Politics

President Donald Trump said Sunday that peace talks to end the war in Ukraine are close to completion after a meeting in Florida with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with both leaders citing major progress on a 20-point plan while acknowledging unresolved disputes over territory, ceasefire terms and Ukrainian approval. Trump and Zelenskyy spoke to reporters following their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, describing weeks of negotiations involving U.S., Ukrainian, European Union and NATO officials that have moved...

FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency has surged additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota as part of an ongoing effort to ‘dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.’ Patel said Sunday that the bureau moved resources into the state before recent online attention intensified, pointing to the Feeding Our Future investigation, which uncovered a $250 million scheme that siphoned federal food aid intended for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The case has already...

Generally speaking, nobody outside of Washington, D.C., brunch spots cares very much what happens at think tanks. But recent upheavals at the Heritage Foundation are not only making news, they are potentially framing what the Republican Party will look like after President Trump leaves office. The current kerfuffle at Heritage, the nation’s leading conservative think tank, began on Oct. 30, when its president, Kevin Roberts, gave a speech defending Tucker Carlson for interviewing a snarky...

 Millions of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), spending Christmas under the reported threat of persecution, kidnapping, sexual violence and in some cases, death from Islamist militants, have seen Friday’s U.S. strikes on Islamic State militants in Nigeria as a real sign that President Trump is serious in his efforts to stop the killing of Africa’s Christians. Over 16 million Christians are estimated to have been displaced and ripped from their homes across the region. The alleged...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is engaged in what he described as a ‘total war’ with the U.S., Israel and Europe. In an interview published Saturday by Iranian state media, Pezeshkian said that he believes the Western powers want to bring Iran ‘to its knees,’ The Times of Israel reported. ‘In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe,’ Pezeshkian said. ‘They want to bring our country...

It was an off-year when it comes to elections, but 2025 was on fire on the campaign trail, as next year’s looming midterm showdowns took shape. While it was never expected to match the intensity of the tumultuous 2024 battles for the White House and Congress, this year’s off-year elections grabbed outsized national attention and served as a key barometer leading up to the 2026 midterm contests for the House and Senate majorities. Here are...

This year has had no shortage of alarming Chinese espionage efforts targeting the United States that were uncovered by government officials. 2025 saw the conviction of a former active-duty military member accused of selling Navy secrets to Chinese intelligence, the arrests of Chinese nationals accused of trying to recruit active-duty service members as intelligence assets and smuggle dangerous toxins into the United States, the disruption of a Chinese ‘Hacker-for-Hire’ ecosystem, and more. ‘President Trump is...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Saturday that his country ‘is willing to do whatever it takes’ to end its war with Russia ahead of a meeting Sunday in Florida with President Donald Trump. In a series of posts on X, the Ukrainian leader said, ‘If the whole world – Europe and America – is on our side, together we will stop Putin,’ but, ‘if anyone – whether the U.S. or Europe – is on Russia’s...

A fresh Russian attack against Kyiv involving hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles is putting the ‘true attitude of Putin and his inner circle’ on display, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, as he prepared to meet with President Donald Trump.  The overnight blitz in Ukraine’s capital left at least one person dead and 27 injured, local authorities told the Associated Press. It unfolded as Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump in Florida...

Donald Trump entered 2025 pledging to end wars and reorient U.S. foreign policy around what he repeatedly described as ‘peace through strength.’ Throughout the year, Trump has cast his diplomacy as peace-focused, telling reporters, ‘We think we have a way of getting peace,’ and publicly arguing that his record merited a Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. State Department echoed that framing in its year-end summary of diplomatic efforts, highlighting initiatives it said aimed to ‘secure...