International
“Trump is a hero”: Marc Fogel lands in U.S. after release from Russian captivity
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Quick Hit:
Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since 2021, has returned to the U.S. following negotiations led by the Trump administration. Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence for possessing what his family said was medically prescribed marijuana, was released in a prisoner swap. Upon his arrival, he met with President Donald Trump and praised him as a “hero” for securing his freedom.
Key Details:
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Fogel, a Pennsylvania native, was arrested in August 2021 at a Russian airport and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His family maintained he had legally prescribed medical marijuana.
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The Trump administration negotiated his release, though National Security Advisor Michael Waltz declined to specify what the U.S. conceded in the exchange. When asked about the deal, Trump responded, “not much.”
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A jubilant Fogel arrived on U.S. soil on Tuesday, wrapped in an American flag, and declared, “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now.” His family thanked Trump for his leadership, saying his release marked the end of the “darkest and most painful period” of their lives.
Diving Deeper:
Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia for over three years, is finally back in the United States after a successful prisoner exchange negotiated by the Trump administration. Fogel, who taught history at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, was arrested in August 2021 for carrying marijuana, which his family insisted was for medical use. Despite their claims, he was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony.
Following diplomatic efforts, Fogel touched down in the U.S. on Tuesday. A photo shared by the White House on social media showed him draped in an American flag, raising his fist in celebration. “MARC FOGEL IS BACK!!! PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!!!” read the post on X.
Fogel later visited the White House, where he met with President Trump and personally credited him for orchestrating his release. “I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. President Trump is a hero,” he reportedly said. He also praised the diplomats, senators, and representatives involved in securing his freedom.
Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, confirmed that the U.S. and Russia had negotiated a trade but withheld details about what the U.S. had offered in return. When pressed by reporters, Trump simply responded, “not much,” without elaborating.
Fogel’s family expressed profound gratitude, issuing a statement thanking Trump and those who fought for his return. “We are beyond grateful, relieved, and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband, and son, Marc Fogel, is finally coming home,” they said. “Thanks to the unwavering leadership of President Trump, Marc will soon be back on American soil, free where he belongs. This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal.”
conflict
Hamas, Palestinians paraded dead babies coffins through streets before handover to Israel
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MxM News
Quick Hit:
Hamas paraded the caskets of Israeli hostages, including what they claimed were the bodies of a mother and two young children, through the streets of Gaza before handing them over to the Red Cross. Videos show crowds cheering as armed terrorists carried the coffins as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel.
Key Details:
- Videos from Khan Younis, Gaza, show Hamas and other terrorists parading four caskets, including those of two young children, before handing them to the Red Cross.
- Crowds cheered as the terrorists, armed and unmasked, carried the coffins, with celebratory music playing in the background.
- The deceased were identified as members of the Bibas family, including the youngest hostages from the October 7 attack.
ANIMALS: Hamas paraded the bodies of murdered Israeli babies in coffins while blasting loud music during their celebration today when they handed the bodies over to the Red Cross. pic.twitter.com/CoTV5Rzep7
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 20, 2025
Diving Deeper:
During a ceremony in Khan Younis, Gaza, Hamas paraded the caskets of Israeli hostages through the streets, including what they claimed were the bodies of a mother and her two small children. The display occurred before the remains were handed over to the Red Cross as part of a prisoner exchange agreement with Israel. Crowds of Gazans were seen cheering and celebrating as the coffins were carried by armed terrorists.
Videos from the event show masked militants loading a casket into a Red Cross aid truck, while another militant, adorned with symbols of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, filmed the procession. Another video shows adults and children waving and celebrating as Hamas fighters, armed and in trucks, paraded through the streets. Reuters footage also captured members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) helping carry a casket, highlighting the involvement of multiple terrorist factions in the display.
