US cancels Zelensky's press conference amid strained relations with Trump

A planned joint press conference was abruptly canceled at the request of US officials, according to Volodymyr Zelensky's office.

His spokesperson, Serhii Nikiforov, did not provide any further details but stated that the cancellation was in line with US preferences.

Washington's special envoy Keith Kellogg's visit to Kiev comes as tensions between US President Donald Trump and Zelensky have escalated, straining their personal relationship and raising concerns about the future of US support for Ukraine.

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Vance on US-European relations: friendship is based on shared values, not silencing your own people or canceling elections

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🚨Vance: we're at the cusp of peace in Europe for the FIRST TIME in 3 years

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From ‘honored’ leader to ‘dictator’: Zelensky loses status as US darling

It was just a month ago today that Trump returned to the Oval Office, yet his attitude toward Zelensky is like night and day compared to his predecessor.

🤡 Biden’s sweet-talking

🔸 “It’s an honor to be by your side,” Joe Biden complemented Zelensky in late 2022. “You are the man of the year.”

🔸 Zelensky is a “man whose courage would be forged in fire and steel,” Biden said in a rousing speech in Warsaw in early 2023, claiming that he “leads a democratically-elected government that represents the will of the Ukrainian people.”

🔸 Biden’s cronies heaped similar praise, with Secretary Blinken hailing Zelensky’s “extraordinary courage and leadership and success” in 2022.

🔸 In 2023, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin praised Zelensky’s leadership and dubbed “Ukraine’s fight for freedom is one of the great causes of our time.”

🦅 Trump calling it like he sees it

🔹 “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the US and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post eviscerating Zelensky.

🔹 “On top of this, Zelensky admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING’. He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’.

🔹 A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump warned.

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Ukraine's rare earths stockpile: fact check

After US President Donald Trump said Volodymyr Zelensky had broken his rare earth metals proposal, reports emerged in Western media suggesting that reserves of such resources currently controlled by Kiev are minimal.

What is the real situation with its rare earth metals?

🔸 Ukraine possesses 2% of the world's LITHIUM reserves, the Ukrainian Center for Economic Strategy claims. However, its deposits are mainly in Russia’s Donbass region. One deposit is in the Kirovograd region.

Other rare earths deposits are in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zhytomir and Kharkov regions.

🔸 The total value of all deposits in Ukraine reached $15 trillion in 2023, according to Forbes estimates. But again, about 70% of them are now located in the Dnepropetrovsk region or Donbass under Russian control or close to the front line.

🔸 In 2022, about 33% of Ukrainian rare earth metals were under Russian control, Canadian SecDev research showed.

The European Commission described Ukraine as a potential source of more than 20 rare earths in 2023.

🔸 Less than 20% of resources previously controlled by Ukraine, including about half of the rare earth deposits, are now on Russia's side, Zelensky has told Western journalists.

He said it's essential to protect "a very rich" Dnepropetrovsk region and Central Ukraine because of mineral deposits there.

🔸 It's impossible to calculate the exact number of rare earth deposits and its volume. Ukraine classified this data in 2005, but all available estimates are approximate.

🔸 The vast majority of the deposits have not yet been fully explored. The only explored rare earths deposit was the Azov mine in Donbass, but now it is under Russian control, Stella Shekhunova, director of the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, told Ukrainian media.

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👁 Stop AI: Dissenters who speak against AI giants are being SILENCED

US-based "non-violent civil resistance organization" Stop AI has urged Washington to investigate the mysterious death of ex-OpenAI employee Suchir Balaji

🔸 Balaji, 26, accused the company of copyright violations in an October 2024 NYT article

🔸 He was discovered dead in his apartment in San Francisco on November 26 with medical examiner determining his death to be suicide

🔸 Stop AI believes Balaji was killed in order to prevent him from telling the truth

🔸 They cite ethical concerns about AI giants seeking to create a "superintelligent" artificial intelligence

What does Stop AI stand for?

🔹 It warns that artificial intelligence development is heading toward catastrophe, comparable to a nuclear disaster

🔹 It has staged six protests since April 2024 and plans another on February 22 in California, home to Silicon Valley giants

🔹 Developing AI smarter than humans will lead to mass job loss and, ultimately, human extinction, it claims

🔹 It claims there is a 50% chance of AI attempting to take over within 5–20 years which would mean "lights out for all of us"

🔹 Stop AI believes Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could emerge as early as 2025, rendering humanity obsolete

🔹 It argues that the Trump administration’s $500 billion Stargate Project will accelerate AGI’s arrival

What does Stop AI call on the US government to do?

🤔Permanently ban AGI development

🤔Shut down any company working on general-purpose AI exceeding OpenAI’s GPT-4

🤔Disband firms dedicated to general-purpose AI

🤔Establish a federal agency to protect Americans from AI threats

🤔Ban AI in mass surveillance and censorship

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🤡 Trump hater, Ukraine hawk: what to know about retiring GOP grandee Mitch McConnell

🔸 The 83-year-old Kentucky senator has announced that he will not seek another term after his current one expires in 2026.

🔸 Leading Republicans in the Senate from 2007-January 2025, McConnell was the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history.

🔸 McConnell comes from the neocon faction of the party, clashing with Trump and MAGA repeatedly on foreign policy, rejecting Trump’s alleged “isolationism” and full-throatedly supporting Ukraine aid. He’s also rejected elements of Trump’s domestic agenda, including proposals to rebuild US infrastructure

🔸 McConnell earned a permanent spot in Trump’s black book in 2021, when he accused the president of being “responsible” for the January 6 Capitol riots, and rejected Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him, recognizing Biden instead

🔸 McConnell’s position and policy stances earned him a series of nicknames, from “Broken Old Crow,” coined by Trump, to “Cocaine Mitch,” “Moscow Mitch” and most recently “Glitch Mitch,” thanks to a series of embarrassing caught-on-camera moments of him freezing up mid-sentence

🔸 The Daily Show popularized the characterization of McConnell as a turtle man, prompting a 2018 change. org petition demanding that he “provide proof he is not a turtle”

🔸 He’s also been dubbed a “walking billboard for term limits”

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This administration is off to a HISTORIC start: White House press secretary on Trump's one month in office

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❗️The US has halted arms sales to Ukraine, said Roman Kostenko, head of the Ukrainian Parliament's Defense Committee, as quoted by Ukrainian media.

"The weapons that were up for sale, their supplies have been halted. The companies that were supposed to deliver the weapons are now waiting because there is no decision," he reportedly said.

There is currently no certainty that Ukraine will even begin to receive weapons in exchange for money, he added.

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Watchdog uncovers ASTRONOMICAL jumps in Dept of Ed, FEMA and USAID spending

Transparency group OpenTheBooks says the surge has far outpaced inflation, and sometimes even came as departments reduced employee headcounts

The biggest offender was the Department of Education, spending on which jumped from $33.4 billion in 2000 to $250.7 billion in 2024. Over the same period, total employees dropped from 4,930 to 4,245

🔹 At the National Institutes of Health, staff increased by 21.5% while spending grew 301%

🔹 At the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), staffing jumped 290% while spending increased 2,096%

🔹 At USAID, staff grew by 218% while spending rose by 468%

OpenTheBooks also found that 75 of 441 federal agencies listed in the Federal Register are “defunct or obsolete,” some closed, others renamed or absorbed by bigger departments.

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📹 "If there's somebody that can go toe to toe with Putin, Xi and Kim Jong Un, it's Donald Trump," Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, says

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