First Thing: Trump-Putin call ‘not a betrayal’ of Ukraine, insists Hegseth

President causes alarm in rush to secure peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, saying Ukraine ‘unlikely’ to get much land back or join Nato. Plus, how dating apps ignore reports of rape

Good morning.

The rapid push to bring Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table is “not a betrayal” of Ukraine, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has insisted, after Donald Trump said he and Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin ceasefire talks and that Kyiv was unlikely regain much territory or join Nato.

Speaking before the Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels, Hegseth defended the move when asked by a reporter about whether it was a betrayal, saying: “There is no betrayal; there is a recognition that the whole world and the US is invested in peace, in a negotiated peace.”

It followed a statement signalling Trump would offer minimal resistance to Putin. The president said he was “OK” with Ukraine not having Nato membership and that it was “unlikely” that Ukraine would win back much land. “I’m just here to try and get peace,” Trump said. “I don’t care so much about anything other than I want to stop having millions of people killed.”

How has Europe reacted? Several European nations including the UK, France and Germany, insisted they must be involved in any negotiations on Ukraine’s future.

‘No to ethnic cleansing’: 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump’s Gaza plan

More than 350 rabbis have signed an ad in the New York Times condemning Donald Trump’s proposal to effectively ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza.

The ad, also signed by Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!” It follows Trump’s proposal to “take over Gaza”, and force 2 million Palestinians to leave their homeland.

The ad comes amid concern that the fragile ceasefire in Gaza could break down this weekend, with Israel bolstering troop numbers and Arab mediators scrambling to save the truce.

Why is the truce in jeopardy? Hamas’s armed wing initially said on Monday it would delay releasing further hostages over alleged Israeli ceasefire violations, including the continued killing of Palestinians, blocks on aid, and stopping displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza. But on Thursday, Hamas said it will continue implementing the ceasefire deal, including a hostage exchange within the agreed timeframe.

Judge rules Trump can shrink federal government through buyouts

Donald Trump’s buyout program for federal employees can go ahead, a judge has ruled in a significant legal victory for the administration as it seeks to slash the size of the federal workforce.

The ruling means the 65,000 government workers who have offered to resign under the program can do so. The plan, which is being spearheaded by Elon Musk, offers employees the decision to quit now and get paid until 30 September.

The US district judge George O’Toole Jr in Boston ruled in the Trump administration’s favor after finding that the unions who had sued on behalf of their employees lacked legal standing to challenge the resignation offer because they were not directly affected.

What did the plaintiff say? Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union was assessing next steps. It maintained that asking workers to decide “whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk” was illegal.

In other news …

The US justice department is suing the state of New York over a law allowing people to get driver’s licenses without residency or citizenship.

Fremont, California, has criminalized camping on public property, despite civil rights groups warning that unhoused people have no choice when shelter places are limited.

A person in Grenoble, France, threw a grenade into a bar on Wednesday, injuring 12 people.

Stat of the day: USAid freeze means 130,390 women being denied access to contraception daily

The Trump administration’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid is resulting in 130,390 women each day being denied access to contraception, according to an estimate from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights NGO. Over three months this could result in up to 4.2m unplanned pregnancies and more than 8,340 maternal deaths, it said.

Don’t miss this: How dating apps ignored reports of rape to chase profits

When a young woman met up with a man she had matched with on the dating app Hinge, she had no way of knowing that she was about to experience every person’s dating app nightmare. She also had no idea that the friendly cardiologist who gave her a spiked drink had already been reported to the app for rape. Read this investigation into how some dating apps have known since 2016 about abusive users their platforms – but chose profits over safety.

Climate check: ‘Dangerously underprotected’ peatlands are a ticking ‘carbon bomb’

The world’s peatlands, which store more carbon than all the world’s forests, are dangerously underprotected, research has found. Their destruction by agriculture and mining means they are already leaking colossal volumes of carbon: despite only covering 3% of all land, if peatlands were a country they would trail only China, the US and India in CO2 emissions.

Last Thing: Canadians feed owls rats named after their exes

Ahead of Valentine’s day, Canadians are being offered the chance to name a dead rat after their ex before it’s fed to an owl – all in the name of conservation, of course. To take part in the No regRATS campaign, disgruntled lovers just have to make a donation of $5. But the stunt has angered rat lovers, who say it’s giving the rodents a bad name … There’s really no pleasing some people.

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