Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that discussions over ending the war in Ukraine have entered a productive phase, while claiming ‘a tremendous amount of progress’ had been made.

Following a round of talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Geneva, Switzerland, Rubio told reporters negotiators had ‘a very good day today.’

‘We had a very good day today. I think we made a tremendous amount of progress, even from the last time I spoke to you,’ Rubio said.

‘We began almost three weeks ago with a foundational document that we socialized and ran by both sides, and with input from both sides,’ he said.

Rubio described how negotiators had been refining the 28-point peace framework that outlines potential conditions for a ceasefire and long-term settlement for Ukraine and Russia.

‘Over the last 96 hours or more, there’s been extensive engagement with the Ukrainian side including our Secretary of the Army and others, being on the ground in Kyiv, meeting with relevant stakeholders across the Ukrainian political spectrum in the legislative branch and the executive branch, and the military and others to further sort of narrow these points.’

‘We arrived here today with one goal: to take what – it’s 28 points or 26 points, depending on which version, as it continued to evolve and try to narrow the ones that were open items. And we have achieved that today in a very substantial way,’ he said.

The weekend talks centered on a 28-point plan, which is a framework drafted by the U.S. outlining steps for a possible ceasefire and political settlement.

The document is said to cover security guarantees, territorial control, reconstruction mechanisms, and Ukraine’s long-term relationship with NATO and the EU.

The plan has reportedly evolved through several iterations, narrowing disputes point by point as both sides weigh concessions.

‘Now, obviously, like any final agreement, it’ll have to be agreed upon by the presidents, and there are a couple of issues that we need to continue to work on,’ Rubio clarified.

While declining to specify unresolved issues, Rubio described the moment as ‘delicate.’

‘This is a very delicate moment, and it’s important – like I said, there’s not agreement on those yet.  Some of it is semantics or language; others require higher-level decisions and consultation; others, I think, just need more time to work through,’ he said before touching on some issues.

‘There were some that involved equities or the role of the EU or of NATO or so forth, and those we kind of segregated out because we just met with the national security advisors for various European countries, and those are things we’ll have to discuss with them because it involves them.’

‘I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done,’ he added.

Suggesting there is intent to ensure Ukraine’s security, Rubio said that they all ‘recognize that part of getting a final end to this war will require for Ukraine to feel as if it is safe, and it is never going to be invaded or attacked again.’

‘I honestly believe we’ll get there,’ he said, and when asked about next steps, Rubio said a possible call between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could happen, adding, ‘I don’t know. It’s possible. I’m not sure.’

‘The deadline is we want to get this done as soon as possible. Obviously, we’d love it to be Thursday,’ he added.

A new feature on Elon Musk’s X is exposing the truth behind social media accounts across the political spectrum, with account owners apparently misleading followers about where they are posting from.

The new feature allows all X users to inspect where a given account is based, usually listing a country or region. Many popular accounts posing as American ‘patriots’ or ‘constitutionalists’ have been exposed as being run from foreign countries since the update rolled out on Friday.

One account with the handle ‘@1776General_’ boasts over 140,000 followers and has a user biography describing the owner as a ‘constitutionalist, patriot and ethnically American.’ The biography claims the account is based in the U.S., but X’s new feature reveals it is actually based in Turkey.

‘I work in international business. I’m currently working in Turkey on a contract,’ the owner of the account posted after the new feature was released.

Another account, ‘@AmericanVoice__’ had over 200,000 followers before the update rolled out. The new feature exposed that it was being run from South Asia, and the owners simply deleted the account.

X head of product Nikita Bier says the new feature should help X users sift out misinformation from their feeds.

‘When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity. This is critical for staying informed about important issues happening in the world. Part of this is showing new information in accounts, including the country an account is located in, among other things,’ Bier wrote.

The phenomenon is not limited to American politics, however. Many accounts claiming to have been reporting on alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza also appear to be misleading users.

