Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine will not be granted NATO membership, but rather will serve as a “buffer” between the US-led military bloc and Russia, once the conflict with Moscow is over, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has predicted.
- Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Budapest has consistently criticized the EU’s weapons deliveries to Ukraine. The Hungarian government has long advocated engaging Moscow in dialogue instead, with Orban repeatedly calling for sanctions imposed on Russia to be lifted.
- Delivering his annual state of the nation address in Budapest on Saturday, the prime minister said that the conflict, which “is on its way to its end,” is about “bringing the territory called Ukraine, which until then was a buffer zone, a buffer state between NATO and Russia, under NATO control.”
- “Ukraine, or what remains of it, will once again be a buffer zone. It will not be a NATO member,” Orban predicted.
- “Why European and American liberals thought that the Russians would stand idly by is still a mystery,” the official remarked, claiming that the “experiment has failed.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A storm moving into the Northwest will bring heavy rain and damaging winds to five US states starting Monday.
- Meteorologists warned parts of Washington, Oregon, California, Montana could see flash floods, toppled trees and power outages.
- It comes on the heels of a weekend storm that was dragged into the region by an atmospheric river, dumping two to four inches of rain in coastal Washington and Oregon and triggering flash floods across the region.
- The combined impact of these two storms will dump three to eight inches of rain in lower areas and more than 16 inches in mountainous terrain, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Jacob Hinson.
- ‘As a result, concerns for river flooding remains high, especially with the previous week’s snow melting and contributing to runoff,’ he said.
- ‘We’re expecting gusts of 60-80 mph along the coast, locations just inland and along the mountaintops. More sheltered cities like Seattle can observe gusts around 40-60 mph,’ Hinson said.
- As for the rest of the country, states that have been experiencing record-breaking cold this winter should see some long-awaited warm temperatures this week.
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Important Takeaways:
- The idea of singularity is the moment AI exceeds beyond human control and rapidly transforms society. Predicting this timing is tricky, to say the least.
- But Kurzweil says one crucial step on the way to a potential 2045 singularity is the concept of immortality, possibly reached as soon as 2030. And the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is what will make it happen. Kurzweil believes that our technological and medical progress will grow to the point that robotics—he dubs them “nanobots”—will work to repair our bodies at the cellular level, as reported by Lifeboat, turning disease and aging around thanks to the continual work of robotic know-how. And then, voilà: immortality.
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Important Takeaways:
- House Republicans are getting an update on the Trump administration’s probe of billionaire George Soros’ influence on local radio, a source familiar with planning told Fox News Digital.
- The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the 175-strong caucus led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, is hosting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr at its annual closed-door lunch on Wednesday.
- The source familiar with the planning said Carr is expected to brief GOP lawmakers on the FCC’s investigation into Soros, including an investment firm he’s linked to purchasing over 200 Audacy radio stations nationwide.
- Carr and Republicans are also expected to more widely discuss strategies for pushing back against media deemed to be biased against the GOP.
- The RSC is the largest grouping of lawmakers within the House GOP and traditionally acts as an informal think tank for the conference.
- An investment firm linked to Soros, a left-wing businessman who has sunk billions of dollars into liberal causes, became the largest stakeholder in radio giant Audacy at the tail end of the Biden administration late last year.
- The Soros Investment Fund acquired roughly 40% of Audacy’s debts after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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Important Takeaways:
- Most Democrats in the US seem to have forgotten the absolute horror of the attack of October 7, 2023. They seem not to understand why most Israelis think that there is no way to coexist with a Gaza Strip in the hands of terrorists thirsty for Jewish blood. These Democrats appear not to see that relocating Gaza Arabs elsewhere has nothing to do with “ethnic cleansing.” Trump did not propose to eliminate the Arabs, but to relocate them to safer places. These Democrats also appear to ignore that ethnic cleansing is precisely what is at the heart of the intentions of the members of Hamas, an organization with explicitly genocidal goals.
