Trump regime update

Washington Post - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday called Ukraine’s desire to recover all of the territory it has lost to Russia since 2014 an “unrealistic objective,” pledging that the Trump administration will pursue peace negotiations to end the two nations’ war while pointedly shaping them at the outset. 

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more pain and suffering,” Hegseth said. Any peace deal, Hegseth added, must come with “robust security guarantees,” international oversight of the boundary between Russian and Ukrainian forces, and no NATO membership for Ukraine — something that would require other countries to defend Ukrainian territory in any future conflict. 

The Guardian -  Donald Trump’s executive order attacking transgender youth healthcare has unleashed chaos inside medical institutions across the country, with providers forced to cancel vital treatment and facing threats to their careers and clinics as they fight to serve their patients.The president’s 28 January policy declared federal funding should be revoked from centers that provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to youth under the age of 19. While the majority of trans healthcare providers have maintained services, institutions in New York, Colorado, Virginia, California and Washington DC announced immediate pauses on youth treatment.  Q&A on this issue

NBC News -   A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's bid to pause a lower court's order that temporarily halted a massive freeze in federal funding. A judge in Rhode Island on Monday blocked the funding freeze and ordered the administration to “immediately restore frozen funding.” An appeals court based in Boston denied the Justice Department's request to pause the judge's order while it challenges the order in court.

Huffington Post - Federal courts and judges have repeatedly ordered that any evidence or exhibits tied to Jan. 6 cases be placed in an online portal. But some of those records have “disappeared” over the last week, according to a motion filed Tuesday in federal court.

At its peak, the portal contained tens of thousands of records including videos, images, testimony, audio recordings, text messages and more.

The Press Coalition, a group of 14 media organizations, first sought to secure all Jan. 6 trial records in 2021, resulting in a standing order for the Justice Department to preserve video exhibits from the attack on the U.S. Capitol in a portal known as USAfx. Journalists and lawyers alike can access the portal once the government grants them authorization.

But this week, the Press Coalition said video exhibits entered for at least one Capitol riot defendant, Glen Mitchell Simon, are missing. When the group asked the Justice Department about it, the department “offered no explanation for why these judicial records are no longer publicly accessible or whether any other Capitol riot records that were previously available on USAfx have disappeared as well,” according to the lawsuit.

NBC News - The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence, after the former Democratic congresswoman overcame skepticism from some GOP senators. The vote fell largely along party lines, with Sen. Mitch McConnell as the lone Republican to oppose Gabbard. 

Axios -  The United States was perceived as the most corrupt it's been since 2012 in a watchdog group's annual index of nations around the globe. The U.S. received its lowest ever Corruption Perceptions Index score since Transparency International's current scale was established in 2012, according to the group's annual global ranking of public sector corruption across 180 countries released Tuesday.

• The U.S. was one of 47 countries that received its lowest score yet — effectively, its most corrupt point.
• The U.S. has not cracked the top 20 "cleanest" countries, based on corruption perception score, since 2017.

NPR -    The General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate and contracts, plans to cut its budget in half. Staffers have been told to expect deep job cuts and office closures, according to two GSA officials informed of the plans by agency leadership. The remaining employees have been told they'll be closely watched while they're on the clock.

NPR's Jenna McLaughlin compares the GSA to the federal government's circulatory system. "Without GSA, federal agencies would have a really hard time doing things like buying anything or accomplishing their missions," she says. McLaughlin adds that one of the most disturbing things sources were told was that employees would have keylogger software installed on their computers to track everything they type. 

Washington Post - A judge ordered the CDC and FDA to restore websites that were removed. Several pages, on topics including HIV, were taken down to ensure they complied with Trump’s order on gender. Last night, staff were working to bring them back.