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Two US National Guard soldiers were critically wounded Wednesday in a targeted shooting near the White House — an extraordinary security incident fueling controversy over President Donald Trump’s nationwide crime crackdown.There was no immediate clue to the motive.Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called it “a targeted shooting” by a single gunman.”That individual has been taken into custody,” she said.Both soldiers — part of a militarized anti-crime deployment around the United States ordered by Trump — were in “critical condition,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.Earlier, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey mistakenly said the soldiers, both deployed to the capital from his state, had died.It was the most serious incident involving the National Guard since Trump began ordering troops onto the streets of several Democratic-run cities shortly after starting his second term this January.The Republican, who was at his Florida golf club, described the shooter as an “animal.”The suspect “is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Ambushed’ -The shootings took place at the Farragut West metro station two blocks from the White House and in mid-afternoon, when the streets and nearby businesses were packed.Jeffery Carroll, assistant chief of the Washington police, said the gunman “ambushed” his victims.He “came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged at the National Guard members.””He was quickly taken into custody by other National Guard members and law enforcement.”An AFP reporter near the scene heard several loud pops and saw people running.Dozens of bystanders were caught up in the chaos.”We heard gunshots. We were waiting at the traffic light and there were several shots,” said Angela Perry, 42, who was driving home with her two children. “You could see National Guard running toward the metro with their weapons drawn.”Soon after the shootings, security agents flooded the area. Officers carrying rifles stood guard behind yellow tape at the perimeter of the area and a helicopter circled over the busy downtown.An AFP reporter saw emergency crews running toward the metro with a wheeled stretcher and shortly after emerging with a casualty wearing camouflage whom they loaded into an ambulance.– Troops controversy –The government buildings of downtown Washington are heavily guarded, but much of the city has suffered from years of sometimes serious street crime.Trump made Washington a showcase for his decision to order National Guard soldiers, in camouflage and occasionally carrying rifles, to patrol streets of cities run by Democratic mayors, also including Los Angeles and Memphis.In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, adding up to 2,500.”This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, DC safe and beautiful,” Hegseth said.The policy has prompted bitter complaints from local officials who accuse Trump of stoking tensions, while the deployments are the subject of numerous court challenges.Last Thursday a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in the US capital is unlawful.Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, told CNN that the soldiers are not trained for law enforcement.”That adds, I think, a real wild card element to this thing. We don’t really know how those folks would respond if confronted with a violent incident on the street with an armed person.”

The Dominican Republic said Wednesday it will allow the United Sates to use an air base and airport as part of its controversial operations against alleged drug traffickers that have killed more than 80 people so far.The announcement came during a visit by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Santo Domingo, as the United States seeks to ramp up pressure on leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accuses of heading a drug cartel.”We have authorized the United States, for a limited time, to use restricted areas at the San Isidro Air Base and the Las Americas International Airport for logistical operations of aircraft,” including refueling and the transport of equipment and personnel, President Luis Abinader told a news conference.Hegseth, who spoke alongside the Dominican leader, confirmed the “temporary deployment of US service members and aircraft,” saying Washington is “deadly serious” about the counter-narcotics mission.”In waging this war on narco-terrorists, we’re willing to go on the offense, go on the offense in a way that changes the dynamic for the entire region, and we think can bring safety, stability and security to our partners,” Hegseth said.”We must meet narco-terrorists and their illegal activities with strength and swift action. It’s the only language they understand,” he added.- Major military buildup -The visit came after the United States designated an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel, Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), as a foreign terrorist organization, which gives President Donald Trump’s administration legal cover for more action against Venezuelan authorities.The United States began carrying out strikes on alleged drug smugglers — which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers — in early September, and has now destroyed more than 20 vessels it says were used for trafficking.But Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the United States.Trump has deployed the world’s biggest aircraft carrier and 10 other ships to the Caribbean — a huge force for a mission to counter traffickers — and Washington has also carried out multiple shows of force with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast.Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Maduro accusing Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas to seize Venezuelan oil.Maduro insists there is no drug cultivation in Venezuela, which he says is used as a trafficking route for Colombian cocaine against its will.The Dominican Republic has already been cooperating with the US anti-drug operations.Authorities in the country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, announced earlier this month that they had seized about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of cocaine from a boat intercepted during a joint operation with US forces.

