Rubio to travel to Israel to discuss Iran, other issues, State Dept. says

PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 27 202610:43 AM ESTUPDATED 6 MIN AGO

KEY POINTS

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel early next week to discuss Iran and other regional issues, the State Department said.

• The announcement of Rubio’s visit comes amid growing concern that the United States will launch attacks on Iran.

• MS Now reportedFriday that Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi will meet Friday with Vice President JD Vance and other American officials in Washington for “previously unreported talks in an effort to stave off war with Iran.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel early next week to discuss Iranand other regional issues, the State Department said Friday.

The announcement of Rubio’s visit comes amid growing concern that the United States will launch attacks on Iran.

MS Nowreported Friday that Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi will meet Friday with Vice President JD Vance and other American officials in Washington for “previously unreported talks in an effort to stave off war with Iran.”

Al Busaidi has been acting as a mediator of talks between the U.S. and Iran to defuse tensions over Americandemands that the Islamic republic curb its nuclear program.

Rubio will visit Israel on Monday and Tuesday, according to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

“The Secretary will discuss a range of regional prioritiesincluding Iran, Lebanon, and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza,” Pigott said in a statement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/27/iran-israel-rubio-state-department.html

(Israel is losing supported in the US and around the world.)

>>24314459 @realDonaldTrump As Georgia prosecutor pursued Trump, Biden DOJ 'invited' her to get lucrative grant, memos showPN

As Georgia prosecutor pursued Trump, Biden DOJ 'invited' her to get lucrative grant, memos show

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By Steven Richards and John Solomon

February 25, 2026 10:58pm

The Biden Justice Department "invited" Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to apply for a lucrative sole-source grant in 2022 at the same time that she was pursuing an election interference investigation against Donald Trump, the eventual GOP competitor to President Joe Biden, internal correspondence obtained by Just the News reveals.

“I want to document your recognition of our progress and services provided with dynamic partners, as we complete sole source steps for our new grant award, a grant in which you invited us to apply,” Willis wrote to Justice Department Senior Policy Advisor Scott Pestridge in the Office of Justice Programs in December 2022.

The district attorney was highlighting the Justice Department’s 2022 Office of Justice Programs Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative grant, from which her office ultimately received $2,000,000 to implement its programs, agency records show.

Willis' office given millions by Biden DOJ at the same time she was prosecuting Trump

That award, which was opened in April 2022 as a competitive grant, appears to have been provided to Fulton County as the “sole source,” according to the district attorney. The Justice Department defines a sole source procurement as “noncompetitive,” meaning no other entity competed against Fulton for the award.

This award, which Willis said her office would use for community programs dedicated to ensure “at-risk” youth do not fall into crime or help them reintegrate into society if they do, was just a fraction of the more than $18,000,000 in funding the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Policy gave the Fulton prosecutor’s office from the time Willis took office in 2021 until 2024.

You can read the letter below:

File

2022.12.29 - Willis to Pestridge (DOJ).pdf

The letter was contained in a trove of thousands of pages of documents turned over after Just the News, alongside the nonprofit public interest law firm America First Legal (AFL), sued Willis for the records under Georgia's Open Records Law. Willis, a longtime Trump nemesis, sought to hide many of the records with claims of legal privilege during a prolonged legal fight.

In a reaction to the lawsuit, Willis' office this week dropped all privilege claims and released all the documents without any redactions, providing to Just the News — and the public — more information than it ultimately did to congressional Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

Collaboration of Willis, White House and Congressional Democrats to pursue Trump

Beyond the grant details, the documents show that Willis’ office coordinated extensively with the Biden Justice Department and White House as well as Democrats on the House Jan. 6 investigative committee as she built a failed criminal case against President Donald Trump and his allies, Just the News reported on Wednesday.

The award of the noncompetitive grant for Willis came while her office was preparing that case and while federal prosecutors were investigating Trump under similar pretexts.

