
Macron meets with Putin, leading Europe's diplomatic efforts to diffuse Ukraine crisis
CNN
In the tense standoff between Russia and Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has emerged as a central figure in Europe's diplomatic efforts to diffuse potential conflict.
As the United States moves forces to Eastern Europe to support its NATO allies and Russia deploys more troops onto Ukraine's border, Macron visited his counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday to demand a de-escalation to the crisis, before traveling to Kyiv.
Though the shape of a solution to the showdown is still unclear, and the Kremlin continues to push for security guarantees that the US and NATO have called non-starters, Macron said that he and Putin were beginning to build a "constructive arrangement," which was "mutually acceptable" to Russia and the rest of Europe to "help us avoid war."

Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.

Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.

Since early December the US Coast Guard and other military branches have boarded and taken control of five oil ships that had previously been sanctioned, all either accused of being in the process of transporting Venezuelan oil or on their way to take on oil that has been subject to US sanctions since President Donald Trump began a pressure campaign against the leadership of the country during his first term.










