Trump says he will meet Putin in Alaska next week
Donald Trump said he plans to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday, 15 August. He announced the location in a brief post on his social media site early this evening.
Our recent reporting on the latest developments:
Key events
Anti-Ice protesters arrested in New York City
Coral Murphy Marcos
Several protesters outside New York City’s 26 Federal Plaza government building were arrested on Friday for disorderly conduct, with demonstrators accusing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency of operating a covert detention facility there, according to several reports.
Protesters marched to the largest federal immigration courthouse in Manhattan on Friday morning and chanted outside the building. Demonstrators demanded access to the site, which was denied, and they later held a sit-in outside the courthouse, according to ABC7.
Within a few minutes the New York City police department moved in to arrest some of the protesters for disorderly conduct, according to reports, as activists could be seen blocking the street.
Trump’s announcement that he will be meeting Putin next week in Alaska comes after the US president suggested at a briefing that an end to the Ukraine invasion might involve “swapping of territories”.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Putin has presented the Trump administration with a proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine if Kyiv makes major territorial concessions. The newspaper’s report, citing European and Ukrainian officials, said the proposal would require Ukraine hand over the Donbas in the east of the country, which has led European officials to express serious reservations.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that the deal could cement some of Putin’s territorial gains in Ukraine, effectively freezing the battle lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Putin has claimed four Ukrainian regions in their entirety, although much of their territory remains under Ukrainian control, as the Guardian reported Friday.
The last US-Russia summit was in 2021, when Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva.
Zelenskyy has been speaking with European leaders including the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. More details here:
Trump says he will meet Putin in Alaska next week
Donald Trump said he plans to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday, 15 August. He announced the location in a brief post on his social media site early this evening.
Our recent reporting on the latest developments:
California lawmakers defend Texas Democrats: ‘We will fight fire with fire’
California Democratic legislators are holding an afternoon briefing about their proposal to counter Republican’s gerrymandering in Texas with a ballot measure.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren said all members of the California delegation supported a plan to redraw the state’s districts to eliminate five Republican seats – if Texas moves forward with its gerrymandering plan that would add five GOP seats.
“When we saw that Texas was going to create the most segregated map in Texas since the 60s, to eliminate all of the minority districts that they could, so that they could create five Republican districts, we said, could we create a map that eliminated five Republican districts, but that was true to the Voting Rights Act? And we found that we could,” Lofgren said.
Governor Gavin Newsom has floated a statewide ballot measure that would allow voters to weigh the proposal to adjust the state’s congressional map if the Texas GOP executes its plan.
Robert Rivas, the Democratic speaker of the California state assembly, said, “We will fight fire with fire. And we will do whatever it takes to defend our democracy.”
California is hosting Texas Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to break quorum and block gerrymandering.
Texas Democrats say they are ‘undeterred’ by Ken Paxton lawsuit
The Texas Democratic party chairman has responded to the lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general, seeking to remove 13 Democratic lawmakers from office, saying in a statement:
Texas Democrats are exercising a long-standing, constitutionally protected right of the minority party to block extreme agendas – in this case, gerrymandering to keep Trump in power. These lawmakers have taken significant risks and sacrifices to stop Trump’s agenda, and despite all the threats they face, they remain undeterred, just like the rest of us. If Ken Paxton wants a fight, we will give him one.”
Paxton has sought to enforce arrest warrants against the Democratic lawmakers who left Texas to stop Republicans from gerrymandering the congressional map in a manner that would add five more GOP seats.
Some more background on what happened at the Texas house today:
Billy Long, who is stepping down as the Internal Revenue Service commissioner only two months after he was appointed, has said he will be serving as ambassador to Iceland.
The New York Times reported earlier today that Trump had Long removed, and that Long had clashed with Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, who will now serve as acting commissioner.
Long is a former congressman from Missouri and close ally to the president who previously pushed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
The IRS has been run by six different people this year so far.
Vladimir Putin has presented the Trump administration with a proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine if Kyiv makes major territorial concessions, according to a new Wall Street Journal report that cites European and Ukrainian officials.
The proposal would require Ukraine that hand over the Donbas in the east of the country, which has led European officials to express serious reservations, the Journal reported.
“European and Ukrainian officials, who were briefed by President Trump and Witkoff in a series of calls this week, said they worry Putin is simply using the offer as a ploy to avoid punishing new US sanctions and tariffs while continuing the war,” the Journal reported.
The report was published as Trump, in a briefing with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, suggested there would “be some swapping of territories” to end the Ukraine invasion. The president spent a significant portion of the event discussing Russia, suggesting he would have more to announce soon and that he and Putin would be meeting “very shortly”.
Trump says he and Putin will meet ‘shortly’
Trump has said he will soon have an update on Russia and would be meeting with Putin “very shortly”. Today was the original deadline he had set to end the Ukraine invasion or bring new sanctions. At the event with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the president made vague remarks about next steps, saying:
President Putin I believe wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace. Now, President Zelenskyy has to get … everything he needs, because he’s going to have to get ready to sign something, and I think he is working hard to get that done.
Asked if Zelenskyy would have to give up territory, the president responded: “You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years. A lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died. So we’re looking at that, but we’re actually looking to get some back and some swapping. It’s complicated.”
Trump has said he would also soon announce details on the location of a meeting.
The US president and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have officially signed the peace agreement, establishing a so-called “Trump route for international peace and prosperity”.
The corridor for transit and trade will connect mainland Azerbaijan with the autonomous Nakhchivan region, and the AP reported that the Trump administration said it was the Armenians who suggested naming it after the US president.
