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White South Africans gather in support of Trump and his claims that they are victims of racism

Some white South Africans showed support for President Donald Trump on Saturday and gathered at the US Embassy in Pretoria to claim they are victims of racism by their own government.

Hundreds of protesters held placards that read “Thank God for President Trump” and displayed other messages criticizing what they see as racist laws instituted by the South African government that discriminate against the white minority.

Many were from the Afrikaner community that Trump focused on in an executive order a week ago that cut aid and assistance to the Black-led South African government. In the order, Trump said South Africa’s Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a new law that allows the government to expropriate private land.

The South African government has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump’s claims over the country and the law have been full of misinformation and distortions.

Trump said land was being expropriated from Afrikaners — which the order referred to as “racially disfavored landowners” — when no land has been taken under the law. Trump also announced a plan to offer Afrikaners refugee status in the US. They are only one part of South Africa’s white minority.

In a speech to Parliament this week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the forced removal of any people from their land will never be allowed in South Africa again after millions of Blacks were dispossessed of property under the apartheid system of white minority rule and hundreds of years of colonialism before that.

“The people of this country know the pain of forced removals,” Ramaphosa said. He said the land law does not allow any arbitrary taking of land and only refers to land that can be redistributed for the public good.

The Trump administration’s criticism and punishment of South Africa has elevated a long-standing dilemma in the country over moves to address the wrongs of centuries of white minority rule that oppressed the Black majority.

According to the government, the land law aims to fairly address the inequality that the majority of farmland in South Africa is owned by whites, even though they make up just 7% of the country’s population.

White protesters on Saturday held banners referencing the expropriation law but also other affirmative action policies put in place by the government since the end of apartheid in 1994 to advance opportunities for Blacks. Those laws, known as Black Economic Empowerment, have been a source of frustration for some white people.

Influential Trump adviser Elon Musk — who was raised in South Africa — has also criticized South Africa’s government and claimed it is anti-White for years, although some have questioned his motivations. He has recently failed to get a license for his Starlink satellite internet service in South Africa because it doesn’t meet the country’s affirmative action criteria.

While race has long framed South African politics, the country has been largely successful in reconciling its racially diverse people in the years after apartheid. The current government is made up of a coalition of 10 Black-led and white-led political parties that are working together.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Rebels in DR Congo advance on second major city as residents report looting

A rebel group has said it has advanced into Bukavu, the second largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with residents reporting looting and fighters in the streets.

Rebel coalition, Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), which includes the M23 armed group, said in a statement Saturday it took control of the Kavumu airport in South Kivu and forced government forces to retreat “in disarray, abandoning the city of Bukavu,” the provincial capital.

There has been no confirmation from the DRC government and it is unclear from eyewitnesses reports how far the rebels have advanced in Bukavu.

The rapid advance into the city comes less than three weeks after the rebels claimed the takeover of Goma, the largest city and capital of the neighboring North Kivu province on January 27.

Fighting in Goma between the rebels and DRC’s military left more than 3,000 people dead, according to the government.

The DRC and many Western countries accuse its neighbor Rwanda of backing M23, which is comprised mainly of ethnic Tutsis who left the Congolese army more than a decade ago.

Since 2022, M23 – which claims to defend the interest of minority Rwandophone communities, including the Tutsis – has waged a renewed rebellion against the DRC government, occupying a large expanse in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda and Uganda.

Now a part of the AFC rebel alliance, the group has also taken over resource-rich communities in the east such as Nyabibwe and Rubaya, which harbors one of the world’s largest deposits of coltan, a valuable mineral used in the production of smartphones.

Calls for a ceasefire from foreign and regional leaders have failed to deter the rebels’ quest for territory.

Residents told Reuters they had seen M23 fighters on the streets but were yet to witness any fighting. Other sources told the news agency that the rebels were yet to enter the center of Bukavu.

“Their uniforms were different. We had been prepared since the daytime for their arrival … the FARDC (army soldiers) had left. There were no clashes,” one resident told Reuters, adding that she spotted the rebels from her window.

“They are looting depots, warehouses and commercial houses,” he said, accusing fleeing soldiers and civilians of carrying out the looting.

