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High-levels talks of U.S. aid to Ukraine, followed by Neil Young guitar riffs in a Kyiv bar

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High-levels talks of U.S. aid to Ukraine, followed by Neil Young guitar riffs in a Kyiv bar

Even as fierce new clashes erupt, one of Ukraine’s toughest fights these days is taking place off the battlefield: persuading allies that its outgunned, outnumbered army can ultimately prevail, and that billions of dollars in Western military assistance is money well spent.

President Volodymyr Zelensky made that case Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who was visiting Kyiv for the first time since April’s long-delayed congressional approval of a $61 billion weapons package — perhaps the last major American assistance for some time to come.

The two met as Ukraine was attempting to fend off a Russian cross-border onslaught that began last week in the country’s northeast, the most concerted push of its kind since the early days of the war, which set off street-by-street fighting near the frontier and forced thousands of civilians to flee relentless bombardment.

Despite the war’s grim backdrop, Blinken sought a few moments away from staid diplomacy.

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After a day of meetings, the 62-year-old secretary of State, whose Instagram bio identifies him as a “(very) amateur guitarist,” hit a popular Kyiv nightspot to play rhythm guitar with a local band. The song selection: Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, he also lunched at a pizza parlor owned and operated by military veterans.

But the tone of the day’s talks was undeniably somber.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, center, surrounded by security officers, walks in Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

(Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press)

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“We know this is a challenging time,” Blinken told Zelensky. Arriving U.S. military aid, he said, is “going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield.”

Zelensky replied with thanks for the new weaponry already beginning to reach Ukraine — coupled with familiar pleas for additional help.

“People are under attack — civilians, warriors, everybody,” the Ukrainian leader said, asking for two Patriot air-defense batteries to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which lies only a few dozen miles from the latest Russian onslaught.

Analysts said if Russia advances farther in Kharkiv province, it will again place the city of more than 1.3 million people, already pummeled by Russian missiles and so-called glide bombs, within range of punishing artillery barrages.

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In some ways, the Blinken visit pointed up the same delicate line Zelensky has trod since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago: impressing upon Western partners that Ukraine’s military needs are urgent and dire, and at the same time asserting that the fight is not a hopeless one.

And even while thanking Western governments for support, Zelensky bluntly declared that delays — whether bureaucratic holdups or political disputes such as the GOP infighting that blocked U.S. assistance for six months — translate directly into loss of civilian and military lives.

“We need to significantly speed up the supply process,” the Ukrainian leader said in an address to compatriots on Tuesday night. “Currently, the time gap between the announcement of packages and the actual appearance of weapons on the front line is too large.”

Blinken had a nuanced message to deliver as well: looking ahead to the day that Ukraine “stands strongly on its own feet militarily, but also economically and democratically” — suggesting that even unstinting support cannot continue indefinitely.

Dignitaries’ war-zone visits like these are commonplace, but traveling to the Ukrainian capital is still dangerous enough that such visits are not announced in advance. It’s not possible to fly in to Kyiv; Blinken arrived via overnight train from Poland.

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At the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, newly sworn in for an essentially uncontested fifth term in office, was busy signaling his intent to pursue his war aims for as long as necessary.

Over the weekend, the Kremlin announced the appointment of a new defense minister — an economist, Andrei Belousov, who will be tasked with harnessing the power of Russia’s military-industrial complex to sustain the fight.

Putin is also traveling this week to Beijing for a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping, at which he is expected to press for a continuation of the partnership that has helped the Kremlin escape the effects of Western wartime sanctions, reap robust oil and gas revenues and obtain needed technology and spare parts — though China does not directly supply Russia with weapons.

For all of the solidarity Blinken extended to Zelensky, Ukraine is keenly aware that in a U.S. election year, backing for the war amounts to a significant expenditure of political capital.

Other major Western allies are also calibrating their own longer-term plans for Ukraine with an eye to November’s U.S. election.

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Britain was attempting to smooth over a flap that arose over Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s recent pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, former President Trump’s Florida resort. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper reported over the weekend that Cameron had made the case to Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, that aid to Ukraine now would set favorable terms for Trump to swiftly negotiate a peace deal if he regained office.

The British defense secretary, Grant Shapps, clarified in a radio interview Tuesday that Britain would not try to force Ukraine to accept a peace treaty that entailed a loss of territory.

Ukraine garnered additional support Tuesday from France, whose government on Tuesday announced that unspecified new military aid would be arriving soon, following a phone conversation between Zelensky and President Emmanuel Macron.

Ukraine is also hoping to gain pledges of ongoing support at a peace summit in Switzerland next month — to which Russia has not been invited — and at gatherings this summer, including a NATO summit in July in Washington, marking the alliance’s 75th birthday.

