Russia attacks 4 Ukrainian cities as time ticks down to U.S. peace deadline
The latest bombardment in Russia's escalating aerial campaign against civilian areas came ahead of a Sept. 2 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war, under the threat of possible severe Washington sanctions if it doesn't.
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. Two previous rounds delivered no progress apart from prisoner swaps.
Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted northeastern Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second-largest city, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.
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'Russia does not change its strategy,' Zelenskyy said. 'To effectively counter this terror, we need a systemic strengthening of defense: more air defense, more interceptors, and more resolve so that Russia feels our response.'
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Trump on Monday pledged to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including vital Patriot air defense systems, and threatened to slap additional sanctions on Russia. It was Trump's toughest stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the White House nearly six months ago.
1:54
Trump gives Putin ultimatum for ending Ukraine war
But some U.S. lawmakers and European government officials expressed misgivings that the 50-day deadline handed Putin the opportunity to capture more Ukrainian territory before any settlement to end the fighting.
Other U.S. ultimatums to Putin in recent months have failed to persuade the Russian leader to stop his invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of them along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and Russian barrages of cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the United Nations says.
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The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Tuesday that 'Putin holds a theory of victory that posits that Russia can achieve its war aims by continuing to make creeping gains on the battlefield indefinitely and outlasting Western support for Ukraine and Ukraine's ability to defend itself.'
Trump said the U.S. is providing additional weapons for Ukraine but European countries are paying for them. While Ukraine and European officials were relieved at the U.S. commitment after months of hesitation, some hoped Washington might shoulder some of the cost.
'We welcome President Trump's announcement to send more weapons to Ukraine, although we would like to see the U.S share the burden,' European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday. 'If we pay for these weapons, it's our support.'
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Toronto Sun
4 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
Iran to hold nuclear talks with European nations in Turkey after Israel ceasefire
Published Jul 21, 2025 • 4 minute read This handout satellite picture provided by Maxar Technologies and taken on June 24, 2025, shows an overview of Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility and nearby tunnels in central Iran. Photo by - / Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Tec TEHRAN — Iran said Monday it would hold renewed talks this week with European nations over the country's nuclear program, with discussions to be hosted by Turkey. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The talks, to be held in Istanbul on Friday, will be the first since a ceasefire was reached after a 12-day war waged by Israel against Iran in June, which also saw the United States strike nuclear-related facilities in the Islamic Republic. A similar meeting had been held in the Turkish city in May. The discussions will bring Iranian officials together with officials from Britain, France and Germany — known as the E3 nations — and will include the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. 'The topic of the talks is clear, lifting sanctions and issues related to the peaceful nuclear program of Iran,' Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in his weekly briefing. He said the meeting will be held at the deputy ministerial level. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Under a 2015 deal designed to cap Iran's nuclear activities, Iran agreed to tough restrictions on its international program in exchange for an easing of sanctions. The deal began to unravel in 2018, when the United States pulled out of it and began to reimpose certain sanctions. European countries have recently threatened to trigger the 2015 deal's 'snapback' mechanism, which would allow sanctions to be reimposed in the case of noncompliance by Tehran. German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese, asked who Germany will send to the talks and what its expectations are, said that 'the talks are taking place at expert level. 'Iran must never come into possession of a nuclear weapon,' so Germany, France and Britain are 'continuing to work … at high pressure on a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program,' Giese told reporters in Berlin. 'This course of action is also co-ordinated with the U.S.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It's very clear that, should no solution be reached by the end of August … snapback remains an option for the E3.' Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday the three European nations lack 'any legal, political, and moral standing' to invoke such mechanisms, and accused Britain, France and Germany of failing to uphold their commitments in the deal. 'Attempting to trigger 'snapback' under these circumstances, in defiance of established facts and prior communications, constitutes an abuse of process that the international community must reject,' Araghchi said. He also criticized the three European nations for 'providing political and material support to the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the U.S.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The U.S. bombed three major Iranian nuclear sites in Iran in June as Israel waged an air war with Iran. Nearly 1,100 people were killed in Iran, including many military commanders and nuclear scientists, while 28 were killed in Israel. Araghchi stressed in the letter that his country is ready for diplomatic solutions. After U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 deal, Iran has gradually increased its nuclear activities, including enriching uranium up to 60%, a step away from weapons-grade nuclear materials, or 90% enrichment of uranium. Iran denies allegations it is seeking a nuclear weapon and has long said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. The report every six months to the UN Security Council on implementation of its 2015 resolution endorsing the nuclear deal, circulated Monday, quoted a June 9 letter from the E3 welcoming negotiations between Iran and the United States. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The U.K., Britain and Germany said they would pursue all diplomatic options 'to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.' But without 'a satisfying deal,' they would consider triggering snapback 'to address threats to international peace and security arising from Iran's nuclear program.' Iran's UN ambassador responded on June 11 categorically rejecting the E3's allegations and its threat to trigger snapback, saying the Islamic republic had seriously engaged with the Europeans and the United States and 'remains committed to finding a negotiated solution that addresses concerns, both pertaining to the nuclear matters and the sanctions.' The exchanges were in a letter to the council from Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar who overseas matters dealing with the resolution. It quoted the International Atomic Energy Agency as estimating that as of May 17, Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% at 408.6 kg, an increase of 133.8 kg from its February report. That was not long before the Israeli and U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear sites. — Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Read More Celebrity Canada Columnists Canada Toronto & GTA