“We have no security,” Mapendano added.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Dems torched over DOGE security claims after allowing ‘wide-open’ border, ’empowering Iran’

As Democrats lob claims that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are a potential national security threat, Republicans are calling them out for what they perceive as hypocrisy after years of weak immigration and foreign policies.

‘Being lectured by the Democrats on national security is pretty rich after they spent the last four years sending billions of taxpayer dollars to terrorists, letting suspected terrorists walk through our wide-open southern border and disgracefully retreating from Afghanistan, empowering Iran and kicking off the most destabilizing foreign policy paradigm in a generation,’ Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

Democrats, led by Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, recently pressed White House chief of staff Susie Wiles over their ‘grave concern’ that Musk and DOGE were illegally risking ‘exposure of classified and other sensitive information that jeopardizes national security and violates Americans’ privacy.’

One GOP Senate leadership aide remarked to Fox News Digital that it was ‘absurd’ to suggest cutting wasteful spending through DOGE amounts to a security threat. 

‘This is the Russia hoax all over again, with an attempt to scare Americans by making preposterous claims that Elon Musk is going to steal their identity,’ the aide said.

Sheehy added in his response, ‘America is lucky to have President Trump, Elon and DOGE working to restore accountability and fix our government. Perhaps the Dems should just say ‘thank you’ for cleaning up their mess.’

Warner wrote to Wiles that ‘unauthorized access to classified information risks exposure of our operations and potentially compromises not only our own sources and methods, but also those of our allies and partners. If our sources, allies, and partners stop sharing intelligence because they cannot trust us to protect it, we will all be less safe.’

The Democratic letter was sent amid uproar over Musk and DOGE’s shake-up of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), followed by other agencies and departments in the executive branch. 

As DOGE has pressed on with the effort, Musk has revealed expenditures considered wasteful and the amount of contracts he is instructing agencies to cancel. 

Intel Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pushed back on those claims by his Democratic counterparts, writing on X, ‘The reaction from the Dem and media to DOGE conducting audits and cutting waste has been downright hysterical. It’s reminiscent of the Russia collusion hoax — a sad and dishonest attempt to scare Americans.’

The Senate GOP leadership aide said, ‘Senate Republicans are going to keep supporting this crucial work’ through DOGE. 

While DOGE continues to scrutinize spending, courts across the country have begun to issue rulings and injunctions limiting the agency’s ability. 

Trump and Musk have hit several judicial roadblocks, from a temporary halt to DOGE access to Treasury systems and a restraining order on attempts to shut down USAID.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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‘Wasteful and dangerous’: DOGE’s top five most shocking revelations

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s efforts at President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have revealed a number of examples of government waste that have dominated headlines in recent weeks, as his team continues to audit the federal government despite Democrat opposition. 

Here are some of the top-lines from DOGE’s findings:

Musk reveals ‘Iron Mountain’ mine nightmare

Musk revealed this week that DOGE is investigating a limestone mine in Pennsylvania where federal employee retirements are processed manually. 

‘Federal employee retirements are processed using paper, by hand, in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania. 700+ mine workers operate 230 feet underground to process ~10,000 applications per month, which are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes. The retirement process takes multiple months,’ Musk announced on X. 

Musk said only 10,000 federal employees can retire a month because it takes so long to process the paperwork and sort through the millions of manila envelopes. He described the ‘Iron Mountain’ mine as a ‘time warp’ slowing down a completely manual federal retirement process. 

‘The limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move, determines how many people can retire from the federal government. The elevator breaks down sometimes, and then nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?’ Musk told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 

DOGE-inspired EPA locates $20 billion in waste

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), inspired by DOGE’s crackdown on federal spending, said it had located $20 billion in tax dollars within the agency that the Biden administration reportedly ‘knew they were wasting.’

‘An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago, featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,’ EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video posted to X on Wednesday, citing another video from December. 

The EPA found that just eight agencies were controlling the distribution of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to different entities ‘at their discretion,’ such as the Climate United Fund, which reportedly received just under $7 billion.

