Free Republic

Donald Trump’s lead negotiator has been pushing Volodymyr Zelensky to hand over the entire Donetsk region to Russia in order to end the war in Ukraine, it has emerged.Steve Witkoff, who has met with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, five times this year, told the Ukrainian delegation visiting the White House last Friday to surrender the territory its forces control.It is one of the key demands made by Putin, who made clear in a phone call with Mr Trump last week that he still wants Ukraine to give up the stretch of land as a precondition for peace, The Washington...

In his video address, Zelensky said that Ukraine will not make any concessions to Russia, emphasizing that "nothing will be given as a gift" and that Kyiv will continue to defend its territory and sovereignty. "In the recent Trump-Putin phone call, Russian President Putin demanded Ukraine surrender the rest of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, in exchange Moscow will drop claims for the remaining Kherson and Zaporozhye regions," - The Washington Post.

In February 2016, Donald Trump scandalized Republican Party elites at a CNN town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, when he dared to call George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq “a big fat mistake” and “the worst decision any one has made, any president has made, in the history of this country.” Trump’s assertion infuriated GOP insiders not because it was clearly mistaken or even easily disputable, but because it was all too true. A glance at the titles of major books on America in the Middle East written by authors across the political spectrum—Fiasco, Grand Delusion, Losing the Long Game,...

Since becoming Japan’s prime minister for a second time last December, Shinzo Abe has done a decent job of keeping his nationalistic instincts in check, choosing to focus instead on reviving the world’s third largest economy. But this week, with his administration buoyant in the polls amid positive signs for the economy, the “other” Shinzo Abe has stepped into the spotlight in dramatic style, angering Japan’s neighbors and possibly fomenting another round of regional tension. … (Abe) has made no secret of his desire to reinterpret Japan’s wartime past, distance himself from apologies issued by his predecessors, and, critically, rewrite...

Perhaps the most moving moment of Ken Burns' 11-hour documentary "The Civil War" is the reading of Sullivan Ballou's July 14, 1861 letter to "My very dear Sarah," written days before he was killed at the first Battle of Bull Run. Americans hearing his words 129 years later treasured them almost as much as the Union major's widow must have, reciting the letter at weddings and funerals. The Ballou letter epitomized the great achievement of Burns' film, which PBS is rebroadcasting over five nights beginning Sunday. Burns gave viewers "the impression of being present in the past," as historian Robert...