Russia supports Trump’s views on ending Ukraine war
A Kremlin spokesman today came out in support of Donald Trump’s views on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov met with reporters in Moscow and said the Kremlin wants to see peace as soon as possible through negotiations, as advocated by Trump. The U.S. and Russia have already started negotiations but without Ukraine being involved. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said President Trump is trapped in a space filled with Russian disinformation and Trump has called Zelenskyy a dictator.
Trump and White House say he’s king
Donald Trump in an internet post yesterday said he is the king. In addition, the White House in a post on its official site on Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly Twitter, put up an image of Trump on a magazine cover wearing a king’s gold crown. Although the magazine cover’s design looked like the design of Time magazine, the White House named it “Trump.” The White House’s magazine cover said in the lower left corner, “Long live the king.” The image and Trump’s text remained on display as of this morning. The White House said nothing about Trump having taken the oath of office as president and swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, which has no provision for a king.
Judge orders newspaper to remove editorial
A judge in Mississippi has ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial that criticized local officials. Judge Crystal Martin issued a restraining order requiring the Clarksdale Press Register to remove the editorial from its website. The editorial criticized local officials for not notifying the newspaper that there would be a meeting of the City Council to discuss imposing a new tax. The Mississippi Press Association criticized the judge’s action as violating the First Amendment. The editorial was titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.”
$50 billion in cuts ordered at Pentagon
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered Pentagon officials to find $50 billion in cuts to make so that the money saved can be spent on other things by the Trump Administration. A statement by Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said that they are targeting to cut 8% of the Pentagon budget that was put into place by the Biden Administration. He said that programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and that target climate change would be among those targeted for cutting.
Walmart reports 2024 financials
Retailing giant Walmart today reported its financial results for 2024. Revenues totaled $681 billion with operating income of $2.3 billion. The revenue grew 5.1% from 2023 while income was up by 8.6% from the previous year. Walmart said that at the end of the year it had 2.1 million employees worldwide and operated 10,750 stores in 19 countries as well operating its websites for internet sales. It said that each week its stores are visited by an estimated 270 million customers.
Unemployment insurance claims rise
Unemployment insurance claims rise The Department of Labor reported this morning that unemployment is on the rise in the U.S., but still at comparatively low levels. In the week ending February 15, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance was 219,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week. The 4-week moving average was 215,250. The number of insured unemployed people during the week ending February 8 was 1,869,000, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week. The largest increases in initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending February 8 were in California, Texas and Florida. New York led the states showing decreases in initial claims for unemployment insurance.
