TC Energy Rules Out Mainline Sale as Canada Seeks Oil Security
President Donald Trump's tariffs and repeated taunts about annexing Canada have highlighted the country's vulnerability in relying on a crude pipeline that crosses through the US to supply oil for the eastern provinces' refineries. Both of the main political parties seeking power in this month's election have discussed the need to reduce reliance on the pipeline that goes through the Midwest.
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Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Well-mannered White House welcome for Ukraine leaves many questions
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Gram Slattery WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump gathered European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a hastily arranged White House meeting on Monday to discuss a path to ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Here are takeaways from the talks: WARM TONE, LITTLE SUBSTANCE Seven European leaders, the Ukrainian president, their motorcades, dozens of Trump administration staff and more than 100 journalists swarmed the White House campus on Monday in anticipation of the unusual meeting. Would Trump and Zelenskiy agree on a path to peace? Or would their latest Oval Office session devolve into a bitter squabble as in February? Neither scenario occurred. Zelenskiy, chided for his appearance and manner in February, adjusted both. Wearing more formal clothing and repeatedly expressing his gratitude to Trump, he was greeted by a far more complimentary U.S. president than in the past. But, despite Trump's vow to assist in Ukraine's security after a hypothetical peace deal, there was no immediate sign that any party had substantially changed position on land swaps, security guarantees or sanctions. Instead, Trump ended with promises to host a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the many remaining issues. HEAPING PRAISE "Have you said 'thank you' once?" U.S. Vice President JD Vance asked Zelenskiy in February, accusing him of failing to show sufficient gratitude for U.S. support. On Monday, Zelenskiy made sure that was not an issue. His opening remarks in the Oval Office included eight thank-yous, mostly for Trump. "Thank you so much, Mr. President ... thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you," Zelenskiy said. He included the U.S. first lady, who sent a letter to Putin about abducted children in Ukraine. "Using this opportunity, my thanks to your wife," the Ukrainian president said. "And thanks to all our partners and that you supported this format. And after our meeting, we're going to have leaders who are around us, the UK and France, Germany... all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks (to) them. Thank you very much for your invitation." Unlike in February, Vance this time sat largely silent. COMBAT FORMAL The stakes of the meeting could not have been higher. But one of the most-asked questions among diplomats in D.C. could not have been more frivolous: Would the Ukrainian president wear a suit? The answer: kind of. Zelenskiy showed up to the White House in what one European diplomat described as "almost a suit." His black jacket had tiny lapels and jetted chest pockets. He did not wear a tie. His attire, which split the difference between the battlefield and the boardroom, could be described as combat formal. Those sartorial details matter when it comes to dealing with the U.S. president, who was upset that Zelenskiy did not wear a suit for their February meeting. Zelenskiy passed the fashion test this time, however. When one journalist in the Oval Office said Zelenskiy looked "fabulous," Trump chimed in to agree. "I said the same thing," Trump told reporters. DIVIDE OVER CEASEFIRE The assembled European leaders, Zelenskiy included, were careful to paper over policy disagreements with Trump, keeping their comments vague and showering the U.S. president with compliments. But one point of disagreement did bubble to the surface. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the assembled leaders and media that he wanted to see Putin agree to a ceasefire. Trump had long pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he largely jettisoned that goal after meeting with Putin last week in Alaska, a shift that was widely seen as a diplomatic defeat for Ukraine. The U.S. president now says he is fine trying to move directly to a peace deal. "To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire," Merz said. "I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let's work on that." Trump pushed back, arguing he has solved many conflicts without first reaching a ceasefire. WHOSE BOOTS ON THE GROUND? One of the great mysteries that hung over the summit was what support the U.S. would give to secure any Russia-Ukraine deal long term. Trump hasn't offered U.S. troops' "boots on the ground" to guarantee Ukraine's security from Russia, reflecting American reticence to commit to military entanglements or a head-to-head confrontation with a nuclear power. Instead, he has offered weapons sales and promised that Americans will do business in Ukraine, assurances that Ukrainians see as far less than a security guarantee. Europeans are preparing for a peacekeeping mission backed by their forces. Yet, asked explicitly whether U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine could include U.S. troops in the country, Trump did not rule it out. Instead, he teased an announcement as soon as Monday on the topic. "We'll let you know that, maybe, later today," Trump said. He said Europe was the "first line of defense" but that "we'll be involved." WHAT'S NEXT Trump said he would call Putin and set up a trilateral meeting with Ukraine at a time and place to be determined. Despite some private misgivings, the assembled leaders agreed that such a meeting was a logical next step. Still, the path forward is more complex than Trump and his allies are letting on. For one, Russia has delayed and obstructed high-level meetings with Ukraine in the past, and it was not immediately clear that Putin would actually sit down with Zelenskiy, who he frequently describes as an illegitimate leader. Additionally, it is unclear how much a principal-level meeting would actually advance the cause of peace. The gulf between the Russian and Ukrainian positions is vast. The Kremlin said on Monday the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is a non-starter, a stance that would be hard for Ukraine to swallow. Russia is also calling for Ukraine to fork over significant chunks of territory that Kyiv controls, another proposal that Ukraine's leaders are not entertaining.