Willis, who became Fulton County District Attorney in January 2021, vowed from the earliest days of her term to pursue an investigation into President Trump, who left office at the end of that month. On February 10th, 2021, Willis announced that she was opening a probe into Trump for violations of Georgia state law to include “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”

In early January, President Trump had claimed that the election in the state was marred by fraud and urged state officials to intervene in the process. Several Trump allies were also investigated over an effort to form and send to Congress an alternate slate of presidential electors to challenge the official results that they believed were possibly invalidated by fraud.

(https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/biden-justice-department-awarded-grants-fulton-da-during-

>>24315407

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By August 2023, Willis indicted Trump and allies on state racketeering, conspiracy and other charges after the more than two-years-long investigation. Under Willis, Georgia became the first state to do so, followed later by fellow Democrat prosecutors in Arizona and Wisconsin who also went after Trump allies.

Eighteen other people, including Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, were also indicted in Georgia, accused of aiding Trump in a bid to change the outcome of the state's 2020 election. You can read that indictment here.

File

GeorgiaIndictment.pdf

The state indictment came only days after Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a similar indictment in Washington alleging that by engaging in efforts to challenge the 2020 election outcome, President Trump had defrauded the United States. He was also charged with attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Though the apparent reclassification of the violence prevention grant from competitive to noncompetitive has not previously been reported, Congress first raised concerns that the grant money flowing into the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office (FCDAO) may have been used to pay the special prosecutor Willis assigned to the case, Nathan Wade.

Both Wade and Willis faced scrutiny in 2023 after their romantic relationship was exposed in court by a lawyer for one of the Trump allies charged in the Georgia case. Financial records showed that Willis hired her romantic partner to prosecute Trumpand paid him more than $600,000 in legal fees while they were in a relationship.

Georgia judge demands Willis' lover recuse himself from case against Trump

Willis and Wade both admitted to a relationship, though they both insisted it began after Willis hired him. Wade ultimately stepped down from the case in March 2023 after a Georgia judge made his stepping aside a condition of allowing Willis to remain on the case after evidence of an improper financial and romantic relationship emerged.

In January 2024, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan demanded documents from Willis and Wade, probing whether the pair collaborated with the Biden Justice Department on the prosecution of Trump and whether any of the federal grants were used to compensate Wade for his work. He issued a subpoena for those documents the following month. "The FCDAO reportedly compensated you using a concoction of comingled [sic] funds, including monies confiscated or seized by the FCDAO and monies directed from Fulton County's 'general' fund,” Jordan wrote to Wade.

“The Committee has information that the FCDAO received approximately $14.6 million in grant funds from the Department of Justice between 2020 and 2023 and, given the enormous legal fees you have billed to the FCDAO, there are open questions about whether federal funds were used by the FCDAO to finance your prosecution,” he added.

The Trump Justice Department had also reportedly opened its own probe into Fani Willis. In September, it issued a subpoena for the prosecutor’s travel records related to trips abroad around the time of the 2024 election, The New York Times reported.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/biden-justice-department-awarded-grants-fulton-da-during-trump

>>24315410

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Willis was ultimately removed as the prosecutor overseeing the Georgia case against Trump. The Georgia Court of Appeals issued a decision holding Willis accountable for prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest during her hunt to get Trump, primarily based on her relationship with Wade.

The case against Trump was eventually dismissed by a Georgia judge in November last year after Trump won his second non-consecutive term in the White House. The lead prosecutor that replaced Wade said that his office would not pursue the case any further, citing the difficulty of compelling a sitting president to stand trial.

When the case was dismissed, Georgia's prosecution, led by Willis, was the last remaining probe of the president’s conduct during the 2020 election dispute after Smith dropped his own federal case following Trump’s election victory.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/biden-justice-department-awarded-grants-fulton-da-during-trump

Rob Bonta

@AGRobBonta

Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal.

These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.

10:12 PM · Feb 26, 2026

·

679.8K

Views

https://x.com/AGRobBonta/status/2027220360433946983?s=20

Epstein files: Rep. Mace says she’ll call Trump Commerce chief Lutnick to testify

FRI, FEB 27 2026

KEY POINTS

• Rep. Nancy Mace said that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should testify to the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about his association with notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

• Mace’s tweet responded to an X post that said the Department of Justice had removed from its database of Epstein-related documents a photo of Epstein standing in front of a man who “appears to be Howard Lutnick.”

