Monday morning news: February 17, 2025

U.S and Russia to hold Ukraine War peace talks » Top leaders in the Trump Administration will be engaging Russian officials in direct talks this week aimed at ending Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia, where the talks will be happening. This comes on the heels of President Trump’s phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week, after which Trump said the two men agreed to have their teams start negotiations immediately.

When it comes to where Putin stands on the war, Trump says:

TRUMP: I think he wants to end it, and they want to end it fast.

Trump also says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be involved in the talks, but didn’t elaborate. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, tells Fox…

MARKAROVA: If President Trump will be able to convince them -let’s use this word- to stop this war, God bless him. We all will work together with President Trump and with his whole administration to do it.

Zelenskyy has said in the past he won’t accept negotiations about ending the war that don’t involve his country. A Ukrainian delegation is in Saudi Arabia to pave the way for a potential Zelenskyy visit.

Europeans leaders concerned, hold Ukraine summit in Paris » French President Emanuel Macron is convening leaders from top European countries in Paris today for what he’s calling an emergency working meeting to discuss next steps for Ukraine.

Some European allies are concerned they could be sidelined from the U.S.’s direct talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine.

White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz says that’s not the case.

WALTZ: I have to push back on any notion that they aren’t being consulted. They absolutely are. At the end of the day, though, this is going to be under President Trump’s leadership that we get this war to an end.

The U.S. has said it sees this week’s talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia as early stage negotiations, and who ends up at the table could change.

The White House also says President Trump has spoken recently with Zelenskyy and Macron, and he’ll be talking to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week.

Rubio meets w/Netanyahu over Gaza » Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a show of solidarity with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday. It came during Rubio’s first trip to Israel in his new role.

While the two leaders celebrated Hamas’s release of three more hostages over the weekend, they issued a united call for all the hostages from the war in Gaza to come home. And Rubio endorsed Israel’s goal in the war: to end Hamas.

RUBIO: As long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. They must be eradicated.

Rubio and Netanyahu also discussed President Trump’s plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza so the region can be redeveloped. Netanyahu says he’s moving forward with that plan, calling it the only viable plan to enable a different future.

Deadly Southeast U.S. storms » At least nine people are dead after severe weather hammered the Southeast U.S. over the weekend.

Eight of those fatalities came in Kentucky, where heavy rain brought massive flooding. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear:

BESHEAR: So many of these fatalities were due to attempts to drive through water and through moving water.

Beshear also says emergency crews carried out at least 1,000 rescues of people stranded by the flooding. President Trump has approved a disaster declaration for Kentucky.

The storms also toppled trees and caused power outages in several other states, including Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, where officials confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down.

Rebels gaining more ground in Congo » Rwanda-backed rebels are now occupying a second major city in Central Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC.

The rebels took Bukavu, a city of more than a million people, with little resistance from Congo’s government Sunday.

African Union leader Bankole Adeoye says:

ADEOYE: We are all very, very concerned about an open regional war over eastern DRC.

Eastern Congo has trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that’s critical for powering much of the world’s technology. More than 100 armed groups have been fighting for control of it.

That fighting has displaced more than 6 million people and created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Iran repression of Christians on the rise, Trump urged to confront » Iran has launched a new crackdown on Christianity. And, as WORLD’s Travis Kircher explains, there are calls for the White House to respond.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Two professing Christians in their 60s who were recently pardoned by the Iranian government…have been re-arrested.

That according to Article 18…a United Kingdom-based NGO that tracks religious persecution in Iran.

Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Joseph Shahbazian had both served a combined six years of their 10-year prison sentences. Their leadership of house churches led the Iranian government to charge them with “actions against national security.” 

Gol-Tapeh was released in October of 2022 and Shabazian was freed in September.

But according to Article 18, both men were re-arrested the morning of February 6 and taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Several other professing Christians in Tehran were also arrested.

At this time the reason for their arrests is unclear.

Some activists are calling on the Trump administration to take punitive actions against the Iranian government unless it recognizes the religious freedom of Iran’s Christian minority.

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Legal standards for police actions going before the Supreme Court. Plus, tariff strategies and government efficiency, in the Monday Moneybeat.

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