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The extractor’s part-rusting mechanical arm winds out over the frozen ground, over a sprawling lunar landscape of unnatural colors. The mining of titanium has a greater urgency than ever, here in Irshansk.

The electricity that powers the vast machines is only sometimes on for three hours a day. But resources like titanium are potentially key to the moonshot rare earth minerals deal that is suddenly the focus of talking peace in Ukraine. The deal’s signatories, the United States and Ukraine, appear to have opposing interpretations of its terms, which leave many thorny details for a later discussion.

Some current and former US officials have cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s claim that the potential deal he is on the verge of signing with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would offer the US easy access to a plethora of rare earth minerals.

Much of what does exist will be difficult to exploit, particularly at a time of war.

And from this beleaguered mine in the northwestern town of Irshansk, it is hard to see how Ukraine could, in this lifetime, get to the half a trillion dollars Trump has suggested they might repay.

“Now we don’t know what and how our work will go on even tomorrow”, said Dmytro Holik, director of mining and concentrating plant at Ukrainian conglomerate Group DF.

“Every day we see how Ukraine’s energy system is being destroyed. Every day, entire regions are cut off in an emergency,” he added, a reference to the waves of drones and missiles Russia pounds Ukrainian homes and energy infrastructure with each night.

The plant’s staff are mostly men, kept away from conscription as titanium is considered a critical industry. Profits are low, prospects dim. “Our enterprise is now very unstable, and this leads to a very high cost of our products,” Holik said.

The proposed minerals bonanza now at the heart of continued US aid to Ukraine in the largest war in Europe since the 1940s, seems to speak to a fantastical future world of prosperity.

Trump on Thursday held out the possibility of American personnel in Ukraine working to extract minerals once a mineral resources deal – and peace – was in effect.

“When you talk about economic development, we’re going to have a lot of people over there,” he said. “So we’ll be working in the country. So I just don’t think you’re going to have a problem.”

Opaque deal

It refers to half the value of “relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets,” but says the specific details will be “agreed by both Participants, as may be further described in the Fund Agreement.” The deal goes on to say these won’t include “current sources of revenues… already part of the budget revenues of Ukraine.”

The extent of Ukraine’s mineral wealth is unclear.

Ukrainian officials accept they sometimes rely on Soviet-era geological dating. Yet in a recent presentation by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Kyiv claimed 7% of the world’s titanium production, and to have 3% of the lithium reserves – which have not been mined yet. It also said Ukraine was in the top five nations of graphite reserves, and had deposits of the rare earth minerals tantalum, niobium and beryllium.

The numbers resemble those in the Ukraine chapter of the US Geological Survey’s 2020-2021 Minerals Yearbook, written before Russia’s full-scale invasion disrupted production. The USGS said at the time that Ukraine was the fifth-ranked producer of titanium sponge, and the sixth largest producer of graphite.

A USGS mineral commodity summary for 2025 had no figure for graphite reserves, and said, among other observations, that Ukraine was a source of the rare earth metal scandium and had shuttered a 1.7 million-ton a year alumina refinery since 2022.

Natalia Bariatska, a doctor of geology and member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, said critical raw materials were all at different stages of research and exploration.

“It is very difficult to talk about the actual value of these deposits,” Bariatska said. “We can speak about the value of the elements in the subsoil, but we have to understand it takes a lot of investment to extract, process and sell them.”

While the framework deal leaves it unclear what assets will be impacted by any future fund, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made an explicit reference during a White House briefing on February 20 to one Ukrainian “aluminum foundry.”

“It’s been damaged, it is not at its current capacity, if restored it would account for America’s entire imports of aluminum for an entire year,” Waltz said.

Waltz did not name the foundry, and the White House did not respond to a request for clarification at the time of publication. But the most likely facility he was referring to is the Zaporizhzhia industrial aluminum integrated plant.

Mothballed a decade ago, a video of the plant released by Ukrainian investigators in 2015 shows it in significant disrepair. It is since running on a much-reduced staff, and has been hit by a missile, according to a filing with the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

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Réunion island issued its highest level of threat warning as the French Indian Ocean territory braced for a direct hit by a cyclone packing gusts likely to exceed 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour).

