Beltway Insider: Trump, Putin Meet, Israel/Gaza, NYAG Subpoenaed, 9/11 Victims, James Lovell Dies
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- Category: Beltway Insider
- Published on Saturday, 09 August 2025 21:05
- Written by Janet Walker
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet this week in Alaska in hopes of solidifying a framework for ending the nearly 42-month Ukraine war. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has not been invited.
The President's job approval rating, according to Gallup featured in The New York Times for the period ending August 9, 2025, of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President remained constant at 37% and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as president remained constant at 58%. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.
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Trump, Putin, Scheduled to Meet
President Trump has extended an invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet this upcoming Friday in Alaska to forge a peace framework toward ending the nearly 42-month Ukraine war. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has not been invited.
Mr. Trump announced that he expected the relinquishing of lands from the Ukraine and possibly Russia would be necessary to stop the senseless bloodshed as neither nation is willing to yield.
"The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will retreat from this, and no one can. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier," Zelensky said in a video address Saturday morning," The Washington Post reported.
In a war that has killed nearly 2 million on both sides, and neither side has any chance of winning, ending the battle in a draw would be in Putin's best interest. As Russia has failed to meet its strategic objectives, the continued fighting has only served to unite the international European community in an effort to stand against the raging dictatorial leadership.
Putin has also used the war to build relationships with China's President Xi-Jinping, North Korea's Kim Jong Un, and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, each of whom have supplied weaponry to help build munitions. Mr. Trump's recent tariffs are also responsible for driving world leaders to find more friendly trading partners.
As Mr. Trump seems to be willing to give away the bank, both Zelenskyy and Putin are more interested in retaining what territorial sovereignty has deemed as their nations borders. Ukraine President Zelensky should demand the return of all land, including Crimea, which was which was overthrown by Putin after the Sochi Olympics in 2014. Putin, who was ostracized by the global community and suspended from the G8 over the invasion of Crimea may be the only land which he will keep and Zelensky will cede.
With Trump and Putin meeting this week, the possibility of a cease fire, the first steps toward a long term solution, may be hammered out. The United Nations General Assembly will convene in New York in one month, and for President Trump and Russian President Putin, the general meeting may allow for bilateral or sidebar meetings to further talks or create an atmosphere additional talks can't be convened in a short period of time, especially with the other war and the expected tensions over positions.
Israel Plans to Take Over Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week that Israel would be taking control of Gaza and plans to build a Humanitarian city near Rafah, located at Gaza's southernmost, tip near the border of Egypt.
"Meron Rapoport, a left-wing Israeli journalist, parsed the statements coming from prominent lawmakers and officials, as well as connected right-wing Israeli journalists, and came up with this somewhat prescient conclusion: "Israel is preparing to forcibly displace the entire population of Gaza — through a combination of evacuation orders and intense bombardment — into an enclosed and possibly fenced-off area," he wrote on April 1, suggesting the goal was tantamount to the creation of a large "concentration camp," The Washington Post reported.
Netanyahu plans to relocate as many Palestinian refugees as possible from other regions to this location, where they would be required to stay and would be unable to exit the facility. Although the Israeli government has also encouraged as many Palestinians as possible to emigrate to any nation that will have them.
As Netanyahu continues to lead the charge to exterminate the Palestinian people, the question remains as the Palestinian people who once lived in Gaza are now forced, herded by transport to the region near Rafah. Why not allow them to move into the West Bank? Or is Netanyahu's plans to march on the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories, next?
World News: France Takes a Stand on a Two State Solution
Shocking Deprivation
The shocking conditions facing the Palestinian refugees in Gaza should alarm the world. More than 60,000 Gazans have now died in the war brought on by the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack. The Gaza Strip once covered 141 miles bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and more then 2.2 million people called the area home. However, since the October 7, 2023 attack that has all changed. Inhabitants are routinely forced to move to safety.
"In August alone, the Israel Defense Forces issued 12 evacuation orders, according to the U.N., with an additional order Saturday afternoon, forcing as many as 250,000 people to move again in search of safety. At the beginning of the year, 33% of Gaza was an IDF-designated humanitarian zone," NBC news reported.
Now, the more than two million people are forced into a single cramped area, smaller than Manhattan, and estimated to be only a 15 square mile camp. This results in critical deprivation, lack of clean water and sanitation systems. Starvation is at a critical level with four or five starvation deaths now reported daily.
