UK, France, Ukraine Agree To Work On Cease-Fire Plan To Present To US

 Update: perhaps in response to the latest toothless European summit, which Poland's PM summarized best as follows...

• *TUSK REITERATES POLAND WON'T SEND ITS TROOPS TO UKRAINE
• *TUSK: SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE NOT DISCUSSED IN SUMMIT

... or in other words, once again nothing of significance was agreed upon, Donald Trump posted in his Truth Social account a quote from Gartner analyst Michael McCune, according to whom Zelensky now has "no choice but to back down and accept Trump's terms" suggesting that Trump clearly is content with the outcome of the Friday debacle in the White House.

Earlier, from Jacob Burg of the Epoch Times

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on March 2 that Britain, France, and Ukraine are working on a cease-fire plan to present to the United States as he prepares to host European leaders in discussions to end the Russia–Ukraine war.

Starmer’s Sunday summit of leaders stands in contrast to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting in the White House on Friday, during which U.S. President Donald Trump scolded him for not being ready for peace and not being grateful for America’s support in his nation’s defense against Russia’s three-year-long invasion.

Starmer said he’s working on restoring discussions of peace and is using Friday’s breakdown as an opportunity to re-engage with Trump, Zelenskyy, and French President Emmanuel Macron rather than “ramp up the rhetoric.”

“We’ve now agreed that the United Kingdom, along with France and possibly one or two others, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and then we’ll discuss that plan with the United States,” Starmer told the BBC, adding that he and Macron have both spoken to Trump since the latter’s meeting with Zelenskyy.

At Sunday’s summit, European leaders will look toward shoring up the continents’ defenses in defending Ukraine, including discussions to create a European military force to send to the war-torn country to cap a cease-fire. Starmer suggested the military force would include a “coalition of the willing.”

While he does not trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, Starmer said he trusts Trump.

“Do I believe Donald Trump when he says he wants lasting peace? The answer to that is yes,” he said.

Starmer added that “intense discussions” to obtain a security guarantee from the United States are one of the three components of lasting peace.

“If there is to be a deal, if there is to be a stopping of the fighting, then that agreement has to be defended, because the worst of all outcomes is that there is a temporary pause, and then Putin comes again,” Starmer said. “That has happened in the past. I think it is a real risk, and that is why we must ensure that if there’s a deal, it is a lasting deal, not a temporary pause.”

The summit, which will be held at Lancaster House—a 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace—will also include leaders from France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Romania.

Other attendees include the Turkish foreign minister, NATO secretary-general, and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council.

Zelenskyy received support from European leaders after Friday’s contentious meeting at the White House in which a rare earths deal was abandoned and Trump told Zelenskyy to come back when he was ready for peace.

After the Ukrainian president arrived in Britain on Saturday, Starmer embraced him.

“As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom,” Starmer said. “We stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take.”

Starmer also pledged to boost military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027. Other European nations might follow suit.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-france-ukraine-agree-work-cease-fire-plan-present-us

Democrats go full McCarthy with attacks on Musk’s nationality, loyalties

 This month, 75 years ago, Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wisc.) gave his infamous speech denouncing disloyal Americans working at the highest levels of our government. It was the defining moment for what became known as McCarthyism, which attacked citizens as dangerous and disloyal influences in government.

Some of us have criticized the rising “rage rhetoric” for years, including that of President Trump and Democratic leaders, denouncing opponents as traitors and enemies of the state.

In the 2024 election, the traditional red state-blue state firewalls again collapsed, as they had in 2016. The response among Democrats has been to unleash a type of new Red Scare, questioning the loyalty of those who are supporting or working with the Trump administration in carrying out his promised reforms.

Elon Musk is the designated disloyal American for many on the left. That rage has reached virtual hysteria on ABC’s “The View.” This is the same show before the election on which hosts warned that, if Trump were elected, journalists and homosexuals would be rounded up and “disappeared.”

After the election, democracy seemed to stubbornly hang on, so the hosts had to resort to attacking as disloyal anyone joining the government or supporting Trump’s policies. 

This week, co-host Joy Behar followed many others in questioning Musk’s loyalty and attacking him over being a naturalized American citizen: “The guy was not born in this country, who was born under apartheid in South Africa. So, [he] has that mentality going on. He was pro-Apartheid, as I understand it.”

Behar was then forced, perhaps by panicked ABC lawyers, to walk back the comment — such retractions having become a regular feature on “The View“. What came out was the type of jumbled confusion that results when you interrupt a lunatic on the metro in mid-rave.

