The Daily Moth 2-24-2025
It is Monday, February 24, 2025. Hope your weekend was good. Here are today’s top stories.
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Third anniversary of Russia-Ukraine war
Today is the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which sparked the Russia-Ukraine war.
AP News said over 12 Western leaders went to Kyiv to take part in commemorative events and that no senior official from the U.S. attended. The Western leaders warned that the war has implications for global security and vowed to keep providing billions of dollars in support for Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said autocrats (dictators) around the world are watching to see if there are any consequences to Russia for invading their neighbors.
AP said Ukraine is grappling with shortages of troops and weapons while Russian President Putin’s troops are making steady progress on the battlefield. AP said 267 Russian attack drones pounded Ukraine.
Also on Sunday, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said he would be willing to resign as a leader if it means Ukraine can have peace or NATO membership.
Today, Zelenskyy said in public that the Ukrainian people are very worried about whether there will be support from America (the Trump administration) and whether America will be the leader of the free world.
Also today, just this afternoon, the U.S. sided with Russia to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The U.S. proposed a competing resolution that did not call Russia the aggressor and did not acknowledge Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
It’s a completely different posture from the U.S. compared with the Biden administration.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-anniversary-84e4c62519fc15b34e17f661cf3dd20e
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/zelenskyy-presidency-peace-nato-rcna193364
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France / Britain visiting White House this week
AP News said the leaders of France and Britain are visiting the White House this week and a big part of the visits will be to encourage Trump to not abandon Ukraine.
French President Macron and UK PM Starmer spoke by phone on Sunday and agreed that the UK and Europe must show united leadership in support of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. They also said Ukraine’s voice and sovereignty must be at the center of any peace talks.
Their views are a clear contrast to President Trump and his administration, who has excluded Ukraine from participating in top-level talks with Russia.
President Trump has criticized Macron and Starmer by saying that they haven’t done anything over the past three years to end the war.
https://apnews.com/article/starmer-macron-uk-france-washington-trump-ukraine-5255fa5fb225145065cacdd437d6723f
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Apple to spend $500B in U.S. over 4 years
Apple announced it plans to spend and invest over $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, focusing on AI, silicon engineering, and skills development.
The investments will go to locations in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington, potentially creating 20,000 new jobs.
Apple said it’s going to open a new manufacturing facility in Houston that is 250,000 square feet that is going to produce servers to support an array of Apple technologies. In Detroit, there will be a manufacturing academy.
President Trump took credit for Apple’s announcement, saying the company is doing this because they don’t want to get caught up in tariffs with foreign countries and said Apple has faith in his administration.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/apple-plans-500-billion-us-investment-trump-tariff-threat-rcna193408
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Dan Bongino appointed deputy director of FBI
President Trump appointed Dan Bongino, a right-wing podcaster and former NYPD and Secret Service officer, to be the deputy director of the FBI, where he will be second in command to new FBI Director Kash Patel.
Trump said Bongino will stop doing his podcast.
BBC said Bongino is “a staunch Trump ally who has pushed false claims about the 2020 election and other stories.” So he’s not known for telling the truth.
BBC also explained that now neither the top two people running the FBI have any experience with the FBI.
Bongino said he hopes to see the FBI be free of “woke culture and DEI” and focus on arresting bad guys destroying communities.
The FBI has 38,000 employees and a $11 billion budget.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwd2qrn1e2o
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Sponsored video by Sorenson: www.sorenson.com
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Federal employees required to email weekly reports
CBS News said federal workers received an email on Saturday with instructions to document five things they achieved in the past week and send it to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Elon Musk / DOGE said if a federal worker didn’t send an email, they would risk losing their jobs.
But there is confusion because a few federal agencies told their employees to not reply to the email. The FBI, Department of Defense, and the State Department are among them.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski criticized Musk in a tweet, saying, “If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut… Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
This is yet another controversial move from Elon Musk/DOGE as he seeks to bend the federal workforce to his will. President Trump has supported him so far, saying on Saturday night that he wants to see him be even more aggressive.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-doge-federal-employees-document-work-resign/
https://x.com/lisamurkowski/status/1893772763669967012
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Germany votes for conservative parties
AP News reported that results from Germany’s election yesterday shows that voters in the country have shifted to the right, to more conservative parties. The election was to elect the 630 members of the Bundestag, the German parliament. The winner is the CDU/CSU alliance, which is described as a center-right, conservative, Christian, pro-European, and pro-Ukraine. They got 28.5% of the vote. The alliance’s leader is Friedrich Merz, who is likely going to be the next chancellor (prime minister) of Germany. The far-right AfD party came in second place – this is the party that Elon Musk has embraced and supported often. They got 20.8% of the vote. The AfD is very anti-immigration (particularly those from Muslim-majority countries), is anti-EU, and has a slogan of “Our country first.” The incumbent political party of SPD, led by outgoing Chancellor Scholz, came in third with 16.4% and it is considered a bad slump for them. News reports explained that because no party won an absolute majority of 316 seats, the CDU/CSU will need to form a coalition with other parties such as the SPD to form a government. The CDU/CSU has ruled out cooperation with the AfD because their views are not compatible. I learned that there is a concept in Germany called the “firewall,” which is where traditional political parties and society in general aim to not cooperate with far-right ideologies, especially in light of Germany’s Nazi past. Merz has said he won’t work with AfD.
https://apnews.com/live/germany-election-updates-parliament
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/feb/23/german-election-2025-results-in-full-live
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Father and son rescued from Utah cliff
A father and his 12-year-old son were rescued from a narrow cliff ledge in Utah after they got lost in the Snow Canyon State Park last week. They were stranded overnight. Utah authorities using a helicopter spotted them with night vision before rescuing them.
[Video] Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WooopZQaZc8&t=352s
Rescuers rappelled down from the helicopter, put harnesses on the father and boy, and pulled them up.
The father said he was very lucky to have found a backpack left behind by another hiker who was rescued from the same area in January. That backpack had food, water, and emergency blankets that helped the father and son to survive the conditions.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/utah-snow-canyon-rescue-video/
https://dps.utah.gov/press-releases/snow-canyon-hiker-rescue/
https://www.abc4.com/news/southern-utah/backpack-stranded-father-son/
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.