Both leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan heaped praise on Trump and suggested he should receive a Nobel peace prize, which Trump has expressed interest in winning.
Trump kicks off peace deal signing with leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia
In the state dining room, Donald Trump is flanked by the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to his right, and the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, on his left.
Trump says that both nations agree to “stop all fighting forever”. But a key part of the agreement is that it establishes what will be now known as “the Trump route for international peace and prosperity”. This is a key transit corridor that will have US development rights.
Trump adds that he thinks Aliyev and Pashinyan are “going to have a great relationship”.
Ahead of today’s peace deal signing, here’s a recap of where things stand
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The Texas House failed to meet quorum for a third time today, after only 95 of the 100 representatives needed were present. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers continue to defy Governor Greg Abbott’s demands to return, and remain out of state in protest over a new GOP-drawn congressional map. The Democrats’ next stop on their tour to deny quorum is California. They’ll hold a press conference at 5pm ET today with Governor Gavin Newsom in Sacramento.
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Abbott has spent the last 24 hours ratcheting up and repeating threats against the absent Democrats. He vowed to “call special session, after special session, after special session with the same agenda items on there”, in an interview with NBC News.
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Meanwhile, the Trump administration wasted no time today. A few standout items are below.
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First, the DoJ has issued two grand jury subpoenas to the New York attorney general, Letitia James, also a longtime Trump adversary, according to various reports. One of the subpoenas is tied to a civil fraud case her office brought against Trump, and the other is reportedly tied to the attorney general’s investigation into NRA.
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The Trump administration is also demanding that UCLA pay the federal government $1bn over multiple instalments to settle claims of antisemitism. That’s according to a report from CNN. If the proposal is agreed to, it would mark the biggest settlement the government has received from a higher education institution.
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And then, according to new reporting by the New York Times, the president has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that the Trump administration considers terrorist organizations. In response Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her government had been informed of a coming order but that it had nothing to do with the US military operating on Mexican soil.
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Finally, for now at least, the Trump administration was handed a win when it comes to its ongoing showdown with the judiciary over the president’s immigration agenda. A federal appeals court overturned Judge James Boasberg’s ruling that found probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court over their handling of the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants under the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act.
Trump fires IRS commissioner after only two months on the job – report
The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump is replacing the IRS commissioner, Billy Long, only two months after her was confirmed.
Long is a former congressman from Missouri and a notable Trump ally – who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. According to the Times, Long is being primed for an ambassador nomination. It is unclear who lead the agency next, according to the Times.
Long is the sixth person to run the IRS this year alone, there have been four acting commissioners since Danny Werfel’s resignation in January, following Trump’s inauguration.
A senior administration official tells the Times that treasury secretary Scott Bessent will be named acting commissioner.
We’ll be bringing you the latest as Donald Trump prepares to welcome the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, followed by the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. They’re expected to sign a peace deal, which would be a landmark development in decades of tension and fighting. Pashinyan is due to arrive soon.
The meeting will be certainly be an opportunity for the president to highlight his “peacemaker-in-chief” bona fides, but peace is more elusive in one of the hallmark international conflicts of Trump’s second term.
Today is Trump’s original deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine, or face fresh sanctions. So far there’s been no update, but Trump has said he is ready to meet with Vladimir Putin despite the Russian leader’s refusal to sit-down with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The exact time and location remain undefined, but the UAE has been floated, given Putin’s refusal to talk in Kyiv.
Trump administration seeks $1bn settlement from UCLA – report
The Trump administration is demanding that the University of California, Los Angeles, pay the federal government $1bn over multiple installments to settle claims of antisemitism, according to a report from CNN.
The settlement would also require UCLA to pay $172m to a fund for Jewish students and other individuals affected by alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, per CNN. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the basis race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
CNN notes that if the proposal is agreed to, it would mark the biggest settlement the government has received from a higher education institution. CNN has not yet received comment from the University of California system.
According to CNN’s reporting, “the proposed agreement prohibits overnight demonstrations and calls on the school to revise its policies and procedures on protests. It also requires UCLA to discontinue race and ethnicity-based scholarships and provide the resolution monitor with admissions data.”
Burrows is now speaking and says that he and attorney general Ken Paxton have tried to make the civil arrest warrants they have filed against Democratic lawmakers “enforceable beyond state lines”.
Also, notably, Burrows is enacting a new policy that states that any member breaking quorum will no longer have their paycheck or per diem deposited electronically. While the Capitol is not withholding pay – as that violates the state’s constitution – they are now stipulating that their paychecks must now be picked up in person.
Burrows said the statehouse will withhold a percentage of absent Democrats’ monthly expenses, and any administrative work that requires the House’s approval will need to be done in person.
Texas house fails to meet quorum for third day
The Texas legislature failed to meet quorum for a third time today, after only 95 of the 100 representatives needed were present. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers defied Governor Greg Abbott’s demands to return, and remain out of state in protest over a new GOP-drawn congressional map.
Speaker Dustin Burrows attempted to reconvene the house today and meet quorum after it failed earlier this week.
Abbott threatens to add more Republican seats to gerrymandered map: ‘We may make it six, or seven or eight’
In an interview with Ruthless Podcast, Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, threatened to add “six, or seven or eight” new seats to the GOP-drawn congressional map that Democrats are already protesting by breaking quorum.
The current proposal is a gerrymandered map that could secure Republicans five seats in Texas ahead of the 2026 midterms.
When asked about how he sees this redistricting battle ending, Abbott was resolute: “One way or the other, they [Democrats] are coming back, and it’s going to end with these maps being passed.”