One user, Motasm A Dalloul, uses the handle ‘@AbujomaaGaza’ and claims to be a ‘Gaza-based journalist.’ His account has over 197,000 followers, but X says the owner is actually posting from Poland.

Dalloul has pushed back on claims that he is lying to his followers, however, posting a video on Saturday that appeared to show him on the ground in Gaza. Many users have argued about whether the video was digitally altered.

Another Palestinian-related account, the Quds News Network or @QudsNen, describes itself as the ‘largest independent Palestinian youth news network’ and has over 600,000 followers.

The account lists its location as ‘Palestine,’ but X says the account is actually based out of Egypt – unlike other accounts that X does list as being based in ‘Palestine,’ such as American-Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti.

A similar account under the name Times of Gaza/@Timesofgaza has nearly one million followers. It claims to provide the ‘latest news updates and top stories from occupied Palestine.’ The account is based in ‘East Asia and the Pacific,’ according to X.

X representatives have said its new feature could be partially spoofed by using a VPN to mask a user’s true location. In such cases where a VPN was detected, X added a warning next to the listed location.

Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., is demanding that President Donald Trump release a 2019 call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the American people ‘deserve to know what was said’ in the aftermath of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

Vindman, a retired Army colonel who once served on Trump’s National Security Council, said the call was one of two that deeply concerned him — the other being the 2019 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that triggered Trump’s first impeachment. 

Standing beside Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the slain journalist’s widow, Vindman said Trump ‘sidelined his own intelligence community to shield a foreign leader’ and that transparency is owed to both the Khashoggi family and the country.

‘The Khashoggi family and the American people deserve to know what was said on that call,’ Vindman said Friday. ‘Our intelligence agencies concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of Mr. Khashoggi’s husband. When the president sidelined his own intelligence community to shield a foreign leader, America’s credibility was at stake.’

Vindman’s name already is polarizing in Trump-era politics. 

He and his twin brother, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, became central figures in the first impeachment attempt against Trump, when their internal reporting of Trump’s Ukraine call led to accusations from conservatives that they had undermined an elected president. To Trump’s allies, Eugene Vindman’s demand to release the 2019 Saudi call feels like a replay of that fight — another attempt by a former National Security Council insider to damage the president under the banner of transparency.

Still, his comments land at a revealing moment. Washington’s embrace of bin Salman underscores a familiar trade-off in U.S. foreign policy: strategic security and economic interests over accountability and human rights.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: ‘The U.S.-Saudi friendship is now a partnership for the future. President Trump’s historic agreements with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from defense to investment, will create quality jobs for Americans and will grow our economy. No virtue-signaling. No lecturing. Only results for the American people.’

White House relations

Trump’s latest visit with bin Salman brought sweeping defense and investment deals, even as questions over 9/11 and Khashoggi’s murder continue to test that balance. The United States granted Saudi Arabia major non-NATO ally status, formally elevating the kingdom’s defense and intelligence partnership with Washington and clearing the way for expedited arms sales and joint military programs.

Bin Salman also pledged nearly $1 trillion in new Saudi investments across U.S. industries, including infrastructure, artificial intelligence and clean energy. The commitments were announced alongside a Strategic Defense Agreement that includes purchases of F-35 fighter jets, roughly 300 Abrams tanks and new missile defense systems, as well as joint ventures to expand manufacturing inside Saudi Arabia.

Administration officials said the initiatives would create tens of thousands of American jobs and strengthen the U.S. industrial base.

During his appearance with Trump at the White House, reporters shouted questions about Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2018 killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — marking a rare moment of public pressure on the crown prince, who typically avoids unscripted exchanges with the press.

Trump accused the press of trying to ’embarrass’ his guest, but the crown prince offered what sounded like regret for the killing of Khashoggi, even as he denied involvement.

‘A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,’ Trump said. ‘Whether you like him or don’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it … We can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.’

ABC reporter Mary Bruce had told bin Salman that U.S. intelligence determined he’d signed off on the killing and that 9/11 families were ‘furious’ about his presence in the White House. ‘Why should Americans trust you?’

