President Trump hopes to soon make good on a promise to bring peace to Europe, and Gov. Ron DeSantis wants lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence.
A renewed U.S. push to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is gathering momentum, although some of the key issues remain unresolved, officials said Tuesday.
The update was issued hours after Russia launched a wave of overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with at least seven people killed in strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure. A Ukrainian attack on southern Russia killed three people and damaged homes, authorities said.
“I think we’re getting very close to a deal. We’ll find out,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon, during the annual White House event to issue ceremonial pardons to turkeys. He added, “I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”
Earlier Tuesday morning, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media that the U.S. had made “tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table.”
“There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary, said that Ukrainian and U.S. delegations had agreed to “core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.
“We look forward to organizing a visit of Ukraine’s president to the U.S. at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump.”
Trump’s plan for ending the nearly four-year war emerged last week. It heavily favored Russia, prompting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to quickly engage with American negotiators.
European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression but apparently sidelined by Trump in drawing up the proposals, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday peace efforts are gathering momentum and “are clearly at a crucial juncture.”
“Negotiations are getting a new impetus. And we should seize this momentum,” he said during a video conference meeting of countries, led by France and the United Kingdom, that could help police any ceasefire with Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said of the talks: “I do think we are moving in a positive direction and indications today that in large part the majority of the text, (Zelenskyy) is indicating, can be accepted.”
Zelenskyy said late Monday that “the list of necessary steps to end the war can become workable.”
He said that he planned to discuss “sensitive” outstanding issues with Trump.
Umerov, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, posted on X on Tuesday that Zelenskyy hoped to finalize a deal with Trump “at the earliest suitable date in November.”
Russian officials have been reserved in their comments on the peace plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is in touch with U.S. officials about peace efforts.
“We expect them to provide us with a version they consider an interim one in terms of completing the phase of coordinating this text with the Europeans and the Ukrainians,” Lavrov said.
European leaders have cautioned that the road to peace will be long.
Florida lawmakers will consider AI regulation
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump have very different views when it comes to regulating — or not regulating — artificial intelligence.
The president is reportedly considering an executive order to ban states from independently regulating AI.
“We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race,” he posted on Truth Social.
DeSantis, however, wants to do just that.
“Denying the people the ability to channel these technologies…via self-government constitutes federal government overreach and lets technology companies run wild,” DeSantis said. “We’re having this debate about artificial intelligence and, you know, the rise of this and everything like that. And, you know, don’t let anyone tell you, whoever’s saying how great it’s going to be, there’s going to be big pitfalls, too.”
So, Florida lawmakers plan to discuss next month the good, bad and ugly realities of AI, with an eye toward legislating the technology.
“We as a government, we as a people just need to take a real look at what is acceptable, what can we do to put in some guardrails so that it isn’t as misleading, or misrepresenting as, as a nefarious party might want,” State Rep. Alex Rizzo (R-Hialeah) said.