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| Data: Instacart (Calculated by comparing the order share from Nov. 22-28, 2024, of the most popular pies within each state, then selecting pies with shares that deviate most from the average.) Map: Sara Wise/Axios |
November 25, 2025
Different states, different cakes
Ukraine
Chris Bowers, Bowers News Media - As I wrote over the weekend... the status of negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine are fluid and, honestly, a bit opaque. Consider the following:
Now Rubio says the U.S. did author the 28-point plan. Over the weekend, two U.S. senators, Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Angus King (I-ME) told the media that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told them that the 28-point plan that received wide circulation in the media last week was authored by Russia, not the U.S. However, now Rubio is saying in public that the U.S. did author the 28-point plan, with input from both Russia and Ukraine. Further, in regards to comments from Sen. King "saying the plan 'is not of the administration’s position,' State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on X that the claim 'is blatantly false.'”
The plan is changing, but it is unclear how. Both American and Ukrainian officials declared yesterday that the plan has been changed somewhat, but it is unclear what those changes were.
Everyone indicates "progress" is being made, but it is unclear how. Basically everyone, except for Russia, has indicated that some progress has been made. However, it is again unclear what issues there have been progress on.
Timeline unclear. In place of a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept the terms, the Trump administration is now indicating that they want things done "soon." This quote from Rubio strikes me as particularly apt:
“Our goal is to end this war as soon as possible, but we need a little more time,” Rubio said.
My impression from all of this is that the Trump administration is not telling everyone involved in the matter the same thing at the same time. Instead, I believe they are telling different people different things in order to speed up the process because what Trump really wants above anything else is to claim to have ended the war. How it ends, I don't think is particularly important to him, as long as he can claim to have ended it.
Now Rubio says the U.S. did author the 28-point plan. Over the weekend, two U.S. senators, Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Angus King (I-ME) told the media that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told them that the 28-point plan that received wide circulation in the media last week was authored by Russia, not the U.S. However, now Rubio is saying in public that the U.S. did author the 28-point plan, with input from both Russia and Ukraine. Further, in regards to comments from Sen. King "saying the plan 'is not of the administration’s position,' State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on X that the claim 'is blatantly false.'”
The plan is changing, but it is unclear how. Both American and Ukrainian officials declared yesterday that the plan has been changed somewhat, but it is unclear what those changes were.
Everyone indicates "progress" is being made, but it is unclear how. Basically everyone, except for Russia, has indicated that some progress has been made. However, it is again unclear what issues there have been progress on.
Timeline unclear. In place of a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept the terms, the Trump administration is now indicating that they want things done "soon." This quote from Rubio strikes me as particularly apt:
“Our goal is to end this war as soon as possible, but we need a little more time,” Rubio said.
My impression from all of this is that the Trump administration is not telling everyone involved in the matter the same thing at the same time. Instead, I believe they are telling different people different things in order to speed up the process because what Trump really wants above anything else is to claim to have ended the war. How it ends, I don't think is particularly important to him, as long as he can claim to have ended it.
Old stuff: Confessions of a Seventh Day Agnostic
Sam Smith, 2017 - When someone noted a horseshoe over Einstein's door and asked, "You don't believe in that, do you?" the scientist responded, "Of course not, but they tell me it works."
My own sloppy view of such matters stems in part from having been an anthropology major. Anthropology teaches you, among other things, the power and significance of mythology even as one is examining rationally the culture that embraces it. Myth is universal and exists even if what it claims doesn't. Myth can either strengthen a culture or weaken it, but it doesn't go away.
I am partially the product of a Quaker education, a religion that shares with existentialists the notion that action is more important than faith. Or as I sometimes put it, I don't give a shit what you believe; just what you do about it,
This mushy approach towards religion has stood me in good stead. During the 1960s, for example, I had quite a few good friends who were priests or ministers in part because we had too many things to do together to even talk about the possible theology behind it.
