Kremlin aide Ushakov says he and Witkoff will be in touch about their leaked call

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-aide-ushakov-says-he-witkoff-will-be-touch-about-their-leaked-call-2025-11-26/

MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that he will be in touch with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff about the purported leak of a phone conversation between the two men, which he called unacceptable.
Ushakov was asked by reporters if he would ask Witkoff about the leak when the American visits Moscow next week to meet President Vladimir Putin.

Bloomberg News earlier published the transcript of an October 14 telephone call in which Witkoff reportedly told Ushakov they should work together on a ceasefire plan for Ukraine and that Putin should raise it with Trump.
Ushakov told reporters that some of what was leaked was "fake" and he would not comment on the rest because the call was confidential. Leaking a discussion of a serious issue was "of course unacceptable", he added.
Ushakov said earlier that the call was probably leaked in order to hinder the talks.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-25/witkoff-discusses-ukraine-plans-with-key-putin-aide-transcript

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmssaZTjtbY

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/24/trump-obamacare-aca-subsidies-proposal/87446544007/

WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump appeared ready to propose a policy framework to address health care costs that included extending subsidies in the Affordable Care Act set to expire at the end of December, according to multiple media reports.

But the White House is delaying the proposal amid resistance from congressional Republicans, MS NOW reported and CNN reported.

An announcement had been expected as soon as Monday, Nov. 24. The proposal, which would require approval from Congress, includes a two-year extension of the expiring Affordable Care Act (often called Obamacare) subsidies in exchange for new eligibility limits to enroll in Obamacare, according to Politico.

Although the White House never put the health care announcement on the president's official schedule, several reports said a rollout was coming this week. Those plans now appear to be scrapped following a backlash from Republicans in Congress.

"A lot of folks of are getting nervous because the president of the United States has the audacity to propose some changes to the ACA," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee, an ally of Trump, said in a video posted on X. "At least Trump's proposal does something over a two-year period. It keeps people from losing their insurance and it verifies that not a bunch of fraud is going on."

The congressman added: "Anyway, I think it's something we ought to be looking at, but we probably won't. We'll probably kill it in the press."

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.