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European Leaders Brave Russian Bombardment in Visit to Kyiv

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European Leaders Brave Russian Bombardment in Visit to Kyiv

LONDON — Three European leaders staged a defiant present of help for Ukraine on Tuesday, touring to its besieged capital, Kyiv, whilst a relentless Russian artillery bombardment left condo towers within the metropolis ablaze, forcing terrified residents to flee into the road with solely the garments on their backs.

The dramatic go to by the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, which unfolded in tight secrecy as they crossed the Ukrainian border by practice after daybreak, was a strikingly private gesture. Nevertheless it caught different European leaders off guard, angering some and baring uncomfortable divisions in how finest to reveal Western solidarity with Ukraine.

It additionally got here as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia disparaged the second consecutive day of negotiations with Ukraine, undercutting the faint glimmers of hope raised from talks the day earlier than that each side had been in search of a option to halt the warfare.

The Kremlin slapped retaliatory sanctions on President Biden and different senior American officers. Mr. Biden introduced his personal plans to journey to Europe subsequent week to showcase the unity of the NATO alliance within the face of Russian aggression.

A spokesman for Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, stated the three guests had been “de facto” representing the European Union in Ukraine. In Brussels, nonetheless, officers stated the trio didn’t have the E.U.’s blessing, and a few European diplomats complained that the journey was too dangerous, given the Russian forces encircling Kyiv.

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Others stated they admired the audacity of the group, which additionally included Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic and Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia, casting it as a strong image of the backing for Ukraine amongst nations on Europe’s japanese flank, the place the specter of Russian aggression looms bigger than in Paris or London.

Nonetheless, for all of the symbolism of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine’s leaders beneath the specter of Russia’s rockets, Ukraine was going through the devastating barrage largely by itself. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, imposed a 35-hour curfew, beginning on Tuesday night, which recommended the capital was getting into an much more tough part of its grinding battle to carry off Russian troops and tanks.

“That is their try to annihilate the Ukrainian individuals,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine stated in an emotional video handle to the Canadian Parliament, repeating his plea for NATO to implement a no-fly zone over the nation. “It’s an try to destroy our future, our nation, our character.”

Mr. Zelensky requested the lawmakers to think about if the CN Tower in Toronto had been shelled just like the towers in Kyiv. His language has develop into extra pointed, even scolding, with every speech to a Western viewers, revealing his frustration with leaders who’ve resisted extra direct army involvement out of concern that it could entangle them in a wider battle with Russia.

The Ukrainian chief, who has develop into a hero to many within the West, is scheduled to talk through video to Congress on Wednesday, the place he’s anticipated to amplify his pleas for extra assist and improve the stress on america and its allies.

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Mr. Biden is planning to announce $800 million in new safety help to Ukraine on Wednesday, in line with White Home officers. The administration final week introduced $200 million in safety help for Ukraine and has made accessible a complete of $2 billion in such funding.

On Tuesday night, the Polish state broadcaster carried video of the Czech, Slovene and Polish leaders assembly Mr. Zelensky and different officers throughout a protracted desk, with Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag behind them.

“They’re right here to help us,” Mr. Zelensky stated at a information briefing after the assembly, which additionally was proven on Ukrainian tv. “It’s a nice, brave, proper, pleasant step. I’m assured that with such mates, such nations and neighbors and companions, we are able to actually win.”

{A photograph} posted earlier on Mr. Morawiecki’s Twitter account confirmed the three males poring over a map, seated in what gave the impression to be a practice carriage en path to the Ukrainian capital.

“It’s right here, in war-torn Kyiv, that historical past is being made,” Mr. Morawiecki stated within the Twitter put up. “It’s right here, that freedom fights towards the world of tyranny. It’s right here that the way forward for us all hangs within the stability.”

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The White Home introduced that Mr. Biden would fly to Brussels for a unprecedented summit assembly of NATO on March 24. Which will end in additional financial and army support for Ukraine however will doubtless fall wanting Mr. Zelensky’s request for a no-fly zone. Administration officers declined to say whether or not Mr. Biden deliberate to satisfy with the Ukrainian president, whom he has referred to as a hero. However they stated Mr. Biden might go on to someplace in Japanese Europe to satisfy with refugees streaming out of Ukraine.

The river of individuals fleeing the warfare continued unabated on Tuesday, as Russia claimed to have seized management of the strategic Kherson area within the south. Russian forces stored up their pounding of civilian targets in Kyiv, the place Ukrainian troops had been fortifying intersections with sandbags, tires, and iron spikes.