The heart of Tropical Cyclone Garance – with strength the equivalent of a Category 3 Atlantic hurricane – is “very likely” to directly impact the western portion of the mountainous island on Friday morning local time, France’s meteorology agency said.

“On the rest of the island, cyclonic conditions are becoming widespread with gusts of over 150 kph (93 mph) and rapid variations in both direction and strength depending on the sector,” according to Météo-France.

Garance is expected to be the strongest storm to impact the territory of just under 900,000 people since Cyclone Bejisa in January 2014.

Authorities on the island issued a purple cyclone warning, their highest level, as winds are expected across much of the territory, likely knocking down power lines and destroying property.

Rainfall exceeding 200 millimeters (7.8 inches) is also likely to impact much of the island, which could lead to flash flooding.

Réunion lies about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the southeast of Mayotte, another French territory off the east coast of Africa, which suffered destruction likened to an atomic bomb after Cyclone Chido ripped through the archipelago in December, flattening entire neighborhoods and killing at least 31 people.

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron came under heavy fire for its handling of the cyclone – the strongest storm to hit the area in more than 90 years.

Macron faced jeers from locals as he visited the poverty-stricken territory in the storm’s aftermath, but told them they should be “happy to be in France, because if it wasn’t France you’d be 10,000 times even more in the s***.”

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South Korean police said Friday they are summoning a Japanese woman for questioning over allegedly kissing Jin, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, without consent during a free hug event last year.

A police officer who answered the phone at Seoul’s Songpa police station said it requested the woman to appear for questioning over an allegation of sexual harassment. The police station refused to disclose her identity citing privacy.

The station said it had launched an investigation after receiving an online complaint and refused to provide further details because an investigation was under way.

Media reports said that South Korean police were able to confirm the identity of the woman with the help of Japanese police. The reports said the woman, who is in her 50s, was refusing to appear for questioning.

A day after finishing his mandatory 18-month military service in June 2024, Jin, whose real name is Kim Seok-jin, celebrated his discharge and the band’s 11-year anniversary by offering free hugs to his fans at an event in Seoul. During the event, reportedly attended by 1,000 people, a woman abruptly kissed Jin, on his cheek. Video footage that went viral showed Jin apparently looking uncomfortable.

The woman wrote in an online blog post that “My lips touched his neck. His skin was so soft,” according to Yonhap news agency.

BTS was created in 2013 and has a legion of global supporters who call themselves the “Army.” Jin, 32, is the oldest member of the band.

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A blast at an Islamic seminary known for training Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has injured several people, including the chief of the religious school, police said on Friday.

The seminary is located in the Nowshera area of the province, they said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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House Republican leaders were preparing for defeat Tuesday night when they were forced to call off a vote on a resolution intended to serve as a framework for a massive bill to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Minutes later, however, a stunning about-face brought lawmakers sprinting back to the nearly empty House chamber. GOP leaders celebrated a narrow victory soon afterward, with the resolution being adopted in a 217-to-215 vote, with just one Republican voting against it.

It was a stark departure from the situation hours earlier when several GOP lawmakers – Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. – all signaled that they would oppose the bill.

Several people who have spoken with Fox News Digital in the days since then have credited Trump with getting the bill across the line. Trump had lengthy phone calls with both Burchett and Spartz on Tuesday, Fox News Digital was told.

‘He answered my questions,’ Burchett told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. ‘He’s very persuasive.’

One person who is familiar with the discussions told Fox News Digital that Trump had spoken with Burchett for 15 or 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon and that the discussion was cordial.

Later, Spartz could be seen on the phone in the House Chamber during an earlier, unrelated vote.

Another source who spoke with Fox News Digital said that Spartz had asked to speak to Trump before she could support the bill and wound up having two calls with him.

Spartz declined to tell reporters how many times she had spoken with Trump and denied a Puck News report that the president had screamed at her over the phone.

‘It’s a complete lie,’ Spartz said.

A third source credited House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., with helping to get Spartz over the line as well.

‘Things got very emotional’ on the House floor as leaders focused their efforts on Spartz for roughly an hour, the source said.

‘Tom was really able to reassure Victoria that everything was OK. People weren’t mad at her. He just knows what to say,’ the source said.

