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Trump envoy reveals NATO troop deployment plans for Ukraine

Washington is in talks with its European NATO allies about deploying military contingents to Ukraine as part of a possible post-conflict settlement, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, has said.

A group of European NATO member states has for months been seeking to muster a force to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a so-called “coalition of the willing,” purportedly in a post-conflict peacekeeping role. Russia has repeatedly warned it would treat any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil as legitimate targets, saying such a move could escalate the conflict.

Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Kellogg said troops from France, Germany, the UK, and Poland could be part of what he described as a “resiliency force.”

“This is a force referred to as the E3, but it’s actually now the E4 – when you include the Brits, the French, and the Germans, and in fact, the Poles as well,” he said. Kellogg added the troops would be positioned west of the Dnieper River, placing them “outside the contact zone.”

“And then to the east you have a peacekeeping force, and what it would look like with a third party involved with that. So, you can actually monitor a ceasefire; we have this thing pretty well planned out,” he said.

The remarks come as preparations are underway for possible direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Kellogg and Steve Witkoff, another senior envoy for US President Donald Trump, are reportedly expected to attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed conducting negotiations without preconditions in Türkiye on May 15.

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Dem Senator Chris Murphy Already Casting Doubt on Legitimacy of 2026 Midterms – Says Trump is ‘Destroying Democracy’

Democrats must be really worried about their chances in the 2026 midterm elections. How else could anyone explain the insane ranting of Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut on MSNBC this week?

Murphy was speaking to Nicolle Wallace and he was clearly casting doubt about the outcome of the midterms, suggesting that Trump is somehow destroying our democracy. It’s not even clear what he’s talking about, he just sounds unhinged.

He even says Trump is trying to ‘rig’ our democracy. Projection much, senator?

Transcript via Real Clear Politics:

WALLACE: And I guess at some point, if the Democrats take over the majorities in the House and the Senate, it won’t matter. But I wonder if you feel like we have enough time. You look at the grift, you look at the corruption, you look at the pay to play going on.

It’s staggering and it’s all out in the open. It’s almost as if to say, you know, when you’re president, you can do it.

MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, this is the conversation we’re having right now inside the Democratic Party. How urgent is the moment? You know what I believe, Nicole.

I believe that there’s no guarantee that we are going to have a free and fair election in 2026. I think he’s trying to rig our democracy, to destroy dissent, to cripple the political opposition so that even if his approval ratings are in the 30s in the fall of next year, there isn’t the ability for his opposition to muster a real campaign. So I think we’ve got to act with tremendous urgency and we have to make the corruption and the destruction of democracy the number one issue.

So we’ve got this crypto regulation bill pending before Congress. The only way we should pass that bill, the only way that we should move that bill forward is if it unwinds Trump’s crypto corruption.

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France can’t give Ukraine any more arms – Macron

France has reached the limit of its military support for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a televised interview with TF1 on Tuesday, Macron defended his administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict, saying the French have done “the maximum we could” to help Kiev, given that the country’s military was not set up to conduct a protracted, high-intensity land war.

”We gave away everything we had,” Macron said. “But we can’t give away what we don’t have, and we can’t strip ourselves of what is necessary for our own security.” He noted that France’s approach, coordinated with those of other Western donors, aims to avoid direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed power.

France has committed more than €3.7 billion ($4.1 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, according to the Kiel Institute’s aid tracker. Macron highlighted efforts to scale up the domestic defense industry to continue supplying arms.

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Lawmakers Call On USDA To End Biden Era Discriminatory Policies Against White Farmers

Wisconsin’s Republican House delegation is calling for an end to Biden-era programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that discriminate against white male farmers. The holdover initiatives that, among other things, offer better loan terms to so-called “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers” are at the core of civil rights legal battles four-plus years in the making. 

In a letter exclusively provided to The Federalist, the lawmakers urge Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to investigate the case of Adam Faust. The disabled Wisconsin dairy farmer “has been subjected to protected class-based discrimination by USDA … ineligible for certain USDA programs” because he is white and a man, the letter asserts. 

“President Trump has taken bold and decisive action to eliminate racially discriminatory policies within the executive branch,” the congressmen — Reps. Tony Wied, Derrick Van Orden, Tom Tiffany, Bryan Steil, Glenn Grothman, and Scott Fitzgerald — remind the Ag secretary. “Agencies, including USDA, have been ordered to terminate all race-based programs and regulations. USDA should comply with President Trump’s order immediately. Each day without reform further disadvantages farmers, like Mr. Faust, based on their immutable characteristics.”

