US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last Thursday met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and other ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) officials in Antalya, Turkey – just as President Trump controversially greeted Syria’s new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani) in Riyadh. Rubio’s was the first such US meeting with a Syrian foreign minister in fifteen years, the State Department later said.

Following this, Rubio on Tuesday went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to defend the administration’s dropping of all Syria sanctions, in order to “give them a chance” – as Trump said of Syria while on his Gulf visit. Rubio sounded an alarm, warning that the already war-torn country could be weeks away from civil war and collapse of the HTS government. Watch:

Syria is likely on the verge of ‘full scale civil war’ — Marco Rubio

The US state secretary laments the country’s current rulers ‘didn’t pass their background check with the FBI’ https://t.co/gBUH1gCYwa pic.twitter.com/g2mY1UMcZC

— RT (@RT_com) May 20, 2025

“It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks — not many months — away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up,” Rubio told the Senate hearing. There have for weeks been running street battles between HTS and Druze factions in the south and in suburbs of Damascus.

Describing the rationale behind dropping the years-long brutal US sanctions, Rubio said: “We want to help that government succeed, because the alternative is full-scale civil war and chaos, which would, of course, destabilize the entire region.”

Of course, the supreme and dark irony here is that it was Washington which led destabilization efforts in Syria over the last decade in the first place, with the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore. Assad fled the country on December 8, and since then the brutal Islamist group HTS and US-designated terrorist Sharaa/Jolani has ruled from Damascus.

🔥everything is fine🔥 pic.twitter.com/RIrzRbjLn3

— Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) May 20, 2025

To state the obvious, just maybe the US should not have sought to overthrow the largely secular government of Bashar al-Assad, which protected the minority religious communities now being massacred by HTS? Christians, Alawites, Druze, and secularists of all strips in Syria are now living in a new dark ages.

Rubio actually said before the senators that “When Syria is unstable, the region becomes unstable.”

But, he continued, “If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out.”

Important “Islamic State Leader Omar al-Shishani Fought Under U.S. Umbrella as Late as 2013” by @BradRHoff https://t.co/JQg5TwcLDp

— Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) March 10, 2016

It should be recalled that over the past decades Rubio himself as a senator had called for regime change in Damascus on many occasions.

For example, in 2015 – at a moment the Islamic State was making gains in eastern Syria and across the region, Rubio said “Ending Assad’s reign of terror once and for all will be, too. And both will be much more difficult than if we had acted at the outset of the civil war in Syria, as some of us urged President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it is still not impossible.”

* * *

Dear Marco, 

In calling for Assad’s removal and approving regime change efforts and policies as a US Senator over the prior decade, this is who you helped empower (news footage below).

Signed, 

Syria’s Persecuted Christians

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

• Low oil prices and economic uncertainty are causing U.S. oil production, particularly in shale basins, to plateau or decline earlier than anticipated.

• Major oil companies acknowledge the accelerated peak in U.S. oil output, with the Permian Basin being the last major area still showing growth potential.

• Forecasts for U.S. crude supply are being revised downward as the profitability of shale production is challenged by current oil prices.

The decline in oil prices and the prevailing uncertainty about the economy, trade, and supply chains are accelerating the peak in U.S. oil production despite President Donald Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ slogan.  

With the U.S. benchmark WTI crude prices at $60 per barrel, it’s mostly “hold, baby, hold” in the American shale patch, where output in the major basins except the Permian has already started to level off or drop. 

The U.S.-China 90-day tariff pause and the start of trade talks did little to erase the crash in oil prices from April, and even less to restore confidence or wipe out the high uncertainty regarding the economy and the cost of supply with unknown levels of tariffs. The shale patch has historically been immediately responsive to changing market conditions, but living in 90-day cycles of tariffs, no-tariffs, reduced tariffs, or surprise U.S. geopolitical moves could be too much for the oil industry, especially the smaller companies. 

The big ones, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental, and ConocoPhillips, aren’t voicing publicly concerns about doing business and doing it as usual at $60 oil. But some of them have already said that the peak in U.S. oil production is being accelerated and could be sooner than previously expected. 

