Top 5 US news stories
August 18 2025
Zelensky, European Allies, Head to Washington Facing Pressure From Trump on Peace Deal
Trump to Zelensky: Give Up Crimea and NATO Hopes
New Skyscraper Becomes Symbol of New York's Post-Pandemic Commercial Recovery
GOP States Send National Guard to D.C. Following Trump's Call
How an NFL Rule Tweak Is Turning Kickoffs Into Wobbly, Strategic Weapons
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Zelensky, European Allies, Head to Washington Facing Pressure From Trump on Peace Deal
Nearly six months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was asked to leave the White House after a televised confrontation with President Trump over “real security guarantees” the Ukrainian leader insisted upon for any peace agreement with Russia. When Zelensky returns to the Oval Office on Monday the gap over security guarantees will have narrowed, but a chasm over Moscow’s territorial demands remains. That leaves Zelensky with a dilemma: how to sustain Trump’s support while responding to Russian territorial proposals he feels compelled to refuse. Zelensky will have some important allies accompanying him to Washington this time, including the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Union. North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who has developed a personal rapport with Trump, will also attend. But the diplomatic terrain threatens to be just as treacherous. While Trump administration officials have expressed fresh, if still vague, support for providing security guarantees, the White House has shelved its persistent demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin agree to an immediate cease-fire or face much tougher economic sanctions.
WSJ
Trump to Zelensky: Give Up Crimea and NATO Hopes
Trump on Sunday said Ukraine must abandon hopes of regaining Crimea and give up on joining NATO. Trump is leaning on Kyiv to accept a settlement to end Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. He will host Ukraine's Zelenskiy and European leaders in Washington on Monday to press for a peace deal with Russia. Zelenskiy "can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," the U.S. president said on Truth Social on Sunday evening. "Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE," Trump added.
Reuters
New Skyscraper Becomes Symbol of New York's Post-Pandemic Commercial Recovery
The New York City office market is recovering from its pandemic debacle faster than any other in the U.S. Nothing speaks more to the turnaround than the gleaming new office tower built for JPMorgan Chase. After more than six years of development, the bank is preparing to move thousands of employees into its new, 2.5-million-square-foot headquarters at 270 Park Ave. later this month before its October grand opening. The 60-story building is a roughly $3 billion bet that New York is definitively back after years of uncertainty about whether it would maintain its leadership in business and finance.
WSJ
GOP States Send National Guard to D.C. Following Trump's Call
Sporadic protests have sprouted up across D.C. this weekend, as GOP-led states announced they would send their own National Guard troops to augment President Donald Trump’s law enforcement takeover in the nation’s capital. Last week, Trump announced the mobilization of the D.C. National Guard in the city, which he portrayed as crime-ridden On Sunday afternoon, local police said they were not actively monitoring any protests. Hundreds of more troops are expected to arrive in the coming days. The number of troops in D.C. could nearly double in the coming days as National Guard members from other states begin to arrive — an escalation that began over the weekend when three Republican governors answered the Trump administration’s call for additional troops. Thus far, National Guard troops in D.C. have been positioned outside national monuments, Union Station and several federal buildings. Elsewhere, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officers have been clearing homeless encampments and making myriad arrests. As of Sunday, there have been more than “300 arrests in D.C. — and counting,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X. Authorities made 68 arrests over Saturday night and seized 15 illegal firearms, Bondi added.
Washington Post
How an NFL Rule Tweak Is Turning Kickoffs Into Wobbly, Strategic Weapons
For most of football history, the kickoff that opened the Carolina Panthers’ first game of the NFL preseason would have been accurately characterized as completely atrocious. Instead of booming a long kick deep into the end zone, Panthers kicker Matthew Wright poked a low wobbler that drifted one way and then the other, as if he’d just launched a boomerang downfield. To a casual observer, it might have looked as though someone plucked from the stands could’ve done better. But the funky-looking kick wasn’t a total shank. In fact, it’s the diabolical strategy that might just drive the entire NFL crazy this season. When the league introduced new rules last year to reinvigorate the kickoff, which had degenerated into little more than a ceremonial touchback and waste of everyone’s time, it fell rather flat. More often than not, teams still blasted the ball through the back of the end zone anyway. So this year, the NFL tweaked the rules once more. Now, a touchback gives the returning team the ball at the 35-yard-line—or just a couple of completions from field-goal range. The upshot is teams suddenly have much more incentive to actually kick the ball into the “landing zone” between the goal-line and 20-yard-line. To avoid that, teams like Carolina are experimenting with a kickoff that exploits an esoteric part of the rulebook that gives an enormous advantage to the coverage team. When Wright’s kickoff began veering downfield, Cleveland Browns returner Kaden Davis was mystified. The ball bounced right in front of him around the 11-yard-line, and he eventually corralled it 4 yards farther back. By the time he got going, he was already getting swarmed by the Panthers coverage team.
WSJ
I would like to personally thank the Carolina Panthers for using this bouncing kickoff in the preseason
— Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) August 12, 2025
Here is why I think it can work and why more teams should try it out: pic.twitter.com/nD4Aue2gM3
August 18 1590: Roanoke Colony found deserted
It's 1587 and 115 English settlers have arrived on Roanoke Island to start a new life. They are not the first English explorers. There had been three earlier expeditions to the New World, but this was the first to bring English women and children to America.
The goal of these expeditions for Queen Elizabeth I and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, was to create an English capital in the New World.
The newest group to arrive included Governor John White’s pregnant daughter, Eleanor White Dare. In fact, several weeks after the colonists landed on the coast, Eleanor gave birth to the first English baby born in the New World. She was named Virginia Dare.
Soon afterwards, Governor White returned to England to get more supplies. His return was delayed for three years because of a war between England and Spain.
When he was finally able to make it back in 1590, on his granddaughter's third birthday, he found the colony deserted. The word 'CROATOAN' was discovered carved into a wooden post.
There has been plenty of speculation about the settlers’ fate in the centuries that have passed: death from disease, massacre by native peoples, or assimilation into a nearby native tribe, either as friends or slaves.
Multiple theories and a lack of conclusive evidence generated the mysterious moniker “The Lost Colony.”
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Sources
- https://www.wsj.com/world/zelensky-heads-back-to-washington-under-pressure-from-putin-1a33fe01?mod=hp_lead_pos1
- https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-war-live-trump-zelenskiy-discuss-russias-terms-peace-2025-08-18/
- https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/nyc-offices-are-back-nothing-proves-it-more-than-jpmorgans-3-billion-tower-c90c4f6f?mod=hp_lead_pos10
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/08/17/national-guard-deployments-washington-developments/
- https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/nfl-kickoff-rules-strategy-effff496?mod=wknd_pos1
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