It took a Trump to cool the guns in one of Europe's most war-torn cities.

The ruined city of Oleshky in Ukraine's southern Kherson region has been occupied by Russian forces for over four years. In addition to the persistent threat of violence, the estimated 2,000 residents trapped in the city — a city flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam — have long faced severe food, water, and medicine shortages.

'Her personal involvement is crucial to the entire process.'

Some civilians reportedly began consuming soup made from garden weeds in recent months to survive.

After Pope Leo XIV urged Moscow and Kiev to agree to a ceasefire in the region, Melania Trump intervened and successfully brokered the deal. Mrs. Trump announced the ceasefire on Friday and gave an update on Tuesday.

The first lady said on Tuesday that "the ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect at 4:00am Moscow time on October 27, 2026."

"Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid," continued Mrs. Trump. "The ceasefire’s geographic area has expanded beyond Oleshky, within the Kherson Region, to provide safe passage for the humanitarian convoys. General Valery Gerasimov, Joint Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces has confirmed."

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights commissioner, confirmed on Tuesday evening that both Russia and Ukraine were adhering to the agreement "in designated areas related to the humanitarian mission" and that there had been no violations recorded by either side.

This ceasefire comes after multiple previous attempts failed.

Ron Sachs/CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images

According to Lubinets, the ceasefire — which he said was mediated and coordinated by Melania Trump and was holding firm without incident on Wednesday morning — will remain in effect until 10:59 p.m. on Sunday.

Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner, expressed gratitude to Mrs. Trump, stating, "I would like to thank U.S. first lady Melania Trump once again for supporting the humanitarian mission and helping the residents of Alyoshki. Her personal involvement is crucial to the entire process. A huge thank-you also goes to Melania Trump’s team for their significant efforts in coordinating."

Per the terms of the ceasefire, an American media company will document the efforts by Russian and Ukrainian civilian teams to aid the people of Oleshky. Those who wish to leave the city will be provided with support and transportation. Melania Trump suggested that some civilians "will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine."

On Oct. 16, Pope Leo spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged for "a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population," according the Holy See Press Office.

Days later, the pope spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the request to Putin, emphasizing his hope that cooperation between the warring parties will ameliorate the humanitarian crisis.

Melania Trump told reporters on Saturday that "it is great to have [the] pope's support" and that she had spoken to the Ukrainian and Russian presidents about the ceasefire.

Mrs. Trump emphasized last week that the situation in Oleshky "is dire."

"The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks," said the first lady. "It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible."

According to the White House, the bleak circumstances in Oleshky were brought to the first lady's attention during a private discussion at her Fostering the Future Together event during the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

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US ambassador shouts down Cuban officials trying to hijack UN speech: 'Back away! This isn't Havana!'

A delegation of Cuban officials interrupted a speech by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, which led to a heated shouting match.

Waltz was defending the U.S. embargo against the communist regime on the island nation when the Cuban delegation began pounding on their desks.

'Back up, ambassador! Back away! This isn't Havana! You're not going to intimidate me. Do you understand who you're dealing with?'

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called for a point of order from the U.N. presiding official before he furiously walked toward the podium where Waltz was speaking.

"You are a liar!" he yelled.

"Imagine what happens when someone asks these questions in Havana, not in a room full of ambassadors and cameras. Imagine what happens to those people if this is the intimidation and disruption that we see," Waltz said.

Rodriguez continued to yell.

"Your excellency, I know you don't like to hear this. This is America, my friend!" Waltz chided. "This is the United Nations. This isn't your communist dictatorship!"

Rodriguez continued to yell.

"You cannot silence me, and you cannot silence my colleagues!" Waltz added.

The presiding official promised to allow Rodriguez to speak, but he continued to yell and interrupt.

"This individual needs to back away from this podium! He's not going to intimidate me," Waltz said.

"Back up, ambassador! Back away! This isn't Havana! You're not going to intimidate me. Do you understand who you're dealing with?" Waltz yelled.

At this point, the presiding officer suspended the meeting.

"This is America. Back up!" Waltz yelled back.

Cuba has been suffering from a crippling embargo that has tightened under the Trump administration. The United Nations has voted against the U.S. embargo for decades, though the motion is largely symbolic.

Rodriguez accused Waltz of lying grossly and offending the dignity of the people of Cuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have heightened tensions with Cuba after he posted a message Friday many took as a provocation against the communist regime.

"To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba — now is the time," he wrote on social media. "The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA."

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Where in the world is Flávio Bolsonaro?

Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled to the United States after narrowly losing Brazil's presidential election under unusual circumstances and after Brazil's left-wing government demanded he surrender his passports.

Bolsonaro, son of convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro, has left Brazil for the U.S., two sources told CNN Tuesday. A U.S. official then seemingly confirmed the report, telling the outlet that Bolsonaro was headed for Florida before stating that his destination was unclear, CNN said.

'Do not recognize these elections.'

Reuters, citing three sources, reported that he had left Brazil for the U.S. One source even said that the Trump administration had granted asylum to Bolsonaro and his immediate family, the outlet reported.

"After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press," said Paulo Figueiredo, an unofficial family spokesman.

Bolsonaro lost Sunday's runoff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by about 3.6 points after Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting by two hours, stirring fraud suspicions. Zanin was Lula's personal defense lawyer until Lula put him on the court in 2023.

Lula was previously found guilty of corruption and money-laundering charges. He spent over 550 days in prison before he was freed in 2019. The Supreme Court annulled his convictions in 2021 on jurisdictional grounds.

The elder Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for what some claim was a political hit job. Flávio Bolsonaro also faces allegations of money laundering and other crimes.

"It is impossible to accept the result of the elections under these conditions," Flávio Bolsonaro said Sunday night, vowing to seek annulment.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

"Do not recognize these elections," Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flávio's brother, said in an X video. On Tuesday, Eduardo called reports that his brother had absconded a "lie," CNN reported.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes signed a sealed order the night of the presidential election demanding that Bolsonaro surrender his passports. The order also prohibited Bolsonaro from leaving Brazil.

Federal Police canceled the passports Tuesday amid reports that Bolsonaro had fled the country, according to CNN.

Argentina's Infobae reported that Bolsonaro crossed into the Misiones province to take a private jet, though this report remains unconfirmed. Argentina said it has "no record" of him entering.

“The process is confidential. We do not have any information,” Brazil's Supreme Court told Blaze News when asked about Moraes' passport confiscation order.

The State Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.

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DHS attorney DEMOLISHES '60 Minutes' reporter over 'law-abiding' illegal aliens narrative in full interview

The Department of Homeland Security has released the full video of an interview "60 Minutes" conducted with DHS general counsel James Percival.

The "60 Minutes" segment Sunday with reporter Gianna Toboni documented the plight of an illegal alien who had been deported to Ghana and claimed to have been sent to war-torn Mali, where he ended up homeless and hiding out of fear for his safety.

'I do really reject your characterization of someone who is in this country illegally and breaking our laws as quote, unquote, law-abiding.'

While the report had a few short clips quoting Percival in defense of the deportation process, the full interview video, which the DHS shared on social media Monday night, showed him challenging Toboni's narrative overall.

"That's why I am going for the clarity here because I hear a lot about the violent offenders, point taken," Toboni said at one point, referring to deportees. "But what I don't hear about is the law-abiding folks, who, in our reporting, is more than half."

"You're suggesting that people who are in this country illegally are law-abiding?" Percival replied.

"Let's say [they] don't have a criminal record outside of an immigration offense, maybe overstaying a tourist visa," Toboni responded.

"If you are in this country illegally, it is virtually impossible for you to live in this country and not commit additional legal violations — working without authorization, identity theft. There’s a lot of illegality that goes on when you are breaking the law," he replied.

"But I do really reject your characterization of someone who is in this country illegally and breaking our laws as quote, unquote, law-abiding. I think that's fundamentally inaccurate and unfair," Percival added.

"OK, fair enough," she accepted.

The DHS posted a clip of that interaction to social media, where it quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Percival pointed out in an X post Tuesday that the "60 Minutes" report shared a brief video from his interview where he admitted that he didn't know offhand what percentage of third-country removals involved illegal aliens convicted of violent crimes.

In the extended clip, he goes on to explain at length why third-country removals are necessary in difficult cases.

"What I can say is, there's a very specific reason why this population is disproportionately criminal. Well, it's really two reasons," Percival said.

"Number one, when countries refuse to accept their nationals back, they disproportionately do that for violent criminals. People don't really want to take their violent criminals back," he explained.

"Point two is, people will sometimes get what's called withholding of removal, that type of relief, because they are statutorily ineligible for asylum. And what creates that ineligibility in many cases is significant criminal conduct," he continued.

He said that prior to the Trump administration, many of these violent criminals would reoffend because prior administrations were not enforcing immigration laws.

"60 Minutes" posted a video of the full interview with Percival on YouTube on Monday.

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RFK Jr. delivers scathing message about the Muslim Brotherhood in Michigan speech

As election season draws into its final week, many candidates and politicians are making their final rounds with voters across the country.

