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Russia, Ukraine take ‘significant first step toward peace’ after Rubio-led negotiations, White House insists

Initial discussions between Trump administration officials and Russia in Saudi Arabia Tuesday marked a “significant milestone” in securing peace between Russia and Ukraine, according to the White House press secretary.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met in Riyadh with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov to hash out ways to end the conflict. Ukraine was absent from the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide specifics about the discussions, but she said the Trump administration was committed to brokering a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries.

“What I will tell you is that today, sitting down at the table was a significant first step toward peace,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

‘MAKE NATO GREAT AGAIN’: HEGSETH PUSHES EUROPEAN ALLIES TO STEP UP DEFENSE EFFORTS

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was committed to brokering a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday that an invitation to the talks wasn’t extended to Ukraine and that he was postponing a scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia until March.

Zelenskyy has stressed that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations, and said Sunday that Ukraine wouldn’t accept a peace deal if his country were absent from negotiations.

But Leavitt said that everyone would have a seat at the negotiating table — including other European allies — as the Trump administration seeks to advance a peace deal.

“We’re ensuring that all parties are heard,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox New’s “America Reports” Tuesday. “But you have to speak to both sides of the war in order to truly negotiate a deal and problem solve. And this is a significant first step toward peace.”

TOP RUSSIAN, US OFFICIALS MEET IN SAUDI ARABIA TO BEGIN TALKS ON UKRAINE WAR WITHOUT OFFICIALS FROM KYIV

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, sits next to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, right, and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 18, 2025. (The Associated Press)

Leavitt said that President Donald Trump was in correspondence with Zelenskyy, and spoke with other European allies like French President Emmanuel Macron Monday. Additionally, she said that Trump will meet with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House next week.

Trump and Zelenskky also spoke over the phone Wednesday about the negotiations, and Zelenskyy said he relayed that he believes Putin isn’t interested in peace with Ukraine.

“I said that [Putin] is a liar,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.’”

While Zelenskyy voiced gratitude for U.S. support, he said that there is no “leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us, about us.”

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on “Meet the Press.”

PUTIN’S A ‘LITTLE BIT SCARED’ OF TRUMP AS NATIONS BEGIN PEACE TALKS, ZELENSKYY SAYS

President Donald Trump (center), Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right). (Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty Images | Contributor/Getty Images | Scott Olson/Getty Images)

But Trump has offered reassurances that Zelenskyy would be involved in peace conversations, and told reporters Sunday on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida that Ukraine would get a seat at the negotiating table.

The first action the U.S. plans to take following the meetings with Russian officials is to “reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow,” Rubio told reporters from The Associated Press and CNN.

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“For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally,” Rubio said, according to a State Department transcript.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.

Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.

February 18, 2025
Egypt planning ’emergency’ Arab summit on Palestinian territory as Trump insists US ‘own’ Gaza

Egypt announced on Sunday it will host a summit of Arab leaders on Feb. 27 to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after President Donald Trump signaled he wants the U.S. to own it.

Trump’s stunning declaration, made last week after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated over the weekend, rankled key U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said the meeting in Cairo would include discussions on “the state of Palestine that asked to hold the summit in order to discuss new and dangerous developments for the Palestinian cause.”

Gaza’s Arab neighbors also dismissed Trump’s calls for them to take in the 1.8 million Palestinians still living in the Strip.

TRUMP’S GAZA ‘TAKEOVER’ RANKLES AMERICA FIRST CONSERVATIVES, ALLIES SUGGEST NEGOTIATOR-IN-CHIEF IS AT WORK

President Donald Trump, right, suggested U.S. owning Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

While many of Trump’s allies surmised the bold suggestion was a negotiating tactic, Trump reasserted to reporters Sunday night as he was leaving the Super Bowl that he was committed to “buying and owning” Gaza.

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back,” he said.

“There’s nothing to move back in to. The place is a demolition site… The remainder will be demolished,” he added. “But we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody.”

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, agreed to in January and partially brokered by Trump’s team, calls for a three- to five-year reconstruction phase, but Trump officials now insist it will take more like 10 to 15 years to rebuild the 139-square-mile territory that has been leveled by Israel’s offensive against Hamas.

Trump insisted Palestinians do not want to go back to Gaza.

“We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they’re not murdered,” he said. “They don’t want to go back to Gaza. They only go back because they have no alternative.”

