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Zelenskyy To Meet Trump In Washington After Putin Summit Yields No Ceasefire
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he will visit Washington on Monday to meet with Donald Trump, following the U.S.-Russia summit that failed to secure a ceasefire or a plan for one in Ukraine.
He said Trump had invited him on Saturday in a phone call that lasted more than an hour and a half. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added.
On X, he said he and Trump would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”, adding: “I am grateful for the invitation.”
Zelenskyy Seeks Trilateral Meeting
Zelenskyy has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and U.S. leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his bilateral talks in Alaska with Putin were successful.
“Ukraine emphasises that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” Zelenskyy added in his post.
It was not clear, though, what Trump would be asking of Zelenskyy.
Trump said on Saturday that it had been decided at the summit that the best way to end the war was to proceed directly to a peace deal and not press for an immediate ceasefire.
Kyiv and its European allies, unlike Moscow, have until now insisted that negotiations must be preceded by a ceasefire.
The highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit, however, yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Russia’s war in Ukraine, although both leaders described the talks as productive before heading home.
In his statement after the summit, Putin did not signal any movement in Russia’s maximalist position, saying it was necessary to eliminate the “root causes” of the war and address Moscow’s “legitimate concerns”.
Trump Briefs Zelenskyy, NATO
Trump held the calls with Zelenskyy and U.S. allies on his way back to Washington, where he landed in the early hours of Saturday morning, the White House said. Zelenskyy described the over 90-minute call with Trump as “long and substantive.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine supported Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia. He also said he discussed with Trump the “positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing a source, that Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders during the phone call that Putin was not interested in a ceasefire but in a comprehensive agreement to end the war.
“I think a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire,” Trump said in the call, according to Ravid, who cited a source on the call without identifying that person.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron and leaders from Germany, Finland, Poland, Italy and Britain joined the call in which Trump briefed allies about the summit with Putin.
‘Nothing Happened’
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that, on the face of it, little had changed after the summit:
“As we expected, nothing happened. No results, and everyone stands their ground. Putin did not back down from his ultimatum, Trump wanted to show that he is a great dealmaker, but he failed.”
But the lawmaker said he was worried Putin had effectively emerged from his years-long isolation from the West, though Ukraine had seemingly avoided the “worst-case scenario” as it was not being coerced into a deal involving crushing concessions.
Trump had publicly hardened his stance towards Moscow in recent weeks, following months of verbally attacking Ukraine and its leadership. He threatened to sanction Russia heavily if Putin failed to make a deal.
But as his sanctions deadline for Moscow neared last week, the U.S. president instead invited Putin to a summit in Alaska at which he rolled out the red carpet.
With no deal reached at Friday’s summit, Trump said he did not need to think about the question of sanctions “right now”.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly underlined the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any deal, to deter Russia from launching a new invasion at some point in the future.
“We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security,” he said after his call with Trump.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Israeli Settlement Expansion Violates International Law: United Nations
The U.N. human rights office said on Friday that Israel’s plan to construct thousands of new housing units between a West Bank settlement and East Jerusalem breaches international law.
It warned that the project could lead to the forced displacement of Palestinians in the area, an act it described as a potential war crime.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday vowed to press on a long-delayed settlement project that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian government, allies and campaign groups condemned the scheme, calling it illegal and saying the fragmentation of territory would rip up peace plans for the region.
“Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods,” Smotrich said.
War Crime
The U.N. rights office spokesperson said the plan would break the West Bank into isolated enclaves and that it was “a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move not recognised by most countries, but has not formally extended sovereignty over the West Bank.
Most world powers say settlement expansion erodes the viability of a two-state solution by breaking up territory the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state.
The two-state plan envisages a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, existing side by side with Israel, which captured all three territories in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the area and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security and that the West Bank is “disputed” not “occupied”.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Trump Says He Will Try To Help Detained Hong Kong Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would look into what he could do to help “save” Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media owner Jimmy Lai, while noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping would not be pleased by such efforts.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save him,” Trump told Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” in an interview. “We’ll see what we can do … we’re going to do everything we can.”
