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The US And Ukraine said they made progress on a plan to end the war with Russia. That's where we're starting. The seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Monday, November 24th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. On Saturday, President Donald Trump he heaped pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a controversial peace plan. A leaked draft of the 28 point plan contained concessions that Ukraine has long held to be unacceptable, like ceding territory to Russia and significantly reducing the size of the Ukrainian army. That plan drew major criticism, including from Republican lawmakers. The they said it would essentially reward Russia for invading Ukraine in 2022. But yesterday, US and Ukrainian officials said they had agreed to change that draft. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the US Delegation at negotiations in Geneva. He sought to downplay widespread claims that the plan was originally written by the Russian side. And he sounded optimistic yesterday about the next steps.
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The I don't want to declare victory or finality here. There's still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago.
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For certain, Trump has set a Thanksgiving deadline for Russia and Ukraine to accept the deal. More talks are planned for this week. A surprising issue is dividing President Trump from his MAGA base. That's number two. The president has been full throated in his embrace of the tech industry's artificial intelligence boom. He has appointed influential tech investors to key positions. He has scrapped regulations introduced by former President Joe Biden. And he has facilitated huge investments from foreign companies into American AI firms. But a growing cohort of Republicans argue that AI's breakneck growth could undermine their party's populist appeal. APPEAL Some have called for regulation to protect Americans against job losses driven by automation and to curb rising energy costs. The division underscores a fault line in Trump's coalition. Working class voters propelled him into office. But tech and business leaders have become close allies and advisors in Trump's second administration. When it comes to AI, their interests are increasingly at odds. Number three, more Americans are getting their power shut off as electricity prices soar. Americans are paying 11% more for electricity than they were in January. In some places, that rise is even more extreme. For example, costs have risen 37% in Missouri. The rising costs are causing more people to miss their bills and lose power. Although there is no national count of electricity shutoffs, data from select utilities in 11 states show that disconnections have risen. In New York City, the surge has been dramatic, with residential shutoffs in August up five fold from a year ago. That's according to utility filings. Experts say the situation is likely to get worse in the coming months. The cost of heating a home this winter is expected to rise 7.6% to an average $976. Number four students are missing school because of immigration crackdowns last week, one in five students in Charlotte, N.C. stayed home from class as the Trump administration is carrying out immigration raids in their city. At many schools, children were either missing or rattled. One wore a tag that read I'm a U.S. citizen. Another carried an American passport to elementary school. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it is not conducting enforcement operations at schools, but immigration agents actions near campuses have prompted lockdowns and alarm, disrupting learning and traumatizing children. A Post review of news reports found that parents have been arrested near campuses in at least 10 states so far this year, The EPA approved new forever chemical pesticides for use on food. That's our fifth story. PFAs are a group of chemicals that have been linked to a number of health problems that include several kinds of cancer, birth defects and damage to the liver and immune system. But this month, the Environmental Protection Agency approved two new pesticides with pfas, and it has announced plans for four additional approvals. The authorized pesticides will be used on vegetables such as romaine, lettuce, broccoli and potatoes. The agency also announced plans to relax a rule requiring companies to report all products containing PFAS and has proposed weakening drinking water standards for the chemicals. If you're worried about pfas, we have a link to a story in our newsletter today with tips on how to avoid them. Find a link to that in our show. Notes Number 6 Screening recommendations for the deadliest cancer in the US miss most cases under current recommendations, only certain people are eligible for regular lung cancer screenings. They have to be 50 to 80 years old, with a history of heavy smoking, and be either active smokers or have quit within the past 15 years. A new study reveals that those guidelines exclude a lot of people who could otherwise have had their cancer detected earlier. Of the roughly 1,000 patients treated for lung cancer at Northwestern Medicine, only one third met the requirements for screening. The study's authors noted that women, minorities and people who never smoked were disproportionately excluded. The researchers estimate that if screening was made available for anyone between the ages of 40 to 85 years old, it could prevent roughly 26,000 deaths each year. At least. So cancer and public health experts want the screening recommendations to change. And at number seven, despite what you might think, you probably can't tell the difference between real and visual effects in movies. When it's done well, you're not supposed to be able to spot CGI or other visual effects. When you can, you might just be watching a terrible movie or TV show. No judgment, but you may not realize all the things that visual effects are being used for or how much work goes into it. In the Wicked movies, For example, about 1,000 people worked on the visual effects. Many scenes in Wicked were shot using a combination of real sets and blue screens, blending together the practical and the digital. If you want to test your ability to tell reality from movie magic, we have a really fun quiz in our newsletter today. It's a lot trickier than you might expect. Alright, you're all caught up. I haven't asked you to subscribe to the Washington Post in a while. Well, that changes today. Right now, we have a Black Friday sale with great deals on a year's core or premium subscription. Subscribing is the best way to support this podcast and to get you access to all the great reporting and analysis of the Washington Post newsroom. Find all the details@washingtonpost.com subscribe I'm Hannah Jewell. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
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