Putin Seeks End to War, Without Zelenskyy – The Tuesday AM Quickie 10/20/26
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ON THE SHOW TODAY
10/20: Sam and Emma are hosting today and they have two guests, Amira Boland and Tara McGuinness, who will join to discuss their contribution to Just Security’s Reinvention Blueprints series, “A Government That Works for People.” Amira Boland is the chief of staff of the New Practice Lab and was the first-ever lead for federal customer experience at the Office of Management and Budget. Tara McGuinness is the founder of the New Practice Lab and co-author of Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology.
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Today you’ll read about the UN decision to cut off food aid to starving people in Gaza; how big tech’s “safety measures” for children don’t provide much safety; and Alberta’s decision to reject a separatist referendum and remain part of Canada.
THE BIG NEWS
Putin Seeks End to War, Without Zelenskyy
Remember last Monday, when we talked about Trump’s shocking deal with aspiring tsar Vladimir Putin to lift sanctions on Russia and buy a nominal amount of that nation’s diesel? Trump and Putin struck that deal over the phone, which news outlets said yesterday included another element that had not yet been reported. According to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, Putin proposed that he, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping get together next month, when they’re all in Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. That way, they can discuss “the matter of the war in Ukraine, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”
The meeting is only hypothetical, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. But Trump told reporters yesterday he would participate, though, according to Politico, he said the purpose would be to discuss denuclearization. “I would do it, not so much for Ukraine,” said the convicted felon who is the US president. “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They have not been doing much. And the same thing with China. We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons, denuclearization. And anytime I can have a meeting on denuclearization.” Is he lying? Does he not know? Does he not know because he has a demented Swiss cheese brain and forgot? Many possibilities in 2026 America.
Putin has proposed meeting privately with Trump and Xi before, but he has new hope now because Trump is giving him things he wants; the WSJ reported that the meeting “would be unprecedented and send alarm bells ringing in European capitals and beyond.”
The alarms are already going off in Ukraine, where foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said that excluding the country from a discussion would only encourage Putin to prolong the war. Ukrainians are continuing to fight back, as the story below shows.