•It is not known if the man in the photo is Lutnick.

Rep. Nancy Mace on Friday said that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnickshould testify to the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about his association with notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

“Howard Lutnick should take questions from the Oversight committee,” Mace, R-S.C., said in an X post on Friday morning.

Mace’s tweet responded to an X post that said the Department of Justice had removed from its database of Epstein-related documents a photo of Epstein standing in front of a man who “appears to be Howard Lutnick.”

It is not known if the man in the photo is Lutnick, who has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Mace later Friday morning told reporters, “I will be asking” Lutnick to testify to the Oversight committee.

Mace’s comments came before that panel was set to question former President Bill Clinton in a deposition about his connections to Epstein.

Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was deposed about Epstein on Thursday.

Lutnick in testimony on Feb. 10 to the Senate Appropriations Committee admitted that he and his family had lunch with Epstein in 2012 at Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.

Lutnick’s testimony came after he had claimed that he cut off contact with his New York City neighbor Epstein in 2005,three years before Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

DOJ files show that Lutnick in fact remained in communication with Epstein years later.

MS Now reported on Feb. 10 that, “In 2015, Lutnick appeared to invite Epstein to an ‘intimate’ fundraising event for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which Lutnick had been fundraising for at the time.”

“In 2017, Epstein donated $50,000 to a New York charity in honor of Lutnick, according to the files,” MS Now reported.

Documents also indicate that Epstein and Lutnick “each signed on behalf of limited liability companies that agreed on Dec. 28, 2012, to acquire stakes in a now-shuttered advertising technology company called Adfin,”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/27/epstein-trump-lutnick-mace-clinton.html

Mace should not be involved imo.

Judge says Greenpeace will have to pay $345 million over pipeline protest

16 hrs ago

(The Center Square) – Nearly a yearafter a nine-person jury found Greenpeace liable for $667 million in damages in a case related to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a North Dakota judge has said the environmental organization will soon be ordered to make good on the damages.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion granted a motion filed by Energy Transfer, the company that owns the pipeline, and said he intends to issue the final judgment on the case soon.The final judgment will detail what the three Greenpeace entities named in the lawsuit are expected to pay,but the amounts were not included in Tuesday’s filings. Gion did, however, reduce Greenpeace’s total liability after the jury’s verdict to $345 million.

Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace in 2019 for its involvement in a massive, months-long and sometimes violent protest against its Dakota Access Pipeline, which was installed in 2016 and 2017. The nearly 1,200-mile crude oil pipeline crosses the Missouri River upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, and protesters said the pipeline would threaten the tribe’s water supply and destroy important cultural sites.

Energy Transfer has at least partly blamed Greenpeace and its public support of the protest for why the protest ultimately ballooned in size, as it began with just a small group of Sioux people.People traveled from all over the world to camp and protest at the site==, with various reports estimating there were as many as 10,000 people there at one time.

Greenpeace sent six employees to the camp who participated in protests, led trainings or otherwise lent support to the cause. It also donated money and supplies and supported the project’s debanking by several lenders.

The case went to trial in 2025, and a jury found Greenpeace liable on all claims Energy Transfer brought against it including defamation, tortious interference, conspiracy, trespass and nuisance. Greenpeace maintains, despite the jury’s verdict, that it is and always has been committed to nonviolence and that Energy Transfer has never proved that Greenpeace employees orchestrated or participated in violence or property damage.

Greenpeace has said it cannot afford to pay the amount last determined by the judge.

Both sides have said they will appeal the judgment.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_dakota/article_5eb08ea9-7bbe-4095-a535-c7ae871c6142.html

Israelis No Longer Ahead in Americans' Middle East Sympathies

Israel still viewed more favorably; support for two-state solution highest since 20031/3

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathize more with the Israelis. The five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, but it contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago (46% vs. 33%) and larger leads over the prior 24 years.

From 2001 to 2025, Israelis consistently held double-digit leads in Americans’ Middle East sympathies, with the gap averaging 43 points between 2001 and 2018. However, public opinion began narrowing in 2019, several years before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The cumulative effect of gradual changes in U.S. attitudes since then has led to the Israelis no longer being viewed more sympathetically.