And despite my agnosticism, attending a service last Sunday raised some minor issues in my own mind fostered by having been brought up in the Episcopal Church…So there I was, a non-believer, non-practitioner, being irritated by what seemed the incorrect ritual of a religion in which I no longer had any part. It was one of the things you were taught about religion: you had to do it right. And it was a lesson that apparently survived belief. After all when I was a kid my grandfather, senior warden of his church, had scolded me after a service: "Young man, in the old prayer book, it said, 'And take thy humble confession, devotedly kneeling ON YOUR KNEES!'" I merely had my butt on the pew. But now parishioners were taking communion while standing.
The irony of this heretic concern about such matters was a reminder of how tradition and myth can hang on even with a Seventh Day Agnostic. The fact that we aim to pursue reality does not mean that we shouldn't have read Winnie the Pooh when we were growing up, sung hymns on Sunday, or prayed for a friend in need. We still need some magic; we just need to know when to call upon it and when to call 911 instead.
November 24, 2025
Comey expects Trump to come after him again
The Hill - Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday he expects he could face additional charges under the Trump administration after a federal judge dismissed the case against him.
Comey, who was facing charges for lying to Congress in 2020, called the case a “prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump.”
“A message has to be sent that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. I don’t care what your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free,” Comey said in a video he shared on Instagram.
“I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again, and my attitude is going to be the same. I’m innocent, I am not afraid, and I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”
Comey, who was facing charges for lying to Congress in 2020, called the case a “prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump.”
“A message has to be sent that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. I don’t care what your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free,” Comey said in a video he shared on Instagram.
“I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again, and my attitude is going to be the same. I’m innocent, I am not afraid, and I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”
DOJ’s Demand for State Voter Rolls Threatens Fair Elections
Democratic Association of Secretaries of State - Let’s be clear about what’s happening: Trump’s Department of Justice is pressuring states to turn over full voter roll data — not just names, but personal information, history, and eligibility details — and it’s already suing states that refuse.
This is not a routine request. It’s not about election security. It’s about control. It’s about compiling centralized data to target, intimidate, and ultimately purge voters.
This could pave the way for aggressive, baseless voter purges and chilling federal overreach. And it’s happening right now, right as 26 Secretary of State races heat up ahead of the 2026 elections.
Politics
NBC News - The Department of Defense said Monday that it is opening an investigation into Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, in connection with a video he and other Democrats recorded urging members of the military and the intelligence community not to comply with illegal orders from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the video, which set off a political firestorm last week, was "despicable, reckless, and false."
"Five of the six individuals in that video do not fall under @DeptofWar jurisdiction (one is CIA and four are former military but not “retired”, so they are no longer subject to UCMJ). However, Mark Kelly (retired Navy Commander) is still subject to UCMJ—and he knows that," he added.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the video, which set off a political firestorm last week, was "despicable, reckless, and false."
"Five of the six individuals in that video do not fall under @DeptofWar jurisdiction (one is CIA and four are former military but not “retired”, so they are no longer subject to UCMJ). However, Mark Kelly (retired Navy Commander) is still subject to UCMJ—and he knows that," he added.
Judge Tosses Criminal Charges Against James Comey and Letitia James
NY Times - A federal judge threw out the criminal charges against James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, on Monday after finding that the prosecutor President Trump handpicked to bring the cases had been illegally appointed. The ruling deals a heavy blow to a pair of high-profile prosecutions sought by President Trump, who has pushed the Justice Department to pursue his political enemies. The administration is expected to appeal...
A footnote in the Comey opinion underscores a tricky issue his defense lawyers might raise if the Trump administration were to attempt to file new charges even though the statute of limitations has expired. Although federal law says the government gets another six months to bring new charges if an indictment is dismissed for “any reason,” there are also court precedents that say if an indictment is invalid, it is a “nullity” that cannot be used to delay the expiration of the statute of limitations — at least for the purpose of later filing a superseding indictment.
Polls
Fac the Nation - President Trump's handling of the economy in our new @CBSNewsPoll shows that only 36% of Americans now approve of his handling of the economy, and 32% approve of how he's handling inflation.
