This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump on Monday escalated the world's war against the terrorists of Hamas, who still are keeping hostages in their underground compounds, by calling for a noon Saturday deadline for them all to be released.

Sticking a fork in the Middle East routine of terrorists capturing innocent civilians and then releasing a few at a time as they make more and more demands, Trump said he wants all of the remaining hostages released or "all hell is going to break out."

Now, Fox News reports Trump's comments were followed by a strong endorsement from Israel's security cabinet.

The report explained, "The declaration comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet Tuesday after Hamas announced it is delaying the next release of Israeli hostages."

Netanyahu said, in a statement, "The decision I passed in the Cabinet unanimously is this: If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will resume intense combat until Hamas is decisively defeated."

The latest version of the war between the Hamas terrorists and Israel has been going on since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered, often in horrific fashion such as burning whole families alive, some 1,200 civilians. At the time the terrorists also took hundreds hostage.

Netanyahu said, "In light of Hamas' announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, I instructed the IDF last night to amass forces inside and around the Gaza Strip. This operation is currently underway and will be completed as soon as possible."

He also said he welcomed Trump's "revolutionary vision" for Gaza, where Hamas has maintained control and a stronghold for years. Trump's plan is to remove most of the residents of Gaza so the parcel can be cleared of wreckage, then rebuilt.

Trump insists on the release by Hamas of "all" hostages, "not in drips and drabs."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Tragically, it was a day of "nines." It occurred on 9 February 2001; it happened 9 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii; and the accident claimed nine lives.

Who would have thought it could ever happen? Due to the total unlikelihood of such an occurrence, one wonders how long it took for those onboard the Japanese fishing boat and research vessel – the 191-foot Ehime Maru – to even realize what was happening before it quickly sank.

It is a big ocean, yet on that day, the nuclear attack submarine USS Greenville (SSN-772), in an emergency surfacing maneuver, unwarily surfaced right underneath the Japanese ship. The sub's rudder sliced into the hull of the Ehime Maru, causing it to sink in a matter of minutes.

While 25 survivors were rescued, nine aboard the fishing vessel, including four high school students, died. But imagine the horror the survivors experienced being lifted up out of the sea as clear skies on a bright sunny day betrayed signs of any immediate danger.

As it turned out, there had been no real emergency on the submarine. It was simply conducting an emergency ascent from the depths below to demonstrate to civilian visitors onboard how quickly it could be done.

However, the accident put the lie to the concept that little ships operate in big oceans. In the Ehime Maru's case, it turned out to be a very small ocean indeed.

Due to this collision, however, the Navy made significant changes to submarine surfacing maneuvers. The absence of any repeat incidents almost a quarter of a century later demonstrates success in "enlarging" the ocean for surface vessels by implementing new measures for their safety.

Similarly, when it comes to aviation, the "Big Sky Theory" suggests that "collisions between aircraft are unlikely due to the vastness of airspace." Of course, that big sky is severely reduced as aircraft converge in proximity to the same airport. This was the scenario on the evening of Jan. 29, 2025 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

An American Airlines passenger jet on approach to the airport and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter on a night training mission heading for Ft. Belvoir in Virginia, collided in midair at 8:47 p.m.

There were no survivors as 67 people lost their lives (64 on the jet and three on the helicopter) as the two aircraft exploded and fell into the Potomac River.

Much more operating room existed for the two ships involved in the accident off of Oahu as the flight path of these two aircraft was restricted due to heavy traffic.

It will undoubtedly take months for an investigation into the cause of the air disaster to be completed. Clearly, however, among the cast of characters involved both in the air and on the ground, someone dropped the ball.

Some factors possibly contributing to the disaster include the answers to the following:

• Did an understaffed control tower – while still in compliance with federal regulations – create an overburdened air traffic controller (ATC)?

• Was the helicopter crew undermanned? (An expert suggests there should have been two crew chiefs rather than one, thus enabling a pair of eyes to simultaneously scan both sides of the aircraft for any approaching planes.)

