Ukraine President Zelensky is dealing with American diplomats who are "playing games" reports Spiegel news in Germany

Echo report published in NewsNation by Andreas Rinke, Gabriel Stargardter and Dominique Vidalon:

BERLIN Germany (Reuters) – The French President and German Chancellor have voiced skepticism over the direction that U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace between Ukraine and Russia are taking, German magazine Spiegel cited a transcript of a confidential call as showing.

• France, Germany express skepticism over US plan
• The report is from Germany's largest news magazine
• French and German officials won't comment

In a report on Thursday, December 4, 2026, Spiegel said that in the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders, France’s Emmanuel Macron warned that the United States could insist that Ukraine makes territorial concessions to Russia without guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression.

“There is a chance that the U.S. will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” he said, according to the magazine.

In the call that took place on Monday, December 1, 2025, Germany’s Friedrich Merz warned

Zelenskiy that U.S. negotiators are “playing games” and that he should be “very careful” over the next few days, the Spiegel report said.

Berlin declined to comment, while the French President’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The President did not express himself in these words,” Spiegel quoted the Élysée as saying.

Alert to Governor Ron DeSantis: Do you know that Florida people are dying of COVID?

Florida's Governor DeSantis needs some French lessons on handling the unvaccinated published in the Sarasota Herald- Tribune written by Roger Brown.

Governor Ron DeSantis is supposed to be "pro-life". Truth be told, he is obviously a hypocrite!

DATELINE FLORIDA - "The notoriety of being the state viewed as the "epicenter" of America’s growing surge of highly infectious COVID cases."

So, obviously, DeSantis has not been home in Florida very much. Instead, he has been traveling around a lot lately, including a trek to our border with Mexico for the purpose of . . . well , who really knows the purpose of that trip?

But for God’s sake wouldn’t we all be better off if DeSantis would travel instead to France to get some lessons in leadership from someone bold enough to make the necessary boss moves to keep his country from becoming as COVID-riddled as Florida?

Someone brave enough to tell those who remain unvaccinated – and won't get COVID vaccine shots – that the days of indulging their stubbornness and ignorance are over? Done?

In short, wouldn’t we be better off if we had French President Emmanuel Macron in Florida right now? 

Florida sees spike in reported coronavirus

Although that's pretty dramatic, we need to examine DeSantis' misguided motivation. He doesn't appear to care about saving the lives of Floridians.

Here what we’ve gotten from DeSantis’ worshipful enabling of Florida's unvaccinated hordes:

• The notoriety of being the state viewed as the "epicenter" of America’s growing surge of highly infectious COVID cases.

• Rising hospitalization rates in Florida medical centers like Sarasota Memorial Hospital, which is now limiting visitors to its facility – in other words, doing exactly what it was doing last year when there were no vaccines and the pandemic was at its height of infections and deaths.

Compare that to France and what’s happened there in the short time since Macron warned all French citizens that if they didn’t become vaccinated – and soon – they wouldn’t be allowed entry inside most public facilities:

• In a one-week period nearly 4 million people made appointments to get COVID vaccine shots.

• The number of daily confirmed COVID cases in France, according to World Health Organization stats, has been gradually dropping over the past several days.

That’s a pretty yawning leadership gap between someone in Florida who’s been sitting on his hands regarding COVID and someone in France who's been forcing the hands of the irresponsible people who won't take COVID seriously.

And it’s a really alarming one when you consider that if DeSantis has his way, he could be one of Macron’s peers as a world leader in, say, four years.

In fact, it’s so alarming that I reached out to Boston University professor Vivien A. Schmidt – an expert in European politics and renowned for her knowledge of French public policy – to get her perspective on why Macron is showing such bravery in facing down the unvaccinated.

In an email from Italy, Schmidt wrote that while the French “tend to be generally more critical of their governments than most . . . my sense is that public opinion sides with Macron (on his approach). His discourse has been: 'If you want to enjoy the fruits of a free society, then you have to do as much as everyone else to ensure that it is safe for everyone.'”

And getting vaccinated, Schmidt wrote, is part of that shared sense of responsibility that Macron is demanding – demanding! – that French citizens embrace. “(Macron) stands a good chance of getting re-elected,” Schmidt added. “And this may be just the ticket.”

So, yes, it is possible to tell the “I ain’t getting no (expletive) vaccine shot” crowd to “get one – or else.”

And, yes, it is possible to get away with doing it, too.

