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California unveiled plans to redraw its electoral districts Thursday, as Democrats push back on what they say is Donald Trump’s effort to rig next year’s Congressional elections to safeguard his slim Republican majority.Governor Gavin Newsom said he would ask voters to approve new maps that would effectively neutralize changes Texas is planning that are expected to give Republicans more seats in the House of Representatives.”Today is Liberation Day in the State of California,” Newsom told supporters at the Democracy Center in Los Angeles.”Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” he said, a reference to the animal that symbolizes the 39-million strong state.The move came after weeks of maneuvering in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott — acting at Trump’s behest — is trying to redraw electoral districts to benefit his Republican Party, a process known as gerrymandering.Districts are usually redrawn every ten years after the national census and are supposed to be based on its findings, so that districts accurately represent the people who live there.The mid-decade effort to change the boundaries is seen by Democrats as a naked attempt to bolster the GOP, and to help it retain its narrow House majority in next year’s mid-terms.Dozens of Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session, even as Republicans have threatened to arrest them.Newsom said a special ballot on November 4 would ask California voters to create temporary congressional districts for the next two elections, with power to set boundaries returned to an independent commission thereafter.”We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘find me five seats.'”He is, once again, trying to rig the system. He doesn’t play by a different set of rules; he doesn’t believe in the rules.”We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire.”Newsom, who is believed to harbor Oval Office ambitions, has emerged as a leading anti-Trump voice from a Democratic Party still floundering after last year’s ballot box drubbing.The two men have frequently locked horns, including over aggressive immigration enforcement raids the administration ordered in Los Angeles.In June, after thousands took to the streets to protest seemingly indiscriminate arrests by masked and unidentified agents, Trump sent in the National Guard and the Marines, claiming it was necessary to restore order.On Thursday, masked Border Patrol agents were seen outside the Democracy Center, part of a museum in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, despite there being no obvious presence of their usual arrest targets.Newsom’s press conference came after he had trolled Trump for days on social media, aping the president’s instantly recognizable style.A series of all-caps posts from Newsom’s official account have employed Trumpian language and been sprinkled liberally — if not logically — with punctuation, as well as nicknames, boasts and silly-sounding threats.”DONNIE J. AND KaroLYIN’ LEAVITT WILL HAVE THEIR (LITTLE) HANDS “FULL” TODAY,” read one tweet on Thursday, referring to the president and his press spokeswoman.”I, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR (MANY SAY), WILL HOST THE GREATEST PRESS CONFERENCE OF ALL TIME. AFTER THAT — “THE MAPS” WILL SOON BE RELEASED. VERY MUCH ANTICIPATED.”

US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he would not be intimidated by Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the eve of a high-stakes summit and said Ukraine would be involved in any deal on its fate.Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.As Russia made gains on the battlefield, the Kremlin said the two presidents planned to meet one-on-one, heightening fears of European leaders that Putin will cajole Trump into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.Trump insisted to reporters at the White House: “I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me.””I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes… whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting,” Trump said.”And if it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,” said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced wide criticism after a 2018 summit in Helsinki where he appeared to accept the Russian’s denials of US intelligence on Moscow’s meddling in US elections.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska summit, which he has denounced as a reward to Putin, and has refused Trump’s calls to surrender territory.Trump promised not to finalize any deal with Putin and said he hoped to hold a three-way summit with Zelensky, possibly immediately afterward in Alaska.”The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term,” Trump told Fox News Radio.Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters any future deal needed also to ensure “security guarantees” for Ukraine.But Trump has previously backed Russia’s stance in ruling out letting Ukraine join NATO.