https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/404258
IDF representatives inform the Bibas family that Ariel and Kfir Bibas have been identified. They were brutally murdered while in captivity in November of 2023. The additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas. IDF: A violation of utmost severity by Hamas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/20/trump-ukraine-fact-checker/
In remarks and social media posts, the president echoed Russian talking points.
Trump’s declaration was shocking. Mike Pence, his former vice president, posted on X: “Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Trump of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space” — and then Trump shot back with an attack on Truth Social.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/19/ukraine-zelensky-trump-peace-talks/
Tuesday was a dark day for the United States. President Donald Trump and his administration embraced Russia as a peace partner without demanding that it pay any price for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And then, in a statement that turned morality upside down, the president blamed Ukraine for causing the war.
Trump is an outrage-generating machine. He appears to take perverse pleasure in saying things that shock, and I normally ignore the daily presidential detonation. But this time was different. The tragic loss of life in Ukraine will mean nothing — and a true resolution of the conflict will be impossible — if we can’t distinguish between the attacker and the victim.
https://time.com/7259417/trump-poll-approval-inflation/
The poll found a majority of Americans don’t like how Trump is handling the economy, with 54% disapproving, and foreign trade, with 53% who disapprove. (The Gallup poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,004 adults during the two week period ending Feb. 16, and its margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.)
Despite his historically low support among Americans more broadly, Republican voters remain strongly behind Trump. His job approval among Republicans is 93%, while his approval among Democrats is 4%. Among independent voters, Trump has 37% approval.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-cheers-on-king-trump-dropping-pretense-of-democracy/
President Donald Trump declared himself king and MAGAworld eagerly bent the knee.
Conservatives cheered on Trump’s victory lap Wednesday after announcing the termination of New York City’s controversial congestion pricing program, which came into effect last month as part of a bid to raise funds for improving the city’s mass transit system.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had initiated legal proceedings to push back against the Trump administration’s termination of the program.
“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” she said in a statement. “We’ll see you in court.”
Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said his loyalty remained with the nation.
“We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one,” he said.
Democratic lawfare failed against Donald Trump the candidate, and now it’s backfiring on Mr. Trump’s attempt to use it as President. That’s the lesson of the fallout surrounding his Justice Department’s move to dismiss the corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams that could cost the mayor his job.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering whether to remove Mr. Adams from office after news emerged last week of an alleged Trump-Adams quid pro quo. Mr. Trump wants Mr. Adams in office to help him with migrant removal and other things. But that’s angered New York Democrats, and this week four of the mayor’s leading aides quit.
This story doesn’t make the Justice Department look good, or smart. In a Feb. 10 memo from Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Justice ordered prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Mr. Adams, but with the ability to revive it later. Mr. Bove said the charges are distracting the mayor from supporting federal efforts against illegal immigration.
Three days later, Mr. Adams met Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar. “We are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island,” the mayor said.
One challenge in the Trump era is distinguishing when the President is popping off for attention from when his remarks indicate a real change in policy and priorities. President Trump’s rhetorical assault on Ukraine in recent days appears to be the latter, and perhaps it is a sign of an ugly settlement to come.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday mimicked Russian propaganda by claiming Ukraine had started the war with Russia and that Kyiv is little better than the Kremlin because it hasn’t held a wartime election. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky replied on Wednesday that Mr. Trump was living in a “disinformation space,” which may have been imprudent but was accurate.
Mr. Trump escalated on Wednesday, as he usually does, calling Mr. Zelensky a “dictator,” and suggesting Ukraine’s leader snookered the U.S. into supporting a war “that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.” Mr. Zelensky “refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’”
It’s tempting to dismiss this exchange as mere rhetoric, but it has the feel of political intention for Mr. Trump. He may be trashing Ukraine’s democracy to make voters think there’s no real difference between the Kremlin and Kyiv. He may think this will make it easier to sell a peace deal that betrays Ukraine.
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-trump-says-usa-spent-350-billion-ukraine-2033333
Trump on Tuesday said, without citing a source, that Zelensky's approval rating was at 4 percent in Ukraine. Zelensky alleged Trump had succumbed to "disinformation" from Russia in the comments. In comments made following Zelensky's remarks, Trump took to social media to say that the Ukrainian president had "talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion," a claim that is not backed by evidence.
There is no evidence that the U.S. has spent or committed $350 billion toward Ukraine.
The Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR), which handles U.S. oversight of this spending, states Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available nearly $183 billion toward Ukraine and OAR, of which $130.1 billion has been obligated and $86.7 disbursed, between fiscal years 2022 and 2024.
Igros Moshe (YD I #139) This that you took a job as a principal at a school for young children under the auspices of heretics and you were told by one of my principals that it was inappropriate. The fact is that even if the job was kosher such as teaching them G-d’s Torah and praying with them properly. In another location it would be proper to have such a job since it is necessary to teach Torah to their children so that perhaps they will grow up to keeping Torah and mitzvos as proper Jews. However it is still inappropriate to accept this position which involves also being a teacher there because it is possible that the students there will come to view their school as a legitimate place to learn since they have such a nice religious teacher and this can lead to serious damage. However this that you write that they pray an inappropriately abbreviated pray and they don’t say all the Berachos in the Amida and consequently instead of educating them properly in prayer and mitzvos you are teaching them that which is prohibited. That is because all the Berachos of the Amida are required. It is surely a problem if the beracha they say has been altered from the original text it would certainly be prohibited to take this job. Even if it is possible that you might be able to influence some of the students to be better. But the possibility similarly exists that it is more likely that the opposite is true that this will cause some to not be properly religious. That is because heresy is attractive and thus must be avoided.