- The leaders of the main European countries talk about the “two-state solution” while knowing perfectly well that the only outcome Hamas wants is a one-state solution: the destruction of Israel, not a state alongside Israel… Europe’s leaders ignore countless polls showing that the residents of the Gaza Strip, as well as those, in the territories mismanaged by the Palestinian Authority, celebrate the October 7 massacre and want above all else Israel’s destruction. That, in fact, seems to be the actual goal of everyone who disagrees with Trump.
- A Palestinian state would indeed be — as the Palestinians have openly stated — a launching pad from which to keep trying to destroy Israel.
- Qatar is reportedly trying to come up with a potentially duplicitous “peace plan” to allow its treasured client and Muslim Brotherhood associate, Hamas, to remain in power in Gaza so it can attack Israel again.
- No one bothers to explain how the Gazans can continue to live in an area studded with unexploded ordnance, where 70% of the buildings are destroyed, and which Trump has rightly defined as a “demolition site,” while leaving nearly two million people to reside there and hundreds of armed terrorists in tunnels.
- No one admits that massive population displacements have successfully taken place in the past. Millions of Germans were moved from territories conquered by Germany after 1945, with no protests voiced…. Jews who lived in the Gaza Strip were expelled in 2005 by decision of the Israeli government to give the Palestinians there a chance to create a peaceful “Singapore on the Mediterranean.”
- “The non-terrorists in Gaza move to a place where they can live in peace and dignity. The US and others then rebuild Gaza and recover their costs through the commercialization of 25 miles of what will become pristine beachfront, now open to the world… [P]eace prevails with no American boots on the ground nor expense to the American taxpayer. Hard to quarrel with this if you believe in peace, prosperity and human dignity.” — David M. Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel, X, February 6, 2025.
- If Trump successfully manages to overcome the pressures and obstacles placed in front of him, what he is setting in motion today can magnificently transform the Middle East.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran has put its defense systems around its nuclear sites on high alert amid fears of an attack by Israel and the US, The Telegraph has learnt.
- According to two high-level government sources, the Islamic Republic has also been bolstering defenses around key nuclear and missile sites, which include the deployment of additional air defense system launchers.
- Officials say the measures are in response to growing concerns of potential joint military action by Israel and the United States.
- It follows warnings from US intelligence to both the Biden and Trump administrations that Israel would likely target key Iranian nuclear sites this year.
- “They [Iranian authorities] are just waiting for the attack and are anticipating it every night and everything has been on high alert – even in sites that no one knows about,” one source told The Telegraph.
- “Work to fortify nuclear sites has been ongoing for years but it has intensified over the past year, particularly since Israel launched the first attack,” he added.
- “Recent developments, including Donald Trump’s comments and reports about potential plans from his administration to strike Iran, have further intensified activities.”
- Israel’s victories over Iran’s proxy networks such as Hamas and Hezbollah, the fall of Bashar al-Assad the Syrian president who was Tehran’s main ally, and regional setbacks have severely weakened the Iranian regime.
- The losses have fueled dissent at home and raised hopes for change.
- It has left Iran vulnerable to Mr. Trump’s hawkish stance on the country. Since he came to power he has resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, including efforts to stop it from obtaining nuclear weapons by driving its oil exports down to zero.
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Important Takeaways:
- NATO was forced to scramble its warplanes in Poland today as Vladimir Putin used strategic bombers and missiles to attack neighboring Ukraine – even as Vladimir Putin insists he wants peace ‘as soon as possible’.
- Putin’s air force deployed Tu-95MS nuclear-capable strategic bombers to pound targets across Ukraine, causing panic in Kyiv as residents rushed for the metro underground shelters.
- Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Sumy, as well as in several towns across the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv. Drones were also used by Russia, with several people reportedly suffering injuries.
- Warsaw’s armed forces operation command headquarters ordered NATO jets to patrol Polish airspace as Russian bombers and missiles soared over Ukraine amid fears they could approach the Polish border.
