March 19, 2026

Month: February 2026

2025-07-23T234127Z_1209100761_RC2MSFAF6L25_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-EPSTEIN-1753373781
6 min read

Trump administration news: Maxwell can clear president’s name in exchange for clemency, attorney says

Hazel Oliva February 9, 2026

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What we’re covering

• Epstein files: Ghislaine Maxwell, jailed for 20 years for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to abuse minors, sent a clear message to Donald Trump today that if the president were to grant her clemency, she would clear his name of any wrongdoing as it pertains to Epstein. Separately, members of Congress can review unredacted versions of the Epstein files at the Department of Justice today.

• DHS funding: Lawmakers are returning to Washington with just days to find a funding solution on the Department of Homeland Security or see an agency shutdown. Democrats are demanding reforms to federal immigration enforcement.

• Super Bowl reaction: Trump — who skipped the Super Bowl and attended a watch party in Florida — called last night’s Bad Bunny’s halftime performance “a slap in the face” and claimed “nobody understands a word” said by the Puerto Rican music star.AllCatch upEpstein files

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DHS negotiations remain stuck on Capitol Hill

The deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security is Friday at midnight, but Republican and Democratic negotiators have yet to make significant progress, sources tell Xenix News

The lack of serious progress over the weekend raises the stakes that funding for the department could lapse in just a matter of days as Democrats have sought to make major reforms to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection practices as part of these talks.

Democrats sent some legislative text to Republicans over the weekend that crystalized their list of demands, a source briefed on the matter told Xenix News. Yet, there hasn’t been a sustained back-and-forth. One source characterized it as a car stuck in neutral but sort of rolling down a hill – so not totally stalled out.

Last week, Democrats and Republicans were engaged in a public fight over who was stalling the talks, a sign that the negotiations aren’t yet at a serious point.

It’s possible that Senate Majority Leader John Thune may need to begin the process of filing cloture on another short-term funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, but again, it’s not clear that Democrats would back that plan barring significant progress on Republicans meeting their demands on ICE reforms.Read more

Catch up on the latest on the Epstein files, including Ghislaine Maxwell’s reaction to House deposition

This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein on March 28, 2017.

This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein on March 28, 2017. New York State Sex Offender Registry/AP/File

The fallout from the release by the Department of Justice of millions of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued unabated today, here and abroad.

His jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell invoked the Fifth Amendment during a virtual deposition as her attorney made an extraordinary overture. She is currently serving time at a minimum security prison in Bryan, Texas.

If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest:

Maxwell deposition:

  • House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer called the Maxwell’s decision to invoke the Fifth “very disappointing” and said lawmakers “had many questions to ask about the crime she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspiracy.”
  • Maxwell sent a clear message to Donald Trump: If the president were to grant her clemency, she would clear his name of any wrongdoing as it pertains to Epstein. The extraordinary overture came via a statement from Maxwell’s lawyer.
  • Epstein survivors urged members of the House Oversight Committee to treat Maxwell “with the utmost skepticism, to rigorously scrutinize any claims she makes,” according to a letter entered into evidence during the deposition.

International fallout:

  • British police are assessing a report that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly shared confidential reports with Epstein during the former prince’s role as UK trade envoy. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over his ties to Epstein. He has not publicly responded to the latest allegations.
  • Separately, the Prince and Princess of Wales said they were “deeply concerned” by revelations from the Epstein files, a spokesperson told journalists in Riyadh ahead of Prince William’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
  • In Norway, former ambassador Mona Juul has been charged with “gross corruption” due to her relationship Epstein, Norway’s crime agency Økokrim said. Her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, was also charged with complicity in gross corruption.

Prince and Princess of Wales “concerned” over Epstein revelations

Vance hails US-Armenia partnership in first ever vice presidential visit

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomes US Vice President JD Vance at the President's Residence, in Yerevan, on Monday.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomes US Vice President JD Vance at the President’s Residence, in Yerevan, on Monday. Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance on Monday became the first sitting US vice president (or president) to visit Armenia, where he touted partnerships between the two nations — including US drone technology sales and a civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

“Tonight marks a new beginning for Armenia and the United States and the partnership that our country can have together,” Vance said, standing beside Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whom he endorsed ahead of upcoming elections.

Vance credited President Donald Trump and Pashinyan for advancing a forward-looking vision for peace in the region. Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House in August, where they finalized a peace agreement that would grant the US exclusive development access to a critical transit corridor in the South Caucasus.