As is typical for this trend, a large segment of Americans express no partiality toward the two sides in the Middle East conflict: 4% say they sympathize with both equally, 9% with neither, and 10% have no opinion.

Since Gallup’s prior update of this measure in February 2025, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. The first phase of the ceasefire, contingent upon the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian detainees in Israel, was completed in January. The second phase is now focused on reconstruction and demilitarization in Gaza, though both sides have accused each other of repeated breaches of the truce.

In terms of Americans' separate favorable ratings of the two countries, the latest poll also finds a new high of 37% viewing the Palestinian Territories favorably, although still trailing Israel’s 46%. The 57% of Americans in favor of an independent Palestinian state nearly matches a reading from 2003 as the highest Gallup has measured.

Independents’ Sympathies Shift Toward Palestinians in Past Year

Americans’ shifting sympathies in the Middle East situation this year are mostly driven by changes among political independents. By 41% to 30%, independents say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, whereas in all prior years, they were more sympathetic toward the Israelis, including by 42% to 34% last year.

Democrats’ sympathies haven’t changed significantly over the past year, having already flipped strongly toward the Palestinians in 2025 after first tilting that way in 2023. Currently, 65% of Democrats say their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, while 17% say they sympathize more with the Israelis.

Republicans continue to express greater sympathy for the Israelis than the Palestinians. Seven in 10 Republicans (70%) say they sympathize more with the Israelis, compared with 13% who sympathize more with the Palestinians. Although this remains a substantial gap, sympathy for the Israelis among Republicans has declined by 10 points since 2024 to its lowest level since 2004.

Shift Toward Sympathy With Palestinians Seen Across All Age Groups

Americans of all age groups have grown more sympathetic to the Palestinians in recent years. Among those aged 18 to 34, 53% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, marking the first time a majority of this age group has expressed this view. Meanwhile, 23% of young adults say they sympathize more with the Israelis, a record low for the age group.

Views among those aged 35 to 54 have also shifted decisively. In 2026, 46% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared with 28% who sympathize more with the Israelis. This is a near reversal of opinion among this age group compared with 2025, when 45% gave more sympathy to the Israelis and 33% to the Palestinians.

Among adults aged 55 and older, 49% sympathize more with the Israelis and 31% with the Palestinians, the first time since 2005 that less than half of older Americans have said they sympathize more with the Israelis. The 18-point lead for the Israelis also represents the narrowest gap in sympathies recorded for this age group.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/702440/israelis-no-longer-ahead-americans-middle-east-sympathies.

>>24315577

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Israel’s Favorability Drops as Palestinian Territories’ Rises

Additionally, Gallup measures Americans’ overall views of Israel and the Palestinian Territories — as either favorable or unfavorable — as part of its annual ratings of countries.

In the past year, Americans’ favorability toward Israel has declined, while their view of the Palestinian Territories has improved. Still, Americans retain a more positive view of Israel, with 46% viewing it favorably, than of the Palestinian Territories, at 37%.

Historically, Americans have rated Israel much more favorably than the Palestinian Territories (or “the Palestinian Authority,” as the item was worded from 2000 to 2024). Israel’s favorable rating has now declined to near its historical low (45%, measured in 1989), while ratings of the Palestinian Territories have improved to a new high point.

For the first time on record, as many independents hold a very or mostly favorable view of the Palestinian Territories as they do of Israel (both 41%). Over the past year, independents’ favorability toward Israel has declined six points, while their favorability toward the Palestinian Territories has risen by 10. Looking at a longer time frame, however, the shift is more pronounced on the Israel side. Since February 2023 — the last measurement before the Oct. 7 attacks — independents’ favorability toward Israel has dropped 26 points, compared with a 12-point increase in their favorability toward the Palestinian Territories.

Among Democrats, the Palestinian Territories have held an edge in favorability since 2025. This year, 48% of Democrats view the Palestinian Territories favorably, compared with 34% for Israel, broadly in line with last year. Republicans remain the most pro-Israel partisan group, with 69% holding a favorable view, though that figure has fallen 15 points from 2025 to its lowest level in over two decades. Meanwhile, a steady 18% of Republicans view the Palestinian Territories favorably, recovering from a record low of 5% in 2024.

