Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's former spokesperson urged him Sunday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin face-to-face in Moscow, arguing that his past business and political connections in the Russian capital from years back could help him negotiate a peace deal there.

Iuliia Mendel, who served as Zelenskyy's spokesperson from 2019 to 2021, told Fox News Digital that the former comedian had also made his first millions in Russia and should perhaps leverage those ties to pursue lasting peace.

"When Zelenskyy was an entertainer, he often performed in Moscow," Mendel said, adding that the Ukrainian president "knows a lot of people from Putin's elite."

"He actually professionally grew in Moscow and earned his first millions in Moscow, and today he pretends that he has nothing in common with them," Mendel said.

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"He needs to go to Moscow and needs to agree on compromises that are acceptable," she said, before adding that Zelenskyy "doesn't need to play his maximalist games and to play this noble actor."

Mendel's criticism came as Ukraine, Russia and the United States prepared for another round of technical-level peace talks, potentially in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland, in November.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have helped lay the groundwork for renewed negotiations that officials hope could finally lead to direct talks between the two leaders.

Before entering politics, Zelenskyy had built a successful entertainment career. Beginning in the late 1990s, he performed with the comedy troupe Kvartal 95, competed on the Russian-language comedy program KVN and later worked as an actor, writer and producer in television and movies. 

From the late 1990s, he performed on Russian stages and at private parties and appeared in movies shown across former Soviet republics, Mendel claimed. 

She said that after Russia annexed Crimea and launched its war in Donbas in early 2014, Zelenskyy traveled to Russia to work on the comedy film "Eight New Dates" which was released in Russian theaters in 2015.

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According to a report by Business Insider, many of Zelenskyy's movies were also in Russian and were marketed to a Russian audience, David Dodson, an American movie editor who worked with Zelenskyy told the outlet.

"He was a well-loved comic, actor and performer in Russia, but after [the 2013-14] Maidan [Revolution], everything changed," Dodson said.

"People need to realize that Volodya’s movies were very big in Russia. Most of his market was in Russia. He’s always been a popular comedy star in Russia," Dobson also clarified to GQ when asked if he directed the former actor in "Eight First Dates" in Russia, released in 2012.

In 2013, the movie received the Russian National Movie Awards as the Best Russian Comedy of the Year.

In 2019, Zelenskyy also promised to relinquish ownership of a Cyprus-registered company operating a film studio in Russia after investigative journalists revealed that he and his business partners still owned three Russian companies, according to the Kyiv Post.

Zelenskyy's entertainment career made him a household name in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics before he entered politics and won Ukraine's 2019 presidential election with roughly 73% of the runoff vote on promises to fight corruption and pursue peace in eastern Ukraine.

Mendel argued that Zelenskyy's promise to bring peace at the time stands in stark contrast to the devastating war that has crippled the country and defined much of his presidency.

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"Zelenskyy became the president with 73% record support," Mendel said. "Because he promised to bring peace to Ukraine."

"And now he has been presiding for almost five years (over) the largest war in Europe since World War II. This shows a lot."

"When his country is bleeding, he needs to make a peace deal for his people," she said before adding that the leader "needs to put the interests of his people first, just for Ukraine to exist as an independent state."

Whether Zelenskyy should travel to Moscow has, in fact, become a flashpoint in efforts to arrange direct peace talks.

In 2025, Putin offered to host Zelenskyy for talks in Moscow, but the Ukrainian president rejected the invitation as Russian forces continued attacking Ukraine.

"He can come to Kyiv," Zelenskyy told ABC News at the time, saying he could not visit Moscow while Ukraine remained under Russian missile attacks.

In September, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Russian journalists pressed Zelenskyy on when he would visit Moscow. He replied, "On a missile."

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Mendel, however, argued that personal animosity between the two leaders has become the main obstacle to diplomacy.

"Today there are diplomatic efforts to try to stop this brutal and bloody war that Russia started," she said.

"But what we see now is a personal opposition between Zelenskyy and Putin that continues to grow into constant escalation in which people suffer tremendously, Ukraine's infrastructure, energy grid, and businesses are in ruins, and refugees are fleeing."

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. More than four years later, peace negotiations are deadlocked over territory, security guarantees and the terms of a lasting ceasefire.

Moscow has demanded territorial concessions from Ukraine, including areas Russian forces do not fully control.

