Thursday morning news: February 13, 2025

Ukraine war negotiations-1 » President Trump says Russia’s Vladimir Putin is ready to talk peace.

Trump said he had a lengthy phone conversation with Putin about ending the war in Ukraine.

TRUMP - He wants it to end. And that's President Putin said that. He wants it to end. He doesn't want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later. We talked about the possibility—I mentioned it—of a ceasefire so we can stop the killing. And I think we'll probably end up at some point getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future.

Trump also spoke yesterday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said he was thankful …

ZELENSKYY: … to the President for his message that he will support Ukraine and he really wants to stop this war. And I know that he's a strong man and, uh, and I'm sure that he will push Putin.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died … and nearly a million more wounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Ukraine war negotiations-2 » But what might a peace deal to end the war look like?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided some clues on Wednesday.

HEGSETH: We must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre 2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.

Hegseth spoke from Belgium as he met with leaders from NATO allied nations and the Ukraine Defense Contract Group.

His remarks indicate that any peace deal likely would not require Russia to pull out of the Crimean Peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.

And Hegseth added…

HEGSETH: The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.

He went on to say that a durable peace must include security guarantees possibly to be backed up by a peacekeeping force in Ukraine on a non-NATO mission.

But he said such a force would not include U.S. troops.

Judge clears way for downsizing federal workforce » A federal judge has cleared the way for President Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The ruling surrounds the Trump administration’s so-called ‘Fork in the Road’ federal employee buyout program. The administration made an offer to some 2 million federal employees … they can quit now and will still be paid through the end of September.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. on Wednesday found that the labor unions that sued didn’t have legal standing to challenge the program.

The White House says well over 60,000 federal employees have already accepted the offer.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Inflation » U.S. inflation ticked up last month as the cost of groceries and gasoline rose.

The Labor Department reports that from December to January, inflation rose from 2.9, to an even 3.0 percent.

The January numbers continue a monthslong upward trend. Inflation has increased each month since October.

Gabbard » On Capitol Hill Wednesday, the Senate voted down party lines to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

AUDIO: [Senate Gabbard vote] Yeas are 52, nays are 48. Nomination is confirmed.

She ultimately overcame the reservations of some Republicans over things like past remarks seemingly in support of government leaker Edward Snowden.

Gabbard is a former Democratic Congresswoman and an Iraq War veteran.

UK Christian teacher » In the UK A big legal victory for a Christian former school employee … who was fired for speaking about her beliefs on her own personal Facebook page.

A British appeals court is siding with Kristie Higgs six years after she was fired from her job as a pastoral assistant.

HIGGS: This is not just about me. Too many Christians have suffered discipline or marginalisation at their work because of their Christian faith.

The Farmors School in Gloucestershire terminated her after an anonymous person reported two of her Facebook posts as being supposedly homophobic and transphobic.

That came after she shared concerns about pro-LGBT ideologies being taught at a Church of England school her son attended.

The three-judge panel said Higgs’ statements and beliefs were protected by the Equality Act.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: possible cuts to the Department of Education. Plus, President Trump’s plan for reducing the federal workforce runs into court challenges.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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