A U.S. Air Force B-52H “Stratofortress” Long-Range Strategic Bomber forward deployed to Morón Air Base in Southern Spain is currently tracing the Northwest African coast off Morocco, possibly participating in a joint exercise with the Royal Moroccan Air Force.

Senior officials at the White House have told Politico that they expect a framework for ending the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to be agreed to by all parties by the end of this month — and possibly “as soon as this week,” despite it not being discussed nearly at all so far with either Europe or Ukraine.

“What we are going to present [to Ukraine] is reasonable,” a senior White House official said, with the Trump Administration believing that Ukrainian President Zelensky, under pressure both on the battlefield and on the home front (due to a burgeoning corruption scandal), will have to accept what is offered in the agreement by Russia and the United States.

And as for the rest of Europe? “We don’t really care about the Europeans,” the official said, “It’s about Ukraine accepting.”

Speaking in favor of H-1B Visas at today’s U.S-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, President Donald J. Trump said: “You can't come in, open a massive computer chip factory for billions and billions of dollars like is being done in Arizona, and think you're gonna hire people off an unemployment line to run it. They're gonna have to bring thousands of people with them and I'm gonna welcome those people. I love my conservative friends, I love MAGA, but this is MAGA.”

Axios has now confirmed reporting by the Financial Times about the hastily negotiated ceasefire being decided by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, which would reportedly grant Russia parts of Eastern Ukraine it does not currently control and weaken the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in exchange for a security guarantee by the United States for Ukraine and Europe against future aggression by Russia.

The 28-point plan calls for Russia to gain full de facto control over the Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, which includes both Luhansk and Donetsk, and would be recognized by the U.S. and other countries - along with Crimea - as lawfully part of the Russian Federation, though this would not currently be required of Ukraine. A Ukrainian official claimed the plan also included limitations on the size of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and on its arsenal of long-range weapons in return for security guarantees from the United States.

Witkoff planned to visit Ankara on Wednesday and hold a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fida, but officials claim the meeting was postponed when it became clear that Zelensky was walking back from the understandings reached with Rustem Umerov - Zelensky's National Security Adviser who reportedly met with Witkoff last weekend in Miami - and is not interested in discussing the Trump Plan. Zelensky instead was traveling to Turkey on Wednesday with another plan drafted with European partners, which U.S. officials say will never be accepted by Russia.

President Donald J. Trump speaking earlier at the U.S-Saudi Investment Forum about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Rates are down despite the Fed. Scott [Bessent] you gotta work on this guy, he’s got some real mental problems. He has something wrong with him. I’ll be honest, I'd love to fire his ass. He should be fired. Guy is grossly incompetent and he should be sued for spending four billion dollars to build a little building. I’m building a ballroom that is going to cost a tiny fraction of that and it’s bigger than the whole thing put together. You gotta work on him Scott. The only thing Scott is blowing it on is the Fed. The rates are too high, Scott. And if you don't get it fixed fast, I'm going to fire your ass.”

U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll met today with Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, to discuss continued and future cooperation in defense advancement and development, including in air-defense as well as long-range drone and missile systems, between Ukraine and the United States.

The stark contrast between this visit by Secretary Driscoll and what is currently going on behind-the-scenes with Witkoff, is quite telling of the absolute state of foreign policy under the Trump Administration.

U.S. President’s Donald J. Trump Special Envoy to Ukraine, and previously Russia, Keith Kellogg, has told associates he plans to resign from his position in January 2026, citing his frustration over workload and the large number of administration officials working separately on Ukraine, along with what he sees as a continued lack of acknowledgment within the administration that Russia is slow-rolling peace talks - not Ukraine, according to Reuters. 

His departure will be unwelcome news in Kyiv, as he was widely viewed by European diplomats, Ukrainians included, as a sympathetic ear in an administration that has at times leaned toward Moscow's view on the origins of the conflict in Ukraine. Kellogg at times clashed with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has repeated some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points and advocated a lopsided territorial swap as part of a long-term peace deal with Ukraine.

Footage of a Russian air-launched cruise missile slamming into an apartment block this morning in the Western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, killing at least 25, including 3 children, and causing injuries to nearly 100 others.

Israel carried out a significant wave of airstrikes earlier tonight on the Gaza Strip, targeting a reported meeting of Hamas leaders in Gaza City as well as several other terror sites in Northern and Southern Gaza. According to the Israel Defense Force, the strikes - in violation of the ceasefire - were a response to a ceasefire violation by Hamas, with shots being fired earlier in the day at Israeli Soldiers in Khan Yunis.

A Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules with the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing is preparing to land somewhere in the Southern Caribbean or South America, possibly Guyana, after taking off earlier today from Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and the Director of the Israeli Security Agency David Zini, along with other senior government and military officials, visited an army position in Israeli-occupied Southern Syria on Wednesday.

Officers with the Metzada Unit of the Israeli Prison Service, a tactical unit tasked with the detection and arrest of escaped prisoners, hostage rescue, and special operations in relation to correctional facilities across Israel, accompanied and protected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials during today’s visit to Israeli-occupied Southern Syria.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump is considering issuing an Executive Order that would seek to preempt state laws on artificial intelligence, threatening to sue or withhold federal funding from any state that attempts to pass laws restricting advancements in AI, while tasking Attorney General Pam Bondi with establishing an AI Litigation Task Force. According to Reuters, the order would also direct the Department of Commerce to review state laws and issue guidelines that would withhold broadband funding in some cases, with this push by the Trump Administration coming after the Senate defeated an effort to block state laws on AI earlier this year, in a vote of 99-1.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest 28-point peace proposal aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine was developed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in direct consultation with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s confidant Kirill Dmitriev, with almost no input from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials in Europe and Ukraine.

U.S. officials familiar with the proposal said it calls for Ukraine to hand over all of the Donbas in Eastern Ukraine to Russia, including land now controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Ukraine would also have to agree at least for several years to abandon joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and would not be permitted to have an international peacekeeping force deployed inside the country to deter further aggression from Russia. In exchange, Ukraine would receive some kind of security guarantees from the United States and Russia would “promise” to not further attack Ukraine or other countries in Europe.