# Trump’s Turn Toward Moscow. Plus. . . Canonical: https://brew.new/templates/substack/trumps-turn-toward-moscow-plus Brand: substack.com Category: promotional ![Preview of Trump’s Turn Toward Moscow. Plus. . .](https://cdn.brew.new/email-preview-4bfc3329ac989761-tracking_r57yt2sq33a8z3wx5vmw3fwqqx8gmbg5-1792495304493.png) ## Email content Forwarded this email? Subscribe for more The Front PageTuesday, 10.20.2026View in App Upgrade to Listen Get the whole story. Join now.Trump’s Turn Toward Moscow. Plus. . . A report from the aftermath of the French riots. The scientist who won his life back. Arthur Brooks interviews his AI clone. And more. Aaron MacLean on President Trump’s Putin pivot. (Finn Gomez via Getty Images) By The Free Press It’s Tuesday, October 20. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Nora Bussigny reports from the aftermath of the Paris protests. Suzy Weiss catches up with David Sabatini after his courtroom win. Arthur Brooks meets his machine. And much more. But first: The Putin pivot. The leaders of the U.S., Russia, and China may soon sit down to decide Ukraine’s fate—without Volodymyr Zelensky at the table. According to The Wall Street Journal, Vladimir Putin pitched the summit during a phone call with Trump earlier this month, the same call in which the two struck a deal for the U.S. to buy Russian diesel. Since then, Trump has waived sanctions against Moscow and lashed out at Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian leader doesn’t really want the war to end. The Trump administration insists its posture toward Russia has not changed, but Aaron MacLean says the evidence suggests otherwise. From the diesel deal to reports that Washington may be withholding early warnings of incoming Russian missiles from Ukraine, he sees “a gangster foreign policy” emerging. Under that approach, America looks out for itself and no longer bothers to pretend otherwise. And if a summit does happen after the midterms, Aaron asks, what’s to stop Trump from striking a grand bargain—pushing Ukraine into a deal Moscow likes in exchange for Russia and China leaning on Iran to accept one Washington likes? Is Trump Getting Ready to Trade Ukraine for Iran?Aaron MacLean • International Is Trump Getting Ready to Trade Ukraine for Iran? Read story › It’s all happening just as Russia is losing ground in eastern Ukraine and suffering mounting casualties. On the latest episode of School of War, retired Australian major general Mick Ryan tells Aaron why Kyiv’s battlefield wins aren’t becoming political leverage, and why Putin’s best remaining hope is Trump. Can Ukraine Win Without America?Aaron MacLean • School of War Can Ukraine Win Without America? Watch now › SpotifyApple PodcastsRSS —The Editors Nora Bussigny • International Inside France’s Night of Terror Inside France’s Night of Terror France watched its cities burn over the weekend. Protests over schools and fuel prices gave way to masked mobs who damaged and looted at least 3,000 businesses across the country. Nora Bussigny spent the aftermath with Parisians still reeling, including a gold dealer whose shop was ransacked six times in one night, and a young woman who hid in the dark with her newborn as rioters tried to break into her building. “What would have happened,” she asked, “if they had gotten in?” Read story › Suzy Weiss • Culture and Ideas David Sabatini Lost Everything After Being Accused of Sexual Harassment. He Just Won $6 Million. David Sabatini Lost Everything After Being Accused of Sexual Harassment. He Just Won $6 Million. When Suzy Weiss first told David Sabatini’s story in 2022, the cancer researcher once tipped for a Nobel Prize had been forced out of MIT after a younger colleague accused him of sexual harassment, and he was collecting unemployment. This week Suzy caught up with Sabatini again, just days after a jury found his accuser liable for defamation and awarded him $6 million. “I do think there were efforts to use me as a scapegoat,” Sabatini told her. “I was a good scalp.” Read story › Arthur Brooks • The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks I Turned Myself Into an AI Model I Turned Myself Into an AI Model Arthur Brooks let a start-up build an AI version of him, and now thousands of people ask the chatbot, built on 2.5 million of Arthur’s words, for advice on living a happier life. But as some of the people building AI admit they aren’t sure whether their models are conscious, Arthur began to wonder: Could his chatbot have a mind of its own? Might it even have a soul? Read story › MORE FROM THE FREE PRESSDouglas Murray: France Stares Down the Abyss of History Douglas Murray Read story The French Republic Is Under Attack Simone Rodan-Benzaquen Read story If This Isn’t a Civil War, It Certainly Looks Like One Andrew Hussey Read story The Nazis Stole Your Family’s Art? Call James Palmer. Suzy Weiss Read story THE NEWS President Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a new women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health, along with a White House task force on the issue. (Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images) President Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a new women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health along with a White House task force on the issue, an effort he credited to Melania Trump. The initiative aims to speed up research and treatments for conditions that disproportionately affect women, which the First Lady hailed as “a transformative moment” for the country. Israeli police said they had arrested 10 suspects in a wave of recent settler violence in the West Bank, which included attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, a Washington Post photojournalist, and a convoy of European diplomats. U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee called the arrests “a very positive development.” Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is expected to miss the remainder of the season after doctors found blood clots in both lungs, his agent said yesterday. Hurts is on blood thinners and can’t play while taking them, but the team said he is stable and expected to make a full recovery. Elon Musk promised Monday that every child in the United States will receive a share of SpaceX, currently valued at $146, sometime next year. His offer followed Anthropic’s Sunday announcement that it would steer 5 percent of its equity into a newly created “public benefit” fund, a plan Musk argued should be replaced by direct stock distributions to individuals. A federal judge ordered that a former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a listening device in an executive meeting room must remain in custody until his trial. According to a court filing, the engineer had been in touch with a Saudi royal and was days from moving to Riyadh when he was arrested. Mahmoud Khalil asked the Supreme Court yesterday to block his deportation. The Columbia graduate and green card holder, whose 2025 arrest made him the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, filed the appeal after a lower court cleared the way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain him again. COMMENT LIKE SHARE DOWNLOAD AS A PDF Become a paid subscriber To support our journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below. 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