Support for Palestinian State Matches 23-Year High

A 57% majority of U.S. adults say they favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel — often referred to as a “two-state solution” — while 28% oppose it and 15% do not have an opinion. Public opinion on this question has shifted less over recent years than sympathies or favorable ratings. The 57% who favor a two-state solution in 2026 is similar to the 55% recorded in both 2023 and 2025, and it nearly matches the record-high 58% of Americans who favored the creation of an independent Palestinian state in 2003.

Support for a two-state solution is highest among Democrats, at 77%, and a majority of independents (57%) share that view. Both figures are generally in line with what Gallup has measured since 2023.

Republican support has fluctuated notably in recent years. It declined from 43% before the Oct. 7 attacks to 26% afterward — the largest single-year drop recorded for any party group on this measure. Support then increased to 41% in 2025 before declining again to 33% in 2026.

With the exception of 2024, the current 44-point gap between Democrats and Republicans is the widest Gallup has recorded on this question.

U.S. adults remain much more supportive of a two-state solution than Israelis or Palestinians themselves, as measured in Gallup’s World Poll. In 2025 polling, 27% of Israelis and 33% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem said they would support such a proposal.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/702440/israelis-no-longer-ahead-americans-middle-east-sympathies.aspx

>>24315587

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Bottom Line

U.S. public opinion toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shifted in the past 12 months, and for the first time in Gallup’s annual measurement since 2001, Americans’ sympathies no longer lie more with the Israelis than the Palestinians. This shift reflects substantial movement among independents, now joining Democrats in expressing more sympathy for the Palestinian people.

At the same time, Americans still have a more favorable view of Israel, as a country, than of the Palestinian Territories, though views of Israel are among the least favorable Gallup has measured historically. Meanwhile, views of the Palestinian Territories are the most positive to date, albeit still negative overall.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/702440/israelis-no-longer-ahead-americans-middle-east-sympathies.aspx

SHOCKED AND ANGRY: Legal expert blasts phone record grab

FBI Director Kash Patel reveals the Biden administration subpoenaed his and Susie Wiles’ phone records, raising new questions about warrants and the scope of the special counsel probe. Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn reacts.

It should be namedPhoneGate

5:02

https://youtu.be/1cEX0PgxMho

'TRULY DISGUSTING': Bill Clinton faces GRILLING on Epstein allegations

Fox News contributors Andy McCarthy and Jason Chaffetz join 'Fox & Friends' to discuss former President Bill Clinton's closed-door deposition regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of engaging in sexual activities with minors.

HRC says she has no information on Epstein’s crimes (because she shredded it all and hit it with hammers. KEK

5:31

https://youtu.be/aDB4xx9-l-0

Trump's SOTU highlights voters' concerns with Dems: 'LOST THE PLOT'it should be they lost the duty to serve Americans

Pittsburgh-based columnist Salena Zito discusses President Donald Trump's 'these people are crazy' remark from his State of the Union address.

4:30

https://youtu.be/_yl_mg-T2sQ

‘ABSOLUTELY BLEW THIS’: Mamdani’s snowball defense melts

President Trump and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani meet at the White House on affordable housing while a NYPD snowball fight incident sparks a public-safety firestorm. PS: the governor did nothing about this nonsense

6:30

https://youtu.be/TsUzR_BSwJ0

EMBASSY ALERT: US personnel reportedly urged to leave Israel ‘IMMEDIATELY'. From Israel is telling!

U.S.-Iran nuclear talks end in Switzerland as President Trump’s deadline closes in, with the U.S. moving non-essential personnel and warning Iran faces major pressure

4:09

https://youtu.be/ZJ46RfekR-k

‘SO PREDICATABLE’: Newsom is 'SCARED' of Vance, ‘Ruthless’ podcast co-hosts says

Ruthless’ podcast co-hosts discuss Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempts to be relatable to voters and his recent comments about Vice President JD Vance

4:50

https://youtu.be/c9x04KJ0Nqw