And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came out swinging for the GOP in Michigan.

'The Christians have been expelled. They've gone from 20% of the population to 4% of the population. These were genocides.'

On Monday, RFK Jr. joined Michigan gubernatorial candidate John James and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers at a campaign event in Grand Rapids to make a final appeal to voters in what may be one of the highest-profile Senate races in the country.

And RFK Jr. spent a portion of his time dropping some lines about the Muslim Brotherhood.

He called the Muslim Brotherhood a "death cult" that embraces "murder and genocide," causing the nations it overtakes to become "atrophied and stagnant."

"There's 500 million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. ... They don't produce literature. ... All of that tradition has been destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. They have created stagnant societies," he said.

By contrast, he said, traditional Islam gave rise to "art and literature and science and engineering" and societies that for 1,000 years "were highly tolerant and pluralistic and cosmopolitan."

While many in the corporate media fired back with examples of Arabs winning prizes and participating in culture, it seems that they unintentionally — or intentionally — ignored the primary point he was making: The Muslim Brotherhood's "death cult" ideology has created a "stagnant society" — not that the Arab world does not have culture.

The HHS secretary went on to say that societies under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood are most effective at producing "hatred and war and victimization."

He also reminded the event attendees that the Middle East has not always been Muslim.

"There were millions and millions of Christians. Those were all Christian countries," RFK Jr. said. "Egypt was a Christian country, Libya was a Christian country, Algeria was a Christian country, Iraq was a Christian country, Syria, Lebanon was a Christian country in 1948. The Christians have been expelled. They've gone from 20% of the population to 4% of the population. These were genocides."

"The only people they tell that 'our objective is not genocide' are Western dupes and useful idiots," he went on.

Rogers' Democrat opponent, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, better known as Abdul El-Sayed, has repeatedly been accused of extremism, up to and including the insinuation that he and his family are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

El-Sayed has denied these allegations.

According to Blaze News' Poll Watch, El-Sayed is favored by 2.6 points over Mike Rogers with seven days left before the general election.

Vice President JD Vance appeared in Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday to support Rogers before a planned trip to Weatherford, Texas, to lend his voice to another of the most contentious Senate races in this election cycle.

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9th Circuit rejects Trump DOJ's emergency motion over 20,000 questionable voters in California

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has denied an emergency request from the federal government to force California officials to set aside mail-in ballots from 20,000 people tagged as possible noncitizens.

Californian officials have resisted the request from the Dept. of Justice because they say there's not enough time to verify the legality of each voter before the election.

'It was determined that none of the individuals USCIS matched to the County's Sample List were born in the United States according to USCIS records.'

They have also accused the administration of trying to disenfranchise voters on vague and unreliable evidence that has not been provided to the state officials.

On Monday evening, the appeals court ruled 2-1 that it lacked the jurisdiction to grant the emergency request. The panel of judges did not rule on the eligibility of the 20,000 voters.

The court majority ruling pointed out that the federal government knew about the possibility of noncitizen voters for months and filed its demand only after processing of mail-in ballots had already begun:

There is a material risk that defendants would be unable to complete the verification process for all voters on the October list by December 3. Thus, there is a real risk that granting plaintiff its requested relief would result in disenfranchisement, and worse, could jeopardize the county’s entire election.

Justice Department attorney Matthew Donnelly had argued California's actions were causing irreparable harm "by allowing noncitizens to vote in violation of their own state laws. The damage is irreversible and irrevocable."

Seth Waxman, attorney for the Los Angeles County Clerk, argued that reviewing the millions of records against the government's list would take about 140,000 man hours, which is about 16 years of time.

He also cited a review of a sample of 200 records from the list, saying that staffers found many of them were canceled or inactive registrations or individuals with no voting history.

However, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official submitted a sworn affidavit that review of the 200 names found none of them were born in the U.S., contrary to L.A. officials alleging that 38.9% had attested to being native born.

"After a thorough review of the immigration records of all the individuals on the County's Sample List, it was determined that none of the individuals USCIS matched to the County's Sample List were born in the United States according to USCIS records," said Nicolas Bartell, associate director of the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate at USCIS.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta praised the ruling from the appeals court.

"The U.S. Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president or the executive branch — the power to determine the time, place, and manner of elections," he said. "The court’s order serves as an important step in our efforts to protect Californians’ right to vote and our state’s authority to run fair and secure elections."

"Trump’s assault on democracy won’t slow down. Each and every one of us can do something: participate in democracy, don’t become disillusioned," said Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "California is fighting back. And we are calling on all Californians to do the same."

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