On today’s show: President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “a dictator without elections” on Wednesday. Reuters reports that major risks loom as Trump upends U.S.-Russia policy. Who can force out New York City’s mayor? Katie Honan from The City joins to discuss this and more questions. Health insurers deny 850 million claims a year. The Wall Street Journal’s Julie Wernau reports that the few who appeal often win. The Journal also has five steps to take if your health-insurance claim is denied. Plus, Hamas has returned return the bodies belonging to four Israeli hostages that are said to include the Bibas family, the Trump administration has halted a program that provided lawyers to nearly 26,000 immigrant children, and the U.S. and Canada square off in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Thursday, February 20th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, a couple ways New York City Mayor Eric Adams could lose his job, why it's worth your time to fight a denied health insurance claim, and in hockey, the United States and Canada, fresh off last weekend's brawl, face off again tonight.
But first, almost three years to the day after Russian tanks first invaded Ukraine, President Trump shocked Ukraine and European allies by blaming Ukraine for the war, further straining relations between the U.S. and its NATO and Ukrainian allies.
Remember, Ukraine and members of the NATO alliance were already upset that Russia and the United States excluded them from peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. And Trump's lie about how the war started came during a press conference Tuesday evening in response to a reporter's question about how those talks went. Here's the president.
And I think it's going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land.
The war began in February of 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from three sides with troops, tanks, and airstrikes targeting cities, military bases, schools, and hospitals. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes. It was the biggest attack on a European nation since World War II.
In Tuesday's press conference, Trump also incorrectly claimed President Zelensky has a 4 percent domestic approval rating. According to polling from this month, Zelensky's approval rating is above 50 percent. And Zelensky, in response to Trump's comments, accused the president of parroting talking points from the Kremlin.
Since we are talking about 4%, we have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia. We understand and we have evidence that these numbers are being discussed between America and Russia. It is unfortunate that President Trump, and with great respect for him as the leader of the American people who constantly support us, unfortunately lives in this disinformation space.
During Tuesday's press conference and on social media, in response to that comment from Zelensky you just heard, Trump called Zelensky a dictator and suggested the Ukrainian president should not be in power. Elections in Ukraine were supposed to happen in 2024, but they've been suspended during wartime under martial law.
A survey of Ukrainians conducted last year found 70 percent of people supported allowing Zelensky to remain in power until martial law is lifted. And Zelensky's administration has said it plans to hold elections immediately after the war has ended. Trump's envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired General Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kiev on Wednesday to meet with Zelensky.
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