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The United States once declared that Ukraine’s fight was the front line in a global battle for freedom. Now the Trump administration is sending money to Moscow.

President Donald Trump blames Ukraine for continuing its defensive war against Russia. He does so even as Ukraine has agreed to ceasefires proposed by Trump but rejected or broken systematically by Russia. Trump pretends that Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy network are intended to increase American gas prices rather than, as they are, to drain […]

Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.) says restrictions on Starlink service have dealt a significant blow to Ukraine's counter-drone capabilities and disrupted an early-warning system for incoming ballistic missiles. Hodges says it is bizarre for President Donald Trump to defend Elon Musk as a "good person" who would not do anything wrong, pointing to Trump's praise of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and comments from a Trump negotiator calling Putin a humanitarian. Hodges says he applauds first lady Melania Trump's role in helping secure relief for Ukrainian civilians, but says it represents only a small fraction of the suffering caused by Russia's war. He speaks with Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg’s "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)

Ukraine’s military on Friday struggled with a still-slowed Starlink satellite system despite President Trump’s promise a day earlier that SpaceX owner Elon Musk had restored the service. Connections with Starshield — the military version of Starlink, a major tool for Ukraine to defend itself from missile and drone attacks from Russia — continued to fail...

Republican lawmakers are threatening to block President Donald Trump’s nominees and derail his legislative agenda over restrictions on satellite services used by Ukraine’s military, according to The New York Times. Senators from both parties have told senior White House officials they will hold up pending nominations until the administration restores critical satellite communications capabilities used ...

The first lady, who is positioning herself as an intermediary between two warring nations as her husband sides with Russia, said the agreement would allow residents to evacuate.

The woman who watched French rioters destroy her livelihood. Inside the annual conference where men learn how to get laid. And more. It’s Friday, October 23. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Kara Kennedy attends SlutCon, where “flirt girls” teach awkward men how to get laid. A Parisian bakery owner shares a harrowing first-person account of watching rioters loot her store. And much more. But first: the method to Trump’s foreign policy madness. Anyone hoping to keep up with U.S. foreign policy this week had their work cut out for them. The week began with news that Russian president Vladimir Putin had proposed a summit to discuss Ukraine. The participants? Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping—but not Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump reportedly did not reject the proposal. Then we learned that Elon Musk had green-lit a slowdown of a military-grade Starlink that Ukraine uses for many of its drones. If this all sounds backward to you, you’re not alone. “Confused is how many people today feel about U.S. foreign policy,” Niall Ferguson writes in our lead story today. “For some people,” he continues, “the only possible explanation for all of this is that President Donald Trump is simply a crazed man-child emperor.” Those people would be wrong, he says. “To understand Trump’s approach to foreign policy, and particularly his counterintuitive approach to the war in Ukraine, you have to understand the debt he . . . owes to a 20th-century president: Richard Nixon.” Read Niall’s column to understand how the 47th president’s strategy borrows a page from the 37th’s—and the one key difference that may determine whether Trump ultimately succeeds. Still, Trump’s apparent courting of Putin is hard for many to stomach. That’s especially true when you consider the case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was imprisoned by Russia for 491 days on trumped-up espionage charges. Evan has written a new book about his time in prison, and today he talks to Tanya Lukyanova about his experience, his thoughts on ongoing hostage diplomacy, and what Putin still gets wrong about him. Click below to watch the interview. —The Editors EDITORS’ PICKS The biggest story this week was the rioting in France, and for the past five days, we’ve brought you a series of stories to help make sense of the violence. With unrest threatening to resume this weekend, don’t miss Douglas Murray, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, and Nora Bussigny on the essential questions raised by the riots: Who is behind them, what is at stake, and can French culture and the Republic endure their aftermath? In case you missed it, we recently brought a new columnist aboard. Ross Douthat is writing for The Free Press every Thursday, and this week, he took on a topic he knows better than almost anyone: the so-called religious revival in the West. Despite the cultural cachet enjoyed by today’s Catholics, he wrote, “the form of Christianity that’s most adapted to late-modern America” isn’t Catholicism—“it’s evangelical Protestantism.” In his latest column, he revealed why the sect of Christianity most often criticized by the left has more to teach us about ourselves than we might think. In the early 20th century, Portsmouth, Ohio, was a bustling metropolis, home to an NFL team and booming manufacturing plants. Then, in the 1990s, the town was hollowed out by deindustrialization and devastated by the opioid crisis, swiftly becoming the “pill mill” capital of America. Today, it’s been overrun by addicts seeking treatment, leading to the emergence of a new cottage industry: substance abuse recovery. But when Frannie Block went to Portsmouth, she found something troubling: an industry that locals say is rife with exploitation, abuse, and fraud. Her latest investigation takes us to a forgotten corner of America, where the cure to the opioid crisis may have become worse than the disease. It’s a…