Fast Company
9 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Newsmax agrees to pay $67 million in defamation case over false 2020 election claims
The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by spreading lies about President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, according to documents filed Monday. The settlement comes after Fox News Channel paid $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had ruled earlier that Newsmax did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment. But Davis left it to a jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so, how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion reached the settlement before the trial could take place. The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax on Monday in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday. A spokesperson for Dominion said the company was pleased to have settled the lawsuit. The disclosure came as Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, vowed in a social media post Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the Republican president could achieve that. The same judge also handled the Dominion-Fox News case and made a similar ruling that the network repeated numerous lies by Trump's allies about his 2020 loss despite internal communications showing Fox officials knew the claims were bogus. At the time, Davis found it was 'CRYSTAL clear' that none of the allegations was true. Internal correspondence from Newsmax officials likewise shows they knew the claims were baseless. 'How long are we going to play along with election fraud?' Newsmax host Bob Sellers said two days after the 2020 election was called for Biden, according to internal documents revealed as part of the case. Newsmax took pride that it was not calling the election for Biden and, the internal documents show, saw a business opportunity in catering to viewers who believed Trump won. Private communications that surfaced as part of Dominion's earlier defamation case against Fox News also revealed how the network's business interests intersected with decisions it made related to coverage of Trump's 2020 election claims. At Newsmax, employees repeatedly warned against false allegations from pro-Trump guests such as attorney Sidney Powell, according to documents in the lawsuit. In one text, even Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally, said he found it 'scary' that Trump was meeting with Powell. Dominion was at the heart of many of the wild claims aired by guests on Newsmax and elsewhere, who promoted a conspiracy theory involving deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to rig the machines for Biden. Though Trump has insisted his fraud claims are real, there's no evidence they were, and the lawsuits in the Fox and Newsmax cases show how some of the president's biggest supporters knew they were false at the time. Trump's then-attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud, some before Trump-appointed judges. Numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results, including some run by Republicans, turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error and affirmed Biden's win. After returning to office, Trump pardoned those who tried to halt the transfer of power during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and directed his Department of Justice to investigate Chris Krebs, a former Trump cybersecurity appointee who had vouched for the security and accuracy of the 2020 election. As an initial trial date approached in the Dominion case earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order attacking the law firm that litigated it and the Fox case, Susman Godfrey. The order, part of a series targeting law firms Trump has tussled with, cited Susman Godfrey's work on elections and said the government would not do business with any of its clients or permit any of its staff in federal buildings. A federal judge put that action on hold, saying the framers would view it as 'a shocking abuse of power. '
Newsweek
10 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Trump's Russia-Ukraine Talks Raise Two Conditions Key to Ending War
Based on factual reporting, incorporates the expertise of the journalist and may offer interpretations and conclusions. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The fast-moving developments in President Donald Trump's near-back-to-back summits with the heads of Russia, Ukraine and European powers have raised two items increasingly as critical to ending the war between Moscow and Kyiv: territorial exchanges and security guarantees. While the latest talks held Monday between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of the Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO did not produce an agreement to end the three-and-a-half-year war, the gathering laid the groundwork for a long-anticipated trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump met in Alaska on Friday. Perhaps most notably, however, the U.S. leader did not walk back from the position of Ukraine needing to offer territorial concessions as part of an eventual settlement, a stance long opposed by Kyiv and its European backers. "We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact," Trump said during a press engagement alongside Zelensky and European counterparts. Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank, said the comments were indicative of a broader reality that has set in over the conflict. "Ukraine will have to cede some territory to end the war, the question is how much and how," Kavanagh told Newsweek. "At the very least, it will not go back to its pre-2022 borders. Crimea will not be returned to Ukraine." "Ukraine can choose to keep fighting now rather than settle for Putin's terms that require withdrawing from the Donbas, but they are losing territory at a more rapid rate and their frontlines are overstretched," Kavanagh said. "More time may not buy them a better deal but force them to settle for much less." A combination of pictures shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left), U.S. President Donald Trump (center) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right). A combination of pictures shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left), U.S. President Donald Trump (center) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right). DREW ANGERER/SAUL LOEB/ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images Land for Peace The Kremlin has thus far maintained an ambitious set of demands outlined by Putin to put an end to the conflict. These include recognition of Russia's full control over four Ukrainian provinces—Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia—annexed without international recognition during a September 2022 wartime referendum, as well as Crimea, seized and annexed during a similar vote held in March 2014 amid the initial Russia-backed uprising in the Donetsk and Luhansk that sparked the conflict. Moscow also demands that Kyiv forego its aspirations to join NATO in addition to undergoing a process of "demilitarization" and "denazification," though Ukraine strongly denies any ties to far-right ideology. Zelensky has long expressed an unwillingness to cede territory to Russia but expressed his openness earlier Monday to discussing territorial control over "where the front line is now." Russian forces currently occupy all of Crimea, nearly the entirety of Luhansk and approximately three-quarters of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory held by the Russian military was on full display on a map stood in the Oval Office on Monday as Trump and Zelensky spoke in front of the press ahead of their discussions. In the Oval Office, a large map of Ukraine was displayed across from where Trump and Zelensky sat. The eastern part, shaded pink, showed the roughly 20% of the country under Russian control — a stark reminder of the nearly four-year war and a possible tool for Trump to pressure… — KyivPost (@KyivPost) August 18, 2025 The comments marked one of the most notable shifts in the Ukrainian leader's position since the Trump administration has recalibrated the U.S. approach to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. Trump reiterated his belief that Ukraine would have to make territorial concessions and abandon its quest to join NATO in a statement issued Sunday via his Truth Social platform. "President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump wrote. "Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!" Yet Trump has also shifted gears on his earlier calls for a ceasefire, now emphasizing that a comprehensive peace deal should be prioritized, a position that has been challenged by some European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Franz-Stefan Gady, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, argued that, without a cessation of hostilities, Moscow would likely continue its press to obtain more territory as talks continued. "The Russians obviously don't think they've run out of military options," Gady told Newsweek. "Just having returned from Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, I can attest that there are no signs that the Russian offensive operations are in any way slowing down." "On the contrary, the Russians have been picking up their advance in southern Donetsk, for example," he added, "and they're very focused on seizing the towns of Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and also possibly encircling Soviansk and Kramatorsk eventually." As such, he argued that Merz "is absolutely right in setting a ceasefire as a precondition, because only once Russia agrees to a ceasefire, I think that would be a test of Russia's sincerity." The 'Guarantee' Debate On the same day as Trump's social media post, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin in Moscow prior to the Alaska summit, told Fox News Sunday that the Russian leader had committed to taking legislative steps toward foregoing any further territorial expansion in Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe once a peace deal was secured. In addition to reiterating his point about potential land swaps, Trump also on Friday revealed that Putin had agreed that Russia "would accept security guarantees for Ukraine." It was "a very significant step," according to the U.S. leader, that could include Western military presence in post-war Ukraine. But it remains uncertain the degree to which Putin would tolerate the presence of NATO forces following a conflict he argued was partially justified by the U.S.