‘The ‘gold bars’ were tax dollars, and ‘tossing them off the Titanic’ meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it,’ Zeldin said, vowing to recover the ‘gold bars’ that were found ‘parked at an outside financial institution.’

Zeldin said that the ‘scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposely designed to obligate all the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.’ 

In a Fox News interview, the EPA administrator praised DOGE’s work at the agency and said that the cost-cutting department is ‘making us better.’

‘They come up with great recommendations, and we can make a decision to act on it,’ Zeldin said.

DHS clawing back

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government’s leading disaster-relief arm, gave over $59 million to house illegal immigrants in luxury New York City hotels just last week, DOGE uncovered.

The spending was exposed by Musk on Monday, who wrote in a post on X that ‘sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order,’ which put FEMA under review to improve the agency’s ‘efficacy, priorities and competence.’ 

Of the $59.3 million, $19 million was for direct hotel costs, while the balance funded other services such as food and security, a New York City Hall spokesperson confirmed to Fox. 

One day after the spending was uncovered by DOGE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ‘Secretary [Krisit] Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,’ a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

Shortly afterward, Trump, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, suggested that FEMA should be abolished.

‘FEMA spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry. It is now under review and investigation,’ the president declared.

‘THE BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A DISASTER. FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED! IT HAS BEEN SLOW AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!’ the president added.

Pentagon wasted thousands on coffee cups and soap dispensers

The Pentagon’s $850 billion budget could be next up on the bureaucratic chopping block. Fox News Digital reported this week accusations of waste and inefficiency within the U.S.’s largest discretionary budget. 

The Defense Business Board found in 2015 that the Department of Defense could save $125 billion over five years by renegotiating service contracts and consolidating bureaucratic processes. 

A congressional inquiry in 2018 found the Air Force was spending $1,300 for each reheatable coffee cup aboard one of its aircraft. The Air Force spent $32,000 replacing 25 cups, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. 

A two-year audit by the Defense Department Inspector General last year found that Boeing overcharged the Air Force by 8,000% for soap dispensers. They overpaid by $149,072. 

Trump’s new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said he welcomes DOGE at the Department of Defense. 

‘We will partner with them. It’s long overdue. The Defense Department’s got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible,’ Hegseth told Fox News. 

Questionable spending in USAID’s $40 billion budget, including ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, who says she speaks to Musk about spending cuts every few days, recently published a list of projects and programs she says the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped fund across the years.

Ernst described ‘wasteful and dangerous’ spending that had gripped taxpayers until DOGE stepped in.

Ernst highlighted that the agency ‘authorized a whopping $20 million to create a ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq.’ 

Under the Biden administration, USAID awarded $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshopto produce a show called ‘Ahlan Simsim Iraq’ in an effort to ‘promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.’ 

Several more examples of questionable spending have been uncovered at USAID, including more than $900,000 to a ‘Gaza-based terror charity’ called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 million program slated to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.’

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Planned Parenthood appears to scrub Instagram as fears of DOGE cuts loom

Planned Parenthood caught the internet’s attention on Thursday after all of its Instagram posts were deleted within hours of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFK Jr.’s swearing in. 

The organization, in an apparent nod to this move, posted a pair of eyes on a black background on its Instagram story with no explanation.

On Friday, Planned Parenthood posted another story, an animated gif with the words ‘I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me,’ and later there were just three posts on its Instagram page, all about condom use.

As speculation swirled about the mysterious disappearance of the posts, many pro-life advocates started to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This also comes just days after a conservative watchdog nonprofit founded by former President Mike Pence, urged the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending on Planned Parenthood.

‘For the sake of the American people and generations yet unborn, the time has come for the United States to finally defund the largest abortion provider in America,’ Tim Chapman, president of Advancing American Freedom, wrote in a letter to Elon Musk.

Planned Parenthood health centers received nearly $22 billion in HHS grants and $53 billion from public health programs from 2019 to 2021, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy said that he believes ‘every abortion is a tragedy,’ and expressed support for President Donald Trump’s assertion that states should handle the issue.

‘I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,’ Kennedy said. ‘I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions.’  

Kennedy, who has expressed support for abortion in the past, vowed to implement Trump’s policies.

