Ukraine war briefing: Kremlin says it has ‘immunity' to US sanctions as Trump deadline looms
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he had approved key principles for large-scale weapons agreements with the United States. 'These are large-scale agreements, which I discussed with President [Donald] Trump, and I hope very much that we will be able to implement them all,' Zelenskyy said in his evening video address to the nation, adding that it would strengthen both countries. He provided no specifics.
Ukraine's domestic security agency has detained an air force officer on charges of having spied for Russia by leaking the location of prized F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets, officials said on Wednesday. The unidentified officer, a flight instructor holding the rank of major, stands accused of helping Russia carry out airstrikes by providing coordinates and suggesting strike tactics, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement.
More than 200 Kremlin critics including former political prisoners voiced outrage on Wednesday at the visit of a high-ranking Moscow delegation to Switzerland, accusing Europe of hosting 'war criminals' despite the invasion of Ukraine. Opponents of Russia's leader Vladimir Putin fear that, more than three years into Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, some western powers and institutions are at risk of normalising relations with Moscow.
The delegation, led by Valentina Matvienko, speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, arrived in Geneva on Sunday for the three-day gathering of global parliamentarians. Matvienko and two other Russian participants attending are under EU and international sanctions. 'While Geneva hosts war criminals Matvienko, Tolstoi, and Slutsky, Russian troops continue to launch missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. Civilians, children, and women are dying,' the signatories said.
Trump said on Wednesday that he would impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional trade tax beginning on Friday, because he says India's purchasing of Russian oil is extending the war in Ukraine. He added that India has 'always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia's largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE.'
There has been a significant rise in child casualties in Ukraine in recent months as Russia indiscriminately targets heavily populated civilian areas, with 222 children killed or injured between March and May this year and 2,889 in total since the start of the invasion. Given the delay in verifying deaths, the UN says the true number is likely to be much higher.
Moldova's pro-European president Maia Sandu on Wednesday accused Russia of seeking to meddle in the September national elections, warning that Moscow was planning 'unprecedented' action to 'get its people into the next parliament'. Sandu, a vocal critic of Russia, in particular since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has repeatedly accused Moscow of political interference in the former Soviet republic that lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU and Nato member Romania.
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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump reveals $200M plan for golden ballroom in ‘modernized' White House East Wing
It's the golden makeover the White House didn't know it needed. Construction crews will soon break ground on the massive, gilded ballroom that President Donald Trump hopes to use for state dinners and other events before the end of his term in 2029, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed Thursday. Leavitt told reporters that construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom — containing what she described as 'a much-needed and exquisite addition' of 'innately designed and carefully crafted space' — would begin in September. 'The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance,' she said. Leavitt added that the new 'White House State Ballroom' would be a 'much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of innately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.' The new event facility will be built on the site of the White House's East Wing, which currently stands between the Executive Residence and Treasury Department headquarters. First built in 1902 and enlarged with a second floor four decades later, it houses offices for First Lady Melania Trump and her staff, the White House Military Office, the White House Visitor Office, and other White House support functions. Leavitt said those offices would be temporarily relocated during the construction. According to Leavitt, the East Wing will be 'heavily changed and reconstructed' once the new ballroom is completed. She also told reporters that the addition to the White House complex will cost approximately $200 million, with the funds to come from President Trump and unspecified private donors. And while it will be 'substantially separated from the main building of the White House,' Leavitt stressed that it will be nearly identical in 'theme and architectural heritage' to the existing facilities. An interior rendering of the ballroom provided by the White House reveals a massive hall with ornate ceilings and chandeliers, replete with gold leaf throughout. The image is reminiscent of the ballroom which Trump had built on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, the historic 1920s-era Palm Beach mansion that is both a private club run by his family's eponymous hotel and real estate company and his primary residence. Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump has sought to update the appearance of the historic facility to make it more to his liking. He enlisted a cabinetmaker he has previously employed at Mar-a-Lago, who he referred to as his 'gold guy,' to give multiple surfaces in the Oval Office his own Midas touch, leaving the iconic room adorned with ostentatious splashes of pure gold leaf paint in places where there was no such ornamentation before. He has also ordered the iconic Kennedy Rose Garden to be converted into a patio much like the one on which he entertains guests at his Florida social club. The rose bushes that have ringed the area since the Kennedy administration remain, but the grass surface that has been the site of numerous events just outside of the Oval Office has been replaced with paving stones.
Reuters
30 minutes ago
- Reuters
White House says no decision yet for location of 2026 G20 summit
WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday it is not yet ready to announce the location of next year's Group of 20 leaders' summit, following reports that President Donald Trump is considering hosting the event at his Doral golf club in Miami, Florida. "No firm announcement is ready to be made at this time," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Asked if Trump hosting the G20 summit, a forum of the world's largest economies, at his own property would raise concerns about profiting from the event, Leavitt responded, "I would reject that premise entirely." Trump attempted to host the 2020 G7 summit at the same Miami-area golf club during his first term but reversed the decision after backlash over using his own property for an international event. The Republican has continued to blur the lines between his presidential role and personal business interests. During a recent trip to Scotland, he visited two of his golf resorts, Trump Turnberry and Trump International Scotland, where he took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new 18-hole course. Trump said on Tuesday he might skip the G20 leaders' summit in South Africa in November and send someone else to represent the United States, citing his disapproval of South African policies.
Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside anti-Trump Republican's bizarre and potentially career-ending Epstein plot to take down the president
President Donald Trump 's top Republican nemesis in Congress reportedly broke a truce that the two had struck after vicious infighting. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a maverick who frequently clashes with GOP leadership and Trump, asked Speaker Mike Johnson to mediate a political ceasefire between the president and himself, Axios reports. The Kentucky Republican has been the frequent target of Trump tirades on Truth Social after voting against every major policy priority of the president. He is also the victim of TV attack ads from MAGA Kentucky, a Trump-aligned Super PAC focused on ousting the congressman. The 79-year-old president lashed out at Massie for voting against the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill,' earlier this summer and swore to find another Republican to take his place in Congress. Trump has labeled Massie as a 'grandstander,' a 'loser' and other names. 'Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. Actually, MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him, and doesn't respect him,' Trump wrote in late June. 'He is a negative force who almost always votes 'NO,' no matter how good something may be. He's a simple-minded 'grandstander.'' So to avoid the repeated barrages Massie approached GOP leadership on July 3 and asked for them to appeal to Trump on his behalf, multiple sources told the outlet. The speaker later spoke with the president and both sides agreed to stop the attack ads, a source revealed to Axios. Massie even seemed to play ball by helping his party that day advance a vote he'd typically not support. President Donald Trump has for years attacked Rep. Thomas Massie. He has also vowed to put his political weight behind ousting Massie from office, and a pro-Trump Super PAC is already running attack ads against the congressman in his Kentucky district But after a leaked memo by the DOJ and FBI on July 6 sparked backlash for claiming the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not have a 'client list' as many on the right have speculated, Massie began questioning their narrative. 'Was Jeffrey Epstein an asset of a government intelligence agency?' Massie posted on X on July 8. In his bold critiques of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files after the deal with Johnson, Massie began questioning who Epstein worked for. Soon after he apparently violated the agreement with Trump and GOP leaders by raising alarm about the files. By July 14 Trump's attack ads resumed, and a $800,000 TV commercial campaign hit airwaves in Kentucky slamming Massie. 'We all deserve to know what's in the Epstein files, who's implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency,' Massie posted on X a day later on July 15. He posted a bill that he drafted to force the Trump DOJ and FBI to release a stunning array of Epstein-related documents. His measure would force the Trump administration to post the Epstein files online in 30 days. 'We're introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the US House of Representatives on releasing the complete files,' the post continued. Soon multiple Republicans signed on to the Epstein petition, and it will likely get a vote when Congress returns from recess in September. Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress have signaled they would vote for the measure. In addition to Trump, Massie has lashed out at the speaker. '@SpeakerJohnson, why are you running cover for an underage sex trafficking ring and pretending this is a partisan issue? MAGA voted for this,' the Kentucky lawmaker wrote last week on X. Despite this, Johnson has defended Massie to the press and has noted how leadership always intends to back incumbents, no matter the threat from the president. The speaker has also called Massie's discharge petition 'reckless.' If the bill gets 218 signers, it should get a vote on the floor. Senators have expressed interest in releasing the files as well. 'I filed the discharge petition for one reason, and that's to deliver justice and transparency for the American people,' Massie told the Daily Mail in a statement. 'Speaker Johnson wants to sweep the Epstein files under the rug, but in doing so he will create voter disillusionment that will cost us the majority.' Serving since 2012 and representing the northern part of Kentucky and the neighborhood south of Cincinnati, Ohio, Massie has positioned himself as a deficit hawk keen on cutting federal spending. Massie regularly wears a lapel pin with the national debt ticking up and has consistently voted against spending measures, even those pushed by Republicans, for years, and did so again in July when he voted against the OBBB. The Republican rebel has been garnering a lot of publicity with his Epstein claims. 'This was a campaign promise that the president made, and it's a promise that his administration has made, his vice president has made, his son has made. And it's a promise that's not been kept,' Massie told Kentucky Public Radio in mid-July. 'If it's a hoax, I would say [Epstein accomplice Ghislaine] Maxwell needs to be pardoned,' Massie said, using Trump's description. 'And if it's a hoax, the vice president fell for it, Trump's own children fell for it, the deputy director of the FBI fell for it, the FBI director fell for it, and the AG fell for it. I suspect it's not a hoax.' Elon Musk, the world's richest man and noted Epstein files enthusiast, has vowed to defend Massie in his 2026 midterm election, a position that puts the billionaire at odds with Trump. Massie told the Daily Mail before the August recess that he has not spoken to Musk about the CEO's support for his re-election.