The peak, whenever it occurs, does not mean a steep decline afterwards—it would rather be a long plateau of leveling off of U.S. crude oil production in which the slowdown in shale would be partly offset by rising output from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, executives and analysts say.  

“As you know that most of the shale basins now have either plateaued or starting to decline, except for the Permian,” Vicki Hollub, President and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, said on the Q1 earnings call. 

“If companies continue to talk about dropping activity levels, I think the Permian could plateau sooner than we expected – and we had expected the Permian to continue growth through 2027,” Hollub added. 

Oxy had expected that U.S. production overall would peak between 2027 and 2030. 

“It’s looking like with the current headwinds or at least volatility and uncertainty around pricing and the economy and recessions and all of that – it’s looking like that peak could come sooner,” Hollub said, adding that the Permian would grow very little this year, if at all.  

Ryan Lance, the chief executive of ConocoPhillips, said on the company’s earnings call that at $60 oil, “the folks that don’t have the kind of cost of supply sitting in their portfolio are going to find themselves cash-strapped and returns-strapped.”

“Obviously, the balance sheets are in pretty good shape across the industry, better than we were in the last downturn, but you’ll see a lot of activity cut back,” Lance added. 

At current prices, ConocoPhillips doesn’t expect a lot of things to change for the company, although there would be changes if WTI sinks to $50 per barrel. However, “that’s not our view today and doesn’t represent where we think the market is going to be for the next few years,” Lance noted. 

The current mantra at ConocoPhillips is “don’t whipsaw this thing too hard right now…so don’t overreact, but don’t put your head in the sand either.” 

Earlier this month, Diamondback Energy said onshore oil production in the U.S. has already peaked. 

“We currently estimate that the U.S. frac crew count is already down ~15% this year, with the Permian Basin crew count down ~20% from its January peak, and both are expected to decline further,” Diamondback said in a letter to investors. 

Liberty Energy, the fracking company founded by now-Energy Secretary Chris Wright, is also prepping for a slowdown in shale drilling.  

U.S. crude oil supply will rise more slowly than expected for the rest of 2025 and in 2026 and peak as early as this year, as WTI prices at $60 per barrel are testing the breakeven point of shale production, energy flows intelligence firm Kpler said last week. 

With the low oil prices, Kpler has now cut its U.S. crude supply forecast by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 170,000 bpd for the rest of 2025 and into 2026, “as weaker prices threaten to slow shale production.”  

Despite steady near-term activity, growth is slowing in the U.S. shale patch, and U.S. crude output is set to peak this year, Kpler noted. 

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Across the country, a new defense is being heard in state and federal courtrooms. From Democratic members of Congress to judges to city council members, officials claim that their official duties include obstructing the official functions of the federal government. 

It is a type of liberal license that excuses most any crime in the name of combating what Minn. Gov. Tim Walz called the “modern-day Gestapo” of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The latest claimant of this license is Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officers during a protest at Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. McIver is shown on video forcing her way into an ICE facility and striking and shoving agents in her path.

This was not a major incursion, but these state and federal officials joined a mob in briefly overwhelming security and breaching the fence barrier after a bus was allowed through the entrance. Federal officials were able to quickly force back the incursion.

McIver and House Democrats insisted that McIver’s forcing her way into the facility might be trespass and assault for other citizens, but she was merely exercising “legislative oversight.” Rep. Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) declared “You lay a finger on someone – on Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there – you lay a finger on them, we’re going to have a problem.”

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) even ominously warned the federal government that Democrats would bring down the house if it tried to charge McIver: “It’s a red line. They know better than to go down that road.”

Well, the red line was crossed in a big way after Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba charged McIver with a felony under Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1).

The ACLU called the charged “authoritarianism” and insisted that these state and federal politicians “have every right to exercise their legally authorized oversight responsibilities for expanded immigration detention in New Jersey.”

The problem with the oversight claim is that McIver’s status as a member of Congress does not allow her access into closed federal facilities. Congress can subpoena the Executive Branch or secure court orders for access. However, member do not have immunity from criminal laws in unilaterally forcing their way into any federal office or agency.

