Important Takeaways:
- A tearful executive at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service told staffers on Thursday that about 6,000 employees would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said, in a move that would eliminate roughly 6% of the agency’s workforce in the midst of the critical tax-filing season.
- The layoffs are expected to total 6,700, according to a person familiar with the matter, and largely target workers at the agency hired as part of an expansion under Democratic President Joe Biden, who had sought to expand enforcement efforts on wealthy taxpayers.
- The agency now employs roughly 100,000 people, up from 80,000 when he took office.
- The workers being cut are in their probationary period and have fewer protections than career employees.
- Those fired include revenue agents, customer-service workers, independent specialists who hear appeals of tax disputes, and IT workers, the sources said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter US President Donald Trump’s plan for American control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and government sources said.
- The plan stirred rare unity among Arab states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who will govern the enclave and who will pay for reconstruction.
- Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.
- The Saudi source said the talks would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan” the king mentioned.
- Friday’s summit was originally planned for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan. However, it has been expanded to include the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Palestinian Authority.
- Egypt has not yet announced its counter-initiative, but Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan “in three technical phases over a period of three to five years.”
- The last phase would include “launching a political track to implement the two-state solution and so that there is… an incentive for a sustainable truce.”
- However, even if all these obstacles are overcome, the proposal is likely to be rejected out of hand by Israel, whose government has consistently ruled out any Palestinian Authority role in managing Gaza after the war.
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Important Takeaways:
- Millions of people are under winter alerts ahead of a major storm expected to dump snow across portions of the country, including Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky.
- The winter weather triggered alerts for 44 million people from the Mississippi River Valley to the Atlantic Coast. The heaviest snow will fall through Wednesday evening across southeastern Virginia, where the region could see its snowiest day in 15 years.
- Snow and dangerously cold temperatures have already set in across Kentucky, where more than a dozen people have died from weekend winter storms.
- “If the snow wasn’t tough enough, it’s cold right now. It’s going to get dangerously cold tonight and into tomorrow,” Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “And then Friday’s going to be really cold, too.”
- The governor said one of the biggest challenges is that some of the hardest-hit areas from this week’s floods “can get another 3 to 4 inches tonight.”
- As the winter storm moves out, cold surges will settle in for the southern Plains and the Gulf Coast. Over the weekend, a rapid warmup will occur in which cities will see a temperature increase of 50 to 60 degrees
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Important Takeaways:
- The Trump administration on Wednesday nixed federal approval of New York’s “congestion pricing” automobile tolls, which had been instituted just last month to raise funds for the region’s aging mass transit system.
- In a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government has jurisdiction over highways leading to Manhattan and that these additional tolls posed an unfair burden in motorists outside the city.
- “New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy said in statement.
- “Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways.”
- Under the system, most cars entering Manhattan’s central business district — from 60th Street all the way down to the southern tip of the Financial District — had to pay a peak fee of $9 from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
- “Today, the MTA filed papers in federal court to ensure that the highly successful program — which has already dramatically reduced congestion, bringing reduced traffic and faster travel times, while increasing speeds for buses and emergency vehicles — will continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away,” MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The United States condemned Wednesday what it called “dangerous maneuvers” by China after a Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet of a Philippine patrol plane in a disputed area of the South China Sea.
- The incident took place Tuesday morning local time as a plane belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources was flying what Philippine officials said was a routine low-altitude patrol over the Scarborough Shoal, an atoll that is mostly underwater but is rich in fish stocks.
- Video shared by the Philippine coast guard showed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy helicopter hovering above and to the left of the Philippine plane before moving away again in an effort to push the plane out of what Beijing says is its airspace.
- In a call with his Philippine counterpart last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio underscored the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the Philippines, which it is obligated to defend, and said he shared the Philippines’ concern about China’s “dangerous and destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea.
- The Philippine plane was carrying personnel from the Philippine coast guard, as well as multiple journalists, officials said.
- “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and it endangers the lives of our crew and passengers,” the video shows the pilot of the Philippine plane telling the Chinese navy helicopter by radio.
- The Philippine government said it would issue a formal diplomatic protest over the incident.
- The Chinese military disputed the Philippines’ account, saying the plane had illegally entered Chinese airspace and that the Philippines had “distorted the facts and spread false narratives.”
