The Trump-Putin summit was a disaster. And things could still get worse
The only positive result from the Trump-Putin meeting is that no deal was made, at least not publicly. What precisely the two discussed remains in question, but given the mercurial nature of Trump's foreign policy, Ukrainians worry that their interests were not well represented by American officials.
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Winnipeg Free Press
29 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
NATO defense chiefs hold a virtual meeting on security guarantees for Ukraine
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense chiefs were due to hold a virtual meeting Wednesday, a senior alliance official said, as countries pushing for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine devise possible future security guarantees for Kyiv that could help forge a peace agreement. Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO's Military Committee, said that 32 defense chiefs from across the alliance would hold a video conference as a U.S.-led diplomatic push seeks to end the fighting. U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, will take part in the talks, Dragone said on social platform X. U.S. President Donald Trump met last Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and on Monday hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and prominent European leaders at the White House. Neither meeting delivered concrete progress. Trump is trying to steer Putin and Zelenskyy toward a settlement more than three years after Russia invaded its neighbor, but there are major obstacles. They include Ukraine's demands for Western-backed military assurances to ensure Russia won't mount another invasion in coming years. 'We need strong security guarantees to ensure a truly secure and lasting peace,' Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post Wednesday after Russian missile and drone strikes hit six regions of Ukraine overnight. Kyiv's European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement, and a coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative. Military chiefs are figuring out how that security force might work. The role that the U.S. might play in is unclear. Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending U.S. troops to help defend Ukraine against Russia. Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept NATO troops in Ukraine. Attacks on civilian areas in Sumy and Odesa overnight into Wednesday injured 15 people, including a family with three small children, Ukrainian authorities said. Russian strikes also targeted ports and fuel and energy infrastructure, officials said. Zelenskyy said the strikes 'only confirm the need for pressure on Moscow, the need to introduce new sanctions and tariffs until diplomacy works to its full potential.' Trump said Monday he has begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, although the Kremlin hasn't publicly confirmed such a possibility and no venue was suggested. French President Emmanuel Macron has said the summit could happen in Europe and proposed the Swiss city of Geneva. Switzerland has expressed its willingness to act as host. Putin's ability to travel abroad is limited, however, because he is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on a warrant dating back to March 2023 for alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children. More than 100 countries are ICC signatories and have a legal obligation to arrest the Russian leader on their soil. Switzerland intends to ask the ICC to exempt it from sanctions in order to allow Putin in for a summit, according to a senior official in The Hague with direct knowledge of the request. The official was not authorized to speak about the proceedings and spoke on condition of anonymity. ___ Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Molly Quell contributed from The Hague. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
First domino in national redistricting fight likely to fall with Texas GOP poised for vote on maps
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The first domino in a growing national redistricting battle is likely to fall Wednesday as the Republican-controlled Texas legislature is expected to pass a new congressional map creating five new winnable seats for the GOP. The vote follows prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives, and weeks of delays after dozens of Texas Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in protest. Some Democrats returned Monday, only to be assigned round-the-clock police escorts to ensure their attendance at Wednesday's session. Those who refused to be monitored were confined to the House floor, where they protested on a livestream Tuesday night. Furious national Democrats have vowed payback for the Texas map, with California's legislature poised to approve new maps adding more Democratic-friendly seats later this week. The map would still need to be approved by that state's voters in November. Normally, states redraw maps once a decade with new census figures. But Trump is lobbying other conservative-controlled states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to squeeze new GOP-friendly seats out of their maps as his party prepares for a difficult midterm election next year. In Texas, Democrats spent the day before the vote continuing to draw attention to the extraordinary lengths the Republicans who run the legislature were going to ensure it takes place. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier started it when she refused to sign what Democrats called the 'permission slip' needed to leave the House chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. She spent Monday night and Tuesday on the House floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes. Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home. 'It's a weird feeling,' she said. 'The only way to explain the entire process is: It's like I'm in a movie.' The trooper assignments, ordered by Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP's slim House majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate. Other Democrats join the protest House Minority Leader Gene Wu, from Houston, and state Rep. Vince Perez, of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth. On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the House floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members. Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez called their protest a 'slumber party for democracy,' and she said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor. 'We are not criminals,' Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said. Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements. Republican leader says Collier 'is well within her rights' Burrows brushed off Collier's protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month's deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting, and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier. 'Rep. Collier's choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,' Burrows said. Under those rules, until Wednesday's scheduled vote, the chamber's doors are locked, and no member can leave 'without the written permission of the speaker.' To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present. The GOP wants 5 more seats in Texas The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the U.S. House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state's districts to take five seats from Republicans. Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court. Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent. How officers shadowed Democratic lawmakers Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Houston Rep. Armando Walle said he wasn't sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely. Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her. Garcia said her 9-year-old son was with her as she drove home, and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she shopped with her son. 'I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you're potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you're going to steal,' she said. ___ Riccardi reported from Denver. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Experts say Manitoba needs better forest management to mitigate wildfires — but some divided on best practices