Millions of Americans Are Defaulting on Loans
Newsweek - Americans are defaulting on their debts at near-historic rates, a collision between long-term structural strains and more contemporary financial pressures that some believe could shake the entire economy.
The issue was put into sharp relief by the New York Fed’s most recent Household Debt and Credit report, which showed that household debt hit a record $18.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, having climbed $228 billion from the second quarter.
Credit card balances alone jumped $24 billion, reaching an all-time high, while the share of balances in serious delinquency—90 days past due—climbed to a nearly financial-crash level of 7.1 percent.
Auto loans tell a similar story, with serious delinquency rates at 3 percent, the highest since 2010. And a spike in resulting defaults has triggered a wave of repossessions in 2025, with 2.2 million vehicles already repossessed, per figures from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), and forecasts of a record 3 million by year’s end.
“Delinquencies, defaults, and repossessions have shot up in recent years and look alarmingly similar to trends that were apparent before the Great Recession,” the Consumer Federation of America said in a recent report.
The issue was put into sharp relief by the New York Fed’s most recent Household Debt and Credit report, which showed that household debt hit a record $18.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, having climbed $228 billion from the second quarter.
Credit card balances alone jumped $24 billion, reaching an all-time high, while the share of balances in serious delinquency—90 days past due—climbed to a nearly financial-crash level of 7.1 percent.
Auto loans tell a similar story, with serious delinquency rates at 3 percent, the highest since 2010. And a spike in resulting defaults has triggered a wave of repossessions in 2025, with 2.2 million vehicles already repossessed, per figures from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), and forecasts of a record 3 million by year’s end.
“Delinquencies, defaults, and repossessions have shot up in recent years and look alarmingly similar to trends that were apparent before the Great Recession,” the Consumer Federation of America said in a recent report.
Meanwhile. . .
Independent, UK - President Donald Trump’s family fortune has fallen by about $1 billion in a matter of months due to steep declines across the cryptocurrency market, according to a new report. The First Family’s net worth now stands at about $6.7 billion, down from $7.7 billion in September, according to Bloomberg News.
Nice News - In 2013, 64-year-old retiree Ed Levien answered a call for volunteer EMTs in Bethesda, Maryland, and, after passing the physical, joined the ranks of his local rescue squad. “I called up and said, ‘I’m probably too old.’ They said, ‘If you can pass the physical, we’d love to have you,’” Levien, now 76, recalled. Over the years, he racked up more than 13,000 hours with the service and now trains the next generation.
The Hill - New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) said he stands by calling Trump a "fascist" despite saying they had a productive meeting at the White House on Friday.
Tatiana Schlossberg revealed that she has terminal cancer in an essay published Nov. 22. In
the same essay, she slammed her cousin RFK Jr. for how his agenda as
health secretary has and could negatively impact the treatment she has
received. Recalling how she watched RFK Jr. rise to political
power during her cancer treatment, Schlossberg called him "an
embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.”
Word
RepMcGovern: Trump promised to bring manufacturing jobs
back to America. Instead, 58 thousand manufacturing workers have lost
their jobs in America since his stupid tariffs took effect. Then he lies to our faces, saying the economy has never been better.
Self driving taxis
NY Times - When self-driving cars started picking up commercial passengers in San Francisco two years ago, they were not eagerly welcomed. Protesters took to the streets demanding that the vehicles be removed, citing concerns about safety and the loss of people’s jobs.
Then an autonomous car operated by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, ran over and dragged a pedestrian, not long after another Cruise vehicle collided with a fire truck. The company’s vehicles were eventually taken off the road. The future of self-driving cars in the home of the tech industry’s artificial intelligence boom looked like it was on the rocks.
But Google’s Waymo, a self-driving-car company with a more cautious approach, stuck around, and today the situation has flipped. San Francisco has, to the surprise of many and the continuing aggravation of a few, become “Waymo-pilled.”