It really just boils down to this: getting up enough courage to do it.

By my calculations, the quickest it would take DeSantis to fly from Tallahassee to Paris is 11 hours and 25 minutes. That’s no small deal. But if it could lead to DeSantis finally traveling the path of enlightenment on getting unvaccinated people in Florida to do what’s right, there should only be three words left to say:

Bon voyage, governor.
Opinions Editor Roger Brown

P.S. Maine Writer- En francais #lesvaccinsfonctionnent

It's impossible to understand how Governor DeSantis can ignore the well being of Floridians when vaccines are proven to prevent the spread of the COVID pandemic. 

Let's send DeSantis to study the eons of the impact caused by historic failed leadership

Can somebody help to fund Governor Ron DeSantis' visit to the British Museum in London, to view (and learn) about the failed Roman Emperor Nero? (Nero was born December 15, 37 ce, in Antium, Latium—and died June 9, 68, Rome), fifth Roman emperor (54–68 ce), stepson and heir of the emperor Claudius.)

Perhaps the most infamous of Rome’s emperors, Nero Claudius Caesar (37-68 A.D.) ruled Rome from 54 A.D. until his death by suicide, 14 years later.  (Does he resemble Ron DeSantis? Hmmm?)

Has stupid Governor Ron DeSantis taken advice about COVID? Nah! Nero redux! With Florida aflame with COVID, stupid Governor DeSantis resembles the Roman leader Nero more each day. In fact, DeSantis even looks like the failed Roman despot.

Opinion echo published in Sarasota Herald Tribune: The more Florida remains ablaze with COVID-19, the more DeSantis resembles Nero

Look, I’ve conjured up as many proposals as I can to convince Gov. Ron DeSantis to start treating common sense as an ally in the fight to stem COVID in Florida – and not as the adversary he clearly views it to be.

Governor of Florida Ron DesSantis is an Emperor Nero reenactor!

I’ve suggested that DeSantis take French lessons and emulate the decisive leadership that France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has shown by getting tough with the petulant, anti-intellectual, science-mocking, “I ain’t getting vaccinated and you ain’t gonna make me no way, no how – no matter how many people get sick around me" (cult!) crowd.

I pleaded with DeSantis to not be “that guy” – the guy destined to be forever remembered, like former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, as a leader who, during a key moment in history, notoriously stood in the way of progress and enlightenment.

But, stupid Governor Ron DeSantis has not listened to my plea.

Therefore, I'm going to have to get money involved in all this.

Yes! I am ready to pay £25 – the £20 adult admission fee plus an additional £5 museum donation – to buy Gov. DeSantis a ticket to see “Nero: The Man Behind the Myth,” the wildly popular exhibition devoted to the infamous Roman emperor, in the world-renowned British Museum in London.

This is no small deal because the last time I checked, £25 converts to nearly $35 in American currency.  (Maine Writer- Can we also launch a fund raiser to pay for the DeSantis - one way- travel expenses? Just askin'!)

But, it's an investment I'll gladly make to let DeSantis learn, firsthand, about someone else who did precious little while the place he led – in Nero’s case, the fire-ravaged Rome of A.D. 64 – became ablaze with growing misery and affected lives.

OK, OK, I'll make the obvious point: No, of course, DeSantis doesn’t resemble Nero in every way: while DeSantis seems to govern with a relentlessly cynical streak, that’s nothing close to the routinely ruthless one that Nero wielded as an emperor.

Fine. I'll concede that much.(But, hey! He has the capacity to do so!)

But, come on now, think about it:

As Florida remains aflame with raging COVID infections, alarming levels of hospitalizations, rising deaths, still-sluggish vaccination rates and bizarre efforts to block schoolchildren from being protected by masks in classrooms, is there really much difference in how DeSantis is mishandling this crisis and how Nero obliviously allowed Rome to burn to a rubble around him?

Nero spent an inordinate amount of time preening, posturing and blustering instead of acting proactively to handle the fire.

HELO? Does this sound like stupid DeSantis and COVID? Check.

Moreover, Nero blamed others for causing and failing to quell the fire – instead of showing true accountability as a leader to bring things under control. DeSantis and COVID? Um, check again.

In fact, there are many DeSantis-Nero similarities. 

What DeSantis is is wrongly doing in Florida right now and what emperor Nero did back in Roman history, are like bookend historic similarities. Still, there’s only one reason why you can’t accurately accuse DeSantis of doing a perfect imitation of Nero “fiddling while Rome burned”: in fact, the violin actually hadn’t been invented when Nero was alive.