If that were the case, Rep. Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez would not have posted images of herself crying at the fence of an immigrant facility, she could have climbed over the fence in the name of oversight.

Conversely, Republicans in the Biden Administration could have simply pushed their way into the Justice Department to seek the files on the influence-peddling scandal.

Yet, the point of the claim is less of a real criminal defense and more of a political excuse.

It is the same claim being heard this week from Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj who was shown in a video shoving and obstructing ICE officers attempting to arrest a woman on immigration charges. Two other individuals (including a Democratic candidate for a school board) were arrested, but not Haxhiaj who claimed that she was merely protecting “a constituent.” After the melee, the city manager issued an order preventing city police from assisting in any way in the carrying out of such civil immigration enforcement efforts by the federal government.

Even judges are claiming the same license. 

In Wisconsin, Judge Hannah Dugan has been charged with obstructing a federal arrest of an illegal immigrant who appeared in her courtroom. Dugan heard about agents waiting outside in the hallway to arrest the man and went outside to confront the agents. She told them to speak to the Chief Judge and that they needed a different warrant.

The agents complied and the Chief Judge confirmed that they could conduct the arrest. In the interim, however, Dugan led the man out a non-public door and facilitated his escape (he was arrested after a chase down a public street).

Judge Duggan also claimed that she was carrying out her duties even though her hearing was over, the charges were not part of state matter, and the arrest was being carried out outside of her courtroom.

As Democratic leaders like Walz engage in rage rhetoric and paint Republicans (and federal law enforcement) as Nazis, political violence across the country. Many of the people burning Teslas and engaging in such crimes claim the same type of license that the ends justify the means. That includes affluent professionals who are now shoplifting from Whole Foods as a “protest” against Jeff Bezos meeting with Trump.

When the Administration sought to investigate those burning Teslas and dealerships, Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) denounced it as a “political weaponization” of the legal system. The comments suggest that such arson is somehow a form of political expression on the left.

House Minority Leader Jeffries was correct that a “red line” was crossed but not the one that he was thinking of in threatening consequences for any charges. The red line is the one separating political expression and criminal conduct.

Border Czar stressed repeatedly to political leaders that they can protest and refuse to help but “you can‘t cross the line” into obstruction and interference with their operations.

If oversight means that members can force their way into any federal facilities, we would have 535 roaming inspectors general who could wander at will through the executive branch.

Rep. McIver would be better to claim a different type of oversight, in allowing her passion to briefly overwhelm her judgment in rushing into the facility.

In the end, however, McIver and Duggan may have a license of a different kind.

Both have an advantage of being charged in liberal districts where they would appear before sympathetic jurors.  They need to just convince a single jury to engage in “jury nullification,” to vote based on the cause, not the crime, in the case.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

President Trump following Monday’s phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United States should have never intervened in Ukraine in the first place.

He blasted his predecessor Joe Biden for sinking boundless billions in arms and aid into Kiev’s coffers and yet it has only been a “death trap” and “real mess” which US decision-makers should have avoided altogether. “This is not my war. We got ourselves entangled in something we shouldn’t have been involved in, and we would have been a lot better off. It’s a real mess. It’s a death trap,” he said before reporters Monday afternoon.

“I do have a certain line, but I don’t want to say what that line is because I think it makes the negotiation even more difficult than it is,” Trump asserted. When pressed, he refrained from divulging what precisely that red line is in the press briefing.

Trump also addressed the ever-present potential for the US to get drawn in deeper, which is why he said this should be Europe’s mess and responsibility, and not the United States’.

“We don’t have boots on the ground, we wouldn’t have boots on the ground. But we do have a big stake. The financial amount that was put up is just crazy,” he added.

“Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. But we got involved – much more than Europe did – because the past administration felt very strongly that we should,” he said. “We gave massive amounts, I think record-setting amounts, both weaponry and money.”

Watch a key segment of the Trump presser:

Reporter: “Do you have a red line of what would cause you to back away?”

