TALK AND CONSEQUENCES:  President Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska today in an encounter that some analysts say is a win for Putin just by having it happen. The meeting pulls Putin out of diplomatic isolation and puts him in the room with the man he’s been manipulating and leading on for six months.

  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, uninvited to the talks about the future of his country, told reporters that; “Putin will win in this. Because he is seeking, excuse me, photos. He needs a photo from the meeting with President Trump.”

  Trump told Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, “Because of a certain relationship that he has with me, running this country … I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal.”

  The Kremlin has signaled they have other issues in mind, including restoration of economic ties with the United States and a new nuclear weapons deal. The arms idea plays into Russia’s framing of war against Ukraine as just part of bigger East-West conflict in which Ukraine is an ally of the West right on their border.

  Trump, who ran for president claiming he could end Russia’s war on Ukraine in a day, has already overrun his own deadline of last Friday for Putin to commit to a cease-fire. Putin instead intensified his attacks on Ukraine and has been slowly grabbing more territory.

  Remember also that Alaska, like Ukraine, used to belong to Russia. Putin might look around and decide he wants Alaska back as well.

ICE, ICE, BABY: Armed and masked immigration agents collected outside a Los Angeles museum yesterday where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a rally and news conference about congressional redistricting in California.

  Local politicians and Newsom were angry that agents made a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum for an event that had nothing to do with immigration. Newsom said, “It’s pretty sick and pathetic — everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s America.”

  Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol chief who is leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Southern California, was seen in a video saying, “We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don’t have politicians who can do that. We do that ourselves.”

   President Trump appears to be losing the influential podcaster Joe Rogan over immigration and other issues. During an interview with a Trump supporter Rogan said, “When people thought about ICE, they thought, ‘Great, we’re going to get rid of the gang members,’ they didn’t think, ‘Great, you’re going to get rid of the landscaper.”

HOME IN MANHATTAN: Amidst a crisis of availability and affordability of housing in Manhattan, The New York City Council unanimously passed a plan to allowing the development of 9,500 new homes … apartments.  

  The plan involves about 42 blocks across four areas of Midtown and Midtown South where zoning rules have prevented new residential construction.

  Housing is an issue in the mayoral race and in particular the rent-stabilized apartment lived in by the Democratic nominee, state legislator Zohran Mamdani.

  Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, says Mamdani and his wife make too much money to live in rent stabilization. “You make $142,000 a year plus stipends, and your wife works too, meaning you together likely make well over $200,000,” Cuomo said on social media. “No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich.”

  This has caused a debate about the definition of rich in a city that is home to the financial industry and where apartments sell for tens of millions of dollars. New Yorkers pay federal, state, and city income taxes and a hamburger plus fries at JG Melon is $23.25, cash only. 

RIGHTS AND CLEARANCES: The organizers of Canada’s largest film festival have pulled an Israeli documentary about the October 7th attacks that included footage of atrocities live streamed by Hamas fighters. The reason is not the graphic violence, but that the film producers did not get the rights and clearances from the Hamas terrorists to use their video. 

  The makers of the film, “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” accused The Toronto International Film Festival of censorship, which the festival organizers deny. 

  Talia Harris Ram, one of the  producers, said they were notified that the documentary, about a retired general who rescued his family from an attack on their home, would be withdrawn because it did not have the proper “clearance to use archival footage.” She said in a statement, “As someone who has dedicated her life to handling rights and intellectual property, this is the most absurd, horrific, disconnected claim I have encountered so far.” 

THE MESS WITH TEXAS: Democrats in the Texas House say they are returning home to allow a vote on a congressional redistricting map that would ensure the Republicans five more seats in the House of Representatives.

  The Republicans have drawn the congressional map in a way that empowers them to select the voters, rather than have a balanced body of voters choose their representatives. The congressional districts they’ve drawn are contorted to reach their goal.

  “We’re prepared to bring this battle back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts,” said the Democratic minority leader Gene Wu. “The fight to protect voting rights has only just begun.”

THE SPIN RACK: The man who threw a submarine sandwich at a federal officer in Washington this week has been identified as Sean Charles Dunn, an employee of the Justice Department. Actually, former employee. — Crews in Washington DC under the authority of the Justice Department empowered by President Trump have begun clearing homeless encampments.

BELOW THE FOLD: The HBO series “And Just Like That,” the sequel to “Sex and the City,” ended last night with lead character Carrie Bradshaw alone in the world. More important things are happening in the real world.

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