Top officials from the United States and Ukraine met in Florida on Sunday to discuss the framework of a possible peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser, met in Miami with Ukraine’s delegation led by Rustem Umerov, the head of head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. “The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war, obviously–that’s central and fundamental. We want to see an end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do, as well,” said Rubio in remarks before the meeting. “But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.” Umerov thanked Trump’s negotiation team for their support in brief remarks after Rubio’s. “We are discussing about the future of Ukraine, about the security of Ukraine, about no repetition of aggression of Ukraine, about prosperity of Ukraine, about how to rebuild Ukraine. And we are thankful for the efforts of United States and its team to helping us. U.S. is hearing us, U.S. is supporting us, U.S. is beside us,” said Umerov. The delegations met as the two sides and Russia continue to hammer out revisions to Trump’s original 28-point framework for peace in Ukraine. The starting offer proposed by the United States reportedly received stiff objections from Ukrainian officials over a cap to Ukraine’s military, ceding territory not under Russia’s direct control, and other issues. “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the guys to work in accordance with clear Ukrainian priorities.” Substantial revisions have since been made to initial peace plan, though the specifics have been guarded from the public. Ukraine has sought security guarantees and rejected suggestions of ceding additional land to Russia. Russia has insisted that Ukraine abandon “occupied territories.” Last week, Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that the Kremlin had received the latest version of the peace framework but declined to offer an opinion on it. “This isn’t an official one, but we do have the document. We haven’t discussed it with anyone yet because the points in it require truly serious analysis and discussion,” said Ushakov, according to CNN.

Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ non-voting member of Congress, garnered headlines recently when it came to light that she took direction from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. Her relationship with Epstein is especially notable because Plaskett herself had “private nude images” of her stolen by her own ex-staffers, who used them to attempt to sabotage her re-election campaign. The husband of one of the culprits was, like Epstein, later found dead. In March 2016, Plaskett asked staffer Juan R. McCullum to fix her iPhone. After snooping around, McCullum found nude images and videos, including one of her husband naked and wearing makeup while their young child was in the room, according to court papers. Plaskett is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. She has said she had texted with Epstein during a House Oversight Committee hearing because Epstein was providing her information about what to ask President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, because Epstein “had information, and I was going to get information to get at the truth.” After the Epstein revelations emerged, she faced a censure vote in the House, narrowly escaping on a 209-214 vote. In July 2016, after leaving Plaskett’s office to work for Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), McCullum created an email address and sent the photos to politicians and the media, as well as posted them to Facebook using a fake account. Police traced the accounts to McCullum and found that he had communicated with another former Plaskett staffer, Dorene Browne-Louis, who had gone on to work for the Department of Homeland Security. “Somebody will pay for how we were treated,” he wrote to Browne-Louis. Browne-Louis “made numerous false and misleading statements about her knowledge of McCullum’s activities,” and falsely denied deleting relevant text messages, prosecutors said. She later testified before a federal grand jury and provided false statements, including that she “did not know that McCullum wanted to seek revenge against Delegate S.P.,” court papers said. A superseding indictment said Browne-Louis provided McCullum the email address of the governor of the Virgin Islands and political supporters — taken from confidential campaign documents — for the purpose of sending the pictures to him and others. Using his fake email account, McCullum sent Browne-Louis multiple messages “containing derogatory statements about” Plaskett, and Browne-Louis “requested that he re-send her the nude Images and Videos,” the indictment said. Browne-Louis gave one of the images to a campaign staffer for Plaskett’s challenger in the August 6, 2016, Democratic primary election, who in turn gave it to a reporter. In his messages, McCullum “voiced opposition to Delegate S.P. and attempted to use the communications to undermine Delegate S.P.’s re-election campaign.” Both culprits pleaded guilty. In a victim impact statement, Plaskett told the court that “our family’s privacy was invaded, pillaged and we were basically raped by Juan McCullum and Dorene Browne-Louis… Why, because I was mean? I demanded a lot, I demand most of myself.” Plaskett continued, “We got calls from the White House with complaints that McCullum was pretending to be a member of the White House staff, we should have fired him then but I asked him to put his head down and let it blow over.” “I’m so grateful for all the people at home who rallied around me,” she wrote. “The women who saw it for what it was. Bringing a black woman down. McCullum you’re like some creep who rips a woman’s clothes off in public, like the slave seller ripping a black woman’s clothes off.” Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday. “Then you went further. They tried to first emasculate my husband. Say he was not a man, because there was a picture of him with makeup. Makeup it was obvious he was not happy to be wearing. That he lost in a bet. The worst was that they tried to put in the public that my husband and I allowed our daughter who was around 4-5 at the time of the picture in some perverted unnatural situation. For that reason, I want to physically destroy the two of them.” Plaskett’s husband, Jonathan Buckney-Small, wrote in his victim impact statement that he ran into McCullum after finding out about the photos and “NEVER had I felt the pulse the beat the flow my blood asking me to take matters in my own hands that night when you couldn’t look me in the eye. It was then it was clear I had a decision I had to make do I go to jail to make myself feel better or do I let time take you do [sic] jail.” In March 2018, McCullum was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, 100 hours of community service, and two years of probation. In June 2020, a judge agreed to terminate his probation early. In August 2016, a month after the photos and video were published, Browne-Louis’s husband, Gregory Benson Louis, was shot and killed outside the firehouse where he worked. Browne-Louis also pleaded guilty. The government did not seek jail time in part because her husband was murdered. She was sentenced to two years’ probation.

ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl spent part of Sunday morning’s broadcast of “This Week” talking about a Washington Post hit piece attacking War Secretary Pete Hegseth. The story in question alleged that Hegseth had ordered a second strike on a boat full of narco-terrorists when the first had left two survivors. Hegseth responded to the story in a lengthy post on X, saying in part, “As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland. As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” But when Karl raised the issue on Sunday morning, he opted to speak instead with ABC’s global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, who has reported extensively on the military but has never served herself. WATCH: “Did those two men clinging to the side of the boat pose an imminent threat?”@MarthaRaddatz weighs in on the Washington Post reporting of a military strike that allegedly targeted two survivors in the Caribbean. https://t.co/qh5zs8hdWr pic.twitter.com/alnukF1hlq — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 30, 2025 Raddatz cited The Washington Post report and said that the second strike — executed when the two survivors were apparently clinging to the wreckage of the destroyed boat — had been ordered based on verbal instruction from Hegseth himself to “kill everybody.” “Did those two men clinging to the side of the boat pose an imminent threat?” she asked, going on to wonder whether the order to strike a second time had been given with the knowledge that survivors were hanging on for dear life, and whether the lawyers had been consulted about the legality of such a strike. The conversation focused on the idea that attacking when there was no “imminent threat” would be a violation of the “rules of war.” But as Marine Corps veteran and Fox News personality Joey Jones said on “The Big Weekend Show,” an “imminent threat” does not always have to come in the form of guns pointed at American citizens. WATCH: ? Joey Jones just ended the left with one quote: “Spare me the tears over terrorists when you don’t cry over Americans who’ve died from them. Spare me the tears over terrorists when you didn’t have anything to say when President Obama droned American citizens.” ??? pic.twitter.com/6ISsgZkWzD — Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) November 29, 2025 Jones noted that if the survivors were able to radio others in their drug trafficking network, that could be just as grave a threat — and could also quickly result in men with guns showing up to defend them.

