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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Putin meets Trump envoy as Ukraine peace deadline looms
Vladimir Putin met Thursday with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff amid President Donald Trump's looming Friday deadline for the Russian strongman to start talking peace with Ukraine. Trump hailed the meeting as 'highly productive' and claimed 'great progress' was made, without elaborating. 'Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,' Trump posted on his social media site. The president didn't mention his deadline for Putin to start taking unspecified steps toward ending his war with Ukraine, raising obvious questions about whether the threat is still hanging over the Kremlin. A Kremlin spokesman said the meeting lasted three hours and was 'useful and constructive.' The spokesman suggested Putin presented some kind of proposal for Witkoff to convey to Trump, but did not elaborate. Trump last week set a stricter deadline of '10 or 12 days' for Putin to wind down the war against Ukraine or start peace negotiations and threatened 'severe tariffs' and other economic penalties against Russia and its economic partners if it refuses. Moscow had so far shrugged off Trump's deadline as empty bluster, noting that he has given numerous previous ultimatums on various issues that turned out to be toothless threats. Russia believes it has the upper hand on the battlefield, at least in the short and medium term, giving it little reason to agree to even a brief ceasefire. Its troops have made modest advances along the long front line in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and ousted Ukrainian troops from a sliver of a Russian border territory that they had previously seized. Russia has also mounted increasingly deadly missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets. Earlier, Witkoff took an early morning stroll in Moscow with Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president's envoy for investment and economic cooperation, which was captured in footage aired by a Russian news agency. Dmitriev played a key role in three rounds of direct talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, as well as discussions between Russian and U.S. officials. The negotiations made no progress on ending the three-year war following Russia's invasion of its neighbor. Trump has recently flip-flopped to a much harsher stance on Russia after seeing Putin spurn his demands for concessions for months. But Trump has shown himself to be unwilling to take a firm stance of defending Ukraine and sticking to it, giving Putin an incentive to wait out any threats. The new deadline and threat to impose 'secondary sanctions' on nations that buy Russian energy, like India, China and Turkey, are particularly problematic because those economic powerhouses have no control over Russia's stance on Ukraine. They are unlikely to cut economic ties with Moscow in response to such U.S. demands, especially when Trump himself was cozying up to Putin just a few weeks ago. The White House announced it is tacking on a new 25% tariff on products imported from India, raising the total tax to 50%, which suggests it doesn't consider Putin has met the deadline.
The Hill
13 minutes ago
- The Hill
Senate Republican questions new Intel CEO's ties to China
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Tuesday pressed the chair of Intel's board about its CEO's ties to China, voicing concerns about the integrity of the semiconductor firm and U.S. national security. In a letter to Intel board chair Frank Yeary, Cotton pointed to recent reporting on Lip-Bu Tan's investments in hundreds of Chinese tech firms, at least eight of which have ties to the Chinese military, according to Reuters. Tan was tapped to lead Intel in March, after former CEO Pat Gelsinger stepped down last December following a 'challenging year' for the company. Before joining Intel, Tan was CEO of Cadence Design Systems — another point of concern raised by Cotton. The software company produces electronic design automation (EDA) technology, which is used to design chips. It agreed to plead guilty and pay $140 million last month for violating export controls by selling the technology to a Chinese military university. 'Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,' Cotton wrote, noting Intel's nearly $8 billion grant under the CHIPS and Science Act. 'Mr. Tan's associations raise questions about Intel's ability to fulfill these obligations,' he added. Cotton asked Yeary what measures Intel has taken to address concerns about Cadence's activities, which occurred during Tan's tenure, and whether it has required him to divest from China-linked semiconductor firms or other 'concerning entities.' The Arkansas Republican also questioned whether Tan has disclosed his China investments and ties to the U.S. government given Intel's involvement in a Pentagon program to build chips for defense and intelligence needs.
Epoch Times
15 minutes ago
- Epoch Times
Senators Ask Commerce Secretary to Investigate DeepSeek's Ties to China
Seven Republican senators recently signed on to a letter asking the Commerce Department to examine data security risks and potential backdoors in Chinese open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models such as DeepSeek. The group, led by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who announced the Aug. 1 letter in a press release on Aug. 4, asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to identify any threats from data collection by AI use case applications being sent back to China-based servers.