- Shifting Trump tone -Trump had boasted that he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January.But his calls to Putin — and intense pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions — have failed to move the Russian leader and Trump has warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin keeps snubbing his overtures.Putin on Thursday welcomed US diplomacy which he said could also help yield an agreement on nuclear arms control.”The US administration… is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting,” Putin told a meeting of top officials in Moscow.The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, a major US military installation in Alaska that has been crucial in monitoring Russia.”This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.- European support for Zelensky -Zelensky met in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who vowed solidarity, a day after receiving support in Berlin.Russia has made major gains on the ground ahead of the summit.Ukraine on Thursday issued a mandatory evacuation of families with children from the eastern town of Druzhkivka and four nearby villages near an area where Russia made a swift breakthrough.Russian forces had on Tuesday swiftly advanced by up to 10 kilometers (six miles) in a narrow section of the front line, their biggest gain in a 24-hour period in more than a year, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.  Ukraine in turn Thursday fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.Diplomacy since Russia’s invasion has largely failed to secure agreements beyond swaps of prisoners.Russia said Thursday it had returned 84 prisoners to Ukraine in exchange for an equal number of Russian POWs in the latest exchange.burs-sct/bjt

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — and, from a distance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — have dueling interests going into a high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday.- What does Trump want? -The Nobel Peace Prize. Trump has openly and repeatedly sought the world’s most prestigious award, however unlikely many observers think it is that the Norwegian committee would bestow the honor on the divisive president.Trump has boasted of his deal-making skills and had vowed to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but his calls to Putin went unheeded even after Trump put heavy pressure on Zelensky to compromise, including by cutting US aid.The billionaire has also said that he sees business opportunities in Russia, which remains under Western sanctions over the war.Many European leaders fear that in a one-on-one meeting, Trump could fall under the sway of Putin, for whom he has voiced admiration in the past.At a 2018 summit, Trump stunned viewers by siding with Putin over US intelligence in denying that Russia intervened in the 2016 US election to support Trump.- What does Putin want? -To retain as much Ukrainian territory as possible. Russia failed in its goal of quickly seizing Ukraine in its February 2022 invasion but in recent months has made steady gains on the battlefield, leading Putin to believe he has an upper hand militarily.John Herbst, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, said that Putin already knows what a deal could look like — a ceasefire, plus some form of security guarantees for Ukraine.”That doesn’t give Putin what he wants, which is control over all of Ukraine. But it doesn’t matter what Putin wants. If he can’t get anything more, he may settle for what’s available,” said Herbst, now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.Putin suggested the meeting with Trump after the US president threatened new sanctions on Russia unless it moves toward a ceasefire.”The best-case scenario for Russia is… if they are able to put a deal on the table that creates some kind of a ceasefire, but that leaves Russia in control of those escalatory dynamics, [and] does not create any kind of genuine deterrence on the ground or in the skies over Ukraine,” said Sam Greene, director for democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).- What does Zelensky want? -A seat at the negotiating table, and Russia out of Ukraine.Zelensky will not participate in Trump’s summit with Putin — a sharp shift from previous US president Joe Biden’s insistence on “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”Trump has promised to involve Zelensky, possibly with a three-way summit — if Putin agrees.But Trump has also again insisted that Ukraine needs to make territorial concessions, which Zelensky has refused.For Ukrainians, “It looks like it’s two big powers that are just deciding the fate of Ukraine without any Ukrainians at the table,” said Olga Tokariuk, also at CEPA.For Ukraine, the best-case scenario would be no agreement between Putin and Trump and the imposition of new sanctions on Russia, she said.But Herbst said Zelensky could accept a deal in which Russia controls what it has — without formal recognition of its conquest.Putin in turn would accept “that his notion of taking more of Ukraine and restoring the Russian Empire is kaput,” Herbst said.  – Why Alaska? -Putin will be stepping foot on western soil for the first time since the war began. He faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, to which the United States is not a party. Alaska carries historic significance as the United States bought it from tsarist Russia in 1867.Russia has pointed to Alaska as it makes the case that it is normal to transfer land. Ukraine’s borders date from the breakup of the Soviet Union, although Russia in 2014 seized the Crimean peninsula in an annexation unrecognized by nearly all countries.

