Trump encourages denuclearization with Russia and China; “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over” already, it’s unproductive

Important Takeaways:

  • President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.
  • Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the U.S. adversaries to cut their own spending.
  • “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”
  • “We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully much more productive,” Trump said.
  • While the U.S. and Russia hold massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in their capability to exact nuclear devastation “within five or six years.”
  • He said if the weapons were ever called to use, “that’s going to be probably oblivion.”

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Vice President JD Vance calls on Europe to not turn away from democracy in march toward censorship

JD Vance

Important Takeaways:

  • America finds Europe’s retreat from shared values as the continent turns away from democracy and towards censorship “shocking”, Vice President JD Vance told leaders in Germany in a hard-hitting speech.
  • Europe is increasingly acting like the ‘bad guys’ in the Cold War as it turns towards censorship and fails to uphold democracy, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told a stunned hall at Germany’s major annual Munich that despite obsession among the European elite about subversion by Russia and China, actually the greatest threat to the continent is “the threat from within”.
  • In a withering check-list of failures of freedom heard of by Americans coming out of Europe in recent months including an annulled election in Romania, threats of social media crackdowns against “hateful content”, and even Christians arrested for praying in public, Vance said these developments are “shocking to American ears”. He said:
    • For years we’ve been told everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials, threatening to cancel others, we have to ask if we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I fundamentally think we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.
    • Now within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that cancelled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God they lost the Cold War.
  • The old Soviet Union lost the Cold War because they didn’t value the “blessings of liberty”, Vance said, warning you cannot simply “mandate innovation or creativity, just as you can’t force people what to think, what to feel, what to believe”. It is not clear Europe has learned those lessons of the Cold War, he said.
  • Listing the particularly egregious cases of government overreach, Vance reflected: “In Britain and across Europe free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
  • Vance’s speech was not just observation, however, and he also made an “offer” to the audience of experts, stating there is “a new sheriff in town” in the form of Donald Trump, and that he is strongly in favor of freedom of speech. He said, to an almost silent room with only scant applause from a handful: “Just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite and I hope we can work together on that.”
  • The speech, at the Munich Security Conference, made scant reference to the Ukraine War at all, one of the main topics of conversation hoped for by the European defense and security leaders attending the event this weekend. Doubtless this came as a shock to some given the preponderance of the conflict in the minds of attendees, but evidently saving Europe from itself is a high priority for the Trump White House.

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Iran boasts of producing 90% of its own weapons but may be looking for a deal with the US

Important Takeaways:

  • As a result of decades of sanctions and the inability of Iran to acquire many sophisticated platforms such as new aircraft or ships, the country tries to build most of its defense systems at home, with R.-Adm. Habibollah Sayyari saying this week that Tehran produces over 90% of its own defense equipment.
  • The overall goal here is for Iran to be able to build many sophisticated systems, such as air defenses and missiles, at home. However, Tehran has trouble building advanced warships as well as tanks and warplanes.
  • Iran’s investment in indigenous technology may only go so far. The country now has to decide if it will continue to invest in its nuclear program and weaponization of it. If the country does go down that road, it could lead to a regional crisis.
  • However, the regime is hinting it may want a deal with the new US administration of President Donald Trump. If that happens, then Tehran can move money from its defense investments to other sectors.

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Ukraine-Russia conflict could come to an end: Zelensky says Trump is key

Important Takeaways:

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will only agree to meet in person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after a common plan is negotiated with U.S. President Trump.
  • Zelenskyy also said he believes Trump is the key to ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and said the U.S president gave him his telephone number before Friday’s opening of the Munich Security Conference.

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Rumbling’s from Mount Spurr with 2,700 earthquakes

Mount-Spurr

Important Takeaways:

  • Mount Spurr, which sits about 75 miles west of Anchorage, has seen “volcanic unrest” for the last 10 months, including an increasing number of earthquakes, according to a Feb. 6 statement from the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
  • The unrest suggests “that an eruption is possible,” officials said.
  • Since April, the number of earthquakes under the volcano has increased from 30 a week on average to 125 a week, officials said. The observatory “has located over 2,700 earthquakes during the unrest episode thus far,” according to officials, who said the largest of them was a magnitude 2.9 quake on Jan. 2.
  • “Based on all available monitoring data,” the observatory views the chance of no eruption versus one similar to those in 1953 and 1992 as equal, officials said.
  • Officials said they’d “expect to see additional seismic activity, gas emissions, and surface heating, as well as changes to surface deformation prior to an eruption, if one were to occur. Such stronger unrest may provide days to a few weeks of additional warning, but that is not certain.”

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Tech race in AI development to “unlock historic innovation and extend American technology leadership”

Important Takeaways:

  • Megacap technology companies funneled billions of dollars into artificial intelligence last year to try and keep up with unfettered demand. The hype isn’t dying down in 2025.
  • Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft intend to spend as much as $320 billion combined on AI technologies and datacenter buildouts in 2025, based on comments from their CEOs early this year and throughout earnings calls in the past two weeks.
  • That’s up from $230 billion in total capital expenditures in 2024.
  • The recent rise of China’s DeepSeek sent a shockwave through the sector, with estimates suggesting the open-source tool cost a fraction of some U.S.-based competitors to create.
  • Those fears spurred a market selloff last week, pushing shares of AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom down by a combined $800 billion in a single day. That development forced U.S. tech CEOs to field questions over their hefty spending plans and whether it’s all necessary.
  • The answer, so far, is that they’re not slowing down.
  • Amazon offered the most ambitious spending initiative among the four, aiming to shell out over $100 billion, up from $83 billion in 2024…
  • Last month, Microsoft said it would allocate $80 billion in the 2025 fiscal year to create AI workloads data centers.
  • Alphabet is targeting $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, with $16 billion to $18 billion expected in the first quarter…the majority of spending would go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.”
  • Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg set his company’s AI capex budget at $60 billion to $65 billion in January, calling 2025 a “defining year for AI.”… he said the move would help “unlock historic innovation and extend American technology leadership.”

