Top Trump agency recovers eye-popping sum after launching DOGE task force
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced a new Department of Government Efficiency task force on Thursday to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse” at his federal agency. DOGE revealed that $1.9 billion in HUD money had been recovered as of Friday, saying the funds were misplaced during the Biden administration and were “earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed.” DOGE said it worked with Turner to release the funds, and they are now available for use by the U.S. Department of Treasury. Turner said HUD launched its own DOGE Task Force to review how the agency is spending taxpayer money. HUD employees will lead the task force with a mission to maximize their budget and efficiency, reporting their findings directly to Turner. EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’ “HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture, and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people,” Turner said. TRUMP TEAM DIGS IN, FINDS MILLIONS OF WASTED DOLLARS AT EPA, HUD WITH DOGE HELP Turner said he established the task force to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The HUD DOGE Task Force will work to “ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department.” HUD is responsible for national housing policy and urban development, and its programs include affordable housing programs, community development, homeowner support, fair housing and anti-discrimination enforcement, homelessness services, and affordable housing programs. Turner said during his announcement Thursday that the DOGE Task Force had already identified over $260 million in savings. “We have already identified over $260 million in savings, and we have more to accomplish,” Turner said. As Elon Musk and DOGE comb their way through the federal bureaucracy, some agencies are conducting their own investigations to meet DOGE halfway. Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin announced on Thursday he had canceled a $50 million environmental justice grant. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I canceled a $50 million grant to an organization called the Climate Justice Alliance. They say that climate justice runs through a free Palestine. I think that the American taxpayer wouldn’t want $50 million going to this left-wing advocacy group. It’s canceled,” Zeldin said. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also committed to cooperating with DOGE to cut wasteful spending 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.
Rubio, Netanyahu affirm ‘common strategy’ for Gaza, set sights on Iran in joint statement
Secretary of State Marco Rubio advanced President Donald Trump’s “bold” plan for Gaza during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Rubio and Netanyahu both highlighted that Iran is the single largest obstacle to peace in the region during a Sunday joint statement. While Netanyahu did not comment on Trump’s specific plans for Gaza, Rubio emphasized that the U.S. and Israel cannot return to “tired” strategies that have failed to produce peace in the past. “The president has also been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be. Not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that’s bold and something that, frankly, took courage and vision in order to outline. And it may have shocked and surprised many, but what cannot continue is the same cycle we’ll repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place,” Rubio said. Netanyahu affirmed that he and Trump share a “common strategy” for Gaza that includes the complete destruction of Hamas as a political and military force. He did not comment specifically on Trump’s stated plans to develop Gaza. TRUMP’S GAZA RELOCATION PROPOSAL SPARKS HEATED DEBATE AMONG PALESTINIANS: ‘NO LIFE LEFT HERE’ Netanyahu vowed to “open the gates of hell” on Hamas if it did not follow through with releasing every remaining hostage in Gaza. Rubio and Netanyahu discussed various other threats in the Middle East, including the collapse of Syria’s government and the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanon, among other things. SAUDI ARABIA CONTRADICTS TRUMP, VOWS NO TIES WITH ISRAEL WITHOUT CREATION OF PALESTINIAN STATE “The common theme in all these challenges is Iran. It is the single greatest source of instability in the region, behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran,” Rubio said. “There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen,” he added. ‘LEVEL IT’: TRUMP SAYS US WILL ‘TAKE OVER’ GAZA STRIP, REBUILD IT TO STABILIZE MIDDLE EAST The meeting comes more than a week after Trump raised eyebrows with a call to remove Palestinians from Gaza and develop the area under U.S. ownership. Trump said he remains committed to the plan despite heavy pushback. “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza,” Trump said. “As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back.”
239 composite liquor shops to be opened in…, booze business ramps up in…
The excise department has invited 239 applications for composite liquor vends under a new policy, increasing fees and reducing total liquor shops from 535 to 501.
‘True global changemaker’ Nita Ambani conferred with Governor’s Citation in Massachusetts, know details
The Governor’s citation recognised Ambani’s A lifelong commitment to creating lasting change across various sectors, including education, healthcare, sports, arts, culture, and women’s empowerment, ultimately improving the lives of millions in India and globally.
