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Tag: National

  • Paramilitary Expansion Shows Scale of War Preparations on NATO’s Eastern Frontier

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    UTENA, Lithuania—Some 1,500 paramilitaries descended on this industrial city in northeastern Lithuania late last month, taking up positions at government buildings and around critical infrastructure to prepare for what many in this frontier city now fear: a Russian invasion.

    Clad in military fatigues and armed with rifles loaded with blank cartridges, members of the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union, or LRU, a state-funded paramilitary group, spent several days training to repel a possible enemy attack.

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    Eve Hartley

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  • White House Defends Witkoff After Leak of Conversation With Russian Official

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    The White House is defending special envoy Steve Witkoff over a reportedly leaked conversation in which he told a Russian official that praising President Trump would help smooth over a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the war in Ukraine.

    Witkoff also suggested that Putin call Trump ahead of a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that gave the Kremlin an opportunity to press the case against giving Kyiv Tomahawk cruise missiles.

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    Alexander Ward

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  • Opinion | Trump Takes On the Muslim Brotherhood

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    Sanctions can strike the often-radical Islamist network a piece at a time.

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    The Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | The Truth About the War in Sudan

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    By

    Abdel Fattah al-Burhan

    Khartoum, Sudan

    Sudan is a country with a long memory: Our history stretches back to the biblical Kingdom of Kush, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations. The war now waged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is unlike anything we’ve ever faced. It is tearing the fabric of our society, uprooting millions, and placing the entire region at risk. Even so, Sudanese look to allies in the region and in Washington with hope. Sudan is fighting not only for its survival, but for a just peace that can only be achieved with the support of partners who recognize the truth of how the war began and what is required to end it.

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    Abdel Fattah al-Burhan

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  • Ukrainians Resist Pressure from Russia—and Trump

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    By

    James Marson

    and Nikita Nikolaienko | Photography by Serhii Korovayny for WSJ

    KYIV, Ukraine—Nataliia Melnychenko stood outside a residential building hit by a Russian drone early Tuesday, with dark circles under her eyes. She hadn’t slept since the drone struck her building at 2:30 a.m.

    “I’ve learned over these years that Russian missile strikes usually follow every attempt at peace initiatives,” said Melnychenko. “On top of Russian attacks, we now also have pressure from our allies,” she added.

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    James Marson

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  • Top Army Official Meets Russians in U.A.E., Signaling New Phase in Peace Talks

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    Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday, a sign that talks to end the war in Ukraine have hit a new phase involving direct negotiations with the Russians.

    Driscoll, fresh off peace talks in Kyiv and Geneva with Ukrainian officials, landed in Abu Dhabi on Monday to meet with the Russians, according to U.S. officials. After holding initial meetings, he planned to conduct more substantive engagements with the delegation on Tuesday, the officials said. 

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    Lara Seligman

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  • Colombia Orders Probe Into Ties Between Military and Drug Traffickers

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    The Colombian military said Monday it had opened an investigation into allegations that senior army and intelligence officials advised the leader of an armed drug-trafficking group about how to secretly buy weapons and evade military scrutiny.

    The revelations, reported by the major Colombian media outlet, Caracol, have stoked fears that former guerrilla fighters who now smuggle cocaine have infiltrated high levels of the security forces under President Gustavo Petro, a former member of a leftist guerrilla organization. Petro has feuded with President Trump over U.S. airstrikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and overseen fraying relations with the U.S. over soaring drug-crop cultivation and cocaine trafficking.

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    Kejal Vyas

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  • Exclusive | How the U.S. Drafted a Russia-Friendly Peace Plan for Ukraine

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    WASHINGTON—It started with an October order from President Trump to his national security team: Come up with a plan to end the Ukraine war just as they had halted the fighting in Gaza.

    On a flight back from the Middle East, in the afterglow of brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas, envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner began writing the first draft of what would eventually become a 28-point peace framework to end the four-year war, according to U.S. officials and a person familiar with the situation.

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    Robbie Gramer

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  • Opinion | What a Good Ukraine Peace Looks Like

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    President Trump on Monday touted “big progress” on talks to end the Ukraine war, and Kyiv is doubtless willing to make painful concessions to avoid surrender or U.S. abandonment. No one wants the war to end more than the Ukrainians who are fighting and dying.

    But the crucial issue continues to be what kind of peace? So it’s worth describing the conditions that would create a peace with honor in Ukraine and deter a new war whenever Vladimir Putin chooses to invade again.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday described the U.S. peace offer as a “living, breathing document,” and we welcome the red pen to the original 28-point plan that bent hard toward Vladimir Putin. That document would leave a neutered Ukraine that is banned from associating with Western security institutions and vulnerable to a new invasion.

    The overriding goal of any peace is letting Ukraine survive as an independent nation that can determine its own future. If its people want to align with Russia, so be it. But every indication is that they want to align with the West, including the European Union and NATO.

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    The Editorial Board

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  • China’s Xi Calls Trump in Unusual Move to Discuss Ukraine, Taiwan

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    In an unusual diplomatic move, Chinese leader Xi Jinping initiated a phone call with President Trump on Monday, discussing Taiwan and Ukraine as Washington, Kyiv and Moscow try to hammer out a plan to end the war.