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Michael Snyder: The truth about Deindustrialization of America

Important Takeaways:

  • The United States is rapidly becoming a “post-industrial” nation. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers left them, but the pace at which America is doing this is absolutely breathtaking…
  • Throughout history, every great nation has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace, how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation?
  • #1 According to Google AI, our nation has lost almost 70,000 factories since the year 2000…
    • The United States has lost nearly 70,000 factories since 2000. This is part of a larger decline in the US manufacturing sector that has also resulted in the loss of over 5 million jobs.
  • #2 In July 1979, 19.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today, only 12.8 million Americans have manufacturing jobs even though our population is much larger than it was in 1979.
  • #3 According to a survey that was recently conducted by the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. has lot more than it has gained from free trade.
  • #4 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. At the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, manufacturing represented only 11.5 percent of all U.S. economic output.  Today, manufacturing represents just 10.3 percent of all U.S. economic output.
  • #5 More than a billion cellphones are sold worldwide each year. Only a few thousand of them are actually manufactured in the United States.
  • #6 The size of our trade deficit with China in 2024 was $295,000,000,000.
  • #7 At this point, China produces approximately 4 times as many vehicles each year than the United States does.
  • #8 In the early days of the industry, 100 percent of all semiconductors were manufactured in the United States. Today, that number is down to just 8 percent.
  • #9 Russia is producing three times as many artillery shells as the U.S. and Europe combined.
  • #10 The United States spends approximately $3.00 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.
  • #11 Our stores are absolutely overflowing with products that are made in China. Meanwhile, soybeans are the number one export from the U.S. to China.
  • #12 More than 36 million Americans are now living in poverty, homelessness in the U.S. is at an all-time record high, and demand at food banks in the U.S. is at record levels all over the nation.
  • How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave this country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?
  • How many once great manufacturing cities like Gary, Indiana and Youngstown, Ohio are going to become rotting, decaying hellholes before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?
  • The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

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Recently Confirmed Tulsi Gabbard will be next DNI in 52-48 vote

Important Takeaways:

  • The former Democrat Hawaii congresswoman received a 52-48 vote, with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) joining Democrats against her.
  • Shortly before the final vote, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he was “proud” to say that every single Democrat would vote against her, claiming she “echoes Russian propaganda.”
  • In a February 3 opinion piece in Newsweek, Gabbard listed her four day-one priorities:
    • First, to assess the global threat environment and identify where gaps in our intelligence exist, integrating intelligence elements, increasing information-sharing, and ensuring unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis is provided to support President Trump and policymakers’ decision-making.
    • Second, I will deliver on President Trump’s commitment to the American people to end the politicization of the IC and provide focus to the IC’s essential mission, which is securing our nation.
    • Third, I will rebuild trust in the intelligence community through transparency and accountability.
    • Finally, I will assess and address efficiency, redundancy, and effectiveness across ODNI.

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RFK Jr. confirmed to lead Health and Human Services ‘focus on healthy lifestyles instead of miracle drugs’

Important Takeaways:

  • The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, sweeping aside concerns about his past vaccine skepticism to let him “go wild” on health under President Trump.
  • The 52-48 vote capped a run of success for Mr. Trump’s most polarizing nominees and placed the heir of a Democratic political family in a vital job within a Republican administration.
  • Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who had polio as a child, voted no alongside all Democrats.
  • HHS is a sprawling agency with a $1.7 trillion budget and oversight of food and drugs, disease-fighting efforts and major insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
  • Kennedy built his career as an environmental lawyer, activist and chairman of the anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense, making him an unusual pick after a run of HHS secretaries who included former congressmen and a pharmaceutical executive.
  • He has vowed to end the cozy relationship between drug companies and U.S. officials who regulate them while he combats additives in the food supply and finds the root causes of disease.
  • Based on his pledges, one of Mr. Kennedy’s first moves could be to fire legions of workers from HHS agencies or to eliminate entire offices from the Food and Drug Administration. He also proposes shifting resources away from infectious disease-fighting and toward research that promotes general health.

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Munich Germany: Afghan migrant plows cars through crowd injuring at least 28

Important Takeaways:

  • The 24-year-old suspect, who had only recently had his asylum application rejected, was taken into custody moments after he drove a Mini Cooper into the crowd of people just after 10:30 a.m., officials said.
  • “It is suspected that this was an attack – a lot points to that,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder said at the scene.
  • At least 28 people, including some children, were injured in the ordeal — some of them seriously, authorities said.
  • The suspect, who hasn’t been identified, was known to local cops over theft and drug offenses, according to Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann.
  • Authorities are still probing a motive but officials said early indications suggest the protest was likely targeted at random.
  • The incident happened in the area of the roads Dachauer Straße and Seidlstraße where roughly 1,000 city trade union workers were rallying for pay increases, higher bonuses and three additional days off.

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