With Kennedy at the helm of HHS and Elon Musk at DOGE, pro-choice advocates fear that Planned Parenthood will be on the chopping block.

On Feb. 3, Planned Parenthood Federation of America put out a statement warning that ‘defunding’ the organization could put patients at risk of losing access to ‘sexual and reproductive care.’

Planned Parenthood Federation of America said that in 2022 the organization treated 2.05 million patients. The services mentioned in the organization’s included more than 4.6 million STI tests, nearly 213,000 breast exams and more. However, no data on the number of abortions performed in that time was listed.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to a Fox News request for comment.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Unclear how long the Pope will stay in hospital, Vatican says

The Vatican says it is unclear how long Pope Francis will stay in hospital after he was admitted on Friday with a respiratory tract infection.

The 88-year-old pope’s current condition was described by the Vatican as “fair” after he was admitted to Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome for treatment for bronchitis – the latest in a string of ailments that have raised concerns about his health.

Spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the pontiff had a “calm” night and was awake on Friday morning, eating breakfast and reading some newspapers. An official medical update on the pope’s condition will be released Saturday after 5 p.m. CET.

It remains to be seen if he will lead the Angelus prayer on Sunday from the balcony of the Gemelli hospital.

The Vatican said Friday that the pope was at the medical facility “for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital setting treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing.”

They later confirmed he was in the facility, and that he had canceled his meetings for the next three days.

Francis has made a number of visits to the hospital in recent years, and received abdominal surgery in 2023.

He has been struggling with bronchitis in recent weeks and has asked aides to read speeches and addresses.

The pope was mentally alert at the meeting but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Scholz says Germans will decide their democracy for themselves, hitting back at Vance

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected “outside” interference in the country’s elections, insisting that Germans would decide their democracy for themselves, as he hit back at comments made by US Vice President JD Vance the day before.

Vance delivered a scathing speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, in which he turned on European allies and accused them of suppressing free speech, losing control of immigration and refusing to work with hard-right parties in government.

The audience had been expecting to hear about the Trump administration’s plans to end the war in Ukraine, but instead faced a lecture from Vance, who told European leaders that the biggest threat to their security was “from within.”

Following his speech, Vance met with Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel at the sidelines of the conference, according to a spokesperson for Weidel.

They met in a hotel room for about 30 minutes and spoke about the Ukraine war and German politics, the spokesperson said. The hard-right, anti-immigration party is surging in polls ahead of elections next week.

Standing on the same stage as Vance Saturday, Scholz rejected the vice president’s comments and insisted that Germany would not accept foreign interference in its domestic politics.

“A commitment to ‘never again’ cannot be reconciled with support for the AfD,” Scholz told audiences in the Bavarian capital.

“We will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy, in our elections, in the democratic formation of opinion in favour of this party,” he continued, adding that that should especially not happen “among friends and allies.”

Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party, as well as Germany’s other mainstream parties, have ruled out working with the AfD, in a stance which has become known as a “firewall.”

Also during his speech, Scholz predicted that the future Berlin government would ease the country’s so-called debt brake, in order to spend more on defense and security. Germany’s debt brake is a constitutional article that prevents the government from borrowing excessively and amassing debt.

Germany’s government last month said it had met NATO’s target to spend 2% of its GDP on defense– this however falls significantly short of the Trump administration’s fresh demand of 5%.

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Zelensky warns that Trump meeting Putin first would be ‘dangerous’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that his US counterpart Donald Trump meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin before him would be “dangerous,” as he admitted he had no guarantees from Trump that he would be first in line in peace talks.

Zelensky spoke in a week when a phone call between Putin and Trump raised fears in Kyiv that it was being frozen out of negotiations, with the White House also downplaying the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO.

In an exchange which prompted laughter from the crowd, Zelensky also admitted to having told Trump that Putin is afraid of him.

“I told Trump that Putin is afraid of him and he heard me. And now Putin knows,” Zelensky said wryly.

The Ukrainian president added that Putin appears to be the biggest influence on NATO and reiterated that peace talks on ending the conflict could not go ahead without Kyiv’s involvement.

