https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/nuclear-nnsa-firings-trump/index.html
Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers Thursday night at the National Nuclear Security Administration — the agency tasked with managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile — as part of broader Energy Department layoffs, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
Sources told CNN the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons.
The offer and Ukraine’s consideration of it rippled through European diplomatic circles not only for its audacity but because the war-ravaged country appeared to be seriously considering how to reach a deal.
Ukraine has value. Literally has value,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said Saturday in Munich at an event sponsored by Politico.
“Trump now sees Ukraine differently,” he said. “These people are sitting on literally a gold mine … I showed him a map.”
If the United States is granted Ukraine’s mineral wealth, Graham said, “we will have something to defend. We will have an economic interest in Ukraine we’ve never had. And that’s a nightmare for Putin.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explain the department’s plan to purchase $400 million in armored Tesla Cybertruck vehicles, calling out tech billionaire Elon Musk’s “glaring conflict of interests.”
In a letter to Rubio Thursday, Blumenthal sought information on the steps the State Department has taken to address concerns surrounding Musk’s involvement in the purchase.
“In the 15 months since it was released, the Cybertruck has been widely derided and subject to at least six separate recalls,” he said.
“Indeed, Tesla has reportedly had ‘disastrous’ sales numbers for the Cybertruck. It hardly seems like the type of reliable vehicle the State Department would choose for this contract absent a heavy thumb on the scale,” the letter reads.
“In the weeks since DOGE was established, it has run roughshod over the Constitution, dismantling agencies on a whim based on inaccurate information while gaining access to the government’s most sensitive systems,” Blumenthal wrote in his letter to Rubio, referring Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/donald-trump-cabinet-confirmed-27c91227?mod=hp_lead_pos1
Mock hearings, last-minute deals and primary threats helped move controversial nominees through the Senate
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5146646-trump-adams-case-backlash/
The Trump administration, which has been moving like a juggernaut across the political landscape, has hit a land mine.
The decision by Trump’s Justice Department to halt the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has caused uproar.
Adams had been due to stand trial in April on charges of bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal campaign contributions.
But the mayor has become an unlikely political bedfellow of the new president. Adams journeyed to Mar-a-Lago in Florida for lunch with Trump just before the inauguration, attended the inauguration and — just as importantly — has been echoing Trump’s language about weaponized and politically motivated prosecutions.
On Monday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors they were being “directed to dismiss” the charges against Adams. Bove previously served as one of the personal lawyers defending Trump during the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.
His directive over Adams was the spark that lit a much bigger fire than expected. And it came at a time when Trump has seemed to be at the apex of his power.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-842090
It follows that President Donald Trump’s idea of hiking tariffs is neither novel nor scandalous. That doesn’t mean what he is up to is economically workable, or politically sane.
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-major-social-security-warning-fraud-billion-week-lost-2029244
Billionaire Elon Musk has said there is widespread fraud taking place in the payment of "federal entitlements" like Social Security.
Musk wrote on X on February 11: "At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR. It's not even close."
For now, DOGE's ability to do much about the supposed fraud taking place is limited, after New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records, something Musk described as "absolutely insane."
The conditions will remain in place until the next court hearing on February 14.
Eli Feldstein, indicted for leaking stolen IDF intel, was reportedly hired by Doha-employed US strategist; prime minister’s critics demand probe of Qatari influence at his office
https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/02/14/netanyahus-top-aides-and-qatar-a-strong-stench-of-money/
The fact that Israel urged Qatar to increase aid to Gaza has been known for a long time, but the alleged involvement of Netanyahu's office officials in "laundering" the emirate's image must be thoroughly investigated. We must not accept a reality where senior officials in the prime minister's environment work for an entity that is not defined as an enemy state, but functions as such in every way. And despite the beating of war drums in the cabinet after Trump's "hell" declaration, no minister said what Israel would do differently compared to the last 16 months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone struck the cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Zelensky said “radiation levels have not increased.”
Zelenskyy said the strike damaged the structure and started a fire, which has been put out. The Ukrainian Emergency Service provided a photograph it said showed a searchlight illuminating a ragged hole in the roof of the damaged sarcophagus.
https://www.thefp.com/p/danielle-sassoons-courage
The story Sassoon tells is straightforward. There appears to have been an agreement between Mayor Adams’ counsel and the Trump administration for the DOJ to drop the case against him in exchange for Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. Private benefit for public goods. There’s a word for that: corruption
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/13/armored-tesla-state-musk-trump/
The State Department planned to spend $400 million over the next five years on a contract to build armored electric vehicles with Telsa, whose chief executive, Elon Musk, has been advising President Donald Trump on how to slim federal spending, according to government document