But the earlier, unrelated vote had been held open for 45 minutes past its 15-minute window, and lawmakers were getting testy at being kept in limbo. A vote that was meant to be third in the series was second instead and had also wrapped up.

Meanwhile, three Democrats who had been absent earlier in the day returned in dramatic fashion – Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., with her newborn infant, Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., using a walker just after knee surgery, and Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who had returned for the earlier votes – until Republicans saw they could only lose one GOP lawmaker and still pass the bill.

But Spartz had been convinced. Just after the vote was called off, she told House Republican leaders she would support the resolution if it were to come up for a vote the next day.

Instead of delaying the vote for another day, however, GOP leaders made a split-second-play call to rush lawmakers back to the House floor.

It angered Democratic leaders, who sent a message to their own caucus: ‘House Republicans are trying to jam through their Budget Resolution after assuring House Democrats that there would be no further votes this evening.’

Ten minutes later, the vote was back on, and lawmakers on both sides were rushing back to the House Chamber.

Burchett voted for the bill, and Spartz followed suit. Davidson, who also voted yes, said he had done so because he had gotten assurances from House GOP leaders about the March 14 government-funding deadline.

‘I voted ultimately . . . once I received the assurances I need that there would be actual cuts to discretionary spending. And, you know, everything about this is avoided,’ Davidson told reporters.

But a GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital credited Trump with rescuing the bill due to his persuasion of Burchett and Spartz.

When reached for comment, a White House official told Fox News Digital that the resolution had been on life support until Trump saved it.

‘As a master dealmaker, President Trump is always active in negotiations on Capitol Hill, and the budget bill was on life support until President Trump urged Members of Congress to pass it,’ the White House official said. ‘The House and Senate must ensure that the final product encompasses all of the president’s priorities, but the budget passed this week was an extremely positive step towards one big, beautiful bill that puts America First.’

A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., referred Fox News Digital to his comments after the vote: ‘This is the first important step in opening up the reconciliation process. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda. We’re going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it. And this is the first step in that process.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Spartz’s office but did not receive comment by filing deadline.

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: Deterring China is a top priority in Congress for the House’s number four Republican. 

Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, GOP conference chairwoman, is putting forth legislation that would expose the assets of top CCP officials and bar them from using U.S. banking systems if China chooses to invade Taiwan.

Her bill would require the Treasury secretary to unleash details about illegal assets held by Chinese officials and ‘expose all the players’ to show where their money is coming from to the public. 

The U.S. has for decades operated under a deliberately vague ‘One China’ policy that supports Taiwan with military aid but refuses to say whether America would defend Taiwan if China were to invade. 

‘This is deterrence. The U.S. can’t risk an invasion of Taiwan that would interrupt our critical supply chains,’ McClain, a member of the Financial Services Committee, told Fox News Digital. ‘We need to keep the pressure up, we need to remember that China is not our friend.’ 

McClain’s legislation dropped just as President Donald Trump announced another 10% in tariffs he intends to place on Chinese goods – the latest shot in an escalating trade war. Canada and Mexico will also face another 10% in tariffs.

The president imposed minimum 10% tariffs on Chinese imports last month. He had also proposed 25% tariffs for Mexico and Canada, but those were delayed amid promises that the two countries would do more to step up border enforcement. However, Trump said Thursday the nations were still not doing enough to combat drug trafficking. 

‘Drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels. A large percentage of these drugs, much of them in the form of fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China,’ Trump said. 

READ THE BILL BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

China, meanwhile, has warned the U.S. there are ‘no winners’ in a trade war and insisted it has been aggressively targeting fentanyl as a favor to the U.S. 

‘Out of kindness and sympathy to U.S. people and the responsibility as a big country, although fentanyl is not a problem in China, China has put into a lot of human, material and financial resources to assist U.S. to address the fentanyl crisis. It is fair to say that China is genuine and unselfish in this respect,’ Yang Pang, second secretary for fentanyl and law enforcement, told U.S. journalists last week. 

She added that China has handed over more than 10,000 ‘pieces of information’ to its U.S. counterpart related to online platforms conducting fentanyl trade.  

U.S. intelligence officials have pegged 2027 as the year when China will have the capability to launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan. 

China in recent years has increasingly crept into Taiwanese waters with threatening displays of force. 