‘It’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia,’ bin Salman said of the killing, calling it ‘a huge mistake.’ ‘We’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happens like that again,’ he added.

A 2021 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated: ‘We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.’ 

Bin Salman has repeatedly denied approving the killing, though he said in 2019, ‘It happened under my watch, I take full responsibility as a leader.’

Sept. 11, 2001

The question of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks remains one of the most sensitive and unresolved issues in the U.S.-Saudi relationship. While 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, the U.S. government has never concluded that the Saudi state or senior Saudi officials had prior knowledge of or directed the attacks.

Families of 9/11 victims condemned bin Salman after he invoked Usama bin Laden during his White House remarks, saying the al Qaeda leader used Saudi nationals to drive a wedge between Washington and Riyadh.

‘We have to focus on reality,’ the crown prince said. ‘Reality is that Usama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose: to destroy the American–Saudi relationship. That’s the purpose of 9/11.’

‘The Saudi crown prince invoking Usama bin Laden this afternoon in the White House does not change the fact that a federal judge in New York ruled a few short months ago that Saudi Arabia must stand trial for its role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that murdered 3,000 of our loved ones,’ said Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, a group representing victims’ families.

In August 2025, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels issued a landmark ruling bringing Saudi Arabia under U.S. federal jurisdiction for a 9/11 trial. The court found evidence of a network of Saudi officials inside the U.S. who allegedly provided logistical support to the hijackers, citing ‘prior planning’ and ‘constant coordination.’ 

Among the materials described in the ruling was a drawing seized from a Saudi government operative showing an airplane with flight-path equations — evidence prosecutors said suggested advance knowledge of the attacks.

Saudi Arabia has denied any role, calling the allegations ‘categorically false.’ 

But for bin Salman, who came to Washington seeking to highlight new security and economic ties, the families’ sharp rebuke was a reminder that the 9/11 case still looms large in the public eye, even as the Trump administration deepens its partnership with Riyadh.

Two federal inmates previously on death row, one a crooked New Orleans cop and the other the man behind a multi-state killing spree, have been transferred to a notorious ‘supermax’ prison in Colorado, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital. 

News of their transfers comes as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi looks to crack down on the previous administration’s sweeping clemency actions, especially those against violent crime. 

The former death row inmates were transferred Thursday to the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, also known as ‘ADX,’ Justice Department officials confirmed. 

They are among the 37 death row inmates whose sentences Biden commuted shortly before leaving office last December. The news prompted criticism and complaints that the record clemency and commutation actions were done as a political ‘Hail Mary,’ and without proper vetting.

Eight death row inmates have already been transferred to ADX, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital, bringing to 10 the number of death row inmates that have been transferred to the facility since mid-September. 

More are expected soon, as all 37 death row inmates commuted by Biden are expected to be moved to the facility by ‘early next year,’ the Justice Department told Fox News Digital.

The effort comes as Bondi and the Trump administration have sought to reverse some of the Biden administration’s efforts on criminal justice reform, with an emphasis on cracking down on violent crime.

Though sentence commutations cannot be fully reversed, Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital, Bondi has prioritized ways to penalize these individuals, in coordination with directives from Trump, and to ensure that the ‘conditions of confinement’ are ‘consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,’ according to an earlier DOJ memo. 

‘Two more monsters who plotted and violently murdered innocent people will spend the rest of their lives in our country’s most severe federal prison,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘This Department of Justice will continue to seek accountability for the families blindsided by President Biden’s reckless commutations of 37 vicious predators,’ she added.

Like the eight former death row inmates that were sent to Colorado’s supermax prison, the two criminals processed in ADX on Thursday have been convicted of particularly heinous crimes. 

One individual chased down his ex-girlfriend from Roanoke, Virginia, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he cut the phone lines to the apartment she was living in before using cans of gasoline to set the building on fire.

Though she escaped via a second-story window and was hospitalized for second-and third-degree burns, he followed her back to her family’s home in Virginia two months later, where he gunned her down on the streets of her neighborhood and just steps from her mother.  

