storied paper. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, the publisher's two-year tenure was marked by controversy and crisis.
Will Lewis had been CEO of The Wall Street Journal and a veteran news executive in Britain, but he was dogged by controversies from his days as an executive for Rupert Murdoch's papers in London. The Post had been running deep in the red, and Lewis's promised innovations failed to stem the losses. When owner Jeff Bezos killed a planned editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris and made the editorial pages friendlier to President Trump, hundreds of thousands of digital subscribers canceled. On Wednesday, the Post announced 300 journalists would be laid off. Lewis was nowhere to be seen, but he was spotted the next night at an event in California ahead of the Super Bowl. On Saturday, Bezos announced Lewis's replacement.
the paper's chief financial officer. In a statement, Bezos promised an exciting and thriving next chapter for the Post. David Folkenflik, NPR News.
White House Border Czar Tom Homan says he'd like to draw down the surge of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. But speaking with KSTP television on Saturday, he said he can only do so if he's confident his agents won't be put at risk.
I need some help from the governor and mayor to get the message out there to the public. And as the agitation, as the interference taps down, that allows me to release the security force quicker.
He said if he does get that support, the drawdown could take place over the next couple of weeks. The president of MIT is pushing back on criticism that the world of higher education hasn't united against attacks from the Trump administration. From member station GBH in Boston, Kirk Carapazza reports that Sally Kornbluth says part of the problem is that American colleges and universities are wildly different.
What led to the recent departure of The Washington Post's CEO?
MIT was the first school to reject an offer to join the Trump administration's so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. But Kornbluth says speaking with one voice across higher ed is easier said than done.
I can't imagine what it's like to be the president of a red state public who is under intense pressure from the legislature regarding funding in their state. And so it's been very, very hard to get everybody onto the same page.
And with enrollment declines and financial strain already squeezing the higher ed industry, Kornbluth says college leaders worry that openly standing up to the administration could make a bad situation even worse. For NPR News, I'm Kurt Karapazza in Boston.
Today's show host Savannah Guthrie says her family is prepared to pay for the safe return of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. Her mother was kidnapped seven days ago. In a video Saturday, Guthrie said they have received a message and will pay. The FBI says she was referencing a message that was sent to Tucson television station KOLD on Friday. You're listening to NPR News. Russia is continuing to launch strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure this weekend. Officials say more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles hit generation facilities and distribution networks, along with the grid itself. The attacks forced the country's nuclear power plants to reduce their output, and they say the continuing attacks have led to hourly power outages across the country.
At the Winter Olympics in Milan, host country Italy has claimed its first gold medal. As NPR's Ping Huang reports, it was a decisive victory in speed skating.
On her birthday, in her home country, Italian speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida powered through seven and a half laps on the long track course to set a new Olympic record for the 3,000 meter speed skate.
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