A US judge on Wednesday ended the long-running case accusing Donald Trump and his allies of trying to overturn the 2020 election — bringing the curtain down on the final criminal prosecution still shadowing the president’s return to power.The ruling followed a forceful push from prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who urged Judge Scott McAfee to shut the Georgia case down, arguing it belonged in federal hands, not state courts. With that, the only remaining legal front in the sprawling battle over Trump’s post-election conduct fell away.”LAW and JUSTICE have prevailed in the Great State of Georgia,” Trump posted as he celebrated the ruling on Truth Social.He called the case an “Illegal, Unconstitutional, and unAmerican Hoax” — although several codefendants were convicted — and said it should have “never been brought” in a lengthy statement that repeated his false claims that the election was rigged. The Republican president faced a slew of federal charges following his first term in office, including conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hoarding allegedly classified documents that the government said should not have been removed from the White House..Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped both cases following Trump’s election, citing the Justice Department’s policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.”Indeed, if Special Counsel Jack Smith, with all the resources of the federal government at his disposal… concluded that prosecution would be fruitless, then I too find that, despite the available evidence, pursuing the prosecution of all those involved in State of Georgia v. Donald Trump, et al. on essentially federal grounds would be equally unproductive,” Skandalakis wrote in his filing.He also pointed out that prosecuting a sitting president in Georgia is nearly impossible and that without Trump, the trial would be unworkable for the remaining 14 defendants. McAfee immediately granted the motion to dismiss the case.- ‘On life support’ -Trump and 18 codefendants were charged with racketeering and other offenses in Georgia in 2023 over their alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election in the southern state.The indictment alleged efforts to persuade state officials to “find” votes to reverse Trump’s narrow loss to Joe Biden, pressure election workers, and install false Trump electors. Four of those indicted subsequently admitted lesser charges.A Georgia appeals court in December disqualified Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis from the case over a relationship she had with the man she had hired to be a special prosecutor.Trump has granted pardons to several allies accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election, but the pardons only apply to federal crimes, not state offenses such as those in Georgia.Among those who received clemency were former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, both of whom faced charges in Georgia.Skandalakis argued that continuing the Georgia case “in full for another five to ten years” would not serve the state’s voters, saying that the time it would take, combined with unresolved issues like federal versus state jurisdiction and presidential immunity, meant the case was effectively “on life support.””As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and a Republican… this decision is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law,” he said.Willis was removed from the case after Georgia’s appeals court ruled her romantic involvement with special prosecutor Nathan Wade had created an “appearance of impropriety.” She had indicted Trump in August 2023, charging him and his co-defendants under Georgia’s racketeering laws. Trump’s lawyers maintained that his statements about the election were simply political speech, protected by the First Amendment.

Food giant Campbell’s has dismissed as “absurd” claims allegedly made by a senior executive, who has since been placed on leave, that its soups are made with “3D-printed” chicken and consumed by “poor people.”The company said Martin Bally, a vice president and chief information security officer, had been put on temporary leave pending an investigation, after an employee lawsuit accused him of making racist comments and denigrating Campbell’s products during an hour-long, expletive-laced rant.The employee, Robert Garza, said the comments were made in a conversation he secretly recorded and later shared with a local media outlet in Michigan.In the audio, a voice  — allegedly Bally’s — is deriding Campbell’s “highly processed foods” as “shit for … poor people.””Bioengineered meat — I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer,” he reportedly says.Garza, who charges the company fired him for reporting the rant, said Bally also called Indian employees “idiots” and stressed how he disliked working with them.The Campbell’s brand enjoys iconic status at home and abroad, and is best known for its line of canned soups which Andy Warhol made the subject of a series of paintings that became synonymous with the artist.While Campbell’s acknowledged using genetically modified crops such as corn and soybean, the chicken “comes from long-trusted” federally-approved suppliers “and meets our high quality standards,” it said in a statement.”The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate, they are absurd,” Campbell’s said. “We do not use lab-grown chicken or any form of artificial or bioengineered meat in our soups. We are proud of the food we make and the high-quality ingredients we use.”

