Ukrainecast Trump-Putin Summit: What are Ukrainians expecting?
This week, Victoria and Vitaly consider why Alaska has been selected to host the talks, and what might actually be on the table. Plus, we're joined by two Ukrainians from the north-eastern Kharkiv region - Logan who is a soldier, and Nataliya who is a war crimes investigator. After new polling showed a significant majority of Ukrainians now back the pursuit of a peace deal, they give us their perspective on Trump and Putin's plans.
Today's episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko.
The producer was Laurie Kalus. The technical producer was Jack Graysmark. The social producer was Sophie Millward. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast's Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Foreclosures rocket by 32% in Las Vegas after rip-off prices and Trump boycotts triggered slump in tourist city
Growing numbers of Las Vegas homeowners are falling into foreclosure as soaring prices and Trump boycotts decimate the city, a new report found. In Clark County, 200 default notices were filed in June, an increase of 32 percent from the same month last year, a research report from the University of Nevada 's Lied Center for Real Estate found. Default notices are filed after a property owner falls behind on their mortgage payments and indicates the start of the foreclosure process. 'With high interest rates, global economic uncertainty over tariffs, and a reduction of tourism in Southern Nevada, the local housing market has started to show some signs of distress,' the report said. Approximately 1,290 notices of default were filed in Clark County in the first six months of this year, up 28 percent from last year, according to the research report. A majority of the default notices are from single-family homes, nearly 1,035 filings, followed by 133 from townhome owners and 83 condo owners. Research director for the Lied Center, Nicholas Irwin, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the increase in filings is concerning, considering that Sin City has been suffering from a major tourism slump. He said that Las Vegas' unemployment rate is higher than the national average and warned of 'turbulent times ahead' for the local economy. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) has also sounded the alarm on a steep decline in tourism and its negative impacts on the area. 'Some of the decisions that our administration has made around international relations has caused a drop in tourism,' LVCVA president Steve Hill said at a recent board of directors meeting, reported Fox 5. 'That has happened for Canada. Our international visitation is actually pretty flat, but that is making up for the 20-plus percent drop in tourism from Canada, which is our largest international source of visitation. That matters and we are having to overcome that.' Since his return to the White House, Trump quickly launched a hostile attack on the country and threatened to make it America's '51st state' if it did not submit to his tariff demands. With Canadians making up a large part of all tourism to Sin City, Trump's antagonism towards its residents may have played a role. A decrease in visitors from the north has also had negative impacts on business at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport. The number of airline passengers arriving at Sin City's main airport is forecasted to continue to plummet by almost 100,000 per day, a new report warned. Capacity rates at Harry Reid International Airport are forecast to drop dramatically in the second half of 2025, according to LVCVA. The grim outlook is due to a decline in visitors from Canada, along with maintenance issues with the airport's second-largest airline, experts said. They warned that the number of inbound passengers will plunge by around 95,000 seats per day for the rest of the year. The worrying prediction represents a 2.3 percent fall from 2024 numbers, according to the report by Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting, which was commissioned by the city's tourism board. Workers across several industries in the tourist city claim tipping in the city has plunged by as much as 50 percent. Service workers are blaming a sharp drop in visitors, which they say has left them with fewer customers and lower pay. Some are pointing fingers at Trump, saying his presidency has led to a drop in international visitors, while some say the real problem is Vegas itself. The city only welcomed 3.39 million visitors in March, down almost eight percent from 3.68million in February. April saw just over 3.3 million visitors, a drop of 5.1 percent from last year. Hotels were 82.9 percent full the same month, compared with 85.3 percent in March 2024. Midweek occupancy recorded a decline of 2.5 percent in the same period, despite more than half a million people attending conferences there. And in June, there was a reported 11.3 percent drop in visitors compared to June 2024, while international travel to the city has fallen 10 percent.
The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
DeSantis announces plans for second immigration detention facility in north Florida
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ' administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention facility at a state prison in north Florida, as a federal judge decides the fate of the state's holding center for immigrants at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz.' DeSantis announced Thursday that the new facility is to be housed at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles (69 kilometers) west of Jacksonville. It is expected to hold 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said. After opening the Everglades facility last month, DeSantis justified opening the second detention center, dubbed 'Deportation Depot' by the state, by saying President Donald Trump 's administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants. 'There is a demand for this,' DeSantis said. 'I'm confident it will be filled.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
These rural radio stations are a lifeline for their communities. Trump's cuts threaten their future
Since Republicans last month slashed over $1bn in funds designated for public broadcasting, non-commercial TV and radio stations around the country have been reeling. The cuts led the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nearly 60-year-old organization that has long supported local TV and radio stations across the US, to shut down operations entirely, leaving more than 1,500 local stations nationwide without a critical source of income. For rural radio stations that rely heavily on federal grant and matching funds – and that are often the only sources of free and reliable programming in their regions – the consequences are especially dire. Often, these stations are residents' only reliable avenue for not only news and cultural programming, but also local health and public safety information, including emergency alerts. To understand what this programming means to rural Americans and the hardships communities could face if broadcasts went quiet, the Guardian spoke to two radio stations that serve distinct populations. Here is what they shared. Wildfires are a frequent threat in Yakima county, Washington. Rural, hot and dry, the agricultural region can face days on end of poor air quality – an occupational hazard to the thousands of farm workers who work outside, many of whom exclusively speak Spanish. National broadcasters like NPR put out emergency announcements in English, but their information, about an evacuation or unsafe breathing conditions, may go unheard by a Spanish speaker. The local public radio station Radio KDNA has found a way to combat that gap. Built specifically for the region's Spanish-speaking farm workers in this county where more than half of the population identifies as Latino, the station has developed a system in which DJs translate the English emergency notices into Spanish – live on the air. It's one of many ways the station, which its director of operations, Elizabeth Torres, says is the only 24-hour Spanish-language public broadcaster in the region, meets the needs of its unique listener base. 