On today's podcast:
1) New York City is poised to get pummeled with more than a foot of snow this weekend, a test for new Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as a massive weather system lands on the region threatening power outages, airline delays and transit system problems. New York’s Central Park may get dumped with as much as 16 inches (41 centimeters) of snow starting Sunday morning, the heaviest of the season. That comes as the storm that will hit Southern states with ice moves into the Northeast, said Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center. Washington, Philadelphia and Boston are also expected to see snowfall. If the forecast holds, it would be the biggest snowstorm to hit Manhattan since 2021, based on snowfall records at Central Park.
2) The US wants to rewrite its defense agreement with Denmark to remove any limits on its military presence in Greenland, people familiar with the matter said, in what’s become a focal point for negotiators looking to meet President Trump’s demand for control over the territory. The original agreement, signed in 1951 and amended in 2004, says the US must “consult with and inform” Denmark and Greenland before it makes “any significant changes to United States military operations or facilities in Greenland.” The people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said American negotiators want to rework that language to make sure the US faces no restrictions at all as it makes its plans.
3) The Kremlin said the “territorial issue” remains unresolved after President Vladimir Putin held late-night talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest peace plan for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. There’s “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” to the war until Russia’s demands for territory in Ukraine are accepted, Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said in an audio recording on Telegram early Friday. That’s even as he characterized the almost four hours of negotiations in the Kremlin as “exceptionally substantive, constructive.” Talks will continue between US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the United Arab Emirates on Friday and Saturday. Separately, Witkoff and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, will discuss bilateral Russia-US economic matters in Abu Dhabi.