This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Propaganda pronouns, those pronouns chosen by people who want to promote their LGTB ideologies, especially the transgender beliefs, in their government email signatures, are going away.

In fact, under an order from the Office of Personnel Management, they are to be gone by end of business Friday.

A commentary at NottheBee said, "I can just feel the sanity returning to D.C. And I can also feel half of the Swamp writhing in pain when they read this memo."

The order comes from the OPM, over the signature of Chuck Ezell, acting director.

The "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" sets out specific instructions.

Federal agencies and bureaucracies are to review all their programs, contracts, grants and more and end those that "promote or inculcate gender ideology."

Workers doing those programs are on administrative leave with notification that the efforts are being ended.

Online sites promoting the ideologies must be unplugged.

And a review is mandated of agency email systems such as Outlook and those features that prompt users for their pronouns must be turned off.

Gender training is canceled. And "resource" groups focusing on gender ideologies are disbanded.

On forms, "gender" cannot be used, only "sex" being male or female.

And the federal managers must "ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity."

A report on everything that's done is due in a week.

NottheBee reported, "Hear that woke D.C. losers? By the end of the day, you better be deleting all vestiges of your woke religious shibboleths from public sight. We are done playing this nonsense game."

It cited the orders that, "Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – At around 10:00 a.m. local time Thursday, Agam Berger was released from Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire shakedown, which along with the later release of Arbel Yahoud and Gadi Mozes, and five Thai workers, will result in the freedom of some 110 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, some of them imprisoned for murdering multiple people. She was held in total for some 482 days, since her abduction on Oct. 7, 2023 from the Nahal Oz military base.

Like her recently released colleagues – Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Daniela Gilboa, and Karina Ariev – Berger was subjected to a Hamas media circus, as she was led down a narrow walkway with a camera in her face, while led out and flanked by masked men carrying automatic rifles, who were wearing black uniforms and balaclavas, as well as the terrorist group's green bandana. As part of the game-playing, Hamas released Berger to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jabaliya in the Strip's north, although it is thought to release some of the remaining hostages due to be set free today in Khan Yunis in the south, close to where the organization's former leader Yahya Sinwar met his end.

Berger was reunited with her relieved and delighted family near the border, and will undergo psychological and physical assessment at an as-yet undisclosed hospital.

"Thank God we have reached this moment and our heroine Agam has returned to us after 482 days in the hands of the enemy," the family said in a statement after the reunion. "Our girl is strong, believing and brave."

"We would like to thank the security forces and the entire people of Israel for all the support and prayers," added the family's statement.

Dr. Lena Koren Feldman, director of Rabin Medical Center's Beilinson Hospital, told Israel's Channel 12 News the four IDF soldiers kidnapped alongside Berger and who were released by Hamas on Saturday screamed with excitement when they saw her being freed.

As a postscript, U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is in Israel and Gaza to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire and the attendant hostage "deal" has reportedly requested an opportunity to meet with the four female IDF spotters who were released on Saturday.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Now it is the Jan. 6 prosecutors who are under investigation.

They were the government prosecutors who jailed those who trespassed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They are the ones who piled charges on top of charges, including the inappropriate claims about trespassers "obstructing" the government. They are the ones who demanded long prison sentences for those who did nothing more than walk into the building, often through doors held open for them by security officers.

It is the Epoch Times that reports a federal prosecutor confirmed recently "he's investigating why federal prosecutors brought a felony obstruction charge against hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol."

It is Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who has directed employees to hand over files, emails and other documents that address the issue.

He described the use of the obstruction charge, a felony that later was disallowed by the Supreme Court, as "a great failure of our office."

Of course, piling on charges, demanding no release before trial, insisting on long prison terms, and more aligned with the Democrat agenda of describing the incidents that day as the greatest "insurrection" against America since the Civil War.

Actually, it was a protest that got out of hand when a few hundred rioted. Protesters were objecting to what they saw as an unfair election system that, in fact, was under pressure from several undue Democrat influences, including the FBI's election interference.

"We need to get to the bottom of it," Martin explained in his messaging.

He's calling it the "1512 Project," because the offense falls under that section of the law, said the report, which explained Section 1512 of U.S. law bars people from obstructing, influencing, or impeding any official proceeding, or attempting to do so. It carries a prison term of up to 20 years.