Apple on Thursday rejected Elon Musk’s claim that its digital App Store favors OpenAI’s ChatGPT over his company’s Grok and other rival AI assistants.Musk has accused Apple of giving unfair preference to ChatGPT on its App Store and threatened legal action, triggering a fiery exchange with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week.”The App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias,” Apple said in reply to an AFP inquiry.”We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria.”Apple added that its goal at the App Store is to offer “safe discovery” for users and opportunities for developers to get their creations noticed.But earlier this week, Musk said Apple was “behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” without providing evidence to back his claim.”xAI will take immediate legal action,” he said on his social media network X, referring to his own artificial intelligence company, which is responsible for Grok.X users responded by pointing out that China’s DeepSeek AI hit the top spot in the App Store early this year, and Perplexity AI recently ranked number one in the App Store in India.DeepSeek and Perplexity compete with OpenAI and Musk’s startup xAI.Altman called Musk’s accusation “remarkable” in a response on X, charging that Musk himself is said to “manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”Musk called Altman a “liar” in the heated exchange.OpenAI and xAI recently released new versions of ChatGPT and Grok.App Store rankings listed ChatGPT as the top free app for iPhones on Thursday, with Grok in seventh place.Factors going into App Store rankings include user engagement, reviews and the number of downloads.Grok was temporarily suspended on Monday in the latest controversy surrounding the chatbot.No official explanation was provided for the suspension, which followed multiple accusations of misinformation including the bot’s misidentification of war-related images — such as a false claim that an AFP photo of a starving child in Gaza was taken in Yemen years earlier.Last month, Grok triggered an online storm after inserting antisemitic comments into answers without prompting. In a statement on Grok’s X account later that month, the company apologized “for the horrific behavior that many experienced.”A US judge has cleared the way for a trial to consider OpenAI legal claims accusing Musk — a co-founder of the company — of waging a “relentless campaign” to damage the organization after it achieved success following his departure.The litigation is another round in a bitter feud between the generative AI start-up and the world’s richest person.Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI and the other major AI players.

Donald Trump is turning history on its head with his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin — inviting Russia’s leader to land that once belonged to Moscow, and meeting him at a military base that monitored the Soviet Union.The location is all the more striking as Putin is under indictment by the International Criminal Court, with Friday’s summit marking the first time he has been allowed in a Western country since he invaded Ukraine in February 2022.The two leaders will meet at Elmendorf Air Force Base, which goes by the motto “Top Cover for North America.”Trump has said that Putin suggested the summit and it is unclear to what extent the Republican president thought through the symbolism of the base or Alaska, still yearned for by some Russian nationalists.But George Beebe, the former director of Russia analysis at the CIA, said the Alaska setting showed an emphasis on what unites the two powers — history and the Pacific Ocean — rather than on rivalry or the conflict in Ukraine.”What he’s doing here is he’s saying, ‘This is not the Cold War. We’re not replaying the series of Cold War summits that took place in neutral states’,” said Beebe, now director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which supports military restraint.”We’re entering a new era, not just in the bilateral relationship between Russia and the United States, but also in the role that this relationship plays in the world,” he said.Russia had settled Alaska from the 18th century but, struggling to make its colony profitable and crippled by the Crimean War, Tsar Alexander II sold it to the United States in 1867.Then secretary of state William Seward was ridiculed for the purchase, dubbed “Seward’s Folly” due to the perceived lack of value of Alaska, but the territory later proved to be strategically crucial.The United States rushed to build what became Elmendorf Air Base after imperial Japan seized some of the Aleutian islands following their 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.Then with the Cold War, Elmendorf became a key center to observe Soviet movements across the Bering Strait.As recently as nine months ago, an electronic surveillance plane from Elmendorf as well as other US planes scrambled to track Russian planes flying off Alaska’s coast.