• Was the helicopter observing its maximum altitude restriction of 200 feet? The evidence is somewhat confusing on this as the tower detected it at a lower altitude than it actually was in order for the collision to have occurred. But it does appear the helicopter was definitely off-course from one of the standard routes helicopters were to fly when near DCA. One report indicates the helicopter was for some reason transitioning between two of these routes.

• As the helicopter was conducting an "annual evaluation" flight in which a senior instructor pilot evaluates a junior pilot and if the altitude restriction was exceeded, how could the former not have observed it unless, perhaps, there was an altimeter malfunction?

• Pilots on both aircraft were in direct contact with the ATC, but were they able to communicate with each other since they normally operate on different frequencies?

• Mysteriously, the responses from the helicopter to the ATC were sent via text, rather than audio. Why was this, especially when the situation warranted instantaneous communication via audio?

• A video of the collision gives the appearance that the helicopter targeted the jet, raising the question of who was flying it at the time – the senior or junior pilot – and was there anything in either pilot's personal history to suggest this may have been a suicide mission? Interestingly, the senior pilot's social media account was quickly scrubbed after the accident.

• Did a last-minute landing change for the jet by the ATC, resulting in an adjustment of its flight path to a shorter runway, cause any confusion?

• Did swirling crosswinds have an impact?

• Based on the communication exchange between the helicopter pilot and the ATC indicating the former had the jet in sight, was a misidentification made?

At a post-crash press conference, President Donald Trump implied that his predecessor's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy could have been a factor but did not articulate exactly how. The investigation will undoubtedly focus on the training and experience of all involved and their superiors as well. If the senior helicopter pilot was inexperienced, the DCA flight corridor should never have been used for an annual evaluation.

Despite a nighttime sky, visibility was clear. ATC audio reveals less than 30 seconds before the crash, the helicopter was specifically asked if it could see the jet. The helicopter crew responded, "… aircraft in sight, request 'visual separation.'"

This term refers to an ATC method used to ensure aircraft are kept apart in such confined flight areas. While instructed to pass behind the jet, less than 13 seconds later the collision occurred.

While the loss of 67 souls is a great tragedy, an ultimate result of the investigation into this air disaster will lead – as it did to "enlarging" the oceans for safe travel by surface traffic due to the 2001 sinking – to a similar enlargement of the skies for safer air travel.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Trump's agenda long has included making America's education system better, with one component being a plan to shut down the federal Department of Education and turn those responsibilities back to the states.

Now an order to begin that process is in the works, according to a report from NBC News, which cited sources "familiar with the plans."

Trump was on video during his campaign explaining, "One other thing I'll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. In total American society pours more than $1 trillion a year into public education systems but instead of being at the top of the list, we are literally right smack — guess what — at the bottom."

Trump already has moved on the nation's education industry, issuing an order to expand school choice and directing the federal bureaucrats to issue guidance to states about how they can use federal funds to promote that.

While Trump cannot unilaterally close down a federal agency, his orders can move the education industry that direction.

Last summer, Trump also said then nation would be helped by cutting federal funding for schools pushing the racist "critical race theory" and opening civil rights reviews of schools that discriminate against Asian Americans.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Just one of the big moves President Donald Trump, and his administration, took on Monday was the shutdown of USAID, the government agency that for years has been handing out billions of American taxpayer dollars to other nations.

The closure happened when the administration ordered the agency's headquarters closed down and told employees not to report.

Its exact future isn't known at this point, but later in the day Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly was named acting administrator.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

In what has developed as an obvious strategy on the part of President Donald Trump – announcing new plans even before his detractors can react to a previous strategy – he has confirmed that he's asking for a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 illegal aliens.

Trump only a day earlier, had announced a freeze on some government spending so those expenditures could be evaluated over whether they were being used for now-discontinued diversity and other racist programs. Then he rescinded the freeze while confirming that the review of those spending programs would continue.