Hamas presented the bodies as those of the Bibas family, who were captured during the October 7 attack. The children, aged four years and less than one year, were among the youngest hostages taken during the brutal assault that triggered the ongoing 15-month conflict. The fourth body was identified as 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, according to Jewish News Syndicate. Hamas has repeatedly blamed the deaths on Israeli airstrikes, though no evidence was provided to support the claim.
Israel and Hamas are currently observing a temporary ceasefire agreement, facilitating the exchange of civilian hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Despite the ceasefire, Hamas has continued to celebrate the October 7 attacks, which resulted in the largest mass killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. During the ceremony, a stage displayed a poster depicting Israel as a “Nazi Army,” underscoring Hamas’s longstanding agenda of hostility towards the Jewish state.
The shocking parade of caskets, accompanied by celebratory music and cheering crowds, has drawn international condemnation and further underscored the brutal nature of Hamas’s actions. As the exchange process continues, the emotional toll on the families of the victims remains immeasurable.
Health
RFK Jr: There’s no medical justification for vaccinating one-day-old babies for Hepatitis B
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From LifeSiteNews
‘Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted from having sex with multiple partners in gay sex, or from sex workers, or intravenous drug use,’ explained the new HHS head. ‘Why would you give that to a baby?’
In a widely-viewed video shared on social media, the new U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., asserted that the majority of vaccines — including those he sees as unjustifiably being mandated for infants — have been developed primarily to create profits for Big Pharma.
“Most of the vaccines after 1989 were added not for public health reasons but for pharmaceutical profit reasons,” said Kennedy.
“Why are we vaccinating one-day-old babies for Hepatitis B?” he asked.
“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted from having sex with multiple partners in gay sex, or from sex workers, or intravenous drug use,” he said, reemphasizing, “Why would you give that to a baby?”
According to Kennedy, Pharmaceutical giant Merck was directed by both the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to develop the Hepatitis B vaccine for “those vulnerable populations.”
He explained that when those populations showed little interest in the vaccine, “Merck went back to the agencies and said ‘You told us to develop this vaccine, but nobody’s buying it.”
“The CDC said, ‘Don’t worry’” recounted Kennedy, “we’ll just recommend it for children and we’ll force everybody to buy it.”
“So, that’s how it got on the [childhood vaccine] schedule,” he said, declaring, “There’s no medical justification.”
RFK JR: “Merck went back to the agencies and said you told us to develop this [Hepatitis B] vaccine. Nobody's buying it. And CDC said don't worry, we'll just recommend it for children. We'll force everybody to buy it. That's how it got on the schedule.” pic.twitter.com/JTmATn8UbP
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) February 21, 2025
Kennedy has previously explained just how lucrative government-mandated children’s vaccines have been for the pharmaceutical industry:
There’s no downstream liability, there’s no front-end safety testing – that saves them a quarter billion dollars – and there’s no marketing and advertising costs, because the federal government is ordering 78 million school kids to take that vaccine every year.
What better product could you have? And so there was a gold rush to add all these new vaccines to the schedule that we don’t need. Most of these vaccines are unnecessary. Many of them are for diseases that are not even casually contagious.
It was a gold rush, because if you get onto that schedule, it’s a billion dollars a year for your company.
And in many cases, NIH is earning the royalties.
According to Kennedy, more obscene than the huge profits being horded by Big Pharma are the vast number of negative side-effects from all those untested vaccines.
“Neurological diseases” have “exploded,” he said.
“ADHD, sleep disorders, language delays, ASD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, ticks, narcolepsy. These are all things that I never heard of,” said Kennedy. “Autism went from one in 10,000 in my generation according to CDC data to one in every 34 kids today.”
Kennedy is known for vehemently opposing vaccines without proper knowledge for those taking them, a stance he adopted after the mothers of vaccine-injured children implored him to look into the research linking thimerosal to neurological injuries, including autism. He went on to found Children’s Health Defense, an organization with the stated mission of “ending childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure,” largely through vaccines.
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