Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) joins Meet the Press as the Pentagon investigates him for a video he recorded with other Democratic lawmakers urging service members to disobey illegal orders. Kelly defends the message but does not specify any orders he believes President Trump has already given that were unlawful.

On Wednesday in Washington, D.C., two National Guard troops were shot, one fatally. The shooting suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who had assisted U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, was granted asylum by the Trump administration earlier this year. Now, President Trump has proposed new anti-immigration policies in response. Weijia Jiang reports the latest developments.

A meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. delegations on a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine has begun in the United States.

As the U.S. grows more diverse, a quiet civil war is unfolding within American Christianity over who deserves empathy. Why it matters: Conservatives ranging from evangelical pastors to Elon Musk have started framing empathy not as a virtue but as a vulnerability on immigration, racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. --- * They are working to drive out school lessons on empathy and argue in books and sermons that empathy is for the weak or "woke." * Others say empathy is central to Christianity and the teachings of Jesus. * This split comes as Christianity and organized religion are shrinking and the U.S. undergoes a profound demographic transformation: no single racial group will hold a majority within two decades. Zoom in: "Empathy as hoisted up as the highest virtue — or even a virtue at all — gets us into a really big mess," conservative author Allie Beth Stuckey said on a "Family Talk" podcast. She wrote a book last year, "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion." * "Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell," pastor Josh McPherson, a conservative men's-ministry influencer, said on his "Stronger Man Nation" podcast. * Pastor Joe Rigney, in his book, "The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits," attacks empathy as spiritually dangerous. * Elon Musk said on Joe Rogan's podcast this February that Western empathy toward the suffering of others is being "weaponized" and linked it to civilizational decline, even though he thought empathy was good. The big picture: Around 80% of U.S. adults said empathy was a moral value that underpinned a healthy society, according to the wide-ranging survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in October. * Only 16% said empathy was a dangerous emotion that undermines "our ability to set up a society that is guided by God's truth," the poll found. The other side: "In the Christian tradition, to have anybody argue that a spirit of empathy is somehow a vulnerability... is insane," Father Brendan Busse, pastor of Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Los Angeles, tells Axios. * Busse said the suffering of Jesus on the Cross invokes empathy, as does the call to help "the least of these" in the Gospels. * Empathy drives the mission of Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles-based (and world's largest) gang intervention organization, founded by Catholic priest Greg Boyle. * The North Carolina-based Repairers of the Breach, founded by Bishop William J. Barber II, uses empathy to fight poverty and economic inequality. Between the lines: Between 2021 and early 2023, legislators in at least 25 states introduced bills backed by conservatives intended to ban or restrict social-emotional learning (SEL) in K-12 schools. * Social-emotional learning is an educational strategy that teaches empathy, cooperation and social skills. * All SEL bans have failed to pass following opposition from educators and moderate Christians. The bottom line: The Bible gives conflicting messages on empathy, said Dan McClellan, a Biblical scholar and author of "The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture's Most Controversial Issues." * On the one hand, McClellan said some stories in scripture speak of empathy only for your ethnic group and disregard others, like Joshua's passages about the walls of Jericho and the killing of innocent children. * "Then there's a universal empathy, where your empathy extends beyond your own group," McClellan said, pointing to the Beatitudes and Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Pavlo Palisa and Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Andrii Hnatov have discussed the details of new principles for distributing personnel among combat brigades – the initiative the president spoke about, which now genuinely requires change.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that authorities believe the suspect in the National Guard shooting was radicalized in the U.S. and that the asylum process for migrants would resume once the administration has dealt with a backlog of applications.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says on Meet the Press she authorized deportation flights carrying Venezuelan migrants out of the U.S. to continue even after a federal judge called for the planes to be returned “immediately.”

Democratic lawmakers put out a video two weeks ago reminding American troops they can refuse an illegal order from their commander. President Donald Trump has since accused the members of sedition, the FBI has opened an investigation into them and the Pentagon has threatened a court martial of Sen. Mark Kelly. What prompted the video and what is behind the controversy? NBC’s Courtney Kube reports in this week’s Sunday Focus.

