Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Tuesday, March 11, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have a number of pressing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening both nationally and around the world.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) finds that millions of dollars in questionable federal loans have been handed out to children; the State Department takes immediate action regarding billions of dollars in foreign aid; and we’ll tell you which state is considering significant legislation that would change the way a person can defend their property.
Also, President Donald Trump weighs in on the prospects for this week’s crucial negotiations with Ukraine, and investors show concern as U.S. financial markets react dramatically to our changing economy.
DOGE Finds $312 Million in Loans Given to Children
The Department of Government Efficiency says that the Small Business Administration (SBA) granted more than 5,500 loans, worth over $300 million, to borrowers whose age was listed as 11 years old or younger.DOGE says that the SBA granted those loans during the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
It went on to say that while it’s possible that the loans could be legal business arrangements, it’s highly unlikely in these instances because all the applicants used a Social Security number with an incorrect name.
DOGE says it also found that the SBA issued more than 3,000 additional loans, worth over $330 million, to borrowers whose age was listed as more than 115 years old.
Those borrowers were listed as alive in the Social Security database, DOGE said. In one case, an individual with an age listed as as 157 years received business-related loans worth $36,000.
DOGE also points out that both DOGE and the SBA are actively investigating these loans.
Meanwhile, DOGE continues to face a number of lawsuits that question the legality of sweeping cost-cutting measures resulting from its auditing, as well as its access to the personal information of millions of Americans, which is stored in a variety of federal databases.
State Department Cancels Most USAID Contracts
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the State Department has just canceled more than 5,000 contracts associated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).Those terminated contracts amount to 83 percent of USAID’s programs. Rubio says the programs spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, and in some cases even harmed, the core national interests of the U.S.
He also says that the agency’s remaining 1,000 contracts will be kept in place.
Rubio went on to thank staff members at both the State Department and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whom he said worked long hours in an effort to achieve what he called an “overdue and historic reform.”
To refresh your memory, after beginning his second term, President Donald Trump froze all U.S. assistance to foreign nations, saying that moving forward, the United States will only disburse aid if it’s in line with the foreign policy of the U.S. president.
Rubio, who’s the acting USAID administrator, then began reviewing the USAID contracts to make sure they promoted U.S. interests.
Rubio’s announcement follows a recent court decision that gave the federal government a Monday, March 10 deadline to pay nearly $2 billion that it owes to a number of USAID grant recipients. The judge who issued that directive found the Trump administration’s recent freeze to be unconstitutional.
California Bill Would Limit Residents’ Ability to Use Deadly Force
A California bill that would restrict the use of lethal force to defend a person’s property from criminals is expected to be heard by a legislative committee in the near future.The proposed legislation would eliminate certain circumstances under which deadly force is justifiable, including if an individual is defending their residence or property, or if they’re trying to prevent someone from committing a felony.
The legislation would still allow deadly force to defend against someone entering a home in order to commit violence against a person, or to protect someone from great bodily injury.
However, the bill says that homicide is not justifiable when “more force” than is “reasonably necessary” is used to defend against danger. Additionally, it restricts lethal action when a person is outside of their home and is aware that the use of potentially deadly force could have been avoided with “complete safety” by retreating.
A gun-control group backing the measure says that the bill would make it perfectly clear that a person cannot kill someone if he or she has a safe and easy way to de-escalate the situation and leave.
However, one group opposed to the measure says that the bill would destroy what’s known as the “castle doctrine,” which allows a person to use deadly force to protect their home and its inhabitants from intruders, without being obliged to retreat.
Meanwhile, the Democratic assemblyman who proposed the bill tells The Epoch Times that it was never intended to limit a crime victim’s right to defend themselves, their families, or their homes.
He says that the legislation’s goal is simply to promote safety by protecting people from vigilante violence in public places, and that he plans to amend the bill to clear up any confusion.
Trump Says He Expects Talks With Ukraine in Saudi Arabia Will Make Progress
President Donald Trump says he believes that this week’s negotiations between the United States and Ukraine in Jeddah will make swift progress toward ending Ukraine’s war with Russia.He says that he thinks Ukraine will soon sign a pending mineral rights deal between our two nations. He also says he wants Ukraine to want peace, but right now, they haven’t shown that desire to the extent they should.
The president went on to say that he thinks everything could change this week, due to the extraordinary financial and physical toll of what he calls a “senseless” war.
He says that over the past week alone, thousands of young soldiers died, along with hundreds of people in Ukrainian cities, pointing out how urgent it is to negotiate a deal to stop the killing.
Additionally, Trump seemed to confirm that the United States has “just about” stopped sharing critical intelligence information with Ukraine, which has no military satellites of its own and has been partially relying on satellite internet services provided by Starlink, a company owned by Elon Musk.
By the way, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is part of the U.S. delegation to Saudi Arabia. He says that without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago, and that right now, the Russians would be on the border with Poland.
Finally, following comments made by Trump regarding the economy, the markets dive, with the Dow losing 890 points. Investors are concerned, but a key presidential adviser says everything’s going to be just fine.
Dow Plunges as Recession Fears Build
Economic fears are significantly impacting U.S. financial markets, as investors worry that a global trade dispute will ignite an economic downturn. Their concerns were made worse after President Donald Trump recently declined to rule out the possibility of a recession.The sell-off comes following Trump’s recently imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as doubled levies on goods from China.
He also says that his tariff plans are designed to protect the American people after they have been “ripped off” for many decades and that his goal is to build a strong country.
He went on to say that you can’t really watch the stock market to measure the success of his economic policies. He says that “you have to do what’s right,” and that what his administration is doing is “building a tremendous foundation for the future.”
For his part, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a former Wall Street executive, says that he would never bet on a recession. He says that the president’s plans will “grow our economy in a way we’ve never grown before.”
It’s just about time for us to wrap things up, but before we head out, one more story we’re following closely here in the News Brief newsroom:
It looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Tuesday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
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Finally, as we do each day on this program, we wrap everything up with a notable quote. This one comes to us from Larry Bird, who said:
“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”
Bird is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and NBA executive. He’s widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your day and we’ll see you right back here next time for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another. Have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
