Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said President Trump was “completely played” by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the leaders’ historic summit in Alaska on Friday.
In an interview on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday, Swalwell criticized Trump’s treatment of Putin at the meeting and said world leaders fear the U.S. is “shirking its responsibility” to defend democracy globally.
“Putin completely played Trump. This is entirely about Donald Trump refusing to release the Epstein files and putting forward this scripted counterprogramming to that,” Swalwell said in the interview. “He made America weaker, as perceived by the rest of the world, and he humiliated himself.”
Trump greeted Putin on Friday on a red carpet spread across the runway of a U.S. airbase and clapped as the Russian leader approached. The two men shook hands, and Putin joined Trump in his presidential limo as they traveled to the summit to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
Swalwell said on CNN he would have liked to see Trump greet Putin with a show of strength.
“I want peace in the region, and the best way to achieve peace is to band together and show strength against a bully like Russia. Instead, yesterday, we saw Donald Trump toast Vladimir Putin like he was receiving some lifetime achievement award,” Swalwell said. “That doesn’t make us stronger.”
“And right now, having talked already today and yesterday to leaders over in Europe, they are very worried about what’s next — not just for Ukraine, but for democracies across the West — because the United States is shirking its responsibility to stand up and defend democracy everywhere,” he added.
The remarks came ahead of Monday’s meeting at the White House, where Trump will huddle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to discuss the Putin summit and next steps in peace negotiations.
Trump sparked criticism on Saturday when he said after a call with Zelensky and European leaders that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
A2 Milk Co. is buying an infant-formula business in its home market of New Zealand and plans to invest NZ$100m ($59.3m) to increase factory capacity.
The New Zealand and Australia-listed company made a multi-faceted full-year results announcement today (18 August) that included the acquisition of a Yashili New Zealand Dairy-owned plant in Pokeno – located in the Waikato region – along with the sale of its majority stake in Mataura Valley Milk.
A2 Milk said the Pokeno site already has two registrations for Chinese label infant milk formula (IMF), bolstering the company’s current presence in a market that generates the majority of its annual revenue.
In a stock exchange filing, A2 Milk implied the formula maker has also acquired Yashili New Zealand Dairy in the transaction, a business in which French dairy giant Danone took an interest in 2018/19.
A spokesperson for A2 Milk clarified that was the case when asked for confirmation by Just Food today, as the company noted Danone is “no longer a shareholder”.
As part of what A2 Milk called its “supply chain transformation strategy”, the filing stated: “The acquisition of an integrated nutritional manufacturing facility with two CL IMF product registrations, located in Pokeno, New Zealand, by purchasing all of the shares in Yashili New Zealand Dairy Co. Limited, from Yashili International Group Limited (a subsidiary of China Mengniu Dairy Group Limited) for approximately $282 million on a debt and cash free basis.”
Just Food has also asked Danone to clarify when it exited its investment in Yashili New Zealand Dairy.
A2 Milk’s CEO and managing director David Bortolussi said: “The acquisition of the Pokeno manufacturing facility and related products represents a pivotal moment for The A2 Milk Company and the execution of our supply chain transformation strategy.
“The transactions enable the company to build a better, higher growth, lower risk, end-to-end business and deliver substantial benefits to shareholders.”
Bortolussi added that the Pokeno facility and its team had already played a part in “co-developing and producing” A2 Milk’s English label formulas, A2 Genesis and A2 Gentle Gold.
As A2 Milk reported across-the-board increases in revenue and profits for the 2025 fiscal year, the company revealed it was selling its 75% holding in Mataura Valley Milk (MVM), an interest it bought in the local dairy nutrition business in 2021.
Open Country Dairy, a New Zealand-based milk processor, is buying the stake along with the 25% held by China Animal Husbandry Group. A2 Milk said it will pocket NZ$100m from its side of the transaction.
A2 Milk added it expects to incur a loss of around NZ$130m from the disposal. MVM will continue to supply A2 Milk with A1 protein-free ingredients under a new supply agreement.
“MVM is an advanced nutritional powder drying facility that continues to have significant potential but is no longer the optimal asset and pathway to achieve our strategic objectives,” Bortolussi said.
Meanwhile, A2 Milk said the multi-year NZ$100m investment in the newly acquired Pokeno factory will lead to more than 100 new jobs over time.
