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US President Donald Trump moved Friday to create a blacklist of countries that Washington says unjustly detain Americans, spelling out harsh punishments including bans on travel.In an executive order, Trump said the United States will now designate “state sponsors of wrongful detention,” similar to the powerful tool of branding countries as state sponsors of terrorism.”With this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that US citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” Trump aide Sebastian Gorka told reporters in the Oval Office.The Trump administration did not immediately name countries for the new blacklist, but a senior official said that China, Iran and Afghanistan would be under review as they “persistently participate in hostage diplomacy.”The countries designated by the State Department would be subject to sanctions and US export controls, and officials involved in the imprisonment would be barred from entry.In one measure rarely taken by the United States, officials said that the State Department could bar US citizens from visiting countries put on the blacklist.Currently the United States only strictly bans its citizens from traveling to North Korea, a step taken after American student Otto Warmbier was detained in 2016 in the totalitarian state and released the following year in a vegetative state, dying shortly afterward.The new blacklist can also target groups that effectively control territory but are not recognized as states.The United States across administrations has put a top priority on freeing Americans overseas, negotiating prisoner swaps to free high-profile detainees including in Russia.Trump has trumpeted his record on freeing Americans, with officials saying 72 prisoners have been released overseas under his watch. A US official said that the new executive order would make it easier to take action without going through a “burdensome” process.The United States can also remove countries if it decides they have come into compliance.The State Department routinely helps Americans detained overseas and then assesses whether they were jailed for wrongful reasons, including as political bargaining chips.Under former president Joe Biden, China released all Americans considered wrongfully detained in part in return for the United States loosening a warning against Americans traveling to the Asian power, advice that had hurt the business climate.

US job growth stalled in August while unemployment crept up to its highest level since 2021, in a closely watched report Friday after weak data earlier prompted President Donald Trump to fire a key economic official.Overall, the figures confirmed a labor market slowdown in the world’s biggest economy as businesses pull back on hiring while grappling with uncertainty sparked in large part by Trump’s fast-changing trade wars.US job growth came in at 22,000 last month, down from July’s 79,000 figure, said the Department of Labor.The jobless rate edged up from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent, in line with analysts’ expectations but reaching its highest level since 2021.Job growth in June, while earlier estimated at 14,000, was revised to a 13,000 decline, the report said. This was the first such decline since 2020.Hiring in July was adjusted slightly upwards.Analysts closely monitor US employment numbers given their bearing on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions — and a deteriorating labor market could tip the balance in favor of rate cuts.Trump on Friday reiterated his call for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to slash rates, saying he should have done so “long ago.”Friday’s numbers are also under scrutiny after a poor showing in July’s data — released last month — prompted Trump to claim the figures were “rigged” and to fire the commissioner of labor statistics.Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic said that data revisions take place as survey response rates have declined. If companies respond late, numbers have to be updated.White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett told CNBC the latest figures were slightly disappointing but expressed hope they would be revised higher.- ‘Alarm bells’ -“The alarm bells are starting to go off in the labor market,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union. “More and more industries are shedding jobs.”She noted that almost all recently added jobs were in health care. If that sector were excluded, job growth would be negative.Health care added 31,000 jobs but federal government employment declined by 15,000 — and is down by 97,000 since reaching a peak in January.Manufacturing employment — an important issue politically for Trump’s blue collar base — dropped by 12,000 in August and dropped 78,000 over the year. Employment in the wholesale trade sector also fell.”Increasing operating costs and acute policy uncertainty” have pushed firms to keep a tight lid on new hiring, said EY senior economist Lydia Boussour.She added that tariffs and uncertainty are significantly hitting goods-producing sectors.Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent in August, as they did in July.Trump’s stop-start approach to rolling out tariffs has snarled supply chains and made it tough for businesses to plan their next moves. Many firms said they have been forced to put growth plans on hold.”The ‘no hiring’ economy is turning to a layoff economy and if that worsens, it will lead to a recession,” Long warned.A Briefing.com consensus forecast expected US hiring at 78,000 in August.The cooldown in hiring has been notable, with monthly payroll gains averaging 168,000 in 2024.- Rate cuts likely -“The fourth month of sub-par employment performance signals a dramatic stall in hiring and fully supports the Fed starting rate cuts at the next meeting,” said Bostjancic.Fed officials are holding their next policy meeting from September 16-17, and Powell has previously opened the door to lowering rates.”The real question now becomes how many rate cuts follow,” Bostjancic said.Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Mike Fratantoni said: “This is not a picture of an economy at ‘maximum employment.'”But he noted that the pace of any additional cuts will be “tempered by the ongoing risk of a pickup in tariff-induced inflation.”Already, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told Bloomberg TV Friday that he remains undecided on a September rate reduction, as he monitors inflation risks.The Fed has held interest rates steady this year at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent as policymakers observed the impact of tariffs on consumer prices.

