By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that principals at the first direct meeting among U.S. negotiators and those of warring Russia and Ukraine discussed “possible parameters for ending the war” and went well enough to merit a second meeting next Sunday in host Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, were among the U.S. delegation.
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Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is reviewing whether her country should continue shipping oil to Cuba in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to the practice. She also is mindful of the upcoming negotiations for an extension of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Republican Congressmembers from Florida, Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez of and have warned of consequences if Mexico continues to prop up the Cuban regime.
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Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, whose Temple Mount Sifting Project and examination of the Ketef Hinnom burial complex furthered knowledge of early Judaism, died on Sunday, Jan 11, at age 81. A recipient of the Jerusalem Prize for Archaeological Research, Barkay was considered a living encyclopedia concerning the capital city’s past.
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Axios reported that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to designate Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to be Israel’s representative for the inauguration of the Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22. Switzerland is a member of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, which Switzerland could have honored. So, Netanyahu wasn’t in Davos for the ceremony. Herzog was, but despite U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner repeatedly pleading, Netanyahu held firm. Neither the White House nor the Prime Minister’s office had immediate comment.
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NATIONAL
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told CNN reporter Sara Sidner on Friday that the massive ICE presence in his city “is not about safety, it’s not even about immigration. What we are seeing right now is that this is about political retribution. It’s about causing chaos on our streets.” Asked about subpoenas issued by the U.S. Justice Department to for him and other leading Minnesota public officials, including the governor and attorney general, he responded: “I’m going to let the attorneys handle what the best legal strategy is on that front.”
On Saturday, after federal agents fatally shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, an American citizen who participates in an ICE monitoring group, Frey asked at a televised news conference: “How many more lives need to be lost before this [Trump] administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values? How many times must local and national leaders plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city?”
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Democratic U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Brian Schatz of Hawaii reacted sharply to the fatal shooting of Minnesotan Alex Pretti during an anti-ICE demonstration Saturday in Minneapolis. Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, posted on social media, “ICE out of Minnesota NOW.” Schatz stated on social media, “I’m voting against funding for DHS (Department of Homeland Security, of which Immigration and Customs Enforcement -ICE- is a subordinate agency) until and unless more controls are put in place to hold ICE accountable. These repeated incidents of violence across the country are unlawful, needlessly escalatory, making all of us less safe.”
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U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) and Robert Garcia (D-California), respectively the top Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives, have written to Attorney General Pam Bondi that whistleblowers have told them that the late Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is receiving preferential treatment from a warden at a federal minimum security prison in Texas. They sought clearance to interview the warden, Tanisha Hall.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World