Kyiv has rejected ceding sovereign territory and insists that any agreement include enforceable security guarantees against another Russian attack.

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Mendel went on to praise President Donald Trump's efforts to break the diplomatic deadlock, calling him the first Western leader to "challenge the status quo" and consistently push for an end to the war.

"For this reason, many Ukrainians place great hope in his ability to bring peace," she said.

"A sustainable peace deal cannot be reached solely between Zelensky and Putin; it requires the involvement and initiative of a strong third party to halt the ongoing devastation."

On Friday, the White House announced that first lady Melania Trump had helped broker a temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine's Kherson region, to allow humanitarian aid deliveries, demining operations and civilian evacuations.

An estimated 1,700 to 2,000 people remain in the devastated front-line town, many of them facing severe shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.

The White House said the ceasefire would begin Oct. 29, although Ukrainian and Russian officials have indicated that operations could begin Oct. 27.

Pope Leo also reportedly spoke with Zelenskyy and Putin about the humanitarian crisis, according to Vatican News.

ZELENSKYY ACCUSES PUTIN OF DEFYING TRUMP'S CEASEFIRE PUSH, SENDS POINTED MESSAGE TO WHITE HOUSE

"Melania Trump has become synonymous with the words of a saver and a hero, since she has brokered the deal for Oleshky," Mendel said. "This is something that is going to save around 2,000 people and that neither Ukraine nor Russia could have solved for months and months."

"That is why, you know, what Melania Trump has done is actually a case to show that where two men are fighting, a woman can actually save lives," she added.

"And this is the new approach that would show that peace really should focus on human lives, not on maps and territories."

Mendel also criticized the influence of Zelenskyy's longtime ally Andriy Yermak on his diplomatic approach, arguing that the Ukrainian president has favored confrontation over compromise.

"Mr. Yermak was teaching Zelenskiy to be a strong man in diplomacy. And what today we see is actually diplomacy that doesn't exist," she said.

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"It's a diplomacy of humiliation, diplomacy of constant threats, diplomacy of demands," Mendel added.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday accused the state of California of being “guilty” of ballot harvesting, claiming the Golden State has “a system there that is ripe for abuse.” CBS News’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) legal battle with the state over potential noncitizens on their…

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Whoever controls Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation wields enormous influence over law enforcement, judges, and government officials. The EU wants Ukraine to reform it, and Ukraine’s government is likely to pass changes that satisfy monitoring requirements on paper while leaving the body effectively under the President’s Office’s control, the investigative outlet Texty reports.

The stakes are money and power at once. The State Bureau of Investigation, known by its Ukrainian initials DBR, investigates officials, judges, prosecutors, and soldiers. So choosing an independent director is one of the rule-of-law conditions the EU has tied to Ukraine’s 2026 and 2027 budget aid.

Yet the version the government may pass would change how the director is chosen only for the one after next, in 2032. Brussels wants the model used at the anti-corruption bureau NABU, where the chief cannot be confirmed without the votes of independent foreign experts.

Who picks the watchdog

Today a nine-member commission selects the director:

1. three named by the president
2. three by a parliament his party dominates
3. three proposed by the government on international partners’ suggestion.

That leaves the foreign experts without a decisive vote and the President’s Office effectively choosing the winner. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised in January that a reform bill would reach parliament within a month.

It is now October, and there is none.

Director Oleksii Sukhachov’s term ends this year, so his successor will be picked under the old rules.

Sukhachov has publicly argued that overhauling the bureau during the war would threaten the state.

The deadline to adopt the reform was October. To carry it out, the end of 2026. Miss it, and Ukraine risks reputational damage and the European funding it needs amid a budget deficit, money the EU has frozen before when anti-corruption guarantees slipped.

A factory of “procedural nightmaring”

What makes the fight so bitter is that the bureau’s searches, seizures, and summonses are levers over individuals and whole institutions.

For example, NABU’s Operation Midas tapes, from the $100 million kickback case at the state nuclear company Energoatom, mention the bureau’s entire leadership. In March 2025, its investigators searched the commission that vets and appoints Ukraine’s judges, itself reformed with international experts, in what the commission called pressure that could stall the courts.

Cases against the bureau’s own officials, meanwhile, are handled by a unit inside the bureau. And its director sits under his own cloud: the outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that his brother bought 143 apartments cheaply from a developer. Nevertheless, a court banned publication, and eight newsrooms jointly ran the story.