It has been widely reported that the US tech billionaire Peter Thiel recently gave a series of rambling lectures to a private audience in San Francisco in which he laid out his apocalyptic reading of world politics. These lectures mark the culmination of two years of Thiel traveling the world speaking at Catholic universities, at […]

In an award-winning investigation conducted jointly with OCCRP, Schemes determined the identity of a doctor whose conduct stood out in the memories of inmates who said they suffered near-constant violence and abuse at IK-10, a prison in Russia’s Mordovia region.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting in Florida with Ukrainian officials to discuss a proposed peace deal with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy reports that Russia launched a series of attacks killing at least two people in Kyiv. Russia’s defense minister claims the strikes were in response to a Ukrainian naval drone assault on Russian tankers in the Black Sea.

Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker joins Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist to discuss how President Donald Trump is shifting immigration policy after the deadly attack on National Guard soldiers by a suspect who is an Afghan national.

President Donald Trump sent out a warning that everyone from airlines to drug traffickers should consider the airspace over Venezuela closed. The president has no authority over their skies, but his message comes as he has threatened U.S. strikes inside the country and puts pressure on its leader Nicolás Maduro. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports for Sunday TODAY.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has submitted a request for a formal pardon amid a yearslong corruption trial, just weeks after President Donald Trump said he should be pardoned.“Today my lawyers submitted a request for clemency to the President of the State,” Netanyahu said in a video address posted on X Sunday.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Russian state media are actively pushing a false narrative that the "frontline in Ukraine will imminently collapse," despite the fact that this does not reflect the real situation on the battlefield.

John McAuliff won against a Republican by focusing on something affecting all his constituents: the cost of energy John McAuliff, a 33-year-old small business owner and former civil servant, was one of the more unlikely Democrats to win election to Virginia’s legislature this month, after a campaign in which he could, at times, come off a bit like a Republican. McAuliff was among the 13 Democrats elected to the legislature in Virginia’s elections earlier this month, as part of a blowout victory for the party that gives it firm control of the southern state’s government. Along with wins in New Jersey, California and elsewhere, the results put some wind back into Democrats’ sails nationwide, a year after their drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump and the Republicans. Continue reading...

U.S. and Ukrainian officials will hold negotiations on Sunday morning in Miami before President Trump's envoys head to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. and Ukrainian officials say. Why it matters: The U.S. and Ukraine are working to finalize understandings on the U.S. peace plan, which has been heavily revised over several days of talks to be more palatable to Kyiv. Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to present that document to Putin on Tuesday. --- Between the lines: President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff and lead negotiator Andriy Yermak was expected to lead the Ukrainian delegation, but he resigned on Friday after anti-corruption authorities raided his home. * The corruption probe has reached deep into Zelensky's inner circle and rattled his government. Yermak, long seen as the second-most powerful person in Ukraine, texted associates on Sunday that he was "going to the front" in eastern Ukraine. Driving the news: The Ukrainian contingent, now led by national security adviser Rustem Umerov, is already in Miami ahead of the meeting, which will take place at Witkoff's exclusive Shell Bay golf club. * The delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ambassador to the U.S. Olha Stefanishyna, military chief of staff Gen. Andrii Hnatov and Ukrainian intelligence officials, per Ukrainian officials. * The U.S. team includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff and Kushner. What to watch: During talks in Geneva last Sunday, the sides reached agreements in principle on all but two issues: territory and security guarantees. * A senior U.S. official said the White House wants to close the gaps on those last two issues on Sunday, sayin: "The Ukrainians know what we expect from them." The other side: Prior to his resignation, Yermak told Axios that territorial concessions could only be negotiated at the presidential level. * But Trump said last week that he would only meet Zelensky and Putin once the parties were close to an agreement to end the war. * "The dialogue based on the Geneva points will continue. Diplomacy remains active. The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end. The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the guys to work in accordance with clear Ukrainian priorities," Zelensky said on Saturday. Friction point: The U.S. side hopes that bringing a set of U.S.-Ukraine understandings to the table will help them make progress with Putin. * But as the Ukrainians have managed to secure edits to the original 28-point U.S. plan, the Kremlin has cast doubt on its willingness to accept the terms. * Putin also doubled down on his territorial demands, saying Thursday that Russia will either take all the land it claims peacefully or through force. He said Kyiv seemed prepared to fight "to the last Ukrainian," and so is Russia.