GOP rep who returned to Congress after eight-year break credits Trump with unifying party
Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., has spent the better part of the last decade in Indiana, running various businesses and coaching his sons’ baseball team. Before that, he had a front-row seat for most of the Obama administration, followed by the meteoric and unprecedented rise of now-President Donald Trump. Stutzman was a part of political history himself, having been one of the original members of the House Freedom Caucus — a group that has grown to be known as a bastion of ideological conservatism and, at times, a thorn in the side of House GOP leaders. Now he’s back as one of several first-term House Republicans, succeeding Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., as a member of a perilously thin House GOP majority. But according to Stutzman, who previously served in Congress from 2010 to 2017, he sees Republicans as more aligned with each other than before. SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN “I feel like it’s different. I don’t think the GOP conference is as far apart — you know, moderates to conservatives — as it was back in 2010,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I was looking at the membership in 2010, and there were true moderates. I think we’re actually much closer together now than what we were back then. And, of course, we had large majorities. So that creates other challenges. So having a tight majority is not a bad thing at all. It actually makes you unify.” He credited that re-alignment in large part to Trump, pointing out that he and other Republicans were first elected in 2010 as a backlash against former President Barack Obama rather than in support of the leading party’s agenda. “We won the 2010 election because it was a reaction to Obama. And in 2020 — I mean, you could say every election is a reaction to the incumbent party, but I think in this case, after the Biden years, the American people elected Trump because they believed he could move the country forward,” Stutzman said. “And so we have a leader that is casting a vision and is clear in his messaging, and it gives us the chance to, you know, coalesce behind his leadership. So that’s a huge help, compared to 2010.” He also disputed the notion that the Freedom Caucus was founded to be “obstructionist” to House GOP leaders, despite members of the group leading well-known coups against senior Republicans in the past. “There’s a lot of smart people that wanted to just be part of a group that looked at things from every angle and was really being productive. And so that’s why I wanted to join it, because I wanted to be at a place that I could learn, I could really dive deep and learn from other people and staff that were part of the caucus to really understand the policy, but also talk through the strategy,” he said. “It was never designed to be an obstructionist caucus. There have been times that it’s definitely been labeled that and accused of that . . . any obstruction was to stop bad things from happening. Not to obstruct the good things from moving forward.” BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS Stutzman said that being a private citizen running businesses for eight years gave him perspective on the value of consensus-building, allowing him to return to Congress with an emphasis on the “big picture.” “You’re never going to get everything you want. You know, find a way to support the team and find a way to support us to a yes,” Stutzman reflected. “Now, look, there’s going to be times when you just say no, And that’s just part of negotiating. But I think the main thing is just fight hard, offer everything you have. But then at the end of the day, let’s take a win and then move on to the next fight.”
McConnell’s mental acuity targeted by Trump after ex-Senate leader joins Dems against Cabinet nominees
President Donald Trump derided former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “not equipped mentally” after he went from being the face of the GOP in the upper chamber to opposing his entire conference and voting with the Democrats on Trump’s key Cabinet nominations in just a matter of months. “He wasn’t equipped ten years ago, mentally, in my opinion,” Trump told reporters at the White House after McConnell refused to vote in favor of confirming his controversial Health and Human Services (HHS) pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “He’s a, you know, very bitter guy,” Trump added of McConnell, with whom he has had a strained relationship with over the years, including during his previous presidency. TRUMP AGRICULTURE PICK CONFIRMED AS PRESIDENT RACKS UP CABINET WINS While such a shift from GOP leader to defiant Republican might be optically jarring, the move was unsurprising to Jim Manley, former senior communications advisor and spokesman for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus. “He was living on borrowed time the last couple of years,” he told Fox News Digital of McConnell. Manley speculated that if he hadn’t decided to step down from leadership voluntarily before the 119th Congress, he would have had significant trouble being re-elected. “[I]t’s evident just how exactly out of step he is with the caucus,” he said, noting that it has become “much more conservative.” In three pivotal Senate votes on Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees in the last few weeks, McConnell bucked his party. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination was confirmed by a razor-thin margin, 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance was called in to break the tie. TULSI GABBARD SWORN IN AT WHITE HOUSE HOURS AFTER SENATE CONFIRMATION Moderate GOP Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined him in voting against the controversial defense pick. However, McConnell was the only Republican to vote against the similarly controversial Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard and HHS pick Kennedy. Even Collins, Murkowski, and several other senators with reputations for being somewhat hesitant got behind them. “If Senator McConnell was looking to accelerate the deterioration of his legacy as the former Republican Senate leader, he’s succeeded,” a Senate GOP source remarked. They described the Kentucky Republican’s actions as “an attempt to embarrass the president and the Republican Party” and evidence “of why he was no longer fit to lead our conference.” McConnell released lengthy statements following each vote, explaining his reasoning. He also wished each of them well and committed to working with them. DOGE ‘PLAYBOOK’ UNVEILED BY GOP SENATOR AS