Trump: “Yeah, in my head, but not something I’m going to announce…This isn’t our war…We got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in.” pic.twitter.com/tVCZcyfLhj

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) May 19, 2025

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Trump-Putin call, which lasted over two hours, the mainstream media has been slamming the US president as essentially giving Putin a free hand. President Trump had said it went “very well” and that he seems “an imminent end to the war”.

For example, below is The Washington Post’s perspective in a fresh Tuesday report:

A phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shut down an effort to pressure Russia into an immediate ceasefire and instead opened the way for continued fighting while lengthy negotiations take place — much to the consternation of Ukraine and its European allies Tuesday.

Trump’s abandonment of new sanctions on Russian indicated that he may be stepping away from involvement in the talks, something that his team has been flagging for weeks. Trump said Monday that the conditions for a ceasefire could only be agreed by the warring parties “because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”

European leaders say they had originally been planning with U.S. officials to levy new sanctions on Russia if it did not declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

And yet the reality is that the sanctions themselves would certainly escalate the conflict and proxy war further, providing even less of an opportunity for a diplomatic off-ramp, and Trump knows this.

Trump had written just after the call: “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.

Growing impatience on all sides, even among Trump supporters and conservatives, amid fears that the proxy war could just continue endlessly…

Trump continues to pose as a mediator while simultaneously supplying weapons and intelligence to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Q8vzJr7Bbz

— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) May 20, 2025

He wrote on Truth Social, “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of. 

He then emphasized, “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.”

* * * 

Fresh remarks from Rubio on Tuesday, defending the president’s talks with Putin…

Rubio pushes back against claims about the administration’s disengagement, says “I see some of those Foreign Ministers, including individuals from Ukraine, more than i see my own children.”

WATCH!! Rubio argues that Putin “hasn’t gotten a single concession” pic.twitter.com/rMhVwU5SSd

— Alex Raufoglu (@ralakbar) May 20, 2025

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

A recent data breach at crypto exchange Coinbase has raised concerns about user safety after hackers gained access to sensitive information, including home addresses.

Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed that less than 1% of its transacting monthly users were affected in an attack that may cost the exchange up to $400 million in reimbursement expenses, Cointelegraph reported on May 15.

However, the “human cost” of this data breach may be much higher for users, according to Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch and Arrington Capital.

“Very disappointed in Coinbase right now. Using the cheapest option for customer service has its price,” Arrington said in a May 20 X post, adding:

“Something that has to be said though – this hack – which includes home addresses and account balances – will lead to people dying. It probably has already.”

Source: Michael Arrington

While no passwords, private keys or account funds were exposed, cybercriminals reportedly bribed overseas customer service contractors to access internal systems. This allowed them to steal personal data that could be used in social engineering scams or even physical extortion attempts.

With Bitcoin trading above $100,000, crypto wealth has become a growing target for criminals. Experts warn that leaked address data could expose high-net-worth individuals to real-world risks.

On May 16, Cointelegraph reported on six violent robberies that targeted cryptocurrency investors, aiming to extort digital assets via kidnapping or torture.

In a ruthless attack on May 4, the father of a French crypto entrepreneur was abducted in Paris, France. The kidnappers cut the victim’s finger and sent a video to his son, demanding 5 million euros in crypto.

The victim was held for two days before French police were able to find and rescue him. According to CNN, five people were arrested in connection with the kidnapping.

Crypto exchanges need “layered” cybersecurity

To prevent similar user data breaches, crypto exchanges need to adopt a “layered defense strategy,” according to Ronghui Gu, the co-founder of CertiK Web3 security firm.

“This can include privileged access management, zero trust architecture, multifactor authentication across internal systems, and continuous monitoring with behavioral analytics,” Gu told Cointelegraph, adding: 

“Preventive measures such as regular phishing simulations, tailored security training, and restricting third-party access to sensitive systems may help reduce these risks.”

However, crypto platforms will need to “rethink their security posture” as attackers “increasingly target human vulnerabilities rather than technical ones,” added Gu, warning of the rising threat of social engineering schemes.

