Watch: South Korea Fighter Jets Accidentally Drop Bombs On Small Town
https://twitter.com/i/status/1897474170654744748
Trump Piles Pressure On Zelensky, Now Demands 'Quick Ceasefire' To Go With Minerals Deal
Update(1222ET): The White House has paused both weapons shipments to Kiev as well as intelligence-sharing, given that so far President Zelensky has refused the sign Trump's minerals deal while complaining it doesn't contain clear and firm security guarantees.
Rather than back down, it appears Trump has just piled on yet another big demand on Ukraine, ramping up the pressure even more. The US is now pressing Ukraine to achieve a 'quick ceasefire' to go with the minerals deal, Bloomberg reports Thursday:
European officials have been told that President Donald Trump wants to link the proposed US-Ukraine minerals deal to demands for Kyiv to commit to a quick ceasefire with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
Washington has indicated that Trump is ready to finalize the agreement on natural resources, which has been on hold since his Oval Office fallout with Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, on condition the Ukrainian leader agrees to tangible path for a truce and talks with Moscow, the people said.
This is a huge development, which could see peace talks come together quickly - as Ukraine possesses little or no leverage with either Moscow or Washington at this point (only now heavily relying on Europe, which can't fill the heavy lifting previously done by the US) - or else this will see the US and Ukraine relationship suffer total collapse. And this would see the US weapon stoppage become permanent.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kremlin-reacts-rubio-calling-ukraine-conflict-proxy-war
Judge Blocks NYC's Bid To Swiftly Recover $80.5 Million In FEMA Grant For Housing Illegals
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden said the city failed to prove irreparable harm and could still recover the money if it succeeds in the lawsuit. The ruling came after a roughly two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court.
On Feb. 4, city officials sued when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and its overseer, the Department of Homeland Security, clawed back funds from a city bank account.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Feb. 12 that she had pulled the FEMA funds, which had gone towards housing illegal immigrants in New York City hotels.
“FEMA was funding the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to house Laken Riley’s killer,” she wrote in a post on the social platform X.
Laken Riley, then a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra in Georgia on Feb. 22, 2024. Ibarra had entered the country illegally from Venezuela in 2022.
On Feb. 12, Noem said the money represented “the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
In response, the city described the clawback as a “money grab” that sidestepped Congress’ intent in appropriating the funds.
Its lawsuit called on Rearden to order the Trump administration to immediately return the $80.5 million and to stop taking similar actions.
FEMA originally gave New York City the money to offset the cost of housing illegal immigrants in city hotels after illegal immigration surged during the Biden administration.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-blocks-nycs-bid-swiftly-recover-805-million-fema-grant-housing-illegals
Lying Jew got called out
Israeli FM ‘didn’t know’ Kiev glorifies Holocaust perpetrators
Moscow has expressed confusion over Gideon Sa’ar’s claims of ignorance regarding Ukrainian nationalism
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has claimed ignorance of the well-documented fact that Ukrainian nationalists responsible for atrocities against Jewish people are venerated as heroes by Kiev. Moscow, in response, has offered to enlighten the Israeli official on the matter.
On Monday, Sa’ar held a press briefing to mark Israel’s presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). West Jerusalem emphasized that anti-Semitism, which fueled Nazi crimes during World War II, “has not been eradicated from the world.”
The minister seemed taken aback when a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern-day glorification in Ukraine of Nazi-allied historical nationalist figures such as Stepan Bandera. In 2016, the Kiev city council renamed a large street in honor of Bandera, located just 3 km from Babi Yar, where an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Jews and thousands of others were exterminated under Nazi occupation.
“First of all, I didn’t know about it. I will check it,” the official responded, pledging to issue a statement of condemnation “if there is a necessity.”
Bandera and other nationalists, including those directly implicated in wartime atrocities, have been celebrated in modern Ukraine for years – something the reporter described as “common knowledge.”
The Russian government expressed bewilderment at the exchange, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sarcastically questioning the competence of Israel’s diplomatic staff.
“How so? What is the Israeli embassy in Kiev doing then? And in Moscow too?” she wrote on social media, offering a collection of relevant documents in English for the minister’s convenience.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Kiev have in fact issued multiple statements denouncing the veneration of such figures. In January 2022, the diplomatic mission described that year’s annual torch march commemorating Bandera’s birthday as “desecrating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine.”
No such condemnation was issued the following year, however. The embassy explained to Haarez that “we’ve made our position clear many times, but apparently there is nothing we can do, at least at the moment.”
Moscow views the current government in Kiev as dominated by neo-Nazis and radical nationalists and insists that any potential peace deal with Ukraine must include a reversal of policies discriminating against ethnic Russians.
https://www.rt.com/news/613816-ukraine-bandera-israeli-embassy/
CDC Rehires About 180 Employees Laid Off Two Weeks Ago
The nation’s top public health agency says about 180 employees who were laid off two weeks ago can come back to work.
Emails went out Tuesday to some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention probationary employees who got termination notices last month, according to current and former CDC employees.
A message seen by the AP was sent with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately.” It said that “after further review and consideration,” a Feb. 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday. “You should return to duty under your previous work schedule,” it said. “We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”
About 180 people received reinstatement emails, according to two federal health officials who were briefed on the tally but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It’s not clear how many of the reinstated employees returned to work Wednesday. And it’s also unclear whether the employees would be spared from widespread job cuts that are expected soon across government agencies.
The CDC is the latest federal agency trying to coax back workers soon after they were dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting purge. Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons and national parks.
The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the job cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees.
Last month, Trump administration officials told the CDC that nearly 1,300 of the agency’s probationary employees would be let go. That tally quickly changed, as the number who actually got termination notices turned out to be 700 to 750.
With 180 more people now being told they can return, the actual number of CDC employees terminated so far would seem to stand somewhere around 550. But federal health officials haven’t confirmed any specifics.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month pledged “ radical transparency ” at the department, but HHS officials have not provided detail about CDC staff changes and did not respond to emailed requests on Tuesday and Wednesday. An agency spokesman, Andrew Nixon, previously told the AP only that CDC had more full-time employees after the job cuts than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those who received reinstatement emails included outbreak responders in two fellowship programs — a two-year training that prepares recent graduates to enter the public health workforce through field experience and a laboratory program that brings in doctorate-holding professionals.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock celebrated the reinstatements, but said it’s not enough.
“Today’s announcement is a welcome relief, but until all fired CDC employees are restored, our country’s public health and national security will continue to be at risk,” Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/cdc-invites-back-about-180-fired-employees-including-some-who-help-fight-outbreaks/