Zelensky warns Ukraine won't accept decisions made without them in peace talks

 https://www.axios.com/2025/02/16/zelensky-putin-war-against-nato-trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a "Meet the Press" interview aired Sunday that he would "never accept" decisions made by the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine's future, even as the two nations appear poised to engage in peace talks this week.

The big picture: President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed Sunday on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that he and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz will travel to Saudi Arabia to "hopefully make some really good progress" on the Russia-Ukraine peace process.

Zelensky had said hours before that Ukraine was not invited to participate in any peace talks, a notion which Witkoff pushed back against to Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.

"Ukraine is part of the talks," Witkoff said, adding, "I don't think this is about excluding anybody."

Zoom out: European allies had also expressed concern Ukraine wouldn't get an equal say in peace talks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shocked NATO allies by declaring key bargaining chips off the table.

Trump administration's mixed messaging on foreign policy leaves world guessing

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crr0gkn1qlzo

Hegseth said it was "unrealistic" to think Ukraine could win back its sovereign territory occupied by Russia, as was its demand for Nato membership, adding it was up to European and not US troops to keep the peace.

Critics, including some Republicans in Washington, castigated the speech, saying it gave away all of Ukraine's leverage ahead of any negotiations. It was, they argued, a US capitulation to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"It's certainly an innovative approach to a negotiation to make very major concessions even before they have started," said former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relation, a think tank.

The US secretary of state's position contained no trace of laying out limits for Ukraine in the way the defence secretary had done. Then, also in the German city, Vice-President JD Vance said the US could use "military tools of leverage" to compel Russia to do a deal, appearing to contradict Hegseth who had said no US troops would be deployed to Ukraine.

Ukraine woos Trump with prospect of mineral riches

 https://thehill.com/policy/international/5141789-ukraine-rare-earth-minerals-trump/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is leveraging the country’s large deposits of rare earth materials and critical minerals to win the favor of President Trump ahead of high-stakes negotiations to end Russia’s war of aggression.

But negotiations between Zelensky and U.S. officials are off to a rocky start, Politico reported Saturday. Ukraine reportedly balked at a U.S. proposal calling for U.S. rights to half of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for military support.

Less than 20 percent of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including half of its rare earth deposits, are under Russian occupation, Zelensky told Reuters in an interview last week. Zelensky called for allies’ help in protecting what Ukraine controls, particularly in the eastern part of the country, which is the frontline of fighting. 

“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have,” Zelensky said. 

Zelensky “knows Trump is transactional, so he’s playing to a rhetoric that works,” Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Hill.

Dressing under the Blanket in the Morning

Igros Moshe (YD III #47.3) Getting dressed in the morning under the blanket because of the laws of modesty regarding uncovering places on the body which are normally covered and the Mishna Berura says that even is for putting on stockings. He also says there are differences between places and similarly it is obviously there are differences based on time. That means that a place of the body which used to be covered but is now typically uncovered it is to be described as a place that is typically revealed  We are not saying that  the way people dress in public should be that way they dress in the privacy of his house  even though this distinction is found universally. Rather we are concerned only with those parts of the body that are normally covered even in the house. Therefore only the clothing that cover these normally concealed places need to be dressed under the blanket because the glory of Heaven fills the whole world. .  Furthermore these typically uncovered places need to be covered only during prayers and they need to be not only covered but covered with respectful clothing such as worn in the presence of distinguished people even though it is true that every moment even when not praying you are standing before G-d. In fact when not praying it is not required to cover those places with articles of clothing but anything which covers. That is because dress is not objective reality but depends on the person as we see there are wide differences in dress between places and times.  The main thing with clothing is that it cover the body and not because it protects from cold or heat. The basic concern is that it is considered disgraceful for certain places to be uncovered even when he sits in the privacy of his home during the day. In fact if he doesn’t consider it degrading to sit that way in his home by definition it is not viewed as degrading and thus he can sit in his house that way without covering on those places.