- In a dispute brought by the Philippines, an international tribunal in The Hague said in 2016 that Beijing’s South China Sea claims were invalid, a ruling that China has never accepted.
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Important Takeaways:
- Kansas’s GOP legislature voted Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, becoming the 27th state to restrict access to treatment.
- Republicans, with supermajorities in both chambers, easily cleared the two-thirds majority threshold needed to override Kelly’s veto in a set of votes that caught some Democrats off-guard.
- State Senate Bill 63, which is set to take effect later this month, aims to broadly prevent health care professionals from providing gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
- The measure slashes state support for transition-related care and puts doctors who continue providing it in jeopardy of losing their medical licenses.
- In a joint statement, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R) and House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) said they voted Tuesday “in honor of the children Governor Kelly failed to protect with her repeated vetoes of this sensible legislation.”
- Responding to the veto, Kelly said, “It is inappropriate that the Legislature dictate to parents how to best raise their children.”
- The legislature’s vote comes after President Trump signed an executive order to end federal support for gender-affirming care, which a federal judge blocked last week. The administration has broadly denied the existence of transgender people, removing transgender resources from government websites and declaring the U.S. recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
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Important Takeaways:
- These migrants are being held in a hotel, where they are receiving medical attention and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the US, per Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego. However, they are not allowed to leave the hotel while international authorities arrange for their return to their countries of origin.
- A significant challenge arises as more than 40% of these migrants are unwilling to return to their homelands voluntarily.
- The US has been using Panama as a transit country for deportees due to difficulties in deporting individuals directly to certain countries.
- 171 of the 299 deportees have agreed to return to their respective countries with assistance from the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency. However, the remaining 128 migrants are still being processed, and efforts are being made to find alternative destinations for them in third countries.
- The Panamanian government has agreed to serve as a “bridge” for deportees, with the US covering all costs of the operation. This agreement was announced earlier this month, following a visit from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Important Takeaways:
- The order forces major regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report new policy priorities to the executive branch for approval, which will also have a say over their budgets.
- In a fact sheet, the White House described the move as, “ensuring that all federal agencies are accountable to the American people, as required by the Constitution”.
- “The Order notes that Article II of the US Constitution vests all executive power in the President, meaning that all executive branch officials and employees are subject to his supervision,” the fact sheet said. The order will also apply to the Federal Reserve but will exempt the central bank’s authority over monetary policy.
- The Trump order aligns with campaign promises to make independent agencies accountable to the president and a pledge Vought made in 2023: “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them.”
- The move comes as the White House has attempted to fundamentally reshape the US government, including by seizing Congress’s “power of the purse”.
- The administration has argued it can refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress, in defiance of the Impoundment Act of 1974, which explicitly bars the practice.
- The president has also summarily fired the independent watchdogs of government agencies; attempted to end birthright citizenship; dismantled the foreign aid agency USAid; ordered severe cuts to biomedical research funding; and imposed a funding freeze, among the many executive orders made in Trump’s first few weeks in office which contravene congressional authority, and are now being litigated.
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Important Takeaways:
- The U.S.-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser.
- He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
- Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, where he has been a key player in relations with the U.S. as well as Gulf Arab countries.
- Talks have not yet started on the second stage, which is meant to include an end to the war, return of all hostages and Israeli pullout from Gaza.
- Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
- In a phone call with U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday, Lebanon’s president insisted that Israeli forces withdraw from five strategic hilltops inside Lebanon.
- Israel is keeping its forces on Lebanese soil even after a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Trump administration team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down for four hours with senior representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the first such meeting since Russia deepened an invasion of Ukraine that launched the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
- Neither Ukraine nor any European actor was invited to the talks
- “This is the start of a long process,” Rubio told reporters after the meeting.
- The two sides agreed on a “consultation mechanism to address irritants to our bilateral relationship,” the State Department said.
- They also agreed to appoint “high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides.”
- President Trump, for whom foreign policy is largely transactional, has said he “just wants the killing to stop” at any cost.
- Tuesday’s meeting was a follow-up to Trump’s telephone conversation with Putin last week. Trump essentially ceded to Putin’s main demands: Ukraine will have to give up territory seized illegally by Russia, and must give up its goal of joining NATO.
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