A pre-dawn rain of rockets on Kyiv shattered home windows, left craters in buildings, and turned a 16-floor condo home right into a towering inferno. The hearth unfold rapidly after a missile struck the constructing, blowing a jagged gap at its entrance. Firefighters rescued residents from home windows by ladder by means of billowing smoke. By midafternoon, they’d carried out two our bodies encased in black baggage.

“I got here out with nothing,” stated Mykola Fedkiv, 85, a retired geologist. “I left the whole lot, my phone, my medicines, the whole lot.”

When the missile struck, Mr. Fedkiv fled his Twelfth-floor condo and made his approach down the steps. He climbed by means of the blasted entrance corridor and located himself within the bomb crater. Folks pulled him out by his arms. He stood exterior for hours, hoping to re-enter his condo to gather private paperwork. Requested the place he deliberate to remain the evening, he responded, “God is aware of.”

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Situations had been much more determined within the coastal metropolis of Mariupol, which has been pummeled by Russian forces in a two-week siege that has left some residents crushed within the rubble and lots of others dying in a winter freeze with no warmth, meals, or clear water. Officers can now not account for the variety of useless and lacking.

Formally, 2,400 civilians killed in Mariupol have been recognized, however Pyotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to town authorities, stated he believed the toll was far greater, presumably as many as 20,000. Ukrainian estimates of the variety of individuals trapped have ranged from 200,000 to 400,000.

Mr. Andryushchenko stated 2,000 autos had managed to flee Mariupol on Tuesday and that one other 2,000 had been packed and able to go away. Officers informed civilians to “delete all messages and pictures from telephones” in case Russian troopers searched them for indicators of help for Ukrainian forces.

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The perils of reporting correct info from Ukraine’s fight zones had been additional underscored Tuesday with information {that a} Fox Information cameraman and a Ukrainian colleague had been killed in an assault on Monday exterior Kyiv — elevating to a minimum of three the variety of journalist fatalities in Ukraine up to now few days.

In Kherson, a southern metropolis beneath Russian occupation, the mayor stated that members of Russia’s nationwide guard had been rounding up activists who opposed Russia’s presence, presumably attempting to recruit them by means of coercion.

“They’re all within the metropolis, within the jail,” the mayor, Igor Kolykhaev, wrote in a number of textual content messages, referring to the activists. Russian troops, he stated, “gather them, maintain them, work them over and launch them.”

Kherson was the primary main metropolis to fall to Russian forces after the Feb. 24 begin of the invasion. Though Kremlin officers had predicted that the Ukrainian individuals would welcome their “liberation” by Russian troops, residents of Kherson have been defiant, commonly gathering within the central sq. to protest the Russian presence, even when Russian troops fireplace into the air to disperse them.

Russia claimed to have captured your complete Kherson area, doubtlessly strengthening its potential to push west towards the strategic port cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa. A senior Ukrainian army official, talking on the situation of anonymity, confirmed that Russian forces had been answerable for a lot of the Kherson area, however stated Ukrainian forces had been attacking their positions and inflicting losses.

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Negotiations through video hyperlink between Russia and Ukraine continued for a second day on Tuesday, although Mr. Putin doused prospects of any imminent breakthrough. In a cellphone name with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, Mr. Putin complained that “Kyiv isn’t demonstrating a severe perspective towards discovering mutually acceptable options,” in line with the Kremlin.

Mr. Putin additionally continued to battle within the info battle with Ukraine. On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron of France stated his nation may supply diplomatic “safety” to a Russian state tv worker who was detained and fined over an on-air antiwar protest on Monday.

The worker, Marina Ovsyannikova, burst onto the reside broadcast of Russia’s most-watched information program on Monday night, yelling, “Cease the warfare!” and holding an indication that learn, “They’re mendacity to you right here.”

Russia additionally confronted additional isolation from Britain, which imposed sanctions on greater than 370 individuals it labeled oligarchs, political allies of, or propagandists for Mr. Putin. Amongst these blacklisted: Dmitri A. Medvedev, the previous president of Russia; Mikhail Mishustin, the present prime minister; and Mikhail Fridman, the billionaire founding father of Alfa Financial institution, one of many nation’s largest non-public banks.

Russia, for its half, stated it had sanctioned 13 People together with Mr. Biden, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in response to American sanctions towards Mr. Putin and different officers. Additionally on its checklist was Hillary Rodham Clinton, the previous secretary of state, and Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

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Mr. Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, shrugged off the information, suggesting in jest that the Kremlin’s announcement may need missed its meant mark. The president, Ms. Psaki stated, is a “junior, so they could have sanctioned his dad by mistake.”

