NSA Emphasizes ‘Strong Defensive Posture’ as It Responds to Report It Hacked China

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A new analysis exposing the National Security Agency’s alleged hack of a Chinese university sent shock waves through the cybersecurity community this week, with granular details of the communist country’s investigative findings spilling out into the open.

The Australia-based researcher Lina Lau, who uses the pseudonym @inversecos online, published a detailed breakdown of China’s work to hunt the NSA hackers that Beijing believes penetrated Northwestern Polytechnical University, located in the city of Xi’an.

Asked about the accuracy of Ms. Lau’s work, an NSA senior official offered a lengthy statement that criticized China’s cyber operations — but contained no denial that the U.S. agency had hacked the university.

“NSA is unwavering in its commitment to equipping network defenders with timely, actionable guidance to safeguard critical infrastructure against the growing and evolving landscape of cyber threats,” the official said. “We recognize the importance of maintaining a strong defense posture, and we remain dedicated to strengthening the security of our digital networks and those of America’s defense industrial base.” (Read more from “NSA Emphasizes ‘Strong Defensive Posture’ as It Responds to Report It Hacked China” HERE)

White House Warns Zelensky to ‘Tone Down’ Trump Criticism and Sign Rare-Earths Deal as Peace Talk Tensions Simmer; Zelensky Praises ‘Productive Meeting’ With Trump Envoy

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By New York Post. National security adviser Mike Waltz warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday to “tone it down” when it came to his “unacceptable” criticism of President Trump.

Zelensky, 47, has lashed out at Trump, 78, for excluding Kyiv from US-Russia talks held in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and batted down a reported offer for Washington to take 50% ownership of Ukraine’s rare-earth deposits valued at $500 billion.

“For all the administration has done in his first term … and all the United States has done for Ukraine — is just, it’s unacceptable,” Waltz said in a morning appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“They need to tone it down,” the former Florida Republican congressman added, “and take a hard look and sign that deal.”

In an afternoon White House press briefing, Waltz said Zelensky had lobbed “insults” at the American president.

Waltz also claimed that the proposed rare-earths deal had included “the best security guarantee that they [Ukrainians] could hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition.” (Read more from “White House Warns Zelensky to ‘Tone Down’ Trump Criticism and Sign Rare-Earths Deal as Peace Talk Tensions Simmer” HERE)

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Zelensky Praises ‘Productive Meeting’ With Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg

By Breitbart. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had a “productive meeting” with retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was acting as President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

The upbeat meeting seemed to scale back a growing confrontation between Zelensky and Trump over bilateral U.S. peace negotiations with Russia.

“I had a productive meeting with Special Envoy Kellogg – a good discussion, many important details. I am grateful to the United States for all the assistance and bipartisan support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Zelensky said on social media Thursday afternoon.

“It’s important for us – and for the entire free world – that American strength is felt,” the Ukrainian president said.

“We had a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees,” he said. (Read more from “Zelensky Praises ‘Productive Meeting’ With Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg” HERE)

Thanks To Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, Arizonans Can Keep Expecting Delayed Election Results

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In recent years, Arizona has gained a reputation for failing to provide voters with definitive election results on election night. And thanks to the latest move by Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, that’s going to be the state’s reality for the foreseeable future.

On Tuesday, Hobbs vetoed legislation (HB 2703) passed by Arizona’s GOP-controlled legislature that sought to enhance election officials’ ability to deliver timely election results to voters. The measure cleared the state House and Senate in party-line votes last week, with Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats opposing.

Among the most notable changes proposed in HB 2703 is a provision moving up the deadline by which voters must return early ballots. As Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda previously noted to The Federalist, Arizona’s late production of election results is largely due to an issue within current law, which allows voters to drop off their early mail ballots by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

In Arizona, all early ballot voters are required to provide their signature on the ballot envelope affidavit, which is then compared to the one in their registration records. Once election workers confirm the signatures match, the ballot is processed and tabulated.