To understand Trump’s approach to Ukraine, Iran, and China, look to Richard Nixon. The president’s instinct for superpower dealmaking reflects a hard-nosed realism, backed by the American economy. Each episode of the satirical 1970s show Soap always began with a convoluted plot summary. The catchphrase in the intro was: “Confused? You won’t be.” Confused is how many people today feel about U.S. foreign policy. A Free Press editor recently put it this way: If China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are an Axis of Aggressors and we’re at war with them, why is it so hard to identify enemies and allies? Democrats who just voted to pass almost $2 billion in aid to Ukraine (with an assist from a small group of Republicans) are simultaneously promoting candidates who want to end support for the Iron Dome for Israel, which is at war with Iran and its satellites, who are attacking an assortment of our partial allies and getting help from Russia and China. [Vice President] J.D. Vance talked about the moderates in Iran who want peace during his ill-fated ceasefire; Turkey works with the Axis but is part of NATO; France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands import Russian gas; Hungary uses a Russian pipeline, etc. How can we be in “Cold War II” if those are our allies? Whose false narrative are we living in? Having coined the phrase Cold War II and encouraged the use of the term Axis, I get so much of this kind of thing these days that I feel like a geopolitical agony aunt. “Why is Musk fucking with Ukraine?” a friend messaged me on Wednesday, referring to reports that Elon Musk green-lit a slowdown in the military-grade Starlink coverage that Ukraine relies on for certain types of drones. “Why would Putin negotiate when he’s getting concessions without it? How does increasing his leverage help?” These questions were further fueled by the revelation at the beginning of the week that the Russian president had proposed a joint summit next month with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine—without Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky present. Trump reportedly did not reject the idea. Confused? You will be. So how to make sense of the apparent contradictions of Cold War II? For some people, the only possible explanation for all of this is that President Donald Trump is simply a crazed man-child emperor. In the wake of the gladiatorial games staged outside the White House in June, the British writer Robert Harris (whose new book Agrippa depicts the rise of Augustus Caesar) remarked: “You can really see him in a toga with a gold laurel wreath on his head. . . . He is an imperial kind of president.”

President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham are scheduled to speak Friday as tensions build between the two governments over Russia’s war in Ukraine and the possibility of renewed US escalation against Iran.

Communications system still faces speed restrictions despite Trump claim that Musk had resumed full service Trump, Musk, Zelenskyy: who is blaming who in the Ukraine-Starlink row? Ukrainian forces continue to report widespread disruptions to the Starlink satellite network , despite Donald Trump’s claim that Elon Musk had lifted restrictions on the service. The slowdown, which has affected the key communications system used by Ukrainian troops, began last week after Trump and Starlink founder Musk publicly criticised Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, over continued strikes on Russian oil refineries. Continue reading...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe leads an agency that’s at war with Russia, even as Trump makes nice with Putin.

The US president is portraying Zelenskyy as the villain as he strives for Russia’s approval If Donald Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and return to wave the document as “peace in our time”, hoping to claim at least the second Fifa peace prize. Whatever the complicated motives of Neville Chamberlain, his well-grounded fear after the carnage of a world war of another apocalypse and his wishful thinking that Hitler would be satiated after carving up Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain had not sent his son-in-law and former golf partner and real estate partner in advance to cut back-end deals with the Nazis to profit for his family and cronies. Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man , Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth . He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of the Court of History podcast Continue reading...

A war of words has erupted over who is responsible for the restrictions on Starshield access in Ukraine A war of words has erupted between the Trump administration, officials in Kyiv and Elon Musk over who is to blame for limiting Ukraine’s access to Space X’s military-grade version of Starlink. The restrictions to Starshield have rendered many of the drones used by Kyiv to strike behind the frontlines inoperable and hampered air defence systems that stop Russian attacks, according to Ukrainian officials . Continue reading...

