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As the United States renews its diplomatic push to end Russia's war against Ukraine, Moscow is making something clear: its position has not changed.

While U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian officials met for trilateral talks in January and again in early February — with another round expected next week — the Kremlin has used the same period to restate its position.

As Washington speaks of momentum and narrowing gaps, Russia's most senior officials have publicly dismissed key elements of the proposed framework.

For three consecutive days, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly undercut suggestions that negotiations were advancing.

His message was consistent and direct: Russia's territorial and political demands remain intact, and any serious discussion must revolve around Ukraine accepting them.

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Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirms discussions underway on a European nuclear deterrent, at speech in Munich.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that U.S. leadership can no longer be taken for granted and Europe must prepare to stand more firmly on its own, in a stark warning to world leaders in Munich.

“The leadership claim of the U.S. is being challenged, perhaps already lost,” Merz said during the opening of the Munich Security Conference, laying out the starkest assessment yet from Berlin of a world increasingly defined by great-power rivalry. “In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat.”

He argued the global system itself may already have collapsed. “The international order based on rights and rules … no longer exists in the way it once did,” he said.

Merz also drew a lesson from Germany’s own history. “We Germans know a world in which might makes right would be a dark place,” he said. “Our country has gone down this path in the 20th century until the bitter and dreadful end.”

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European leaders divided over how far to accommodate Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics and foreign policy

US Democrats will use a security summit this weekend to urge European leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, with the continent divided over how to keep the unpredictable US president on side.

Democrats at the annual Munich Security Conference will include some of Trump’s most outspoken critics, such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

Newsom has already urged Europeans to realise that “grovelling to Trump’s needs” makes them “look pathetic on the world stage”, telling reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month he “should have brought a bunch of knee pads”.

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The U.S. House voted Wednesday to slap back Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare, if largely symbolic, rebuke of the White House agenda.

The U.S. House voted Wednesday to slap back U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare, if largely symbolic, rebuke of the White House agenda as Republicans joined Democrats over the objections of GOP leadership.

The tally, 219-211, was among the first times the House, controlled by Republicans, has confronted the president over a signature policy.

The resolution seeks to end the national emergency Trump declared to impose the tariffs, though actually undoing the policy would require support from Trump himself, which is highly unlikely. The resolution next goes to the Senate.

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The U.S. House voted Wednesday to slap back Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare, if largely symbolic, rebuke of the White House agenda.

The U.S. House voted Wednesday to slap back U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare, if largely symbolic, rebuke of the White House agenda as Republicans joined Democrats over the objections of GOP leadership.

The tally, 219-211, was among the first times the House, controlled by Republicans, has confronted the president over a signature policy.

The resolution seeks to end the national emergency Trump declared to impose the tariffs, though actually undoing the policy would require support from Trump himself, which is highly unlikely. The resolution next goes to the Senate.

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Elon Musk’s younger brother and the woman were involved for about six months between 2012 and 2013

Jeffrey Epstein engineered an intimate relationship between a woman in his network and Kimbal Musk, who is the brother of Elon Musk and on the board of directors at Tesla, according to emails from the Department of Justice’s recent release of documents involving the convicted sex offender. The younger Musk and the woman were involved for around six months between 2012 and 2013, with Kimbal Musk describing them as “dating”.

In the lead-up to Musk and the woman’s first meeting, Epstein and his longtime associate Boris Nikolic labored to set them up and bring her to a birthday party Musk was throwing – with Nikolic telling Epstein: “please prepare [the woman] —;)”

“Jeffrey and Boris, many thanks for connecting me with [the woman],” Musk later emailed Epstein and Nikolic in October 2012 after a lunch at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment. “I believe you both played a role. :)”

Throughout Musk and the woman’s time together, she forwarded Epstein several of the personal messages Musk sent to her and asked Epstein for guidance on the relationship. There is nothing in the emails to suggest that Musk was aware of her backchannel correspondence with Epstein.

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As Russian strikes continue to cut off heating and electricity across Ukraine, a Kyiv doctor says she is seeing health effects accumulate in her clinic.