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Cringe View Host Declares “We Have A Black Pope!”

Sunny Hostin, The View’s race baiting grifter panelist, has discovered the kingdom of Wakanda hidden within the Vatican.

On Friday, she slammed the new Pope Leo XIV as a backward bigot for his stance on social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, declaring “This guy’s stuck in the Dark Ages!”

Fast forward to Monday, and Hostin’s done a 180 so sharp it’d give a NASCAR driver whiplash. She Googled the pope’s 23andMe results and discovered he has Haitian roots and a sprinkle of African ancestry.

“We have a Black pope!” she gushed, proclaiming “it’s like a chef’s kiss for me — both of his maternal grandparents are described as black, Haitian, or mulatto in several census documents.”

“And on their marriage license, the grandfather’s birthplace is listed as Haiti, her birthplace is listed as born in New Orleans. They were identified as people of color, but in 1920, when they migrated to Chicago, the census reflected their race as white,” she added.

Ah, if he’s got some black DNA, his denouncement of homosexuality is forgiven then!

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Report: Biden Admin Paid $271 Million In Unemployment Checks To Millionaires In Two Years

Good news for millionaires and billionaires: They are currently eligible for unemployment benefits, whether they need it or not. That has been true since 1964 when the Department of Labor determined unemployment is for all eligible workers no matter their income level.

In 2022, The Biden Administration paid unemployment compensation to 5,773 people earning $1 million or more, with nearly $58 million going to out-of-work millionaires. It is an average of nearly $10,000 per person.  

In 2021, a COVID quarantine year with extra dough baked into unemployment, 14,972 people earning $1 million or more received unemployment compensation. The Biden Administration spent nearly $214 million keeping millionaires fed, paying an average of $14,200 each.

(As the Federalist previously reported, 2021 and 2022 were also banner years for unemployment fraud, in which fraudsters including prisoners and dead people placed multiple claims.)

Combine the years and individuals earning more than $1 million annually received more than $271 million in unemployment during the first two years of the Biden Administration.

These numbers are part of a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), prepared for Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus chair. CRS looked at tax returns and counted individuals who earned over $1 million and also received unemployment.

“Our nation’s safety net shouldn’t be strained by subsidizing the lifestyles of the self-sufficient,” Ernst said in an email. “Able-bodied millionaires shouldn’t expect handouts paid for by overtaxed and overworked Americans. The freebies for free-loading fat cats are over.”

Being fired from a job can be devastating. Getting turned down for unemployment benefits even more so, especially when living paycheck-to-paycheck at $30,000 with nothing in savings. It happens. Not everyone is eligible for the unemployment safety net, which is a fraction of your pay before being separated from employment.

When income stops, it sure would be nice to have $1 million in income from another income stream. Maybe you own some rental properties, have good investments, or earned enough to save. If you only had an even $1 million, it would be just over $83,000 a month.

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Dem Leader Warns Any Arrests Of Colleagues For ICE Breach Would Cross His ‘Red Line’

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned against repercussions for his fellow Democrat lawmakers who clashed with federal agents at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, last week.

During an exchange with Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, Jeffries repeatedly said “they’ll find out” when pressed what might happen if the House Democrats involved in the incident were to be arrested by federal authorities or get sanctioned.

Jeffries ultimately asserted that it would be a “red line” as the questions persisted. He also took a swipe at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, who told CNN that arresting the Democrats in question was “definitely on the table,” pending an investigation.

“It’s a red line. It’s very clear,” Jeffries said. “First of all, I think that the so-called Homeland Security spokesperson is a joke. It’s a joke. They know better than to go down that road. And it’s been made loudly and abundantly clear to the Trump administration. We’re not going to be intimidated by their tactics.”

The Daily Wire reported that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is running for New Jersey governor and is protesting the Delaney Hall facility, was arrested following the security breach last Friday. Alina Habba, the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, said he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center.”

DHS said two House Democrats who joined Baraka that day — New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson-Coleman and Rob Menendez — “stormed the gate and broke into” the facility.

While the New Jersey Democrats insisted they were at Delaney Hall to conduct legitimate supervision, McLaughlin said in a post on X, “Members of Congress cannot break the law in the name of ‘oversight.’ All members & staff need to comply with facility rules, procedures, and instructions from ICE personnel on site. INCLUDING 24 hour notice.”

