5 things to know for Feb. 20: Pentagon cuts, Israeli hostages, Arizona plane crash, Ukraine, Birthright citizenship
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There is currently about a 3% chance that an asteroid the size of a large building could collide with Earth in 2032, according to NASA calculations. The good news is that experts expect the risk percentage to fluctuate before likely dropping to zero. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the US military to prepare plans to make drastic budget cuts over the next five years, with an exception for border security, according to a new memo obtained by CNN. The proposed cuts to the Pentagon’s approximately $850 billion budget would amount to tens of billions of dollars in the first year — the largest reduction in the Defense Department budget since 2013. Despite Hegseth’s stated focus to “revive the warrior ethos,” some defense officials responsible for drafting lists of Pentagon employees to be fired as soon as this week are voicing concerns that the terminations could break the law and harm US military readiness. Earlier today, Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza — the first time the group has released deceased captives since October 7, 2023. They are said to include the bodies of Shiri Bibas, who was 32 when she and her sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel by Hamas-led militants more than 16 months ago. The two boys have become the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks, and the first return of hostage bodies marks a hugely emotional and somber moment for Israel. Two people are dead after a midair collision between two small aircraft Wednesday at Arizona’s Marana Regional Airport, just northwest of Tucson. While the investigation is ongoing, officials have confirmed two people were on each plane. The crash follows a recent string of aviation incidents beginning with the January 29 midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people when a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet collided. Since then, four other aviation incidents have drawn national attention to air safety. President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, eliciting reactions from GOP lawmakers, world leaders and top administration officials. On Tuesday, Trump wrongly accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia. He also parroted another Moscow talking point in saying that the Ukrainian president should hold an election that was suspended because his country is in a state of war and under daily attack from Moscow’s forces. After Zelensky accused Trump of being in a “disinformation space,” Trump escalated the fight on Wednesday, falsely calling the democratically-elected Zelensky “a dictator.”
Former election clerk Tina Peters’ prison sentence has long been a rallying cry for President Donald Trump and other 2020 election deniers. Now, her lawyers are heading back to court to appeal her conviction as Colorado’s Democratic governor has signaled a new openness to letting her out of prison early.
The Trump administration’s sweeping legal effort to obtain Americans’ sensitive data from states’ voter rolls is now almost entirely reliant upon a Jim Crow-era civil rights law passed to protect Black voters from disenfranchisement – a notable shift in how the administration is pressing its demands.
Venezuelan officials, including acting President Delcy Rodriguez, returned to X late Tuesday in an apparent reversal of Nicolas Maduro’s 2024 decision to block the site in the country.
The woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week served on the board of her son’s school, which linked to documents encouraging parents to monitor ICE and directing them to training.
During a marathon Supreme Court session Tuesday over whether states may ban transgender women from participating in women and girls’ sports, some justices were already focused on what may lie around the corner
President Donald Trump appeared to flip someone off as he toured a Michigan Ford plant in an incident caught on video Tuesday, and the White House defended the action as an “appropriate” response to someone screaming at the commander-in-chief.
White House officials are heaping blame on DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her office’s criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, faulting her for blindsiding them with an inquiry that has forced the administration into a dayslong damage control campaign, four people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The interim Venezuelan government has freed at least four Americans who were imprisoned in Venezuela, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now providing free internet access via its Starlink satellite service to users in Iran as the country’s regime continues its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, according to a tech expert in touch with Iranian Starlink users.
The aircraft used in the US military’s first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a strike which has drawn intense scrutiny and resulted in numerous Congressional briefings, was painted as a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program, sources familiar with the program told CNN. Its use “immediately drew scrutiny and real concerns” from lawmakers, one of the sources familiar said, and legislators began asking questions about the aircraft during briefings in September.
DOJ pleads with lawyers to get through ‘grind’ of Epstein files as criticism of redactions continues
“It is a grind,” the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an email. “While we certainly encourage aggressive overachievers, we need reviewers to hit the 1,000-page mark each day.”
A new classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.
President Donald Trump is working to tighten his grip on his party this week as he faces an unusual threat from Congress: an embarrassing rebuke of his military actions overseas.