- Mixed takes in Anchorage -With more than 800 buildings and more than 10,000 military personnel, Elmendorf is the largest military installation in Alaska — and is also known as a refueling stop for the US president and secretary of state when they travel to Asia.In anticipation of Putin’s arrival, some local residents have painted Ukrainian flags to place on their roofs, in the off chance that the Russian leader sees them on his aircraft’s descent.Putin “is a criminal and he’s coming here to a military base. There was a time when that would have been unthinkable,” said teacher Lindsey Meyn, 40, as she used spray paint to color a homemade blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag.She said the summit was part of Trump’s strategy to “overwhelm with craziness” and distract from other issues.”It’s terrifying a little bit. I was thinking, is Trump going to offer our state back to Russia? I don’t think that’s going to happen but that’s the first thing that came to my mind,” she said.Alaska’s Russian heritage is still visible in isolated ways, including through a domed blue Russian Orthodox cathedral in Anchorage that was built in the 1960s.But Alaska has also become home to Ukrainians, both before and since Putin’s invasion.Zori Opanasevych, who has helped resettle 1,300 Ukrainians in Alaska with the non-profit group New Chance Inc., said that people she talked to wanted to hold out hope for the summit.”If there is any way that President Trump can influence Putin to stop the killing, we’ll believe in that. We have to believe in that,” she said.

The United States offered a $10 million reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of Juan Jose Farias Alvarez, head of the Mexican drug trafficking group Carteles Unidos.Farias Alvarez, nicknamed “El Abuelo,” or the grandfather, was one of five high-ranking members of Carteles Unidos — the United Cartels in English — whose criminal indictments were unsealed by the Justice Department on Thursday.”Today’s charges are designed to dismantle the United Cartels and bring their leaders to justice for unleashing death and destruction on American citizens,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.The US Treasury Department simultaneously announced it was imposing sanctions on members of the United Cartels and another group known as Los Viagras.”Treasury, alongside our partners in US law enforcement, will continue to target every effort by the cartels to generate revenue for their violent, criminal schemes,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.The State Department designated the Michoacan-based United Cartels and other drug trafficking groups as foreign terrorist organizations in February.Aside from Farias Alvarez, rewards of $5 million each were announced for Nicolas Sierra Santana, known as “El Gordo,” and Alfonso Fernandez Magallon, known as “Poncho,” and $3 million each for Luis Enrique Barragan Chavez, known as “Wicho,” and Edgar Orozco Cabadas, known as “El Kamoni.”According to the Justice Department, the United Cartels are a major supplier of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine to the United States.”Profits from US drug sales are allegedly used to acquire heavy weaponry, hire mercenaries, bribe local officials, and fund lavish lifestyles for cartel leaders,” it said.The announcement comes two days after Mexico transferred 26 wanted fugitives to the United States, including several high-ranking members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.The transfer was the second since Republican Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.In late February, Mexico sent 29 accused drug traffickers to the United States, including Rafael Caro Quintero, who was accused of kidnapping and killing US drug enforcement special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday acknowledged his high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin may fail, and said any Ukraine deal would come through a future three-way meeting with Kyiv to “divvy things up.”Russian President Vladimir Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.The Kremlin said that the two presidents planned to meet one-on-one, heightening fears by European leaders that Putin will cajole Trump into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.Trump, on the eve of the summit, insisted that he would not finalize any deal with Putin and that he would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in any decisions.”This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump told Fox News Radio.”The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term,” Trump said.Zelensky has refused any territorial concessions to Russia, which has ramped up attacks and made sharp gains on the battlefield just ahead of the summit.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any future deal needed to ensure Ukraine’s security.”To achieve peace, I think we all recognize that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees,” Rubio told reporters in Washington, saying he was “hopeful” about the summit.Trump has previously ruled out letting Ukraine join NATO and backed Russia’s stance that Kyiv’s aspirations to enter the transatlantic alliance triggered the war.Ukraine and most of its European allies reject Putin’s narrative and point to his remarks denying the historical legitimacy of Ukraine.- Shifting Trump tone -Trump had boasted that he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January.But his calls to Putin — and intense pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions — have failed to move the Russian leader and Trump has warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin keeps snubbing his overtures.Putin on Thursday welcomed US efforts to end the conflict and said that talks could also help yield an agreement on nuclear arms control.”The US administration… is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting,” Putin told a meeting of top officials in Moscow.The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, a major US military installation in Alaska that has been crucial in monitoring Russia.”This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.He said that delegations would continue discussions over a working lunch and that Putin and Trump would hold a joint news conference. The White House has not confirmed any plans for a joint press appearance.Trump faced heated criticism over his joint news conference after his 2018 summit with Putin in Helsinki where he sided with Russia over US intelligence in accepting Putin’s denials of interfering in the 2016 US election to help Trump.