Lai, 77, who founded the Apple Daily newspaper that was forced to close after a police raid and asset freeze in June 2021, has pleaded not guilty to two charges under Hong Kong’s national security law of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as to a separate charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
He has been held in solitary confinement for more than 1,500 days since December 2020.
‘A Key Orchestrator’
His lawyer Robert Pang told the court that Lai experienced some episodes where he felt like “collapsing”, adding he had accepted recommendations by a visiting medical specialist but the arrangements were still being made.
“He hasn’t got the medication recommended by the specialist nor the monitor, so I am a little concerned,” said one of the judges, Esther Toh.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said Lai had been “a key orchestrator and participant in anti-China, destabilizing activities in Hong Kong.”
“We strongly oppose external forces using judicial cases as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs or to smear and undermine Hong Kong’s rule of law,” he said.
Trump has said he would raise Lai’s case as part of negotiations with China over trade and tariffs.
On Monday, the U.S. and China extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other’s goods. On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade officials from the two sides will meet again within the next two or three months to discuss the future of the economic relationship.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Serbian Police Fire Teargas To Break Up Anti-Government Protest In Belgrade
Police used teargas and crowd-control vehicles to disperse anti-government demonstrators in Belgrade on Friday who threw firecrackers and flares at officers. The incident marked a significant escalation in the protests that have been ongoing in Serbia for nine months.
The protesters gathered at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in front of the army headquarters building that was bombed in 1999 by NATO. Few hours later they started throwing flares at police officers.
Trash containers were overturned and set on fire. One tree caught fire. The police threw teargas canisters to push protesters away.
Protests were held in several other towns – Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac and Valjevo. Teargas was used in Nis as well. There were no official figures on how many people were injured.
Months of protests across Serbia sparked by the deaths of 16 people when a roof on a renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed, have rattled President Aleksandar Vucic and his SNS party.
Civilians Injured And Detained
Protests have been mainly peaceful until Wednesday evening when 27 police officers and around 80 civilians were injured in clashes, and 47 people had been detained.
“Every evening we deploy 3,000 policemen across Serbia, they are being beaten and they are being injured,” Vucic told RTS TV earlier on Friday.
Protesters have blamed corruption for the Novi Sad railway station disaster and are demanding early elections in hopes of ousting Vucic and his party.
Students, opposition groups, and anti-corruption watchdogs have accused Vucic and his allies of ties to organized crime, using violence against political rivals, and suppressing media freedoms—allegations they deny.
“I’m closely following events in Serbia, where human rights concerns persist,” Michael O’Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on a Facebook page.
“I deplore the police’s disproportionate force in Valjevo yesterday (Thursday) evening and reiterate my call on the authorities to avoid excessive force, end arbitrary arrests, and de-escalate the situation.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Alaska Summit: Trump Delays Tariffs On Buyers Of Russian Oil
President Donald Trump said Friday he will not immediately impose retaliatory tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil, a decision closely watched by India, one of Moscow’s biggest crude customers. The announcement came after Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in their first in-person summit since his return to the White House.
Speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the meeting, Trump said: “Well, because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that. Now, I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now. I think, you know, the meeting went very well.”
Reports said the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including Ukraine, arms control, and global energy markets, but failed to reach any formal agreements or issue a joint communiqué. The summit, billed as a potential reset in U.S.-Russia ties, ended without substantive breakthroughs. As Putin arrived in Alaska, U.S. B-2 stealth bombers flew overhead in what was widely seen as a show of strength.
Putin described the talks as “frank” but stopped short of declaring them productive, while Trump insisted that “progress” had been made even in the absence of a concrete deal. Both outlets stressed that the war in Ukraine, nuclear arms control, and energy policy were the main sticking points.