Hundreds of the protesters on Capitol grounds that day were faced with that charge. Former policeman Joseph Fischer challenged that, and the Supreme Court said prosecutors were applying the law incorrectly.

"On the government's theory, Section 1512(c) consists of a granular subsection (c)(1) focused on obstructive acts that impair evidence and an overarching subsection (c)(2) that reaches all other obstruction," said the opinion, from Chief Justice John Roberts. "Even setting surplusage aside, that novel interpretation would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison."

The government already had been dropping those counts against defendants before President Donald Trump took office and pardoned some 1,500 prosecuted by government officials in the leftist jurisdiction of the Washington courts.

Martin has, the report said, watched thousands of hours of video from that day.

"If you watch it for a while you realize that 99.9% of it is normal people doing normal things: sauntering around and through the Capitol grounds and building," he has explained on blog postings.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump has outlined one plan that would provide America with an income instead of a federal income tax.

And he cites a time period that for decades, it worked.

He said, "America's going to be very rich again and it's going to happen very quickly. It's time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before."

He continued, "You know the United States in 1870 to 1913 all tariffs and that was the richest period in the history of the United States relatively speaking. In other words, relatively, and they set up the great tariff commission of 1887 and this commission had one function. What to do with all the money that we took in.

"It was so enormous that they had no idea, it was a blue ribbon committee set up in 1887, and what to do with all of the money, that we had and again, Teddy Roosevelt was a beneficiary, because when McKinley was killed he took over this vast sum of money, and he did all of those national parks, and all of the other things and I'm not knocking him, but he was given a vast amount of money. And that was all made through tariffs. We had no income tax. The income tax came in in 1913, As I said in my speech last week instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations, we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens. Does that make sense?"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Citing an inability to trust they would be able to implement President Donald Trump's agenda, acting Attorney General James McHenry has fired a long list of Department of Justice workers who participated in, and helped with, Jack Smith's schemes to prosecute Trump.

The official action announcing the dismissal of an unspecified number of DOJ hires said, "In light of their actions, the acting attorney general does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president's agenda."

It was estimated that more than a dozen DOJ lawyers who worked on the schemes by Smith, then a special counsel, to charge Trump over his comments and opinions about the 2020 election and his possession of certain government documents after he left office, were dismissed.

Incidentally, the DOJ under Joe Biden found similar evidence against Biden regarding his own possession of government documents, but gave him a pass.

Just the News reported the firings came after the Trump administration reassigned at least 15 from the DOJ to lesser roles.

"Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump," the department said in its official statement."

Smith quit his own assignment earlier in the month, before Trump took office and had a chance to fire him, as he had promised.

According to Fox News, McHenry sent each fired worker a letter notifying them of their termination.

A DOJ official told Fox the move is "consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government."

It was the classified records case that was dismissed in July 2024 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, based on her ruling Smith was appointed unlawfully.

The other case was dismissed after Trump was elected president.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's health adviser who was at a salary just short of half a million dollars a year before retiring on a pension estimated at $350,000 per annum, had collected some $15 million in special security benefits since he left government.

But no more.

Reports confirm that in addition to his salary he made millions selling his behind-the-scenes stories, and was handed a free presidential pardon from Biden.

But now President Donald Trump has ended Secret Service protection for the retired American citizen.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Not even a week into his second presidential term, President Donald Trump is visiting the regions in North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene months ago, where roads still are closed, residential areas simply have vanished and life is anything but moving forward after Joe Biden promised benefits of a few hundred dollars to victims.

And Trump has announced he has plans to help Los Angeles recover from the wildfires that struck at the New Year.

Trump, on a tour Friday to North Carolina as well as California, announced "he is deploying the Army Corp of Engineers to rebuild their bridges, roads, riverbanks, etc.," reports said.

"I've asked Susie Wiles and all of my people to start calling up. Get the Corps ready," he announced.

The devastation wrought by the hurricane, which killed more than 200 people and left another two dozen people still missing, stalled over the state after coming ashore, dumping feet of rain and literally washing some communities away.

There long have been complaints that the federal government has responded, under the then administration of Joe Biden, inadequately.

Fox News explained Trump blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its failures in North Carolina.

"I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA," Trump confirmed.

"I think, frankly, FEMA is not good."

