Important Takeaways:
- CNN’s reported…United States Hostage Envoy Adam Boehler stated that Hamas failing to turn over the body of hostage Shiri Bibas is a “clear violation” of the ceasefire and advised Hamas to release Bibas’ body and “release everybody or they’re going to face total annihilation right now.”
- Host Anderson Cooper asked, “If the Israeli assessment is accurate and Shiri Bibas’ body was not handed over, would U.S. and Israeli officials view that as a violation of the ceasefire deal?”
- Boehler responded, “[I]t’s horrific. It’s a clear violation. And if I have one piece of advice for Hamas now, it’s, not only do you need to release her body immediately, but we have the bodies of four Americans that are still there. And we have one American, Edan Alexander…he needs to come home. And if I were them, I’d release everybody or they’re going to face total annihilation right now.”
- Cooper then asked, “What options do the Israelis have at this point to find Shiri Bibas?”
- Boehler answered, “I think, right now, they need to demand through every country that’s coordinating, and they need to go out.” And that he believes Bibas was murdered in such a brutal fashion that her body has been disposed of or is hidden.
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Important Takeaways:
- One of the group’s senior officials, Osama Hamdan… also threatened that Hamas would not allow any non-Palestinian party to enter the Gaza Strip.
- Iran’s ruling mullahs have already lost their strategic ally with the collapse of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. Losing the Gaza Strip would therefore be another severe blow to the Iranian regime, whose declared goal is to annihilate the “Zionist entity.”
- Similarly, Hamas’s longtime patrons and funders in Qatar will do their utmost to ensure that the terrorist group remains in power.
- Hamdan’s statements are a clear indication that Hamas intends to maintain its control of the Gaza Strip at any cost. They are also a sign that Hamas is determined to continue its terror attacks against Israel.
- Any deal that allows Hamas to remain in power would be disastrous for Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab states threatened by the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance.”
- It would also undermine the Trump administration’s credibility in the eyes of many in the Middle East. The Trump administration will appear as if it is only good at making empty threats.
- There should be no reconstruction of the Gaza Strip as long as Iran’s proxies remain in power. The idea of allowing the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip as a civilian body that pays salaries and funds projects should be rejected by the Trump administration.
- Even if the PA is permitted to deploy its own security forces in the Gaza Strip, it does not mean that they would be able to disarm Hamas and other terrorist groups. The PA did not do so when it was in control of the Gaza Strip between 1994 and 2007, and the assumption that it would do so now is catastrophically wrong.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, revealed the U.S. government manages over 4 million active credit card accounts, facilitating approximately 90 million transactions. According to DOGE, these transactions amounted to $40 billion in expenditures for Fiscal Year 2024.
- A detailed report from DOGE outlined that the Department of Defense (DOD) led in transaction volume, recording roughly 27.2 million purchases across 2.4 million accounts. Other notable agencies in terms of credit card spending included the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the General Services Administration (GSA).
- President Donald J. Trump continues to back DOGE’s initiatives, urging a reduction in government waste and advocating for a downsized federal bureaucracy. The National Pulse reported earlier this week that DOGE discovered $4.7 trillion in federal transactions lack a Treasury Account Symbol (TAS), a vital tracking code. This suggests tens of thousands of payments over many years are likely untraceable.
- On Tuesday, President Trump issued a memorandum to all federal agencies “requiring radical transparency regarding wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.” The document emphasizes the need to halt excessive government spending on programs and projects not aligned with American interests.
- “For too long, taxpayers have subsidized ideological projects overseas and domestic organizations engaged in actions that undermine the national interest,” the memo states, adding: “The Trump Administration is aggressively investigating Biden-era programs that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on inefficient and politically-driven projects, including canceling unnecessary government contracts and grants that do not serve the national interest.”
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Important Takeaways:
- President Donald Trump vowed to personally go to Fort Knox to inspect whether or not some of the nation’s gold reserves had been stolen.
- And he said the billions in bullion better be there when he opens the doors.
- ‘All my life, I’ve heard about Fort Knox. That’s where the gold is kept, right?’ he told the Republican Governors Association on Thursday night.
- ‘We’re going to open up the doors. I’m going to see we have gold there. We want to find out, did anybody steal the gold in Fort Knox?’
- He also vowed: ‘I’m going to actually go. We’re going to open the doors. We’re going to inspect Fort Knox. We want to make sure that we actually have, you know, 400 tons of gold, or whatever to hell it is. It’s a lot of gold. I don’t want to open it and the cupboards are bare.’
- Musk was asked on X about viewing the facility and responded: ‘Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?’
- But Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said it’s not and personally invited Musk to come view it.
- Trump indicated Thursday night he wants to come on the trip, which has not been scheduled.
- He told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted Musk to look into the issue. But he had no answer when a reporter asked him where the gold may have gone.
- ‘If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset,’ the president replied.
- Fort Knox holds roughly 147 million troy ounces of bulk gold, which represents over half the gold held by the U.S. federal government or 56.35 percent of the total.
- The U.S. Mint Police are responsible for protecting the gold reserve.
- Gold reserves in the U.S., just like all gold reserves, act as a financial safety net against economic instability.
- It stores actual, tangible value and helps hedge against inflation with the intention of maintaining public confidence in the nation’s currency despite the gold standard no longer being the way the economy operates.
- The last inspection of the gold reserves appears to have been in August 2017 when Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell brought a small group, including then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to the vault.
- The first inspection of the vault was in 1943 by President Franklin Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Great Depression and in the throes of World War II.