Taiwan dispatched its naval, land and air forces on Wednesday after China launched a live-fire exercise zone just 40 nautical miles off its coast.

As part of the drill, Taiwan says it detected 32 Chinese military aircraft carrying out joint exercises with warships. Chinese officials have so far not acknowledged Taiwan’s complaints.

And days ago, the CCP’s fourth-ranked leader, Wang Huning, called for greater ‘reunification’ efforts. China has long maintained that Taiwan is a rebel territory belonging to Beijing.

China must ‘firmly grasp the right to dominate and take the initiative in cross-strait relations, and unswervingly push forward the cause of reunification of the motherland,’ Huning said, according to a translation by Chinese state media.

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s Coast Guard detained the Chinese crew of a Togolese-registered vessel suspected of severing an undersea fiber optic cable connecting the islands of Taiwan and Penghu.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump said Thursday that the rare earth minerals deal he’s confident Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign during their Friday visit will pave the way for the U.S. to become a partner with Ukraine in developing resources like oil and gas. 

As part of negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine War, the Trump administration is angling for Zelenskyy to sign an agreement that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for support the U.S. has provided the country since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Congress has appropriated $175 billion since 2022 for aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Trump described the agreement as a breakthrough deal that would reimburse U.S. taxpayers, and will help Ukraine rebuild in the aftermath of the conflict. 

As a result, Trump said the minerals agreement would benefit both the U.S. and Ukraine and would serve as the foundation for a more ‘sustainable’ future relationship between the two countries, while allowing the U.S. to access to resources like oil and gas that ‘we need for our country.’ 

‘We’re going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides, because it’s really going to get us into that country,’ Trump told reporters Thursday while meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. ‘We’ll have a lot of people working there and so, in that sense, it’s very good.’ 

Trump also told reporters that a peace negotiation was in the final stages but no deal was secured, and hesitated to discuss plans regarding a peacekeeping force in the region until one is signed. 

‘I think we’re very well advanced on a deal,’ Trump said. ‘But we have not made a deal yet. So I don’t like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. I like to get things done.’

Additionally, Trump said he didn’t expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to breach any agreement to create peace with Ukraine. 

‘I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t think he’ll be back when we make a deal. I think the deal is going to hold now.’

Trump also didn’t double down on previous comments calling Zelenskyy a ‘dictator,’ ahead of the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the White House on Friday. 

‘Did I say that?’ Trump asked. ‘I can’t believe I said that. Next question.’ 

The Trump administration has advanced negotiations for a peace deal to end the conflict in Ukraine, and U.S. officials met with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 18. However, Ukraine’s absence from the talks prompted Zelenskyy to tell reporters that ‘nobody decides anything behind our back.’ 

Trump and Zelenskyy proceeded to verbally dish out barbs at one another, with Zelenskyy accusing Trump of advancing Russian ‘disinformation’ and Trump labeling Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ that has failed his country. 

‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,’ Trump wrote in a social media post Feb. 19. ‘In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.’ 

Russia has pushed for Ukraine to hold an election as part of a peace deal, nearly a year after Zelenskyy’s five-year term was slated to end. 

Zelenskyy has remained in his position leading Kyiv because the Ukrainian constitution prohibits holding elections under martial law. Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022. 

 

Starmer, who announced on Feb. 16 the U.K. is ready to send troops to Ukraine if necessary to ensure peace between Ukraine and Russia, told reporters Thursday that the U.K. wants to coordinate with the U.S. on a peace negotiation ‘to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it’s a deal that goes down as a historic deal, that nobody breaches.’ 

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed similar sentiments regarding working with the U.S. to secure lasting peace when he visited the White House Monday. However, he also advised the U.S. to exercise caution when dealing with Russia. 

‘We want peace,’ he said in an interview from the Blair House Monday on ‘Special Report.’ ‘And I think the initiative of President Trump is a very positive one. But my message was to say be careful because we need something substantial for Ukraine.’ 

‘I think the arrival of President Trump is a game-changer,’ Macron said. ‘And I think he has the deterrence capacity of the U.S. to reengage with Russia.’

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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds in recent years while doling out hefty salaries to its top brass and bankrolling a variety of left-wing initiatives. 