Mark Landler reported from London, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels. Reporting was contributed by Carlotta Gall and Lynsey Addario from Kyiv, Ukraine; Michael Schwirtz from Odessa, Ukraine; Anton Troianovski from Istanbul; Andrew Higgins from Warsaw; Ian Austen from Ottawa; Steven Erlanger from Brussels; David E. Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Glenn Thrush from Washington; and Michael M. Grynbaum from New York.

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Exclusive: Shein poised to slash valuation to $50 billion in London IPO, sources say

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Exclusive: Shein poised to slash valuation to  billion in London IPO, sources say
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around $50 billion, said three people with knowledge of the matter, nearly a quarter less than the company’s 2023 fundraising value amid growing headwinds.
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Iran's supreme leader says nuclear talks with Trump admin would not be 'wise'

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Iran's supreme leader says nuclear talks with Trump admin would not be 'wise'

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told air force officers in Teheran on Friday that nuclear talks with the U.S. “are not intelligent, wise or honorable.”

Khamenei added that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” but did not issue an order to not engage with the U.S., according to The Associated Press.

Khamenei’s remarks on Friday seem to contradict his previous indications that he was open to negotiating with the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear program. In August, Khamenei seemed to open the door to nuclear talks with the U.S., telling his country’s civilian government that there was “no harm” in engaging with its “enemy,” the AP reported.

IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER RESPONDS TO TRUMP ‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’ CAMPAIGN AMID REGIME PANIC

President Donald Trump floated the idea of a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Teheran in a post on his Truth Social platform. In the same post, he also slammed “greatly exaggerated” reports claiming that the U.S. and Israel were going to “blow Iran into smithereens.”

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, and President Donald Trump. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo)

“I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In 2018, during his first term, Trump exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, saying that it was not strong enough to restrain Iran’s nuclear development. At the time, President Trump argued that the deal, which was made during former President Barack Obama’s second term, was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei alongside a look inside a Uranium plant. (Getty Images)

Just days before his call for a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, Trump signed an executive order urging the government to put pressure on the Islamic republic. He also told reporters that if Iran were to assassinate him, they would be “obliterated,” as per his alleged instructions.

According to the AP, on Friday, Khamenei slammed the U.S. because, in his eyes, “the Americans did not hold up their end of the deal.” Furthermore, Iran’s supreme leader referenced Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, saying that he “tore up the agreement.”

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“We negotiated, we gave concessions, we compromised— but we did not achieve the results we aimed for.”

Iran has insisted for years that its nuclear program was aimed at civilian and peaceful purposes, not weapons. However, it has enriched its uranium to up to 60% purity, which is around 90% the level that would be considered weapons grade.

Iran military parade

An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country’s annual army day on April 18, 2018, in Tehran, Iran. (ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

IRAN’S WEAKENED POSITION COULD LEAD IT TO PURSUE NUCLEAR WEAPON, BIDEN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER WARNS

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in December 2024 that it was “regrettable” that there was no “diplomatic process ongoing which could lead to a de-escalation, or a more stable equation.”

In addition to his remarks on Iran, President Trump made global headlines with his proposal that the US take over Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. Khamenei, according to the AP, also seemed to reference the president’s remarks on Gaza without mentioning them outright.

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“The Americans sit, redrawing the map of the world — but only on paper, as it has no basis in reality,” Khamenei told air force officers, according to the AP. “They make statements about us, express opinions and issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them in return. If they act on their threats, we will act on ours. If they violate the security of our nation, we will, without a doubt, respond in kind.”

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Fact check: Did Clinton set the precedent for mass federal worker buyouts?

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Fact check: Did Clinton set the precedent for mass federal worker buyouts?

As unions and Democrats denounced the Trump administration’s effort to slash the federal workforce through worker buyouts, some social media users have said the president’s actions parallel those of former President Bill Clinton.

“To all you Democrats freaking out over President Trump’s buyout programme, I present to you a piece of history,” LD Basler, a retired federal law enforcement officer, wrote on X. His post quoted a 1995 statement Clinton made a year after he signed the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act.

“I guess Clinton didn’t have the authority either, when he did it in the 90s? (Because) the precedent was set BY DEMOCRATS,” another X user wrote.

Is that true?

Under Clinton, the government offered mass buyouts. But there’s a key difference with what’s happening under President Donald Trump: a bipartisan Congress overwhelmingly approved Clinton’s programme following months of review.

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By contrast, Trump’s “deferred resignation” offer, conversationally known as a buyout, emerged within a week of his inauguration, with lots of uncertainty about the terms.

“We spent six months, involved several hundred federal workers, and made hundreds of recommendations to Clinton and Gore, some of which they accepted, some they didn’t,” said David Osborne, an adviser to the Clinton-era review that preceded the buyouts.