Tesla unveiled on Friday a proposed compensation package for Elon Musk that could top $1 trillion if the controversial CEO delivers on his vision for stratospheric growth from new technologies.The plan potentially provides Musk — already the world’s wealthiest person — with up to 12 percent of additional total company shares, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. To reach the full award, Tesla must reach a market capitalization of “at least $8.5 trillion by 2035,” according to the filing, which announced a shareholder vote on the proposal in November. Tesla’s current market capitalization is just over $1 trillion, down somewhat from its peak following recent weak earnings. Analysts have attributed some of the sales woes to Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians, which has sparked criticism.But Musk has described Tesla’s potential growth as nearly boundless, saying in July that if the company delivers on its vision for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, “Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far.”Tesla shares rallied on the announcement of the plan, which directly links Musk’s potential pay to long-term shareholder performance, a popular approach with investors.Earlier this month, Tesla announced an “interim” compensation award worth about $29 billion for Musk, asserting the need to retain the outspoken CEO at a moment of fierce competition for top talent.The developments come as Tesla challenges a Delaware court ruling that struck down a 2018 package for Musk of about $55.8 billion.Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm and board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson described the new package as a “super ambitious incentive package for a pioneering, ambitious and unique CEO” in a letter to shareholders.”We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” they said in the letter, which also set conditions of having one million robotaxis in commercial operation and one million AI bots.”If Elon achieves all the performance milestones under this principle-based 2025 CEO Performance Award, his leadership will propel Tesla to become the most valuable company in history.”But Tesla also alluded to the possibility that the unprecedentedly massive pay package may worsen a public backlash to Tesla and Musk, whose fortune is estimated at around $435 billion.”Adverse public perception of the 2025 CEO Performance Award, even if it is baseless or satisfactorily addressed, may result in negative publicity for Tesla, which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition,” the filing said.Musk was the most unpopular of 14 public figures polled by Gallup in August. It placed the billionaire just below Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. Musk had a 33 percent favorable and 61 percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll.- Series of milestones -To receive the full pay package, Musk must hit 12 milestones related to market capitalization. The first tranche would be available if and when Tesla reaches $2 trillion in market value, with the next nine boosts at an additional $500 billion each in market value.The plan also involves a series of operating profit and product goals, such as the delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles. The package aims to ensure Musk stays at Tesla for at least seven-and-a-half years, or 10 years to receive the full award.The proposed compensation package was included in Tesla’s proxy statement for shareholders ahead of an annual meeting on November 6 in Austin.The full award would lift Musk’s overall stake in Tesla to more than 25 percent of total shares.CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson expects Tesla shareholders to approve the package.”For Musk to even hit the first tranche, the stock basically has to double in value,” Nelson said. “Investors like the fact that the pay package aligns with shareholder interests.”Musk is viewed within the business world as a unique talent after his success with building Tesla and SpaceX into major global companies. But his stewardship at Tesla has come under scrutiny in the last year as car sales and profits have tumbled. This trend has been partly due to Musk’s political efforts, but is also related to a sluggish rollout of new auto models after the polarizing Cybertruck sold poorly. After joining the administration of US President Donald Trump in the first months of 2025, Musk has exited Washington following friction with the Republican leader. Musk and Trump drew headlines in the spring due to public sniping, but relations between the men have quieted since then.Shares of Tesla rose 2.5 percent near midday.