Since late December, Russia has carried out multiple waves of strikes targeting Ukraine's power generation and heating infrastructure. In Kyiv, those attacks have repeatedly disrupted heating across large parts of the city.

On Jan. 9, a major attack left roughly 6,000 residential buildings without heat. Further strikes on Jan. 20 and Jan. 24 again cut heating to thousands of homes. The most recent attack on Feb. 3 left over 1,100 apartment buildings without heating, with temperatures reaching -25°C outside. Two thermal power plants have stopped operating, according to Ukrenergo CEO Vitaliy Zaichenko.

Prolonged exposure to cold doesn't cause illness directly, according to Hanna Serova, a general practitioner at Kyiv's Dobrobut medical network. Instead, it weakens the body's defenses over time.

. . .

When the body is exposed to cold for extended periods, it diverts energy to maintaining core temperature, leaving less capacity to fight off infections. Disrupted sleep — common when people are cold or worried about outages — further compromises immune function, as the body produces fewer infection-fighting cells during poor rest. Sustained stress from living in these conditions adds another layer of strain.

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The measures aim to increase Israeli control over the occupied West Bank in terms of property law, planning, licensing and enforcement.

Palestinians, Arab countries, Israeli anti-occupation groups and the UK have condemned new steps approved by Israel's security cabinet for the occupied West Bank, saying they amount to de facto annexation.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the moves that would make it easier for Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian land. "We will continue to kill the idea of ​​a Palestinian state," he said.

All settlements are seen as illegal under international law.

The measures - which are expected to be signed off by Israel's top military commander for the West Bank - aim to increase Israeli control over the territory in terms of property law, planning, licensing and enforcement.

They were announced three days ahead of a meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President Donald Trump in Washington.

Last year, settlements in the West Bank expanded at their fastest rate since monitoring began, the United Nations (UN) has said.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs were in the midst of a last-place season the last time they sold at the trade deadline.

It was 10 years ago, and a front office managed by Lou Lamoriello dealt away the likes of Dion Phaneuf, Shawn Matthias, James Reimer, Daniel Winnik and Roman Polak for a collection of players — and most importantly, draft picks.

Two of those picks, both second-rounders, were used on Carl Grundström (2016) and Sean Durzi (2018), who were later flipped together in the package that brought Jake Muzzin to Toronto.

And that figures to be the goal of the current front office, led by Brad Treliving, ahead of the upcoming March 6 trade deadline: bring in some future assets that help the club retool in the offseason.

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Democratic representative says Epstein associate’s decision to invoke fifth amendment points to ‘White House cover-up’

Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions during a closed-door congressional deposition on Monday, prompting criticism from a House representative backing efforts to release Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.

Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, said in a statement that Maxwell invoked the fifth amendment and refused to testify during her scheduled deposition. Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, also said that she invoked her fifth amendment right.

“After months of defying our subpoena, Ghislaine Maxwell finally appeared before the oversight committee and said nothing,” said Garcia, a California Democrat. “She answered no questions and provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls.

“Who is she protecting? And we need to know why she’s been given special treatment at a low security prison by the Trump administration. We are going to end this White House cover-up.”

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was taken by force in Caracas.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said her opposition colleague Juan Pablo Guanipa had been kidnapped just hours after being released from detention.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said on Sunday that Guanipa, leader of the Justice First party, was taken in the Los Chorros neighbourhood of the capital Caracas.

"Heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothes arrived in four vehicles and took him away by force," she wrote on social media early on Monday.

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Results mean coalition of recently installed PM has supermajority in lower house of parliament

Japan’s conservative governing coalition has dramatically strengthened its grip on power after a landslide victory in Sunday’s elections in what will be seen as an early public endorsement of the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.

Her Liberal Democratic party (LDP) had won 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing the 261 it needed for an absolute majority in the 465-member lower house and the highest number since the party was founded in 1955. With her coalition partner, the Japan Innovation party, which won 36 seats, Takaichi now has a supermajority of two-thirds of seats, easing her legislative agenda as she can override the upper chamber, which she does not control.

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