The week of the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election, election officials estimated Maricopa County alone received more than 200,000 early ballots from voting locations on Election Day. All of those Maricopa early ballots, as well as those returned on Election Day in other counties, were required to go through the aforementioned signature verification process — a review that took Maricopa County officials weeks to complete. (Read more from “Thanks To Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, Arizonans Can Keep Expecting Delayed Election Results” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Video: Official Admits Dept. Of Education Is Spending Tax Dollars On Illegals And Dodging DOGE Oversight

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Department of Education staff remove citizenship requirements from legislation, offer programs to illegal immigrants, and are using a messaging app to avoid oversight from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to an undercover video published Feb. 20 by Project Veritas.

“If Congress actually knew that we don’t ask that [citizenship status], there would be a lot of, probably, a lot of uproar,” said DOE Branch Chief Travis Combs. “You know how they have like sanctuary cities? We would be a sanctuary program where we’re spending federal dollars on illegal immigrants.” . . .

Combs is a branch chief in the DOE’s office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, according to LinkedIn. He said in the video he oversees seven staff who “develop professional development projects for teachers and adult education.” He said the programs focus on areas including GED [general educational development], high school diploma, ESL [English as a second language], and citizenship.

“The one nice thing about this program that I work in is we don’t ask [citizenship] status, and we’ve been able to keep that out of our federal statute,” he said. “We don’t ask them when they enroll what their status is.”

Combs said “undocumented” people can take part in these programs “as long as they follow the process.” He said recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) “have to follow the rules for DACA,” but “if they’re illegal, illegal, it’s going to be pretty hard.” (Read more from “Video: Official Admits Dept. Of Education Is Spending Tax Dollars On Illegals And Dodging DOGE Oversight” HERE)

2 Teenage Girls Plotted to Attack High School With Pipe Bombs and Guns, FBI Says

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it thwarted a mass casualty plot intended at a Texas high school within 30 minutes of being tipped off about the alleged plan.

The two girls, who have not been publicly identified because of their ages, allegedly planned to attack Memorial High School in the Houston suburb of Hedwig Village with guns and pipe bombs.

The 16-year-old was charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony, while the 15-year-old was placed into custody on unrelated charges.

“We received troubling information, conducted a rapid investigation, shared findings with LE partners, & ultimately saved lives,” read a statement from the FBI office in Houston.

KPRC-TV reported that the older girl had previously been a student at Memorial High School before she moved to an alternative school, and the younger girl was a student at Willis High School. (Read more from “2 Teenage Girls Plotted to Attack High School With Pipe Bombs and Guns, FBI Says” HERE)

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Unitarian Universalist Lawmaker Offers Atheist Invocation to ‘God of Many Names’

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A Texas lawmaker whose religious affiliation includes atheists and agnostics suggested all religions pray to the same “God of many names” during an interfaith prayer service at the state capitol.

Democratic Rep. Donna Howard of Austin delivered the opening invocation for the Feb. 11 meeting of the 89th Legislative Session with a prayer for “Texans of every religion and no religion” in which she gave thanks for living in a nation, she said, that protects the “freedom of and from religion.”

“I’m grateful to live in a country where we have a constitutional right to no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the full exercise thereof, freedom of and from religion,” said Howard, a former nurse who has represented her district since 2006.

“In that spirit and with respect for all Texans of every religion and no religion,” Howard continued, “we seek guidance for the day before use from the God of our understanding, from that moral compass that calls us to recognize our interconnectedness and our collective work, and to bring to that work the better angels of ourselves on behalf of all Texans whom we have been given the privilege to serve.”

She referred to the “Spirit of Life, God of many names” in her prayer and asked, “Let us know that each from our own tradition comes today to lift our spirit in unity.” (Read more from “Unitarian Universalist Lawmaker Offers Atheist Invocation to ‘God of Many Names'” HERE)

Trump Targets Taxpayers’ Money Used to ‘Incentivize or Support’ Illegals

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A new executive order from President Donald Trump, among the latest in his long list of dozens of actions he’s taken to protect America from illegal aliens and the transgender ideology, and to cut government waste and fraud, puts a bull’s-eye on the taxpayer money being used to “incentivize or support” illegal immigration.