- European support for Zelensky -Zelensky, who will not join Friday’s summit in Alaska, met Thursday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after talks a day earlier in Berlin.Starmer greeted the Ukrainian leader with a warm hug and handshake on the steps of his Downing Street residence and later voiced solidarity.European leaders expressed relief after a call with Trump on Wednesday, saying he appeared focused on a ceasefire rather than concessions by Ukraine.A day before the summit, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.Russia meanwhile said its troops had captured two new settlements in eastern Ukraine, where it has been advancing for months.Diplomacy since Russia’s invasion has largely failed to secure agreements beyond swaps of prisoners.Russia said Thursday it had returned 84 prisoners to Ukraine in exchange for an equal number of Russian POWs in the latest exchange.burs-sct/bgs

In the early days of his second term, US President Donald Trump was full of praise for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who he meets Friday in Alaska for crunch talks on the Ukraine conflict.But as the months have passed without the peace deal Trump said would be done in 24 hours under his leadership, his tone on Putin has turned sour.Here a look back in quotes at the shifting mood:- ‘I get along with him great’ -Ending the war in Ukraine was a priority for Trump in January when he returned to the Oval Office. “I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal,” he told reporters on January 20, while also insisting, “I got along with him great.”A day later on Truth Social he posted:”I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”Meanwhile from the Kremlin Putin was flattering, telling Russian state media on January 24 that Trump was “not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person”. He also said what he referred to as the “crisis in Ukraine” might have been averted had Donald Trump been US president at the time.”I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president — if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 — then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022.”- ‘Vladimir, STOP!’ -Good vibes seemed to circulate between the two leaders the following month.Trump described their phone conversation on February 12 as “lengthy and highly productive”.”President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.’ We both believe very strongly in it,” he posted on Truth Social.But his tone changed sharply at the end of March.Trump told NBC he was “very angry, very pissed off” when Putin started getting into Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s credibility. Then in April, Trump called on Putin to stop strikes on Kyiv. “Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!” he posted on April 24.He continued in this spirit two days later.”It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”- ‘He’s gone absolutely CRAZY!’ -By late May, exasperation was taking over. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” he posted on May 25. “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Trump posted a day later. “He’s playing with fire!”But when Trump turned 79 on June 14, Putin did not forget to send his best wishes.”President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday,” Trump posted, adding that the call was to “more importantly, talk about Iran.”It was a brief thaw.”We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said at the White House on July 8.”I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. And he’ll talk so beautifully and then he’ll bomb people at night,” he told reporters a week later.By the end of July, Trump said he was “not so interested” in talking to Putin anymore.But days before Friday’s summit in Alaska he said he expected to have a “constructive conversation” with his Russian counterpart.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump will hold “one-on-one” talks aimed at settling the Ukraine conflict when they meet for their landmark summit in Alaska on Friday, the Kremlin said.The meeting, set to take place at a US air base outside of Anchorage, marks Putin’s first trip to a Western country since his February 2022 assault on Ukraine.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday, is not scheduled to take part.After nearly three-and-a-half years of fighting, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, Trump on Wednesday urged Putin to accept a peace deal or face “very severe consequences”.The Kremlin said the talks were due to start at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) Friday.”This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.”This will be followed by negotiations between the delegations, which will continue over a working breakfast,” Ushakov added.He said it was “probably obvious to everyone that the central topic will be the resolution of the Ukraine crisis” although broader issues around peace and security would also be discussed.Putin and Trump will give a joint press conference following their meeting, during which they will “summarise the results of the negotiations”, Ushakov said.