Witkoff leaks throw entire peace talks into doubt

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/11/26/witkoff-putin-aide-call-leak-trump-diplomacy-analysis/

Donald Trump arrived in office as the dealmaker-in-chief.

He has delighted in choosing unconventional figures to lead negotiations in the belief that a background in the nitty-gritty of New York real estate is more useful than a career in international relations wonkery.

It meant Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, were not constrained by decades of bloody stalemate in Gaza. Instead they confounded critics by delivering a ceasefire in the territory, even if it has not completely silenced the guns nor found much progress yet towards a longer term peace.

But Mr Witkoff’s lack of experience may now have been badly exposed in the leak of an extraordinary phone call with a senior Kremlin official.

Who leaked it and why will have to wait for another day. (Although there are obvious suspects in a Russian administration that appears content to delay and prevaricate its way through peace talks while its bombs and drones fall on Ukrainian targets.)

And it is worth remembering that diplomacy is always best carried out far from the gaze of the media, where currying favour with thuggish leaders or making ugly promises with negotiators is the price of progress.

Even with those caveats, Mr Witkoff’s apparent coaching of Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on how to handle Mr Trump and the stop-start peace process is deeply embarrassing.

He offers advice for Putin’s call with the US president (ladle on the praise) and goes on to suggest that the Russian president propose a similar deal for Ukraine as the one that ended fighting in Gaza.

The new Georgia prosecutor, a non-partisan prosecutor, has dropped all charges against Donald Trump due to their "understanding of the law"
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5623428-trump-georgia-prosecution-ends/
Prosecutor drops Trump’s criminal case in Georgia

President Trump’s criminal prosecution in Georgia suddenly moved to its end Wednesday, as the prosecutor who recently took over the case announced he will not move forward with it.

Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council who took over Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) 2020 election subversion case against Trump and several allies, filed a motion indicating to the judge that he is declining to prosecute them further.

“It is on life support and the decision what to do with it falls on me and me alone,” Skandalakis wrote in a 22-page memo submitted to the court Wednesday. “But unlike family members who must make the emotional decision to withdraw loved ones from life-sustaining treatment, I have no emotional connection to this case.”

“As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and a Republican and now is the Executive Director of a non-partisan agency, this decision is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law,” he continued.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/11/25/kash-patel-epstein-file-release/

Donald Trump’s FBI director has cast doubt on whether the Epstein files will be released in full.

Kash Patel said the administration is working to see if there is “anything more” from the documents that can be released to the public.

The US department of justice (DoJ) has until 19 Dec to release all files it holds on Jeffrey Epstein after Mr Trump bowed to pressure from within his party and signed a bill requesting their release.

However, certain documents could be withheld under a clause included in the bill, named the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which grants the department permission to withhold certain material.

Certain documents can be withheld if the justice department believes the publication “would jeopardise an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary”.

The DoJ is also permitted to redact the identities and personal and medical records of Epstein’s victims and withhold information that “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” or “depicts or contains child sexual abuse”.

Asked about whether the DoJ would meet the 30-day deadline to release the files, Mr Patel told ABC there are “protective orders and orders to seal in place that legally prohibit the disclosure of information related to any investigation when there’s a court order of that fashion”.

https://www.namibian.com.na/namibias-adolf-hitler-changes-birth-name/

Adolf Hitler Uunona, a Ompundja constituency councillor in the Oshana region, has removed the name ‘Hitler’ from his identity (ID) document.

He says he no longer wants to be known by his birth name.

Uunona has held his council seat since 2004, winning previous elections in 2015 and 2020 with a significant majority.

He has firmly distanced himself from Nazi ideology, saying his father named him without understanding the historical significance of the name.

In an interview with The Namibian on Wednesday, he said he prefers to go by the name ‘Adolf Uunona’ and says his name doesn’t reflect his character or ambitions.

“My name is not Adolf Hitler. I am Adolf Uunona. I have seen in the past people calling me Adolf Hitler and trying to associate me with someone I do not even know,” he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-dismisses-cases-james-comey-letitia-james-finding-prosecutor-was-rcna244775

A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after finding the prosecutor who brought the cases, former Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan, was not lawfully appointed.

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie said that she agreed with Comey, who moved to dismiss the case on the grounds that Halligan's appointment was illegal

"Because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment," Currie wrote in finding that Halligan lacked the authority to present a case to a grand jury.

"All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside," the judge wrote, describing the insurance lawyer as "a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience."

She issued a separate, similar ruling dismissing the James case.

Ministers look poised to end the right to a jury trial for a vast range of criminal offences in England and Wales, as they grapple with a vast backlog of cases that is delaying hearings by many months.

The newspaper reported that juries would remain involved in only the most serious trials — for offences such as rape, murder and manslaughter — or if there was public interest. All other cases would be heard by a judge sitting alone.

https://www.ft.com/content/a47a2cbd-fcbf-4363-a544-032964433965

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/us/politics/kash-patel-girlfriend-fbi-protection.html

When Alexis Wilkins, an aspiring country singer dating the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Atlanta in the spring, she arrived with a formidable protective posse — a SWAT team from the bureau’s local field office.

The two agents, members of a specialized unit trained to storm barricaded buildings and rescue hostages, had been sent there on Mr. Patel’s orders. But seeing that the event at the Georgia World Congress Center had been secured, and that Ms. Wilkins was in no apparent danger, they left before the event was over, according to six people with knowledge of the incident.

She noticed. So did her boyfriend.

Soon after, Mr. Patel ripped into the team’s commander, saying that his girlfriend had been left without taxpayer-funded defenders, and slamming what he saw as failure to communicate their movements up the chain of command during her time on the convention floor — where she sang and chatted with attendees, the people said.

He was concerned that Ms. Wilkins, a high-profile conservative, might be attacked by people who had threatened her online.

Mr. Patel’s heavy use of taxpayer-funded resources during his first nine months on the job has contributed to growing questions inside the administration about whether it exceeds the bounds of standard practice. This includes an intense use of security to protect himself and his girlfriend.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy95jvw57v2o
Ukraine has said a "common understanding" has been reached with the US on a peace deal aimed at ending the war with Russia.

The proposal is based on a 28-point plan presented to Kyiv by the US last week, which American and Ukrainian officials worked on during weekend talks in Geneva.

In a post on social media, US President Donald Trump said the original plan "has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides".

He added: "I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians."

President Zelensky's chief of staff said he expects Driscoll to visit Kyiv this week.

The Kremlin previously said that Russia had not yet been consulted on the new draft deal – warning it may not accept amendments to last week's plan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that while Moscow had been in favour of the initial US framework, the situation would be "fundamentally different" if it had undergone substantial changes.

https://time.com/7336327/doge-disbanded-elon-musk/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-doesnt-exist-with-eight-months-left-its-charter-2025-11-23/
WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump's pledge to slash the government's size but which critics say delivered few measurable savings.
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE's status.

It is no longer a "centralized entity," Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.
The agency, set up in January, made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump's second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities. The OPM, the federal government's human resources office, has since taken over many of DOGE's functions, according to Kupor and documents reviewed by Reuters.
At least two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body created through an executive order signed by Trump in August. That body is headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump's order directed him to beautify government websites.
Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE team while DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” encouraged followers on his X account to apply to join.