US President Donald Trump is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of his war on drug cartels, sources familiar with the matter told AFP on Friday, as tensions mount with Venezuela over Washington’s military build-up in the Caribbean.The planes will join US warships already deployed to the southern Caribbean as Trump steps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States accuses of leading a drug cartel.The standoff has grown in recent days as the Pentagon said two Venezuelan military planes flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters Thursday in a “highly provocative” move.US forces on Tuesday blew up an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that Trump said belonged to the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization he tied to Maduro, killing 11 people.The high-tech F-35 jets are being deployed to an airfield in Puerto Rico, a US Caribbean island territory of more than three million people, the US sources said on condition of anonymity.Maduro — a leftist firebrand whose last election in 2024 was seen by Washington as illegitimate — has denounced the US build-up as “the greatest threat our continent has seen in the last 100 years.” Declaring his country prepared for “armed struggle in defense of the national territory,” he has mobilized Venezuela’s military, which numbers around 340,000, and reservists, which he claims exceed eight million.”If Venezuela were attacked, it would immediately enter a period of armed struggle,” Maduro told foreign correspondents.- ‘Highly provocative’ -Tuesday’s deadly US attack on what Washington said was a drug-carrying boat was a major escalation, as well as an unusual use of the US military for what has historically been a law enforcement issue.”Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.There are currently eight US Navy ships involved in counter-narcotics efforts in Latin America: three amphibious assault ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship in the Caribbean, and one destroyer in the eastern Pacific, a US defense official said this week on condition of anonymity.The US Department of Defense — which Trump is set to rebrand as the “Department of War” on Friday — said that two “Maduro regime” aircraft flew near a US vessel on Thursday.”This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” it said on X.It did not give further details. Venezuela has 15 F-16 fighter jets purchased from the United States in the 1980s plus a number of Russian fighters and helicopters.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the new aggressive approach towards what Washington calls “narcoterrorist” groups on a trip to Latin America this week.”What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said in Mexico on Wednesday.”If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States.”Caracas accused Washington of committing extrajudicial killings in the attack.

President Donald Trump is rebranding the Defense Department as the Department of War — a name used when it had more limited responsibilities for US Army forces rather than the entire military.The Defense Department was established after World War II by an act of Congress, meaning that Trump likely lacks the authority to unilaterally change its official name.To avoid that issue, the White House said the president is authorizing the use of the new label as a “secondary title” by his administration.Here is a look at key facts about the history of the departments overseeing the United States military.- More than 200 years old -The War Department was established in August 1789 to oversee the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, according to an official Pentagon history web page.A little less than a decade later, responsibility for naval forces was transferred to the new Department of the Navy, which also gained responsibility for the US Marine Corps in 1834.That left the War Department responsible for the Army, and later for the Army Air Corps — the precursor of the Air Force.- Reorganized after WWII -The War Department underwent a major reorganization — and name change — following World War II.The changes began with the signing of the National Security Act by then president Harry Truman in July 1947. The legislation merged the War and Navy Departments as well as the Air Force into the “National Military Establishment” led by a defense secretary.The National Security Act was amended in August 1949 to change the name of the National Military Establishment to the Department of Defense. It also removed the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force from cabinet positions and made them subordinate to the defense secretary.- Headquartered at the Pentagon -The US Defense Department is headquartered at the Pentagon, a massive five-sided building located in Virginia on the Potomac River.Construction of the building was authorized due to space constraints in the run-up to World War II, with personnel of what was then known as the War Department split between more than a dozen buildings at the time and the number of staff expected to grow.Ground was broken on the Pentagon in September 1941 and it officially opened 16 months later in January 1943. The Defense Department is now the largest employer in the United States, with more than three million military and civilian personnel.

