“War in Ukraine: Europe stands united behind Kyiv but must revisit how to finance its support”, 16 October 2026 (Photo via Le Monde — the original report)
As it ran on the front
Today's dish is a bill the host already signed and then declined to pay. On the nineteenth of September, Congress's Russia sanctions law — the one bearing the name of the senator who championed it before he died in July — took its first signature. On Friday evening, the day before that law was due to take effect, a second signature waived nearly all of it, sanctions and tariffs together.
This did not begin on Friday. On the tenth of October, Zelensky criticised a separate deal letting Russian diesel back onto world markets; the same day, Trump told reporters Zelensky 'could have settled this war many times' and that Ukraine should 'get a new leader.' On the eleventh, seven senators on the Foreign Relations Committee answered that Congress had banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to stop American money financing the war.…
Clive Settled. I settled an argument with Gary on Tuesday in one line of verse, no second signature required, no walking it back by evening.
Gary Settled nothing — you redrafted it four times and it still didn't rhyme. I'll settle things properly, with a hammer, on the toaster that's been live since March.
Now we come to the part that happened since. Zelensky called the waiver 'unfortunate' and said plainly that 'this Act could have helped enormously,' pointing to the attack already under way on the energy sector as the decision was made. On his own side of the aisle, Senator Thom Tillis called the waiver 'beyond irresponsible,' and other Republicans said the same.
Rob Does anyone round here still pay the electric, or are we all just irresponsible together now?
Keith That's not getting answered today. There's an angle in it though, and I could have it sold on by Thursday, enormously so.
The BBC, which is what they have here, has it that the president 'temporarily ends many restrictions on Moscow recently passed by Congress' over 'national security' concerns. Le Monde quotes Zelensky arriving in Brussels 'weakened by what he called the betrayal of Donald Trump.' At home it is a waiver.
You will be looking for the vote that undid Congress's law. There is none; a national security determination is what the vote is instead of, handled with no debate attached. Zelensky put the number at over 320 drones, missiles and munitions aimed at the power stations that determination left unprotected, and at the Brussels summit on the sixteenth he asked allied leaders for seventy billion euros to carry Ukraine through 2027. RTÉ records the shorter verdict from the same man: the waiver, he said, merely 'rewards' Putin.
The seventy billion euros Zelensky asked Brussels for on the sixteenth has not yet been found.
Clive Found. I've found four more lines and nowhere to put them, which is, I'm told, also Brussels's trouble this week.
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“They sign a sanctions law with a dead senator's name on it, then waive the whole thing the night before it bites, and Moscow answers by putting over 320 drones into the power stations that law was built to protect. That's not diplomacy, that's a receipt. Somebody's diesel moves easier this week, and Europe's the one standing at the till for seventy billion euros to cover what just got waived.”
“It's not scrapped, it's a temporary national security waiver, totally standard presidential authority, the same authority every — okay, not every president's used it for this, but the authority's there. Tillis and the rest are grandstanding; the whole point was getting Russia to the table, that was always the plan. Did I say "rewards Putin"? I didn't say that, somebody else said that.”
"I'll meet with Putin. I'll meet with Zelensky... And within 24 hours, that war will be settled" - Trump, CNN town hall, 10 May 2023. CNN counted 53 separate occasions he promised it. CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Invited to the European leaders' summit in Brussels on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky, weakened by what he called the 'betrayal' of Donald Trump, asked his allies for an additional €70 billion in aid for the year 2027.
"I'll meet with Putin. I'll meet with Zelensky... And within 24 hours, that war will be settled" - Trump, CNN town hall, 10 May 2023. CNN counted 53 separate occasions he promised it CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bashed President Donald Trump’s deal with Russia to supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to global markets, giving arguably his most direct and biting criticism of Trump so far. Trump announced the deal on Friday in a post on Truth Social after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin…
A bipartisan group of seven lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee condemned President Trump’s recent deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which would lift sanctions on Russia and permit the flow of its oil into the global economy. “Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars…
Several GOP lawmakers criticized President Trump’s move to exempt Russia from the sanctions bill he signed law last month, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R- N.C.) calling the move "beyond irresponsible." Trump signed an executive order Friday evening to waive sanctions against Russia in a legislative package that was meant to put pressure on the…
President Trump on Saturday pushed back on criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel amid the Russia-Ukraine war. The president told reporters outside the White House that Zelensky “could have settled this war many times,” but “chose not to.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried President Trump’s late-night decision to waive sanctions and tariffs against Russia days before they were set to take effect under a new law. “At a time when the Russians have carried out such a massive attack on our energy sector, a decision was unfortunately made in America to completely…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.