As biting prices weigh on families heading into the US holiday season, farmers and business owners say President Donald Trump’s tariffs have driven up production costs on everything from turkeys to vegetables.Grocery prices rose 2.7 percent from a year ago in September, recent government data showed, while a Politico poll found that groceries were the most challenging category for Americans to afford.But appeals against Trump’s tariffs and households’ cost-of-living worries contrast against the administration’s messaging — as officials work to convince Americans of the strength of the world’s biggest economy.”While my great work on the Economy has not yet been fully appreciated, it will be! Things are really Rockin’,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform over the weekend.He stressed that prices were “coming sharply down.”The White House has pointed to cheaper Thanksgiving meals offered by retailers this year, although some observers caution this could be due to a different mix of products available.Even as the country has not seen a broad inflation surge from tariffs, economists, policymakers and business owners note that the levies have added to costs.North Carolina-based farmer Mary Carroll Dodd told reporters this week that “because of increases in our cost, mostly due to tariffs, we’ve had to raise the price of some of our vegetables” like collards and kale.Even before new tariffs, input costs like fertilizer, seed, chemicals, equipment and fuel were already at all-time highs, added Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union.”With tariffs, they are going up even more,” he added. “Corn and soybeans make up much of the feed for turkeys and other livestock. When those crops cost more to grow, the price per pound of turkey goes up.”Already, wholesale turkey prices are about 40 percent higher due to supply challenges fueled by avian illnesses, the American Farm Bureau Federation said recently.This signals that price pressures will likely persist, even if retail prices fell this year as stores featured Thanksgiving deals to draw in consumers.- Business challenges -The Farm Bureau’s recent survey noted that prices of fresh vegetables have jumped, with a “continued shortage of farmworkers” and fast-growing wages adding to costs.”Almost certainly some of that labor shortage is due to the crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration,” said Jeremy Horpedahl of the libertarian Cato Institute.But proponents of Trump’s trade strategy argue that tariffs are not a direct driver of price hikes in key sectors like housing, food or health care.US beef prices for example have been boosted by a drought in recent years and a shrinking cattle herd, said economist Jeff Ferry at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that supports Trump’s tariffs.”The supply chain, including manufacturers and the importers, are absorbing most of the tariff while holding consumer price increases in check,” he said.But the picture ahead remains complicated.In a nod to farmers’ challenges, the government is considering aid for the sector hit by low crop prices and a trade row with Beijing this year.Levendofsky, however, said: “Farmers don’t want a bailout. They want trade, not aid.”Some small business owners say they struggle to survive, even as the year-end shopping season approaches.Jared Hendricks, who owns Village Lighting Co in Utah, told reporters that his company is “approaching a million dollars in tariffs this year” that were not originally in his forecast.His company specializes in holiday decorations and solutions, placing orders a year in advance with much of the sales tied up in agreements with customers.”We’ve sold a lot of that good to them directly at a loss,” he said. “At this point, we’ve kind of transitioned from working for profits to working for tariffs.””We are just in business to pay off our tariff debt,” Hendricks said.

Russia said Wednesday that ongoing talks to end the war in Ukraine were “serious”, after earlier welcoming parts of a new US plan to halt the deadliest fighting in Europe since World War II.A deal was still a long way off, Russian officials warned, with US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff due in Moscow next week for further talks.But the negotiations were “ongoing, the process is serious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised comments.Washington has not published its new plan, which Trump has called a “fine-tuned” update of a previous 28-point proposal firmly rejected by an alarmed Kyiv and its European allies for being, they said, a Kremlin wish-list.Trump and US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who has been in talks with Russian delegates this week, have also expressed cautious optimism over the revised version.Ukrainian officials have said Driscoll is due for further talks in Kyiv this week. It is not clear how similar the new plan is to the earlier proposal, but an official familiar with the matter told AFP the new draft had fewer points and left sensitive issues concerning territory — a key point for both Russia and Ukraine — unresolved.In comments to a Russian state TV reporter, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the draft required “truly serious analysis” and that Russia had not yet discussed it with anyone.”Some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require special discussions among experts,” he said.The original plan — drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian. It ignited a storm of criticism, with Washington forced to deny claims it was just a Russian “wish list”, throwing an extraordinary element of confusion into the talks. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky framed it as one of the most difficult choices in Ukrainian history: “either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner” in Washington.The updated plan appears to please Kyiv more. Ukraine said later it had reached an “understanding” with the United States, and that the two sides had pared back some of the points Kyiv disagreed with following talks in Geneva.Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022 — calling it a “special military operation”. Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes.- Key sticking points -US officials were upbeat Tuesday about the drive to end the war, even as they acknowledged key sticking points remained over the plan.But the Kremlin cautioned Wednesday it was “too early” to say if a deal was close.Ukraine’s European allies had drafted their own counter-proposal to the original plan, which Russia immediately smacked down, accusing them of “meddling” in the peace process.EU Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that days of negotiations to refine the US plan had begun to lay the groundwork for a possible settlement.But she warned Russia showed no sign of really wanting to stop the fighting.”I want to be clear from the very outset: Europe will stand with Ukraine and support Ukraine every step of the way,” she told EU lawmakers.As diplomatic efforts to end the war rumbled on, Ukraine on Wednesday reported another night of air attacks.A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia overnight left more than a dozen wounded and damaged tens of homes, governor Ivan Fedorov said.

