Author: Robert Jones

Here are the key developments on the 1,092nd day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Here is the situation on Thursday, February 20: Fighting A man was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. A “massive” Russian attack on the port city of Odesa in southwestern Ukraine left four people hospitalised and a large residential area – covering 14 schools and about 160,000 residents – without heat, water or electricity, Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said. A Russian guided bomb killed at least one person in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kupiansk, according to Kharkiv region’s…

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined the Justice Department’s request to immediately reinstate President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, setting up a potential emergency application to the Supreme Court. Legal experts have said Trump’s order conflicted with the Fourteenth Amendment, which extends American citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, by denying citizenship to future children born in the United States if their mothers were unlawfully present in the country and their fathers were not citizens or permanent residents.The Justice Department had asked the 9th Circuit to grant an emergency stay of…

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While the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its efforts to cut unnecessary federal spending, more people have questioned what tech billionaire Elon Musk’s classification is in the White House and his official involvement in DOGE.Is Elon Musk Getting Paid for DOGE?Musk helped spark the creation of DOGE, a cost-cutting initiative signed into action by President Donald Trump. However, as previously reported by Newsweek, Musk is not receiving a salary for his role, according to White House filings. Musk has been classified as a “special government employee,” a designation that allows individuals to work for the government on a temporary…

NEW YORK (AP) — A former Watergate prosecutor on Monday urged a federal judge presiding over the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams to assign a special counsel to help decide how to handle the Justice Department’s request to drop charges while three ex-U.S. attorneys urged a “searching factual inquiry.”Attorney Nathaniel Akerman told Judge Dale E. Ho in a letter filed in the case record in Manhattan federal court that he sought to intervene because nobody was representing the public’s interest after three attorneys from the Justice Department in Washington made the request Friday.The one-time Watergate prosecutor urged…

Washington CNN  —  President Donald Trump’s false declaration Tuesday that Ukraine “started” the Russian war on Ukraine generated the most attention. But Trump also made another wildly inaccurate assertion about Ukraine during those remarks to the media at Mar-a-Lago: a claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has a 4% approval rating. Trump was pushing Ukraine to hold its first presidential election since Zelensky was elected in 2019. The Ukrainian constitution does not allow national elections under martial law; Ukraine, which has been under martial law since the Russian invasion in 2022, called off the presidential election that would otherwise have…

President Donald Trump floated the idea Wednesday of returning some of the savings recouped by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to U.S. citizens, with an equal amount going to pay down the federal debt.”There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible,” Trump said.Trump made the remarks at an event in Miami Beach, Florida, a day after Musk indicated on X that he would ask Trump about a “DOGE dividend,” described as a tax refund check sourced from…

President Donald Trump’s average favorability ratings have declined after an initial spike following his return to office, according to polling aggregators.Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.Why It MattersThe drop in Trump’s favorability rating comes as the president faces criticism for several policies and actions. These include his ongoing efforts to downsize the federal government, which have resulted in thousands of workers being laid off, and his suggestion that the U.S. will “take over” the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians from the area while it is rebuilt. President Donald Trump signs a series of executive orders in…

Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp attends meetings at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 18, 2023.Jonathan Ernst | ReutersThe share price of Palantir fell as much as 12.5% Wednesday after news that CEO Alex Karp had adopted a new stock trading plan, and a report that the Pentagon has been ordered to prepare to cut the U.S. defense budget by 8% each year for the next five years.Palantir is best known for its contracting work providing software and technology services for defense agencies.On Tuesday night, Palantir in a regulatory filing disclosed that Karp’s new plan will allow him…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Tuesday criticized the United States and Asian neighbors for pursuing the “absurd” goal of denuclearizing the North and said it will push to expand its nuclear forces under the direction of its authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un.The statement by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry came after the top diplomats of the U.S., South Korea and Japan met at a security conference in Germany and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening military cooperation and reinforcing an international sanctions regime to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.The North Korean ministry accused the U.S. of trying to realize an “outdated…