    China has provided crucial diplomatic and economic support to Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Now as Trump pushes to make a decisive move to end the war, Beijing is seeking to play a more visible role.

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    [ad_2] Lingling Wei
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  • ISIS Prisons and Camps Are Festering in a Fragile Syria as Aid Peters Out

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    HASAKAH, Syria—In a wing of the notorious Al Sina prison in northeastern Syria, where some of the world’s most dangerous inmates are held, guards wearing balaclavas stood along a corridor lined with cells. A prisoner pressed his face to a small, square hole in one of the cell doors. Behind him, some 20 other prisoners in brown jumpsuits sat barefoot on the floor.

    “Is Biden still the U.S. president?” he asked a visiting journalist. The prisoner, a British Islamic State member, didn’t get an answer.

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    Sudarsan Raghavan

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  • Opinion | Another Week in the Wild West Bank

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    Adding up Palestinian terrorism and Israeli settler violence.

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    The Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | Suspicious Drones Over Europe

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    Has the West absorbed the right lessons from Ukraine’s war with Russia? For the unsettling answer, look at what’s buzzing mysteriously in the skies above Europe’s cities. Drones were spotted this month in France, loitering around a gunpowder plant and a train station where tanks are located. Others were seen recently near a Belgian military base, a port, and a nuclear power plant.

    Belgium’s defense minister told the press the drones near military bases were “definitely for spying.” The provenance of other suspicious drones is less clear. Yet whatever their source, they’re a security threat. The Netherlands suspended flights in Eindhoven Saturday after a drone sighting, and similar episodes have unfolded this month at airports in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.

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    The Editorial Board

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  • Russia Stuck to Its Demands on Ukraine. Many Are Now in Trump’s Peace Plan.

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    For the past four years, Russia has stuck by a single set of demands for ending its war in Ukraine. Now, Moscow is sitting back and reaping the fruits of its strategy, as President Trump presses a peace plan that broadly conforms with its demands.

    The latest 28-point document that Trump has championed as a path to ending the war includes some of Russia’s most important conditions. Those terms include giving Russia more land in Ukraine’s east, defanging Ukraine’s military and closing off the path for Kyiv to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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    Thomas Grove

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  • Trump Says Ukraine Peace Plan Isn’t Final After Criticism It Favors Russia

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    President Trump said Saturday he could be open to changes in the administration’s 28-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine after Kyiv, European governments and even some Republican lawmakers denounced it as far too heavily weighted in Moscow’s favor.

    “No, not my final,” Trump said at the White House after he was asked if the terms were nonnegotiable. “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago.” He didn’t specify what changes were possible in the plan.

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    [ad_2] Robbie Gramer
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  • Militants Abduct 300 Children From Catholic School in Nigeria

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    Gunmen stormed a Catholic school in Nigeria, abducting more than 300 students and teachers at a time when President Trump is threatening military action to protect Christians in the West African nation.

    The attackers hit St. Mary’s Catholic School in central Niger State in the early hours Friday, spraying bullets into the air before rousting students from their dormitories and forcing them into the forest at gunpoint, police said.

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    [ad_2] Nicholas Bariyo
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  • Trump Uses Gaza Peace Playbook in Ukraine

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    The White House is giving Ukraine less than a week to sign on to a plan requiring major concessions.

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    Michael R. Gordon

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  • Latest Push for Peace Is Zelensky’s Toughest Moment Since Start of War

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    The Ukrainian leader is trying to prepare his people for “a very difficult choice” after almost four years of full-scale conflict with Russia.

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    Ian Lovett

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  • Opinion | Trump Issues an Ultimatum to Ukraine

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    The Trump Administration is making another run at ending the war in Ukraine, and a lasting peace with honor would be a laudable achievement. But for three years the only peace on offer has been Ukraine’s surrender, and the latest American offer—really, an ultimatum—is merely another dressed-up version.

    The 28-point plan that was mooted in the press but became public on Thursday includes a reduction in Ukraine’s military and a cap on its manpower at 600,000, from about 900,000 now. It isn’t clear if foreign peace-keeping troops would be allowed on Ukraine’s soil or if it could maintain long-range weapons.

    The deal hands Mr. Putin all of the Donbas in the east. He’d pocket the territory he’s already seized there—and get the rest that Ukraine still holds despite nearly four years of Russian assaults.

    Ukraine would forfeit its right to join a defensive Western alliance in NATO. Oh—and the U.S. and Ukraine would recognize Russian control of Crimea, which Mr. Putin took by force in 2014. Mr. Putin has made these demands since 2022 after his failed storming of Kyiv.

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    The Editorial Board

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  • Trump’s Peace Plan for Ukraine, Annotated

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    President Trump has said he wants Ukraine to agree to a 28-point peace plan by Thanksgiving. The problem for Kyiv is that many of the points cross their red lines and reflect demands long made by Moscow. The Kremlin has said it wasn’t consulted on the plan.

    Here’s a breakdown of some of the key points in the plan and how Ukraine and its European allies might respond.

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    Matthew Luxmoore

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