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|  | | | First Thing: Trump calls Zelenskyy a dictator in unparalleled relations rift | | | Attack follows Ukrainian leader’s claim Trump is in a Russian ‘disinformation bubble’. Plus, first Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb uncovered since 1922 | |  |  Trump called Zelenskyy, left, ‘a dictator without elections’. Composite: Tetiana Dzhafarova/ Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
| | Clea Skopeliti
| | | Good morning. Donald Trump intensified his attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, labeling the Ukrainian president “a dictator” in an unparalleled deterioration of relations between Kyiv and Washington. Trump’s comments came after Zelenskyy said the US president was “trapped” in a Russian “disinformation bubble” in response to Trump blaming Ukraine for its invasion by Russia. In another false claim, the US president accused Zelenskyy of having an approval rating of 4% – in fact, the latest poll shows he enjoys a 57% confidence rating. In a threatening post that made it seem more likely than ever that Trump would push to end the war on Moscow’s terms, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.” Remains of four hostages returned to Israel | | |  | Israelis in Tel Aviv mourn on the day the bodies of four hostages were handed over by Hamas. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
| | | | The bodies of four hostages, including a mother and her two children, were returned to Israel on Thursday after Hamas handed them over to the Red Cross. The dead hostages were OdedLifshitz, 83; and Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, who Hamas said were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. The development followed a statement by Hamas saying it would release all remaining hostages at once if the ceasefire agreement with Israel moved to a second phase in March. Widespread backlash after after Trump calls himself ‘king’ | | |  | Kathy Hochul: ‘New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years.’ Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
| | | | Trump has been widely criticized after he called himself a “king” in a social media post about his administration’s decision to scrap New York City’s congestion charges. After his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, ended the transportation department’s deal with New York for a new congestion program for Manhattan, Trump posted on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The White House shared the post, together with an AI-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover wearing a golden crown. -
Who criticized it? New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, told reporters, “New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years. We sure as hell are not going to start now,” while there was also pushback from Democrat lawmakers, including in Virginia and Illinois.
In other news … | | |  | Images released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities show the entrance to the tomb of Thutmose II. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Archaeologists have discovered the first pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt in more than a century, findingthe burial chamber of Thutmose II, who reigned between 1493 and 1479BC. -
Trump signs an executive order aimed at ending all benefits for people in the US illegally, though it is unclear which benefits this covers as people in the US illegally do not generally qualify for any, except for emergency medical care and free K-12 education for children. -
The Trump administration’s dismantling of USAid is increasing the risk of mpox becoming a wider global emergency, experts have warned.
Stat of the day: Germany’s far-right AfD polling at 21% – double what it secured in 2021 election | | |  | The leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Friedrich Merz, takes part in a TV debate on 16 February. Photograph: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images
| | | | Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), looks on course to double its vote share in the country’s federal election on Sunday. According to the latest Politico poll of polls, the AfD is at 21%, double what it secured in 2021 in the previous federal election. The party, which has been actively promoted by Elon Musk and the vice-president, JD Vance, is polling only behind the centre-right CDU-CSU, which is at 29%. Don’t miss this: The long-lost civil rights images of Ernest Cole | | |  | One of Ernest Coles rediscovered images. Photograph: Ernest Cole/Nick Dale
| | | | When the photographer Ernest Cole fled apartheid-era South Africa for New York in 1966, he felt change was coming. It was the height of the civil rights movement and he was moved to see interracial and gay couples out in public and to witness protests against systemic injustice. But it was not long until this vision of America soured: “Within two years, he got it,” says the Haitian film-maker Raoul Peck, who has made the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro, and has now directed one about Cole. “He had a clear judgment about what segregation meant, not only in the [American] south but also in the most cosmopolitan city of the US.” Cole died of cancer at the age of 49 in 1990, having experienced homelessness, and his work was only discovered in 2017. Climate check: Visualizing the record heat levels that affected two-thirds of the Earth in 2024 | | |  | Records were smashed for the monthly average temperature on land and sea in 2024. Illustration: Guardian Design
| | | | In 2024, two-thirds of the Earth experienced at least a month of record-breaking heat, a Guardian analysis has found. See it visualized here, with interactive maps that display where and when the monthly average temperature records were smashed in the first calendar year in which scientists recorded average global temperature exceeding 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Last Thing: Why are gen Z accepting job offers … just to ghost their new employers? | | |  | Gone fishin’ … Photograph: tulcarion/Getty Images
| | | | You may not have heard of career cat fishing, where a candidate accepts a job offer only to fail to turn up to their first day of work without telling their employer. But, apparently, 34% of gen Z jobseekers have done so – a higher proportion than any other generation, according to a poll. Why? Not feeling as if they owe prospective employers anything in one part of it – but it’s not a one-way street: employers also advertise jobs that don’t exist, either to make it look as if they’re recruiting and therefore growing, or to keep their employees on their toes, or for some other terrible reason. Sign up | | | | | | First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now. Get in touch If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com | |
| | | Betsy Reed | | Editor, Guardian US |
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| | I hope you appreciated this newsletter. Before you move on, I wanted to ask whether you could support the Guardian’s journalism as we begin to cover the second Trump administration.
As Trump himself observed: “The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”
He’s not entirely wrong. All around us, media organizations have begun to capitulate. First, two news outlets pulled election endorsements at the behest of their billionaire owners. Next, prominent reporters bent the knee at Mar-a-Lago. And then a major network – ABC News – rolled over in response to Trump’s legal challenges and agreed to a $16m million settlement in his favor.
The Guardian is clear: we have no interest in being Donald Trump’s – or any politician’s – friend. Our allegiance as independent journalists is not to those in power but to the public.
How are we able to stand firm in the face of intimidation and threats? As journalists say: follow the money. The Guardian has neither a self-interested billionaire owner nor profit-seeking corporate henchmen pressuring us to appease the rich and powerful. We are funded by our readers and owned by the Scott Trust – whose only financial obligation is to preserve our journalistic mission in perpetuity.
With the new administration boasting about its desire to punish journalists, and Trump and his allies already pursuing lawsuits against newspapers whose stories they don’t like, it has never been more urgent, or more perilous, to pursue fair, accurate reporting. Can you support the Guardian today?
We value whatever you can spare, but a recurring contribution makes the most impact, enabling greater investment in our most crucial, fearless journalism. As our thanks to you, we can offer you some great benefits. We’ve made it very quick to set up, so we hope you’ll consider it. | | However you choose to support us: thank you for helping protect the free press. Whatever happens in the coming months and years, you can rely on the Guardian never to bow down to power, nor back down from truth. | | |
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