MUSK-LED AGENCY SHAKES UP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT A defense hawk and chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, McConnell was unconvinced that Hegseth or Gabbard were the best national security selections. As for Kennedy, McConnell recalled his childhood experience with polio and touted the effectiveness of vaccines, of which the now-HHS secretary has been consistently critical. McConnell did vote in favor of Trump’s other, less-controversial and lesser-known Cabinet nominees. Republican strategist Matt Dole called the former leader “an enigma.” “[H]e sought to rule the Republican Caucus with an iron fist when he was leader,” he pointed out. “That makes his own, lonely, votes stand out as all the more egregious.” McConnell’s successor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reacted to the “no” votes in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think he knows better than anybody how hard it is to lead a place like the United States Senate, where it takes 60 votes to get most things done, and that you got to have everybody, sort of functioning as a team,” he said. According to Thune, McConnell “is still active up here and still a strong voice on issues he’s passionate about, including national security, and so when it comes to those issues, he has outsized influence and a voice that we all pay attention to.” DEM LOOKS TO CODIFY NEW AG BONDI’S DESIRED CRACKDOWN ON ‘ZOMBIE DRUG’ XYLAZINE He explained that while the conference doesn’t necessarily agree with him, “we respect his positions on these, some of these [nominations], and I know that a lot of big stuff ahead of us, he’s going to be with us. He’s a team player.” One former top Senate Republican strategist explained the former leader has “nothing to lose” at this point. In fact, they said, the feelings he is expressing about Trump’s most controversial selections actually reflects those of a number of other senators. But they can’t oppose the picks themselves “for fear of retribution by Trump or primary voters that will make a difference on whether or not they remain in power.” “Not being in leadership can be quite liberating,” GOP strategist John Feehery added. According to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, “I think he wants to make a symbolic statement in favor of an older Reagan-era type of conservatism and a more traditional Republican Party—this is the way he wants to be remembered.” McConnell’s office declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
IRS to slash thousands of workers off the payroll: report
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly cutting thousands of probationary workers as tax season ramps up, according to The Associated Press. The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration instructed agencies to fire most probationary workers who have not secured civil service protection. The layoffs could potentially impact hundreds of thousands of people, although the exact number has not yet been confirmed, the AP reported. TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE In addition to the probationary cuts, President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 29 that federal employees would be fired if they did not return to in-person work by early February. A buyout offer, which has been extended, has already been accepted by about 65,000 employees. The Associated Press reported IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season, which began on Jan. 27, are not eligible for the buyout until after the taxpayer filing deadline, according to a letter sent recently to IRS employees. LAWMAKERS FROM STATE WITH MOST FEDERAL WORKERS PER CAPITA WARN AGAINST TRUMP BUYOUT BID The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with eliminating wasteful government spending and increasing efficiency, aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal government budget by eliminating programs and trimming the federal workforce. In January, the IRS announced it was “working to continue the success of the 2023 and 2024 tax filing seasons made possible with additional resources.” The Biden administration‘s Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act devoted $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents, according to a September 2023 report from the House Oversight Committee. The oversight committee claimed the funds were used to employ agents that specifically targeted middle-class Americans. The past two filing seasons saw levels of service at roughly 85% and wait times averaging less than 5 minutes on the main phone lines, according to a statement from the IRS in January. There was also a significant increase in the number of taxpayers served at Taxpayer Assistance Centers nationwide. “This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel wrote in the statement. “These taxpayer-focused improvements we’ve done so far are important, but they are just the beginning of what the IRS needs to do. More can be done with continued investment in the nation’s tax system.” The IRS expects to receive more than 140 million tax returns, according to the AP. The IRS and Department of Treasury did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, as of Saturday night.
Mother, daughter die after being injured in Munich car ramming
A two-year-old girl and her mother have died from injuries suffered in car-ramming attack earlier this week in Munich. A two-year-old girl and her mother have died from injuries suffered in a car-ramming attack earlier this week in the German city of Munich that left 37 others injured. “Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,” police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told the AFP news agency.An Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday. According to prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann, the 24-year-old Afghan national admitted to having deliberately driven a white Mini Cooper into a labour union demonstration in the Bavarian capital on Thursday. Tilmann said the motive remained unclear, and there was no evidence to suggest the suspect was affiliated with any “Islamist” or “terrorist” organisations. She added that there was no indication of any accomplices. A damaged car is seen at the scene after a vehicle was driven into a Ver.di demonstration in Munich, Germany [File: Paul Vifogra/EPA] The man was in Germany legally and had no previous convictions. Advertisement On Thursday, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter corrected an earlier statement by the interior minister that said he was in Germany illegally and should have been deported. Adblock test (Why?)
