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Back from Alaska, Trump starts week with crucial foreign policy talks over Ukraine war

Back from Alaska, Trump starts week with crucial foreign policy talks over Ukraine war

President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda is set to take center stage again this week, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting the White House on Monday as Washington continues efforts to broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv. The upcoming meeting comes on the heels of Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday, where the U.S. leader shifted from demanding a ceasefire to calling for a final peace deal. Trump discussed some of the details of his meeting with Putin during a phone call with Zelenskyy from Air Force One. EUROPEAN LEADERS WILL JOIN TRUMP-ZELENSKYY MEETING, SIGNALING SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE The White House has yet to release details of the meeting but has acknowledged that key European allies will accompany Zelenskyy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb all confirmed their plans to attend. Over the weekend, Zelenskyy acknowledged his last White House visit — cut short by a shouting match with both Trump and Vice President JD Vance — and told reporters in Brussels he hopes Monday’s meeting “will be productive” rather than a repeat of February’s encounter. Trump’s back-to-back meetings with both former Soviet republics could set the stage for a trilateral summit with the U.S., Russia and Ukraine. TRUMP: WE’RE GOING STRAIGHT TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE DEAL, ‘NOT A MERE CEASEFIRE’ Over the weekend, Zelenskyy said that, so far, Russia has “given no sign that the trilateral will happen.” The Ukrainian leader also said over the weekend that he would use his meetings in Washington to stress that Kyiv will reject any peace deal with Moscow that undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty. Trump signaled that Putin could agree to end the war if Zelenskyy ceded the entirety of the hotly-contested Donbas region to Russia.  The area, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, is an industrial hub where coal mining and steel production remain central to Ukraine’s economy. Control of Donbas’ mines and factories would hand Moscow powerful leverage over Kyiv’s postwar financial survival. “The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference at the European Commission Sunday.  ‘OUR POSITION IS CLEAR:’ ZELENSKYY AND EU DISMISS CEDING UKRAINIAN LAND TO RUSSIA “Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral Ukraine, United States, Russia,” Zelenskyy said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed reports that Trump supports Russia’s conditions for peace. “The president has said that in terms of territories, these are things that Zelenskyy is going to have to decide on,” Rubio told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “All the president is trying to do here is narrow down the open issues,” Rubio said, adding that Trump remains focused on ending the Kremlin’s three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine. 

Trump blasts ‘lightweight’ Dem senator who criticized Putin summit in Alaska: ‘Stupid’

Trump blasts ‘lightweight’ Dem senator who criticized Putin summit in Alaska: ‘Stupid’

President Donald Trump fired off insults toward Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in a Sunday post on Truth Social in response to the senator’s criticism of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president described Murphy as “very unattractive (both inside and out),” “stupid,” and “a lightweight,” after the senator claimed “Putin got everything he wanted” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Murphy also described the meeting, which was held in Alaska on Friday to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia, as “a disaster,” “an embarrassment for the United States” and “a failure.” ‘OUR POSITION IS CLEAR:’ ZELENSKYY AND EU DISMISS CEDING UKRAINIAN LAND TO RUSSIA Murphy shared a clip of his appearance on his X account, captioning the video with more criticism of Trump’s meeting with Putin. “The Putin-Trump meeting was a disaster, as predicted. Putin got everything he wanted: a photo op legitimizing his war crimes, no ceasefire, and no sanctions or new weapons for Ukraine. Trump’s goal was to keep Putin happy. He succeeded,” Murphy wrote. Trump pushed back, asserting in his Truth Social post, “The very unattractive (both inside and out!) Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, said ‘Putin got everything that he wanted.’ Actually, ‘nobody got anything,’ too soon, but getting close. Murphy is a lightweight who thinks it made the Russian President look good in coming to America. “Actually, it was very hard for President Putin to do so. This war can be ended, NOW, but stupid people like Chris Murphy, John Bolton, and others, make it much harder to do so,” he added. ZELENSKYY ARRIVES IN WASHINGTON, DC FOR TRUMP MEETING, URGES LASTING PEACE WITH RUSSIA Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and seven European leaders will meet with Trump in Washington, D.C., on Monday to continue seeking an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. “Big day at the White House tomorrow. Never had so many European Leaders at one time. My great honor to host them!!!” Trump said in a separate Sunday night post on Truth Social. In a third post on Sunday, Trump said Zelenskyy “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”  Trump continued, “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”

Zelenskyy heads into crucial Trump meeting as US weighs security guarantees for Kyiv

