Is Trump Ready to Bail on Ukraine?

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It's cast this cloud over the entirety of the election system throughout California. A legal battle between the White House and California is weighing on election workers. And an NFL star played a game with a blood clot. Now it's been diagnosed as something much worse. It can place tremendous strain on the heart and lead to death. Why the Philadelphia Eagles are fielding serious health questions. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm Brad Milkey. It's no secret that President Trump would like to see an end to the war in Ukraine. I mean, who wouldn't, right? Everyone wants a war to end. It's just a question of what terms you are willing to accept to end it. But that's just it. As Russia has been escalating its attacks on Ukraine, President Trump has seemed less and less adamant that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should stick it out. I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine. And now amid some of his most devastating losses, Zelensky is now publicly accusing the U.S. president of undermining him. ABC's chief international correspondent, James Longman, has been reporting on this war for a year now. But guess what? He has made his way back inside Ukraine. So, James, let's start with that. What is the state of play where you are right now? Well, Brad, honestly, in the four years that I've been covering this war, I really have never felt this level of unpredictability and uncertainty. We came into the country yesterday, and almost immediately. Now, for those of you listening who aren't clear on the geography of all this, everybody who comes into Ukraine basically comes in from the West where it's supposed to be safer. So we travel in from the Polish border. One thousand seven hundred days of war and the airspace is still too dangerous for you when you drive. And over the last four years, basically, when you travel in over that border, you spend hours on the road coming east because you want to go to where the action is. Not just in Kyiv, but even further east towards cities like Kharkiv and, of course, the Donbass. But largely speaking, for everybody coming into Ukraine, the West has remained safe. For the first time, we felt in really quite deep danger almost immediately after crossing into the country. Hearing a lot more alerts for missile attacks across the country are coming in like once or twice an hour. When I was last here, it just was not like that. I've never felt this way before. Why is this happening? Well, drone technology has developed to such an extent that you just don't know where they're coming from. They could come from any direction. There are any number of different kinds of drones that you have to be aware of. Was that one of the jet drone? They sound different. They travel at different speeds and they are evading, for the most part, a lot of Ukrainian air defenses. I found, just found my cat and we go down. I was so scared. I think the first thing to say is it's scary because the technology has changed. But, Brad, the thing I really want to communicate is it feels really scary because there's a perception here that I feel now I'm in the country, which is that the United States isn't really helping Ukraine much and that they are having to make strategic choices about what they defend, about which parts of the country get defended and which don't. So if you're nowhere close to a military installation, if you're in a park, for instance, where you're stopping to do a news report. Right, we've had to abandon doing that because we've had another alert and everyone's going down to the bunker again. You could well get hit because right now the Russians are trying to hit civilians. I mean, one example, yesterday, Brad, a one-year-old girl was killed in her stroller in a park alongside her mother, because one of these drones came in. There is virtually no warning. So the state of play is that the Ukrainians feel there's been or there is going to be a fundamental shift in U.S. policy towards this country. We've seen the diesel deal, Donald Trump's effort to kind of broker a deal with Vladimir Putin to ease the cost of gas prices in the United States. You've called it a birthday gift to Putin. Explain why. Because it gives Putin money and he spends money only on this war. Sanctions relief for Russia. Right. The package, which has been now suspended for at least 60 days. The Starlink, Starshield controversy, the technology that Ukraine relies on to keep itself safe, intelligence sharing with the United States. The Ukrainians allege that the U.S. has specifically turned that off. And new reporting that we're hearing, haven't yet had comment from the State Department or the Pentagon on this. But the idea that the Pentagon is now not going to be signing off on new pensions. The U.S. is now going to be signing off on new Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine, which the Europeans have already paid for. As per Trump's request, apparently Pete Hegseth choosing not to sign off. All of that makes it feel scary, Brad. But that's the thing, James. Like you mentioned the Starshield, Starlink, this is all part of SpaceX right under Elon Musk. And the Ukrainians have said, listen, these satellites basically slowed down our drones to the point where they couldn't defend us