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Jeyhun Bayramov briefs Turkish counterpart on Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process (PHOTO)

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 16. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on February 15, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Trend reports.

The ministers discussed political, security, economic, and transport-communication aspects of Azerbaijan-Türkiye allied relations, as well as key regional and international developments. They emphasized the importance of continued cooperation and mutual support within regional and international organizations, including the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the UN, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The discussions also covered developments in the Middle East, particularly in Gaza and Syria. Minister Bayramov provided a detailed update on the regional situation and the ongoing Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process.

The two sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.

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Trump’s War on Institutions - Islamabad Post

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Trump’s Adventures Imperil the U.S. and the World

By: Qamar Bashir

Macomb, Detroit, Michigan

President Donald Trump accused the U.S. bureaucracy of massive fraud, waste, and abuse, citing an investigation led by Elon Musk that uncovered billions of dollars in misused funds. He condemned judges for obstructing his reform agenda, calling their block on his $3 billion federal grant freeze “intolerable judicial interference.” Trump also charged the Pentagon with corruption and financial mismanagement, referencing a 2023 audit that found $2.1 trillion unaccounted for. He accused USAID of funneling billions into mainstream media as payoffs for pro-Democrat coverage, calling it “too big, too dirty” to ignore. Further, he alleged USAID provided over $697 million to terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and ISIS under the guise of aid and meddled in foreign elections by sending $15 million to Pakistan’s Election Commission to manipulate the 2024 vote, as exposed by journalist Ryan Grim and others.

For the first time in U.S. history, President Donald Trump is spearheading an unprecedented effort to uproot not only the entrenched bureaucracy but also the military, federal institutions like USAID, IRS, Pentagon, health agencies, law enforcement, CIA, and FBI, as well as the judiciary and the media. Trump has positioned himself as the only leader who has truly recognized the deep-seated corruption, overregulation, and misuse of tax dollars by these institutions.

He asserts that federal agencies have participated in unauthorized commissions and omissions, directed taxpayer funds towards inefficient projects, and established a bureaucratic grip that hinders economic and financial liberty.

He argues that instead of fulfilling their duty to serve the public, these institutions—including judges, bureaucrats, politicians, and the media—have formed a corrupt nexus to amass wealth, secure lavish perks, and misuse their power. This unchecked authority, rather than facilitating public welfare, has crippled economic activities through excessive regulations, leading to inflation, soaring unemployment, and an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis.

These institutional failures have not only burdened American citizens but also weakened the United States’ global leadership in military power, economic dominance, trade, and investment.

Once regarded as the world’s strongest economy, the U.S. now faces the reality of losing its competitive edge to rising powers like China, the Middle Eastern economic hubs, and industrial giants in South Korea, Japan, and Europe.

While these nations are constructing advanced infrastructure such as highways, airports, and ports, the infrastructure in the U.S. is rapidly deteriorating.

A firsthand experience of this decline can be seen in Michigan, where our family arrived in September 2024, only to find crumbling roads, broken highways, and entire neighborhoods—like Hamtramck in Detroit—worse than many underdeveloped countries.

Even major airports and subways in cities like New York, which should symbolize American progress, are far inferior to those in rising global economic centers. This visible decay has become a symbol of how mismanagement and corruption have weakened the country from within.

President Donald Trump has laid out a powerful argument against the unchecked power of the judiciary, questioning how an unelected, taxpayer-funded judge can override the orders of a democratically elected president. He argues that this authority is often motivated by self-interest—protecting judicial power, safeguarding the bureaucracy, and maintaining strong ties with economic and political elites.

Trump has rightly argued that if an unelected judge holds the power to veto presidential orders, it raises serious doubts about the integrity of the democratic system. A president, chosen by the people to enact policies in the public interest, should not have their authority unilaterally obstructed by an appointed judge. Such interference, he contends, undermines the very foundation of democracy, shifting power away from the electorate and into the hands of unaccountable judicial figures.

His assertion is rooted in logic: either power must rest with the elected representatives of the people, or the current system is nothing more than an illusion of democracy, controlled by an entrenched elite that serves itself rather than the nation.

The very foundation of American democracy is now facing an unprecedented challenge. Instead of functioning as a government of, by, and for the people, the U.S. system has become a battleground where institutions operate with separate mandates and self-serving agendas, often at odds with the will of the public.

The bureaucracy—both civil and military—along with the judiciary, has consolidated power to such an extent that elected representatives have been reduced to mere figureheads, unable to implement meaningful change. As a result, the wealth and power of the country have been diverted away from the general public and into the hands of bureaucratic elites, further deepening economic inequality and weakening the nation.

This imbalance has led to a situation where the system exists to sustain itself, rather than to serve the citizens it was designed to protect. The more the bureaucracy tightens its grip, the more the country drifts away from its founding democratic principles.