He said he has assigned members of his administration to get help on the way.

"We're going to fix it, and we're going to fix it as fast as you can. It's a massive amount of damage. FEMA has really let us down. Let the country down. And I don't know if that's Biden's fault or whose fault it is, but we're going to take over. We're going to do a good job."

In fact, thousands of North Carolina families remain in motels as their homes, washed away, have not been replaced with even temporary housing.

"It's been a horrible thing the way that's been allowed to fester, and we're going to get it fixed up," Trump said. "It should have been done months ago from the hurricane that took place almost four months ago."

He also addressed the California wildfires, which have killed dozens and destroy as many as 12,000 or more homes and other buildings.

A report in the Washington Examiner explained Trump expects several responses from California, in return for federal relief.

"I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen," Trump said.

In fact, some of the areas burned by the wildfires did burn at least partly because there was no water in the fire hydrants, a result of apparent mismanagement of the area's reservoir system.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose Democrat political star was rising before his reputation took a massive blow because of the wildfires, rejected the president's ideas.

"Under current CA law you must be a CA resident and U.S. citizen (and attest to being one under penalty of perjury) AND provide a form of ID such as driver's license or passport that has been approved by the Secretary of State in order to register to vote," his office said on social media.

Trump had explained earlier, "Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the valve. They wouldn't do it because, politically, they didn't think it was good. I think it's great politically. I think they're dead politically. What they've done, they've destroyed the city."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Congress over the last year or so has revealed some startling information about the Biden family, including that members cashed in on tens of millions of dollars from a family influence-peddling business that has been run during Joe Biden's vice presidency and then presidency.

And a lot more.

Now it has been confirmed that the latest stunt, Joe Biden's decision to "pardon" five members of his family for everything that has happened over recent years, also will be reviewed by the House.

"It was shocking," explained House Speaker Mike Johnson. "What President Biden did on the way out … pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any nonviolent offense. It was breathtaking to us. I don't think anything like that has ever been anticipated."

Biden's pardons for his family members, in fact, came only minutes before he gave up the power of the presidential pardon that goes with the occupant of the White House, except for his pardon of his son, Hunter, on gun and tax charges and anything else, which happened a few weeks ago.

Johnson continued, "By the way… four years ago when it was just implied President Trump might do something similar they were apoplectic. Joe Biden himself. Adam Schiff. Chuck Schumer. Roll the tape, they all said that would be crazy, unconscionable, and now they're cheering it along."

He said, "It's… to us it is disgusting. To us it probably proves the point, the suspicion, that they call it the Biden crime family. If they weren't the crime family why do they need pardons, right?"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Report: Khamenei halts nuclear weapons program in olive branch to Trump

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly has prohibited the development of nuclear weapons, in a move that some are perceiving as an attempt to initiate talks with the Trump administration about easing sanctions.

The head of Iran's "Armed Forces Judiciary" made the announcement on Jan. 21, according to Iran International. That was just one day after Trump's inauguration, but the possible olive branch does not necessarily mean nuclear activity will stop.

Newsweek reached out to the Iranian mission to the United Nations and the Trump transition team for comment via email outside of normal business hours.

Iran's halting of its development of nuclear weapons indicates its economic issues as a result of Western sanctions have become a priority, and the regime may be willing to negotiate with the U.S. and other nations to help it recover financially.

It also suggests that the Islamic regime may be adopting a new approach with the new Trump administration.

Report: Saudi Arabia's crown prince plans to invest $600 billion in U.S. over next four years

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump the kingdom plans to sink $600 billion into new investments and trade with the U.S. over the next four years, according to Fox Business.

The Saudi state news agency reported that, during a phone call between the two leaders, bin Salman said the expected reforms from the Trump administration could create "unprecedented economic prosperity."

The agency also said Saudi Arabia would like to capitalize on these conditions, though it did not say where the $600 billion would come from, how it would be deployed and if it would be public or private spending.

Bin Salman told Trump the investment "could increase further if additional opportunities arise," the report noted.

During his inauguration Monday, Trump said he would consider making Saudi Arabia his first destination for a foreign visit if the capital city of Riyadh agreed to purchase $500 billion in American products.

U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated the Yemen Houthi group, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the White House announced on Wednesday.