-led alliance's post-Cold War expansion into Eastern Europe. From the European perspective, Gady said questions still linger about the commitment from nations to actually enforce any deterrent measures on the ground beyond merely empowering Ukraine's military. "It's important to see that Europe will need to carry the bulk of the burden here," Gady said. "And I think the major issue with Europe is that hiding behind U.S. military power and a U.S. commitment to support the war Ukraine, Europe never had to ask hard questions." He argued that "the hardest question that remains unanswered for Europe" boils down to "what does Ukraine really mean for Europe's security architecture, and what is Europe prepared to risk to ensure that Ukraine will remain an independent, pro-Western country is it?" "Are European countries prepared to go to war against Russia? If the answer is no, then any sort of European reassurance force in Ukraine, integrated with Ukrainian forces, will not be able to deter future Russian aggression," he added. Kavanagh also pointed out that Trump's fundamental opposition opposed any NATO "Article 5-like" guarantees for Ukraine as suggested by Witkoff. "Planning in that direction is a waste of time because it's a nonstarter as a condition for peace," she said. "Putin may be willing to accept an Istanbul 2022-style arrangement where it has a veto over any sort of military intervention to defend Ukraine, but Ukraine will reject this." "There is just no way that Russia would fight for three years to keep Ukraine out of NATO and stop its western integration to allow Western forces in Ukraine after the war--especially now that they have the battlefield advantage," she added. "Finally, the West has little leverage over Putin. They can discuss their terms all they want, but an end to fighting right now is in Putin's hands and on his timeline." U.S. President Donald Trump sits across the table from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right), and European leaders during a meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump sits across the table from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right), and European leaders during a meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025, in Washington, Dilemma European leaders have long expressed concern regarding the Trump administration's foreign policy outlook as it relates to transatlantic security. Since first coming to office in 2017, Trump has accused European allies of taking advantage of U.S. defense guarantees. Trump's position has prompted both NATO and the EU, who share the majority of their respective member states, to undergo great defense spending initiatives. The EU also agreed to spend what Trump described as "hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of military equipment" from the U.S. as part of a trade deal reached last month and NATO has since begun coordinating large-scale arms transfers from member states to Ukraine, predominantly consisting of U.S. weapons. The moves mark a more conciliatory approach from Europe toward the Trump administration; a tone made all the more apparent by the relatively amicable environment that surrounded the high-stakes talks on Friday despite underlying differences over the course of the war. Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, described what he saw as "a strong show of European unity" in which each leader—including Germany's Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, French President Emmanuel Marcon, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen President and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte—"brings something to the table that works for the Trump playbook." "Merz brings the big fiscal spending that Germany is committed to on defense," Rahman told Newsweek. "Macron and Starmer are obviously committed to a reassurance force with British and French troops on the ground." "Meloni has the ideological affinity and proximity to the Trump administration and key people in the Trump ecosystem like [Vice President] JD Vance and others," he added. "Alex [Stubb], even Commission President von der Leyen, have managed to build something of a good rapport with him." Rahman argued that Europe walked into the talks with three overarching goals, including to "ensure whatever guarantees the administration is talking about are credible and robust," to "push back strongly on this idea of territorial exchanges" and to "really shape and influence and work this potential trilateral meeting," where Macron also "raised the stakes" Friday by suggesting European representation there as well. Trump has expressed confidence on the possibility of a joint meeting with Putin and Zelensky. Zelensky has also expressed openness to the idea, while the Kremlin has said Putin would only meet his Ukrainian counterpart following "preparatory work at the expert level." So far, the results of Trump's direct meetings with Putin and Zelensky, alongside European allies, have yet to achieve a breakthrough, though they may pave the way for further discussions on issues Rahman said would need to be addressed even before a settlement on top-line items like territorial control and security guarantees. Such issues, according to Rahman, include "prisoner exchange, return of abducted Ukrainian children" as well as the "sequencing" of a deal, and whether or not it be preceded by a ceasefire to freeze the current lines of control. "It's way too premature to begin talking about territorial exchanges," Rahman said. "I think the European side is still focused on protecting the principles that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War, that borders can't be redrawn by force, primarily." If Russia did remain in control of the territory it currently possesses in Ukraine, Rahman said "any recognition will be de facto, certainly not de jure."