Experts say Manitoba needs better forest management practices to mitigate and prevent the devastating impacts of wildfires, but there isn't a clear consensus on the best course forward, after a season that saw wildfires claim two lives and at least 130 cabins and homes. Fires have also forced more than a dozen communities to evacuate and scorched more than seven per cent of the province's forests so far this year. This country's forest management has been in the spotlight in the last month after American lawmakers complained to Canada's ambassador to the United States about the wildfire smoke blowing south of the border. They pointed to "a lack of active forest management" as the key driver. The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers has said "suppression alone is no longer adequate" to tackle wildfires, pointing to the benefits of FireSmart Canada and other prevention and mitigation strategies, including controlled and traditional cultural burns. However, experts don't all agree on best practices. CBC News requested an interview with the Manitoba government about its forest and wildfire management plans, including prescribed burns, but the province deferred commenting until the fall, saying staff were "quite busy with wildfire suppression right now." A provincial spokesperson said there would be a review of Manitoba's preparedness and suppression efforts after the wildfire season. Land management practices British Columbia-based wildland fire ecologist Robert Gray argues communities in fire-prone regions aren't adequately protected — but he says they can become more resilient by treating about 40 per cent of the surrounding landscape to prevent or slow wildfires from spreading into towns. Fire and fuel management practices include clearing and thinning trees and prescribed burning, which involves deliberately setting an area of land on fire in a controlled way, Gray said. Practices also include restoring grasslands and wet meadows, along with shifting conifer-heavy forests to hardwoods, such as aspen and willow, which Gray says aren't as flammable. Gray pointed to a case he was involved in, at the Ktunaxa Nation community of Aq'am north of Cranbrook, B.C. He said last summer, the Canadian Rockies International Airport was spared by a wildfire, as were most of the community's homes, thanks to a large-scale, 12-square-kilometre prescribed burn in 2023. "It still wasn't big enough, but that's the start," Gray said. "We're just not doing it fast enough at a big enough scale. "Fire is a contagion. It moves through a landscape, and it finds those holes, and it'll exploit them, so you have to do a consistent job out to a good distance." That distance could be 10 to 20 kilometres from a community's edge to protect it from unforgiving embers carried by strong winds. He argues governments have a greater role to play in supporting communities and landowners to participate in fuel management, because most are bordered by Crown or private land. Gray said provinces must better regulate the forest industry to make sure activities like logging and tree planting are carried out with a focus on fire and fuel management. "If we don't do that, we won't have an industry," Gray said. "I can confidently say that the industry is scared to death." A spokesperson for Manitoba National Resources Minister Ian Bushie said in an email that the province will be having conversations with local leaders about the benefits and risks of controlled burns and thinning. Backcountry travel and fire bans Another wildfire expert said some of these practices may be controversial, because residents "love their animals and their forests, and they don't want it cleared." Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University, says proactive backcountry travel and fire bans, along with FireSmart homes, would be a more effective strategy in a country with vast boreal forests, where wildfires are a natural part of the ecology. Flannigan said Manitoba's approach of monitoring wildfires that aren't threatening communities, "which is working with Mother Nature," is appropriate, as opposed to always suppressing all wildfires, a costly practice he said is common in the U.S. Between 2016 and 2020, 58 per cent of wildfires in Manitoba were caused by lightning, a Manitoba forestry report says. The rest were human-caused. That's where Flannigan says we should be targeting our attention. Prioritizing education and travel bans in forested areas is crucial, he said, especially in spring, which is dominated by human-caused wildfires — something the province acknowledged in its first fire bulletin of 2025. Flannigan, however, says provinces are often reluctant to impose bans, "because it's so unpopular, because it means no industry and no recreation." In hindsight, Manitoba could have been more aggressive with its bans and education outreach, he said. The province first announced enhanced fire and travel restrictions, beyond annual burn permit requirements, at the end of April for Manitoba's Interlake and southeastern regions, which came into effect May 2. By mid-June, the province reported 103 of Manitoba's 116 wildfires by that point were caused by people. FireSmart homes Flannigan also advocates for provinces to make the FireSmart program mandatory in at-risk locations — an idea Minister Bushie's spokesperson said needs more review. "It is very challenging to adapt a building that may be 50 years old to current codes or guidelines," the spokesperson said. FireSmart focuses on what property owners and residents can do around their homes. It includes making sure buildings are outfitted with fire-rated materials and that immediate surroundings have fire-resistant trees that are well-pruned and spaced out. This approach is encouraged by the Manitoba government on a voluntary basis. Canada's first FireSmart community, the District of Logan Lake, B.C., credits its fire prevention and mitigation efforts with saving the town in 2021. The annual wildfire season has been intensified by climate change, burning hotter, longer, and closer to homes. In this new reality, how can communities adapt and protect themselves? Radio-Canada's Camille Vernet went searching for answers in Logan Lake. The town spent decades working on wildfire prevention, and their efforts paid off in 2021, when they successfully defended themselves against raging flames. Flannigan says FireSmart communities with sprinklers are likely to survive a wildfire, but only if nearly everyone participates. "You're only as strong as your weakest link when extremes happen," he said. Meanwhile, Gray agrees with parts of FireSmart, but the ability and willingness of most property owners to pay for landscaping and renovations means big problems for the strategy, he said. "The tangible part is fuels management. If we change the behaviour of the fire coming at a community, we reap the benefits, whether or not a majority of homes are FireSmart," he said. "That fire, if it's on the ground, the local fire department can safely action it." Is your property prepared for a wildfire? 23 days ago Wildfire seasons are getting more intense so we asked a FireSmart expert how to protect your property, and what fixes can be done right now — without breaking the bank.