The White House said the decision was a reversal of the Biden administration's previous removal of the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Trump had initially designated the Houthi group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization back in January 2021, during his first presidency.

A statement pointed out the effects of the Biden White House's decision after one month to reverse the designation, saying that "As a result of the Biden administration's weak policy, the Houthis have fired at U.S. Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels transiting Bab al-Mandeb more than 100 times."

Newly elected GOP lawmaker to chair influential Senate Middle East subcommittee.

Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, two sources familiar with the matter told Jewish Insider.

McCormick, a vocal pro-Israel stalwart who was sworn in as Pennsylvania's junior senator earlier this month, will take over the gavel from Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who is leaving the Senate Foreign Relations Committee entirely to join the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Near East subcommittee is key for matters relating to Middle East affairs and U.S. policy toward international organizations, such as the United Nations.

"I am honored to chair a subcommittee on such critical issues. I see this as a great opportunity to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance, expand the Abraham Accords, grow U.S.-India cooperation, and delve deeply into regional energy, economic, and security issues," McCormick told JI in a statement.

New info reveals further evidence of IDF's shocking failure to respond on Oct. 7

In the IDF's internal operational investigation conducted in recent months, jaw-droppingly dramatic intelligence information was revealed. According to JFeed on the night of the Oct. 7 massacre, intelligence sources from inside Gaza provided disturbing information about the Hamas organization's preparations for an attack and even warned of the possibility of a raid on the surrounding communities.

However, senior IDF officials refrained from acting because they chose to believe signs of deception intended to calm Israel's security forces. Yedioth Ahronoth's Ronen Bergman broke the story there and on Ynet.

The worrying signs which should have raised a huge red flag for decision makers included reports of special preparations for rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, and there were other worrying signs of emergency preparedness in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli security officials chose to remain impassive, and did not take any action.

Qatari PM pushes for expedited second phase of hostage-ceasefire shakedown

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he is ready to start talks as soon as possible on the second stage of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire "deal," even ahead of the deadline date for the discussions to begin.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Qatari prime minister announced he plans to speak to Mossad head David Barnea this week to begin discussing negotiations on the second phase of the agreement: "We are pushing for this," reported the Times of Israel.

An unnamed senior Israeli official said they have "no problem" beginning the talks before day 16.

"Negotiations on the first phase have lasted months, and reaching an agreement on the second phase may also take a long time," the official said. Previously, Israeli officials have intimated the discussions will begin on day 16.

IDF says Palestinian gunmen behind deadly Samaria ambush killed in Iron Wall operation

Security forces late on Wednesday killed two terrorists who carried out a fatal attack in Jenin in Samaria earlier this month, murdering three people in an ambush. A third terrorist is still at large, Ynet reported.

The two men, Mohamad Nazzal and Katiba Shalabi, residents of Qabatiya who were affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, were killed during the Shin Bet and IDF counter terrorism operation in Jenin after troops surrounded the building where they had barricaded themselves, in the nearby village of Burqin and a gunfight ensued.

One soldier was moderately hurt in the four-hour long gun battle. Others who were involved in the fatal attack were arrested and were in the custody of Shin Bet.

Aliza Reiss and Rachel Cohen – both in their 70s – and police officer Elad Winkelstein were killed in the terrorist attack in the village of Al-Funduq when the terrorists, traveling in a car, opened fire on passing vehicles and buses along Highway 55 before fleeing toward Shechem.

Trump fires head of terrorist-linked World Central Kitchen from president's council on sports, fitness nutrition

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the firing of celebrity chef Jose Andres, founder of the controversial World Central Kitchen (WCK), from the president's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, claiming the restaurateur and humanitarian is "not aligned" with the current White House's mission.

Trump shared the news of Andres' departure in an "Official Notice of Dismissal" on social media, according to the Algemeiner. The statement explained his administration is currently in the process of "identifying and removing over a thousand presidential appointees from the previous administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again."

WCK, a U.S.-based NGO founded by Andres to help feed needy people caught in disasters or conflict zones, has been operating with roughly 500 employees in Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

In April 2024, the IDF came under fire after it conducted airstrikes on a WCK vehicle convoy, killing seven employees of the charity. Israel acknowledged responsibility for the incident and insisted that the airstrikes violated internal protocol, subsequently dismissing two senior officers over the botched military operation.