Toronto Sun
34 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite family's opposition
Published Jul 21, 2025 • 6 minute read U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. waves to supporters Aug. 28, 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington D.C. during the "March on Washington." Photo by file photo / AFP/Getty Images The Trump administration on Monday released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father's killing has been a 'captivating public curiosity for decades.' But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that the files 'be viewed within their full historical context.' The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. Among the documents are leads the FBI received after King's assassination and details of the CIA's fixation on King's pivot to international anti-war and anti-poverty movements in the years before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether the documents shed new light on King's life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,' they wrote. 'We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief.' They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all. Bernice King was 5 years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10. A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure 'unprecedented' and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy's and MLK's 1968 assassinations. The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April. The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was 'grateful to President Trump' for his 'transparency.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi's social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King. Besides fulfilling Trump's order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration's handling of records concerning the sex-trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump's first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday. Some civil rights activists were not so sparing. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice,' said the Rev. Al Sharpton. 'It's a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base.' The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction — but from more than short-term political controversy. 'It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,' the King Center, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. 'This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King's family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement. It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover's bureau wiretapped King's telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King's extramarital affairs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation,' the King children said in their statement. 'The intent … was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement. These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.' The Kings said they 'support transparency and historical accountability' but 'object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories, King turned his attention to economic justice and international peace. He criticized rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King asserted that political rights alone were not enough to ensure a just society. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat. King's children still don't accept original explanation of assassination King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice. Ray pleaded guilty to King's murder. Ray later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. King family members and others have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a new look. Reno's Justice Department said it 'found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King.' In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up. They pointed to a 1999 civil case, brought by the King family, in which a Memphis jury concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy. 'As we review these newly released files,' the Kings said, 'we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted.' — Associated Press journalist Safiyah Riddle contributed from Montgomery, Ala. Canada Celebrity Columnists Canada Toronto & GTA
Vancouver Sun
an hour ago
- Vancouver Sun
Trump thinks Canadians who avoid U.S. travel, ban its booze are 'mean and nasty,' ambassador says
Canadians avoiding travel to the United States and banning American alcohol are among the reasons U.S. President Donald Trump thinks they are 'nasty' to deal with, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said Monday. Pete Hoekstra told a conference audience that such steps 'don't send positive signals' about Canada treating the United States well. Hoekstra was speaking at the annual Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Foundation summit in Bellevue, Washington. The Canadian Press was provided with a recording of the ambassador's comments by the office of B.C. Premier David Eby, which said it received the audio from someone who was in the audience. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Eby said in a statement that Hoekstra's remarks show Canadians' efforts to stand up to Trump are 'having an impact,' and he encouraged people to 'keep it up.' A representative of Hoekstra's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ambassador made the remarks in answer to a question from a conference moderator about what could be done to get people travelling again as Vancouver and Seattle prepare to host games as part of next year's FIFA World Cup. 'Canadians staying home, that's their business, you know. I don't like it, but if that's what they want to do, it's fine. They want to ban American alcohol. That's fine,' he said. 'There are reasons why the president and some of his team referred to Canada as being mean and nasty to deal with, OK, because of some of those steps.' Hoekstra added that he 'can get alcohol across the border if (he) wanted to.' 'We go back and forth to Michigan and they don't check my car when I come back,' he said, drawing laughs from the crowd. Eby's statement in response to Hoekstra's remarks said people should keep buying Canadian products and keep their vacations Canadian. 'We won't take these attacks on our jobs, our economy and our sovereignty, lying down. We'll stand strong together,' the premier said in the emailed statement. B.C. is among the provinces that banned the sale of U.S. alcohol from government-run stores after Trump slapped steep tariffs on goods from Canada. Trump's actions have prompted some Canadians to cancel their cross-border trips. In March, the number of Canadians returning home by car from south of the border fell nearly 32 per cent compared to the same month last year. It was the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines and the steepest plunge since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Canada. Return trips by air meanwhile fell 13.5 per cent year-over-year that month. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