Incidents and losses in 2024 by month. Source: CertiK

Social engineering schemes, such as phishing scams, were the most significant security threat of 2024, costing the industry over $1 billion across 296 incidents, according to CertiK.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey is playing dumb and innocent after essentially calling for President Trump to be assassinated last week, claiming he had no idea his post would be so controversial.

After Comey posted an image of shells on a beach he arranged to read ‘8647’, meaning get rid of Trump, The Secret Service questioned him, but then let him go without any charges.

Now, in an interview with MSNBC he claims he’s just a silly old fella who wears baggy jeans and sweaters and had no idea what he was doing.

“I don’t know how we ended up here. Never occurred to me that it was any kind of controversial thing, but that’s the time we live in,” Comey told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.

It’s got nothing to do with the time we live in, shit posting an image threatening to kill the President when you’re a deep state lackey is always going to cause outrage.

Comey then claimed that he wasn’t the one who arranged the shells, and they were put there by some other TDS addled leftist.

“We were walking on the beach, we went to the beach to prepare for this week… and we were walking back towards the road and we saw in the sand someone had arranged shells with numbers. And Patrice, my wife, said, ‘why would someone put an address in the sand?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know’ and we stood over and I said, ‘I think it’s some kind of political message.’”

Hurling his own wife under a bus, Comey then added, “She said you know, when I was a server – she did a lot of work in restaurants – 86 meant to remove an item from the menu when you ran out of ingredients. And I said, ‘well to me, as a kid it always meant to leave a place, to ditch a place.’ And she said well that’s very clever you should take a picture of that and I did and posted it on my Instagram and thought nothing more of it until I heard through her that people were saying that it was a call for some sort of assassination which is crazy!”

Pfffffft, SURE.

James Comey addresses his “8647” threat against Trump: “We were walking along the beach and we saw on the sand someone had arranged shells with numbers. I thought 86 meant to ditch a place.”

What a FRAUD! pic.twitter.com/oTt5hQsu2v

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 19, 2025

He added, “I thought, what a clever way to express a political view.”

“The shells were the same color for each of the letters, the different colors for the letters. It took a lot of work. Somebody with artistic flair did that. And I have a hard time believing it was anybody with a a dark intention,” Comey asserted, adding “And it certainly was no dark intention on my part or my spouse’s part.”

JUST IN: James Comey says he’s just a silly old man who wears sweaters and jeans, and was so enamored with the random “clever” shells he “found” on the sand.

Comey also boasted about his tax refund, which earned him $347.

“I was a grandfather and an author wearing sweaters and… pic.twitter.com/xCPoLFRf9p

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 19, 2025

Aw shucks grandpa.

Did the Secret Service really buy this BS?

He thinks he’s effing Mr. Rogers.

— Geezus Man (@GeezusMan) May 20, 2025

He probably hired a crisis management PR firm and there is no telling how many iterations went into that answer and how many times they rehearsed it.

And it’s still laughable.

— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) May 19, 2025

The full thing is here:

Of course, Wallace didn’t bother asking him about this ‘coincidence’:

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

The United Kingdom on Tuesday suspended its free-trade agreement negotiations with Israel over the growing Gaza crisis, and after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed disgust at newly expanded Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, also as famine threats at least 500,000 Palestinians.

Starmer described that he and his French and Canadian counterparts are “horrified” by the Netanyahu government’s escalation in Gaza. This also comes as international headlines and warnings grow more dire. For example Al Jazeera has the following new headline: “Starving Palestinians resort to eating animal feed, flour mixed with sand”.

“We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Starmer told parliament.

A Monday joint statement by the UK, France and Canada had threatened sanctions on Israel. Britain further did slap targeted sanctions on Israeli settler groups and individuals. 

Later on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy voiced agreement with Starmer, saying that Israel’s actions are “morally wrong” and “unjustifiable.” He also said of the fresh sanctions, “I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators.”