On the results front, A2 Milk reported a 13.5% increase in 2025 sales revenue to NZ$1.9bn. China and the wider Asia region generated NZ$1.3bn, up 13.9%.
IMF products sold in China and Asia provided NZ$1.19bn, an increase of 12.4% over the previous 12 months.
For A2 Milk as a group, EBITDA climbed 17.1% to NZ$274.3m, with the margin rising 0.4 percentage point to 14.4%.
Net profit after tax rose 21.1% to NZ$202.9m, while basic EPS was up 20.9% at 28 cents.
Looking ahead to 2026, A2 Milk expects revenue to grow in the high-single-digit area with an EBITDA margin of 15% to 16%.
“A2 Milk acquires Yashili New Zealand Dairy from Chinese owners” was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Melbourne-born Oscar Piastri will have his own grandstand at next year’s Australian Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old is leading this season’s drivers’ championship by nine points from McLaren team-mate Lando Norris with 10 races to go.
Piastri has already won more grands prix in a single season than any other Australian driver since the world championship started in 1950, with six so far in 2025.
“It feels very surreal and I never thought this would happen, but the support is incredible and I can’t wait to see it all come together next March,” he said on X., external
The grandstand will be on the main straight, opposite the pit lane.
“Seeing all the fans in my own grandstand directly opposite the McLaren garage is going to be an amazing experience and I’m really looking forward to feeling the energy and the atmosphere,” he added.
The season-opening race at Albert Park in Melbourne takes place from 6-8 March 2026.
Piastri, who has eight career victories in total but has yet to make the podium in three attempts in Australia, joins the growing list of drivers on the grid with dedicated grandstands.
Norris and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton each have stands at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with Hamilton’s located along the main start-finish straight and Norris’ ‘Landostands’ at Stowe Corner.
Four-time title winner Max Verstappen has grandstands named after him across the European leg of the F1 calendar, including his home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
Other Australian drivers to be given the honour of a grandstand at Albert Park include three-time world champion Jack Brabham, 1980 title-winner Alan Jones, plus Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber.
In a twist of comic irony, New York City — the embodiment of American capitalism — may soon have a democratic socialist mayor in 33 year old Zohran Mamdani.
That being said, assuming Mamdani wins November’s general election, the joke may be on national Democrats.
Put another way, even as a mayoral candidate, by dint of New York City’s status and his elevation into a national figure, Mamdani presents severe risks to the Democratic Party on the national stage.
And as the party looks to regain even one chamber of Congress next year, there is a very real chance that Mamdani’s extreme, socialist policies put the entire party’s political fortunes in jeopardy.
The first risk is if Mamdani’s primary victory portends, or ushers in, a seismic shift for the wider Democratic Party.
Coming at a time when Democrats are at a crossroads, Mamdani’s win may embolden progressives, sideline moderates and drive the party further to the left. If this is the direction the Democratic Party moves in, they will end up even less politically relevant than they are today.
At the same time, Mamdani’s views are considerably out of line with what mainstream Democratic views should be — particularly on the economy and public safety.
The U.S. is a capitalist nation. Although more can be done to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity and is protected by a social safety net, the U.S. is not a socialist country.
And on public safety, Mamdani, a past proponent of “defund the police,” is pledging to move “billions of dollars (from the NYPD budget) to a new Department of Community Safety” that emphasizes soft on crime measures, according to New York Post reporting.
With Democrats already struggling to overcome perceptions that they can’t be trusted to handle the economy or public safety. And given New York City’s prominence, Mamdani’s policies may quickly become the face of the entire party, a gift to the GOP.
The second, and arguably biggest, risk Mamdani poses lies in how he would govern.
Mamdani campaigned on endless handouts backed by huge tax increases, replacing police officers with social workers, and Soviet-inspired government-run grocery stores.
Whether Mamdani is able to implement any, or all, of these campaign pledges or not, Democrats will find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
Either Mamdani is seen as ineffective, and just another Democrat who promised utopia but was unable to actually deliver on his lofty promises. Or, more dangerously, New Yorkers get a firsthand lesson on the dangers of socialism, sparking a considerable backlash against the Democratic Party as a whole.
Worse, with New York City being a global center of culture, finance and entertainment, the entire country will witness the damage from Mamdani’s policies.