US President Donald Trump raged on Wednesday at a New York Times report that focused on his age and growing signs of fatigue, insisting that he is full of energy and calling the woman author of the article “ugly.””I have never worked so hard in my life. Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite,” the 79-year-old Republican posted on his Truth Social platform.Trump is the oldest person ever to have assumed the US presidency and the job has clearly weighed on him since starting a second term in January.But in the lengthy post, sprinkled with words in all-caps and a misspelling, Trump said the Times article published Tuesday was ignoring his output.He listed what he said were his many accomplishments, ranging from the election victory last year to a strong US stock market and the settling of wars abroad.He also boasted that he recently underwent a “PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (‘That was aced’) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN.”Trump does remain an omnipresent figure in the media, frequently fielding questions from journalists for marathon sessions — in sharp contrast to his predecessor Joe Biden, who left office at 81.But while the White House public relations machine continues to portray Trump as improbably virile — creating AI-generated pictures of him as muscle-bound superheroes and warriors — the Republican is visibly slowing down.The report in the influential Times noted that Trump has sharply reduced his public events and domestic travel, compared to his first term, and generally runs a public schedule between the hours of noon and 5:00 pm.During one televised event in the Oval Office earlier this month, Trump appeared to fall asleep briefly.There are unanswered questions about Trump’s health, notably why he had an MRI scan in October and what it showed. Photographs of his swollen ankles and a large bruise on his right hand have also triggered speculation.Trump called the Times “truly an ‘ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.'”And he branded the female reporter who wrote the Times report “ugly, both inside and out.” Earlier this month, he called another woman journalist “piggy” and yet another “a terrible person.”The Times responded to Trump’s post with a statement saying its “reporting is accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts.””Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this.”

Russia has seen the latest copy of a draft US plan to end the Ukraine war and views some of it positively, but wants a discussion about the other parts, the Kremlin said Wednesday.In comments to a Russian state TV reporter, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the new draft required “truly serious analysis” and that Russia had not yet discussed it with anyone.The plan has not yet been published.US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it was a “fine-tuned” version of an earlier 28-point plan that Kyiv and Europe had rejected, and that he was sending officials to meet with both sides in the hopes of finalising it.Ushakov said of the plan on Wednesday: “Some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require special discussions among experts.”The original plan, widely criticised in Europe as heeding Moscow’s demands, would have seen Ukraine withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the US de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian. Ukraine said later it had reached an “understanding” with the US and that the two sides had pared back some of the points Kyiv disagreed with following talks in Geneva.It is not clear which points were removed and which remain, and deep differences remain in Russia and Ukraine’s negotiating positions.Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022 — calling it a “special military operation”. Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes.- Key sticking points -US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week in a bid to finalise the US administration’s plan, while US army secretary Dan Driscoll will meet the Ukrainian side, Trump said.Ushakov, a senior Russian diplomat and aide to Putin, said Wednesday that Russia needed “serious discussions” on the document.”The peace plan hasn’t been discussed in detail with anyone yet,” he told a state TV reporter.US officials were upbeat Tuesday about the drive to end the war, even as they acknowledged key sticking points remained over the plan.But Ukraine’s European allies, which regarded the original 28-point plan as a Kremlin wish list, have cautioned against conceding too much to Moscow.They drafted their own counter-proposal to the original plan, which Russia immediately smacked down.EU Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that days of negotiations to refine the US plan had begun to lay the groundwork for a possible settlement.But she warned Russia showed no sign of really wanting to stop the fighting.”I want to be clear from the very outset: Europe will stand with Ukraine and support Ukraine every step of the way,” she told EU lawmakers.As diplomatic efforts to end the war rumbled on, Ukraine reported another night of air attacks.A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia overnight left more than a dozen wounded and damaged tens of homes, governor Ivan Fedorov said.