“Right now, the most influential member of NATO seems to be Putin – because his whims have the power to block NATO decisions,” Zelensky said.

“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement. And the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” he added.

“No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe. Europe must have a seat at the table when decisions about Europe are being made,” Zelensky continued.

Zelensky warned the days of America’s guaranteed support for Europe are over.

“A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin. Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot,” he said.

“The old days are over – when America supported Europe just because it always had,” he added.

The Ukrainian leader spoke the day after US Vice President JD Vance eviscerated America’s European allies at the security conference, in a speech that barely touched on the issue of Ukraine and a potential settlement of Russia.

“Yesterday here in Munich, the US vice president made it clear – decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending. From now on, things will be different, and Europe needs to adjust to that,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president called for a united European army, as he acknowledged that the US may not continue to provide military support as it once did.

“Let’s be honest – now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say ‘No’ to Europe on issues that threaten it. Many leaders have talked about Europe that needs its own military – an Army of Europe,” he said.

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Here’s what happened during President Donald Trump’s 4th week in office

President Donald Trump and his administration forged ahead with its foreign policy priorities in meetings and calls with heads of state and advanced discussions surrounding the end of the Russia-Ukraine war this week. 

Trump spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where leaders agreed to launch negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 

‘We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations,’ Trump posted to Truth Social Wednesday after speaking with Putin. ‘We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.’

‘I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful,’ Trump said. 

Additionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday, and Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy Friday at the Munich Security Conference.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny for the negotiations, fielding criticism that Ukraine is being pressured to give in to concessions after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that it wasn’t realistic for Ukraine to regain its pre-war borders with Russia. 

‘Putin is gonna pocket this and ask for more,’ Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Fox News Digital.

But Hegseth shut down comments like these, and told NATO members in Brussels on Thursday: ‘Any suggestion that President Trump is doing anything other than negotiating from a position of strength is, on its face, ahistorical and false.’ 

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again.

Here’s what also happened this week at the White House: 

Meeting Jordan’s king 

Trump welcomed Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House Tuesday, a visit that comes amid contentious discussions between the U.S. and Arab nations about relocating Palestinian refugees to Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries to rebuild Gaza. 

Trump unveiled plans on Feb. 4 that the U.S. would seek to ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip in a ‘long-term ownership position’ to deliver stability to the region during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

However, Trump’s proposal prompted swift backlash from Arab countries, including Jordan, and Egypt announced plans on Sunday for an emergency Arab Summit to discuss ‘new and dangerous developments’ regarding the resettling of Palestinians on Feb. 27.

When asked how he felt about Trump’s plans for the future of Gaza, Abdullah remained tight-lipped and said he would wait for the Egyptians to take the lead on a proposal moving forward as they negotiate with the U.S. 

‘I think let’s wait until the Egyptians can come and present it to the president and not get ahead of us,’ Abdullah said. 

Abdullah did reveal plans to accept 2,000 sick Palestinian children to Jordan. 

‘I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children that are either cancer children or in a very ill state, to Jordan as quickly as possible,’ Abdullah said. ‘And then wait for … the Egyptians to present their plan on how we can work with the president to work on the cause of challenges.’

Denuclearization talks with China, Russia 

Trump floated a joint meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin, claiming he wants all countries to move toward denuclearization. 

Trump on Thursday told reporters he plans to advance these denuclearization talks once ‘we straighten it all out’ in the Middle East and Ukraine, comments that come as the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are actively pursuing negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 

‘There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,’ Trump said Thursday at the White House. ‘You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.’

‘We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,’ he said.

The U.S. is projected to spend approximately $756 billion on nuclear weapons between 2023 and 2032, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released in 2023.

Cuts to federal workforce

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal government staffing numbers.  

The order will instruct DOGE and federal agencies to work together to ‘significantly’ shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post. 

Agencies will also be instructed to ‘undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force’ and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren’t legally required.

The order builds on another directive Trump signed after his inauguration implementing a federal hiring freeze, as well as an initiative from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offering more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts if they leave their jobs or return to work in person. The White House told Fox News Digital Thursday that more than 75,000 employees have accepted the buyout. 

Eliminate the penny? 