The status and legality of Trump’s programme remains unclear. The administration set a midnight February 6 deadline for workers to accept the offer, but a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked that deadline and set a hearing for February 10.

Federal unions sued and wrote that the administration “has offered no statutory basis for its unprecedented offer”. The lawsuit questions whether the federal government will honour the commitment to pay participants through September 30.

The US Office of Personnel Management said 40,000 employees as of February 5 have taken the offer.

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Buyouts under Clinton stemmed from a review and act by Congress

A few weeks into his presidency in February 1993, Clinton issued an executive order telling each government department or agency with more than 100 employees to cut at least 4 percent of its civilian positions over three years through attrition or “early out programmes”.

Congress paved the way for buyouts. In March 1994, Clinton signed HR 3345, the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. The legislation passed by wide, bipartisan margins: 391-17 in the House and 99-1 in the Senate.

The legislation authorised buyouts of up to $25,000 for selected groups of employees in the executive and judicial branches except employees of the Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency or the General Accounting Office (now called the Government Accountability Office). The law set an April 1, 1995, deadline.

Clinton said the plan would enable the “reduction of employment” by 273,000 people by the end of 1999.

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“After all the rhetoric about cutting the size and cost of Government, our administration has done the hard work and made the tough choices,” Clinton said in a statement. “I believe the economy will be stronger, and the lives of middle class people will be better, as we drive down the deficit with legislation like this.”

The legislation was an outgrowth of Clinton’s National Performance Review, which launched in March 1993 with the slogan “Make Government Work Better and Cost Less”. Clinton appointed Vice President Al Gore to lead the review and issue a report within six months.

About 250 career civil servants worked on the review and created recommendations with agency employees.

Not everyone agreed with the Clinton-Gore initiative.

“There was opposition,” but union leaders supported reducing the power of middle managers, the target of most of the reductions, and the increased role of unions in bargaining, “so they felt this was an acceptable trade-off”, John M Kamensky, National Performance Review deputy director, told PolitiFact.

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Gore visited “federal offices for what are billed as ‘town meetings’ but are more like group therapy sessions that allow workers to air their feelings about their jobs”, The Chicago Tribune wrote in June 1993.

Gore’s September 1993 report made hundreds of recommendations including buyouts. Gore went on David Letterman’s late-night television show to promote the plan.

“So, have you fixed the government?” Letterman asked.

“We found a lot of really ridiculous things that cost way too much money,” Gore said.

Gore brought up government-purchased ashtrays and read the federal regulations about how the ashtrays must break when dropped. Wearing safety goggles, Gore cracked the ashtray with a hammer.

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Clinton had a “very deep commitment to change, but it was not hostile”, Paul Light, New York University professor emeritus of public service, said.

Clinton’s effort to reduce the federal workforce stemmed from his campaign platform as a “new Democrat” who said the era of big government was over, said Elaine Kamarck, who helped lead the Clinton-Gore review and is now director of the Brookings Institution’s Centre for Effective Public Management.

“We had a tech revolution going on that did not require as many layers of management as the old days,” Kamarck said.

How the Trump administration wants to cut jobs

The Clinton approach sought to be surgical in determining which employees could be eased out without compromising the government’s overall mission.

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The Trump approach, so far, involves buyouts and firings, without a review period or congressional action. On January 28,  the Office of Personnel Management emailed federal employees about the “fork in the road”. (Elon Musk, who heads Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, used the same phrase in an all-staff message in 2022 after buying Twitter.)

The email said remote workers must return to work five days a week and offered “deferred resignation”. Employees had until February 6 to resign and be paid through September 30 (until the February 6 court intervention). The email hinted that layoffs were possible.

About two million employees received the offer. The civilian federal workforce is about 2.4 million, setting aside US Postal Service workers, according to the Pew Research Center. The average annual pay is about $106,000.

Some workers were exempt from the offers, including the military, Postal Service employees and workers in immigration enforcement, national security and public safety.

Trump’s programme is more generous than Clinton’s, Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, told PolitiFact. Clinton’s $25,000 offer is about $55,000 in today’s dollars. Trump’s plan says it will pay people over about eight months, so factoring in the average federal worker salary, that’s higher.

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Democratic attorneys general said the payments may not be guaranteed and urged unionised workers to follow the guidance of their union officials. Democratic senators raised similar concerns about the short window for employees to decide and Trump’s authority to do this.

Trump issued an order to reclassify workers so he can more easily fire them – another subject of lawsuits. An order to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes led to workers being placed on paid leave.

A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt whether the programme was a way to purge the government of people who disagree with the president.

“That’s absolutely false,” Leavitt said. “This is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return to work. And if they don’t, then they have the option to resign. And this administration is very generously offering to pay them for eight months.”

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