Another inmate, a former New Orleans police officer dubbed ‘Robocop’ for his large physical demeanor and aggressive law enforcement style, was caught on tape by the FBI as he ordered and orchestrated the killing of a mother of three who had come to the precinct hours earlier to submit a supposedly confidential brutality complaint about his behavior that she witnessed on her way home the night before. 

The FBI had stumbled upon the conversation as part of a broader probe they had started to investigate a so-called ‘protection racket’ between cocaine dealers in New Orleans and the city’s police force, which had been guarding a warehouse stocked with the drug. The same officer was later revealed as one of the chief conspirators in the protection racket. 

He was also found to have falsely testified in two murder cases, including one murder he has since been linked to. The statements were used to exonerate four men from prison, including three teenagers who had been wrongfully convicted of a murder 28 years prior.

ADX is the only true federal ‘supermax’ prison in the U.S., and its inmates are as notorious as the prison’s reputation. 

Among them are Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers; former Sinola Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán, or ‘El Chapo’; and Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the co-founder of al-Qaeda.

Shortly after her confirmation as attorney general, Bondi issued a memo aimed at ‘restoring a measure of justice’ to the victims’ families. 

The measures granted by Biden earned more criticism than former President Barack Obama: As Fox News reported at the time, the vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative.

Bondi hosted victims’ families earlier this year to hear their concerns about the commutations, DOJ said. Some said they had been stunned by the eleventh-hour commutations, and that they not been given a heads-up by the Biden administration.

In February, Bondi issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons ordering an evaluation of where these prisoners should be detained.

Having covered Ukraine and Russia for over three decades, especially the war between the two countries for the last several years, I’ve naturally been fascinated by the latest Trump administration effort to broker peace.

The reaction I’ve been getting from contacts in Ukraine to the 28-point plan to end the war is not all that positive.  

‘It’s not worth the paper it’s written on,’ said one observer.

‘Any deal would have to include Ukraine … and Europe,’ noted another. 

The overall consensus of analysts is that the document is slanted heavily toward Moscow. The man at the center of things, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been diplomatic in various statements, basically saying he’s ‘reviewing the points’ aiming at arriving at a ‘dignified peace.’

There are all sorts of talks happening now between the U.S. and Ukraine and among European leaders. We’re even hearing from Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s no wonder. The stakes in this war for Europe and the world are enormous. If I were to send a quick note to Zelenskyy, it would go something like this: 

Dear Volodymyr, 

So far so good. You haven’t freaked out, and you’re promising to engage. Rejection of this plan out of hand would have been a non-starter.

You’re staying cool (though a bit grim and determined), and you’re talking to people. 

My overall advice is … pick your fights, don’t sweat the small stuff and keep the big picture in mind. 

I know what your country is going through. Every time I’m in Kyiv, I go to the same military cemetery outside the city, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and sadder.

So, as to the points of the plan: There are a lot of easy ‘gimmes’ to Russia. Re-joining the G8. Gradual dropping of sanctions. Granting of amnesty for everything Russian troops have done. I know this stuff is going to stick in your craw, but little of it affects your country’s future. 

I mentioned that you shouldn’t ‘sweat the small stuff.’ Some of the points might sound like a big deal. Like prohibiting ‘Nazi ideology’ in Ukraine. And adopting ‘EU rules on religious tolerance and linguistic minorities.’ That’s pretty much window dressing for Moscow. Having the Russian language and Russian church regain official status is not horrendous. 

In fact, the plan’s glass is at least one-third full for you guys. Confirming your sovereignty. Russia expected not to invade you again. You will receive reliable security guarantees. Rebuilding pledges and humanitarian promises. They are all good. Just nail down the specifics. Get all sides to commit for sure.

Now to three of the points which cross your red line, according to analysts.

Like handing over the rest of the eastern Donetsk region to Russia even though Moscow’s troops haven’t even taken it. The region is referred to as a demilitarized zone in the plan. A ‘DMZ’ a la the divider between North and South Korea. Well, hold them to that. No troops from either side. Tough security on both sides. A neutral body running things. And see if you can get them to not call it Russian!