NASEM, which the New York Times reported in 2023 derives 70% of its budget from federal funds, received $200,616,000 in taxpayer funding from grants and contracts in 2023, according to its own Treasurer’s Report. 

That budget includes several salaries for top-level positions at NASEM that exceed $1 million per year, according to the organization’s 990 forms reviewed by Fox News Digital.

National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau receives a salary of $1,026,973 per year, National Academy of Engineering President John Anderson earns $1,027,185 per year, and National Academies President Marcia McNutt earns $1,061,843 each year.

Additionally, NASEM’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Laura Castillo-Page, earned $333,788 in 2023.

NASEM has used its federal funding to promote a variety of liberal causes, including putting on events related to climate change, racism and ‘health equity.’

In 2021, NASEM helped put on an event that discussed how ‘environmental injustice’ and ‘structural racism’ exacerbate climate change for ‘communities of color.’ Attendees discussed ways to use ‘stories’ to influence elected officials on climate policy, including ‘the powerful indigenous voice about the existential threats that humanity faces.’  

A 2021 NASEM workshop examined how ‘spatial justice’ can exacerbate public health problems among ‘historically marginalized communities.’ 

NASEM organized an event a year later that examined how ‘structural racism’ and biased ‘social norms,’ including ‘representation in media and body image,’ contribute to obesity. 

NASEM issued a report in 2023 detailing recommendations for federal policies to improve ‘racial, ethnic, and tribal health equity’ and another report in 2023, titled Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations, recommending ways to address widespread racial discrimination in science, engineering, and mathematics organizations in the U.S. 

In another report in 2022, NASEM outlined the need to define and incorporate ‘structural racism’ into scientific study and policymaking.  

2021 NASEM workshop examined ‘anti-Black racism’ in ‘Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.’

‘A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize a virtual public workshop to explore facets of anti-Black racism in U.S. science, engineering, and medicine (SEM),’ NASEM wrote. ‘The workshop will review the discussions at recent workshops of the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women, identify policies and practices that perpetuate racism in SEM, and lay a foundation of knowledge for others to move more effectively towards anti-racist outcomes.’ 

NASEM also held a workshop in 2022 called ‘The Roles of Trust and Health Literacy in Achieving Health Equity,’ where a speaker blamed non-diverse leadership of healthcare institutions for alienating minority patients. 

McNutt has also been critical of DOGE chief and X owner Elon Musk on social media and said last year, ‘This will be my last post on Twitter/X. I can no longer be part of a platform that actively encourages disinformation and amplifies misinformation, especially when its CEO colludes to undermine democracy.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a NASEM spokesperson said, ‘Each year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct hundreds of studies, workshops, and other activities at the request of federal and state agencies, Congress, foundations, and private-sector sponsors on a variety of critical issues facing the nation.’

The spokesperson added that 58% of NASEM’s funding came from the government in 2024.

‘For decades, our work has advanced the American economy, strengthened our national security, bolstered U.S. global competitiveness, and improved our nation’s health and safety. We have taken measures to ensure that we are in compliance with executive orders, including closing our Office of Diversity and Inclusion. We stand ready, as we always have, to advise the new administration on its priorities.’

NASEM’s spending comes under the backdrop of the newly formed DOGE efforts by Musk and the Trump administration to rid the federal government of DEI and wasteful spending. 

Trump’s January executive order removing DEI from the federal government has already had an affect on NASEM and caused it to close its DEI program and remove DEI from its website, the New York Times reported.

It is unclear if DOGE’s efforts will continue to effect the day-to-day operations at NASEM.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. 

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said former President Joe Biden’s administration was aware of ‘very sexually explicit, highly inappropriate and unprofessional chatter’ happening on internal agency messaging boards across national intelligence entities for years, but they allowed it to go on. 

‘I’ve had whistleblowers come forward just in the last few days who work in the [National Security Agency] and who said, ‘Hey, we saw this, and we reported it through official channels under the Biden administration,’’ she told Fox News Digital in an interview at the White House on Wednesday, following President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting.  

‘And essentially they were told this is no issue, step aside,’ Gabbard said. 

It all comes back to ‘the Biden administration’s obsession with’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

The chatrooms ‘were set up because of DEI policies,’ she said. 