Now Waymo is getting another significant competitor in San Francisco. Amazon announced that it was beginning a free test program in the city on Tuesday for Zoox, its boxy, carriage-shaped robot taxis. The company has also been testing its robot taxis in Las Vegas since September and plans to expand to Miami and Austin, Texas. But San Francisco is the first city where the companies will compete head to head. More
Then an autonomous car operated by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, ran over and dragged a pedestrian, not long after another Cruise vehicle collided with a fire truck. The company’s vehicles were eventually taken off the road. The future of self-driving cars in the home of the tech industry’s artificial intelligence boom looked like it was on the rocks.
But Google’s Waymo, a self-driving-car company with a more cautious approach, stuck around, and today the situation has flipped. San Francisco has, to the surprise of many and the continuing aggravation of a few, become “Waymo-pilled.”
Now Waymo is getting another significant competitor in San Francisco. Amazon announced that it was beginning a free test program in the city on Tuesday for Zoox, its boxy, carriage-shaped robot taxis. The company has also been testing its robot taxis in Las Vegas since September and plans to expand to Miami and Austin, Texas. But San Francisco is the first city where the companies will compete head to head. More
The game behind the Ukraine discussions
Independent UK - U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is running a shadow operation inside the White House in an effort to sideline pro-Ukraine officials, the Kyiv Independent has learned.
Witkoff — a real estate mogul with no diplomatic background before his appointment — has emerged as one of the central architects of a new Washington peace proposal that Ukrainian officials say revives the Kremlin's most sweeping demands.
A source in Ukraine's President's Office earlier said that Witkoff is shaping the plan in direct coordination with Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's top economic negotiator and an operator in Moscow's efforts to influence Washington.
"He has been doing it for months," the source said, mentioning Witkoff's 28-point plan that has been seen in Kyiv as a de facto capitulation to Russia.
The plan, approved by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week, includes requirements for Ukraine to cede territory, slash its military, and limit its alliances — proposals far more sweeping than those discussed in earlier negotiation rounds.
Witkoff — a real estate mogul with no diplomatic background before his appointment — has emerged as one of the central architects of a new Washington peace proposal that Ukrainian officials say revives the Kremlin's most sweeping demands.
A source in Ukraine's President's Office earlier said that Witkoff is shaping the plan in direct coordination with Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's top economic negotiator and an operator in Moscow's efforts to influence Washington.
"He has been doing it for months," the source said, mentioning Witkoff's 28-point plan that has been seen in Kyiv as a de facto capitulation to Russia.
The plan, approved by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week, includes requirements for Ukraine to cede territory, slash its military, and limit its alliances — proposals far more sweeping than those discussed in earlier negotiation rounds.
Gaza
NPR - Over the weekend, Israel and Hamas both accused the other of violating the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. The
ceasefire has been holding for a little over six weeks. Yesterday,
Israel also struck Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, for the first time since
June, killing a Hezbollah commander. This action has led many to worry
about the nearly year-long ceasefire in place there.
Much of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire has been completed. The
next phase involves setting up an International Stabilization Force in
Gaza, according to NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf. But there are still many
questions about who will make up that force
and how they will be trained. Lonsdorf says it may sound contradictory
to still be discussing a ceasefire when there are so many people being
killed and both sides have accused each other of violations, but the
agreement is holding, and there hasn't been a full return to war.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians killed fighting terrorism
Daniel Mendiola, The Guardian - Researchers with Brown University’s Costs of War project ... have found that US-led interventions in the “war on terror” from 2001 to 2023 killed over 400,000 civilians in direct war violence. They also show evidence that when considering indirect deaths – for example, people in war zones dying from treatable medical conditions after clean water or medical infrastructure was destroyed – death toll estimates rise to at least 3.5m. Moreover, even beyond direct war zones, a recent study in the Lancet found that sanctions during the same period were also extremely deadly, causing as many as 500,000 excess deaths per year from 2010 to 2021.
In short, we have already spent decades terrorizing civilian populations around the world in the name of fighting terror. This is well known, and yet the Trump White House is reinvigorating the “war on terror” anyway. Still more, it is trying to do it with even less oversight on the president’s license to kill than has been exercised in the past.