Then there’s the reduction by a third of your military. Troop strength limited to 600,000. That’s a huge cut, but it’s still not a bad-sized force. That is if … it was properly trained, well-armed and finely-positioned.  Guarantees are needed for all of this to happen.

And then there’s the other red line: No NATO troops in Ukraine. That would seem to scupper the plan to have foreign peacekeepers on the ground, which has been in the works, to monitor the peace. A possible compromise? They’re stationed around Ukraine’s borders, surveillance keeps a close eye on things and rapid-response forces are at the ready. 

There are also a few ‘gimmes’ for the U.S. in all this, like sharing in the profits of reconstruction. But that’s the price of doing business with President Trump. 

As for that Thanksgiving deadline to sign the deal? The president has already signaled he’s willing to let that slide if there’s talking. 

And that other deadline? One hundred days until a new election? I know it’s a tough time for you politically with those corruption charges getting near. It might be something you have to live with. 

Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s my take. 

Negotiations will probably sink on any hard discussion of any of these main points. But you know what the old adage is: ‘Jaw-jaw’ is better than ‘war-war.’ 

For the proud people of Ukraine who have suffered so much during this time, it’s worth your best shot.

Sincerely,

Greg

Two federal inmates previously on death row, one a crooked New Orleans cop and the other the man behind a multi-state killing spree, have been transferred to a notorious ‘supermax’ prison in Colorado, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital. 

News of their transfers comes as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi looks to crack down on the previous administration’s sweeping clemency actions, especially those against violent crime. 

The former death row inmates were transferred Thursday to the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, also known as ‘ADX,’ Justice Department officials confirmed. 

They are among the 37 death row inmates whose sentences Biden commuted shortly before leaving office last December. The news prompted criticism and complaints that the record clemency and commutation actions were done as a political ‘Hail Mary,’ and without proper vetting.

Eight death row inmates have already been transferred to ADX, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital, bringing to 10 the number of death row inmates that have been transferred to the facility since mid-September. 

More are expected soon, as all 37 death row inmates commuted by Biden are expected to be moved to the facility by ‘early next year,’ the Justice Department told Fox News Digital.

The effort comes as Bondi and the Trump administration have sought to reverse some of the Biden administration’s efforts on criminal justice reform, with an emphasis on cracking down on violent crime.

Though sentence commutations cannot be fully reversed, Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital, Bondi has prioritized ways to penalize these individuals, in coordination with directives from Trump, and to ensure that the ‘conditions of confinement’ are ‘consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,’ according to an earlier DOJ memo. 

‘Two more monsters who plotted and violently murdered innocent people will spend the rest of their lives in our country’s most severe federal prison,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘This Department of Justice will continue to seek accountability for the families blindsided by President Biden’s reckless commutations of 37 vicious predators,’ she added.

Like the eight former death row inmates that were sent to Colorado’s supermax prison, the two criminals processed in ADX on Thursday have been convicted of particularly heinous crimes. 

One individual chased down his ex-girlfriend from Roanoke, Virginia, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he cut the phone lines to the apartment she was living in before using cans of gasoline to set the building on fire.

Though she escaped via a second-story window and was hospitalized for second-and third-degree burns, he followed her back to her family’s home in Virginia two months later, where he gunned her down on the streets of her neighborhood and just steps from her mother.  

Another inmate, a former New Orleans police officer dubbed ‘Robocop’ for his large physical demeanor and aggressive law enforcement style, was caught on tape by the FBI as he ordered and orchestrated the killing of a mother of three who had come to the precinct hours earlier to submit a supposedly confidential brutality complaint about his behavior that she witnessed on her way home the night before. 

The FBI had stumbled upon the conversation as part of a broader probe they had started to investigate a so-called ‘protection racket’ between cocaine dealers in New Orleans and the city’s police force, which had been guarding a warehouse stocked with the drug. The same officer was later revealed as one of the chief conspirators in the protection racket. 