Israel has accused WCK of insufficiently vetting its workforce and employing terrorist members within its ranks.

Last month, WCK fired at least 62 of its staff members in Gaza after Israel said they had "affiliations and direct connections" with terrorist groups.

Andres responded to Trump's statement on X/Twitter, claiming he had already resigned.

"I submitted my resignation last week … my 2 year term was already up," he wrote.

Survey: 20% of adults in France unsure if they've heard of the Holocaust

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany is releasing its first-ever, eight-country Index on Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness, exposing a global trend in fading knowledge of basic facts about the Holocaust. The countries surveyed include the United States, United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania.

The majority of respondents in each country, except Romania, believe something like the Holocaust could happen again today, reported Israel National News. Concern is highest in the United States, where some 76% of all adults surveyed believe something like the Holocaust could happen again today, followed by the U.K. at 69%, France at 63%, Austria at 62%, Germany at 61%, Poland at 54%, Hungary at 52%, and Romania at 44%.

Shockingly, some adults surveyed said they had not heard or weren't sure if they had heard of the Holocaust prior to taking the survey. This is amplified among young adults ages 18-29 who are the most recent reflection of local education systems; when surveyed, they indicated they had not heard or weren't sure if they had heard of the Holocaust. Additionally, while Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most well-known camp, nearly half (48%) of Americans surveyed were unable to name a single camp or ghetto established by the Nazis during World War II.

Putin skirts with danger after admitting Russia's helping Iran with illicit nuclear work

Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about Russian civil nuclear work in Iran that runs afoul of U.S. law, but which the Biden administration failed to penalize, at a press conference in Moscow on Jan. 21, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reported.

Speaking alongside visiting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian following the signing of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty, Putin stated the "flagship joint project for the construction of two new units of the Bushehr nuclear power plant by Rosatom is making strides." The CEO of the Rosatom nuclear corporation, Alexei Likhachev, also spoke, underscoring that joint work is continuing "despite the sanctions and pressure."

Iran's first Russian-built reactor at Bushehr came online in 2011. A Rosatom subsidiary, ASE, has been building two additional units that are expected to produce electrical power by 2026. Russia's contract to build the two new Bushehr units is reportedly worth some $10 billion, while Tehran owes Moscow some $500 million for past work. During the press conference, Putin and Likhachev also discussed Russia's plans to build additional reactors in Iran.

The Iran Freedom and Counterproliferation Act of 2013 prohibits the "sale, supply or transfer of certain materials to and from Iran" related to the regime's nuclear, military, and ballistic missile programs and allows the president to submit sanctions waivers every 180 days containing exemptions based on national security reasons. Absent a waiver, the president is obliged to sanction foreign individuals and financial institutions that violate the act.

The Obama administration issued waivers for certain Russian nuclear work in Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, and upon taking office, the first Trump administration ended U.S. participation in the deal and the waivers. The Biden administration restored the waivers soon after taking office to help restart Iran talks and restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the technical name for the deal.

Israel demands Arbel Yehud be among group of female hostages to be released on Saturday

Israel is insisting that 29-year-old Arbel Yehud be among the second group of hostages released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group, according to Hebrew media reports.

Yehud was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, and is reportedly being held in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, by a Salafi group affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The deal prioritizes the release of living female civilians, and Israel insists on strict adherence to its terms.

Under the agreement, Hamas is expected to provide the names of the four female hostages to be freed by Friday, a day before their scheduled release, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Yehud's brother, Dolev, was murdered on Oct. 7, and her partner, Ariel Cunio, and some of her relatives were similarly abducted.

Hamas battalion commander thought killed in Gaza tunnel skirmish, now appears to be alive

The commander of Hamas's Beit Hanoun battalion, Hussein Fayyad, who the IDF says was eliminated in May, appears to be alive, reported the Times of Israel.

Footage shared by Palestinian media shows a man identified as Fayyad speaking today at a funeral.

On May 24, the IDF said Fayyad was killed in a tunnel in a joint operation carried out by the 98th Division and special forces of the Air Force and elite Yahalom Combat Engineering unit.

It would not be the first time the IDF has announced the death of a Hamas commander and later backtracked after determining its intelligence at the time was not accurate.

