Washington
Chris Mason: Joe Biden and Keir Starmer try to second guess Putin
In the hours before the prime minister was taken by motorcade to the White House, he and his team were in a secure room at the nearby British Embassy.
This is a room designed for conversations spies are not meant to hear, however sophisticated their techniques for eavesdropping and intercepting digital exchanges.
The Downing Street team were talking to British government staff in Ukraine and Russia, assembling their briefing and approach for their forthcoming conversation with President Biden.
They arrived at the White House in the late afternoon Washington time, the president showing Sir Keir Starmer around the Rose Garden before heading for the Blue Room.
On each side of a long rectangular table, the two delegations, the prime minister and president with seven colleagues each alongside them.
For just a few minutes, we reporters were invited in too.
Warm words from the leaders followed by loud questions and prompt ejection for the journalists.
What followed was about 90 minutes of conversation in private.
Ukraine dominated, but not to the exclusion of other issues – not least the Middle East, China and Iran.
Downing Street had sought in advance to portray this as an opportunity for a deeper conversation than the usual round of international summits often allow.
But why bother when President Biden is soon to be yesterday’s man, out of office, power and influence in four months time?
The urgency of the issues on the table, I am told.
Take Ukraine: an ally of both the UK and the US, still in desperate need of ongoing help as its friends weigh up how best to provide it – and at what cost.
The UK has been “forward facing” as it was put to me in making the case to others to agree to Kyiv’s request to be allowed to fire western missiles into Russia.
President Biden is sceptical, fearful it could drag America and Europe into direct conflict with Moscow.
That is just what Vladimir Putin has been hinting at in the last few days.
Then again his sabre rattling in the past hasn’t come to much, so perhaps it wouldn’t again?
But maybe, this time, it would.
Diplomacy and intelligence turning to the psychology of a leader at war, attempting to second guess how he might react.
Would he really contemplate a military attack on a Nato member state – with the frightening potential of hauling the whole western alliance into war with Russia?
And, if not that, would Ukraine’s allies stomach lower level aggression in retaliation, such as cyber attacks or damaging sub-sea communication cables?
There was little expectation this meeting would resolve the question about western missiles, not least because further conversations with others at the United Nations are expected shortly.
Afterwards, the prime minister wouldn’t be drawn on whether he had persuaded the president to change his mind.
This is a conflict without obvious end which presents too no end of thorny dilemmas based around a recurring theme: how to defeat Russia without provoking Moscow.
What could be the consequences of action?
And what could be the consequences of inaction?
It is the essence of the West’s challenge since the full scale invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago.
A famous D.C. mural is coming down.
Ben’s Chili Bowl announced Wednesday that their famed mural, featured outside of the restaurant’s U Street location, will be replaced.
The mural, originally painted Aniekan Udofia in 2017, features icons like Barack and Michelle Obama, Muhammed Ali, Prince, Chuck Brown and News4’s Jim Vance.
Ben’s Chili Bowl says it’s being replaced due to weathering.
The original mural received over 30,000 votes on who should be featured. And, the restaurant is once again asking customers to vote on who they want to see on the new mural.
News4 asked customers Wednesday who they would want to see on the new mural.
“It hurts a little bit because it’s been there, I think kinda, you know, it tells a story for real. I think we can always update and add people, but I like the ones who are on there for sure,” D.C. resident Rasheed Shaw told News4.
“That definitely represents, you know, the community itself. Shout out to Jim Vance,” he said.
After undergoing renovations for the past year, the restaurant is set to reopen on May 1.
Ideas for the new mural can be submitted until May 10 on the restaurant’s website.
Washington
Pulitzer-winning Washington Post editor Dan Eggen found dead at 60 after being laid-off earlier this year
Veteran Washington Post editor Dan Eggen — a key architect of the paper’s political coverage who was laid off in a brutal round of cuts earlier this year — was found dead at his home in the nation’s capital on Tuesday. He was 60.
No foul play or violence were suspected in the death, local authorities told Eggen’s family, according to WaPo. The cause of death was pending an autopsy as of Wednesday morning.
Eggen spent nearly three decades at the paper, helping steer its reporting on the White House, Congress and presidential campaigns. He was on a team that won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for investigating the plotters behind 9/11, going on to work on projects that won the most prestigious award in journalism in 2016, for reporting on Russian election interference, and in 2022, for exploring the previous year’s attack on the US Capitol.
A fixture of the newsroom’s most sensitive coverage, Eggen was “a sharp editor with a keen story sense,” the Post’s executive editor Matt Murray told staff.
“Dan was involved in hiring, editing and mentoring dozens of politics writers across the years,” he wrote, adding that Eggen’s “news muscle and instincts were integral to our coverage.”
At the time of his death, Eggen was set to start a new job at NOTUS, a recently launched, DC-based outlet that’s been scooping up laid-off WaPo staffers.
“We hired Dan to join us at NOTUS after some of the best reporters in DC told us he was the best editor they’d ever had,” the site’s editor in chief Tim Grieve wrote on X. “We were excited to have him here, and I think he was equally excited to be coming here. Deepest condolences to everyone who loved him.”
Josh Dawsey, a Wall Street Journal reporter who previously covered the White House for the Washington Post, recalled Eggen’s relentless work ethic. The late journalist “worked seven days a week, 14 hours a day” and was “incredibly dedicated, a wonderful line editor” who pushed reporters to improve, Dawsey told WaPo.
“I viewed him as one of the true beating hearts of the newsroom … Dan is one of those people who make the newspaper work,” he added.
Ashley Parker, a former White House reporter for the Washington Post who has since decamped to The Atlantic, remembered Eggen as a deeply collaborative editor who empowered his staff, saying he “was the rare editor who believed in his reporters” and “changed only 10 percent of your copy but made it 90 percent better.”
Eggen began his WaPo career as a metro reporter and covered the post-9/11 Justice Department before becoming an editor.
He is survived by two children from his ex-wife, journalist Stephanie Armour, and a sister, according to WaPo.
The Post has sought comment from local police.
Incidents like the one in 2023 along the Baltimore Beltway — a crash that killed six highway workers — are the reason why officials gathered to stress the need for better work zone safety during National Work Zone Awareness Week.
This week, officials, workers and residents are calling for safer roads as they say there is still more work to be done when it comes to safety.
“It’s about understanding that each of us has a role to play in the safety and protection of one another,” William Pines from the Maryland State Highway Administration said.
With an active construction site as the backdrop — at the interchange between Pennsylvania Avenue and Suitland Parkway — roadway workers spoke up.
“We are not just workers, we are people — real people. We are parents, siblings, friends and neighbors. So when you see us out there, please pay attention to that.” Dawn Hopkins with Flagger Force Traffic Control Services said.
Hopkins says she’s had to sound an alarm to get her crew out of dangerous situations.
“Please slow down, stay alert…and watch out for us in the workzones,” Hopkins added.
While the number of crashes in Maryland work zones in 2025 remains concerning, it is lower than in 2024. In 2025, there were:
- 1,148 work zone crashes
- 9 work zone deaths
- 449 injuries
In 2024, there were:
- 1,302 work zone crashes,
- 12 work zone deaths, and
- 492 injuries
“While citations are down, we still had 19 citations that were issues where the automated system recorded drivers traveling in excess of 130 miles an hour in work zones,” Pines said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has proclaimed April 22 as “Go Orange Day” in Maryland, urging everyone to wear orange in support of highway worker safety.
A moment of silence for road workers who have been killed will be observed at noon this Friday.
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