When government-run grocery stores show themselves to be a horrendous idea, which the Soviet Union has already shown them to be, Republicans will immediately pounce on this failure to underscore the danger in electing any Democrat.
Should crime spike due to a sharp reduction in the number of police officers, Democrats across the country will be branded as soft on crime.
Similarly, if excessively high taxes on the city’s high-earners cause capital flight, a destruction of the city’s tax base and drastically lower the overall quality of life, voters’ trust in Democrats to handle the economy will sink, and it’s already tremendously low.
Finally, there is the issue of how Mamdani will govern the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
Due to his history of antisemitic remarks, whether his refusal to condemn “globalize the intifada” or unwillingness to accept Israel as a Jewish state, vitriol he’s never shared for other ethnoreligious states, there are very real concerns that under his leadership, New York City will be even more hostile for Jews.
Far from being a local issue, if Mamdani fails to protect New York’s Jewish citizens, it will reinforce perceptions that the Democratic Party is rife with antisemitism.
To be sure, national Democrats seem to be aware of the risks Mamdani poses.
Some moderates, such as Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), have been blunt, saying Mamdani’s “policies do not comport” with Democrats’ agenda.
Others, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-N.Y.) have taken a softer approach, but still indicate some unease with the socialist who has become the face of the Democratic Party.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday, Jefferies refused to endorse Mamdani or even say whether he was “convinced” about Mamdani and the kind of mayor he would be.
Asked about Mamdani’s policy proposals, Jefferies said, “Now, he’s going to have to demonstrate…that his ideas can actually be put into reality.”
Hardly a show of confidence from a party leader.
Taken together, the elevation of Mamdani and his extreme views may deepen the animosity and alienation many voters feel when they think about today’s Democratic Party.
If voters see Mamdani’s leadership devastating New York City and come to believe that this is what the Democratic Party has to offer, it stands to reason that Democrats across the country will pay the price, and likely for many election cycles to come.
A man has been found guilty over his role in the shooting of a nine-year-old girl at a restaurant in east London in a tit-for-tat feud between rival gangs.
Javon Riley, 33, was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to the girl who was hit in the head by one of six bullets fired by a man on a passing motorbike at the Evin Restaurant in Kingsland High Street in Hackney on 29 May 2024.
Riley was also found guilty of attempting to murder three men – Mustafa Kiziltan, 35, Kenan Aydogdu, 45, and Nasser Ali, 44 – who were sitting at tables outside the restaurant that night.
The girl’s mother said: “In a single moment, the future we had imagined for our daughter was torn away.”
President Trump is reportedly considering rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, which would significantly liberalize the rules that currently regulated it. Former U.S. Attorney and Congressman Bob Barr recently argued in The Hill that Trump should go ahead and do it.
But although his proposal is framed as a pragmatic reform, it overlooks critical scientific evidence and public health risks. A more thorough examination reveals that rescheduling marijuana would be a dangerous misstep — one that prioritizes corporate interests over the well-being of society.
The most authoritative federal review of cannabis research comes from the 2017 National Academies of Sciences Report, which identified only three medical conditions with substantial evidence supporting cannabis efficacy: chronic pain in adults, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and spasticity symptoms in multiple sclerosis.
Notably, conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder were classified as having only “limited evidence,” meaning cannabis cannot be conclusively deemed an effective treatment. This directly contradicts claims that marijuana is a proven remedy for PTSD. In fact, the 2021 Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines explicitly reject cannabis for PTSD due to insufficient evidence and potential harm.
Another critical issue is the dramatic rise in THC potency in marijuana due to bioengineering, a trend well-documented by the University of Mississippi’s long-term research under DEA authorization. Historically, cannabis contained just 2 percent to 4 percent THC. Today’s strains routinely exceed 15 percent and even 30 percent, with concentrates reaching 90 percent or higher.
Modern, high-THC cannabis is pharmacologically distinct from traditional forms and is linked to alarming public health consequences. Research shows that 30 percent of daily users develop Cannabis Use Disorder. Studies in Lancet Psychiatry (2019) and JAMA Pediatrics (2022) associate high-THC cannabis with increased psychosis, schizophrenia risk, and cognitive impairment in adolescents. This includes IQ decline and memory deficits.
