WashPo: Trump administration to pause deliveries of military assistance to Ukraine, officials say
Following a high-level meeting at the White House, the Trump administration has decided to pause all future deliveries of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy deliberations. In the wake of President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday, the U.S. president is halting the provision of weapons and military aid critical to Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
Guardian: Trump orders swathes of US forests to be cut down for timber
Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US.
The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands, claiming that “heavy-handed federal policies” have made America reliant on foreign imports of timber.
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This move is similar to recent instructions by Trump to use a rarely-used committee to push through fossil fuel projects even if they imperil at-risk species. Experts have said this overriding of the Endangered Species Act is probably illegal.
The order also stipulates logging projects can be sped up if they are for purported wildfire risk reduction, via “thinning” of vegetation that could ignite. Some scientists have said that aggressively felling forests, particularly established, fire-resistant trees, actually increases the risk of fast-moving fires.
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Trump’s shift towards a more industry-friendly stance has been underlined by his choice of a lumber executive lead the Forest Service, which has just fired 2,000 workers amid a purge led by Elon Musk, who has also been recently seen wielding a chainsaw.
Tom Schultz, previously a vice-president of Idaho Forest Group, which sells wood, will be the next Forest Service chief, overseeing the management of 154 national forests and 193m acres of land, an area roughly the size of Texas.
Last Updated: 03.Mar.2025 20:38 EST
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