https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-signs-new-order-to-vastly-expand-his-presidential-powers/
The move is unprecedented. Past presidents have rarely tried to challenge the independence of these agencies and some have gone so far as to avoid even suggesting a hint of interference through their actions.
But Trump last week made the stunning claim: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5151545-trump-ukraine-zelensky-war-russia/
Trump vowed to end the war during his presidential campaign and on Tuesday repeated his claim that the war would never have started if he had been president. He spoke after U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine officials.
“I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it’s going very well,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on the heels of the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials.
“But today I heard, ‘Oh, well we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump continued. “You should’ve ended it in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”
Trump went on to rail against former President Biden as “so pathetic” before again criticizing Zelensky.
“Look, you have leadership — and I like him personally. He’s fine. But I don’t care about personally. I care about getting the job done. You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States.”
President Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine, and his negotiators on Tuesday began the process with a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart. Global politics can be an ugly business, but the looming rehabilitation of Vladimir Putin is especially hard to take.
Mr. Trump said last week after a phone call with Mr. Putin that he’s convinced the Russian dictator wants “peace.” He didn’t say what kind of peace Mr. Putin has in mind, though if history is a guide it won’t be what most Americans understand by the word.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/donald-trump-putin-ukraine-analysis/index.html
It looked like things couldn’t get any darker for Ukraine. Then President Donald Trump spoke up.
After cutting President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the first US talks with Russia on ending the war, Trump on Tuesday falsely accused Ukraine of starting a conflict that has ravaged its land and killed thousands of its people.
And in his most hostile comments toward the Ukrainian leader yet, Trump voiced yet another of President Vladimir Putin’s talking points — that it was time for an election in Ukraine — in an apparent bid to begin the process of pushing Zelensky aside.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-ukraine-should-have-never-started-war-russia-2033014
At a news conference Tuesday, President Donald Trump blamed Kyiv for the Russia-Ukraine war.
Speaking on his peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump told reporters that Ukraine did not need a seat at the negotiating table because it "should've ended [the war] in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."
To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule.
But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-doj-eric-adams-charges-corruption-2032761
But Democrats are not the only ones who have expressed concern. Conservative columnist Ross Douthat, as well as lawyers David Lat, Andrew McCarthy and Ed Whelan, have also chimed in.
Additionally, Andrew McCarthy, former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, argued that the DOJ's order to drop the charges against Adams was "explicitly political."
"The Trump administration is dropping the case based on its political calculations," he wrote. "Politicized law enforcement is always wrong. And it is not more attractive when it insulates a politician from what appears to be righteous law enforcement than when it targets a politician with what appears to be discriminatory law enforcement."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mexico-threatens-to-sue-google-over-gulf-of-america-change/
Mexico is threatening to sue Google after the “Gulf of America” name change in its map service following President Donald Trump’s order.
Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said at a Monday press conference that Trump had only changed the name within America’s continental shelf, and not the entire gulf.
The United States claims around 46 percent of the gulf, with Mexico having 49 percent and Cuba holding the leftover area.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/woman-loses-custody-of-baby-after-ivf-embryo-mix-up/
A woman has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic in Georgia after she was mistakenly artificially inseminated with another couple’s embryo, Business Insider reported. Krystena Murray, a white woman who chose to use a white sperm donor for her IVF procedure, knew something was up the moment she saw the baby she gave birth to in late Dec. 2023. Her baby boy was Black, according to the complaint filed in the State Court of Chatham County. A DNA test and clarification from her fertility clinic proved that another couple’s embryo had been transferred into her uterus. Coastal Fertility allegedly told the other couple, who sued Murray in family court for custody of the child. Although Murray had bonded with her newborn, she voluntarily gave up the child during a family court hearing in May 2024, and she lost custody to the child’s legal parents within five months. “This has destroyed me,” Murray said in a press release. “Nothing can express the shock and violation upon learning that your doctor put a stranger’s embryo into your body.” Murray, who described herself as “heartsick” and “emotionally broken” after having to give up the baby, is now suing Coastal Fertility Specialists in Savannah, Georgia.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-842602
A senior leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in Israel said Degel Hatorah representatives and voters should withdraw from all participation in national institutions, citing irreconcilable ideological differences with Zionism’s secular foundations.
“Zionism is a movement whose purpose is to establish the Jewish people on an explicitly secular foundation, rooted in heresy and rebellion against divine sovereignty. All the national institutions are built upon this ideology, Rabbi Dov Landau wrote in the haredi daily Yated Ne’eman on Tuesday.
“There is no allowance to participate with them, serve in any role within their institutions, or vote in their elections in any form whatsoever.”
https://www.newsweek.com/judge-orders-eric-adams-doj-court-over-bribery-case-dismissal-2032758
A federal judge ordered New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to appear in court on Wednesday to explain the DOJ's request to dismiss the criminal corruption charges against Adams.
Kathy Hochul said in a statement on Monday: "I recognize the immense responsibility I hold as governor and the constitutional powers granted to this office. In the 235 years of New York State history, these powers have never been utilized to remove a duly-elected mayor; overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly. That said, the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored."
https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1686890
פוסק הדור הגר"מ שטרנבוך בשיחה באנגלית במעונו: "הישועה שלנו לא תבוא מנשיא אמריקה, הישועה תבוא רק כשנכיר שאף אחד לא יכול לעזור לנו "אפס עצור ועזוב" וגם נשיא אמריקה לא יעזור". צפו בדבריו המלאים
Maran Posk Hador, Rabbi Sternbuch, in conversation In English at his residence:To download a video file, click here.
While the entire world is closely watching the US President Terry Donald Trump, who never ceases to surprise with pro-Israel statements in an extreme right-wing style, recently released a short video clip that Maran Posk Hador HaGor, the Rabbi of Sternbuch, gave upon Trump's entry into the White House, during his weekly conversation on Shabbat evening in English at his home.
In his words, Maran Posk Hador said: " Any thought of a large army, a large air force, or the thought that "we are very strong," nothing can come of it.
"The only thing we have is the Lord, and the future redemption will only occur when we recognize that no one can help us except God Himself."
At this point, Maran Posk Hador referred to the new reality in the world with the arrival of Donald Trump, "Today, many people trust a new president in America, and think that he will help us. But you need to know that these people are holding back the Messiah. Only when we understand that Hashem is the only power that can help us, no stop and leave, no one can help us but the Almighty, will we not be saved from the President of America, only then will the Almighty bring salvation.
Igros Moshe (Y.D. 03:087):Girls learning Mishna? Concerning the issue that there are girl’s schools (Beis Yakov) that the staff or principals want to teach them Mishna. Rambam (Talmud Torah 1:13) rules according to Rabbi Eliezar (Sotah 20a) not to teach girls Torah but he distinguishes between the Oral Torah which he says is like teaching them obscenity and the Written Torah which is only problematic l’chatchila. Nevertheless Mishna is Oral Torah and our Sages have commanded us not to teach them and it is like teaching them obscenity. Therefore it is required to withhold this from them. Except for Pirkei Avos which is mussar and good behavior which should be taught to them with clear explanations in order to motivate them in love of Torah and good character.