To ignore these risks would be to mislead the public into believing cannabis is safer than it truly is. Worse, rescheduling to Schedule III — placing marijuana alongside drugs like ketamine and anabolic steroids — would falsely legitimize today’s high-THC products as “medicine,” despite their well-documented dangers.
Beyond public health concerns, rescheduling marijuana raises questions about hidden financial motives. Moving cannabis to Schedule III would provide a massive windfall for the industry by eliminating IRS tax code Section 280E, which currently prevents marijuana businesses from deducting ordinary expenses, which costs them billions annually. Without this restriction, corporations could save hundreds of millions in taxes, expand aggressive marketing and lobbying efforts, and flood the market with even stronger THC products.
Given these incentives, any push for rescheduling should be scrutinized for its potential to prioritize profits over safety.
Rather than blanket rescheduling, a more responsible approach would be to maintain high-THC cannabis in Schedule I — due to its abuse potential and mental health risks — while permitting FDA and DEA exceptions for research on low-THC (below 4 percent) cannabis, the plant’s natural form. If future studies confirm medical benefits for low-THC cannabis, it could then be reclassified to Schedule II with strict controls to prevent misuse.
This targeted solution balances medical access with public safety, avoiding the uncontrolled proliferation of high-potency THC products. Importantly, maintaining the natural THC threshold as a research benchmark ensures that policy remains grounded in science rather than industry influence. Ultimately, an objective assessment of marijuana must rely on reliable science, consider all risks, and reject corporate-driven loopholes.
High-THC cannabis undeniably meets all three criteria for Schedule I classification. It has a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use for smoked or vaped forms, and a lack of established safety under medical supervision. Rescheduling would serve as a gift to the marijuana industry at the expense of public health, accelerating the spread of a potent and addictive drug. Instead of rushing to relax federal safeguards, policymakers should prioritize rigorous low-THC research without compromising existing protections.
The Schedule I classification must remain — not due to outdated ideology, but because drug policy should be dictated by science, not corporate lobbying. Keeping marijuana in its current category is a necessary step to protect public health and ensure that any future reforms are based on evidence rather than financial incentives.
Angel Gomez is a researcher specializing in the societal impact of drug policy. He has a background in psychoanalytical anthropology and general sciences.
The UK retail banking system has absorbed a rare mix of shocks in recent years. Inflation and rate volatility have altered household cashflows, regulatory expectations have risen around customer outcomes and operational resilience, and cyber threats have moved from hypothetical to everyday. For leaders, resilience is no longer a defensive stance. It is the organising principle for growth, risk control, and trust.
Resilience begins with clarity of purpose. Customers judge banks on whether everyday services work the first time, whether advice is timely and fair, and whether issues are resolved without friction. When that foundation is reliable, banks earn the permission to innovate. When it cracks, even the most advanced technology will not recover lost credibility.
“Resilience is not the opposite of innovation. It is the condition that allows innovation to take root without damaging trust.”
Three forces will define the next 24 months.
First, economic uncertainty persists. Rate paths may be flatter than last year, but affordability remains tight for many households and small businesses. That calls for disciplined, transparent credit practices and proactive support for vulnerable customers.
Second, regulation is sharpening. UK supervisors have placed sustained emphasis on consumer outcomes, operational resilience, and third‑party risk. Boards are now expected to evidence end‑to‑end thinking: from product design to servicing, from cloud dependency to exit plans.
Third, technology risk and opportunity are rising together. Banks must modernise core platforms, make responsible use of data and AI, and defend against sophisticated fraud while preserving seamless customer journeys.
The most competitive banks will treat resilience as product management, not only compliance. That means:
Map important business services from the customer’s view. Identify where interruptions would cause intolerable harm, and test those points in live scenarios, not only in documents.
Design for graceful degradation. When parts of the stack fail, customers should retain basic functionality such as balance checks, payments, and emergency support through alternative routes.
Close the loop between incidents and investment. Post‑incident learning must drive the change portfolio. This is how resilience budgets create commercial value rather than just insurance value.
Build transparent supplier oversight. Third‑party concentration is now a core risk. Banks should refresh exit strategies, increase observability, and negotiate service level terms that are meaningful in customer terms.
Done well, the above reduces outages, regulatory findings, and complaints. It also releases capacity to launch new propositions with confidence.
The UK retail landscape is consolidating branch networks while customers still value human advice for complex needs. A resilient model is hybrid by design.