Zelenskyy heads into crucial Trump meeting as US weighs security guarantees for Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy heads into a high-stakes White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday, as Washington considers security guarantees for Kyiv and debate intensifies over whether land concessions to Russia could end the war. Zelenskyy will be flanked by key European allies at the White House, a diplomatic overture that signals Europe’s determination to rally behind Ukraine. Over the weekend, the Ukrainian leader acknowledged his last White House visit – cut short by a shouting match between Trump and Vice President JD Vance – and told reporters in Brussels he hopes Monday’s meeting “will be productive” rather than a repeat of February’s encounter. EUROPEAN LEADERS WILL JOIN TRUMP-ZELENSKYY MEETING, SIGNALING SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE The upcoming meeting comes on the heels of Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday, where the U.S. leader shifted from demanding a ceasefire to calling for a final peace deal. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that Putin agreed to allow the U.S. to provide Ukraine “robust security guarantees.”  “We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee,” in reference to the critical NATO provision,” Witkoff said, referencing the military alliance’s mutual defense clause, known as Article 5. NATO’s Article 5 – the cornerstone of the alliance – stipulates that an attack on one member is an assault on all, obligating allies to come to each other’s defense. The proposed security guarantees for Ukraine would not come through NATO, but rather from select European allies in the event of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. Zelenskyy welcomed the revelation during a Sunday press conference alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “It’s important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and we are very thankful to the United States under the president for such a signal,” Zelenskyy said. TRUMP: WE’RE GOING STRAIGHT TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE DEAL, ‘NOT A MERE CEASEFIRE’ “This is a significant change, but there are no details about how it will work and what America’s role will be, what Europe’s role will be and what the EU can do,” he added. Over the weekend, Zelenskyy reiterated that his war-weary nation will not surrender any territory to Russia as the Kremlin’s three-and-a-half-year conflict grinds on. “The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference at the EU Commission on Sunday.  RUBIO DOWNPLAYS REPORTS TRUMP BACKING PUTIN’S PLAN FOR RUSSIA TO CONTROL UKRAINE’S DONBAS REGION He added that Russia has repeatedly tried and failed to seize the entirety of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for a period of 12 years.  The area, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, is an industrial hub where coal mining and steel production remain central to Ukraine’s economy. In short, control of Donbas’s mines and factories would hand Moscow powerful leverage over Kyiv’s financial survival. “Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral Ukraine, United States, Russia,” Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader, who spoke alongside von der Leyen, said that so far the Kremlin has “given no sign that the trilateral will happen.”  “With regards to any territorial questions in Ukraine, our position is clear: international borders cannot be changed by force. These are decisions to be made by Ukraine and Ukraine alone, and these decisions cannot be taken without Ukraine at the table,” von der Leyen said. Following the meeting with the Russian leader, Trump signaled that Zelenskyy should take Putin’s deal to end the war because “Russia is a very big power” and Ukraine is not. Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to play down speculation that Trump could push Zelenskyy to give up Ukrainian land to Russia as part of a deal to end the war. “The president has said that in terms of territories, these are things that Zelenskyy is going to have to decide on,” Rubio told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “All the president is trying to do here is narrow down the open issues,” Rubio said, adding that Trump is focused on ending the Kremlin’s full-throttle assault on Ukraine.