A federal appeals court appeared unlikely to immediately agree to the Trump administration’s bid to segregate 20,000 California ballots it says are likely from noncitizen voters, expressing skepticism at a rare Sunday hearing that a trial judge needs to move quicker. “I don’t see how we have jurisdiction,” said U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett.  The Department of Justice…

Trump, who imposed a travel ban targeting several predominantly Muslim countries during his first term, has increasingly leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric as Election Day approaches.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that if Ukraine fires through Starlink, Russia would be entitled to shoot the network down. That is why Starlink must remain a civilian operation and cannot be used for outright offensive strikes that would put its very existence at risk.

The warning lands in the middle of a fight over Musk’s own hand on that network. Weeks ago, his company unexpectedly throttled the service Ukraine’s drones depend on amid US President Donald Trump diesel deal with Russia, which led to the disruption of a few operations on the front.

The US Treasury authorized the sale, delivery, offloading, and import of Russian-origin diesel fuel, effectively suspending sanctions on that trade until 7 April 2027, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on its website on 9 October.

The diesel deal combining intelligence halt and military Starlink, with pressure on Ukraine to make a quick peace deal, has angered both Democrats and Republicans ahead of the US elections on 3 November, where Democrats could win.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official interprets Musk's talk of strikes as an attempt to build an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision.

A civilian network, or a target

Musk was responding to a post warning that if Starlink shifted from a civilian network into a military system, Russia could treat it as a target for retaliation, and that destroying satellites in orbit could scatter enough debris to make space unusable for years or centuries.

“An adversary blowing up Starlink satellites would create a domino effect of destruction that would generate a vast field of debris, making space unusable," he writes.

When the shield and the warnings failed together

Overnight into 14 October, SpaceX quietly capped the speed of Starshield, the military version Ukraine’s drones run on, without telling Kyiv. Ukrainian units said the limit broke a series of missions, with connections dropping mid-flight and leaving drones hard to control.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine relies on the network for air defense, not attack, to intercept the Russian drones Moscow sends to its cities, and that once the speed was cut, his forces could no longer stop some of them as effectively as before.

Simultaneously, Ukraine's other American lifeline also went dark: for about three days, the US stopped passing the intelligence that warns of Russian ballistic launches. On 12 October, Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv before the air-raid alert reached people, with no advance data from partners. In a strike during that window, three people were killed in the capital, the sirens sounding only after the blasts.

A Ukrainian official sees alibi-building

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the ex-head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, read Musk’s statement as self-protection rather than physics

“Musk, having taken responsibility for the restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine, is now trying to build himself an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision,” he wrote.

He said that regardless of who was behind the idea of restricting Starlink and Starshield access for Ukraine, it represents a strategic setback for the US in the long run, as it risks portraying the country as an unreliable partner that may fail to honor its commitments.

"Europe purchases around 60% of its imported weapons from the US. Trust in the US as a security guarantor directly supports sales for American defense companies. Moves like this only undermine that trust and encourage European countries to develop their own systems," he said.

The US has sent a message that its guarantees may not be reliable and that even paid-for services can be subject to political decisions, Kovalenko stressed.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) on Sunday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderer” and urged that the U.S. not make any deals with Russia. ABC News’s “This Week” host Jonathan Karl asked Hinson, a Senate candidate and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, what she made of U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s remark to Putin last…

Israeli media reported on Sunday that an “unprecedented confrontation” is unfolding between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, as the army chief is resisting an order to take unspecified military action related to Iran ahead of Tuesday’s Knesset elections. It’s unclear exactly what Netanyahu has ordered, but the report […]

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department’s lawsuit — filed at President Donald Trump’s request — seeking to block Alaska from certifying its election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.

In a contentious interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he denied the president is laying the groundwork to contest the outcome of the midterm elections in just over one week.

“President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form,” Blanche insisted.

But when pressed on what crime the administration alleges is being committed the attorney general said, “Well, it depends.”

“There could be a crime,” Blanche said. “But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard.”

With a little over one week to go before Election Day, Trump administration officials have set their sights on the key Senate seat, where Sullivan is facing a surprisingly competitive challenge from former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. The lawsuit has heightened Democrats’ fears that Trump could try to undermine the integrity of the midterm elections.

Sullivan, the incumbent, is also being challenged by a retired elementary school teacher who shares his name.