India has particular interest in Trump’s decision to delay oil-related tariffs. New Delhi has significantly increased purchases of discounted Russian crude since 2022, a strategy it has defended as vital to its energy security. Trump has threatened tariffs on countries buying Russian oil as part of a broader campaign to squeeze Moscow’s revenues, including 25 per cent additional tariffs on India. By holding off, Trump has provided what analysts see as a temporary reprieve for New Delhi.
However, his own remark that the issue could be reconsidered within “two or three weeks” leaves open the prospect of renewed U.S. pressure. India therefore faces continued uncertainty over whether its energy imports will be targeted by future American measures.
Beyond energy, the Alaska summit yielded little progress on other global flashpoints. Al Jazeera reported that there was no agreement on Ukraine, while BBC noted that human rights and alleged Russian interference were scarcely mentioned. The outcome, both outlets suggested, signals a pause rather than a pivot in U.S.-Russia relations.
For India, the delay on oil tariffs is significant but potentially short-lived. Trump’s transactional approach to alliances and his willingness to revisit decisions quickly mean that New Delhi’s energy strategy — balancing cheap Russian oil with its deepening ties to Washington — remains fraught with uncertainty.
Trump Says Putin Agrees Mail-In Voting Threatens Fair U.S. Elections
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees with his view that allowing voters to cast ballots by mail undermines the integrity of elections.
“Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” after a nearly three-hour meeting between the leaders in Alaska. “He said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now.”
Trump, who promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, cited his agreement with Putin over absentee voting as he pressed his fellow Republicans to try harder to advance overhauls to the U.S. voting system that he has long sought.
Trump has voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so in 2024.
Vote Rigging
Putin, who has been Russia’s president or prime minister since 1999, was elected to another term in office with 87% of the vote in a 2024 election that drew allegations of vote rigging from some independent polling observers, opposition voices and Western governments. The most formidable opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his conversation with Trump.
The Russian president has previously said some U.S. elections were marred by fraudulent voting, without presenting evidence. The position mirrors Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election.
Justice Department and Senate investigations found that Moscow tried to influence campaigns to help Trump win in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe Russia tried to do the same in 2020 elections and preferred Trump to win in 2024.
Trump Denies Allegations
Trump and some of his top aides long have asserted that he and his presidential campaigns were falsely accused of colluding with Russia, a claim he brought up again in Alaska on Friday. The U.S. intelligence community never reached such a conclusion.
Trump, who has not ruled out seeking a third term in office despite a constitutional prohibition, on Friday showed impatience with Republicans for not prioritizing election reform legislation.
“The Republicans want it, but not strongly enough,” Trump said during the interview. “You can’t have a great democracy with mail-in voting.”
Some Republicans, echoing Trump’s claims, argue that changes like restricting absentee voting and requiring identification could reduce the risks of ballot tampering, impersonation or other forms of fraud that independent analysts say is rare.
Nearly three dozen countries from Canada to Germany and South Korea allow some form of postal vote, though more than half of them place some restrictions on which voters qualify, according to the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group.
The Trump administration has stepped back from commenting on the fairness or integrity of elections conducted by many foreign countries in a significant departure from Washington’s traditional approach of promoting democratic elections overseas.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Over 138 Pak Soldiers Killed In Operation Sindoor, Reveals Awards List
A supposedly triumphant list of gallantry awardees published by Pakistan’s Samaa TV on August 14 has instead turned into a grim reminder of India’s devastating retaliation for the Pahalgam massacre. The channel revealed the names of 138 Pakistani Army personnel honoured posthumously—all suffixed with the title “Shaheed”—before hurriedly scrubbing the list from its website.
The awards were announced by President Asif Ali Zardari “for outstanding courage, gallantry, and supreme sacrifice during Operation Bunyanun Marsoos.” But the roll call of the dead underlined the scale of losses suffered by Pakistan’s military machine in India’s Operation Sindoor, launched in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam killings, where terrorists called out and butchered 24 Hindu tourists as well as a Christian tourist and a local Muslim.