Digital channels should handle routine tasks with speed, clarity, and accessibility. Human channels should specialise in moments that create or destroy lifetime value: debt restructuring, first‑time borrowing, savings discipline, and financial care for the vulnerable. Community‑based outreach, delivered through trained advisers and trusted local partners, remains a powerful way to rebuild confidence where digital alone has not yet earned it.
The banks that thrive will script a precise handover between channels. Customers must never repeat information. Staff must see the same view of a case as the customer. This requires clean data and thoughtful workflow design more than it requires exotic technology.
Agentic and conversational AI can reduce friction in service, underwriting, and operations. The test of good use is simple. Does it measurably improve outcomes for customers, staff, and the regulator at the same time?
High value applications include triaging service requests, pre‑populating forms, flagging affordability concerns early, and guiding agents with next‑best actions that are explainable. Guardrails are essential. Models should be trained on quality data, monitored for bias and drift, and wrapped in clear accountability so that customers always know when they are speaking to a human and when they are not.
AI should never replace the judgement required in hardship or complaint handling. Instead, it should free expert people to spend more time where empathy and discretion are decisive.
In retail banking, ESG becomes practical when it reduces risk and improves access, rather than appearing as a marketing layer. Three applications stand out.
Environmental. Support households with energy efficiency financing and advice. These programmes reduce bills and credit risk while advancing national targets.
Social. Design inclusive products with transparent pricing, fair fees, and tailored support for customers in vulnerable circumstances. Track the outcomes, not just the inputs.
Governance. Strengthen model risk management, data ethics, and complaints learning. This is how boards show that culture and conduct are embedded rather than asserted.
The commercial effect is durable books, lower impairments, and stronger reputation in communities that banks seek to serve for decades.
Resilient institutions invest in two capabilities that are often treated as soft issues.
The first is frontline capability. Complex regulation and digital change have been intense for staff. Ongoing credentialing, simple policy guides, and modern knowledge tools reduce error and improve confidence. When colleagues are clear on the why behind decisions, they deliver better how at the point of service.
The second is measurement that matters. Leaders should track a short set of indicators that connect customer experience, operational resilience, and financial performance. Examples include successful first contact resolution, the proportion of important services that meet impact tolerances, time to detect and recover from issues, quality of vulnerability interventions, and staff proficiency in critical processes. These are better predictors of sustainable returns than vanity metrics.
A simple framework helps convert intention into execution.
Stabilise the core. Complete a refresh of important business services, impact tolerances, and playbooks. Reduce single points of failure in payments, cash access, and customer authentication.
De‑risk the change portfolio. Sequence core replacement, cloud migrations, and AI pilots against resilience priorities. Fewer projects done well beat many projects done poorly.
Modernise the debt and savings journey. Provide early nudges and options for customers under pressure. Make saving simple and visible. Small design improvements compound across millions of interactions.
Hard‑wire inclusion. Build accessible design into mobile journeys. Provide alternative formats and additional care routes without stigma. Train staff on vulnerability signals and escalation.
Strengthen third‑party oversight. Increase transparency of performance and concentration. Rehearse exit plans and ensure data portability is real, not theoretical.
Invest in people. Equip frontline and operations teams with better tools and coaching. Celebrate error reporting and curiosity. Culture is the cheapest and most powerful resilience technology.
Resilience does not mean standing still. It means building a platform where innovation can be trusted. If UK retail banks apply disciplined operational design, respectful use of AI, and a hybrid service model that brings people closer to the advice they need, they will emerge stronger than before. The prize is not only fewer incidents or findings. It is a step change in customer confidence that compounds into growth.
Dr. Gulzar Singh is Senior Fellow – Banking and Strategy & CEO of Phoenix Empire Ltd
“Resilient retail banking in the UK: building future‑proof institutions amid economic uncertainty” was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
“Skibidi”, “tradwife” and other slang terms popularised on social media are among thousands of new words to be added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year.
Skibidi is a gibberish term coined by the creator of a viral animated video series on YouTube, while tradwife is a shortening of “traditional wife” – a married mother who cooks, cleans and posts on social media.
More than 6,000 new words have been added, including those that relate to tech giants and remote working.
“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” said lexical programme manager Colin McIntosh.