Europe to be excluded from Russia-Ukraine peace talks, US envoy confirms
US confirms Europe excluded from Ukraine peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s war. Europe will be excluded from talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, the United States lead Ukraine envoy said. General Keith Kellogg made the announcement on Saturday after the US sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv. Trump took European allies by surprise this week by calling Russia’s President Vladimir Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to Ukraine peace talks. The Trump administration has made it clear to European allies in NATO to take primary responsibility for the region, stating that the US has other priorities, such as border security and countering China. Asked if he could assure the audience that Ukrainians and Europeans would be at the table for talks, Kellogg told a global security conference in Munich that “the answer to that last question, just as you framed it, is no”. Ukrainians, however, will “of course” be at the table, he said, adding it would be foolish to suggest otherwise. Advertisement European leaders were swift to react. “There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told the same security conference in Munich. “But this means that Europe needs to get its act together. Europe needs to talk less and do more.” A European diplomat said the US questionnaire included six queries, with one specifically for European Union member states. “The Americans are approaching European capitals and asking how many soldiers they are ready to deploy,” one diplomat said, the Reuters news agency reported. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte chimed in by urging Europeans to get their act together. “To my European friends, I would say, get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending,” he said in Munich. France is discussing with its allies the possibility of holding an informal meeting among European leaders on the issue, a French presidency official said on Saturday. Kellogg told the conference that talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Putin’s oil revenues. “Russia is really a petrostate,” he said, adding that Western powers needed to do more regarding effectively enforcing sanctions on Russia. Kellogg’s announcement came shortly after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the creation of a European army, saying the continent could no longer be sure of protection from the US and would only get respect from Washington with a strong military. Advertisement “Let’s be honest – now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” said Zelenskyy. European nations cooperate militarily primarily within NATO, but governments have so far rejected various calls for the creation of a single European army over the years, arguing that defence is a matter of national sovereignty. Adblock test (Why?)
Children among 15 killed in crush at New Delhi train station in India
Indian officials said the accident happened amid a surge of passengers waiting for trains to attend a major Hindu religious festival. Ten women and three children were among at least 15 people killed in a crowd crush at a train station in India’s capital New Delhi, as thousands of Hindu pilgrims waited to board trains to attend the annual Mahakumbh Mela religious festival. The incident unfolded on Saturday night at about 8pm local time (14:30 GMT) on two platforms at the New Delhi Railway Station as huge crowds waited to board trains to Prayagraj city, where the festival is being held, some 624km (387 miles) southeast of the capital. Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who only uses one name, told reporters that 15 people had died, while the local news outlet NDTV reported that the death toll was 18 people. India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said four trains had been deployed to “evacuate” a sudden and unprecedented surge of travellers at the station and an investigation has been ordered to find out what went wrong. High-level inquiry ordered https://t.co/Egaifp5Onx — Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 15, 2025 Advertisement Video footage shared on social media by local news organisations showed people jostling as they tried to force their way onto packed train carriages. “People were running across platforms and there was a chaotic situation that led to people falling on each other,” a man who witnessed the events told India’s ANI news agency. The Times of India said witnesses reported a “crowd surge” that was sparked by the delay of two trains which led to an unexpectedly large number of passengers waiting on platforms. When people rushed to board an arriving train, “the situation spiralled out of control, with some passengers fainting amid the sudden surge”, the media outlet reported. “This sparked rumours of a stampede, leading to further panic,” it said. The Mahakumbh is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said about 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began in January. Crowd crushes regularly occur at India’s major religious festivals. At least 30 people were killed in a crush at the Mahakumbh last month when tens of millions of Hindus gathered to bathe in sacred river waters. The centrepiece of the six-week festival is the ritual bathing at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna merge with the mythical Saraswati River. At least 36 people were also crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was held in Prayagraj, and more than 400 died after they were trampled or drowned on a single day of the festival in 1954. Advertisement India’s railway system, which is the fourth-largest train network in the world, has also witnessed serious accidents in the last two years, including a collision in 2023 that killed at least 288 people. Adblock test (Why?)