A new documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of a pivotal moment in folk music history taps into a revival of interest in Bob Dylan thanks to recent biopic “A Complete Unknown”, which starred Timothee Chalamet.”Newport and the Great Folk Dream”, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, charts the development of the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in the early 1960s.Director Robert Gordon picked through 90 hours of black-and-white archive footage shot and then stored for decades by filmmaker Murray Lerner, who made a 1967 documentary “Festival”.  “It was a constant revelation of gems and treasures,” Gordon told reporters at a press conference Friday.Although the documentary sometimes struggles for narrative drive, music fans are likely to soak up gripping performances from American folk legends Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, or Doc Watson. A young John Lee Hooker sings “Boom Boom”, while other Black blues heroes from the era, Skip James, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters and the electric Howlin’ Wolf have the crowd of college-age Americans in raptures. Some of the most memorable moments, however, come from the long-forgotten regional acts — gospel singers or performers of woodcutters’ working music, which were a key part of the Newport festival vision. But Dylan’s fraught relationship with the folk music community provides the main plotline, a story that will be familiar to viewers of the Oscar-nominated “A Complete Unknown” which helped bring Dylan to a new, younger audience. “We owe a big thank you to Timothee Chalamet and (director) James Mangold,” Gordon said. “Teens, people in their 20s and 30s, who had never had heard of the Newport Folk Festival are now aware of it and interested in Dylan.””Newport and the Great Folk Dream” ends with Dylan’s now-famous performance in 1965 in which he plays an electric instead of acoustic guitar — upsetting folk music purists — leading to booing from some in the audience at the end of his set.- Race and war -In between the musical performances, Gordon also weaves in the era’s tumultuous political backdrop, including protests against the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the rise and death of President John F. Kennedy.The political content is a reminder to contemporary artists of their power and influence, film editor Laura Jean Hocking said.”One of the things that we wanted to do with this movie was to tell people not to be afraid, to use their voices to speak out against injustice, to speak out against war, against racism, against the erasure of history,” she said.After diving into Dylan’s back catalogue for “A Complete Unknown”, Mangold told AFP in January it had made him realise how “narcissistic” modern pop music was with its focus on “me, me, me”.The Newport film is one of several documentaries by international directors at the Venice Film Festival, which wraps up on Saturday.Only one is in the running for the top Golden Lion prize, Italy’s Gianfranco Rosi’s ode to Naples, “Sotto le Nuvole” (Under the Clouds).Others include “Ghost Elephants”, the latest from German veteran Werner Herzog about a mythical herd of elephants in Angola, and “Cover-Up” about American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus.

US employment data on Friday is expected to confirm a cooled labor market, as companies pull back on hiring amid continued uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.But the jobs report is set to attract heightened scrutiny, after a poor showing last month prompted Trump to claim the numbers were “rigged” and take the unprecedented action of firing the commissioner of labor statistics.US job growth missed expectations in July, while revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic.Hours after the data release, Trump charged that Commissioner Erika McEntarfer had “faked” jobs data to boost Democrats’ chances of victory in the recent presidential election.He also pointed to the downward revisions to hiring numbers, saying that similar things have happened this year — amid his return to the presidency in January — and “always to the negative.”But Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic told AFP that data revisions take place as survey response rates have declined.If companies respond late, numbers have to be updated to reflect incoming data.”I’ve never viewed the data as being politically determined or influenced,” she said. But she conceded that “there’s room for improvement in data collection.”- ‘Fragile balance’ -For now, EY chief economist Gregory Daco anticipates Friday’s report “to confirm that a marked slowdown in labor market conditions is underway.”This comes as business leaders “continue to restrain hiring” as they grapple with softer demand, higher costs and interest rates, he wrote in a note.Trump’s stop-start approach to rolling out tariffs has snarled supply chains and made it tough for businesses to plan their next moves. Many firms said they have been forced to put growth plans on hold.A Briefing.com consensus forecast expects US hiring to pick up slightly to 78,000 in August from 73,000 in July.The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is anticipated to edge up from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent.While this appears to be an improvement, KPMG senior economist Kenneth Kim told AFP that “last year, the average payroll gain per month was 168,000.”The average so far this year, he said, was 85,000 — about half the pace seen in 2024.”Recent data highlights a fragile balance in the labor market: labor demand and supply have become subdued, while layoffs remain limited,” Daco said.”Increasingly, job creation is concentrated within a couple of private-sector industries,” he added.He also warned that the labor force participation rate will likely edge down as stricter immigration policies under the Trump administration increasingly constrain worker flows in the coming months.- Rate cut incoming -If Friday’s data came in as expected, “there’s a very high probability” that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at the end of its policy meeting from September 16-17, said Kim of KPMG.Since its last cut in December, the US central bank has held interest rates steady at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent.In doing so, Fed policymakers have been balancing between risks of inflation and a deteriorating jobs market.Economists have warned that Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imports could fuel inflation and bog down economic growth over the long run. The Fed is monitoring the duties’ effects on consumer prices as officials mull the right timing for their next rate cut, despite Trump’s growing calls for swift and significant reductions.A jobs report signaling a tepid labor market would likely support the need for a cut to boost the economy, while a surprisingly strong showing might instead tip the odds in the other direction.