The idea is to make certain “taxpayer resources are used to protect the interests of American citizens, not illegal aliens,” said the order, which also cited statistics from the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

That group said American taxpayers are being forced to pay at least $182 billion a year to cover the expenses of 20 million illegal aliens and their children, including more than $66 billion in federal expenses and $115 billion paid by states and local governments.

Further, the Center for Immigration Studies reported 1 million illegal aliens could cost American taxpayers $3 billion a year through welfare programs to which they are not supposed to have access under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

But illegal aliens who are granted parole become “qualified aliens,” allowing access to various benefits. (Read more from “Trump Targets Taxpayers’ Money Used to ‘Incentivize or Support’ Illegals” HERE)

Inside Trump’s ‘Goal’ to Abolish the IRS, Utilize Tariffs So ‘Whole Economy Explodes’ — And How It’ll Affect Your Wallet

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One of President Trump’s objectives over the next four years is to have US revenues from tariffs become so massive that the Internal Revenue Service is no longer needed, his commerce secretary revealed Wednesday.

“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

The former CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald expanded a day later on his belief that Trump’s sweeping tariff plan will be a boon for the US economy.

“As the president said, reciprocal tariffs, either you bring yours down or we’re going to bring ours up. If we go to their level, it will earn us $700 billion a year to be equal to everybody else,” Lutnick said Thursday, during an appearance on FNC’s “America’s Newsroom.”

“And there goes our deficit. And interest rates come smashing down, and the whole economy explodes higher.” (Read more from “Inside Trump’s ‘Goal’ to Abolish the IRS, Utilize Tariffs So ‘Whole Economy Explodes’ — And How It’ll Affect Your Wallet” HERE)

‘Good Riddance’: Trump Fires ‘Biden Era’ Prosecutors

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In his effort to purge the federal government of political corruption, President Donald Trump is firing all prosecutors hired by his predecessor. On Tuesday evening, Trump announced via Truth Social that he is dismissing U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Joe Biden.

“Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before,” Trump began. He continued, “Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys. We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence.” The president added, “America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System—THAT BEGINS TODAY!”

According to a report from Reuters, U.S. attorneys were informed last week that they were being dismissed. Trent Morse, Trump’s deputy director for the Office of Presidential Personnel, sent an email Thursday to Biden administration prosecutors, saying, “At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as U.S. Attorney is terminated, effective immediately.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Article III Project Founder and Trump legal ally Mike Davis explained, “President Trump had to fire every remaining Biden-era U.S. attorney to remove partisan political actors from the justice system.” He added, “For too long, the DOJ was weaponized against half of the country. That changed yesterday. Good riddance.”

Already, Trump has begun staffing U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country with his own nominees. For example, Edward R. Martin, Jr. has been appointed as Trump’s U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin’s predecessor in the role, Matthew M. Graves, enacted a host of prosecutions against Jan. 6 protestors but largely refused to prosecute rising crimes in D.C. During his tenure, Graves declined to prosecute 67% of crimes in the nation’s capital, including 72% of misdemeanor crimes and 53% of felony arrests. Martin, meanwhile, served as a defense attorney for many of the Jan. 6 protestors targeted by Graves. Upon taking office, Martin fired over two dozen federal prosecutors involved in Jan. 6 cases and implemented a hiring and promotions freeze on the office. (Read more from “‘Good Riddance’: Trump Fires ‘Biden Era’ Prosecutors” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Major Publication Says It’s Really Sorry For Featuring Terrorist’s Son In Documentary, Swears It Was Accident

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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) issued an apology on Wednesday for featuring the son of a Hamas official in its Gaza documentary, “Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone.”

Hamas’ deputy minister of agriculture’s 13-year-old son Abdullah was the focus of the documentary, which he narrated, according to the outlet. The BBC asserted the production company Hoyo Films did not disclose the family link, with the outlet only learning about it after the documentary’s release.

“We’ve promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission,” the BBC stated. “We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film.”

“We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film,” the outlet added.

Despite the apology, the BBC maintained that the documentary’s value remains intact. (Read more from “Major Publication Says It’s Really Sorry For Featuring Terrorist’s Son In Documentary, Swears It Was Accident” HERE)