Skibidi is defined in the dictionary as “a word that can have different meanings such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad’, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke”. An example of its use is “What the skibidi are you doing?”
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian revealed her familiarity with the phrase when she posted a video on Instagram showing a necklace engraved with “skibidi toilet” – the name of the YouTube series.
As well as new phrases, some shortened versions of existing terms have been added, including “delulu” – a play on the word “delusional”, with a similar definition: “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to”.
An increase in remote working since the pandemic has seen “mouse jiggler” – a device or piece of software used to make it seem as though you are working when you are not – gain its place in the dictionary.
Other work-related words to make the cut include “work wife” and “work spouse”, which acknowledge workplace relationships where two people help and trust each other.
Some composite terms such as “broligarchy” have also been added. Merging “bro” and “oligarchy”, it means “a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence”.
It was used to describe tech leaders Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg attending Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Mr McIntosh said Cambridge Dictionary only added words which they believed could stand the test of time.
“It’s not every day you get to see words like ‘skibidi’ and ‘delulu’ make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary,” he said.
“We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power.”
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies will meet with President Trump at the White House this afternoon to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, just days after Trump met in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The stakes could hardly be higher.
Trump after meeting with Putin said what happens next in terms of securing a ceasefire that the Russian leader opposes will largely depend on Zelensky and Ukraine.
That worried leaders in Europe, who fear Trump is tilting toward Putin and could press for Zelensky and Ukraine to make more concessions to reach a broader peace agreement.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will all be in Washington to make their collective case to Trump.
The idea is to give Zelensky backup, and make sure there is not a repeat of the disastrous February Oval Office meeting involving Zelensky, Trump and Vice President Vance that became an ugly shouting match.
Trump on Sunday evening previewed the stance he will be taking during the meetings, writing on Truth Social that Zelensky must agree to some of Russia’s conditions for the war to end — namely ceding Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and agreeing never to join NATO.
▪ The Hill: Follow along here for live updates from the meeting.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s envoy to the region Steve Witkoff, the two U.S. officials in the room with Trump for the Putin meeting on Friday, on Sunday took to the airwaves to calm nerves.
The biggest news likely came from Witkoff.
He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Putin had agreed to “robust” security guarantees for Ukraine, which he called a “game changer” in the negotiations.
The plan would essentially give Ukraine NATO-style security guarantees modeled after the alliance’s Article 5, which decrees an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all.
These guarantees would not come from NATO, Witkoff said Sunday, but from the U.S. and other European allies.
“Everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with, but assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” Witkoff said.
ELEVATED STAKES: The next steps in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine may hinge largely on today’s meeting.
Rubio said Sunday the sides have a long way to go to reach a peace deal, but that the U.S. was encouraged enough by what they heard Friday from the Russians to think it was worth moving forward. Separately, the White House is hoping for a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky later this week, The Washington Post reports.
The secretary of State said it was a “stupid media narrative” to think that European leaders were coming to Washington to prevent Trump from bullying Zelensky into a deal.
“We’ve been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow,” a seemingly frustrated Rubio told CBS’s Margaret Brennan. “We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The president invited them to come.”
Rubio added Trump and the U.S. had made it clear to Russia that it would need to make concessions to Ukraine, and that any deal in the end will have to be agreed to by Kyiv.
Zelensky, who held a news conference with the European Commission president in Brussels on Sunday before traveling to Washington later in the day, said Kyiv could not enter into negotiations with Moscow “under the pressure of weapons” and insisted on a ceasefire.
Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said Trump’s “resolve to get a peace deal is vital” but signaled expectations for an agreement remain low, saying “the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon.”
“Even as delegations met, Russia launched new attacks on Ukraine,” Kallas said. “Putin continues to drag out negotiations and hopes he gets away with it. He left Anchorage without making any commitments to end the killing.”
▪ The New York Times: Zelensky brings backup to the White House as Trump aligns more closely with Putin.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Putin’s goals go beyond a land grab and aim at Ukraine’s capitulation. Kyiv and the West hope to draw a line.
TIMELINES: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Friday predicted the Russia-Ukraine war could end before Christmas — if there’s a meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky.
“Make no mistake, this war is a war of aggression by Putin against Ukraine,” Graham, a Trump ally and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, said in a post on the social platform X. “However, I have always said Ukraine will not evict every Russian soldier and Putin is not going to take Kyiv.”
