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An announcement at the National Prayer Breakfast. I'm Dave Anthony, Fox News. I will be creating a brand new presidential commission on religious liberty. It's going to be a very big deal.
which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right. President Trump also just said he'll sign an executive order today to set up a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. The first two weeks have been probably, they say, the most successful two weeks in the history of any presidency. Of course, Democrats disagree. More on that in a moment. Before the prayer breakfast, the president addressed lawmakers at the Capitol. We have to make the most out of every
single day that we have. Referencing last week's mid-air collision when 67 people were killed when an Army helicopter crashed into an American Airlines regional plane about to land at Reagan National Airport. They were understaffed for whatever reason. I guess the helicopter was high.
And we'll find out exactly what happened. Today, a U.S. military contracted plane crashed into a rice field in the Philippines, killing all four people on board. The deadline's tonight for federal workers to accept the president's buyout offer to resign. Fox's Jackie Heinrich reports from the White House. And the 40,000 who have accepted so far is short of the 5 to 10 percent of the workforce that the White House expected to quit.
There are reports that Doge associates are urging people to take this eight month paid vacation and also detailing possible layoffs if they choose instead to stay. Meantime, Democrats are demanding that President Trump fire Elon Musk, calling him an unelected bureaucrat with unchecked
power. Of course, Musk runs the new Department of Government Efficiency, working to cut back at federal agencies. In Fox's Chad Perger reports from Capitol Hill. Democrats kept the Senate in session all night to protest Doge, Elon Musk, and the nomination of Russ Vogt as budget director. Democrats believe Musk and Vogt would interfere with the constitutional authority of Congress to control the purse strings. America's listening to Fox News.
I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large of The Spectator, and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. I'm inviting you to join in-depth conversations every week on the Ben Domenech Podcast. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.
Stocks are up, but not by much so far today. The Dow gaining four points. The Nasdaq's up 15. It's an eight-point rise for the S&P 500. The price of oil today is up slightly as well, still around 71 bucks a barrel. Gas is up a penny. AAA's national average for regular 3.13 a gallon. That is seven cents more than a month ago.
We got a couple of updates this morning on the job market, starting with first-time unemployment filings last week. New claims rose by 11,000 to 219,000. Economists were predicting 213,000. Continuing claims, those remaining on benefits rose to 1.88 million. Outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas is reporting job cuts down 40 percent in January from a year ago, but it doesn't see the trend holding because some companies have
already announced job cuts in February. The monthly employment report is released tomorrow. Economists are expecting 170,000 new jobs in January, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.1%. Ginny Koselda.
Fox News. A rift appears to be growing between the U.S. and South Africa. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the G20 summit scheduled for later this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. The decision, he says, is prompted by the South African government's land seizure bill, which gives the government power to take privately owned land. President Trump calls the action a violation of human rights.
Both Rubio and President Trump accused South Africa of using its leadership of the G20 to promote anti-American sentiment and have threatened to withhold foreign aid payments, which often total hundreds of millions of dollars. Eben Brown, Fox News. Secretary Rubio has made the rounds in recent days in Central America. Two of the countries he visited have agreed to help the U.S. with mass deportations of illegal immigrants rounded up in recent raids. And like El Salvador, Guatemala is agreeing to accept migrants from any country.
I'm Dave Anthony. This is Fox News.