Day: February 18, 2025

U.S. and Russian officials discuss improving ties and ending the Ukraine war

Top diplomats from Russia and the U.S. met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine — talks that reflected a major and rapid change in American foreign policy under President Donald Trump. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says ending Russia’s war in Ukraine will require concessions from all sides and that Europe will be part of the talks.

J.D. Vance ENRAGES European Elites by Denouncing CENSORSHIP?!

It seemed like Vice President JD Vance stood alone for free speech at the Munich Security Conference. The Conference’s chairman decried Vance’s critique of European "hate speech" laws, “60 Minutes” treated Germany’s “online hate speech” police raids as normal, and CBS News’ Margaret Brennan peddled the narrative even further by suggesting that the Nazis “weaponized” free speech to orchestrate the Holocaust. “This is extraordinarily dangerous,” Glenn says. But if America must stand alone to defend free speech, so be it.

These Nazi Laws Still Exist TODAY! | Feli from Germany

These are regular, German laws that are applied every single day. But what many people don’t know is that they were originally written by the Nazi Regime over 80 years ago!

0:00 Founding of the German Republic 1949 2:28 Law 1 9:05 Law 2 12:33 Law 3 15:15 Founding of GDR 15:54 Nazi Language in German Constitution

 

Trump Calls Education Department a ‘Con Job,’ Wants It Closed ‘Immediately’

"If we’re ranked No. 40, that means something’s really wrong."

 by 

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Could the Department of Education (DOE), a massive boondoggle that has done nothing but oversee a decline in the quality of American education and the substitution of wokism for readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic, really go away? If Donald Trump wins yet another victory, it will.

Fox News reported Wednesday that reporters asked Trump how soon he wanted the department closed. “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately,” the president replied. “Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job. They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.” Trump also “said the last time he looked at where the U.S. ranked in education, it was 38th, but then he looked two days ago, and the country had fallen to No. 40.”

Trump also noted that China’s educational system appears to be in fine condition: “As big as it is, it’s ranked in the top five, and that’s our… primary competitor. So if we’re ranked No. 40, that means something’s really wrong.”

Yes. And it has been wrong for a very long time. Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education, and one of Ronald Reagan’s campaign promises was that he would close it, as it was an unnecessary centralization and bureaucratization of an educational system that had been getting along fine without a Cabinet-level federal agency. When Reagan took office, he appointed Terrel Bell to be his secretary of education, with the explicit task of dismantling the department. In this case, however, the swamp beat the Gipper, and the Education Department stayed open.

All these years later, however, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is proving to be up to the task it was given. Fox noted that “DOGE announced Monday that $881 million related to 89 DOE contracts was being cut. Of that $881 million, DOGE identified $101 million that was being used for DEI training, including teaching educators to ‘help students understand/interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.” Elon Musk pointed out what was no less outrageous for being obvious: “Your tax dollars were spent on this.”

Trump has also “signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT), and another to support school choice.” Nature abhors a vacuum, however. One hopes that Trump will also eventually mandate that American education be focused upon fostering a sense of patriotism, pride in one’s country, culture, and heritage, and the importance of national unity over identity politics and the Balkanization of America into a multitude of mutually hostile racial and ethnic identity factions.

Whatever happens, however, the decline in the quality of American education makes it abundantly clear that the Department of Education has been a massive failure. Reagan was right in his initial determination to close it down, and now it’s better late than never. If the DOE continues, far-left, green-haired, nose-ringed “educators” will continue to push their socialist internationalist agenda of gender delusion and hatred of America upon a new generation of schoolchildren. A nation that teaches its own children to hate itself will not long endure.

Still, Trump and DOGE face an uphill battle in trying to slay this particular dragon. Ever since the days of the New Deal, the federal government has been growing, and growing, and growing. It has been an iron law that no matter how useless or wasteful a government program is, it never goes away. Numerous politicians have been elected on pledges to cut the out-of-control growth of government spending, but all any of them have managed to do is to slow the rate of growth, not stop it altogether, much less reverse it.

Now, however, Donald Trump is taking real action to end fraud and waste in government, and those who have benefited all these years from that fraud and waste are howling. Much more than just the Department of Education is at stake.

DOGE Cuts DEI Funding, Axes Over $370M In Education Grants

The US Department of Education building is seen in Washington, DC, February 13, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The US Department of Education building is seen in Washington, DC, February 13, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff James Meyers
2:29 PM – Monday, February 17, 2025

In only two days, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut a staggering $370 million in taxpayer funding that was being spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the Department of Education (DOE).

DOGE revealed in a post on their x account that they got rid of 70 DEI training grants within the department. 

According to the department run by Elon Musk, the grants totaled $373 million. 

One specific grant was funding training for teachers to “engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism, and develop asset-based anti-racist mindsets,” the cost-cutting department said.

DOGE has been revealing significant findings over the past few weeks, including the cancellation of multiple avenues of funding for DEI in education, including $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills.”

Additionally, DOGE announced the termination of another 89 DOE contracts that totaled $881 million. This number included over $100 million in DEI grants. 

Meanwhile, the Education Department has been cutting DEI practices in education as a whole, mandating all 50 state education departments last week to remove DEI policies within 14 days or else they will lose federal funding. 

The letter said the “overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation’s educational institutions” will no longer be tolerated.

“The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent,” the letter reads.

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Mexico Threatens Legal Action Against Google Over ‘Gulf Of America’ Modification On Maps

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that Donald Trump's election victory was "no cause for concern" for her country, despite his threats of tariffs and mass migrant deportations. (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP) (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images)
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024. (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:52 PM – Monday, February 17, 2025

Mexico’s first female president has warned that if Google does not restore the label “Gulf of Mexico,” the former designation of the oceanic basin and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, to its popular Google Maps service — then the country will file a lawsuit against them.

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum asserted that the country will take legal action against Google if it continues to show U.S.-based users the “Gulf of America” designation across the entire body of water. 

Sheinbaum continued, arguing that President Donald Trump’s order only applies to the part of the continental shelf under U.S. control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”

Sheinbaum called the renaming “incorrect,” noting that Trump’s order “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the U.S. coast—not the entire Gulf.”

The Mexican president read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the decision to rename the gulf.

“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes to Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.

“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names,” the letter noted.

Sheinbaum also maintained that Mexico would be sending another letter to Google, stating that “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.”

“Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary,” it added.

Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for Google Maps users in the United States this week, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” 

Sheinbaum concluded that her country will be waiting for a response from the company before proceeding with legal action. 

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JD Vance ENRAGES European Elites by Denouncing CENSORSHIP?!

It seemed like Vice President JD Vance stood alone for free speech at the Munich Security Conference. The Conference’s chairman decried Vance’s critique of European "hate speech" laws, “60 Minutes” treated Germany’s “online hate speech” police raids as normal, and CBS News’ Margaret Brennan peddled the narrative even further by suggesting that the Nazis “weaponized” free speech to orchestrate the Holocaust. “This is extraordinarily dangerous,” Glenn says. But if America must stand alone to defend free speech, so be it.