📌 Peace Deal In Russia’s Court, Uniting Syria, More

The US agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after peace talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Kyiv said it would accept a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its conflict with Russia, the countries said in a joint statement. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would now take the offer to Russia, and the ball is in Moscow's court.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was in Saudi Arabia but did not participate in the talks, said the ceasefire was a "positive proposal" that covers the frontline in the conflict, not just fighting by air and sea.

"Our hope is that the Russians will answer 'yes' as quickly as possible, so we can get to the second phase of this, which is real negotiations," Rubio said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is open to discussing a peace deal, but he and his diplomats have repeatedly stated they are against a ceasefire and would seek a deal that safeguards Russia's "long-term security."

Putin has ruled out territorial concessions and said Ukraine must withdraw fully from four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia.

Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority in the country’s northeast that unites Syria again.

The deal includes a ceasefire and the merging of the main US-backed force into the Syrian army. It is seen as a breakthrough that brings most of Syria under the control of the government, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that led the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

The deal, to be implemented by the end of the year, brings all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the northeast under central government control.

Syria’s Kurds will gain their “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades under Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes.

Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement. The deal also says all Syrians will be part of the political process, no matter their religion or ethnicity.

Syria’s new rulers are struggling to reach political settlements with minority communities, notably the Druze in southern Syria. Earlier on Monday, Syria’s government announced the end of the military operation against insurgents loyal to Assad and his family in the worst fighting since the end of the civil war.

The Department of Education is firing over 1,300 employees — just over half the workers before President Trump’s new term.

A senior administration official confirmed the department began to send termination notices to 1,315 employees at 6 p.m. EST on Tuesday and that its focus to eliminate full teams the agency deemed redundant or unnecessary.

The official said that of the 4,133 total staff at the department, 259 took the administration's deferred resignation offer, and 313 accepted the department's $25,000 voluntary buyout. About 2,183 employees will remain at the agency after these terminations, the official said.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the “reduction in force reflects the Department of Education's commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”

The American Federation of Government Employees local chapter president, Sheria Smith, said in a statement that the union will "fight these draconian cuts."

US House and Senate bills would create a strategic Bitcoin reserve with the aim of strengthening the nation's economic foundation.

The US Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets chair Sen. Cynthia Lumis, R-Wyo., on Tuesday introduced the proposed Boosting Innovation,Technology and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act legislation.

The proposed Bitcoin Act would create a national strategic Bitcoin reserve to create additional value and improve the nation's financial standing while ensuring transparent management of the nation's Bitcoin holdings, Lumis said.

The measure also would implement a 1 million-unit Bitcoin purchase program over a designated period to achieve a national stake equal to about 5% of the world's Bitcoin supply, which is similar to the amount of gold reserves held by the nation.

The federal government would pay for the Bitcoin purchases by diversifying the Federal Reserve System's and Treasury Department's existing funds. Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala said: “There's no reason why we shouldn't use Bitcoin to pay down our national debt,” adding it would "usher in the golden age of America."

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is directing the Food and Drug Administration to eliminate a food safety loophole.

The rule, known as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), allows manufacturers to add food additives without approval if they meet specific criteria deemed safe for consumption by experts.

GRAS originated in the late 1990s when the agency struggled to keep up with a surge of requests to approve new additives. It was intended for a narrow application to common ingredients such as sugar, vinegar, and baking soda.

However, critics argue that it is too easy for manufacturers to add ingredients to products without notifying regulators.

“Eliminating this loophole will provide transparency to consumers, help get our nation’s food supply back on track by ensuring that ingredients being introduced into foods are safe, and ultimately Make America Healthy Again,” said Kennedy.

Research published in 2024 by New York University and funded by the National Institutes of Health recommended the FDA take a stronger role in regulating what is in food.

Finance website WalletHub applied 29 key indicators to over 180 US cities to rank the country’s happiest locations.

The indicators ranged from the depression rate to income growth and average daily leisure time. Five Californian cities made the top 10: Fremont (1), San Jose (2), Irvine (3), San Francisco (9) and Huntington Beach (10). In the bottom three were Memphis (180), Detroit (181) and Cleveland (182).

WalletHub said researchers have studied the science of happiness and found that its key ingredients include a positive mental state, a healthy body, strong social connections, job satisfaction, and financial well-being.

“However, money can only make you so happy,” counsels WalletHub. “People who make $75,000 a year won’t get any higher satisfaction from more money. Consider also the fact that while the US is one of the richest countries, it ranks only 23rd on the World Happiness Report.”

The ideal city, said WalletHub, “provides conditions that foster good mental and physical health, like reasonable work hours, short commutes, good weather, and caring neighbors.”

Two police officers responded to a 911 call from a four-year-old boy asking for his mother to be jailed for eating his ice cream.

The officers with the village of Mount Pleasant police department went to the boy's home to confirm that was the reason for the call and to replace his ice cream.

The lighthearted interaction began on March 4 in the town of Mount Pleasant, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee, when the young boy called 911 and told the dispatcher, “My mommy is being bad.”

Eventually, his mother is heard on the call saying, "Oh, this little one got the phone, and he’s 4. I ate his ice cream, so that’s probably why he’s calling 911,” she later said.

When officers arrived at the boy's home, he confirmed this, telling officers his mom ate his ice cream and "needed to go to jail" for it, the police department said on social media.

The officers and the boy's mother laughed about what happened and used the moment to teach him a valuable lesson: "No calling 911 unless it's a real emergency, OK?" one of the officers said to him. The next day, the officers returned with exactly what the had boy wanted — some soft serve.