Russia is intensifying its policy of russification of population in the territories it has seized, and plans for 95% of the country’s residents to identify as “Russian” by 2036.

This story was originally published by Vox and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a sunny morning two years ago, a group of state officials stood in the mountains of northwestern Colorado in front of a handful of large metal crates. With a small crowd watching them, the officials began to unlatch the […]

There is growing understanding that our country is witnessing evil in our public life. Here is a path to confronting it Across the country, organizers are carrying something heavier, clearer and more spiritually charged than anything I have seen in over 30 years of this work. From veteran freedom fighters to young activists, there is a growing alignment around the unmistakable presence of evil in our public life. The horrors unfolding before us have sharpened our collective sight and deepened the understanding that our resistance must be morally unwavering and spiritually grounded. The spiritual framework for this argument begins with a simple conviction. Our movements need to reclaim a moral vocabulary that names evil plainly. Dr King understood this. When he named the pain of poverty, the sickness of racism and the excess of materialism, he called them the “triple evils”, speaking with unflinching clarity about the devastation that this collective evil was inflicting on the country, on our conscience and on our very souls. We are living in such a moment again. The evil is fully out, and anyone with spiritual integrity can see it. Among the forces driving that clarity are Gaza, empire and ICE. Dr Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur fellow and the founding executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) Continue reading...

Prince Harry—once a prolifically litigious public figure—has made way for a new king of the lawsuits in Donald Trump.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has urged Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin to abandon the idea of recreating the Soviet empire and to take seriously the American peace proposal, which has been refined jointly with European partners.

Russia's main launch facility for sending cosmonauts into space was damaged during the latest launch of a Soyuz capsule, prompting emergency repairs.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed two decrees enacting decisions of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to synchronize sanctions with the United States and impose restrictions on individuals and legal entities involved in the production and operation of various types of Russian drones.

Former oversight officials alarmed by dismantling of DHS system that oversees complaints about civil rights harms The federal watchdog system at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees complaints about civil rights violations, including in immigration detention, has been gutted so thoroughly that it could be laying the groundwork for the Trump administration to “abuse people with impunity”, experts warn. Former federal oversight officials have sounded the alarm at the rapid dismantling of guardrails against human rights failures – at the same time as the government pushes aggressive immigration enforcement operations. Border Patrol agents in Arizona forcibly removed a detained man from a cell, handcuffed him and then injected him with ketamine to sedate him in 2023, according to a CRCL document confirming the watchdog’s investigation into the allegation. A Guardian reporter had saved that document just weeks before it was scrubbed from the DHS’s website. Guards at a privately owned Louisiana detention center systematically mistreated detained immigrants, according to a CRCL document. This included an investigation into a 2024 incident during which correctional staff pepper sprayed around 200 detained immigrants who were staging a hunger strike in protest of detention conditions. Guards then allegedly locked the men in the unit and cut the power and water for hours. A majority of the men were allegedly denied medical care, the original complaint, submitted to the CRCL by RFK Human Rights, said. In a Florida jail, a 33-year-old immigrant woman with mental health problems was forcibly stripped naked, strapped to a restraint chair and mocked by male guards, according to a CRCL complaint submitted by the ACLU of Florida and RFK Human Rights. The woman was allegedly left with “contusions and marks on her body” after hours in the restraint chair. The whistleblower declaration said the CRCL had launched an investigation into the case. Agents violated due process during the arrest and detention of Palestinian student and Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, according to the whistleblower complaint. Continue reading...