Vance praised that Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, saying it’ll ensure “private capital is going to flow into building railroads, into building pipelines, again, to building the interconnectedness that would create real prosperity for the region, but also allow the peace agreement to stick.”

Pashinyan, for his part, said he hopes Trump will win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2026 and discussed his role on the Board of Peace, confirming he plans to attend an upcoming meeting.Read more

Maxwell can clear Trump’s name in Epstein probe in exchange for clemency, attorney says

House Oversight Chairman James Comer arrives to speak to reporters after Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition on Capitol Hill Monday.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer arrives to speak to reporters after Ghislaine Maxwell’s deposition on Capitol Hill Monday. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to prison for 20 years for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to abuse minors, sent a clear message to Donald Trump on Monday that if the president were to grant her clemency, she would clear his name of any wrongdoing as it pertains to Epstein.

The extraordinary overture, stated by Maxwell’s lawyer Monday morning during her virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee, ensures the Epstein saga will continue to remain a political hotspot.

“Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump,” attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement during the deposition, which he later posted on X. “Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters. For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Markus also said that: “Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”

Trump has not ruled out the possibility of offering Maxwell a pardon or commutation.

Trump and Clinton, who appear throughout the files released by DOJ, have denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.

House Oversight Chair James Comer called Maxwell’s decision to plead the Fifth “very disappointing” and said lawmakers “had many questions to ask about the crime she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspiracy.”

Democrats on the committee accused Maxwell of trying to buy her clemency by refusing to testify. “We will not allow this silence to stand,” Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury said.

When asked if he would subpoena Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of the probe, Comer said he was going to focus on five depositions he has coming up.

The Clintons are expected to appear behind closed doors later this month for depositions.

5 min read

A stunned Europe finally wakes up to Trump’s Greenland threat

Hazel Oliva February 8, 2026

A woman waves a Greenlandic flag as people attend a protest against US President Donald Trump’s demand to annex the Arctic island in Nuuk on January 17, 2026. Marko Djurica/Reuters

It’s not often that Europe speaks with one voice – or responds with such urgency.

But US President Donald Trump’s announcement Saturday of sanctions against several European countries that reject any US claim to Greenland, a Danish territory, was one of those moments.

An emergency meeting of EU ambassadors will take place in Brussels on Sunday in response to Trump’s threat, which he made after an estimate quarter of the population of Greenland’s capital Nuuk joined protests against any potential annexation.

Across the continent, among allies that usually tread carefully in responding to utterances from the White House, the response was immediate and emphatic, and recognized an existential threat to the transatlantic alliance.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has tried to cultivate a good personal relationship with Trump, led the charge – describing the threat of tariffs as “unacceptable.”

“No intimidation or threat will influence us – neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations,” he said on X.

“Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has tried to cultivate a good personal relationship with Trump, described the threat of tariffs as “unacceptable.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has tried to cultivate a good personal relationship with Trump, described the threat of tariffs as “unacceptable.” Philippe Magoni/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer chimed in, saying in a statement that “applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong.”

Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has typically had positive relations with the US President, described the move as an “error” in a handout video from a state visit to South Korea.

Revealing she had already had a phone conversation with Trump, Meloni said she “doesn’t agree” with the idea of imposing tariffs against countries that contribute to Greenland’s security.

Eight European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France, issued a joint statement Sunday saying that, “tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. We will continue to stand united and coordinated in our response.”

Trump, in a lengthy social media post Saturday, said the United States needed possession of Greenland to counter Chinese and Russian threats in the Arctic and develop what he has called the Golden Dome to protect North America from ballistic missiles.

Experts say that the US does not need to own Greenland for the Dome to be effective, thanks to a 1951 agreement that gives the US the right to build defense facilities on the island.

US Vice President JD Vance, and second lady Usha Vance stand with Col. Susan Meyers, commander of the US military's Pituffik Space Base, as they tour the base.

US Vice President JD Vance, and second lady Usha Vance stand with Col. Susan Meyers, commander of the US military’s Pituffik Space Base, as they tour the base. Jim Watson/Getty Images

The Pituffik Space Base, which US Vice President JD Vance visited last March, is focused on missile warning, space surveillance, and satellite command and control missions.

European politicians said Trump’s unilateralism over Greenland, and his treatment of long-standing allies, was playing into Moscow and Beijing’s hands.

“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took a similar line. In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, he said any military action ‍by the U.S. against Denmark’s vast Arctic ‌island would damage NATO and delight Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It would make Putin “the happiest man in the world. Why? Because it would legitimize his attempted invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

“If the United States were to use force, it would be the death knell for NATO. Putin would be doubly happy,” Sanchez warned.