Editor’s note: Smart Take with Blake Burman will return on Tuesday.
3 Things to Know Today
Firefighters who battle wildfires are suffering fatal health effects after facing blazes in Los Angeles and around the country without respiratory protection.
Hurricane Erin gained strength as a Category 4 storm today as it churned north with a large wind field, testing emergency preparations in the Caribbean and meteorological models along the East Coast.
Members of the District of Columbia National Guard patrol along the National Mall, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
WASHINGTON AND NATIONAL GUARD: Hundreds of National Guard members who have arrived in the nation’s capital, soon to include troops deployed from Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia, are guarding federal buildings and tourist locales and could start carrying weapons, according to the Trump administration.
National Guard troops “may be armed, consistent with their mission and training, to protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deter violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence,” an administration official told reporters.
Clusters of D.C. residents protested on street corners over the weekend as tourists stopped to photograph National Guard soldiers and video the lines of police vehicles crisscrossing the city with lights flashing.
Roughly one week into the president’s order declaring a public safety emergency in the nation’s capital, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Sunday reported more than 300 arrests “and counting,” the majority reportedly conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Police and federal officials swept tents and makeshift encampments off D.C.’s green spaces downtown last week and urged the homeless to find beds in shelters or risk fines or arrest.
Trump’s anti-crime crackdown — with the D.C. police chief in charge of the police department following an emergency lawsuit filed by the city on Friday — is effective for 30 days under the federal Home Rule law for the city. The president says Washington is “a nightmare of murder and crime” that the D.C. government has failed to control. Trump says he’ll seek to extend his authority with approval from Congress when lawmakers return after Labor Day.
Trump has criticized Washington’s potholes, damaged curbs and what he describes as poor maintenance, although 18 square miles of the city, or 29 percent, is federal property. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a top adviser to the president on illegal immigration, took aim on Sunday at graffiti around Washington, a feature common in large cities and tackled by D.C. workers using repeated scrubbing and paint.
“Graffiti left untouched to scar public spaces is the visual declaration of a society’s surrender,” Miller wrote in a post on X.
▪ The Hill: Restaurant attendance takes a dive in DC after Trump’s police actions.
▪ The Wall Street Journal:San Francisco’s aggressive sweeps since last summer have cleared the homeless from streets and sidewalks.
▪ The Hill: Democrats face challenges in countering Trump on crime.
REDISTRICTING BATTLES: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who vows to thwart GOP efforts to gain House seats by mounting a tit-for-tat redistricting effort among Democrats in his state, has said California is ready to move ahead with a special election in November for a ballot initiative to draw new congressional maps. For the politically ambitious and term-limited Newsom, his plans pose political risks.
▪ Los Angeles Times: Newsom’s decision to fight fire-with-fire could have profound political consequences.
▪ CBS News: Democrats unveil maps of California’s redistricting plan.
▪ The Hill:Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state signaled an end to their standoff against Republicans’ special session, which concluded.
▪ The Hill: In Texas, a contest that could be impacted by redistricting is a likely primary battle between Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Greg Casar (D-Texas). In what many Democrats call an ironic twist, Doggett is pushing for Casar to step aside.
ELECTIONS AND CONTROVERSIES: Georgia Republicans who want to capture the seat held by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) are unhappy about the potential for a brutal GOP primary among former football coach Derek Dooley, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports.
In New York City’s mayoral race, the leading candidate on the left, Zohran Mamdani, is hunting for endorsements from moderates.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D), the first woman to hold that office, was indicted on Friday on charges of abusing public funds. Louisiana has a long history of politicians accused of misdeeds, The New York Times reports.
Where and When
Trump will greet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House at 1 p.m. They will hold a bilateral discussion in the Oval Office at 1:15 p.m. Trump will then officially welcome European leaders, who arrive at the White House at noon, in the State Dining Room at 2:15 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, Trump will pose for a photo with the leaders. At 3 p.m., the president and the European leaders will engage in a multilateral discussion in the East Room.
The House will hold a pro forma session on Tuesday at 10 a.m. and will return to work in Washington on Sept. 2.