For the government in Kyiv, though, the short-term picture is clouded. Russia has deployed about 2,000 troops in a drive toward the Kharkiv province town of Vovchansk, according to Ukrainian military officials.

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The Russian forces were making “tactically significant advances” in what appeared to be an attempt to establish a buffer zone along the frontier north of Kharkiv city, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

Ukraine is already struggling to hold key positions in the country’s east, and analysts have said the Russian push in Kharkiv could divert troops needed to blunt advances elsewhere. Ukraine’s general staff on Tuesday reported two dozen separate attacks in the partly Russian-occupied Donetsk province.

The regional governor, Oleh Sinegubov, said on Ukrainian television that the latest fighting in the northeast had set off street-to-street battles on the outskirts of Vovchansk, the largest town in the area, most of whose inhabitants have fled.

The governor reported two deaths in the latest shelling, and the evacuation of more than 7,500 civilians.

The nation’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said he expected the border situation in Kharviv province to stabilize — but speaking on Ukrainian television, he warned of a new Russian buildup, in the Sumy region to the north.

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That could set off a similar scenario to that in Kharkiv: Ukrainian forces stretched even thinner.

“The situation is under control,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. But he added: “Everything is quite tense.”

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Socialism goes west as DSA-backed challenger ousts longtime Democrat

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Socialism goes west as DSA-backed challenger ousts longtime Democrat

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Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a 30-year incumbent, lost to a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed challenger in a high-profile primary on Tuesday evening.

Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old socialist, defeated DeGette in a Democratic primary for a deep-blue House seat anchored in Denver, according to The Associated Press, scoring a major victory for the socialist left on Tuesday evening.

The DSA had been aiming to cast DeGette’s loss as evidence of its growing momentum after a slate of socialist candidates won Democratic primaries in New York City last week.

“Today, the East Coast, next week the Mountain West,” the DSA wrote in a social media post last week.

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Rep. Diana DeGette speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2024. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

SOCIALISTS CHEER ‘SHOCKWAVE’ PRIMARY NIGHT AS DSA-BACKED CANDIDATES WIN, ADVANCE ACROSS THE MAP

If elected in November, Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, will likely join the ranks of the far-left group known as the Squad and become one of a handful of the House chamber’s outspoken socialists. 

The millennial challenger was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the anti-incumbent leftist organization Justice Democrats. Controversial socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has said Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and praised the Chinese Communist Party, also backed Kiros’ insurgent primary run.

DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sought to win a 16th House term by flexing her leftist bona fides. She argued her seniority on an influential House committee would allow her to push for Medicare-for-All legislation — a longtime priority of the party’s far-left flank.

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DeGette, who was endorsed by former CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also spotlighted her experience as an impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021.

Though DeGette and Kiros shared few policy disagreements, they diverged sharply over Israel and antisemitism. Kiros also sharply criticized DeGette for accepting corporate PAC contributions.

Kiros, a PhD student and lawyer, was fired from a New York firm in 2023 after publishing an open letter, arguing that pro-Palestinian student protesters calling for the elimination of Israel were not antisemitic and appearing to defend Hamas.

Melat Kiros participated in a League of Women Voters Congressional District 1 candidate forum at Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver on May 28, 2026. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post)

WATCH: HOUSE DEMS UNLOAD ON TEXAS DEMOCRAT OVER ‘DEMENTED’ ANTISEMITIC COMMENTS

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She has also described the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against the Jewish state as the “inevitable consequence of apartheid” and declined to characterize the deadly firebombing of protesters in Boulder last year who were urging the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as antisemitic. 

“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros told Colorado’s 9News in a recent television interview. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.”

A June 2025 bipartisan resolution condemning the attack as part of a “rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals” won every present lawmaker’s support, except for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted present.

Kiros has also suggested the United States deserved 9/11.

“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East that forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response,” Kiros told 9News when asked if she thought the terror attack was “the inevitable consequence of American foreign policy.”

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“And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros continued.

DeGette argued that Kiros’ embrace of Piker and her comments about antisemitism and 9/11 were disqualifying. 

“I’m shocked and disgusted that Kiros is doubling down on excusing terrorism and the murder of innocent people,” the 30-year incumbent wrote on Facebook earlier this month.

Streamer and creator Hasan Piker speaks at a press conference during day two of Web Summit Vancouver at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13, 2026. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)

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Colorado’s 1st Congressional District is the most liberal seat in the state and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 56 points in 2024.

The primary fight was further scrambled by University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, also running for DeGette’s seat. Though James did not pose the same threat as Kiros, her vote share could ultimately have swayed the contest. 