Gabbard said the discussions had been going on for two years. 

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Biden and former DNI Avril Haines but did not immediately receive comment. 

‘They were shut down immediately after President Trump issued his executive order shutting down the DEI across the federal government,’ she noted. 

After discovering the chats, Gabbard directed the agencies under her to terminate those involved, which she said amounted to over 100 people. She further directed their security clearances to be revoked. 

The employees who were part of the chats ‘violated the trust that the American people placed in them to work in these highly sensitive jobs that are directly related to national security,’ she explained. 

As for DEI, Gabbard said, ‘We’re just scratching the surface here’ regarding how much money, time and resources have been spent on DEI in intelligence agencies. 

According to the director, ‘getting rid of the DEI center that was stood up under the Biden administration, we immediately saved taxpayers almost $20 million.’

An additional $3 to 4 million was saved by nixing the various DEI conferences that employees would travel to, she added. 

Gabbard joined billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisor Elon Musk, Trump, and other confirmed and unconfirmed Cabinet picks on Wednesday during a meeting she described as energetic. 

Gabbard explained that many of the Cabinet officials are friends with one another and that they’ve all been inspired by Trump and Musk’s quick and aggressive work with DOGE. 

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Andrea Lucas, the Trump administration’s acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), blasted The Washington Post and reporter Jeff Stein for spreading ‘fake news’ about DOGE cutting 90% of the EEOC’s workforce.

Lucas explained that Stein, the chief economics reporter at The Washington Post, mixed up federal agencies that have nothing to do with each other.

The Post reported that ‘an office within the Labor Department that enforces equal employment opportunity laws’ is planning on reducing its workforce by 90%. The article went on to state that the Department of Labor plans to cut its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) from more than 50 offices and nearly 500 employees to four offices and 50 employees.

Stein also posted on X that, among the ‘major changes’ planned by Elon Musk’s DOGE, the Labor Department was eying ‘gutting EEOC office by *90%*.’

After Lucas called out the error on X, Stein posted another message in which he said, ‘To clarify, the office I refer to above is an office within the Labor Department that enforces workers’ civil rights laws.’

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Lucas said the Post’s reporting ‘undermines’ the EEOC’s ability to enforce the law by misleading the public.

‘We pushed back with corrections … and WaPo [Washington Post] retweeted being like, ‘Oh, I was talking about the OFCCP,’ which is in fact what he should have been doing if he bothered to get us back straight,’ she said. ‘But the main message is that reporting is misleading.

‘The Department of Labor may be contemplating significant cuts to OFCCP. I don’t know. We’re totally separate from OFCCP.’

Lucas said any potential cuts by DOGE to the Labor Department and the OFCCP are ‘entirely distinct from the work that the EEOC does,’ which she explained is to ‘enforce Title VII, which explicitly creates the EEOC and gives us a specific mission to combat discrimination.’

Lucas said the EEOC is ‘fully operational and continues to be laser-focused on combating discrimination,’ which she said includes discrimination on behalf of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) interests.

Lucas said the EEOC is ‘fully comply[ing] with the president’s executive orders calling for evenhanded civil rights enforcement.’

After four years of the Biden administration using federal agencies to advance DEI, Lucas directed the EEOC to issue a warning to U.S. employers that the commission would be prioritizing the enforcement of legal and financial consequences for ‘anti-American bias’ against workers during hiring.

‘Discriminatory employers should be aware the EEOC is not asleep,’ she said. ‘This kind of fake news really can muddy the water and make it unclear to workers that this government watchdog remains active and ready to defend them against unlawful discrimination, including DEI-related discrimination.’

On DOGE, Lucas said, ‘I fully support the president’s mission and DOGE’s mission to ensure government efficiency.’

But she remains confident the EEOC is here to stay.

‘We’re working really hard to make sure that we have the most productive workforce possible, and we’re looking to make the agency a really evenhanded and efficient workforce,’ Lucas said. ‘But I’m confident that we have an important role to play because our jurisdiction and mission are directly related to the civil rights executive orders. 

‘So, we’re a law enforcement agency, and we’re here to execute on those and enforce the law.’

The Washington Post did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by time of publication.

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