Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hastily backtracked after dismissing top nuclear experts, a blunder that became apparent when The National Nuclear Safety Administration had to rehire them urgently. The firings were reversed on Friday following DOGE's oversight in not realising the agency's role in managing America's nuclear weapons before letting the employees go on Thursday.
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Shin Bet launches inquiry into Netanyahu aides’ ties with Qatar
https://www.timesofisrael.com/shin-bet-launches-inquiry-into-netanyahu-aides-ties-with-qatar/
The Shin Bet said Saturday it has begun probing reports on the alleged ties between advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar, the main financial backer of the terror group Hamas.
In response to a query from The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, the security service said that as the body responsible for “preventing espionage threats,” it has begun investigating the protection of state secrets in the Prime Minister’s Office and the personnel surrounding “protected persons,” a euphemism for the most senior Israeli officials.
Responding to the development, Netanyahu’s office put out a statement accusing the Shin Bet of selective enforcement by not probing the premier’s political rivals.
JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders
In a chastising speech on Friday that openly questioned whether current European values warranted defence by the US, he painted a picture of European politics infected by media censorship, cancelled elections and political correctness.
Arguing that the true threat to Europe stemmed not from external actors such as Russia or China, but Europe’s own internal retreat from some of its “most fundamental values”, he repeatedly questioned whether the US and Europe any longer had a shared agenda. “What I worry about is the threat from within,” Vance said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president had been expected to address the critical question of the Ukraine war and security differences between Washington and Europe. Instead, he widely skated over these to give a lecture on what he claimed was the continent’s failure to listen to the populist concerns of voters.
His attack on mainstream European politicians drew a stern response from German and EU officials. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said he could not let the speech go without comment. “If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes,” Pistorius said. “That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said allies should be focusing on bigger threats such as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. “Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends,” Kallas said at the Munich event.
The speech drew effusive praise on Russian state TV, where a correspondent, Asya Emelyanova, said on Rossiya 1: “It was very nice to hear Vance’s very strong speech. It was a public caning, I can’t call it anything else.”
In remarks that will delight the German far right days before elections there, Vance said: “Of all the pressing challenges that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.”
JD Vance's blast at Europe ignores Ukraine and defence agenda
.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9nmeyzkjo
This year's Munich Security Conference (MSC) was supposed to be primarily about two things: how to end the war in Ukraine without giving in to Russia, and how Europe needed to boost its spending on defence.
But the most senior American present, US Vice President JD Vance, used his time at the podium to talk about neither.
Instead, he shocked delegates on Friday by roundly attacking Washington's allies, including Britain, in a blistering attack decrying misinformation, disinformation, and the rights of free speech.
It was a very weird 20 minutes - one met largely with silence from delegates in the hall
Vance's speech went down very badly - unequivocally badly. It was extraordinarily poorly judged.
But who was it aimed at?
A US commentator said to me afterwards: "That was all for US domestic consumption."
After McConnell opposes RFK Jr., Trump says he has ‘no idea’ if senator had polio
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/13/trump-mcconnell-kennedy-vote/
President Donald Trump insulted Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and cast doubt on the senator’s battle with polio on Thursday after he voted against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation to serve as health and human services secretary.
Trump has ranted online about McConnell, repeatedly called the senator’s Taiwan-born wife, Elaine Chao, a racist nickname, and called for the Republican Party to dump him as its leader, claiming McConnell is responsible for GOP division.
Vance takes MAGA to Munich with speech scolding European leaders
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/14/vance-munich-speech-free-speech-afd
Munich - Vice President JD Vance shocked many European leaders who came to his speech at the Munich Security Conference expecting to hear about Ukraine, when he instead focused on what he called "the threat from within" Europe.
Vance dove headfirst into the politics of America's European allies, lambasting what he described a "retreat" from shared democratic values when it comes to issues like abortion, social media censorship and immigration.
"If American democracy survived 10 years of scolding from Gretta Thunberg, Europe can survive several months of Elon Musk," Vance joked. Almost nobody in the room laughed.
Many European officials hoped to hear from Vance about the Trump administration's strategy for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Vance said only one sentence on that issue, before lecturing his audience over mass immigration and free speech.
A senior German politician who listened to Vance speech summed it up with one sentence: "It was a big boost to the far right in Germany and in Europe".
Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say
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.
Ukraine rejects Trump request for half its rare mineral wealth
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.”
Blumenthal presses Rubio for answers on $400M Tesla Cybertruck deal
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).
How Trump Got His Unorthodox Cabinet in Place
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
Firestorm grows over Trump DOJ’s deal to drop charges against Eric Adams
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.
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