President Donald Trump is changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, the White House announced Thursday, insisting the rebrand will project a more powerful image.While the department’s official name is set in law, Trump in an executive order is authorizing use of the new label as a “secondary title” by his administration, a White House document said.Defense officials are permitted to use to use “secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’…in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” according to the document.It was not immediately clear when Trump planned to sign the order, but his public schedule for Friday said he would be signing executive orders in the afternoon as well as making an announcement in the Oval Office.The president, a marketing-savvy real estate developer, has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he was mulling such a change.Late last month, the 79-year-old Republican claimed the Defense Department’s title was too “defensive.”The Department of War “was the name when we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything,” he told reporters on August 25.According to the White House document, the name change “conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve.”Established in the early days of US independence, the Department of War historically oversaw American land forces.A government reorganization after World War II brought it along with the US Navy and Air Force under the unified National Military Establishment, which in 1949 was retitled to the Department of Defense.”Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” the White House document said.The move is the latest overhaul at the Pentagon since Trump took office in January and appointed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the sprawling department.Hegseth, a combat veteran, has repeatedly touted the push to restore a “warrior ethos” in the department, and has lambasted prior administrations for policies he and Trump have derided as “woke.”Hegseth notably has sought to expel transgender troops from the military and change the names of bases that honored Confederate troops back to their original titles, after they were renamed under former president Joe Biden.While Trump’s order could potentially be rescinded by a future president, it “instructs the Secretary of War to recommend actions, to include legislative and executive actions, required to permanently rename” the department, the White House document said.

Wildfires are releasing a “witches’ brew” of pollutants that can end up wrecking air quality a continent away from the blaze, the UN’s weather and climate agency said Friday.The World Meteorological Organization said the quality of the air people breathe was interlinked with climate change, and the two issues needed to be tackled together.Wildfires in the Amazon, Canada and Siberia have brought home how air quality can be impacted on a vast scale, the WMO said in its fifth annual Air Quality and Climate Bulletin.”Climate impacts and air pollution respect no national borders — as exemplified by intense heat and drought which fuels wildfires, worsening air quality for millions of people,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett.The bulletin looked at the interplay between air quality and the climate, highlighting the role of tiny particles called aerosols in wildfires, winter fog, shipping emissions and urban pollution.Particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM 2.5) are considered particularly harmful since they can penetrate deep into the lungs or cardiovascular system.Wildfires in 2024 led to above-average PM 2.5 levels in Canada, Siberia and central Africa, the WMO said. The biggest PM 2.5 surge, however, was in the Amazon basin.- Wildfire season stronger, longer -“The wildfire season has the tendency to be stronger and longer every year as a result of climate change,” said WMO scientific officer Lorenzo Labrador, who coordinated the bulletin.Wildfires in Canada have ended up causing air pollution in Europe.”We had that last year and this year as well. So you have a degradation in air quality across continents when the meteorological conditions are right,” Labrador told a press conference.”What we have from these fires is essentially a witches’ brew of components that pollute the air.”The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths each year.The WMO called for improved monitoring and better policies to safeguard human and environmental health — and reduce agricultural and economic losses.The bulletin highlighted pollution hotspots in northern India.It said the Indo-Gangetic Plain, home to more than 900 million people, had seen a marked rise in air pollution and winter fog episodes, which are growing in frequency and duration due to pollution, notably from agricultural biomass burning.”Persistence of fog is no longer a simple, seasonal weather event — it is a symptom of escalating human impact on the environment,” it said.- Dramatic improvements in China -PM 2.5 levels continued to decline in eastern China last year, which the WMO put down to sustained mitigation measures.When countries take measures to combat poor air quality, the improvement can be clearly seen in meteorological data, said Paolo Laj, the WMO’s global atmosphere chief.”Look at Europe, Shanghai, Beijing, cities in the United States: many cities have taken measures and you see in the long term, a strong decrease” in recorded air pollution, he told AFP.”Over a 10-year period, Chinese cities have improved their air quality in a dramatic way. It’s really impressive what they have done.”Laj said there was no all-purpose measure that could bring about drastic change, such as switching to electric cars, “but when measures are taken, it works”.In Europe, “we don’t realise what we were breathing in 20 years ago, but it was much worse than today”, he added.