In contrast, nations where government institutions function in harmony—where every pillar of the state aligns itself with the leadership’s vision—are proving far more effective in delivering stability, prosperity, and national progress. When leadership sets a course, and institutions work collectively to implement it, these governments are able to build state-of-the-art infrastructure, boost economic growth, and enhance the well-being of their people.

The U.S., on the other hand, is witnessing institutional fragmentation, where different branches of government operate in conflict rather than in unison, obstructing national progress instead of facilitating it.

 This is why Trump’s call for systemic reform is not merely about politics—it is about ensuring that power is exercised with accountability, that democracy is truly representative, and that government institutions work for the people, rather than against them.

Recognizing these deep-rooted structural failures, President Trump has declared war on nearly all pillars of the state and their subordinate institutions. His agenda aims to dismantle the bureaucratic stranglehold, expose the judiciary’s complicity, and challenge the media’s biased role in shaping public perception.

This is not just a political battle but a fundamental restructuring of how power is distributed and exercised in the country. Trump’s reforms are not merely cosmetic changes—they are surgical interventions aimed at breaking the alliance between corrupt bureaucrats, activist judges, and self-serving media elites.

Whether he succeeds in his mission or faces unprecedented resistance from these institutions, his presidency has already sparked the most radical political and institutional shake-up in modern U.S. history.

By: Qamar Bashir

Press Secretary to the President (Rtd)

Former Press Minister at Embassy of Pakistan to France

Former MD, SRBC

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Trump FBI pick Kash Patel accused of directing staff purge while still a nominee

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Kash Patel, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the FBI, looks on as he testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, was accused Tuesday of personally directing an “ongoing purge” of civil servants at the agency before being confirmed by the Senate.

In a letter to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote that he had “received highly credible information from multiple sources,” who described Patel’s alleged involvement in the personnel decisions.

“This alleged misconduct is beyond the pale and must be investigated immediately,” wrote Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in the letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” the senator wrote.

Trump nominated Patel, a loyalist who has called for rooting out anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and the media, on Nov. 30.

Patel has not yet been confirmed by the Senate; the Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on whether to advance his nomination.

“If these allegations are true,” wrote Durbin, then Patel “may have perjured himself” at his recent Senate confirmation hearing.

Lying to Congress — whether under oath or not — is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison. But doing so rarely leads to criminal charges.

After asking the White House for comment on the letter, CNBC was referred to a tweet earlier Tuesday from Patel spokeswoman Erica Knight, who accused media outlets of “relying on anonymous sources and second-hand gossip to push a false narrative.”

“Kash Patel is a highly qualified national security expert who has been fully transparent with the American people throughout this process and has demonstrated the integrity and leadership needed for this role,” she wrote in the post. “The Senate should confirm him without delay.”

The FBI declined to comment on Durbin’s letter, which was first reported by The New York Times.

Durbin’s sources alleged Patel has been receiving internal FBI information from a member of a newly established unit called the Director’s Advisory Team.

Patel then allegedly “provides direction” to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who relays it to top Trump officials, including acting deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Durbin wrote.

Patel’s relationships with people running the FBI in an acting capacity were previously reported by NBC News.

Durbin’s subsequent allegation that Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate stems from an exchange Patel had with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., during his confirmation hearing before the Judiciary panel on Jan. 30.

“Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations?” Booker asked Patel.

The nominee replied that he was “not aware.”

Patel also claimed that he did not know “what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, senator, and your colleagues that I will honor the internal review process of the FBI.”

“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” Patel told the senators, while downplaying some of his other controversial past remarks.

Patel’s remarks came as the Trump administration was pushing out several top FBI officials and federal prosecutors, including some who were involved in prosecuting people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The events at DOJ have opened a “leadership and experience vacuum” that has “made Americans less safe,” Durbin wrote to Horowitz.

“The ramifications of removing senior leaders and threatening the removal of thousands of other FBI agents are particularly disastrous,” he added.

“The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated,” wrote Durbin.

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Judge orders FBI to release some information in Trump documents case

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A federal judge has ordered that the FBI must release some records related to its investigation of President Donald Trump's handling of presidential records that have been sought under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In a memorandum opinion issued Monday, Judge Beryl Howell wrote, "Given the current circumstances and legal landscape—including that President Trump now enjoys absolute and presumptive immunity from criminal liability, the government has dismissed criminal charges against President Trump and ... and no pending or even contemplated criminal enforcement action within the applicable statute of limitations on the topics of responsive records is at all likely," the exemptions the FBI cited to block the release of information no longer apply.

Exactly three years ago, on Feb. 10, 2022, Axios reported that New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman's then-upcoming book, "Confidence Man," included a claim that White House staff "periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging" the presidential toilet.

Trump issued a statement calling the story "another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book." (A footnote in Howell's opinion notes, "In August of 2022, Haberman released photos of notes at the bottom of two toilets, and, according to her sources, one photo was allegedly of a White House toilet while the other toilet was overseas.")

