• So much for those Epstein Files: After a lot of hype about the imminent release of new information regarding the activities of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, it appears we were taken for a ride. Yesterday, the DOJ did a 200-page document dump that included Epstein’s contact list, flight logs, and the evidence against him, but nothing new in the materials. Instead, we got a list of celebrities and politicians who we’d already known or suspected to be on Epstein’s contact list. Having overpromised and underdelivered, AG Pam Bondi sent a scathing letter to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the screw-up and deliver the “thousands of pages of documents” that are apparently being held by the FBI. So stay tuned.

• Judge blocks firings: U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled in favor of a group of labor unions challenging the Trump administration’s actions to issue mass firings of federal workers who were within the probationary period. The dismissals came from the Office of Personnel Management. Asserting that Congress empowered the agencies to hire and fire, however, the judge ruled that OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency.” Does the president, as head of the executive branch, not have the authority to direct agencies to fire executive branch employees? Alsup’s ruling is a temporary restraining order, indicating this issue is far from over.

• Zelensky meets with Trump: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the U.S. yesterday ahead of today’s 1 p.m. press conference with Donald Trump, at which they’ll announce an agreement to jointly develop Ukraine’s critical bounty of rare earth materials. The deal is the culmination of Trump’s recent enmity toward Zelensky, and it moves the U.S. toward a lessened dependence on Communist China for these materials while moving Zelensky closer to a peace deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The agreement gives the U.S. a 50% stake in revenue without obligating our nation to any Ukrainian security guarantees beyond being able to protect our economic stake.

• Vance calls out British PM’s free-speech fantasy: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been in Elon Musk’s sights of late, having been dismissive of the Pakistani rape gangs that have for more than 20 years preyed upon thousands of young girls. As constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley observed, Starmer laughably asserted that his country guards free speech “preciously” and doesn’t censor it. This just doesn’t pass the giggle test, and Vice President JD Vance said as much during an Oval Office meeting yesterday. Recall that Vance last week told the Munich Security Conference that free speech was “in retreat” across Europe. Doubling down while sitting just feet away from Starmer, he said that the UK’s “infringements on free speech” affect the U.S. as well as the British.

• Gabbard blasts UK’s user data demand: While the British PM was pushing back on Vance’s rebuke of speech suppression, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was decrying demands from the British government that Apple give its security service backdoor access to users’ encrypted cloud data. The issue arose after Apple announced last week that it would stop offering its Advanced Data Protection feature to British users. Evidently, rather than allow backdoor access to UK officials, Apple chose to stop offering the service. The question is, why does the British government want unfettered access to its citizens’ private data? To expand its prosecution of “thought crimes”?

• Trump EO declares English our official language: Never in the nearly 250-year history of our nation has English been the official language of the United States, but all that will change perhaps as soon as this afternoon, when President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order that would make English the official language of these United States. Trump’s order would rescind Bill Clinton’s heavy-handed mandate that federal agencies and other recipients of federal funds provide language assistance to those who are unable or unwilling to speak English. The goal of the order would be to promote unity and make the government more efficient, as well as provide an incentive toward citizenship. Let’s hope so.

• Musk warns anti-DOGE efforts tied to Soros: How much of the movement against DOGE is organic? According to Elon Musk, not much. Musk revealed that two George Soros-connected leftist groups, Indivisible and MoveOn, have been behind anti-DOGE protests across the country. For example, MoveOn targeted congressional districts in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Colorado with its “Congress Works for Us, Not Musk” mobilization effort. These groups feign the appearance of simply expressing constituent concerns about Musk, but this is clearly an organized effort to prevent DOGE from exposing the corruption in Washington.

• Israel to eliminate Hamas: In the next month or so, Israel plans to flood Gaza with 50,000 IDF troops in a coordinated offensive to overwhelm Hamas. According to a former Israeli colonel, “We’re going to see four to five divisions simultaneously attack in the north, in the center, and in the south, to occupy every area and clear out the enemy.” With Donald Trump in the White House, Israel’s leadership is now freer to conduct its war effort against Hamas without being hamstrung by Joe Biden’s State Department. Meanwhile, a recent investigation into Israel’s lack of preparedness for Hamas’s October 7 attack reveals that Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate received “intelligence assessments” of the impending attack but dismissed it as unrealistic and not feasible.

Headlines

• Senate advances Linda McMahon nomination for education secretary, setting up final vote for Monday (Just the News)

• Washington Post journalists in “open rebellion” against Jeff Bezos (PJ Media)

• Mexico agrees to send dozens of drug cartel members to U.S. for prosecution (Just the News)

• Department of Defense to cut troops with gender dysphoria (Daily Wire)

• More trans terror? Texas police thwart “mass casualty” plot (Townhall)

• The NCAA’s transgender policy has a massive loophole (City Journal)

• Humor: Gavin Newsom launches true crime podcast about how he killed California (Babylon Bee)

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