US president says Starshield military communications system is back, but declines to comment on whether he spoke to Musk on the matter. What we know on day 1,703 Donald Trump has claimed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fully restored Ukraine’s Starlink access , restrictions on which have hampered Ukraine’s attack missions and air defence. However, a senior European official told the Associated Press on Thursday that nothing has changed in the operation of the military-grade Starshield service. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of ⁠the system. Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm that the service had been down, but claimed it was once again working at optimal speeds. “You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.” Questions over who ordered interruptions to Starshield – which plunged relations between Kyiv and Washington to a new low – have ignited a blame game within the Trump administration and its allies . Trump has denied being involved in the decision concerning the slowdown, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that decisions regarding Ukraine’s access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and Musk, not the White House. Musk last week posted to X: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ⁠on Thursday – before Trump’s latest comments – that Starlink had not ⁠been fully restored. Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles overnight , after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin to discuss the resumption of peace talks. Russia’s aerial attacks hit 12 regions of Ukraine, killing at least four people and wounding scores of others, including five children, Zelenskyy said on social media Thursday. Two women, aged 50 and 60, were killed and dozens of other people were wounded in a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, in Ukraine’s northeeastern Kharkiv region, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. Another person was killed in other strikes on Kharkiv. Downing Street has rejected the description of Putin as a “humanitarian” made by Witkoff after meeting the Russian president. When asked about the US envoy’s comments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We certainly do not recognise that characterisation, and President Putin has killed thousands of people, both innocent Ukrainians and his own Russian people, who he has sent to their deaths on the frontline.” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha chided Witkoff for flattering Putin, saying on social media the latest “brutal” Russian attacks demonstrate “what Russian ‘humanism’ truly sounds like.” Nato member Denmark said on Thursday it has agreed to buy its first ⁠long-range precision missiles as ⁠it seeks to bolster its security to deter Russian aggression in Europe, drawing condemnation from Moscow. Defence minister Jeppe Bruus said the new missile systems would boost Denmark’s capabilities and enable strikes “behind enemy lines” ⁠if attacked. “We’re in a serious and deteriorating security situation and that ​is why we are ‌building up the defence ‌and strengthening our combat power,” he said. The Russian embassy in ‌Copenhagen said Denmark’s missile policy aimed at confrontation with Moscow and warned of “inevitable disastrous consequences”. Romania will accelerate development of surveillance capabilities and equipment to counter mines ⁠and drones in the Black Sea after a series of drone attacks on commercial ships off ⁠its coast , its ⁠top defence council ​said on Thursday. At least seven cargo ships have been hit near the coasts of Nato members ⁠Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, with 30 sailors reported dead or missing. No ⁠deals should ​be made to buy gas from ⁠Russia as long as Moscow’s war ⁠in Ukraine continues, Finland’s prime ⁠minister Petteri Orpo said in Kyiv on Thursday . The EU banned Russian pipeline gas under short-term contracts ​from 17 June, and will ​apply it to long-term contracts from 1 November next year. Senior Russian political and energy officials meanwhile have urged the EU to reconsider plans to ban imports of ⁠Russian LNG, arguing the bloc’s ⁠low storage levels ​had put Europe in a precarious position. “I ‌hope there is still time to reconsider these decisions,” Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Novatek, Russia’s largest liquefied natural ‌gas producer, told an economic forum in Istanbul on Thursday. “Europe should support its industry, in my view. There is still time.” Continue reading...

The call from the president about the Starshield network came after officials in Ukraine reported that they found new limits on the use of military drones in their war against Russia.

"Balance of Power" focuses on the intersection of politics and global business. On today's show, Celinda Lake, founder of Lake Research and a Democratic pollster whose firm has done polling for Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign, says Republicans are in deep trouble, but Democrats have a lot to prove. Evelyn Farkas, McCain Institute executive director and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, says it's a moral problem for the US that Starlink speeds were slowed while Ukrainians were trying to intercept missiles and drones targeting civilians. Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union and fifth-generation farmer in Polk County, Iowa, says both diesel prices and tariffs have been devastating for farmers. (Source: Bloomberg)

Evelyn Farkas, McCain Institute executive director and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, says it's a moral problem for the US that Starlink speeds were slowed while Ukrainians were trying to intercept missiles and drones targeting civilians. Farkas says Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to signal openness to negotiations while maintaining his maximalist claims and continuing attacks on Ukrainians. Farkas says Putin is trying to get European countries to stop supporting Ukraine and says a diesel deal with President Donald Trump came out of a call between the two leaders. She speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg’s "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)

SpaceX investor Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, said he is “disgusted” by the recent events surrounding the slowdown of Starlink services in Ukraine, which impacted the country’s military capabilities. “As a SpaceX shareholder I am disgusted,” Gerber said Wednesday during an appearance on CNN. “I think that these decisions were strategically horrendous and from...

Czech President Petr Pavel on Tuesday said President Trump's diesel deal with Russia derailed peace talks between the Kremlin and Ukraine, saying both sides were "so close" to a ceasefire. "It will be much harder now," Pavel told the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which includes Politico. "Russia uses this momentum to get out of...

Mr. Trump has been searching for his Yalta in the war in Ukraine ever since he returned to the Oval Office.

The answer, delivered during a debate with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, aligned Marshall with President Donald Trump's freshly antagonistic posture toward Ukraine, which has spent more than four years defending itself against an invasion.

John Hardie, the deputy director of the FDD’s Russia program, joined Brittany Lewis on “Forbes Newsroom” to discuss the current state of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Washington Post reports White House holds up Patriot interceptor transfers to Ukraine while Russian missiles keep falling on Ukrainian cities.

U.S. and Israeli Militaries Draft Plans to Resume Strikes on Iran After Midterm Elections, Saudi Arabia Says Four People Are Killed as Houthis Attack Oil Field, King Fahd Airport, Russia Kills More Civilians in Ukraine as U.S. Envoy Witkoff Praises Putin as a “Humanitarian”, Nigeria Reports First Case of Ebola in Over a Decade, U.N. Says World Has Lost Chance to Limit Global Heating, U.K. Approves Plans to Extract Natural Gas from North Sea Deposit, Chemical Tank Leak in Ohio Forces Evacuations, Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Commissions Ugly Attack Ad Featuring Opponent’s Estranged Mother, Trump Travels to South Carolina to Boost GOP Senator Darline Graham, Supreme Court Bars Trump Administration from Denying Gender-Affirming Care to Prisoners, Majority of Websites on Internet Left Vulnerable After Critical Security Flaws Are Discovered, Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion Fine, Police Violently Restrain Three People During Utah Data Center Protest

The UK pushed back against the description of Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” given by US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine war envoy, saying it rejected that characterization of the Russian leader.