- Zelensky meets Starmer -Putin on Thursday welcomed US efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.”The US administration… in my view is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting,” he told a meeting of top officials.He also suggested that following talks with the US could result in an agreement on nuclear arms control.On the eve of the summit, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.Russia meanwhile said its troops had captured two new settlements in eastern Ukraine, where it has been advancing for months.Zelensky, who has refused to cede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal, met with UK Prime Minister Starmer earlier Thursday.Starmer greeted the Ukrainian leader with a warm hug and handshake on the steps of his Downing Street residence.Following their talks, Starmer wrote on X: “Britain will always stand with Ukraine.”The meeting came a day after European leaders and Trump held a virtual conference by phone.- Fresh prisoner exchange -A stepped-up Russian offensive and Zelensky’s exclusion from Friday’s Alaska meeting, have heightened fears in Europe that Trump and Putin could strike a deal that forces painful concessions on Ukraine.The US leader initially said there would be some “land swapping going on”, but appeared to have walked that back after speaking with European leaders on Wednesday.Speaking after Wednesday’s conference, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Trump had indicated there “would be no discussion of territories” during the summit.”Another key signal was that President Trump is seeking a ceasefire,” he said.Trump suggested there might be a second meeting involving both Zelensky and Putin if the first was successful.”There may be no second meeting because, if I feel that it’s not appropriate to have it because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we are not going to have a second meeting,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.”If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump said.Russia said Thursday it had returned 84 prisoners to Ukraine in exchange for an equal number of Russian POWs, the latest in a series of swaps that have seen hundreds released this year

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Thursday in London with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a strong show of support on the eve of a key US-Russia summit from which Kyiv and its European allies have been excluded.Starmer greeted the Ukrainian leader with a warm hug and handshake on the steps of his Downing Street residence, only hours after Zelensky took part in a virtual call with US President Donald Trump. Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at an air base in Alaska, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people.A stepped-up Russian offensive, and the fact Zelensky has not been invited to the Anchorage meeting Friday, have heightened fears that Trump and Putin could strike a deal that forces painful concessions on Ukraine.But Starmer said Wednesday there was now a “viable” chance for a ceasefire in Ukraine after more than three years of fighting.Near the front line Thursday, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia overnight into the early morning, wounding three people and sparking fires including at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd. Kyiv calls the strikes fair retaliation for Moscow’s daily missile and drone barrages on its own civilians.With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before Friday’s meeting.- Three-way meeting? -Zelensky, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, joined the call from Berlin with Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions by Kyiv.Trump has sent mixed messages, saying he could quickly organise a three-way summit afterward with both Zelensky and Putin, but also warning of his impatience with Putin.”There may be no second meeting because, if I feel that it’s not appropriate to have it because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we are not going to have a second meeting,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.But Trump added: “If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one,” involving both Putin and Zelensky.Zelensky, after being berated by Trump at a February meeting in the White House, has publicly supported US diplomacy but has made clear his deep scepticism.”I have told my colleagues — the US president and our European friends — that Putin definitely does not want peace,” Zelensky said.As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky was in Berlin Wednesday joining Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, to show a united stance against Russia.Starmer on Wednesday said Ukraine’s military backers, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had drawn up workable military plans in case of a ceasefire but were also ready to add pressure on Russia through sanctions.”For three and a bit years this conflict has been going, we haven’t got anywhere near… a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire,” Starmer told Wednesday’s meeting of European leaders.”Now we do have that chance, because of the work that the (US) president has put in,” he said.NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared: “The ball is now in Putin’s court.”