The 2026 midterms are about as high-stakes as elections can be. Thirty-five Senate seats are up for grabs next November, as are all 435 House seats. Republicans currently hold slim majorities in both houses of Congress — one that could get even slimmer with the coming resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene. The results of the elections could shape the final two years of President Donald Trump’s time in the White House. The midterms will also loom over the 2028 presidential election, particularly for Democrats, who do not have an obvious candidate waiting in the wings. We’re still a ways out, but many of the most crucial races are already heating up. Here are five races to keep an eye on. Texas The cycle’s most heated election began months ago when Trump ally and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a challenge to longtime Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton has argued that Cornyn is too establishment to continue representing the state, saying that “Cornyn’s Swamp friends are spending tens of millions of dollars to attack me.” Cornyn in turn has called Paxton a “conman and a fraud,” the Associated Press reported earlier this year. The winner of that primary will face off against either Colin Allred, a former congressman, or State Rep. James Talarico, who made national headlines in 2021 when he and a group of Democrat colleagues fled Texas to prevent the state legislature from voting on bills they opposed. More recently, Talarico — who has pitched himself as a Christian Democrat — came under fire after it was revealed that he followed a number of OnlyFans models on Instagram. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose radical outbursts are almost too numerous to mention, is also weighing entering the race — which has Republicans thrilled. Maine Like John Cornyn, Susan Collins has caught plenty of flak from her fellow Republicans in recent years. But the moderate senator’s main concern as she runs for a fifth term comes from Democrats, not a primary challenger. Maine Governor Janet Mills lost an early lead to populist upstart Graham Platner — though the oyster farmer blew an early lead with a series of scandals, including resurfaced Reddit posts in which he slammed cops and called himself a “communist,” and the revelation that he had a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest. Platner has been bleeding staff in the wake of these revelations, including his campaign manager, political director, and national finance manager. Despite all this, Platner still seems to be the Democrat to beat — though a recent poll found that voters favor Collins the more they learn about Platner. Michigan In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Abdul El-Sayed are seeing who can run furthest to the Left. McMorrow recently held a fundraiser with a leftist blogger who mocked Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Stevens, who endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), once screamed at her constituents for supporting the Second Amendment. And El-Sayed, who’s backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), blamed Israel for “invading” Gaza in October 2023, failing to mention that the “invasion” in question was a military response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians. Whichever Democrat emerges victorious from the fray will face off against Mike Rogers, a Trump-endorsed former congressman who lost his 2024 Senate race by a tiny margin. Ohio Rogers isn’t the only lawmaker staging a political comeback in 2026. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown — a longtime leftist fixture in the Upper Chamber who fell last year to Republican Bernie Moreno — is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was tapped to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat. Brown was dogged with allegations of hypocrisy throughout his time in the Senate, something The Daily Wire frequently covered. The leftist was slammed for taking donations from drug companies at the center of the opioid crisis and attending a ritzy Hollywood fundraiser while constituents worried about the water quality at their home after the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine. California Of all the House seats up for grabs in 2026 — and, remember, that’s all of them — the most closely-watched is California, where Democrats are fighting to fill former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s soon-to-be-vacated seat. Pelosi reportedly wants San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan to succeed her. But the candidate to beat is California State Senator Scott Wiener, a man so radical that even the New York Times has its doubts about him. From radical trans activism to legalizing prostitution and pedophilia, there’s almost nothing Wiener doesn’t want the state to permit — unless of course parents don’t want their minor children to undergo radical gender procedures, in which case he thinks the state should be able to take custody of those children. Wiener’s record is almost too insane to believe, but The Daily Wire recently published the definitive account of this wannabe congressman. Give it a read here. Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff will be defending his seat against a Republican challenger yet to be determined. The current frontrunners are Reps. Mike Collins and Derek Dooley, and former University of Tennessee football coach Buddy Carter. The race is expected to be extraordinarily expensive, as Ossoff already has $21 million in cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission data. Although it’s unclear who the nominee on the Republican side will be, millions are already pouring in for the individual candidates at this stage, The Daily Wire reported in October. Ossoff most recently made waves for his vote against reopening the government, a vote that Republicans will likely lord over him throughout the cycle. But Wait, There’s More… North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is set to square off against Republican Michael Whatley. Former Senators John Sununu and Scott Brown are duking it out in a New Hampshire primary. Redistricting battles are sure to make house races spicy in Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, and more. And just for fun, the weirdest scion of the Kennedy family is running alongside about a dozen other Democrats to represent a district in the heart of Zohran Mamdani’s Manhattan. It’s going to be a heck of a cycle. Stick with The Daily Wire, we’ll be covering it all!