Trump unwilling to permit IDF to stay in southern Lebanon beyond Sunday withdrawal deadline

Outgoing Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog on Thursday morning told Army Radio Israel is trying to repel the Trump administration's demand that it live up to the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah and withdraw from south Lebanon this coming Sunday, according to the Jewish Press.

The ambassador expressed his hope that Jerusalem and Washington would "reach an understanding" and Israel would be granted an extension.

Israel already had an understanding with the Biden administration that as long as the Lebanese did not succeed in pushing Hezbollah's forces north of the Litani River, in keeping with the 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701, the IDF could remain in south Lebanon to "help."

The Biden administration reportedly considered granting Israel an additional 30 days beyond the 60-day withdrawal period outlined in the truce agreement.

But Trump doesn't appear to care whether Hezbollah goes or stays. Either way, the Trump administration anticipates the IDF to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement with the Hezbollah terrorist group, according to Army Radio.

News13 reported Wednesday night that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted a new request to the Trump administration, seeking approval to maintain five Israeli outposts in south Lebanon. The cabinet is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the matter.

The request was reportedly made through Netanyahu's close aide, Ron Dermer.

According to Israeli officials, the five strategic outposts serve as a critical buffer between northern Israeli residents and the Hezbollah army in southern Lebanon. Officials in Jerusalem cited incomplete implementation of the agreement as the reason for the request, noting the Lebanese army has yet to deploy in the area which Trump wants the IDF to vacate in three days.

Could Trump's sanctions close down the ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is preparing for a wave of U.S. sanctions that could severely disrupt its operations and even pose an existential threat to the institution, according to its officials.

ICC sources told The Guardian the measures expected to be implemented by the Trump administration could "shut the court down entirely," the Jewish Chronicle reported.

"The concern is the sanctions will be used to shut the court down, to destroy it rather than just tie its hands," one official warned.

The sanctions could target senior figures, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan, and disrupt key aspects of the court's operations. Trump's administration is anticipated to act quickly upon taking office, issuing an executive order that could set the legal groundwork for a series of sanctions.

The threat of U.S. sanctions against the ICC intensified following the court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza in November last year.

Trump envoy Witkoff says 'open to dialogue' with Hamas

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, said on Wednesday he welcomed the potential for "a dialogue" with Hamas and heaped praise on Qatar for helping facilitate the cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza, despite facing scrutiny for previous ties to the Gulf nation, according to Jewish Insider.

Asked by Fox News' Dana Perino to respond to a top Hamas official telling The New York Times, "We are prepared for a dialogue with America in achieving understandings on everything," Witkoff replied, "I think it's good if it's accurate."

"I think you can get everybody on board in that region. I really do. With a new sense of leadership over there," Witkoff added, noting that "everybody" in this case included Qatar.

"Oh my gosh, Qatar was enormously helpful in this [cease-fire agreement]. Sheikh Mohammed [bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister], his communication skills with Hamas were indispensable here," Witkoff said. Many other conservatives have been deeply skeptical of Qatar's influence and role in the negotiations, viewing the country as a supporter of Hamas and urging the U.S. to exert pressure on it.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate have voted unanimously to deprive babies who survive abortion attempts of equal rights.

Those would be the rights to medical assistance to survive, as another baby born with a threat to life would receive.

All 47 Democrats voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which means the plan did not receive the 60 votes needed in the Senate to advance.

The bill was from Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla, and Jim Banks, R-Ind., and states "that a baby born alive from a failed abortion deserves the same protection and medical care as other newborns," according to the Daily Signal.

Banks had pointed out, "Almost every American agrees that a baby that takes their first breath deserves the same right to life as the rest of us do."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., brought the bill to a vote and endorsed it, but said he expected Democrats to oppose it.

Republicans' motion for cloture on Wednesday failed with a vote of 52-47.

"Democrats are afraid that by recognizing the humanity of the newly born child, they will inadvertently point to the humanity of the unborn child," Thune explained. "And I do understand where they're coming from. After all, once you recognize the humanity of the newly born baby, it gets a little harder to say that that child wasn't human just a few minutes ago simply because he or she wasn't yet born."

Thune blasted Democrats, explaining, "there is nothing more important to Democrats than abortion," so they will vote against a plan "to provide appropriate medical care to babies born alive in an abortion clinic."

Only one Democrat supported the plan when it was approved, 220-210, earlier in the House.