The Latest: European leaders to speak with Trump ahead of Friday summit with Putin

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Berlin Wednesday for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and virtual meetings with other European and U.S. leaders ahead of the Friday summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
European and Ukrainian leaders want to be heard before Trump sees Putin in Alaska, where they've been left out. Zelenskyy is due to meet with the Europeans first and then have a call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance about an hour later. Leaders of the 'coalition of the willing' — the nations that would help police any future peace agreement — will take place last.
Zelenskyy says he told Trump: 'Putin is bluffing'
'I told the President of the United States and all our European colleagues, 'Putin is bluffing,'' the Ukrainian president said.
'Russia is trying to portray itself as capable of occupying the whole of Ukraine. This is undoubtedly their desire. Putin is also bluffing, pretending that sanctions are not important to him and that they are not working. In reality, the sanctions are very helpful and are hitting the Russian military economy hard,' Zelensky said.
'Yes, it is true that Russia has several times more weapons, including three times more artillery. But Russia also has three times more losses. And that is a fact.'
'I told my colleagues and the President of the United States of America, our European friends, that Putin definitely does not want peace. He wants to occupy our country, and we all understand that very well. Putin cannot fool anyone,' Zelenskyy said.
Putin talked with North Korean leader ahead of Trump summit
They talked by phone, with Putin and Kim Jong Un discussing their deepening ties and war efforts against Ukraine ahead of Putin's meeting with Trump in Alaska, according to their state news agencies.
Putin also shared with Kim information about his talks with Trump scheduled for Friday in Alaska, TASS reported, citing the Kremlin.
According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall and also supplied large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, in support of Putin's war efforts against Ukraine.
Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia's Kursk region, a deployment South Korean intelligence believes could happen soon.
German leader: 'There is hope for peace in Ukraine'
Merz said that 'we wished President Trump the very best' ahead of his summit with Putin.
'There is hope of movement' toward peace in Ukraine, Merz said, but 'if there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and the Europeans should and must increase the pressure' on Moscow.
He added: 'President Trump knows this position and he shares it to a very large extent.'
Merz also said that Ukraine 'is prepared for negotiations on territorial questions,' but that a legal recognition of Russian occupation 'is not up for debate,' and that negotiations must also include 'robust security guarantees for Kyiv.' The Ukrainian military must be in a position to defend the country's sovereignty effectively, he said.
French and German leaders say they pressed Trump to include Zelenskyy
Macron said Trump is going to 'seek a future trilateral meeting' involving Zelenskyy as well as Trump and Putin.
'I think that's a very important point in this regard. And we hope that it can be held in Europe, in a neutral country that is acceptable to all parties,' Macron said.
Merz stressed that the issue of a ceasefire must come at the beginning of the negotiations, adding: 'President Trump also wants to make this one of his priorities in the meeting on Friday with President Putin, and I very much hope that there is a corresponding agreement.'
'So far, all talks that have been conducted with Putin in the past 3 ½ years have been accompanied by an even harder military answer,' Merz said. 'It must be different this time, otherwise talks that are held are not credible and not successful.'
Trump, Europeans and Zelenskyy discuss ceasefire aim ahead of Putin summit
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says European leaders and the Ukrainian president had a 'constructive and good' discussion with Trump on Wednesday.
Merz, speaking alongside Zelenskyy, said after the videoconference that 'important decisions' could be made in Anchorage on Friday, and stressed that 'fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests must be protected.'
French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump was very clear that the U.S. wants to achieve a ceasefire at the meeting in Alaska. Merz said a ceasefire must be the priority. He said Trump said he wants to make a ceasefire one of his priorities.
Miami's Freedom Tower, the 'Ellis Island of the South,' is reopening
The building where 400,000 Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's revolution relied on federal services provided at a cost of $6 billion in today's dollars is reopening next month as a museum that explores the meaning of migration, freedom and homeland.
