The Latest: Many Democrats are still down on the Democratic Party, AP-NORC poll finds

Democratic candidates have notched a series of wins in recent special elections — but a new AP-NORC poll finds views of the Democratic Party among rank-and-file Democrats have not bounced back since President Donald Trump ’s 2024 victory.

Only about 7 in 10 Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic Party, according to new polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While the overwhelming majority of Democrats still feel good about their party, they’re much less positive than they’ve been in the past.

The midterm elections are still many months away, and lackluster favorability doesn’t spell electoral doom. Other factors could benefit Democrats this year, including broadly negative views of Trump and other Republicans.

But the lack of enthusiasm could be a longer-term problem for the party. Democrats’ favorability of their party plummeted after the 2024 election. And despite overwhelming victories in November’s offseason elections and a string of wins since then, those views haven’t recovered.

The latest:

US military leader meets Venezuela’s acting president

The head of U.S. military operations in Latin America met with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, and members of her cabinet during an hourslong visit Wednesday to the South American country’s capital.

Rodríguez’s government and U.S. Southern Command announced the visit separately on social media.

Rodríguez’s press office said Marine Gen. Francis Donovan met with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

The meeting comes weeks after the U.S. military captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning raid in Caracas and brought him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges.

A readout of the meeting from U.S. Southern Command said the discussions focused on security in Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere as well as the “steps to ensure the implementation” of Trump’s phased plan for the country.

Air Force One will be painted red, white and blue as Trump has hinted, US military says

A red, white and blue color scheme championed by President Trump will become the new look for Air Force One, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The military released a rendering of the new look that matches an airplane model that has been seen in the Oval Office for meetings with foreign leaders.

Boeing is in the process of modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that are slated to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft that the president currently uses and that take on the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard.

In 2018, Trump directed that those new jets would ditch the iconic Kennedy-era blue-and-white design for a white-and-navy color scheme. Instead, the top half of the plane would have been white, while the bottom, including the belly, would have been dark blue. A streak of dark red would have run from the cockpit to the tail. The coloring was almost identical to the exterior of Trump’s personal plane.

FDA will drop 2-study requirement for new drug approvals

The Food and Drug Administration ’s plan to drop the longtime standard is the latest change from Trump administration officials vowing to speed up the availability of certain medical products.

Going forward, the FDA’s “default position” will be to require one study for new drugs and other novel health products, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and a top deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, wrote in a New England Journal of Medicine piece published Wednesday.

The announcement is the latest example of Makary and his team changing longstanding FDA standards and procedures with the stated goal of slashing bureaucracy and accelerating the availability of new medicines.

It contrasts with the FDA’s more restrictive approach to other products, including vaccines.

Last week, the FDA’s vaccine division, headed by Prasad, refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new mRNA flu shot, saying its clinical trial was insufficient. Then on Wednesday the agency reversed course, saying it would review the vaccine after Moderna agreed to conduct an additional study in older people.

▶ Read more about the updated requirements

US fighter jets and other aircraft head to Middle East

Dozens of U.S. fighter jets, including F-35s, F-22s and F-16s, have left bases in the U.S. and Europe in recent days to head to the Middle East, according to the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyzes military and government flight activity.

The team says it’s also tracked more than 85 fuel tankers and over 170 cargo planes heading into the region.

Steffan Watkins, a researcher based in Canada and a member of the MATA, said he also has spotted support aircraft like six of the military’s early-warning E-3 aircraft head to a base in Saudi Arabia.

Those aircraft are key for coordinating operations with a large number of aircraft. He says they were pulled from bases in Japan, Germany and Hawaii.

Trump moves to protect domestic production of phosphorous for the military and key herbicides for farming

The president has signed an executive order meant to safeguard domestic supplies of elemental phosphorus, which the U.S. military uses, as well as glyphosate-based herbicides vital to agriculture production.

His order invokes the Defense Production Act and instructs the Department of the Interior to coordinate with defense officials.

It is meant to protect domestic production, distribution and supply chains of both elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.

“Ensuring robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security,” the order states. “Without immediate Federal action, the United States remains inadequately equipped and vulnerable.”

Rubio to visit Israel next week, officials say

Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Israel next week to update Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, two Trump administration officials said.

Rubio is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Feb. 28, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail travel plans that have not yet been announced.

The U.S. and Iran have held two rounds of recent indirect talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu visited the White House last week to urge President Donald Trump to ensure that any deal also include steps to neutralize Iran’s ballistic missile program and end its funding for proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

As Trump weighs whether to take military action against Tehran, he said Friday that a change in power “would be the best thing that could happen.”

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— By Matthew Lee

More than 40 nations and the EU to send representatives to Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting

Countries that have confirmed they’re sending representatives to Thursday’s meeting, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly, include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Trump initiated the board as part of his 20-point peace plan to end the Israel-Hamas war, but he now envisions it as a body that will help resolve conflicts around the globe. Thursday’s meeting is focusing on reconstruction and building an international stabilization force for a war-battered Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal persists.

Several of the countries expected to attend have opted not to join the board and will be attending as observers.