Rubio leads a U.S. team for Paris talks as Macron seeks unity on Ukraine
PARIS and KYIV — French President Emmanuel Macron hosted top diplomats from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ukraine on Thursday to discuss efforts toward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and try to salvage a fraying alliance between Europe and the Trump administration.
“Everyone wants to get peace. A robust and sustainable peace,” Macron said while meeting the U.S. delegation at Élysée Palace. “The question is about phasing.”
The U.S. delegation included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.
“Very productive meetings at Elysee Palace on efforts to end the Ukraine-Russia war,” Kellogg wrote on the social media platform X, along with a photograph of himself with Ukraine’s representatives.
The State Department said Rubio later spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and said the administration has “now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace.” Witkoff has had multiple meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including last week in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ukraine has been pushing the U.S. to take a tougher stance on Russia, whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 and continues to claim lives. Speaking to journalists in Kyiv Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Witkoff “has adopted Russia’s strategy.”
Ukrainians have criticized Witkoff for statements made to Fox News that a potential peace deal could center on the status of five Ukrainian territories. The Kremlin illegally annexed the southern region of Crimea in 2014 and, since its full-scale invasion, has partially occupied the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“It’s very dangerous because he’s consciously or unconsciously spreading Russian narratives,” Zelenskyy said. “And he does not have the mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories, because our territory belongs to our people.”
Asked about President Trump’s statement calling Russia’s deadly Palm Sunday strike on the northeastern of Sumy “a mistake,” Zelenskyy declined to criticize Trump and pointed out that Rubio had condemned the strike. Ukraine’s president did add that European leaders were far more forceful in their condemnation, slamming Russia for a strike that killed 35 civilians and injured 100.
“I think the [Trump] administration’s soft response reflects the continuation of their current policy,” Zelenskyy said. “I believe they think that this kind of diplomacy, this format, will help bring the war to an end.”
Trump has long said that he wants to end the war quickly. He says he is frustrated with both Kyiv and Moscow, even as his administration appears to have embraced Moscow’s account of the war.
Macron called Zelenskyy before and after Thursday’s meetings. More meetings are planned in London next week.
Eleanor Beardsley reported from Paris and Joanna Kakissis from Kyiv.
Nearly 60 cases dismissed due to corruption in Hanceville Police Department
The grand jury determined that 58 felony criminal cases had been tainted by corruption in the Hanceville Police Department, after four officers and the police chief were indicted on a variety of charges related to mishandling or removing evidence from the department's evidence room.
President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
Hayden, who became the first woman and the first African American to serve as the Librarian of Congress when she was appointed in 2016, was abruptly fired via email late Thursday.
First Afrikaners granted refugee status due to arrive in U.S.
Three months ago, President Trump signed an executive order telling white Afrikaans South Africans they could apply for refugee status in the U.S. The first group has been swiftly processed and is set to arrive on U.S. soil Monday
Court rules Alabama violated Voting Rights Act in drawing congressional lines
A three-judge panel permanently blocked Alabama from using a state-drawn map that they said flouted their directive to draw a plan that was fair to Black voters. The decision was not a surprise because the panel ruled against the state twice previously and put a new map in place for last year’s elections.
Who is the new Pope Leo XIV and what are his views?
Pope Leo XIV was born and raised in Chicago. He is of French, Italian and Spanish descent. He spent years working as a missionary in Peru.
India and Pakistan trade attacks amid risk of war between nuclear states
The escalation began after India accused Pakistan of being behind an attack where gunmen killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in India-administered Kashmir on April 22. Pakistan denies it.
