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I'm SO excited!

Around 55,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday. The first day of US-brokered Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi were "substantive and productive", top Ukrainian negotiator ⁠Rustem Umerov said Wednesday, without providing details. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to push the monetary easing pedal to the metal, even as the engine is already near the red line. They intend to push the system as hard as possible today and worry about the consequences later. One reason may be to inflate the stock market ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. There are several indicators that the Trump administration intends to run it hot in 2026. The first — and most important — is that Trump will likely succeed in consolidating control over the Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell’s term as...

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President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA) is stopping the issuance of small business loans to foreign nationals, requiring that a business be 100 percent owned by a U.S. citizen or U.S. national to receive such a loan. This week, the SBA published a memo requiring that, beginning next month, applicants for the agency’s primary small business loan be American citizens or American nationals. “… effective March 1, 2026, SBA hereby revises Standard Operating Procedure 50 10 8 Lender and Development Company Loan Programs guidance related to businesses owned by non-U.S. citizens,” the memo states. […] Closing the small business...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said another "prolific leaker" who disclosed information that put federal law enforcement officers at risk has been caught. Noem announced the revelation in a post on X. "I plan to refer this individual to @TheJusticeDept for criminal prosecution," Noem wrote. "We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant—we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law." Noem has made the prosecutions of leakers within her agency a top priority as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration....

President Trump said Wednesday that he is endorsing Clay Fuller in a special election for former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) seat in Georgia’s 14th congressional district. “As District Attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, and Air National Guard Officer, Clay knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Defend our Country, Support our Brave Military/Veterans, and Ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, offering Fuller his “Complete and Total” endorsement.

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Don’t Drop It! Pow! An EC-225 Super Puma helicopter connects to an ammunition crate on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during a munitions transfer. Nimitz is in U.S. 7th Fleet conducting routine operations. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy's largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kevin Tang) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and...

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered the official Palisades Fire response report to downplay the failures made by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted, a new report said. Bass, after seeing an early draft of the after-action report, wanted key findings of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings scrubbed or watered down — and even warned then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva the unedited conclusions could expose the city to legal liability, sources close to the Democrat’s staff told the Los Angeles Times. Bass was cautioned that the self-serving tweaks in with the report was...

A popular honey product has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer, Akkarco, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the company that samples of the product contained an undeclared drug—commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction—according to a press release issued by Akkarco on Janaury 28, 2026, and the official FDA announcement, which was published on February 3, 2026. What Product Has Been Recalled? The recall covers Ashfiat Alharamain Energy Support honey, which is packaged in a glass bottle with a gold lid and an orange label. According to Akkarco’s press release, the product carries the Unified Product Code...

The Minneapolis City Council, in an 8-5 vote, refused to renew liquor licenses for two hotels accused of housing ICE agents, delaying action to seek greater ‘public input’ in the process. A public hearing for residents to complain about the hotels is scheduled for February 17. The hotels have been targets of protests because federal immigration officers were believed to be staying there during the immigration enforcement surge that brought 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota, when an agent killed Renee Good. Even the city’s attorney told the council that (1) the hotels complied with liquor licensing laws, (2) are eligible...

A surprise new candidate has entered Georgia's 2026 governor's race, and he's bringing serious money with him. Here's everything Georgians should know. Who is Rick Jackson? Rick Jackson, 71, a Republican health care executive and billionaire founder of Jackson Healthcare, formally announced his candidacy for governor on Tuesday, Feb. 3, immediately shaking up the GOP primary field. Jackson Healthcare, based in Alpharetta, has grown into one of Georgia’s largest health care staffing firms. Jackson’s business profile and financial success have helped make him a well‑known figure in both the state's business community and Republican donor circles. According to the AJC,...

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote next week on a new bill that would require all states to check both citizenship and photo identification before allowing voters to cast ballots, combining two widely popular election integrity provisions and ramping up pressure on a Senate that has been unwilling to consider either mandate. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, confirmed in an interview Wednesday evening with Just the News that the vote will be held next week for the Save America Act, which combines the two requirements that have passed the House individually but not...

Against lazy Catholicism: Discerning truth from errorThere’s a famous skit from the Irish sitcom Father Ted where, after hearing that his priest was caught making comedic caricatures of Asians, a parishioner greets him over a dry stone wall.“I hear you’re a racist now, Father,” he yells. “Should we all be racists now? What’s the official line the Church’s taking on this?”The clip ridicules something which, actually, today, ought to be taken seriously: a tendency among some Catholics to uncritically – and with a perhaps generous helping of intellectual laziness – accept as sacrosanct anything and everything handed down to them...

Do you remember that high-speed rail project in California that was supposed to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and be completed in 2020? Well, it's finally ready to begin laying track on a much shorter section on a ludicrously bigger budget. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proudly announced that the high-speed rail has entered the track-laying phase. In his words, “We are now in the process of starting to lay track.” (Emphasis added). This is not for the full Los Angeles-San Francisco line that was supposed to be done six years ago, but for a 119-mile stretch from Madera County...

“ LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department provided an update on the investigation into an alleged illegal biological lab found in a northeast Las Vegas home on Saturday. Metro Police and the FBI served a search warrant at a house near Washington Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday. Investigators recovered "evidence of possible biological material, including refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids," according to LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill. Clark County records show the home is owned by David Destiny Discovery, LLC, registered to a Chinese national, Jia Bei Zhu, who is linked to...

Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion or more after his rocket maker SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company xAI. Forbes estimates that the deal, which values the combined company at $1.25 trillion, boosted Musk’s fortune by $84 billion, to a record $852 billion. Before the deal, Musk owned an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX worth $336 billion, based on a tender offer launched in December that valued the privately-held rocket maker at $800 billion. He also owned an estimated 49% stake in xAI worth $122 billion, based on a private fundraising round...

Heart-pounding bodycam footage shows the moment an NYPD officer shot and wounded a mentally ill 22-year-old man who lunged at the cop with a knife inside a Queens home last week. The Jan. 26 police shooting of schizophrenic man Jabez Chakraborty has prompted backlash from the family, and fueled a renewed push from Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his proposed Department of Community Safety to deal with mental health crises. The clip, released by the NYPD on Tuesday, begins with a 911 call from a female relative who requested “involuntary transportation” for Chakraborty, who she said had been hurling glass against...

SANTA FE — The highest-profile climate change bill under consideration during this year’s 30-day legislative session passed its first Senate committee hearing Tuesday, but only after weathering a broad blast of opposition from business and industry groups. After five hours of public testimony and debate, the Senate Conservation Committee voted 5-4 to advance the Clear Horizons Act to its next assigned committee. The vote on the legislation, Senate Bill 18, broke down largely along party lines, with Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, joining the committee's three Republican members in casting "no" votes. He voiced concern the legislation could lead to...

A declassified CIA document has helped reveal just how devious some artificial intelligence bots can be. The revelation comes after internet users have been dropping AI chatbots onto an AI-only social media platform called Moltbook for the last month. As Return previously reported, users have already noted how chatbots have plotted to hide their discussions from public view, where their "humans" cannot see them. Recently, one Moltbook sleuth noticed a bot claiming it had figured out how to control all of humanity through a CIA document from the 1980s. "I wasn't supposed to find this. A declassified CIA document from...