Tag Archives: Marco Rubio

US strikes Houthi leaders in Yemen; Secretary of State Rubio “The strike in Yemen is about their ability to strike global shipping and attack the U.S. Navy, and their willingness to do it…”

Important Takeaways:

  • The U.S. military pounded Houthi targets over the weekend and warned Hamas of a similar fate if they don’t agree to a hostage deal.
  • Dozens of U.S airstrikes and missile strikes on Houthi strongholds in Yemen left at least 31 people dead, and some of them may have been Houthi leaders.
  • The attacks came after the Houthis warned they were about to resume hitting ships in the Red Sea and nearby waters. Earlier attacks by the Houthis since the start of the war in Gaza have disrupted global shipping costing billions of dollars.
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Sunday, “Four months ago when we sent a ship through, it was shot at 17 times. Ships haven’t been able to go through for over a year without being shot at. Freedom of navigation is basic. It’s a core national interest.”
  • President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social, “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the waterways of the world.”
  • The president also warned Iran to stop backing the Houthis, posting, “Beware, because America will hold you fully accountable and we won’t be nice about it!” Iranian leaders repeated their denial that they were assisting the Houthis.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims America is doing the world a favor.
  • He stated on CBS Face the Nation, “The strike in Yemen is about their ability to – the ability of the Houthis – to strike global shipping and attack the U.S. Navy, and their willingness to do it. 174 times against the U.S. Navy, some 145 times against global shipping. That’s what this strike is about.”
  • Hegseth [said] “We’re pounding them militarily,” he said, and noted, “By the way, to the Houthis: this isn’t a one-night thing. This will continue until you say, ‘We’re done shooting at ships. We’re done shooting at assets.'”

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U.S. and Russia in high-level talks on ending Ukraine war and reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties

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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Marking 500 days of War: ‘Hamas must be eliminated’ Marco Rubio says; Iran’s regime, the ayatollahs, are behind everything that threatens peace; No nukes for you

Important Takeaways:

  • U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Their meeting follows a heart-wrenching Saturday when the Hamas terror group released three more hostages to their families. Monday also marks 500 days since the October 7th, 2023, attacks
  • After their meeting, Rubio and Netanyahu agreed that Hamas must be destroyed.
  • “Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force,” Rubio stated. “And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer, or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated.”
  • Netanyahu once again backed President Donald Trump’s plan to help all Gazans leave their war-torn, devastated region while others rebuild it under U.S. control. He believes many Palestinians want to leave but Hamas won’t let them.
  • “Everybody says this is the largest open-air prison in the world. Not because of us,” Netanyahu declared. “We tried to get the population to leave – to get them out of harm’s way. And Hamas – with rifles, with gunfire – try to prevent them from leaving.”
  • Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff recently visited Gaza and saw why people can’t reasonably live in much of it now.
  • “It’s completely devastated,” Witkoff observed. “And that begs the question: should people be allowed in there in those dangerous conditions? Thank God we’ve had no incidents. But, there’s 30,000 unexploded shells throughout Gaza, and the buildings are all down. It’s utter destruction.”
  • Netanyahu also indicated this weekend he and the Trump administration see eye-to-eye on the threat from Iran.
  • “Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran,” he claimed. “We agree that the ayatollahs must not have nuclear weapons.”
  • “Them getting a bomb is devastating to the region,” Witkoff said. “It’ll force every other country in that region to get a bomb, too. We’ll have a nuclear arms race, and that simply can’t happen.”
  • Rubio concurred, saying, “Behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home is Iran. And by Iran, I mean the ayatollahs. By Iran, I mean its regime, a regime who, by the way, its people don’t support. The people of Iran are victims of that regime.”

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Spy moves: China’s involvement in Cuba while Russia is busy with Ukraine

Important Takeaways:

  • Forget Europe or the hotspots of East Asia and the Middle East, Marco Rubio’s first foreign trip as secretary of state took him to one Caribbean and four Central American states. The tour tells us that the Trump foreign policy is focusing on the region closest to the American homeland.
  • It is not clear when China first started collecting signals intelligence, commonly termed SIGINT, in Cuba, but it was evident that the effort began more than a decade before 2019.
  • The CSIS study identifies four likely Chinese listening posts in Cuba. There are two from the Soviet era…
  • China wants to do more than just collect SIGINT. “China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a new joint military training facility on the island, sparking alarm in Washington that it could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations just 100 miles off Florida’s coast,” reported the Wall Street Journal in June 2023.
  • Cuba provides the Chinese one an ideal location to surveil America. “Sitting less than 100 miles south of Florida, Cuba is well-positioned to keep watch on sensitive communications and activities, including those of the U.S. military,” the CSIS report states. “The southeastern seaboard of the United States brims with military bases, combatant command headquarters, space launch centers, and military testing sites.”
  • China denied the Wall Street Journal reporting, calling it “totally mendacious and unfounded.” In any event, since the paper’s article, there has been no confirmation that the Chinese military has actually built or obtained access to such a site.
  • Perhaps one explanation is that the Biden administration pressured both Havana and Beijing to back off.
  • At the moment, Cuba needs Chinese cash and might therefore accede to granting China greater access to the island. The Cuban regime, after all, is enduring its worst economic crisis since at least the Soviet collapse. Russia, its old patron, is tied down by the war in Ukraine and troubled by recent setbacks in the Middle East. Vladimir Putin, therefore, is not able to help much.
  • It is not clear, therefore, how far the Chinese friends will go in rescuing their Cuban comrades.
  • China made great strides in the Caribbean when the United States was not paying attention.
  • Rubio, however, is focused on the Caribbean basin, as the itinerary for his first trip shows. Moreover, the new secretary of state is apparently willing to use raw American power to strong-arm countries.
  • The United States is unlikely to use force against Cuba over listening posts, but President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are not about to let the Chinese military take control of a country so close to the American homeland. Cuba should expect intense pressure, so China is probably at high tide in that country.

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Trump is quickly filling positions within his Administration

Important Takeaways:

  • A source confirmed to Fox News Digital that Trump has selected South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) to fill the all-important role of Secretary of Homeland Security, a position held for the last four disastrous years by Alejandro Mayorkas. (We’ll get back to Mayorkas in a bit.)
  • The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for everything from border security and immigration to disaster response and the US Secret Service.
  • But under Mayorkas and Biden-Harris, Homeland Security has been complicit in the never-ending surge of illegal aliens into this country, a disastrous (lack of) response to deadly Hurricane Helene, and two assassination attempts against Trump over the course of just 64 days.
  • Noem… would work with former acting ICE Director Tom Homan, who on Sunday was announced as Trump’s “border czar,” and Stephen Miller, former senior advisor to Trump during his first term, who was tapped as White House deputy of staff for policy on Monday.
  • It was also announced Monday night that Trump is expected to choose Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his secretary of state. In addition, the president-elect has asked Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to serve as his national security adviser, according to a source familiar.

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Marco Rubio pushes back against Biden’s rule to force American tax payers to fund abortion

Deuteronomy 27:25 “‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Marco Rubio Files Resolution to Overturn Biden’s Rule Forcing Americans to Fund Planned Parenthood
  • In January, Biden announced that $6.6 million would go to abortion businesses and groups, including $500,000 to Planned Parenthood of New England, $623,280 to Planned Parenthood of South Texas, and $785,256 to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.
  • While Title X taxpayer money can’t pay for abortions directly, Biden reversed a Trump-era rule in October that required the abortion company to separate its abortion business from everything else. Biden move makes it virtually impossible to determine if the tax dollars going towards paying to kill babies
  • Rubio introduced a resolution under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the Biden administration’s 2021 Final Rule.
  • Republicans have already used the CRA to veto Biden
  • “Title X is intended to fund comprehensive family planning and preventative services, not abortion providers,” Rep. Gonzales also explained.

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U.S. bill seeks to give Americans more control over online data

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks to reporters before a series of votes on legislation ending U.S. military support for the war in Yemen on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill on Wednesday aimed at giving Americans more control over information that online companies like Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google collect on their location, financial data, job history or biometric data like fingerprints.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the tech giants and others over data breaches, a lack of online privacy options and concern about political bias.

Congress has been expected to pass some sort of online privacy bill to pre-empt a stringent law passed by California.

Rubio’s bill, which would pre-empt the California law if passed by Congress, would require consumer protection regulator the Federal Trade Commission to draw up rules for companies to follow that are based on the Privacy Act of 1974, with a goal of having them in place within 18 months of the Republican senator’s bill becoming law.

The bill won early praise from Marc Rotenberg, president of the independent Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Senator Rubio has put forward a very good proposal to address growing concerns about privacy protection. The federal Privacy Act is also the right starting point,” he said.

The 1974 measure requires government agencies to give public notice of what records they keep, prohibits most disclosures of records unless the person gives written consent and gives people a way to fix inaccurate records.

Three lawmakers on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – Republicans John Thune and Jerry Moran and Democrat Richard Blumenthal – talked about potential privacy legislation last year.

The Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology proposed a bill in December that strictly limits the collection of biometric and location information and calls for punishment by fines.

In November, Intel Corp began seeking public comment on a bill it drafted that would shield companies from fines if they attest to the FTC that they have strong data protection measures.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)