anymore. Elon Musk, who owns the company, said wasn't us, which kind of leaves. It's only two things, right? Either some sort of breakdown, like a whoopsie, or the U.S. government is the one making this decision. Do we have a sense? And what is President Zelensky saying over there? There's claim and counterclaim. Marco Rubio has actually come out quite hard on this and said he didn't know what Zelensky was talking about and that they haven't done this. There's been no pause. The United States. But again, what he should be focused on and what we want to be focused on is bringing an end to this war. But that's absolutely what the Ukrainians are saying. And actually, he's become very. Very blunt now. I'm so thankful that we have such huge support from EU Council Commission and leaders, real leaders. We're used to Zelensky trying to be careful about what he says, doesn't want to anger the United States. But he did tell Bloomberg, I believe steps are being taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate. That is what he believes is United States policy, which is groundbreaking. And it suggests that Ukraine really does now feel that they're going to have to fight this war. With almost no American help. Well, so then what's next, James? Like, what are the things that, you know, you and Ukrainians are going to have their eyes on to get a sense of whether the U.S. is just fully sort of throwing in the towel to Russia here? Well, there's been a suggestion that there could be a trilateral meeting between Russia, China and the United States at the most senior level. So that is Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in the same room together. No Ukraine, but Trump and Putin and Xi together. Wow. You've put your finger right on. No Ukraine, but these are the three powers talking about it. It's the kind of thing that Vladimir Putin loves. We know it's the kind of thing that Donald Trump loves. Whether or not China agrees, well, that remains to be seen. Mr. President, would you meet with Presidents Xi and Putin to discuss the end of the war without Zelensky there? Well, I would meet in order, anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody's there or not. This is supposed to be on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, November 18th. One rather big moment. This is a moment happening before then, of course, Brad, the midterms. So we'll see if that has any impact on whether or not this meeting is something Donald Trump really wants or only wants a little bit. We'll have to wait and see. And again, the sort of sense that you're getting from the war that you can really only get by being there in a place like Western Ukraine. James Longman, there on the ground. Thank you. Thanks, Brad. Next up on Start Here, the feds have detained what they describe as illegal voters in California. Now could more arrests be on the way? We're back in a bit. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Layla Sleep. When you work nighttimes producing a daily morning news podcast, you come to really appreciate the value of a good night's sleep. 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Considering that a good night's sleep is priceless, you can't ask for a better deal, but don't account is only good for a limited time. Head to abcsecretsavings.com slash start here and start sleeping easier today. That's abcsecretsavings.com slash start here. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into. Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. We are exactly two weeks away from the midterm elections. Every day we continue to see polls showing warning signs for Republicans, not just in states that often lean blue like North Carolina or Michigan. Polls also continue to show a dead heat in the Kansas Senate race. Kansas. Republican incumbent Roger Marshall told Fox News yesterday that he's looking for help from President Trump. There's maybe 200,000 people in Kansas that only vote when President Trump is on the ticket. And those are probably two-thirds of the undecided voters are these folks. So he needs to motivate them to call them and say, please come out and vote, support Roger Marshall. Of course, that's a major debate right now in and of itself. Is President Trump helping or hurting Republicans? But forget who's voting for whom for a moment. Let's talk about who's voting at all. For years now, President Trump has been making unfounded allegations that illegal votes are being cast in mass numbers. Not just here or there. He has claimed without any convincing evidence that these are swaying elections. He was in no position to do anything about this in 2016 or 2024. He wasn't president. When he was in 2020, most of his complaints came after the fact in the form of lawsuits that failed left and right. He was in no position to do anything about this in 2014. The question this time around has been, would Trump leverage the powers of the presidency not just to cast doubt on the election, but to even reshape who can come to the polls in the first place? Well, recently, Trump's Justice Department warned it would file suit against the ultimate blue state, California, over what the DOJ describes as non-citizen voters. Yesterday, it issued arrests. ABC's Alex Mallon covers the Justice Department. Alex, can you just catch us up here? What has been going on with the Justice Department and California