Then he announced a plan for an executive order to the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to start readying a detention center.

One prominent Democrat has admitted the Trump administration is moving so quickly on so many fronts members of his party already are "fatigued."

The Washington Examiner described it as a "surprise declaration" that came during the signing of the Laken Riley Act.

Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. holding on the island of Cuba, was used to detain suspected terrorists during the George W. Bush administration. Barack Obama claimed he would close it down within a year but failed. Of late, it has seen a lower and lower population of terror suspects as Joe Biden freed a number of them.

"Today, I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it," the president explained. "We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad, we don't even trust [their home] countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back. So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo."

The report said immigrant "rights" organizations and Democrats are expected to fight the plan.

"Guantanamo could regain a place in American foreign policy and its public consciousness. Its inmate population dwindled to just 15 people in recent years and now could swell by tens of thousands," the report said.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

America has just gone through a number of years where there were massive campaigns to censor the opinions of its citizens. You might recall what happened to those who doubted Anthony Fauci's wild claim that he was "science" and those COVID shots were the saving of the nation. Or those who questioned the undue influences on the 2020 presidential election, including the FBI's interference.

From the White House pressure on social media companies to banish ideas with which Joe Biden and his administration disagreed, to the willing cooperation of those companies, to the shunning of those who had alternative views to the stunningly extra-constitutional "canceling" of those individuals, President Donald Trump has pledged to end it.

But now there's appearing a scheme by European bureaucrats to pick up where Biden, Kamala Harris and Facebook left off.

According to a report from the Washington Stand, those bureaucrats are considering plans to apply their "online censorship" agenda to Americans.

Free speech promoters warn what is being lined up is dangerous.

"Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) debated expanding the Digital Services Act (DSA) last week, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International," the report explained, noting the controversial DSA took effect just last year and already requires the removal of "illegal" content from social media software.

Now those bureaucrats want to move far beyond cracking down on illegal material to pursue their claimed objective to "protect democracy" in Europe from "foreign interference."

They specifically are concerned about Elon Musk, who restored free speech to the X platform when he took it over, and the leftists in Europe are accusing him of promoting the "far right" because he's spoken in support of Trump's pro-America agenda.

Curiously, it was Democrats in America who for years have claimed to want to be protecting democracy by attacking Trump and conservatives in America. For that agenda, they insisted on controlling what people saw and read, and they even tried to restrict the candidates for whom Americans could vote.

The report said Iratxe Garcia, a lawmaker and chief of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, claimed, "In recent months, we have seen how Elon Musk and his social network X have become the main promoter for the far right by supporting Donald Trump and Alice Weidel's AfD party through fake news and hate messages."

She is demanding that all those social media platforms follow the rules she wants to impose.

The European Union also has plans to expand its censorship staff to 200 people, a move that "would potentially allow the European Union (EU) to target American citizens for online speech considered hateful or criminal under European laws."

There already are situations that have developed in Europe in which a simple statement of Christian faith has been considered hate speech.

The DSA already allows the EU to impose massive fines on social media corporations.

The report noted that while progressives in Europe, like their counterparts in America in recent years, like the idea of government censorship, conservatives there have warned that such programs are a "tool" for limiting political discussion.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – Hamas has released a list to Israel's mediators of the 33 people scheduled for release over the coming days; a group on Thursday, followed by another cohort on Sunday. It also includes the names of eight people no longer alive and who are also due to be handed back to Israel.

According to Israeli officials, the list was divided into categories: women and men, living and deceased. The list revealed the majority of the additional 26 hostages slated for release in the first phase are still alive. Seven of the original list of 33 have been released to Israel – via the Red Cross in Gaza – over the past two Saturdays.

Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa – whom Hamas lied about and said had died in IDF bombing – and Naama Levy were released on Saturday; the previous weekend, Doron Steinbrecher, Romi Gonen, and dual nationality U.K.-Israeli Emily Damari were released.