It comes at a sensitive moment — Cuban Americans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, but the president's crackdown on migrants — including Cubans — is increasingly viewed as a betrayal. Protests against Trump have gathered outside the tower.
Museum organizers tiptoe around present-day politics. In Miami, 70% speak Spanish as their first language, and compassion for migrants runs deep.
Internal Bureau of Labor Statistics emails obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act after Trump fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer suggest an agency with little of the corrupting partisanship Trump had claimed when he called the report 'phony' and 'rigged.'
After the commissioner's firing, BLS employees talked about the importance of accurate numbers and professional integrity in producing data foundational for measuring the economy and holding elected officials accountable.
'Our data moves markets because it is some of the most timely and accurate information on economic conditions that businesses and policymakers have,' McEntarfer wrote to the staff. 'BLS data impacts the decisions of the Fed, the President, Congress, and millions of businesses and households. The work of this agency is vital to the US economy.'
Zelenskyy and other European leaders to speak with Trump ahead of his Friday summit with Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday arrived in Berlin for talks with the German chancellor and virtual meetings with President Trump and other European leaders ahead of Friday's planned summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has convened the virtual meetings in an attempt to make sure European and Ukraine's leaders are heard ahead of the summit in Alaska, where Trump and Putin are expected to discuss a path toward ending Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy and the Europeans have been sidelined from that summit. German government spokesperson Steffen Meyer said the intention of Wednesday's meetings was to 'make clear the position of the Europeans.'
Protests being organized for Trump-Putin summit
The group Stand Up Alaska is organizing rallies on Thursday and Friday in the state, where sentiment toward Russia has cooled since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously to suspend its three-decade-long sister city relationship with Magadan, Russia, and the Juneau Assembly sent its sister city of Vladivostock a letter expressing concern.
Dimitry Shein, who ran unsuccessfully for Alaska's lone seat in the U.S. House in 2018, fled from the Soviet Union to Anchorage with his mother in the early 1990s. He expressed dismay that Trump has grown increasingly authoritarian. Russia and the U.S. 'are just starting to look more and more alike,' he said.
▶ Read more about Alaska's history with Russia
Trump's evolving rhetoric about Zelenskyy and Putin
Candidate Trump repeatedly said he could end the war in Ukraine 'in 24 hours.' But since President Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, the road to a peace deal has been fraught with changing dynamics among Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The summit between Trump and Putin set for Friday in Alaska could now be a pivotal moment in the 3 1/2-year-old war.
'At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,' Trump said Monday.
▶ Read more about what Trump has said about Zelenskyy and Putin.
National Guard awaits assignments in DC
The troops reported for duty on Tuesday, ramping up after the White House ordered federal forces to take over the city's police department and reduce crime in what the president called — without substantiation — a lawless city.
The law lets Trump control the police department for a month. How aggressive the federal presence will be remains unclear.
An Army spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely describe ongoing operations said Tuesday that, so far, what troops have been told 'clearly and distinctly' is that they will be in a support role to law enforcement. What form that support will take remains to be determined.
The Army spokesperson also said that since mobilizing up to 800 National Guard troops could take until week's end, their assignments may not be known until week.
White House orders review of Smithsonian exhibits
Ahead of the country's 250th birthday, the White House is seeking to ensure that the content in the nation's preeminent museums aligns with Trump's interpretation of American history.
The examination will look at all public-facing content, such as social media, exhibition text and educational materials, to 'assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.'
US national debt reaches record $37 trillion
The national debt eclipsed this new milestone years sooner than pre-pandemic projections.
The Congressional Budget Office's January 2020 projections predicted the U.S. reaching the milestone after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the U.S. economy and the Trump and Biden administrations borrowed heavily to stabilize the national economy.
And according to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump might make an announcement of his own, too.
The center said in a statement that 'our beautiful building will undergo renovations to restore its prestige and grandeur' and credited Trump's advocacy. Trump complained during a March visit that the building is in a state of 'tremendous disrepair.'