First Thing: Trump says Putin would keep his word on a Ukraine peace deal

During talks with UK’s Keir Starmer, Trump also suggests Britain will be exempt from US tariffs. Plus, can the sharing of personal stories help counter vaccine skepticism?

Good morning.

During talks at the White House with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, Donald Trump insisted Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” on a peace deal for Ukraine.

Trump argued that US workers extracting critical minerals in the country would act as a security backstop to deter Russia from invading again.

But, sitting alongside Starmer in the Oval Office taking questions from journalists, Trump refused to commit to deploying US forces to support a European-led peacekeeping force, although he said the US would “always” help the British military in the unlikely event it needed it.

Trump also praised Starmer’s “very hard” lobbying and suggested the UK would be exempt from US tariffs.

After Starmer, who’s visiting today? Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to sign a rare earth minerals deal during a visit to the White House, even though Trump has said the deal will not contain significant security guarantees for Kyiv.

Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s mass firings at federal agencies

A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the US defense department and other agencies to carry out mass firings.

The US district judge William Alsup said in San Francisco yesterday that the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lacked the power to order federal agencies to fire any workers, including probationary employees.

Alsup ordered the OPM, the human resources department for federal agencies, to rescind emails sent on 20 January and 14 February directing agencies to identify probationary employees who should be fired.

What did the judge say about the impact of the layoffs? He suggested they would cause widespread harm, including cuts to national park services, scientific research and services for veterans.

Police search for answers after Gene Hackman and wife found dead at home

Investigators in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are continuing to search for answers after Gene Hackman and his wife, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead at their home under suspicious circumstances.

A maintenance worker found the couple’s bodies at their home on Wednesday, along with that of one of their three dogs. The front door was open. The Santa Fe county sheriff’s office has said there were no signs of foul play and no obvious evidence of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning.

A search warrant revealed that Hackman and Arakawa had been dead for some time before their bodies were discovered, as Arakawa’s “body was in a state of decomposition with bloating in her face and mummification in her hands and feet”.

When did they die? At a press conference, the Santa Fe county sheriff Adan Mendoza said the couple “had been deceased for quite a while” but could not offer an exact amount of time.

In other news …

Marty Baron, a highly regarded former editor of the Washington Post, said Jeff Bezos’s announcement that the newspaper’s opinion section would narrow its editorial focus was a “betrayal of the very idea of free expression”.

Doug Ford has declared victory in his bid for re-election as premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, after campaigning on standing up to Trump’s threats of crippling tariffs..

James Cameron has voiced his relief that he is becoming a New Zealand citizen, saying the US under Trump is “a turn away from everything decent”.

Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.

Stat of the day: DoorDash to repay $16.75m in pocketed tips to New York delivery workers

The delivery platform DoorDash is paying $16.75m to settle an investigation conducted by New York authorities that charged the company with using tips from customers to subsidize workers’ base pay. DoorDash encouraged customers to tip at checkout, claiming 100% of tips would go to workers. The settlement includes $16.75m in restitution for workers. Some workers could receive as much as $14,000.

Don’t miss this: Formerly anti-vax parents on how they changed their minds – ‘I really made a mistake’

The anti-vax movement first emerged in the mid-19th century in response to mandatory smallpox vaccination laws. In recent years, fueled by distrust of medical institutions, Covid-19-related anxieties and social media misinformation, the shift has accelerated. But can the sharing of real-life stories counter this? Some researchers believe so and argue that personal stories are more persuasive than facts alone.

Climate check: Cop16 countries strike crucial deal on nature despite global tensions

Delegates from around the world have cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions. Rich and developing countries meeting in Rome hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting, in Cali, Colombia, last year. The US, however, did not attend.

Last Thing: Mercury falls into line for rare seven-planet alignment

Seven planets will appear to align in the night sky on the last day of February in what is known as a planetary parade – when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once. The event is rare: the next will not occur until 2040.

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