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Newsom signs off on 100% California tax for money from Trump’s $1.8-billion ‘slush fund’

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Newsom signs off on 100% California tax for money from Trump’s .8-billion ‘slush fund’

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed off on a 100% state tax on money any Californians receive from Trump’s $1.8-billion “anti-weaponization” fund for his political allies.

Newsom unveiled his proposal in May, after Trump’s Justice Department said it would create a fund to compensate Trump’s allies who claim they have “suffered weaponization and lawfare” under Biden’s Justice Department.

The settlement fund was criticized by politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who described it as a “slush fund to pay people who assault cops.”

The fund remains in legal limbo. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Virginia extended a court-ordered block on the plan, which critics warned could be used to pay pardoned Jan. 6 rioters.

Fast-tracked into law as part of Senate Bill 122, Newsom’s plan imposes “a tax on any settlement fund payment from the federal Anti-Weaponization Fund, or any subsequent fund, settlement, or agreement, as provided, at a rate of 100%,” according to the bill text. The tax applies to all tax years between 2026 and 2030.

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Newsom signed the bill Tuesday. In a statement, his office said the tax is meant to ensure that, should Trump’s fund proceed, California recipients won’t “receive favorable state treatment on those payments.”

“We believe democracy is worth defending, the rule of law matters, and public dollars should support victims—not those who attacked the very institutions that protect our freedoms,” Newsom said in the statement.

University of Southern California law professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, an expert on tax law and policy, said that while Newsom’s tax is a “novel legal strategy,” she believes there is “no categorical legal restriction” preventing California from implementing it.

States have a “wide degree of discretion” to design their tax systems — including how they define income — so long as they do not violate their constitutions, Jurow Kleiman said.

If a California resident wanted to challenge the tax in court, they would need to show they were harmed by it to have standing to sue, according to Jurow Kleiman. That would mean receiving a payment from Trump’s settlement fund and then paying the 100% California tax. Unless the settlement fund is established and distributes payments, that scenario is unlikely.

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While there have been proposals to levy a 100% tax on income above certain thresholds — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2023 said he supports a 100% tax on income exceeding $1 billion — Jurow Kleiman said she is not aware of any governments that have adopted such a policy.

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Congress eyes rare bipartisan housing win with or without Trump’s help

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Congress eyes rare bipartisan housing win with or without Trump’s help

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The House has officially shipped a colossal bipartisan housing package to President Donald Trump, and lawmakers are hoping that, at the very least, he doesn’t veto it.

Trump was supposed to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act last week, but his last-minute decision to ghost the signing ceremony with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put into question whether the bill was dead.

His refusal to sign the bill, which passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in both chambers, was to leverage the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which doesn’t currently have the votes to succeed in the Senate.

WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON

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Trump has refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump appears to be in no hurry to sign the bill, despite Republicans who are hungry for a win in the affordability fight ahead of the midterm elections.

“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”

“Here’s what I would like to sign, much more than a bill that — big deal, it’s a yawn,” he continued. “Some people say it’s wonderful. To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”

GOP INFIGHTING OVER TRUMP’S VOTER ID BILL ERUPTS AS TOP SENATOR CALLS STRATEGY ‘FANTASY’

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It’s legislation that is loaded with nearly 60 provisions from both sides of the aisle in both chambers that’s designed to make it easier for homes to be built and for younger Americans to buy their first home. It also includes a ban on hedge funds buying up housing stock that Trump pushed Congress to include during the State of the Union earlier this year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the architects behind the bill in the upper chamber alongside Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., charged that Congress handed the bill to Trump “on a silver platter.”

“When you ask me what happens next, if he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damned thing, and we’d be underway,” Warren said on WCVB’s “On the Record” on Sunday.

But Trump doesn’t have to put his signature on the bill for it to become law.

IRATE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF HANDING DEMOCRATS A WIN AFTER BLOWING UP HOUSING PACKAGE

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The Senate advanced a massive, Trump-backed housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Constitution grants presidents the ability to veto a bill within 10 days of it being transferred over to the White House. In that scenario, Congress could override a veto of the housing package.

It’s happened before under the Trump administration. In early 2021, Congress overrode Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act — a massive Pentagon funding authorization package that some House Republicans are trying to use as a vehicle to pass the SAVE America Act.

But during that 10-day period, if Trump doesn’t sign the bill, it would automatically become law. That’s unless Congress completely adjourns, in which case a “pocket veto” could happen. The Senate is currently in recess and the House is scheduled to leave town by week’s end, but neither count as a full adjournment.

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Johnson, who spent the last few days meeting with Trump at the White House about the housing bill and the SAVE America Act, said: “I hope he does sign it.”

“If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said. “We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively. And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”

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