In announcing the pause in free-trade agreement negotiations, Lammy further revealed that the Israeli ambassador had been summoned. Britain is reportedly demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

Responding to shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, Lammy told parliament:

I think the whole house should be able to utterly condemn the Israeli government’s denial of food to hungry children. It is wrong. It’s appalling.

Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas. Opposing the displacement of 100,000s of civilians is not rewarding Hamas. On this side of the house, we are crystal clear that what is happening is morally wrong, unjustifiable, and it needs to stop.

Starting Friday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced an expanded mobilization of troops for operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’. Some two million Palestinians are expected to be forced into a “humanitarian zone” while most of the enclave is destroyed and flattened.

The policy somewhat contradicts Trump’s main messaging during last week’s Gulf tour, wherein he emphasized peace through deal-making, and not ‘chaos’ in the war-torn Middle East. 

This is probably the most pressure Israel has come under from its Western allies since Oct.7, 2023. As we previously reported, even Vice President JD Vance abruptly canceled a planned trip to Israel following the Netanyahu government’s declaration that it would ramp up operations to conquer all of Gaza.

Meanwhile the domestic policy fight within Israel has been ramping up too…

Yair Golan, an IDF major general and leader of Israel’s Democrats Party, said Monday that Israel is killing babies as a hobby:

“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations.” pic.twitter.com/NofvIAdNW9

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) May 20, 2025

Axios had written that “The US official said Vance made the decision because he didn’t want his trip to suggest the Trump administration endorsed the Israeli decision to launch a massive operation at a time when the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal.” 

Neither the US nor UK have every fully cut funding or arms transfers to Israel for any reason, and are unlikely to ever escalate to that point, no matter how tense relations become.

When Elon Musk joined the Trump administration with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he set a lofty $2 trillion goal.

Now, four months later, DOGE has cut roughly $170 billion – a figure much lower than projected – in no small part due to activist judges and political pushback which have stopped the Trump administration from eliminating wide swaths of government bloat.

On Tuesday, Musk said it was up to Congress to make it happen. 

“The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice,” Musk said while speaking at an economic forum in Qatar.

“We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can, we can advise, and the progress we’ve made thus far, I think, is incredible,” Musk continued. “Doge team has done incredible work, but the magnitude of the savings is proportionate to the support we get from Congress and from the executive branch of the government in general. So we’re not the dictators we all the advisors. But thus far, for advisors. We’ve been to the George team, to their credit, has made incredible progress.” 

🚨 Elon Musk on DOGE:

“The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice. We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can, we can advise, and the progress we’ve… pic.twitter.com/9RrK2rCxK2

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 20, 2025

h/t @DogeDesigner

As we noted in February, it will be Congress that decides the endgame…

You cut enough spending – even if it’s all grift and fraud – you eventually get a recession, guaranteed.

That’s all Congress is waiting for cause then they use the “emergency” to vote through a far greater spending package (“will someone please think of all the unemployed”) one which eclipses all of DOGE’s spending cuts.

What Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. 

And there things are as status quo as always.

‘Unless I die’

In a humorous exchange, Musk said that he’s still committed to being Tesla CEO in five years’ time – unless he’s dead.

A moderator asked: “Do you see yourself and are you committed to still being the chief executive of Tesla in five years’ time?”

Musk responded: “Yes.”

The moderator pushed further: “No doubt about that at all?”

Musk added, chuckling: “I can’t be still here if I’m dead.”

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on May 19 blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from restructuring the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), replacing its leadership, and assuming control of its office building.

“These unilateral actions were taken without asking Congress to cease or reprogram appropriations or by recommending that Congress enact a new law to dissolve or reduce the institute or transfer its tasks to another entity,” Howell stated in her written opinion.

USIP was established by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,” which receives federal and private funding to promote peace through education and diplomacy.

The matter began with a Feb. 19 Trump executive order declaring USIP “unnecessary,” and calling for the organization’s activities to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

Its board of directors is made up of 13 members: Ten are acting members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The other three are “ex officio” members, meaning they hold their seats because of their placement in the federal government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Vice Admiral Peter A. Garvin, president of the National Defense University, hold these “ex officio” seats.