According to the Samaa list, 4 personnel were awarded the Tamgha-e-Jurat, 1 the Sitara-e-Basalat, 4 the Tamgha-e-Basalat, and 129 received the Imtiazi Sanad—all posthumously. What was meant as a solemn recognition of sacrifice instead inadvertently confirmed what Islamabad has tried to hide: the Pakistan Army paid a heavy price for shielding and nurturing terror proxies.
The awards were part of Pakistan’s Independence Day honours on Thursday, where dozens of military and civilian officials received accolades for their roles in the four-day conflict with India. Among others, Air Chief Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu received the Hilal-e-Jurat, Naval Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, and several fighter pilots the Sitara-e-Jurat. Civilian leaders, including Deputy PM Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, and former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, were also honoured.
Operation Sindoor, conducted on the night of May 6 and 7, had already delivered a crippling blow to Pakistan’s terror ecosystem. Precision strikes by Indian forces eliminated around a dozen high-value jihadi commanders, including:
- Yusuf Azhar, IC-814 hijacker and brother-in-law of Maulana Masood Azhar, killed at Jaish’s Bahawalpur headquarters.
- Abu Jundal alias Mudassar, head of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Muridke HQ, who received a guard of honour at his funeral, attended by Pakistani generals and Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz.
- Abu Akasha alias Khalid, Lashkar’s weapons smuggler and attacker in J&K, buried in Faisalabad with senior army officials in attendance.
- Mohammad Hassan Khan, son of JeM commander Mufti Asghar Kashmiri, who coordinated the 2016 Nagrota attack.
Indian intelligence confirmed funerals of these so-called “martyrs” were attended not only by Pakistan’s political leadership but also senior military brass, exposing once again the thin veil between Rawalpindi’s barracks and its terror affiliates.
Between the jihadi elite neutralised in May and the 138 Pakistani soldiers now confirmed dead, Operation Sindoor has left Pakistan’s military-political nexus bloodied and humiliated. What Islamabad hails as “martyrdom” is, in reality, the toll of India’s most audacious cross-border retaliation in decades—a campaign that has struck at the very heart of Pakistan’s terror state.
The hurried removal of Samaa TV’s report underlines the deep embarrassment within Pakistan: in trying to glorify its dead, it inadvertently confirmed the scale of India’s strike and the losses inflicted on its armed forces.
But that didn’t stop Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir awarding himself the Hilal-e-Jurat, the country’s second-highest wartime gallantry medal, at the August 14 ceremony. Netizens erupted in derision, dubbing it the “ultimate flex,” mocking the gesture as a hollow attempt to validate a failed campaign.
Munir’s self-promotion to Field Marshal in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor had already raised eyebrows— and some analysts see it as a strategic move to shield him from accountability in the wake of military setbacks.
Judge Defied Supreme Court In Blocking Education Department Firings: Trump Administration
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has accused a federal judge in Boston of disregarding the authority of the Supreme Court by keeping in place an order that prevents it from carrying out planned firings at the Department of Education.
The judge’s decision follows a similar order he issued earlier, which the justices had already overturned.
The U.S. Department of Justice asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene on Thursday after U.S. District Judge Myong Joun a day earlier said he would not lift an injunction requiring the administration to reinstate staff members it terminated en masse from the department’s Office for Civil Rights.
Justice Department attorneys said Joun should have vacated his injunction after the Supreme Court last month paused a broader injunction he issued preventing wide-scale Education Department firings. The administration asked the 1st Circuit to act in order to avoid a second round of litigation at the high court.
“The district court’s disregard of the Supreme Court’s ruling represents an affront to the Supreme Court’s authority—and thus to the rule of law in the United States,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.
Judiciary-Trump Administration Tensions
The 1st Circuit on Friday directed lawyers for the plaintiffs challenging the job cuts to respond to the Justice Department’s motion by Friday so the court can address it “promptly.”
The filing came as tensions continue to flare between the judiciary and the Trump administration, which has itself been repeatedly accused of not complying with judicial orders, including in the case before Joun.
