Kushner and Witkoff have discovered a "new" European security architecture: permanent consultations, crisis hotlines, military transparency, risk-reduction measures. It already exists. It's called the OSCE. I was its spokesperson in Ukraine. Russia is a member and has spent years gutting it. Europe's problem was never missing architecture. It was Moscow tearing up the rules.

Kushner ja Witkoff tarjoavat Euroopalle uutta turvallisuusjärjestystä. Voisivat ensin yrittää ymmärtää, mistä puhuvat. Kushner mukaan Eurooppa ja Venäjä eivät ole onnistuneet rakentamaan kestävää turvallisuusjärjestelmää yli 30 vuoteen. Tämä on jo lähtökohtaisesti aika erikoinen tulkinta historiasta. Eurooppaan rakennettiin kylmän sodan aikana ja sen jälkeen laaja turvallisuusjärjestelmä, jonka perustana olivat valtioiden suvereniteetti, rajojen loukkaamattomuus ja oikeus päättää omista turvallisuusratkaisuistaan. Helsingissä vuonna 1975 ja Pariisissa vuonna 1990 sovittiin juuri näistä periaatteista. Neuvostoliitto ja myöhemmin Venäjä sitoutuivat niihin. Järjestelmä ei ajautunut kriisiin siksi, etteivät eurooppalaiset olisi osanneet sopia yhteisistä pelisäännöistä vaan, koska Venäjä päätti rikkoa niitä sotimalla. Kushner ehdottaa nyt pysyviä keskusteluyhteyksiä ja parempaa kriisiviestintää. Hyvä ajatus, mutta tällaisiakin järjestelyjä on ollut jo vuosikymmeniä esimerkiksi Etyjin puitteissa. Niiden tarkoituksena on nimenomaan ollut ehkäistä väärinkäsityksiä ja sotilaallisia yhteenottoja. Seuraavaksi Kushner haluaa lisätä sotilaallisen toiminnan avoimuutta. Euroopassa on tätäkin varten sovittu sotaharjoitusten ennakkoilmoituksista, tarkastuksista ja luottamusta lisäävistä järjestelyistä. Venäjä on kuitenkin toistuvasti kiertänyt tai rikkonut niihin liittyviä velvoitteitaan. Ongelma ei siis ole siinä, ettemme olisi keksineet näitä mekanismeja aikaisemmin. Ongelma on siinä, miten saamme Venäjän noudattamaan niitä. Erityisen tarkkana olisin Kushnerin ehdottamien vastavuoroisten sotilaallisten rajoitusten kanssa. Paperilla vastavuoroisuus kuulostaa reilulta, mutta käytännössä se ei välttämättä ole sitä lainkaan. Venäjä voi keskittää joukkojaan omalle alueelleen. Suomen puolustus taas perustuu myös siihen, että liittolaiset voivat harjoitella täällä, varastoida kalustoa ja lähettää vahvistuksia nopeasti. Jos näitä toimintoja rajoitettaisiin, seuraukset voisivat olla meille paljon vakavammat kuin Venäjälle. Kushner vakuuttaa myös, että jokainen valtio saa päättää omista turvallisuusratkaisuistaan eikä Venäjällä ole veto-oikeutta muiden maiden valintoihin. Tästäkin on jo sovittu, eikä periaatteessa ole mitään uudelleen neuvoteltavaa. Suomen, Ukrainan ja muiden Euroopan maiden turvallisuus ei kuulu Venäjän päätettäväksi. Koko tässä amerikkalaisessa avauksessa on perusasiat täysin hukassa. Kushner ja Witkoff lähestyvät Euroopan turvallisuutta ikään kuin ongelmana olisi ollut vuosikymmeniä jatkunut epäluottamus ja osapuolten kyvyttömyys löytää riittävän hyvää sopimusta. Todellisuudessa Venäjä on rikkonut juuri niitä periaatteita, joita nyt esitellään suuren historiallisen rauhansuunnitelman perustaksi. Nyt haiskahtaa siltä, että Trumpin käskynhaltijat suunnittelevat Euroopan turvallisuutta Kremlin määrittelemistä lähtökohdista. Silloin voi käydä niin, että kädet ovat amerikkalaiset, mutta ääni on Putinin.

Trump needs new negotiators—not fawning pawns who call this brutal murderer a “humanitarian.” Congress must lead without delay.

I’m introducing legislation to seize this moment—a critical turning point when Putin must be persuaded by resounding vote victories that America stands with Ukraine.

No one was quite sure sure it was going to work until it was live on the telly ▶️ but ofc it did …

How does it feel for President Trump to be a loser? He chose not to answer

These are Kremlin talking points dressed up in diplomatic-speak.

A little taster on Miller's approach to life....