Genocide or Not
Ms. Yuli Novak, 43, an Israeli human rights activist and executive director of B'Tselem, stated, "Every genocide in history has had a justification, at least in the eyes of those who committed it: of self-defense in the face of existential danger, of a war of no choice, of victims who had 'brought it upon themselves."
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the extermination or genocide of the Palestinian people is a justified response not simply for October 7, 2023, but for years of tolerance as the Gaza Strip has been used as a staging ground, which was confirmed, after Israeli troops exposed the intricate tunnel systems under the region that included munitions housed in schools, for Hamas and other terror organization who have a generational hatred toward the Jewish people.
Netanyahu's plan to take full control of the Gaza Strip is based in security concerns, and when this war is over, and the Palestinian population recovers the desire to retaliate will drive them into submission for a season, tolerance of dictatorial control, and in the future when Netanyahu's legacy is remembered in granite, the next war will erupt.
As the leading nations of the world believe a two state solution is the only postwar scenario that will provide both Israel and Palestine with the peace and security they need.
NY Attorney General Letitia James Subpoenaed
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud in a longstanding grievance between the Trump Administration and the Attorney General.
Attorney General James was responsible for one of two convictions of Mr. Trump faced recently. She secured a $450 million judgment against Trump and his companies over misrepresentation of properties and assets.
"Federal officials are investigating whether James lied on loan documents for a house she purchased in Norfolk in 2023. In that paperwork, she said the home would be her primary residence even as she served as attorney general in New York. Her attorney has described those errors as honest mistakes," The Washington Post reported.
The New York Attorney General is subject to election. The next election will be held during the midterms on November 3, 2026.
World News: Israel and the Depopulation of Gaza
Coronavirus Total
At the order of the President of the United States, the U.S. no longer recognizes the value of The World Health Organization. The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens should receive at least one shot of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, annually. The death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases continue each week, fewer are dying from the newer variants.
For the 7 days ending August 3, 2025, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by the World Health Organization increased by 15,897 to 778,433,861. The total worldwide death toll increased by 405 to 7,099,104 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated July 20, 2025, from the World Health Organization).
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Three Additional 9/11 Victims Identified
Three additional victims from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have been identified through DNA analysis, New York Mayor Eric Adams said.
The victims, Ryan Fitzgerald, 26, and Barbara Keating, 72, and a third victim, whose identity the family has requested not be disclosed, were the 1,651st, 1652nd, and 1653rd victims identified positively through DNA analysis.
"Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Center, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever," said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham. "Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost," Long Island News 12 reported.
Fitzgerald worked on the 97th Floor of the south tower at the Fiduciary Trust Company, and Keating was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 that slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center complex.
More than 1,100 victims remained unidentified as the painstaking work of DNA analysis continues. Akin to archaeological digs, the medical examiner and his team comb through debris that included six New York City blocks, in the most densely populated area of the city, rubble of more than two hundred story towers, and sift through tons of dirt, cement, stone, steel, and scorched fragments, milligram by milligram determined to identify each of the remaining victims.
The pain of the September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks continues.
Medical Science: The Brain’s Self-Cleaning System
James A. Lovell, Apollo 13 Crewmember, Dies
James A. Lovell, astronaut and commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 space mission, died this week. He was 97.
"NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades. Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements," NASA said in a statement.
By 1970, when Apollo 13 blasted into orbit for an expected third moon landing the public appetite for space achievements, were waning. Lovell, and his two crew members, Fred Haise and John L. Swigert Jr. had even lost the attention of the evening news.
It wasn't until, two days into the mission, that the now famous words, "Houston, we have a problem," were spoken by Lovell. An oxygen tank had exploded and the lives of Lovell, Haise, and Swigert were at risk. The possibility of catastrophic tragedy reinvigorated the public's attention and confronted with this terrible disaster the Apollo 13 mission, once again, made the space program front page and primetime news.
The story of Apollo 13 Mission has been told repeatedly throughout the years, and yet reading about it again, it is one of the truly frightening and heroic moments in space history.
As the crew moved from the nearly disabled space capsule to the lunar lander, which was attached in a separate compartment with oxygen, they were forced to suffer extreme cold, sleep deprivation, and to return to earth they needed to redirect the space craft, with no instruments. Lovell directed by sight to a successful earth trajectory and finally a successful return to earth.
For more information on President Donald Trump: Whitehouse.gov.
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Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.