The lawsuit followed an announcement in March by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon of a mass layoff of more than 1,300 employees. Trump has called for the department’s shuttering, which only Congress could ultimately authorize.
Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, in May blocked the job cuts at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers’ unions.
At the administration’s request, the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, on July 14 lifted Joun’s injunction.
But the court did not address a narrower injunction Joun had issued covering just the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws in schools and was facing a loss of half of its employees.
The civil rights office cuts were challenged by two students and Victim Rights Law Center, which represents sexual assault victims. Citing the Supreme Court’s order, the Justice Department said the injunction they won could no longer stand.
Joun declined, calling the Supreme Court’s brief order “unreasoned.” He said the administration had also “not substantially complied with the preliminary injunction order,” as employees in the civil rights office have still not returned to work following his injunction.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in court papers have argued that setting aside the injunction at this point would “reward the government’s noncompliance with extraordinary equitable relief.”
The case is Victim Rights Law Center v. United States Department of Education, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 25-1787.
For the plaintiffs: Sean Ouellette of Public Justice and Reid Skibell of Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes
For the United States: Melissa Patterson and Steven Myers of the U.S. Department of Justice.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Trump Administration Announces Tighter Rules On Subsidies For Wind And Solar Projects
The U.S. Treasury Department introduced new restrictions on Friday on how wind and solar projects can qualify for federal tax subsidies. The changes come as President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law phases out those benefits over the next two years.
The revisions change longstanding definitions for what it means for a project to be considered under construction by requiring developers of big solar arrays and wind farms to complete physical work rather than simply show that they have invested capital.
The changes are in response to an executive order Trump issued last month directing the Treasury Department to restrict tax credit eligibility unless a substantial portion of a facility is built.
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly sought to stall development of wind and solar energy, calling them unreliable, expensive, and overly dependent on Chinese supply chains.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last month, requires projects to begin construction by July of next year or enter service by the end of 2027 to qualify for a 30% tax credit and bonuses that can push the subsidy even higher.
Under the new rules, which will affect projects that start construction as of September 2, utility-scale projects will be required to show substantial and continuous physical work to be eligible for the credits. They will still have four years to claim the subsidies.
For the last decade, project developers had also been able to “safe harbor” projects for four years by incurring 5% of total costs before a credit expired or stepped down to a lesser value.
According to an agency document, “substantial” work does not include permitting, design or holding components in inventory.
Small projects of under 1.5 megawatts will still be able to use the 5% “safe harbor” provision, Treasury said, a positive for the residential solar industry.
A solar industry trade group said the rules would harm businesses and undermine lawmakers’ intentions with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“This is yet another act of energy subtraction from the Trump administration that will further delay the buildout of affordable, reliable power,” Solar Energy Industries Association CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement. “American families and businesses will pay more for electricity as a result of this action, and China will continue to outpace us in the race for electricity to power AI.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Xi Vowed Not To Invade Taiwan During My Term, Says Trump
US President Donald Trump stated on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured him that China would not invade Taiwan during Trump’s tenure in office.
Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
‘China Is Very Patient’
“I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report.”
“He told me, ‘I will never do it as long as you’re president.’ President Xi told me that, and I said, ‘Well, I appreciate that,’ but he also said, ‘But I am very patient, and China is very patient.’,” Trump said.
Trump and Xi held their first confirmed call of Trump’s second presidential term in June. Trump also said in April that Xi had called him but did not specify when that call took place.
‘Important And Sensitive Issue’
China considers Taiwan to be a part of its own territory and has repeatedly vowed to ‘reunify’ with the democratic and separately governed island—by force, if necessary. However, Taiwan firmly rejects China’s claims of sovereignty and insists on maintaining its own independent political and administrative system.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday described the topic of Taiwan as “the most important and sensitive issue” in China-US relations.
“The US government should adhere to the one-China principle and the three US-China joint communiqués, handle Taiwan-related issues prudently, and earnestly safeguard China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement.
Although Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and international backer, the US – like most countries – has no formal diplomatic ties with the island.
(With inputs from Reuters)