Eight days later, on Feb. 18, 2022, a letter from the National Archives described how President Trump allegedly brought classified records to his personal residence at Mar-a-Lago after losing the 2020 election.

This kicked off a high-stakes legal fight to return the records to government control and would eventually lead to an FBI search of Trump's residence. What came next were felony charges and a series of stunning legal and political victories that would propel Trump back into office and make the charges he faced effectively disappear.

But as questions swirled around the February 2022 allegations of mishandling of records by Trump, Bloomberg News reporter Jason Leopold filed a FOIA request for six categories of documents. The first five categories pertained to documents stored at Mar-a-Lago, but the sixth category requested information about any records mentioning "Presidential Records from the Trump White House that were destroyed and ... allegedly flushed down the toilet."

The FBI argued they were exempt from responding to the request about the Mar-a-Lago investigation citing possible harm that could come to a prosecution and issued a so-called "Glomar" response to part six of the request, meaning the FBI would not confirm or deny the existence of records about alleged toilet documents.

The term Glomar is a reference to a secret CIA operation during the Cold War to raise a lost Soviet submarine from the ocean floor -- when details of the operation began to leak the government provided a response that neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the operation.

Some of the information from the Mar-a-Lago investigation files was eventually released but the sixth category has remained secret.

The landmark Trump immunity case that held a president is presumptively immune from criminal prosecution for official acts and his election victory which brought a dismissal to the case had the effect of wiping away the constraints that had permitted the FBI to withhold records under FOIA.

Howell writes, "somewhat ironically, the constitutional and procedural safeguards attached to the criminal process include significant confidentiality mechanisms," but for an immune president, such protections, "may simply be unavailable, as it is here."

"The FBI's Glomar response is improper, and the categorical withholding of the responsive records contained within the Mar-a-Lago investigative file is insupportable where, as here, no pending law enforcement proceeding exists, or can be reasonably anticipated, and the Mar-a-Lago investigation has been iced," Howell writes.

No records were released immediately in the case, but the parties must submit a joint status report in 10 days to propose a schedule to conclude this case. It is unclear if the government will seek an appeal to block any further release.

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Trump Admin Seeks to Purge FBI Probationary Employees, Escalating Tensions Within the Bureau – Tickle The Wire

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Russia says U.S. relations are on brink of collapse, refuses to confirm Trump call claim

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The Kremlin said Monday that U.S.-Russia relations were on the brink of collapse and refused to confirm whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken with President Donald Trump, despite Trump saying so Sunday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a media conference Monday that relations with Washington “are balancing on the brink of a breakup” and reiterated that the war in Ukraine would last until Kyiv drops its ambitions to join NATO and withdraws from the four regions occupied by Russian forces.

In remarks suggesting Moscow is maintaining its tough negotiating stance, Ryabkov said that “we simply imperatively need to get ... the new U.S. administration to understand and acknowledge that without resolving the problems that are the root causes of the crisis in Ukraine, it will not be possible to reach an agreement.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the same day that he would “neither confirm nor deny” Trump's comments to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he and Putin had spoken in his first officially acknowledged contact with the Russian leader since 2022.

Referring to his contact with the Russian leader, Trump told reporters, “let’s just say I’ve had it ... and I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”

“I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands,” he said, but declined to provide any more details about how many times the two had spoken, responding, “I’d better not say.”

The remarks from Trump and spokespeople for the Kremlin come at a crucial juncture for the war in Ukraine, with Kyiv and its European neighbors nervously awaiting details of Trump's peace plan to end the conflict that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion three years ago.

Between winning election in November and being inaugurated last month, Trump said he planned to end the war in a single day upon taking office.

Referring to Trump's remarks Sunday, Keir Giles, a senior fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the London think-tank Chatham House, said “it would be tempting to think that this was all part of a careful plan for not releasing information too early in order not to bridge this process.”

“Or it could simply be that, as seems to be the case with Trump’s earlier promises of immediate action to bring the conflict to an end, that there isn’t, in fact, a plan yet,” he told NBC News.

Giles added that more clarity on the situation may come later this week, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy due to attend the high-profile Munich Security Conference, which senior U.S. officials are also attending.

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the U.S. officials would be “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table.”

He added that Trump would be “prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table, while also stripping back assistance to Ukraine to force European allies to ramp up support to Ukraine.

Ryabkov’s comments today came after Zelenskyy told the British broadcaster ITV last week that he was ready to hold talks with Russia as long as “I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees.”

The Ukrainian leader also told Reuters on Sunday that it was important he meets Trump before any negotiations with Putin, “otherwise, it will look like a dialogue about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

A Russian drone attack on Kyiv late Sunday injured a woman and damaged several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said Monday.

Astha Rajvanshi

Astha Rajvanshi is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London. Previously, she worked as a staff writer covering international news for TIME.

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