Just as I predicted: the PR stunt is complete. At Melania Trump's @FLOTUS White House event, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev presented her with a drawing by an 11-year-old Ukrainian girl, Lydia, who he said "chose to be living with your family in Russia." The drawing says three words: "I love Melania." Then: "This message from children frankly overshadows any diplomatic statement anybody can make." Putin is wanted by the ICC for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. And his envoy stood in the White House using a Ukrainian child to tell the world that Ukrainians choose Russia. Sadly, the Ukrainians, represented by @lubinetzs and a member of the Zelensky inner circle, walked straight into the trap. 🎥👇

Would that be the Anna Lantratova who is under international sanctions by the EU, US, UK, and other nations, and who has been charged in absentia in Ukraine for her alleged role in facilitating the unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia? Is that who Melania is praising for "bringing hope and dignity to those devastated by war?" What a disgusting spectacle. Shame on America.

He still doesn’t know which side is invading and which one is defending itself.

CNN is citing multiple GOP sources that are expecting Rep. Thomas Massie’s motion to impeach Secretary Hegseth to pass the Republican-led House of Representatives shortly after it is introduced next week. Then, the US Senate would have to hold an embarrassing trial to decide whether to remove Hegseth from office which Senate GOP leaders would likely try to forestall. He would be only the third Cabinet Secretary ever impeached and if he was removed, he would be the first Cabinet Secretary to be removed from office in US history.

Former Polish ambassador to US expresses disgust at the White House’s Kremlin guests: “A woman under sanctions… and accused of active involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children is boasting about her presence at a press conference with @FLOTUS at the White House.”

Among Melania Trump's White House guests Thursday will be Yana Lantratova, sanctioned for her alleged role in the abduction of a Ukrainian baby in 2022. Details: bbc.com/russian/articles/czq…

Just shocking that Trump invited to the White House an emissary from Putin, a brutal dictator, who has sustain an imperialist war of annexation and terrorism in Ukraine for nearly five years.

The idea that Rubio could ‘distance’ himself from the Iran war by resigning is absurd, given he was one of its key architects and proponents and has long been a Middle East hawk and pro-Israel. I hope he gets destroyed in the 2028 GOP primary.

Inviting the Russians to the White House even as they bomb civilian targets across Ukraine is bad enough… …but why on earth would you provide them the podium to pander & propagandize?

Bad policy, bad character make bad politics: erratic tariffs, impulsive Iran war, blanket pardons, apparent corruption, weaponized justice, ICE brutality, mountainous deficits, hiding Epstein, abandoning allies and coddling enemies. Hoping for a course correction, for the country and for my party.

A more modern look for CNN this election night, with many reporters working right in the studio, and a wall showing correspondents deployed across the country

I have been holding my tongue about something that happened during the Ohio gubernatorial race. I refused to speak while the election was underway because I did not want my words mistaken for an attempt to influence anyone’s vote. But now that the election is over, I have something to say. For nearly twenty years, my ministry has taken me among the homeless, the abused, the exploited, and the forgotten. I have sat with victims of sexual violence and witnessed the lifelong wounds of childhood trauma. What Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign did to Amy Acton was among the most morally repulsive things I have witnessed in American politics. They took a woman whose stepfather was indicted for raping her when she was twelve years old and featured her mother, from whom she had been estranged for nearly fifty years, in a political advertisement attacking her credibility. The advertisement challenged Acton’s account of her childhood without mentioning the sexual abuse allegations or the circumstances of that estrangement. When people expressed their horror, the campaign defended it. Imagine examining another person’s childhood suffering and fractured family relationships, then deciding those wounds might help win an election. Anyone who has worked with survivors of childhood sexual abuse understands the painful realities of denial, betrayal, shame, and estrangement. A child growing into a successful adult does not erase what happened. Nor does a parent’s denial make that suffering disappear. I find it equally disturbing that an elderly mother, whom Acton herself described as unwell, was brought into this spectacle. Whatever her own struggles or responsibility for the past, exploiting that fractured relationship was grotesque. To everyone who defended this, consider the message you sent to survivors. To the young woman whose family refuses to believe her. To the man who has carried the shame of childhood abuse for forty years. To the frightened child who has yet to tell anyone. What did you teach them about the value of their suffering? I am a priest. I believe in repentance, forgiveness, and redemption. But none of those things requires me to pretend that deliberate cruelty is anything less than a grave moral failure. Your political allegiance does not absolve you of moral responsibility. You do not get to set aside your conscience during an election and retrieve it afterward. If your loyalty requires you to defend the exploitation of a childhood sexual abuse survivor, your loyalty has become an idol. And if your conscience cannot recognize the wrong here, examine what political tribalism has done to it. This is not about Republicans or Democrats. We have a choice as a people: continue excusing cruelty from our preferred political camp, or summon the courage to condemn it wherever it appears. Amy Acton deserved better. Every survivor who watched this unfold deserved better. And God help us if we have reached the point where winning an election matters more than protecting the dignity of a wounded human being.