US Democratic lawmakers accused Donald Trump on Tuesday of using the FBI to “intimidate” members of Congress and said the law enforcement agency had requested interviews with them following their criticism of the president.The legislators were among six who this month called on military and intelligence personnel to refuse any “illegal orders” by Trump, who labeled them “traitors.””President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress,” said a statement released by Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who are all Democratic members of the House of Representatives.”Yesterday, the FBI contacted the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms requesting interviews,” they said. “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”The FBI in an email declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The US military said on Monday it was weighing a court-martial against Democratic senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly, who had also appeared in the video released this month which urged troops to refuse unlawful orders.Kelly — a decorated Navy combat pilot and former astronaut who commanded the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final flight — fired back that he would not be intimidated or “silenced by bullies.”Elissa Slotkin, another senator who appeared in the video, said in a post on X on Tuesday that the FBI “appeared to open an inquiry into me in response to a video President Trump did not like.””The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” she said.The six Democrats who released the video did not specify which orders they meant, but Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities — often against local objections — to curb what he calls rampant unrest. Overseas, Trump has ordered strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that killed more than 80 people and which experts say are illegal.Trump initially accused the group of “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” Over the weekend, he wrote in an all-caps social media rant that the “traitors” who told troops to disobey him “should be in jail.”

Donald Trump said Tuesday he is sending his envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week as the US president seeks to close out a deal to end the war in Ukraine.Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that there were “only a few remaining points of disagreement” — but European leaders were skeptical, and Russian missiles continued to strike Ukraine.He also expressed hope to meet “soon” with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages.”Trump later told journalists aboard Air Force One that his son-in-law Jared Kushner may join Witkoff in Moscow.Washington’s 28-point proposal to end the war may have originated in a call between Witkoff and Putin’s foreign policy advisor, according to a transcription of their conversation Bloomberg reported it had obtained. According to the transcript, Witkoff advised the creation of a 20-point peace plan for Ukraine “just like we did in Gaza,” and urged that Putin bring it up with Trump.The 28-point plan, backed by Trump and widely seen as favoring Moscow, has been replaced by another taking in more of Kyiv’s interests.An official familiar with the amended version told AFP it was “significantly better.”Witkoff will soon discuss that version with Putin in Moscow, though French President Emmanuel Macron has thrown cold water on the idea of a rapid solution.Speaking after a call between the so-called coalition of the willing, which supports Kyiv, Macron warned on Tuesday that there is “clearly no Russian willingness” for a ceasefire or the new, more Ukraine-friendly proposal.Yet US negotiator Dan Driscoll emerged upbeat from meeting with Russian counterparts, with his spokesman saying: “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic.”The White House cited “tremendous progress,” while cautioning “there are a few delicate but not insurmountable details that must be sorted out.”But the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, continued unabated.On Tuesday night, Russia launched a series of strikes on Zaporizhzhia that wounded 18 people and damaged 31 apartment blocks, the head of the regional military administration said.The night before, powerful explosions rocked Kyiv beginning around 1:00 am as Russian drones and missiles rained down, setting fires in apartment buildings. City officials said seven people were killed.Thick smoke, turning red and orange in the blizzard of Ukrainian air defense fire, rose over the capital as residents fled underground into metro stations, according to AFP reporters.- ‘Tough road ahead’  -Trump, who long boasted he could negotiate an end to the Ukraine war within 24 hours, announced last week that he wanted his proposal approved by Kyiv by this Thursday — the US Thanksgiving holiday.But the initial plan, pushing numerous Russian war aims, sparked alarm in Ukraine and Europe. Among its points were prohibitions on Ukraine ever joining NATO and the surrender of swaths of new territory to Russia.The updated plan clearly pleases Kyiv more. The official familiar with the text told AFP that one key improvement was raising a proposed cap on the country’s future military forces from 600,000 to 800,000 members.Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said Tuesday there was “common understanding on the core” of the deal between Ukraine and the United States.However, remaining details should be hammered out in direct talks “at the earliest suitable date,” he said.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned: “There’s still a long way to go and a tough road ahead.”Russia’s military occupies around a fifth of Ukraine, much of it ravaged by fighting. Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed and millions have fled the east of the country.Ukrainian army Sergeant Ivan Zadontsev said negotiating was “healthy.””We also are getting tired of war. We need a break,” he told AFP.But the proposals by both Washington and the European Union “do not serve Ukraine’s national interests,” he said.burs-sms/lb/tc