In short, we have already spent decades terrorizing civilian populations around the world in the name of fighting terror. This is well known, and yet the Trump White House is reinvigorating the “war on terror” anyway. Still more, it is trying to do it with even less oversight on the president’s license to kill than has been exercised in the past.
The Trump Mobile phone is nowhere to be found
NBC News - In June, Trump's two eldest sons held an event where they touted a new made-in-the-USA mobile phone with an American flag on its back, plus a new wireless service called Trump Mobile. Months after its stated August release, there are no signs the phone has become a reality.
NBC News placed an order for a T1 phone in August, paying the $100 deposit for the purposes of tracking the $499 phone’s development. What followed was a series of delays with little explanation or updates.
Since the original announcement, plans appear to be in flux. The Trump Mobile website has scrubbed any mention of a specific release month, but continues to collect $100 down payments on the promise of availability "later this year." It’s also posted conflicting photos of what the phone looks like. More
NBC News placed an order for a T1 phone in August, paying the $100 deposit for the purposes of tracking the $499 phone’s development. What followed was a series of delays with little explanation or updates.
Since the original announcement, plans appear to be in flux. The Trump Mobile website has scrubbed any mention of a specific release month, but continues to collect $100 down payments on the promise of availability "later this year." It’s also posted conflicting photos of what the phone looks like. More
Shoppers plan to cut Black Friday weekend spending
People - As the holiday shopping season starts to kick into high gear, Americans are balancing Black Friday deals with lingering concerns about their own finances. Consumers are looking to shell out less this holiday season, new data from Deloitte shows, in a reversal of previous trends. The survey shows shoppers overall plan to spend 4% less than last year between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, citing higher costs of living and more fear of the economy.
The pullback is expected from shoppers of all income levels as climbing inflation stings wallets. Consumers making less than $50,000 a year are expected to spend 12% less than last year, according to the business services firm. Shoppers making more than $200,000 a year say they’ll cut their spending by 18%. More
WalletHub - With the hectic holiday season fast approaching, I wanted to drop you a quick note to make sure you didn’t miss any of WalletHub’s recent holiday studies and reports, highlights of which you can find below.
- JCPenney, Belk and Kohl’s are 2025’s Best Places to Shop on Black Friday, offering an average discount of at least 45%.
- Around 10% of items at major retailers will be more expensive on Black Friday than their current Amazon.com prices.
- Consumer packaged goods will offer the most value on Black Friday 2025 relative to their current prices, while furniture is expected to have the least rewarding deals.
- Nearly 2 in 3 Americans say the economy will make the holidays less fun this year, according to WalletHub’s 2025 Holiday Shopping Survey.
- Sephora, Target and Starbucks top the list of 2025’s Best Gift Cards.
- Consumers can save $200+ with one of 2025's Best Credit Cards for Holiday Shopping.
- Some consumers already have access to little-known credit card benefits that can come in handy over the holidays, including price-drop protection and coverage for damaged or stolen items.
- 100%
of store credit cards do not charge an annual fee, and the average card
with an initial discount for new cardholders gives 19.51% off,
according to WalletHub’s 2025 Store Card Landscape Report.
- 80% of the major retailers offering 0% financing use a dangerous feature called deferred interest, which has the potential to make holiday purchases up to 27.5 times more expensive than expected.
How A.I. and Social Media Contribute to ‘Brain Rot’
Brian X. Chen, NY Times - Last spring, Shiri Melumad, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, gave a group of 250 people a simple writing assignment: Share advice with a friend on how to lead a healthier lifestyle. To come up with tips, some were allowed to use a traditional Google search, while others could rely only on summaries of information generated automatically with Google’s artificial intelligence.
The people using A.I.-generated summaries wrote advice that was generic, obvious and largely unhelpful — eat healthy foods, stay hydrated and get lots of sleep! The people who found information with a traditional Google web search shared more nuanced advice about focusing on the various pillars of wellness, including physical, mental and emotional health.