TheSenate will hold a pro forma session at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Zoom In
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, walks to the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
CONGRESS: The House and Senate won’t be back to work in Washington until after Labor Day, but Republicans are poised for fireworks tied to earmarks, once banned and now on the rise, in annual appropriations measures.
The conservatives’ backlash against earmarks came after Punchbowl News reported that Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) loaded more than $810 million in earmarks and directed spending for Maine in the fiscal 2026 spending bills crafted by her committee.
Collins, who faces a tough reelection battle next year, argues she has a better sense of her state’s funding needs than unelected bureaucrats in Washington who otherwise would get to decide how to dole out federal funds without congressional guidance.
Other Republicans are working hard behind the scenes to steer more money to their home states.
But GOP fiscal hawks are lining up against members of the congressional Appropriations committees. Divisions could scuttle chances that spending bills will be passed before a Sept. 30 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.
Conservative lawmakers believe Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, now law, did not shrink federal funding enough and they want to correct that with significant reductions in appropriations that would take effect in the new fiscal year and beyond.
▪ Politico: Community project funding, aka earmarks, long shunned by deficit conservatives, is back on the menu of options to avoid a government shutdown in September.
CONTRACEPTION: Lawmakers and activists are scrambling to stop the State Department from destroying nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives funded by the newly extinct U.S. Agency for International Development. The contraceptives were meant to be burned at a medical waste facility in France last month, but it is unclear if this occurred.
ECONOMY: Trump’s tariffs could raise the costs of some of the most popular imports in grocery stores, from coffee and olive oil to wine and spices. Businesses and consumers are watching when and by how much prices tick up. Here are six imported grocery products that could be impacted by U.S. tariffs.
▪ The Hill: Trump’s choice to lead the data-driven Bureau of Labor Statistics stunned Wall Street and Washington. For one, he’s not a statistician.
▪ The Hill: Why does the federal jobs report get revised?
Elsewhere
Demonstrators gather during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City and other areas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
GAZA: Tens of thousands of Israelis flooded streets across the country on Sunday, staging some of the largest anti-war protests in months as the military prepares for a major assault on Gaza City. The protests come as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave deepens and anxiety mounts over the conditions of the remaining hostages.
“We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages,” protesters chanted. Even some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have called for a deal to end the fighting. Mainstream Israeli media has increasingly spotlighted the dire starvation crisis in Gaza after months of Israel’s near-total aid blockade, horrifying some Israelis and triggering protests.
But an end to the war does not seem near. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing competing pressures at home and abroad. Far-right members of his Cabinet threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government the last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages earlier this year.
▪ The Guardian: Israel’s plan to displace 1 million Palestinians spreads fear in Gaza.
▪ CNN: The State Department will halt all visitor visas for people from Gaza as it reviews the process that allows them to temporarily enter the U.S. for medical and humanitarian reasons. Far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer took credit for the pause following her claims that the families arriving from Gaza “threaten our national security.”
Trump’s efforts to secure a Nobel Peace Prize have become Orwellian, by Zeeshan Aleem, opinion writer and editor, MSNBC.
The Closer
In this photo provided by the Hakai Institute, Hakai Institute research scientist Alyssa Gehman checks on an adult sunflower sea star at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Marrowstone Marine Field Station in Washington state in 2021. (Kristina Blanchflower/Hakai Institute via AP)
And finally … ⭐ It took 10 years for detectives in marine science to identify a bacteria that wiped out about 90 percent of the population of sunflower sea stars in the Pacific with a gruesome wasting disease. The outbreak created a cascade of ecosystem destruction: The demise of the sea stars resulted in an explosion of sea urchins, on which the sunflower starfish had fed. The surge in sea urchins resulted in destruction of around 95 percent of the kelp forests in Northern California within a decade. The kelp forests provide food and habitat for a wide variety of animals including fish, sea otters and seals.
The solution? Scientists, with the bacteria now identified, could potentially test which of the remaining sea stars are healthy and consider whether to relocate them, or breed them in captivity to later transplant them to areas that have lost almost all their sunflower sea stars. Scientists may also test if some populations have natural immunity and if treatments like probiotics may help boost immunity to the disease.
“It’s incredibly difficult to trace the source of so many environmental diseases, especially underwater,” said University of North Carolina microbiologist Blake Ushijima, who was not involved in the research. He said the detective work by this team was “really smart and significant.”
A related infographic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is HERE.