- ‘Attention, due to the activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation, striking targets located, in particular, in the west of Ukraine, military aviation has begun to operate in the airspace of Poland,’ the command headquarters said.
- Ground-based air defenses and radar reconnaissance systems were also ‘put on alert’.
- It comes just one day after a US B-52 bomber flew a sortie less than 50 miles from the Russian border in a show of strength on the third anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
- The B-52 jet, which is described as providing the US with ‘immediate nuclear and conventional global strike capability’, flew from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to the frontline NATO state and was flanked by F35s and F-A18 fighters.
- The planes jetted in formation over soldiers and tanks as a military parade of over 1,000 troops from NATO and the Estonia’s Defense Forces took place in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
- February 24 marked three years since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and is also Estonian Independence Day.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Space Force will play an important role in the Department of Defense’s efforts to build a missile defense shield over the U.S., Space Force’s chief of space operations announced recently.
- On Monday, Gen. Chance Saltzman said Space Force would jump into action to help accomplish the goals in President Trump’s space-oriented executive orders, including one from January focused on building an “Iron Dome for America.”
- Saltzman added that Space Force had already established an integrated planning team to investigate options related to the Iron Dome executive order.
- Trump signed the executive order in January, ordering the Pentagon to develop a newer and more advanced version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield. The order would build upon preexisting missile defense technology such as the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program, developed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
- “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” Mr. Trump’s more executive order reads.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel performed a very unconventional high-profile trolling today when it executed a gameday-like flyover of Hezbollah’s deceased leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Lebanon. The operation, which utilized two F-35Is and two F-15Is, was dramatic and clearly meant to send an intimidating reminder to the Iranian-backed group and its tens of thousands of supporters down below.
- Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a mass strike executed by the Israeli Air Force on a Hezbollah underground bunker and command center located beneath a residential area in suburban Southern Beirut. The strike happened nearly five months ago, but the war with Israel kept a full public funeral from happening. Israel also released footage of the bombardment of the bunker for the first time today. It is known that dozens of JDAMs with BLU-109/B warheads were used to devastate the subterranean facility.
- The large-scale gathering in Beirut also mourned the loss of Hashem Safieddine, who commanded Hezbollah for a very short period following Nasrallah’s death, before Israel killed him too.
- Hezbollah has been deeply degraded by Israel’s campaign against it, with much of its leadership being killed, thousands of its operatives wounded by sabotaged communications devices, and many of its fighters killed and its higher-end weapons destroyed during a protracted ground and air operation. The fall of Syria’s strongman Bashar al-Assad also has had a major impact on the group’s ability to rebuild its capabilities, both logistically and operationally. The loss of Assad also impacted Iran heavily, who used Syria to supply and support Hezbollah.
- A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was signed in November.
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Important Takeaways:
- By all accounts the hold-up in the US and Ukraine potentially agreeing to a final mineral deal has been President Zelensky’s refusal to sign – seeing in it selling off Ukraine’s economic sovereignty; however, sources on both sides strongly suggest a deal is very close.
- “I will not sign what ten generations of Ukrainians will have to pay back,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference Sunday. President Trump is seeking access to some $500 billion in the country’s minerals, including rare earths, to repay Washington for its wartime aid.
- Kiev as well as many of its European partners have complained that the deal offers no clear security guarantees or even the promise of future aid in return. Instead, it appears set up to repay the US billions in past aid, and Ukrainian officials and the media have described it as punitive.
- Still, there appears to have been some weekend progress, and the Zelensky government knows it’s in no position to fiercely push back, also given that the Trump administration is essentially calling for a near-future change in leadership at this point, having blasted Zelensky as a ‘dictator’.
- A fresh description from US officials involved say the deal will commit to a “free, sovereign and secure” Ukraine and achieving a “lasting peace” as part of it. This will include the US agreeing to “durable partnership” between Washington and Kiev, the texts show as reported by Bloomberg.
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