The tech industry tells us that chatbots and new A.I. search tools will supercharge the way we learn and thrive, and that anyone who ignores the technology risks being left behind. But Dr. Melumad’s experiment, like other academic studies published so far on A.I.’s effects on the brain, found that people who rely heavily on chatbots and A.I. search tools for tasks like writing essays and research are generally performing worse than people who don’t use them.
“I’m pretty frightened, to be frank,” Dr. Melumad said. “I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.”
The people using A.I.-generated summaries wrote advice that was generic, obvious and largely unhelpful — eat healthy foods, stay hydrated and get lots of sleep! The people who found information with a traditional Google web search shared more nuanced advice about focusing on the various pillars of wellness, including physical, mental and emotional health.
The tech industry tells us that chatbots and new A.I. search tools will supercharge the way we learn and thrive, and that anyone who ignores the technology risks being left behind. But Dr. Melumad’s experiment, like other academic studies published so far on A.I.’s effects on the brain, found that people who rely heavily on chatbots and A.I. search tools for tasks like writing essays and research are generally performing worse than people who don’t use them.
“I’m pretty frightened, to be frank,” Dr. Melumad said. “I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.”
Trump regime
New Republic - It was here for a bad time, not a long time: The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been officially disbanded.
The shady department led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that laid off scores of workers and gutted parts of the federal government has faded away into oblivion, according to an exclusive from Reuters.
When Reuters journalists asked about the department, which set out to reduce government spending but fell short on its promises while creating chaos in the federal workforce, the Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said, “That doesn’t exist.”
DOGE is no longer a “centralized entity,” he added.
The Trump administration has been signaling the end of DOGE since the summer, according to the report, and the president generally talks about it in the past-tense. Many of DOGE’s staff have since found jobs elsewhere in the government, like Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, who is now an official advisor to RFK Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Washington Post - The case of a felon who paid lobbyists nearly $1 million to seek a Trump pardon
November 23, 2025
Word
Robert Reich - Around 70% of the U.S. economy depends on consumer spending. As wealth concentrates in the richest 10%, the rest of America can’t afford to buy enough to keep the economy running.
Ukraine
The Signal - On Wednesday, the U.S. administration delivered a 28-point peace plan to Ukraine with a message and a deadline. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had until Thanksgiving—six days—to accept terms that would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia, limit the size of Ukraine’s military, and bar the country from NATO membership. If he refused, Ukraine risked losing American support. “You’re going to have to like it,” President Donald Trump told reporters when asked about Zelenskyy’s response.
The plan itself reads like a diplomatic artifact from another era. The United States would recognize Russia’s control of Crimea and the Donbas “de facto.” Ukraine would withdraw from parts of Donetsk it still holds, creating a demilitarized buffer zone. A “Peace Council” chaired by Trump would monitor compliance. The United States drafted the entire framework exclusively with Russian input. No one consulted European allies.
Watch what happened to produce this moment. Trump began his second presidency in January by threatening Russia with “further sanctions and high tariffs” if President Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate. By May, he was publicly accusing Putin of spreading “bullshit.” In July, he announced a major deal to send Patriot air defense batteries to Ukraine and threatened Russia with new sanctions. In August, he hosted Putin in Alaska—without inviting Zelenskyy—and discussed territorial concessions. In October, he declared that Ukraine “can win all of Ukraine back in its original form.” Now, Ukraine gets the ultimatum. Read on
The plan itself reads like a diplomatic artifact from another era. The United States would recognize Russia’s control of Crimea and the Donbas “de facto.” Ukraine would withdraw from parts of Donetsk it still holds, creating a demilitarized buffer zone. A “Peace Council” chaired by Trump would monitor compliance. The United States drafted the entire framework exclusively with Russian input. No one consulted European allies.
Watch what happened to produce this moment. Trump began his second presidency in January by threatening Russia with “further sanctions and high tariffs” if President Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate. By May, he was publicly accusing Putin of spreading “bullshit.” In July, he announced a major deal to send Patriot air defense batteries to Ukraine and threatened Russia with new sanctions. In August, he hosted Putin in Alaska—without inviting Zelenskyy—and discussed territorial concessions. In October, he declared that Ukraine “can win all of Ukraine back in its original form.” Now, Ukraine gets the ultimatum. Read on
Politics
The Hill - Legal experts and White House critics are worried the Justice Department
(DOJ) could become a piggy bank for those with grievances as President
Trump and a number of his allies pursue million-dollar settlement
claims.