ballots? Yeah, Brad, so this all started with a letter last week from the number two ranked official at the Justice Department, essentially alerting the California Secretary of State and the L.A. County Clerk. They were sending a thumb drive that had a post-it note attached to it with a password. They said that if you access this thumb drive, that it would reveal the names of roughly 20,000 people that they claim were likely to be non-citizens who were on the state's voter rolls. And they said they were basically demanding that California had 48 hours to act on this list to start purging its voter rolls or at least set aside ballots that may have been mailed to those potential what they describe as likely non-citizens. We are left with 20,000 names who are likely not citizens of the United States, are on California's voter rolls, almost certainly have been sent or are not allowed to vote in federal elections, period. This is a state that does mail ballots to all of its citizens to give them the option to vote by mail. So basically, the department was putting them on notice, saying that if you did not seek to kind of create a mechanism to segregate all of these ballots that were potentially from non-citizens, then they'd have to take legal action. We then heard from California officials saying they didn't even think that they could access this thumb drive based on privacy issues and legal issues. So they're saying that if you All they provided was a list of people and nothing about why they're purportedly ineligible. They didn't know what the information contained, whether it had personally identifying information, and they didn't know the methodology that DOJ went through in order to compile this list of names that, again, it was not clear how many actual non-citizens were on this list. This Department of Justice will not look the other way while non-citizens vote in federal elections. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for California and LA County. Then we immediately saw DOJ, right at the 48-hour mark, file a lawsuit against California accusing it essentially of not cooperating with them in their efforts to remove these people from their voter rolls and segregate these ballots, setting forth, you know, what is likely now to be a potential ongoing litigation just as we get into the heat of the midterms. I see, because usually the concern is like states are supposed to run their elections, but there are federal guidelines for elections. We see that in the Civil Rights Act, stuff like that. This is California saying, "We'll run our elections, thank you very much." The DOJ is saying, "No, you need to comply with our federal law." What would be the consequences, I guess, if they don't follow whatever the DOJ is laying out for them? Well, they sent another letter, again, from the number two ranked official at the Justice Department, Trent McCotter, the acting Deputy Attorney General, who was actually threatening to prosecute any individuals that the Department is able to identify who may be involved in any kind of illegal activity. So, it's a little bit of both. So, that, again, creates a new cloud, not just in the civil sense with the lawsuit that was filed, but now potential criminal penalties for these individuals that include not just top officials, but maybe on the ground election workers who are now unsure as to whether they may have received one of these mail-in ballots that would be from somebody on this list of potential non-citizens. Oh, like Joe Schmoe in Riverside County gets a ballot? And then they could conceivably get arrested because they put it into the feeder, the hopper? Yeah, and that's the error, I think, that this letter really creates. It's cast this cloud over the entirety of the election system throughout California, because then we saw just yesterday DOJ kind of up the ante by bringing charges against 28 people over a variety of election-related crimes, which includes either potentially unlawfully registering to vote. Some of these people they claim did actually vote in several elections. We are announcing charges against 28 non-citizens who illegally registered to vote, and many of which actually voted in prior elections, and they say that all 28 of these people that they were charging were part of that list of 20,000 individuals that they handed over to California that were on that thumb drive. Well, and so those arrests, by the way, what were they arrested for? And does this then kind of back up the claim from the Trump administration that like there are then at least some people illegally voting in elections? Yeah, some. I mean, not all of these people again were charged with actually voting in an election. This is 28 people across the entire state of California over various elections. That still remains, Brad, a minuscule number, not just for the 20,000 names that they handed over on that thumb drive, but think of the millions of Californians who actually do vote in their elections. This is not, again, something that is an election-tipping number that the DOJ is alleging here. Yeah, big developments here, or small developments, depending on you see it, because I think the Trump administration put out these dozens of arrests to be like, hey, here we are. We're following through on this. California officials say, what is this supposed to prove? Certainly not mass voter fraud. All right. Alex