Israeli authorities updated the families. Some were informed that the list confirms the assessment their loved ones are alive. But other families were given the news all of the hostage families have dreaded for almost 480 days, and their nearest and dearest would not leave Gaza alive.

However, it was clarified to these families a hostage cannot be officially declared dead while their body remains in captivity unless Israel obtains unequivocal evidence. No doubt this is a source of scant succor to people in indescribable psychological pain and trauma.

Overnight, Israel received assurances from both the United States and Qatar, that the female civilian Arbel Yahoud would be freed as per the original ceasefire conditions of releasing the civilians first. She is expected to be freed along with Agam Berger, the only remaining IDF female lookout in captivity.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – The game of claim and counter-claim moved on apace Wednesday, as Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer – one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest political confidants – responded to a question from a member of the Knesset inside the parliamentary chamber denying Israel had agreed to a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, which included recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israel and Saudi Arabia, who were thought by many analysts to be well on the road to normalization following the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords, were in an even more advanced stage in 2023. These moves were almost entirely suspended following the brutal Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 of that year and the war which followed it, which is currently suspended by a fragile ceasefire. The now deceased former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admitted one of the catalysts for the attack was the growing cooperation between Jerusalem and Riyadh.

During the Biden presidency, the Saudis seemed to harden their approach to Israel and make creating a pathway to Palestinian statehood a prerequisite of normalizing relations and burying decades of mutual enmity. However, this was neither defined nor outlined in any clear and concise manner. It was Washington's dalliance with unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, which pushed Mohammed bin Salman toward a similar position; to not have done so would have been to lose face.

Dermer, who is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, made the remarks in the Knesset – in which he is rarely seen, partly as a result of being appointed and not elected – in response to a question from MK Oded Forrer of Israel Beitenu, who asked: "You act as … the messenger of the prime minister to the Americans and the Saudis. Are there any commitments you have given verbally or otherwise from the prime minister or you, as his messenger, agreeing to a Palestinian state in negotiations?"

Dermer responded: "About a Palestinian state – there is no such promise at all."

The PM's advisor was also quizzed about the civilian administration of Gaza and the current ceasefire in Lebanon, which is set to expire Sunday, and which to-date has survived repeated Hezbollah violations, amid continued but limited Israeli strikes against terrorist targets in the country's south.

Dermer said he was working "on the day after" in Gaza, although he would not be drawn into specifics as he claimed previously leaked information had made negotiations more tricky. "Since it's an Israeli initiative," he said, "we must align with both the United States and regional powers. I'm very optimistic that we can achieve effective management in Gaza post-conflict, fully in line with the Prime Minister's framework."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A movement to declare elephants "persons" and give them rights to habeas corpus legal actions has proven to be a step too far even for the leftists on the Colorado Supreme Court, who just months ago had attempted to remove President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 primary election ballot.

That move was overturned promptly by the U.S. Supreme Court and now it remains to be seen whether the justices' new position, regarding an organization claiming to represent the best interests of Kimba, Lucky, Missy, LouLou and Jambo, African elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, is upheld.

Courthouse News has reported on the case brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which demanded that the courts expand the definition of "persons" to include the elephants.

The state's high court rejected the attempt, concluding that the Colorado habeas statute applies to people and not animals, "no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be."

Justice Maria Berkenkotter wrote for the court that "because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim," the report explained.

The NRP had demanded in a habeas petition in 2023 that the elephants be freed from the confines of the zoo and be moved to a "sanctuary."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Joe Biden, just hours before his presidency ends, announced presidential pardons for a long list of those whose antics contributed to the Democrats' lawfare against President Trump.

Included in the bunch was Anthony Fauci, the former federal health official who declared, during the COVID-19 China virus pandemic, that he WAS the "science."

And he promptly expressed his appreciation for the pardon but proclaimed his innocence.