While Trump’s push for $230 million in compensation for two probes into his conduct would be the most lucrative of the suits, others in his orbit are also seeking millions from the DOJ.
While Trump’s push for $230 million in compensation for two probes into his conduct would be the most lucrative of the suits, others in his orbit are also seeking millions from the DOJ.
AI's infiltration of the arts
Axios - AI's infiltration of films, music, painting — even sculpture — is inspiring new resistance to tech in art, and putting a premium on work that's purely human.
Art has long been seen as a uniquely human endeavor, making AI's advance into this realm especially unsettling, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.
"There's a feeling of existential dread in the air in Los Angeles," says Charlie Fink, a longtime Hollywood producer and professor at Chapman University in Orange County, California.
"AI is coming, and nobody knows how. It makes you anxious if you're looking at something AI made and thinking: 'Well, that's a movie.'"
Case in point: "The Brutalist" — nominated for 10 Oscars in January and winner of Best Actor for Adrien Brody — used generative AI to make actors' Hungarian accents sound more authentic.
The most-downloaded country song in America is written and sung by AI alone.
AI is being used to generate paintings and sculptures, some of which are selling for thousands of dollars, BBC reports.
AI could even "lead to a new golden age of independent cinema" by giving smaller filmmakers the tech to compete with big production houses, Fink says.
But resistance is building:
"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan has a note in the credits of his new show, "Pluribus," which debuted this month: "This show was made by humans." Gilligan told Variety recently: "Who wants to live in a world where creativity is given over to machines?"
"Thee Stork Club," a live music venue in Oakland, California, recently banned artists from using AI-generated fliers to promote shows, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
More than 200 musicians — including heavy hitters Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and Smokey Robinson — signed an open letter to AI developers last year to "cease the use of artificial intelligence to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists," Axios' Sara Fischer reports.
In a recent survey by Ipsos and the French streaming service Deezer, 97% of respondents couldn't distinguish between human-made and AI-generated songs — and 52% said they felt uneasy that they couldn't tell the difference. Share this story.
Car thefts down
Newsweek - Reports of vehicle thefts have fallen in every state but one. Puerto Rico had the biggest drop in thefts, down 43 percent from the first half of 2024, followed by Washington State at 42 percent and North Dakota and Louisiana at 32 percent.
The only state to have a rise in reported vehicle thefts is Alaska, which saw a 26 percent rise compared to the first half of 2024. The NICB states this is largely driven by theft in the Anchorage metropolitan area.
But while the vehicle theft rate is down nationwide, some areas remain hotspots for the criminal activity: here are the 10 worst states for car theft across the US.
District of Columbia: The D.C. area had the highest amount of vehicle thefts in the first half of 2025, at a rate of 373.09 per 100,000 residents.
California: California was second, with vehicle thefts reported at a rate of 178.01 per 100,000 residents.
Nevada: Nevada had the third-highest reported vehicle thefts in the first half of 2025, at a rate of 167.68 per 100,000 residents.
New Mexico: Vehicle thefts in New Mexico were reported at a rate of 167.54 per 100,000 residents.
Colorado: Colorado was fifth-highest in the list, at a rate of 167.54 per 100,000 residents.
Missouri: In sixth place was Missouri, at a rate of 142.17 per 100,000 residents.
Maryland: Maryland had a car theft rate of 136.48 per 100,000 residents.
Texas: Texas had a car theft rate of 123.83 per 100,000 residents in the first half of 2025.
Alaska: Despite being the only state with a rise in car thefts, Alaska was only 9th on the list, with a rate of 117.41 per 100,000 residents.
Washington: Washington state had a vehicle theft rate of 115.20 per 100,000 residents.
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