Iraq starts mass grave excavation from ISIL (ISIS) carnage south of Mosul

Iraq starts mass grave excavation from ISIL (ISIS) carnage south of Mosul

The al-Khasfa site, near Iraq’s second-largest city, could contain 4,000 remains and possibly thousands more. Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by ISIL (ISIS) during its years of carnage exacted upon the civilian population after it seized large swaths of the nation from 2014 onwards, until being vanquished three years later. Local authorities were working alongside the judiciary, forensic investigators, the Iraqi Martyrs Foundation and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported on Sunday. The site – a sinkhole about 150 metres (nearly 500 feet) deep and 110 metres (360 ft) wide – is believed to have been the grisly scene of some of the worst massacres committed by ISIL. Ahmad Qusay al-Asady, head of the Martyrs Foundation’s mass graves excavation department, told The Associated Press news agency that his team began work on August 9 at the request of the Nineveh province. The operation will initially be limited to gathering visible human remains and surface evidence, while preparing for a full exhumation that officials say will require international support, al-Asady said. The foundation will then build a database and start collecting DNA samples from families of suspected victims. Full exhumations can only proceed once specialised assistance is secured to navigate the site’s hazards, including sulfur water and unexploded ordnance. The water may have also eroded the human remains, complicating DNA identification. Because of the presence of these elements, al-Khafsa is “a very complicated site,” al-Asady added. Advertisement Based on unverified accounts from witnesses and families and other unofficial testimonies, authorities estimate the site could contain at least 4,000 remains, with the possibility of thousands more. The sinkhole at the al-Khasfa site could be the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history [Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP] Al-Khasfa is located near Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, where ISIL took control before being defeated in Iraq in late 2017. At its peak, ISIL ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom, spanning across Iraq and Syria, with Raqqa in the latter being the capital of their self-declared “caliphate”. The group was notorious for its brutality. The group carried out massacres of thousands of the Yazidi people and enslaved thousands of Yazidi women. The Yazidis, a long-persecuted group whose faith is rooted in Zoroastrianism, are still recovering from the horrors of ISIL’s onslaught on their community in Iraq’s Sinjar district in 2014. Rabah Nouri Attiyah, a lawyer who has worked on more than 70 cases of missing people in Nineveh, told the AP that information points to al-Khasfa being “the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history”. Al-Asady, however, said investigators have not yet been able to confirm its size. About 70 percent of the estimated human remains there are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, as well as other victims, including Yazidis. Interviews conducted with numerous witnesses from the area suggest ISIL fighters brought people there by bus to kill them. “Many of them were decapitated,” al-Asady said. In addition to ISIL-era mass graves, Iraqi authorities continue to unearth such sites dating to the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003. Adblock test (Why?)

More than 40 missing after boat capsizes in Nigeria’s Sokoto

More than 40 missing after boat capsizes in Nigeria’s Sokoto

Officials say about 10 people rescued after accident in African country’s northwestern region. Rescuers are searching for more than 40 people who are missing after a boat capsized in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Sokoto, according to authorities. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Sunday that its Sokoto operations office had deployed a response team to support rescue efforts following the “tragic boat mishap”. NEMA’s director general, Zubaida Umar, said the agency responded after “receiving reports that a boat conveying over 50 passengers to Goronyo Market had capsized”. NEMA said in a statement shared on social media that about 10 people had been rescued, and more than 40 other passengers were missing. Nigeria’s The Punch newspaper, citing a local official, said the accident may have been caused by overloading, a recurring issue for boats in the state’s riverine communities. Boat accidents are common in Nigeria, particularly during the annual rainy season, from March to October, when rivers and lakes overflow. At least 16 farmers died in a similar accident in Sokoto State in August 2024, when a wooden canoe carrying them across a river to their rice fields capsized. Last month, at least 13 people died and dozens more went missing after a boat ferrying about 100 passengers capsized in Niger State, in north-central Nigeria. Two days later, six girls drowned after a boat taking them home from farm work capsized midstream in the northwestern Jigawa State. Adblock test (Why?)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,271

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,271

Here are the key events on day 1,271 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is how things stand on Monday, August 18: Politics and diplomacy The leaders of several European countries announced that they will accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet with United States President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. The leaders accompanying Zelenskyy will be: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. White House envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine that were “game-changing” at a summit with Trump in Alaska on Friday. Zelenskyy welcomed Witkoff’s announcement, saying it was “a historic decision that the United States is ready to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine”. However, he added that the guarantees “must be developed with Europe’s participation”. Macron said that European leaders would ask “to what extent” Washington would participate in the security guarantees on Monday. Macron also said that “there is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia”. Von der Leyen welcomed the proposal as an offer of NATO-style security guarantees from the US, adding that the “coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share”. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova, in a statement shared on Telegram on Sunday, said that Macron’s claims of capitulation were an “abject lie”. In an interview with CNN, Witkoff also said that Russia had “made some concessions” in relation to “all five of those regions”, in an apparent reference to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Crimea. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC that a ceasefire “is not off the table” but “what we ultimately are aiming for is an end to this war”, a day after Trump said he was aiming for a peace agreement without a prior ceasefire. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, simply saying: “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!”, without elaborating. Fighting Advertisement Russian forces killed five people and injured four in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said in a post on Telegram on Sunday. The attacks killed two people in Raiske, two more people in Sviatohorivka, and one person in Kostiantynivka, Filashkin said. Four people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a commercial facility in the village of Rakitnoye in Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram on Sunday. Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported on Sunday that in total, Ukrainian forces struck 13 locations across Belgorod in one day, using 111 drones and 52 munitions. TASS also reported on Sunday that Russian forces shot down four aerial bombs and 300 drones in the past day. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed that Ukrainian forces cleared the city of Pokrovsk of Russian forces and occupiers. Ukrainian forces advanced up to 1km (0.6 miles), in the Yablunivka area of the Sumy region, the General Staff added in a post on Telegram on Sunday. Adblock test (Why?)