“There is no dispute that the only reason the second Dan Sullivan is running is to pull votes away in a confusing and inappropriate manner from the Dan Sullivan incumbent,” Blanche said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Host Margaret Brennan pushed back, explaining that “Dan S. Sullivan” is clearly listed on the ballot as the incumbent while his opponent is listed without a party affiliation as “Dan J. Sullivan.” She also pointed out that early voting began in the state on Oct. 19.

The Alaska Supreme Court had already settled the issue in June, ordering that both Sullivans be placed on the August primary ballot.

Alaska’s senior Republican senator, Lisa Murkowsi, who frequently breaks with Trump, criticized his administration on Friday for filing the lawsuit. “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” she said.

Peltola, who narrowly leads Sullivan, according to MS NOW polling partner FiftyPlusOne, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace over the weekend that “this is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of.”

The post ‘Could be a crime’: Todd Blanche doubles down on Alaska lawsuit appeared first on MS NOW.

In a seismic political shift, Serbia's longtime strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat to a student-led opposition movement in the country's parliamentary elections.

Democrats across battleground districts are holding Republicans’ feet to the fire over the Medicaid cuts in their signature One Big Beautiful Bill law.  In advertisements and on debate stages, the Democrats are hammering their opponents over their support for a law that will reduce Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion to pay for tax cuts primarily…

JERUSALEM — He serves a mostly ceremonial role. But in a matter of days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will wield significant power as he decides which political party will have the first chance to build a government — a move that could determine the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an exclusive interview with MS NOW, Herzog said he would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump to benefit his friend Netanyahu, whom Trump endorsed last week.

“I don’t think the president of the United States or anybody else can intervene in my discretion — the discretion has to be based on certain facts, and we will see what the facts are,” said Herzog. “There will be a lot of pressure, though, regardless.”

Herzog said he has “huge respect” for Trump and welcomes any dialogue, but the decision will be his, and his alone.

“I know how to deliberate with him or any other world leader,” he said. “It’s Israel’s democracy and Israel’s constitution, and that’s what counts for me.”

On Sunday, Trump re-upped his endorsement of the Israeli prime minister on Truth Social, writing, “As everyone is aware, including the enemy, Bibi and I have a great relationship in winning together.”

“We have to finish the job that we started!” Trump concluded.

With final election polling showing neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor challenger Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party likely to win outright, an initial round of coalition building will likely ensue to reach the 61-seat majority threshold of the Knesset, Israel’s 120-seat Parliament.

The decision of who gets the first crack at that is one that weighs on Herzog.

“It’s going to be very delicate,” Herzog said, noting the leading candidates’ public commitments not to align with certain factions. “So it’s really an open game, especially if the results are going to be close.”

With a diverse set of parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, Eisenkot faces an uphill battle to solve the math problem of reaching a majority: He has ruled out including both the Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties in any government he leads.

Arab Israelis make up about 21% of the country’s population, but politicians vying to become prime minister have long excluded them from being part of the ruling government.

Though he noted Arab parties are “part and parcel of Israeli democracy,” Herzog wouldn’t say whether they belong in Israeli leadership.

“There’s a question about what happens if you have to take decisions now about war and peace, and this is the issue at stake in the political discussion and the decisions of the voters,” he said.

Herzog repeatedly said he would do whatever is within his power to avoid sending Israeli voters back to the polls for more rounds of elections — including pushing for a national unity government that would include both Netanyahu and Eisenkot, while excluding leaders from extremist parties.

“I don’t know if it’s feasible,” he conceded, noting the overall process could take long, drawn-out weeks. What that could mean for the Iran war, which Trump has hinted at restarting after the U.S. midterms, is unclear.

“I hope now there’s either negotiations or again a flaring up of the military escalation,” Herzog said, adding the decision is up to the negotiators, militaries and the U.S. president.

In the closing days of the election, the devolving situation in the West Bank has been at the forefront, highlighting the contrast between Netanyahu, who has repeatedly ignored violence against Palestinians, and Eisenkot, who has pledged to get tough on rising attacks, which have led to international condemnation and threats of sanctions.

But Herzog took exception with blaming Israeli settlers for violence in the West Bank, instead insisting the recent increase is the result of a small group of violent people “that everybody has to crack down on.”