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Important Takeaways:
- The hearing lasted barely 15 minutes. Hardly bothering to answer protests of Democratic senators, the Republican majority of the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning recommended Linda McMahon to lead the U.S. Department of Education.
- As head of the agency, the executive intends to dismantle it.
- In shutting its programs, or parceling them out to other agencies, McMahon will complete the assignment that President Donald Trump gave when he nominated her: to “send education back to the states.”
- Acting on Trump’s executive orders, the Education Department has already pulled the plug on its diversity programs. It vowed to punish schools that consider race in any operating decision.
- Once in charge, McMahon will shutter department programs not established by statute, and then draft legislation to close what remains.
- At her confirmation hearing Feb. 13, she said that American public schools were a “system in decline.”
- The vote went quickly, 12 to 11, along party lines. With the committee’s approval, McMahon’s nomination will now go for a vote by the full Senate.
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Important Takeaways:
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned employees that polygraph tests will be used to help crack down on leaks that agency officials say have foiled immigration enforcement plans.
- Noem cited the “deleterious effects” of leaks on border and interior immigration enforcement and said DHS components that have polygraph programs may use them to assess whether personnel can have initial or continued access to classified information, and whether they’re eligible to hold a sensitive position.
- US Customs and Border Protection is the primary user of polygraphs within DHS, as federal law requires the agency to use the examinations for all law enforcement positions.
- Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan have blamed alleged leaks for disrupting planned immigration enforcement operations in Colorado and California over the past month.
- Critics of polygraphs have questioned the reliability of the tests, which, for example, are often considered inadmissible in court proceedings. Republican lawmakers have pushed to eliminate the polygraph requirement for Border Patrol applicants, noting a high failure rate.
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Important Takeaways:
- Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell announced on Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year, ending a decades-long tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump.
- McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends.
- “Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said, as aides lined the back chamber and several senators listened from seats. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”
- The Kentuckian has dealt with a series of medical episodes in recent years, including injuries sustained from falls and times when his face briefly froze while he was speaking.
- His dramatic announcement comes almost a year after his decision to relinquish his leadership post after the November 2024 election.
- McConnell over the years swung back and forth from majority to minority leader, depending on which party held power.
- McConnell’s parting words reflected his devotion to the Senate and his disdain for his detractors. “The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence,” he said. “And, to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here on the job.”
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Important Takeaways:
- EMP is generated when a small nuclear weapon, 40 to 60 kilotons or about three times the size of a Hiroshima bomb, is detonated 200 miles out in space above the United States. It sets up an electrostatic discharge, or compton effect, which cascades to the Earth’s surface, feeds into critical infrastructure and cripples the U.S. electrical grid.
- Military historian and expert on EMPs William Forstchen said it’s a serious issue for the country.
- “This is a very real threat,” said Forstchen. “It’s scary to realize too that almost all of our electricity is pumped on systems that are 30 and 40 years old.”
- Congressional reports from 2002 and 2008 stated that 80%-90% of Americans would be dead a year later from an EMP strike.
- “Estimates are that three small weapons like this in the eastern, central and western United States would short off most of the electrical grid,” Forstchen explained.
- Forstchen suggests that the U.S. – and everyday Americans – prepare for the “existential threat” of such an attack.
- “Second, we need a missile defense system that will protect the United States.”
- Since becoming President, Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced missile defense shield similar to Israel’s Iron Dome.
- “Every American citizen should take this seriously and prepare a little bit with a month or two worth of emergency supplies on hand,” said Forstchen.
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Important Takeaways:
- The United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday that the parading of the bodies of hostages through Gaza before they were handed over to Israel is abhorrent.
- “The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law,” said the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “We urge that all returns are conducted in privacy, and with respect and care.”
- In the statement, UN rights chief Volker Turk added that “under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”
- Hamas said that it returned on Thursday the bodies of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young redheaded boys, Kfir and Ariel, as well as that of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped at age 83.
- Lifshitz’s family said Thursday that they received confirmation from Israeli authorities that his remains were returned. Israel has said it is still testing the other three bodies before providing the Bibas family with confirmation.
- Before they were handed to the Red Cross, the coffins were placed on a stage, with armed Hamas gunmen wearing black and camouflage uniforms surrounding the area, and cruel psychological propaganda adorning the stage, including plaques on the coffins declaring the dates of their “arrest” and slogans blaming Israel for their deaths.
- Since the start of the latest ceasefire last month, Hamas has freed 24 hostages in handovers featuring large public ceremonies and terrorist propaganda, forcing the hostages to wave and praise their captors before being freed.
- 66 of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Donald Trump signed an immigration executive order late Wednesday designed to target sanctuary cities and ensure undocumented immigrants aren’t receiving federal benefits.
- The order directs federal departments and agencies to identify any federal programs providing financial benefits to undocumented immigrants, while in the same breath acknowledging that under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, undocumented immigrants are already mostly barred from public programs.
- The executive order is vague, but one of the most significant impacts could come from the president’s call for his administration to impose strengthened requirements for how state and local agencies screen people who receive federal benefits
- The president on Wednesday directed the heads of his agencies to ensure that federal funding is not facilitating illegal immigration or “sanctuary policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
- The order will take additional steps from the White House to implement, but it underscores Trump’s desire to deliver on his top campaign priority.
- Within 30 days, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Vince Haley, the director of the Domestic Policy Council and the administrator of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, are tasked with identifying other sources of federal funding for undocumented immigrants, presenting a plan for strengthening eligibility verification system, and referring any findings of improper use of federal benefits to DHS and the DOJ.
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