At least two media outlets responded to an Afghan national’s attack on two National Guardsmen by fretting over how President Donald Trump’s reaction might hurt refugees. The suspect in the shooting, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national admitted to the United States in 2021, in the aftermath of former President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. On Wednesday, he opened fire on two National Guardsmen just blocks from the White House, killing one, Sarah Beckstrom and leaving the other, Andrew Wolfe, fighting for his life with critical injuries. Trump, a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s Afghanistan failures, quickly promised to “fix” the problems created when Biden allowed “hundreds of thousands of people” to come into the United States from Afghanistan, “totally unvetted and unchecked.” The president also vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and said that he planned to “deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.” Rather than cover the story straight or report on the risk that Biden’s refugee policies pose to American citizens, the Associated Press telegraphed concern for Afghan refugees in the United States. “Trump administration plan to review Biden-era refugees sparks worry and uncertainty,” one AP headline read. The Trump administration’s plan to review all refugees admitted to the United States under the Biden administration is weighing heavily on people who could be affected by the evaluation, fueling uncertainty and worry among people who believed their status was secured. Another headline reported that “Refugee groups worry about backlash after shooting of National Guard soldiers in DC.” Many Afghans living in the U.S. are afraid to leave their houses, fearing they’ll be swept up by immigration officials or attacked with hate speech, said Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group #AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the two-decade war. “They’re terrified. It’s insane,” VanDiver told The Associated Press Thursday. “People are acting xenophobic because of one deranged man. He doesn’t represent all Afghans. He represents himself.” Yet another piece suggested that Trump was in the wrong for criticizing the Biden administration for bringing unvetted Afghans into the United States in the first place. “Trump criticizes the program that brought Afghan refugees to the US who fought the Taliban,” it read. The program, called Operation Allies Welcome, was created after the 2021 decision to leave Afghanistan following 20 years of American intervention and billions of dollars of aid. Democratic President Joe Biden, who oversaw the withdrawal started by his predecessor — Republican President Donald Trump — said the U.S. owed it to the interpreters and translators, the fighters and drivers and others who opposed the Taliban to give them a safe place outside of Afghanistan. The New York Times was slightly more overt in its adoption of the “Trump pounces” theme, with one headline asserting “Trump Uses National Guard Shooting to Cast Suspicion on Refugees.” President Trump claimed there were “a lot of problems with Afghans,” without providing evidence, as his administration announced that it was implementing new immigration guidelines. But as those outlets and others have chosen to ignore, Army Ranger veteran and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell warned the Biden administration in real time, telling anyone who would listen that bringing unvetted Afghans into the United States was a recipe for disaster. Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday. At the time, he told the story of an Afghan interpreter who had been working with his platoon for more than a year before betraying them, putting them on a path where a land mine injured several and killed one of Parnell’s men. “After that mission was over, during our After Action Report (AAR), we found out that our interpreter — who had been with us every step of the way, someone who we thought was our friend — we learned that he was working with an Iranian IED cell in Pakistan, and coordinated the placement of that mine,” Parnell explained. But Parnell’s warning fell on deaf ears. Just one day before the deadly shooting cast a pall over a nation preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, another Afghan national was arrested for making a terroristic threat” and posting it on TikTok. Fox News national correspondent Brooke Taylor reported that Mohammad Dawood Alokozay made it clear in the video that he was building a bomb and had intended to target the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Like the shooting suspect in custody in D.C., Alokozay was brought into the United States in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. He was granted legal permanent resident status in September 2022.