On March 14, Trent Morse of the Presidential Personnel Office fired USIP’s acting board members by email.

That same day, its president, George Moose, was fired by the ex officio members and replaced with Kenneth Jackson, an official from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took control of USIP’s headquarters on March 17.

On March 18, in the middle of this shake-up, USIP and several of its fired board members sued the government, naming Trump, Jackson, Hegseth, and Rubio as co-defendants.

Howell initially declined to block the administration’s moves on March 19, while the case was pending before the court, because she felt the plaintiffs’ claims would not succeed on the merits.

The board members and USIP president Moose protested against the firings and resisted the takeover of its Washington headquarters, but were unsuccessful.

The administration eventually fired all but a handful of USIP’s staff, cancelled all of its programs.

It transferred control of USIP’s headquarters to the General Services Administration and leased its office space to the Department of Labor.

In her ruling, Howell sought to define USIP’s role in the federal government.

The plaintiffs had argued that USIP is a fully independent entity, and not part of the government, or at the very least, not part of the executive branch.

Its statutes say the board members can only be removed by the president: “In consultation with the board, for conviction of a felony, malfeasance in office, persistent neglect of duties, or inability to discharge duties.”

A board member may also be removed by a vote of eight other board members, or with a majority vote from members of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor, and the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Labor and Human Resources.

The Trump administration had argued that it was part of the executive branch, since it performed diplomatic functions.

Since it is part of the executive branch, federal attorney Brian Hudak argued, Trump was entitled to fire its board despite the statutory limitations.

Judge Howell took a middle-of-the-road view and said that USIP is part of the federal government, but not strictly part of the executive branch.

“Instead, USIP supports both the executive and legislative branches as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services,” she stated.

“Defendants’ subsequent actions that flowed from the improper removal of USIP’s leadership in March 2025 are thus also unlawful,” including the termination of its grant programs and the firing of its staff.

Howell ordered the fired board members and president Moose to be reinstated and may not be fired, except in accordance with USIP’s statutes.

She also declared the transfer of USIP’s headquarters illegal and has blocked the government from “trespassing” on those headquarters or maintaining control of its computer systems.

The FBI on Sunday upped the reward for information leading to the arrests of seven at-large inmates who escaped a New Orleans jail.

Ten inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center on May 16 – breaching a wall behind a toilet and fleeing across an interstate highway at 1 a.m. Three of them, Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, and Dkenan Dennis, were captured, while the remaining seven are still at large.

According to FBI special agent Jonathan Trapp, the FBI has doubled the award from $5,000 per inmate to $10,000 for their whereabouts – noting that the escaped inmates are likely to be receiving assistance from members of the public in order to evade arrest.

The FBI’s award stacks with a $5,000 reward per inmate offered by the ATF, and $2,000 per inmate offered by Crimestoppers.

As the Epoch Times notes further, during the press conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said that he had directed the Department of Corrections (DOC) to audit the Orleans Correctional Facility for compliance with “basic jail guidelines” and to remove all DOC inmates currently held in that facility.

Landry also said that he would issue an executive order directing the state inspector general to obtain an inventory from the sheriff on all pretrial detainees and those awaiting sentences.

The governor specifically cited the case of Derrick Groves, one of the escaped inmates, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in October 2024 and was awaiting sentencing.

Landry said that Groves wouldn’t have been able to escape from the New Orleans jail had he already been sentenced by the court system.

“This massive jailbreak, which my statistics tell me could be the largest jailbreak in the history of the state, should never have happened. The public deserves to know who, what, and how this happened,” he said.

Landry added that Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office will lead the investigation into the incident.

Murrill stated on social media platform X that her office will focus on recovering the escapees, maintaining public safety, and ensuring security and stability at the facility.

Louisiana State Police said in a May 17 update that Myles, who had been charged with attempted second-degree murder, was caught shortly after the breakout on May 16, and two more were captured later that day with the help of tips from the public.

All three have been moved to a secure facility, with one requiring a spit hood during transport after exhibiting hostile behavior, according to Louisiana State Police.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.