That’s pretty eye-opening when you think about it.

And it’s why I’m willing to open my wallet in yet one more bid to get DeSantis to open his mind – and to change his misguided approach to addressing COVID’s still-fearsome grip on our state.

Here’s hoping Gov. DeSantis takes me up on the offer. And here's hoping that he does it quickly.

You might say the time for fiddling around is over.

Opinions Editor Roger Brown can be reached at roger.brown@heraldtribune.com. 

Donald Trump failed again in Paris #myUS_apologies

Dear citizens of Europe, as an American citizen, please accept my sincere apologies for the ongoing embarrassment of Donald tRump.

#myUS_apologies

The New York Times reports
By Peter Baker and Alissa J. Rubin

PARIS — Dozens of leaders from around the globe marched in the soaking rain down the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, expressing solidarity for an international order that had its origins in the end of a world war 100 years ago, an order now under increasing pressure on both sides of the Atlantic.

Only after these leaders arrived by foot at the Arc de Triomphe did President Trump show up, protected from the rain as he made an individual entrance. A few minutes later, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia did the same.

For Trump, at least, the separate arrival was attributed to security concerns. But somehow it felt apt that these two leaders would not arrive with the crowd.

No one has done more to break up the postwar global system in the last couple of years than Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. As the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I was commemorated on Sunday, Mr. Trump’s brand of “America First” nationalism was rebuked from the podium while he sat stone-faced and unmoved, alienated from some of America’s strongest allies, including his French hosts.

But while he may have been out of step with many of the leaders gathered around him, Trump remains at the vanguard of forces that are redefining the Western political paradigm in countries like Poland, Hungary, Italy and Turkey. In Britain and Germany, two of the Continent’s major powers, nationalist movements have upended the establishment.

Recalling the forces that led to World War I, Mr. Macron warned that “the old demons” have been resurfacing and declared that “giving into the fascination for withdrawal, isolationism, violence and domination would be a grave error that future generations would very rightly make us responsible for.”

Mr. Trump, who recently declared himself “a nationalist,” appeared grim as he listened to the speech through an earpiece and clapped only tepidly afterward.

He had no speaking role and made no mention of the issues Mr. Macron raised during an address later at a cemetery for American soldiers killed in the war.

The ceremony led by Mr. Macron encapsulated the tension in the international arena as Mr. Trump seeks to rewrite the rules that have governed the world in recent decades. He has abandoned international agreements on trade, nuclear proliferation and climate change, and disparaged alliances like NATO and the European Union.

On the campaign trail this fall, Mr. Trump railed against what he called the “rule of corrupt, power-hungry globalists,” as he put it at a rally in Houston. “You know what a globalist is, right? You know what a globalist is? A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can’t have that.”

Mr. Macron has now, in effect, given a rebuttal. In addition to the speech, he also used an interview with Fareed Zakaria of CNN that aired Sunday to define himself as “a patriot” rather than a “nationalist.”

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a speech at the Arc de Triomphe, welcoming the leaders and extolling an old system now under siege. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying: ‘Our interest first. Who cares about the others?’”

President Macron ~ say whaaaa? En Anglais!

Love the humorist Andy Borowitz!  He points out that President Macron of France can speak French and English!

Satire from The Borowitz ReportAmericans Startled by Spectacle of President Who Can Speak English! En Anglais, s'il vous plait!

President Emmanuel Macron of France visited Washington DC on April 24-25, 2018.

French Tri-Couleurs ~ Red, White and Blue drapeau

WASHINGTON, DC- (The Borowitz Report) An echo from The New Yorker—Americans who were watching television on Wednesday morning witnessed the startling spectacle of an English-speaking President, viewers have confirmed.

En anglais! Bravo!

All of the major cable news networks interrupted their regularly scheduled programs to cover the phenomenon, as a man who was identified as “President” spoke in complete, grammatically correct English sentences with no visible sign of strain or discomfort.

Just minutes into the telecast, thousands of viewers called the networks to inquire if they were witnessing a hoax.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Carol Foyler, a viewer in Akron, Ohio, said. “It had to be special effects or something.”

While the spectacle might have appeared jarring to many, cable news insiders reported that the networks had in fact aired several hundred speeches by an English-speaking President between the years 2009 and 2017.