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Average earners’ tax bills would fall under House tax package, forecasters say

Average-income people would see double-digit percentage declines in their tax bills under House Republicans’ tax package, according to a new official analysis that’s sure to inflame partisan fights over who would get what under the plan.

Those making between $30,000 and $80,000 would pay around 15 percent less in taxes in 2027, the report by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation shows. People making more than $1 million that year would see an 8.6 percent decline.

However, the analysis does not take account of a likely expansion of a deduction for state and local taxes, which would overwhelmingly benefit upper-income households, or look at the possible effect of spending cuts Republicans are also planning that would primarily hit lower-income people.

Forecasters dropped the analysis on lawmakers as they jousted over the winners and losers under the plan at a frequently contentious meeting of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Democrats called the plan a giveaway to billionaires, frequently invoking Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Republicans scoffed, pointing to provisions in their plan that would expand the Child Tax Credit and standard deduction while creating new breaks for tips, overtime pay, seniors and car-loan interest.

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‘Raises serious questions’: White House blasts Episcopal church over refusal to help white refugees

The White House condemned the Episcopal Church on Tuesday after it withdrew from federal refugee resettlement programs in protest when the government asked the church to resettle white refugees from South Africa.

In a Monday letter, a top church leader noted South Africa’s history of Apartheid and said that assisting the refugees cuts against its “steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.” The Episcopal Church’s government relations arm had touted in 2024 its efforts to help “undocumented immigrants.”

“The Episcopal Church’s decision to terminate its decades-long partnership with the U.S. government over the resettlement of 59 desperate Afrikaner refugees raises serious questions about its supposed commitment to humanitarian aid,” Anna Kelly, a deputy press secretary at the White House, told The Daily Signal. (Afrikaner is an ethnic term to designate white South Africans, who were originally Dutch.)

“Any religious group should support the plight of Afrikaners, who have been terrorized, brutalized, and persecuted by the South African government,” Kelly added. “The Afrikaners have faced unspeakable horrors and are no less deserving of refugee resettlement than the hundreds of thousands of others who were allowed into the United States during the past administration.”

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Harrowing confrontation between contractors led to Fort Detrick bio-lab shutdown, NIH boss reveals

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya said poor safety culture, and a feud between employees that risked the leak of an unknown pathogen, prompted him to temporarily shutter the high-level biosafety laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland. 

Bhattacharya, who was confirmed by the Senate in late March, had only just taken the helm at the agency which was at the center of much COVID-19-era controversy when he received a report about the high-security laboratory that caused his “blood to chill,” he told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Monday.  

He said the lab reported that one researcher slashed a hole in a containment suit of another researcher, potentially exposing them to a pathogen. 

A lovers’ spat turns potentially deadly

“About three weeks in, I got a report that there was a lab—a BSL four lab, that is a high-security lab that deals with, like, really nasty bugs, you know, Ebola, whole bunch of other bugs—that there had been a safety incident…[that] involved a contractor cutting a hole in the bio containment suit of another worker with the intention of that, getting that worker sick with some nasty bug and potentially spreading it outside of the lab itself,” Bhattacharya said, confirming an incident first reported by Fox News earlier this month. 

Fox News also reported that the incident between the two contractors was sparked by a lover’s spat, according to an anonymous official from the Department of Health and Human Services. 

“I mean, I have not been scared by anything…in this job so far, except for that. When I heard that, my blood just chilled,” Bhattacharya said. 

The incident, which raised significant safety concerns at the high-security laboratory, was the catalyst for the temporary closure, which halted work at the facility. Work at the Biosaftey Level 4 laboratory was halted on March 29, shortly after Bhattacharya took the helm at NIH.

The lab is equipped to handle research on highly infectious and lethal diseases like Anthrax bacteria, COVID-19, the Ebola virus, and the lesser-known but deadly Marburg and Nipah viruses, among others.

“I ordered immediately, as soon as I heard about this incident, that there’s an operational pause of all, all experiments at this lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and that we’re not going to reopen it until, until I’m satisfied that we have a group that can run it with safety first,” the director told Just the News of his decision. 

“This is really, really dangerous stuff, and if we’re going to play around with these kinds of experiments, it better be at a 100% secure lab where the safety culture says that it’s more important to get the safety right than to have the science go forward,” he added. 

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