Behar stated: “I’m getting some flack because I said that Musk was pro-apartheid. I don’t really know for sure if he was … He was around at that time, but maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t—he might have been a young guy, too. So, don’t be suing me, okay Elon?”

This anti-immigrant attack on Musk, however, has worked its way into many Democrats’ talking points, even though their party had previously claimed to defend immigrants against racist Republicans seeking to close the Southern border and deport criminal illegal immigrants.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) launched a xenophobic tirade that should have shocked the conscience of the nation. She warned citizens that Musk could not be trusted because he is an immigrant who has been a citizen for only a couple of decades: “Mr. Musk has just been here just 22 years and he’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question: With the damage he’s doing here when push comes to shove, which country is he loyal to? South Africa, Canada, or the United States? And he’s only been a citizen, I’ll say again, 22 years.”

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney was another joining in to attack Musk for being an immigrant. “You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen,” she wrote on Musk’s social media platform, X.

These attacks are straight out of McCarthy’s playbook. It was McCarthy who insisted that “there are no degrees of loyalty in the United States — a man is either loyal or he’s disloyal…” Of course, McCarthy (and the earlier Red Scare) attacked government employees, writers and others on the left. It is now the left that is employing the same tactics, including censorship, blacklisting and public vilification.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, the Democrats, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, painted Republicans as either aspiring or actual fascists. That continued recently with Minnesota Gov. and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz (D), who referred to Republicans as “fascists and Nazis.” 

Even journalists and civil libertarians have been reviled using the same terms. After a hearing on censorship two years ago, MSNBC contributor and former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) attacked journalists and members who had spoken in favor of free speech. She denounced the member witnesses (Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson and former Rep. Gabbard) as “Putin apologists” and Putin-lovers.

Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate representing the Virgin Islands in the U.S. House, even suggested arresting respected journalist Matt Taibbi, who, along with Michael Shellenberger, testified on their investigation into a massive censorship system developed under the Biden administration.

The attack on Musk is particularly disgraceful, given his contributions to his adopted country. Ironically, filmmaker Michael Moore denounced the deportations of criminal illegal immigrants last week by noting that Trump was deporting someone who might cure cancer or be the next Steve Jobs. Well, this is a naturalized citizen who not only could be the next Elon Musk. He is Elon Musk.

As politicians and pundits question Musk’s loyalty, Space X is moving to rescue two astronauts stranded in space. Musk has volunteered his time and skills to achieving a record reduction in the size and waste in government. One can disagree with his priorities or the means he uses to achieve his goals, but he has nobly stepped forward to serve his country despite death threats from the left.

Musk is also facing such attacks in Canada, where thousands have signed petitions to strip him of his citizenship. The left did not seek to revoke the citizenship of figures who have eviscerated free speech and other individual rights in that country. It is Musk who is persona non grata.

This is nothing new for Musk, whom the left has targeted since he announced an intention to buy Twitter and restore free speech protections on that site.

The concern is not for Musk, who has the intestinal fortitude (and financial means) to stand up to a global mob. Moreover, with polls showing overwhelming support for reducing the size of government and the budget, the campaign to obstruct these efforts is unlikely to resonate with voters.

The danger is more acute for the country as disagreements over policy are transformed into attacks over loyalty. It is the most dangerous form of rage rhetoric, an effort not to debate but to demonize those with whom you disagree.

When you have members of Congress standing in front of the Capitol, denouncing naturalized citizens as untrustworthy after a mere 22 years as a citizen, it is a moment that would have made McCarthy blush.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5169877-musk-loyalty-attacks-mccarthyism/

'Judge Blocks Trump's Order Curtailing Youth Gender-Affirming Care'

 President Donald Trump's plan to pull federal funding

opens in a new tab or window from institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth will remain blocked on a long-term basis under a federal judge's ruling in Seattle late Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King previously granted a 2-week restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota sued the Trump administrationopens in a new tab or window -- Colorado has since joined the case.

King's temporary order expired Friday, and she held arguments that day before issuing a preliminary injunction blocking most of Trump's plan pending a final decision on the merits of the case.

The judge found the states lacked standing on one point: the order's protections against female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is already illegal in the four states that are part of the lawsuit, and the judge said the record "is bereft of any evidence" that the plaintiffs plan to perform such procedures.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown praised the ruling.