'Over the years, it has developed a sense of trust with the community,' Torres said. It's not the only public service Radio KDNA provides. In operation since 1979, the station runs programs focused on public health, highlighting Spanish-language clinics and vaccine drives; occupational health, with guests speaking to the specific concerns of people who work outside and on farms; education, featuring presenters from the local community college; and children's entertainment, designed explicitly for the many parents in the community juggling work and childrearing. Every week, the Yakima Valley Farmworkers' Clinic goes on the air for an hour to discuss the services they provide, Torres said. Community health workers will share diabetes prevention information. Sometimes, doctors come on as guests to discuss heart disease, or the importance of maintaining regular flu and Covid vaccinations. They even ran a Spanish-language special on long Covid. 'We're focused on information that will help our community make better decisions,' Torres said. The station produces its own news segments three times a day – two of which are entirely live. In today's dynamic political environment, these broadcasts are especially valuable for immigrants, who face a daily barrage of information and misinformation about raids and deportations and need help deciphering fact from rumor. KDNA has also partnered with an immigrant services organization that provides legal advice and detention tracking services. 'We don't put out any information on Ice until it's verified,' Torres said. 'We're trying to minimize misinformation.' Considering the lifestyle and literacy rates of its listener base, KDNA's broadcasts – and audio as a medium – are designed to be accessible. 'You can tune in and out as you're working or as you're driving,' she said. 'All of our programming is developed in a way that people will understand.' Running such an operation is not cheap, and Torres says that federal funding has played a huge part in the station's ability to do this work, with 40% of KDNA's revenue coming from the CPB on average every year. The station already operates on a tight budget, Torres said, with staff members wearing multiple hats. The news director moonlights as the audio tech if the regular engineer is unavailable; the underwriter (who coordinates paid sponsorships) is also the building manager. She fears that the funding cuts could dramatically restrict what is feasible in terms of output. KDNA will probably need to reduce staffing, cut back on community events, and limit the external broadcasts they pay to air, like NPR's Spanish-language shows, she said. Her biggest concern is if live programming is limited, there may not be an on-air DJ to translate critical alerts. 'Families that need to evacuate, they might not get the message,' she said. 'That is going to have a real impact.' Listening to the radio was a big part of Richard Grey's 1960s childhood. He remembers the voices of AM DJs traveling through his house as he got ready for school in the mornings and listening to the BBC when it came on the air every evening. Not many people who lived on Arizona's rural Navajo nation had television. Radio was how they got information about their community – and beyond. 'It brought the world to us,' Grey said. Today, between limited broadband access and the vast distances residents drive to reach brick-and-mortar resources like libraries or post offices, public radio remains a vital resource for the Navajo nation, which, at over 27,000 square miles spread across three states, is the country's largest Indian reservation. Since 1989, residents have tuned into KGHR Navajo Public Radio to access everything from Indigenous cultural programming to political commentary to world news. Broadcasting with more than 100,000 watts of power, the station is able to reach almost all residents on the western side of the reservation, which is no small feat in a region defined by challenging geography. Grey, who has worked with the station since 2011, says that makes it an invaluable service: 'Phones can't go down into a canyon or around a mesa, but radio does.' In terms of infrastructure, KGHR is bare bones. It shares its facilities with Greyhills Academy, a high school in Tuba City, and is primarily run by part-time contractors. Its only full-time staff member, announcer Keri Blackrock, came onboard a little over one year ago. But the station's output is robust. KGHR offers Indigenous cultural programming, including music curated by audio engineer Michael Begay and a Navajo Word of the Day show coordinated by students at the school. It syndicates a wide range of national and international news programs, like Native Voice 1, NPR and the BBC World Service. And it produces its own coverage of local sports games, parades and community events. 'Hearing a community member – and a tribal member – go live on the air is very meaningful,' said Begay, noting that announcer Blackstone is herself Navajo. 'The audience can go, 'It's one of us, a familiar face, a familiar voice.'' By his own account, Begay was a floundering high schooler at Greyhills Academy in the mid-1990s when he wandered into the station. Working as a student DJ gave him a sense of purpose, and when he realized that he couldn't go on the air if he wasn't at school, his grades started to improve. He suggests that without KGHR, his life would have taken a very different path – and perhaps even been cut short. 'I would be a statistic,' he said. The station also protects public safety. As part of the country's emergency alert system, it broadcasts vital information about heatwaves, wildfires and floods. For many people on the reservation, KGHR is their only avenue to learn about an evacuation order – like last month, when a wildfire swept across 100,000 acres near the New Mexico border. Knowing rural residents may not have reliable internet or cell service, Blackrock broadcast updates from local tribal police and shared information residents were posting on Facebook on the air. 'It's our job to broadcast incidents so that the community is kept informed and safe,' said Begay. Now, this crucial service is under threat. Almost all of the station's funding comes from federal sources, said Grey, and CPB is KGHR's main source of revenue. Going forward, they might need to venture into new territory entirely, like hosting live events, airing paid advertisements for sponsors, or creating digital content for paid subscribers. 'I don't believe we've ever really asked for donations,' said Blackrock. Without KGHR, the airwaves will lack Native perspectives on politics and culture, and issues that are underrepresented in the mainstream media, like missing and murdered Indigenous people, will get even less attention. For those reasons, they don't plan to go off the air – at least, not without a fight. 'Tribal radio stations will continue to serve as vital platforms for preserving Indigenous language and cultural traditions,' said Begay. 'Our job is ensuring these aspects remain vital and present for future generations.'