He was also found to have falsely testified in two murder cases, including one murder he has since been linked to. The statements were used to exonerate four men from prison, including three teenagers who had been wrongfully convicted of a murder 28 years prior.

ADX is the only true federal ‘supermax’ prison in the U.S., and its inmates are as notorious as the prison’s reputation. 

Among them are Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers; former Sinola Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán, or ‘El Chapo’; and Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the co-founder of al-Qaeda.

Shortly after her confirmation as attorney general, Bondi issued a memo aimed at ‘restoring a measure of justice’ to the victims’ families. 

The measures granted by Biden earned more criticism than former President Barack Obama: As Fox News reported at the time, the vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative.

Bondi hosted victims’ families earlier this year to hear their concerns about the commutations, DOJ said. Some said they had been stunned by the eleventh-hour commutations, and that they not been given a heads-up by the Biden administration.

In February, Bondi issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons ordering an evaluation of where these prisoners should be detained.

Having covered Ukraine … and Russia … for over three decades, especially the war between the two countries for the last several years, I’ve naturally been fascinated by the latest Trump administration effort to broker peace.

The reaction I’ve been getting from contacts in Ukraine to the 28-point plan to end the war is not all that positive.  

‘It’s not worth the paper it’s written on,’ said one observer.

‘Any deal would have to include Ukraine…and Europe,’ noted another. 

The overall consensus of analysts is that the document is slanted heavily towards Moscow. The man at the center of things, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been diplomatic in various statements, basically saying he’s ‘reviewing the points’ aiming at arriving at a ‘dignified peace.’

There are all sorts of talks happening now between the U.S. and Ukraine and among European leaders. We’re even hearing from Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s no wonder: The stakes in this war for Europe and the world are enormous. If I were to send a quick note to Zelenskyy, it would go something like this: 

Dear Volodymyr, 

So far so good. You haven’t freaked out, and you’re promising to engage. Rejection of this plan out of hand would have been a non-starter.

You’re staying cool (though a bit grim and determined), and you’re talking to people. 

My overall advice is … pick your fights, don’t sweat the small stuff, and keep the big picture in mind. 

I know what your country is going through. Every time I’m in Kyiv, I go to the same military cemetery outside the city, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and sadder.

So, as to the points of the plan: There are a lot easy ‘gimmes’ to Russia. Re-joining the G-8. Gradual dropping of sanctions. Granting of amnesty for everything Russian troops have done. I know this stuff is going to stick in your craw, but little of it affects your country’s future. 

I mentioned that you shouldn’t ‘sweat the small stuff.’ Some of the points might sound like a big deal. Like prohibiting ‘Nazi ideology’ in Ukraine. And adopting ‘EU rules on religious tolerance and linguistic minorities.’ That’s pretty much window-dressing for Moscow. Having the Russian language and Russian church regain official status is not horrendous. 

In fact, the plan’s glass is at least one-third full for you guys. Confirming your sovereignty. Russia expected not to invade you again. You will receive reliable security guarantees. Rebuilding pledges and humanitarian promises. They are all good. Just nail down the specifics. Get all sides to commit for sure.

Now to three of the points which cross, according to analysts, your red line. 

Like handing over the rest of the eastern Donetsk region to Russia even though Moscow’s troops haven’t even taken it. The region is referred to as a demilitarized zone in the plan. A ‘DMZ’ ala the divider between North and South Korea. Well, hold them to that. No troops from either side. Tough security on both sides. A neutral body running things. And see if you can get them to not call it Russian!

Then there’s the reduction by a third of your military. Troop strength limited to 600,000. That’s a huge cut, but it’s still not a bad-sized force. That is if…it was properly trained, well-armed, and finely-positioned.  Guarantees are needed for all of this to happen.

And then there’s the other red line : No NATO troops in Ukraine. That would seem to scupper the plan to have foreign peace-keepers on the ground, which has been in the works, to monitor the peace. A possible compromise? They’re stationed around Ukraine’s borders, surveillance keeps a close eye on things and rapid-response forces are at the ready. 

