The Issue

Senior American and Russian officials and diplomats will hold talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, in what could be the most significant meeting between the sides since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly three years ago. Excluded from the meetings, European leaders gathered in Paris following a…

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the media is grossly overreacting to efforts to make the government more efficient. He said President Trump is doing exactly what he said on the campaign trail that he would do. We speak with Alex Nowrasteh at the CATO Institute.

Russian natural gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine to Europe were halted in the early hours of Wednesday as a transit deal expired. Moscow and Kyiv failed to reach an agreement to continue the flows. Ukraine now faces the loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom…

Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid. Israeli leaders pushed back on the accusations, calling it baseless; saying it is at…