If there is a problem caused by having to get dressed under the blanket such as it taking a lot of time and it interferes with his need to go to work and surely if it causes loss of Torah study time and similarly  women  who are very particular to dress properly and this can not be done properly under a blanket  What is the alternative? For those who sleep in pajamas I would advise them to  undress and put them on in the bathroom, since in America it is a place where people stand naked for a shower or bath and thus is better than  the toilet. Thus using the bathroom there is no problem being there naked while changing clothing and this is also considered a need like taking a shower . This is also true for a bathhouse or mikve or toilet since there is no issue of being uncovered  However this is because there is an actual need it is permitted in these places where there is not a concern for dignity and respect.  The bathroom is preferable to a toilet. This leniency can be utilized since the issue of modesty is not an actual prohibition but proper conduct and desirable behavior. 

Jewish Florida man shoots 2 Israelis, mistaking them for Palestinians

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/02/17/jewish-florida-man-shoots-2-israelis-mistaking-them-for-palestinians/

A Florida resident named Mordechai Brafman, working as a plumber in Miami-Dade County, fired 17 shots at a vehicle mistakenly believing he was targeting Palestinians. Upon arriving at the local police station, Brafman claimed he had killed two Palestinians, only to discover he had wounded two Israeli citizens.

The incident sparked immediate concern within the Jewish community, which initially feared the shooting was a targeted hate crime. The two victims, reportedly a father and son from Israel who were traveling in the United States, sustained only light injuries. The local Miami Herald reported that Brafman is now in custody and will face two counts of attempted murder.

'Will not make it through': Georgia Republicans urge Trump to reconsider Helene aid denial

 https://www.alternet.org/georgia-republicans-trump-helene/

Georgia — which was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last fall — is still counting on billions of dollars in federal aid to recover from the disaster. However, President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly stonewalling new requests for assistance.

“Look, you may not like Donald Trump personally, but you’ll like his policies a lot better than Kamala Harris,” Kemp said in October. “It’s a business decision. You’re making a business decision.”

After the news broke of the administration denying Kemp's aid request, Fair Fight Action spokesperson Max Flugrath observed: "Kemp's 'business decision' is costing Georgia big."

Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order

 https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/

The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause. 

The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with The Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

Common Cause learned on Friday The Post would not run the outside-the-paper ad criticizing Musk.

“Is it because we’re critical of what’s happening with Elon Musk? Is it only ok to run things in The Post now that won’t anger the president or won’t have him calling Jeff Bezos asking why this was allowed?” she said, referring to The Post’s owner, who is also the founder of Amazon and the space company Blue Origin.  

They have no policy’: Rep. Crow blasts Trump admin. foreign policy approach at Munich conference

Europe will not be part of Ukraine peace talks, US envoy says

 https://www.voanews.com/a/europe-will-not-be-part-of-ukraine-peace-talks-us-envoy-says-/7976497.html

Europe won't have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks, Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy said on Saturday, after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

Trump shocked European allies this week by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to peace talks.

Trump administration officials have also made clear in recent days that they expect European allies in NATO to take primary responsibility for the region as the United States now has other priorities, such as border security and countering China.

The U.S. moves have stoked fears that Europeans may be cut out of a peace deal that would also impact their own security, particularly if it is seen as too favorable to Russia.

Donald Trump's 'Drastic' Funding Cuts Face Republican Opposition

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-budget-cuts-republican-opposition-2031760

In late January, the Trump administration attempted to freeze spending on federal loans and grants so that administration officials could review the spending to see if it aligned with Trump's agenda. However, the spending freeze was quickly rescinded by the Trump administration after it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, a federal judge in Rhode Island who also temporarily blocked the spending freeze found that the Trump administration did not fully follow the court's order and told them to release billions of dollars in funds that were still frozen.

‘1 minute of research’: CNN fact checker smacks down Musk’s bizarre claim

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/1-minute-of-research-cnn-fact-checker-smacks-down-musk-s-bizarre-claim/ar-AA1z59sJ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=NMTS&cvid=2bbcd01cd3d54891cc47b7ffb1f00cee&ei=24

Elon Musk’s baffling new theory revolving around a Pentagon contract was ripped apart by CNN’s in-house fact-checker Daniel Dale, who offered a thorough debunking on Friday.

Dale was all over claims Musk made on his social media platform X over the last 24 hours where he misrepresented a government contract awarded to Thomson Reuters Special Services, a company selected by the Department of Defense to test defenses against “social engineering” cyberattacks, which use “social deception” strategies to trick humans, according to CNN.

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