“I can attest to the fact that strict decisions were taken by all relevant authorities, including the Israeli Security Cabinet, to that effect to crack down on this phenomena, and you will see more and more results, I hope, in the near future,” Herzog said, adding, “It’s despicable, it’s outrageous. We should take all necessary steps to arrest all of them.”

Herzog condemned a terror attack on Friday in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron, prompting Netanyahu’s office to instruct security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full closure of the West Bank.

“We have to fight terror without any limitations, subject of course to the law, and we have to crack down on all this violence so that we contain it fully,” he said.

Given his pivotal role in the outcome of Israel’s elections, Herzog has refused to wade into key electoral issues, including — and especially — holding Netanyahu accountable.

Last November, Trump wrote to Herzog urging him to “fully pardon” Netanyahu, who was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

At the time, Herzog’s office responded that he held Trump in the highest regard but that anyone seeking a pardon had to submit a formal request.

Herzog, the eleventh president of Israel and who has been in office since July 2021, is predicting “huge turnout” and is confident in the integrity of Israel’s elections, which he says will determine the course of the country’s debate over the independence of the judicial system and Israel’s borders.

“Israel is an incredible democracy,” Herzog said. “It’s a source of dignity and pride to all those who love to bash at us and criticize us and attack us day in, day out without knowing that we are the only democracy in this region and we protect the free world.”

The post Herzog reaffirms independence of Israeli elections amid Trump push for Netanyahu appeared first on MS NOW.

If Democrats win the House, and possibly the Senate, a result nonpartisan analysts call plausible, they would gain the power to bring new Ukraine aid to a vote and to push back on President Donald Trump’s deals easing pressure on Russia, Reuters reports in an analysis of how US foreign policy could shift.

The stakes are concrete. Trump has largely halted direct US aid to Ukraine, which lawmakers of both parties had backed, and its current supplies run from packages passed under his predecessor.

Weeks ago, he also waived the sanctions on Russian energy that Congress had written into law and struck a deal to bring Russian diesel back to the market, angering Republicans and Democrats alike.

What a Democratic Congress could do for Ukraine

With both chambers, Democrats could put new Ukraine aid on the floor, and given the bipartisan support such aid has drawn, it could pass with the two-thirds majorities needed to override a Trump veto.

Other steps could be taken, too. Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, in line to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee if his party wins control, has already introduced bipartisan legislation to block Trump’s plan to return Russian diesel to the global market.

Democrats are also readier than Trump’s Republicans to rein in military spending. They blocked his request for an unprecedented 67% rise in the military budget, to $1.5 trillion, in the Senate, and many say they will try to restore the foreign aid he has withheld or canceled.

The limits of a slice of power

The leverage has limits. Even with both chambers, Democrats would still face a president who can veto, and overriding him would require two-thirds of each chamber. The pattern has already been visible in Iran: Trump launched that war on 28 February without congressional approval, and when a War Powers resolution passed with a handful of Republican votes, his administration ignored it.

The US midterms could restore Ukraine’s American aid and curb Trump’s Russia deals, if Democrats win Congress

When Bill Gates and Warren Buffett cornered the candy market, questions were raised. Now we know why they were so laser-focused on buying out the industry. As Halloween approaches, a horrifying trend has emerged. The [...]

The post Bill Gates Insider: ‘Poisoned’ Halloween Candy Will Kill Millions of Kids in ‘Blood Sacrifice’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

The Iranian Army said on Sunday that its forces shot down a US LUCAS drone over the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, an incident that comes as the US and Israel appear poised to launch another round of major strikes against Iran. So far, the US hasn’t confirmed losing a LUCAS and hasn’t […]

Making innocent protesters liable for damage would be bad for rule of law and play into far-right hands, say opponents

Emmanuel Macron has been accused by trade unions of trying to curb the fundamental French right to protest as the government fast-tracks a bill to make protesters pay for damage caused by vandalism at street demonstrations even if they did not directly cause it themselves.

The French president, who leaves office next spring, has faced more than a month of protests in which high-school students have blockaded schools demanding a response to teacher absences, repairs to decrepit buildings and changes to the university applications platform.

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© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

President Trump on Sunday blasted Fox News for giving too much airtime to Democratic candidates ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that the network’s coverage was bringing too much attention to Republican opponents that could hurt them in tight races. “FoxNews is spending far too much time putting on the OPPONENTS of Republican Party Candidates,…