Zelensky says U.S. missile-attack warnings work again after Oslo talks with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who takes the proposals to Putin on Wednesday.
Zelensky said U.S. intelligence warnings of Russian missile attacks “work now” after he met Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday, Oct. 20. That is his assurance, not a measurement. The same day, Russian drone attacks killed at least 10 people in Ukraine.
The rift began about 10 days before the Oslo talks, when Trump announced a diesel deal with Russia, per Axios; Kyiv’s complaint was that U.S. attack warnings came only some of the time.
“There hasn’t been a deliberate political directive to harm Ukraine.”
He blamed failures on Oct. 13 and Oct. 18 on technical problems, per the New York Post.A deliberate cutoff has happened before.
In March 2025 Washington paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv for six days, until talks in Jeddah.Read the reporting
Elon Musk personally ordered last week’s slowdown of Ukraine’s Starshield military satellite service, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing officials it does not name.
Starshield is SpaceX’s military version of Starlink. On Oct. 14, Ukraine’s terminals began cutting out above roughly 160 km/h, hitting its drones, airplanes and helicopters.
- Oct. 14The U.S. military and Trump
Musk, on X: limits are “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
On the record - Oct. 15The White House
Two U.S. officials and a Western official
Unnamed - Oct. 20Musk himself
The Wall Street Journal
Unnamed officials and people familiar
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied any Pentagon directive. Trump said on Oct. 19 he did not know who ordered it; one Journal source says Musk raised the cap with Trump and other senior officials before imposing it.
Read the reporting
A Venezuelan banker’s family firm hired Alina Habba, then at the Justice Department, in a deal worth more than $50 million; Trump pardoned him two weeks after she started.
A Florida company set up by Julio Herrera Velutini’s daughter hired Habba as general counsel, the New York Times reported: $10 million a year for four years plus bonuses, guaranteeing more than $50 million. That is contract value, not money shown to have been paid.
People familiar with her contract told the Times they believed she was hired to help win the pardon; Habba says the department approved the job and she had no role in it.
The Times says she finalized the deal in late October 2025 as the attorney general’s adviser; she was acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, per Reuters and AP. Herrera, charged in 2022 in a scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s then-governor, had pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor. Paying lawyers to seek a pardon is legal.
Read the reporting
Brent crude topped $111 a barrel, its highest since May, after Iran and the Houthis claimed attacks on Gulf ships and Saudi oil sites.
Brent, the global oil benchmark, settled near $110.30 on Tuesday, Oct. 20, about 52% above its $72.48 close on Feb. 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. It had fallen back to that price in late June, after the June 17 U.S.-Iran memorandum reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
What next: Deutsche Bank analysts say record contracts for 2027 delivery are “implying an extended period of high oil prices deep into 2027.”
Read the reporting
Trump and Vance launched a $25 million fraud-tip fund; Trump says he’ll be “the arbitrator,” but the rules cap awards at $30,000, decided by the Justice Department.
Announced Tuesday, Oct. 20. Trump said tipsters would get 1% of the fraud they report, with no limit and no criminal charges needed. The program’s website pays $10,000 to $30,000, only for tips that lead to criminal charges, and award decisions cannot be appealed.
Under the False Claims Act, the existing whistleblower law, the Justice Department paid tipsters $412 million a year on average in fiscal 2021–2025. The first $10,000 went to YouTuber Nick Shirley for a video on Minnesota childcare fraud; AP reports inspectors had found those centers operating as expected.
Read the reporting
Ex-Navatek CEO Martin Kao told the FBI he traded donations for contract help from Lindsey Graham, then a Republican senator; ProPublica says Trump’s FBI purge ended the probe.
Kao told FBI agents that Graham agreed to steer a $10 million government contract to Navatek’s South Carolina work for a $100,000 campaign pledge, and that the Hawaii defense contractor made similar deals with Reps. James Clyburn, a Democrat, and Joe Wilson, a Republican. Graham died in July 2026. No one has been charged, and the bargain rests on Kao’s account; he is serving 87 months for bank and COVID-relief fraud.
“This is how much I want, and how much I am going to give you.”Graham, by Kao’s account in FBI agent notes
Graham’s and Clyburn’s offices deny donations swayed them; Wilson’s says it followed election-finance rules. The FBI agent who opened the case was fired and the prosecutor quit; ProPublica shows no signed order closing it.