Trump unveiled plans Sunday to halt production of the penny — but getting that initiative underway requires a few additional steps and possibly congressional approval. 

Additionally, while Trump said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop minting them due to their high costs, supporters of the penny claim it’s wiser to evaluate changes to the nickel instead. 

‘For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. ‘This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.’

In fact, producing pennies is even more expensive than Trump’s numbers. It costs nearly 3.69 cents to mint a single penny, according to a 2024 U.S. Mint report. The coins are primarily made of zinc and then covered in copper.

While the waters are a little murky on the next steps, experts say Congress likely would need to become involved and pass legislation to fulfill Trump’s wishes.

‘The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,’ Robert Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, told the Northeastern Global News.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

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Three Israeli hostages freed after dispute threatened Gaza ceasefire

Three Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas after a dispute this week threatened to derail the deal.

American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, Russian-Israeli Alexandre Troufanov and Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn were released in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, around 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) in the sixth such exchange under the truce. They were seen exiting vehicles surrounded by militants, who ushered the hostages on stage, where the captives addressed the crowd.

The men appeared to be in better health than the three hostages released the previous week, whose condition drew condemnation from Israeli officials.

The three were given what appeared to be bags carrying memorabilia. Horn was seen carrying what appeared to be small hourglasses and Troufanov appeared to face some difficulty climbing down the stairs.

In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, the atmosphere was expectant and calm as people holding posters watched the releases live. In Kibbutz Nir Oz, where all the three hostages were taken, families gathered to watch the release. Sagui-Dekel Hen’s family crowded around the television to watch the moment.

Israel is expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners later Saturday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said Friday, 333 of whom were arrested in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It will be the largest number of Palestinian prisoners released during the exchanges so far.

A crowd of armed militants gathered in Gaza ahead of the release, which took place close to the house of slain former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed by Israel in October. Images showed masked fighters carrying weapons and gathering around a stage with flags and images depicting Sinwar and other militant leaders.

“No migration except to Jerusalem,” read a banner festooning the stage, in an apparent rebuke to US President Donald Trump and his plans for a mass displacement of Palestinians from the enclave.

Earlier this week, Hamas said was postponing today’s releases after accusing Israel of violating its commitments to the ceasefire agreement. Amid the dispute, Trump urged Israel to cancel its deal with Hamas and “let all hell break out”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office thanked Trump for his “clear and unequivocal” statement, following the hostages’ release Saturday, saying it helped push Hamas to back down and free the hostages.

In a statement following the latest releases, Hamas said that the only way those still held captive would be freed was “through negotiations and by adhering to the requirements of the ceasefire agreement.”

All three men released on Saturday were kidnapped from the kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 attack, and had been held captive for almost 500 days.

They are now back on Israeli soil, the Israeli military said. They are currently undergoing an initial medical assessment at a reception center in southern Israel, according to the military.

Troufanov was 27 years old when he was kidnapped by Palestinian Al-Quds Brigades, a militant group allied with Islamic Jihad, along with his grandmother, Irena Tati, his mother Lena Troufanov and girlfriend Sapir Cohen, who were all released in a previous deal. His father Vitaly was killed during the attack.

Dekel-Chen was 35 years old when he was kidnapped by Hamas while trying to defend the kibbutz from attackers. His wife Avital was pregnant with their third child during the attack, and gave birth to Dekel-Chen’s daughter while he was in captivity. She turned one in December.

Horn, now 46, was also captured by Hamas with his brother Eitan, who remains in captivity.

The Gazan militants have now released a total of 19 Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, of a total of 33 promised at staggered intervals during this stage. Eight of those 33 are dead, according to the Israeli government.

Despite Saturday’s releases, uncertainty looms over the future of the wider agreement. Negotiations on extending the ceasefire – which expires on March 1 – are in doubt.

As well as taking hostages, Palestinian militants killed more than 1,200 people during the October 7 attack. Israeli bombardment of Gaza since has killed more than 48,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reduced much of the enclave to rubble, and led to a humanitarian catastrophe for surviving residents.

The war has spilled over into the wider region, putting Israel in conflict with key Hamas backer Iran, as well as Tehran proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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