There are also a few ‘gimmes’ for the U.S. in all this, like sharing in the profits of reconstruction. But that’s the price of doing business with President Trump. 

As for that Thanksgiving deadline to sign the deal? The president has already signaled he’s willing to let that slide if there’s talking. 

And that other deadline? One-hundred days until a new election? I know it’s a tough time for you politically with those corruption charges getting near. It might be something you have to live with. 

Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s my take. 

Negotiations will probably sink on any hard discussion of any of these main points. But you know what the old adage is : ‘jaw-jaw’ is better than ‘war-war.’ 

For the proud people of Ukraine, who have suffered so much during this time, it’s worth your best shot.

Sincerely,

Greg

Former President John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, announced on Saturday — exactly 62 years after he was assassinated — that she has terminal cancer.

The 35-year-old said she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3, soon after the birth of her daughter in May 2024, and that doctors recently told her she probably has about a year to live.

‘My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me,’ she wrote in an essay for The New Yorker. ‘My son might have a few memories, but he’ll probably start confusing them with pictures he sees or stories he hears.’

She said she ‘didn’t ever really get to take care of my daughter—I couldn’t change her diaper or give her a bath or feed her, all because of the risk of infection after my transplants. I was gone for almost half of her first year of life. I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.’

She said the diagnosis was shocking because she felt perfectly healthy.

‘I did not—could not—believe that they were talking about me,’ she wrote of the first talk of leukemia. ‘I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew.’

She said the cancer is mostly seen in older patients and doctors frequently asked her if she had spent much time at Ground Zero in New York City, which she had not.

Schlossberg, who is the daughter of Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s oldest surviving daughter, described in heartbreaking detail her months on end of different treatments to beat the cancer.

She went through a round of chemotherapy to ‘reduce the number of blast cells in my bone marrow,’ then received a bone-marrow transplant with the help of her sister.

She said after she went into remission and went home she had no immune system and had to get all of her childhood vaccines again.

Then she relapsed, her doctor telling her that leukemia with her mutation ‘liked to come back.’

At the beginning of the year, she joined a clinical trial of CAR-T-cell therapy, ‘a type of immunotherapy that has proved effective against certain blood cancers.’

That was followed by another round of chemotherapy and a second blood transfusion from an unrelated donor.

‘During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,’ she wrote.

She also wrote of her concerns after her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she called an ’embarrassment,’ was nominated as secretary of Health and Human Services.

‘Suddenly, the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky,’ she wrote. ‘Doctors and scientists at Columbia [Presbyterian hospital], including [her husband] George, didn’t know if they would be able to continue their research, or even have jobs.’

She praised the rest of her family, whom she said sat at her bedside while she endured treatments and took care of her children.

Of her husband, urologist George Moran, she wrote, ‘he is perfect, and I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.’

Her brother Jack Schlossberg, who is running for congress in New York, wrote on his Instagram on Saturday, ‘Life is short, let it rip.’

Her mother’s cousin, Maria Shriver, shared her essay on Instagram, writing, ‘If you can only read one thing today, please make take the time for this extraordinary piece of writing by my cousin Caroline’s extraordinary daughter Tatiana. Tatiana is a beautiful writer, journalist, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.’

Tatiana added in her essay, ‘For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.’

Robert F. Kennedy Sr., her mother, Caroline Kennedy’s uncle, was assassinated five years after JFK, and along with having two siblings who died in infancy, Caroline’s only surviving brother, JFK Jr, died in a plane crash in 1999.

Schlossberg’s grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also died of cancer in 1994, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma when she was 64.

She finished her essay by saying that she lives to be with her children now.

‘But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go,’ she admitted. ‘So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I’m watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time.’

She added, ‘Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I’ll remember this forever, I’ll remember this when I’m dead. Obviously, I won’t. But since I don’t know what death is like and there’s no one to tell me what comes after it, I’ll keep pretending. I will keep trying to remember.’