Mallon at the DOJ. Thank you. Thanks, Brad. Every now and then, you hear a horror story about an athlete driven to exhaustion by a coach or training regimen in dangerous conditions. Whenever that happens, we talk about guidelines for how to protect athletes. In reality, though, the more common dynamic is really that athletes are the ones pushing to get onto the field and a coach or training staff not stepping in soon enough to prevent it. In some ways, a lot of guidelines are there to protect athletes from themselves. Some breaking news for the Philadelphia Eagles. None of it good. Well, yesterday, Jalen Hurks, the Super Bowl champion quarterback with the Philadelphia Eagles, was ruled out for the season because of blood clots in his legs and lungs. Fans were shocked and concerned for his health. After all, in some cases, this kind of stuff can be fatal. But as people went back and examined the last couple of weeks, that concern turned to confusion and even anger. Because it turns out that Hurts had already been diagnosed with a clot before he played in a game and flew across an ocean. Let's go to ABC's medical correspondent, Dr. Darian Sutton, who works in an emergency room. So, Dr. Sutton, I imagine you have these conversations all the time, right? What does Jalen Hurts have? Because I know I've heard about blood clots. I know they're bad and potentially fatal. I don't know much about them besides that. You're absolutely right, Brad. I actually do have these conversations quite often. It's estimated that nearly a million people are diagnosed with either blood clots in their legs or their lungs every year, as per the CDC. Regarding Jalen Hurts, we understand that he initially was diagnosed with what's called a superficial blood clot. That's when the blood clot is close to the skin. These rarely transmit or travel to the lungs. But he was subsequently or later on diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis or a deeper blood clot. Now, that's concerning. This is a strong change in the diagnosis because the concern is that deep blood clots can break off and embolize or travel to the lungs, causing what's called a pulmonary embolism or a blood clot to the lung. And just to elaborate on why that's concerning, it's not only a blockage of flow to the lung, but it can place tremendous strain on the heart and lead to death. Up to 60,000 people die every year from that diagnosis. Oh, my God. So, at this moment, do we know if Jalen Hurts is super at risk? Do we have a sense? Well, he's certainly at risk. But when these diseases are diagnosed early and they're treated appropriately, the recovery and the outcome can be quite good. For Jalen Hurts, he was found to have what's called bilateral pulmonary embolisms. In other words, he's got blood clots in both of his lungs. He also has a DVT or a deep vein thrombosis or a deep blood clot in his leg. Those two are likely connected. The question is, how is that connected to the initial diagnosis of a superficial blood clot? Yeah, let's talk about that because this is the controversy here is how this was all diagnosed and then treated in the first place. So a couple weeks ago against the L.A. Rams, Hertz apparently got like a cleat dragged across his calf. It was a very unique experience to say the least. I don't want to get into the details of kind of leading up to the game or whatnot, but it got got nicked up in the Rams game. A few days later, it's hurting enough where to the point where he asked the trainers to maybe take a look at it. But they had a game in London a few days later. So the team traveled out to London. They apparently are concerned enough where they ask a doctor to do an ultrasound and take a look at it. That's where the doctor says, yes, this is a superficial vein thrombosis, like you said, the more mild version. But he plays the game the very next day. Is that normal? That could be seen as appropriate from a clinical perspective. Superficial blood clots are theoretically really not a problem when you think about it in the grand scheme of things, because they so rarely transmit or break off and travel to the lungs. The question is the deep vein blood clot. That's the more concerning diagnosis. Was that miss on the initial diagnosis or did it just not exist yet? Well, so and he plays in the game. You're saying if it was indeed just a superficial vein thrombosis like that, that could be normal. His coach, Nick Sirianni, was asked all about this the other day. You know, guys, I'm not a medical expert. I lean on our guys in all those situations. I'm a football coach. I lean on our medical experts in every situation. I have full trust and full faith in them. It's not just me that has major care for our players. It's them as well. But we do know he flies home after the game is over. Now, I don't know a lot about blood clots, but I do feel like I've heard you're not supposed to fly with them. Is that a normal thing to do to fly? Fly home even with a minor blood clot? Well, there are several risk factors that can increase your risk of creating a blood clot inappropriately. And prolonged immobility or long flights is one of them, aside from inflammation or an injury, as well as a genetic risk that you might hold that many people might not know about until they get diagnosed with a blood clot. So flight after a superficial blood clot really shouldn't be a problem. But