“The measures against NATO allies announced today will not help in ensuring security in the Arctic,” said the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola on X. “They risk the opposite, emboldening our joint enemies and those who wish to destroy our common values and way of life.”

One casualty of the tariff threat may be the US-EU trade deal agreed last year, which the European Parliament was set to debate this week. The leader of the largest group in the assembly, Manfred Weber, said on X that “given Donald Trump’s threats regarding Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage.”

Pituffik Space Bas pictured in northern Greenland.

Pituffik Space Bas pictured in northern Greenland. Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images

There have been plenty of occasions during both Trump administrations that European governments have reeled in shock at the rhetoric from the White House and then embarked on careful damage limitation.

But many Europeans recognize in the second Trump administration a far more strident tone, beginning when Vance excoriated Europe as woke, soft on immigration and anti-democratic in a speech at the Munich Security Conference last February.

Trump’s National Security Strategy in November doubled down on the scorn. “It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies” two decades from now, it said.

The document sneered at what it called the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” in Europe, claiming “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

And earlier this month, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “We live in a world, in the real world… that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”

https://ix.cnn.io/dailygraphics/graphics/20260106-greenland-globe/index.html?initialWidth=888&childId=cms.cnn.com/_components/graphic/instances/cmkjpabtz00033b6pfcnq5n1z@published&parentTitle=Greenland%3A%20A%20stunned%20Europe%20finally%20wakes%20up%20to%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20threat%20to%20annex%20the%20island%20%7C%20CNN&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F2026%2F01%2F18%2Feurope%2Feurope-greenland-threat-tariffs-analysis-intl

“For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States,” Miller added.

Essentially, in this White House, a strong transatlantic relationship is no longer thought critical to US national security or its dominance of the Western hemisphere.

But strong words from the capitals of Europe are just that: The challenge is to build greater self-reliance in defense and security, a process that takes decades rather than months.

In the meantime, some may recall then UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s exasperation over the planning for D-Day, the operation that would liberate Western Europe from Nazi Germany.

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them,” Churchill said later.

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2 min read

Gaza-Egypt border reopens nearly two years after Israel closed it, official says

Hazel Oliva February 2, 2026

Ambulances wait in line at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday. AFP/Getty ImagesJerusalem — 

Gaza’s only border crossing with Egypt reopened partially on Monday morning after Israel closed it nearly two years ago, according to an Israeli security official, allowing a small number of Palestinians to enter and leave the war-torn enclave.

The European Union is operating the Rafah crossing as the final step of the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza that went into effect in mid-October.

The crucial crossing, which has been largely closed since Israel seized it in May 2024, underwent a series of preparations on Sunday from the European Union, Egypt and other parties that will be involved in running the border crossing.

During the first few days of operation, only 50 people per day will be allowed to cross both ways, Egypt’s state-affiliates AlQahera News reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source.

Xenix News previously reported that a total of 150 Palestinians would be allowed to leave Gaza through the crossing each day, but only 50 would be allowed to enter.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, Ibrahim Al-Batran packed his bag on Sunday when he heard the crossing would open. A kidney dialysis patient, he said the hospital can only provide minimal care.

“Many people have died while waiting for treatment, and I may die today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow while I’m waiting for treatment,” he told CNN. “Until now, not a single patient has been allowed to leave.”

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 20,000 patients in Gaza are awaiting permission to travel abroad for treatment, including at least 440 cases that are considered life-threatening. Nearly 1,300 people have died after being forced to wait to leave Gaza for treatment, the ministry said.

The steep price of passing through the crossing coupled with lengthy bureaucratic and security processes mean few Palestinians can realistically expect to leave. Before Israel shut the crossing, some Palestinians had reported paying thousands of dollars when it was open, which few can afford.

The full reopening of the Rafah crossing was part of the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement that went into effect in mid-October. But Israel refused to open the crossing until the return of all living and deceased hostages. The final deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, was returned to Israel last week.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the opening would be “limited” with no passage of humanitarian aid or commercial goods.

The return of Gvili and the reopening of Rafah brings to a conclusion the first phase of the 20-point ceasefire agreement. The US announced the start of the second phase of the agreement two weeks ago when President Donald Trump officially launched his Board of Peace in Davos.

During the event, Ali Shaath, who leads the Palestinian technocratic committee expected to run Gaza, said the crossing would reopen, calling it “a lifeline and symbol of opportunity.”

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