Russia rejected the notion of Western security guarantees for Ukraine on Friday, after more than two dozen countries pledged to join a “reassurance” force to deploy in the wartorn country after any eventual peace deal with Moscow.A force to deter Russia from again attacking its neighbour is a key pillar of the security backstop a coalition of mainly European countries want to offer to Ukraine if the war ends via a peace deal or a ceasefire.The extent of any US involvement remains uncertain, even after European leaders spoke to President Donald Trump via video conference following the Paris summit at which the “coalition of the willing” pledged its force. But on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of Western security guarantees for Ukraine, saying that “foreign, especially European and American” troops “definitely cannot” provide such assurances to Kyiv.The Paris summit was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, while others, like British premier Keir Starmer, participated remotely.The meeting represented a new push led by Macron to show that Europe can act independently of the United States after Trump launched direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.The United States was represented by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who also met with Zelensky separately.Trump said after his call with European leaders that he would speak to Putin soon, with Peskov confirming Friday that such a call could be organised swiftly.- ‘First concrete step’ -Europe has been under pressure to step up its response over three and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.”We have today 26 countries who have formally committed — some others have not yet taken a position — to deploy as a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea, or in the air,” Macron told reporters, standing alongside Zelensky.Zelensky hailed the move: “I think that today, for the first time in a long time, this is the first such serious concrete step.”The troops would not be deployed “on the front line” but aim to “prevent any new major aggression”, the French president said.Macron added that another major pillar was a “regeneration” of the Ukrainian army so that it can “not just resist a new attack but dissuade Russia from a new aggression”.Macron said the United States was being “very clear” about its willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine.However, the US contribution remains unclear.There are also divisions within the coalition, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urging more pressure but remaining cautious about the scope of involvement.”Germany will decide on military involvement at the appropriate time once the framework conditions have been clarified,” a German government spokesman said after the summit.Taking a similar line, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated that her country will not send troops to Ukraine, but could help monitor any potential peace deal.There is also growing concern that Putin is not interested in a peace accord, with alarm intensifying after his high-profile visit to China this week.- ‘Play for time’ -Frustration has been building in the West over what leaders say is Putin’s unwillingness to strike a deal to end the conflict.Zelensky said the call with Trump discussed sanctions on Russia and protecting Ukraine’s airspace. “We discussed different options, and the most important is using strong measures, particularly economic ones, to force an end to the war,” Zelensky said on social media.The White House said it urged European countries to stop purchasing Russian oil “that is funding the war”.A Russian rocket attack Thursday on northern Ukraine killed two people from the Danish Refugee Council who were clearing mines in an area previously occupied by Moscow’s forces, the local Ukrainian governor said.Macron warned that if Russia continued refusing a peace deal, then “additional sanctions” would be agreed in coordination with the United States.He accused Russia of “doing nothing other than try to play for time” and intensifying attacks against civilians.The gathering followed Putin’s high-profile trips to China and the United States, where he met with Trump in Alaska last month.Speaking Wednesday in Beijing, where he attended a massive military parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin hailed his forces’ progress in Ukraine, adding that Russian troops were advancing on “all fronts”.fff-vl-cad-as-sjw/tym/dhw