flight after the diagnosis of a deep vein thrombosis, now that is a hard stop where you just stop to make sure that you acknowledge the risk and to make sure that the patient has appropriate treatment because the flight itself can not only worsen the clot, but create more. When we talk about blood clots, the difference here is what's treated and what's not. So with superficial blood clots, typically there is no formal treatment. It's typically to watch and wait, as opposed to deep vein thrombosis or a deeper blood clot or a pulmonary embolism or blood clot to the lung. Those typically require some level of anticoagulants like blood thinners, and this can increase your risk of serious bleeding. When playing a contact sport, which is likely a strong part of the reason why he's being held off the field for a minimum of three months. The question is, during this workup, will he require additional blood thinners in the future, which could change the course of his career? Right. Although I see that. So the team is saying, hey, we knew there was a superficial thrombosis. We put him on the flight to get back home to his family and everything. Now, just a couple of days later, they're like, this actually appears very, very serious. And this is, I think, why not just fans, but a lot of medical people have a lot of questions for how the Eagles have handled this. All right. Dr. Darian Sutton, thank you so much. Of course. OK, one more quick break. When we come back, a lot of people already don't like to floss. Now something else is gumming up the works. One last thing is next. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business from designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond. Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason. Millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer. Done. No hassle, no negotiation, no guy from an online listing lowballing you. Which means by the time I'm done cleaning this, you could have basically done it. Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. And one last thing. Every time I get a dental cleaning, I know what I'm going to be asked. Are you flossing? To which my answer is always a panicked, sure, a few times a week. Notice the upward inflection there like it's a question, which I always regret because the hygienist knows. She can see the plaque better than anyone. She knows I'm lying, which might be why I had not heard about the conversation in the flossing community recently with people asking, sorry, does this floss feel different to anyone else? The wax coating thing is gone. It's rougher. I don't like it. I hate it. Has your glide floss changed? Mine too. I'm not happy about it. Apparently, earlier this year, Procter & Gamble, the maker of the popular Oral-B floss line, changed some of their formulations. Some customers complained that the variety known as glide suddenly wasn't gliding as smoothly. Quote, it feels like I'm going to take a tooth along with it when I pull it out, one Reddit commenter said. While these flossers might have seen it as a downgrade, those in the know explained the move. Researchers say your dental floss could be exposing you to toxic chemicals. For a few years now, dentists have been reckoning with studies about some of the most popular flosses on the market that are made with what are often called forever chemicals. The most common of these materials is called polytetrafluorothylene, PTFE. You'd know it by its brand name, Teflon. And while Teflon is great for keeping things from getting sticky, it's not good at decomposing, which has concerned some users, considering plastics can often shed tiny microscopic pieces. Now, a ton of disclaimers here. While some studies show forever chemicals do cause adverse health effects, those have not been specifically connected with Teflon. The most cited study that showed elevated levels of acid particles among flossers did not show definitively that the floss was the thing causing the level change. By the way, the American Dental Association has not claimed these products were or are unsafe. Nevertheless, companies like Colgate a few years ago and now Procter & Gamble have switched out these compounds for microtextured fiber they say will improve strength, durability, and handling performance, even though some of these floss enthusiasts say they're in for a rough time. Ironically, some hygienists say they actually prefer a floss with more texture. If it's literally non-stick, that might not be scrubbing your gum line the way it needs to. They'd welcome the change regardless of the chemicals involved. Doctors say the key point here, if you're worried about forever chemicals, is not to use this as an excuse to stop flossing. The practice can prevent very serious, very tangible health problems down the line, and some of us clearly already give up easily enough. At this point, my hygienist is driving home the "something is better than nothing" line of "hey, maybe you could set a goal like Sundays and Wednesdays. You floss every time. Would that work?" She has no faith in me at this point. She also was like, "use a waterpik." There are lots of different ways to keep your teeth healthy, but you gotta do something, you guys. More on all these stories on ABC News Live or wherever you stream live news. I'm Brad Milkey. See you tomorrow. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.