TRUMP REMAINS COMMITTED TO US OWNING GAZA, SAYS MIDDLE EAST STATES COULD HELP REBUILD WAR-TORN AREA

“There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site,” President Donald Trump said of Gaza. (EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is due to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, and Trump is expected to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the coming days.

The Palestinian terror group Hamas on Sunday called Trump’s latest comments “absurd.”

“Gaza is not a property that can be bought and sold, and it is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, wrote on Telegram.

“Dealing with the Palestinian issue with the mentality of a real estate dealer is a recipe for failure,” al-Risheq added.

ARAB AMERICANS FOR TRUMP GROUP CHANGES NAME AFTER PRESIDENT’S GAZA TAKEOVER PROPOSAL

“Our Palestinian people will thwart all displacement and deportation plans. Gaza belongs to its people.”

Also on Sunday, Israel began withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor in Gaza as Palestinians return to their homes there – both sides honoring a tenuous ceasefire that is expected to return home Israel’s remaining hostages.

President Donald Trump promised that the U.S. would keep Hamas, pictured above, out of Gaza. (TPS-IL)

However, negotiations for the mid- and long-term future are ongoing. Hamas wants all Israeli troops out of Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas eliminated.

Last week, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz suggested Trump’s comments would turn up the heat on the Middle East to find its own solutions.

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“I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions,” Waltz mused about the comments on CBS on Wednesday.

Waltz went on, adding, “He’s not seeing any realistic solutions on how those miles and miles and miles of debris are going to be clear, how those essentially unexploded bombs are going to be removed, how these people are physically going to live there for at least a decade, if not longer, it’s going to take to do this.”

February 10, 2025
Popular real estate entrepreneur insists US is still suffering through a ‘difficult’ market

The Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran discusses losing her Los Angeles home to wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom meeting with President Donald Trump, home insurance companies canceling policies and U.S. mortgage rates.

Sunny skies aren’t shining across America’s real estate market just yet, according to one of the nation’s top experts and “Shark Tank” entrepreneurs.

“No one wants to move and [there are] fewer houses to choose from at higher rates. So it’s difficult for homebuyers,” Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran said on “Mornings with Maria,” Thursday.

Mortgage rates are moving down “by a fraction of a point,” Corcoran pointed out while reacting to 30-year fixed rates falling to 6.96% – the lowest level in six weeks. As of Thursday, the 15-year fixed loan rate was at 6.21%.

However, in Corcoran’s view, rates aren’t low enough for sellers to list their homes. Redfin reported in December that more than half (54.5%) of homes on the market had been listed for more than 60 days, with many deemed too expensive by would-be buyers.

TRUMP WANTS TO FIX THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS: WHAT IT WILL TAKE

“Mentally, it affects the housing market because people are waiting for very good news and coming down a tenth of a point is not really good news. It went from 7 [percent] to 6.9,” she explained. “Psychologically, that makes a difference, but with interest rates remaining high, what it really causes is fewer houses on the market.”

Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran shares good and bad news on U.S. housing, on “Mornings with Maria” Thursday. (Getty Images)

What’s more, the real estate expert doesn’t believe home prices will come down anytime soon.

“I don’t think it’s in the nature of sellers to be realistic, honestly. Their house is always worth more,” Corcoran argued.

The Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran argues that a massive mortgage rate drop would be ‘tremendous’ for the markets during an appearance on ‘Cavuto: Coast to Coast.’

“I don’t think prices will shake out at all. I think they’ll hold out hoping interest rates will go down again. And what is it to them?” she continued. “It’s another six months. And a lot of the sellers have very low interest rates they don’t want to give up.”

This current stagnant market was preceded by a flurry of activity driven by high demand during the pandemic, but has significantly slowed as soaring home prices and mortgage rates have led to an ongoing affordability crisis that has pushed homeownership out of reach for many Americans.

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SERHANT. founder and ‘Owning Manhattan’ lead Ryan Serhant breaks down latest data around U.S. real estate, stating that fixing affordability begins with opening loan doors and freeing up federal land for home builds.

Some pockets of optimism can be found in the luxury housing market, as Corcoran noted those deals are getting done at double the rate of the national average.

“I really like the luxury market. I hate to say, I’m very bullish on that, particularly in warm climates. All the rates… are going up almost double the national average. And that’s a pretty good report card.”

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FOX Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.

February 9, 2025