"The president's disregard for the Constitution is obvious and intentional," he said in a statement. "But once again, states and the courts have stepped up to affirm the rule of law and the values that hold us together as a nation."

An email message was sent to the White House seeking comment.

Two of Trump's executive orders are at issue in the case.

One, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism," calls for stripping federal money from programs that "promote gender ideology."

The other, "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," calls for the federal government to cut off research and educational grants for institutions, including medical schools and hospitals, that provide gender-affirming care to people under age 19 years. Several hospitals around the country ceased providing care, including puberty blockers and hormone treatments, following the order.

Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care, and Trump's "Protecting Children" order suggests that practice could end. It also raises the prospect that medical professionals could be criminally charged for providing gender-affirming care under a law that bans medically unnecessary genital mutilation of underage females -- a notion that the states suing Trump call repugnant and legally unsupportable.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth -- a condition called gender dysphoria -- are far more likely to suffer from severe depression and to kill themselves if they do not receive treatment, which can include evaluation by a team of medical professionals; a social transition, such as changing a hairstyle or pronouns; and eventually puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.

In her ruling Friday, the judge said the order was not limited to children or to irreversible treatments and that it doesn't target medical interventions performed on cisgender children.

"In fact, its inadequate 'means-end fit' would prevent federally funded medical providers from providing necessary medical treatments to transgender youth that are completely unrelated to gender identity," she wrote. "For example, a cisgender teen could obtain puberty blockers from such a provider as a component of cancer treatment, but a transgender teen with the same cancer care plan could not."

In his arguments Friday, Washington Assistant Attorney General William McGinty stressed the urgency of the issue.

"There are going to be young people who are going to take their lives if they can no longer receive this care," he said.

The executive order uses derisive terminology -- words such as "maiming," "sterilizing" and "mutilation" -- that contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming careopens in a new tab or window in the U.S. Such care is widely endorsed by the medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

King, the judge in Seattle, grilled Justice Department attorney Vinita Andrapalliyal in court about the meaning and effect of Trump's executive orders.

"What is gender dysphoria?" she asked.

"Your honor, I am not a medical provider," Andrapalliyal responded.

"It's a thing, correct?" King asked. "It's a medically recognizable diagnosis?"

"I don't have an official position on that," Andrapalliyal said.

The judge continued to press, saying she was "looking for a legitimate government interest" that would justify Trump's orders.

The four Democratic attorneys general suing in Seattle argued that the orders violate equal rights protections, the separation of powers, and the states' right to regulate issues not delegated to the federal government.

The Trump administration disputed those claims in court filings. "The President's authority to direct subordinate agencies to implement his agenda, subject to those agencies' own statutory authorities, is well established," Justice Department attorneys wrote.

In addition to the orders on healthcare access and defining the sexes as unchangeableopens in a new tab or window, Trump has also signed orders that open the door to banning transgender people from military serviceopens in a new tab or window; set up new rules about how schools can teach about genderopens in a new tab or window; and would ban transgender athletesopens in a new tab or window from participating in girls' and women's sports.

Many legal challengesopens in a new tab or window have been filed.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/transgendermedicine/114449

Zelensky meets King Charles III in UK after getting kicked out of White House

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with King Charles following an emergency summit with European leaders in London, where he was urged to repair his relationship with President Trump.

The Ukrainian leader, wearing all black, was pictured shaking hands with a beaming king outside of his Sandringham country estate after traveling from the British capital by helicopter.

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King Charles III and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Saloon at Sandringham House on March 2, 2025.POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Locals had gathered outside the state in the Norfolk countryside to try and catch a glimpse of President Zelensky, with some waving blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.

Zelensky has looked to bolster his relationship with his European allies two days after his planned talks with President Trump ended in a furious shouting match.

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For the most part, he received a hero’s reception, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer telling other world leaders the success of Ukraine was “vital to the security of every nation here and many others too.”

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Zelensky attends a meeting with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in London.UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attend a meeting with fellow leaders during a summit on Ukraine at Lancaster House in London, Britain, March 2, 2025.via REUTERS
However, Italian PM Giorgio Meloni — who has courted close ties with Trump — was among those calling on Zelensky to mend fences with the US or risk a “West divided” over the Ukraine war with Russia, now into its fourth year.

https://nypost.com/2025/03/02/world-news/zelensky-meets-king-charles-iii-after-getting-kicked-out-of-white-house-by-trump/