US China trade talks a positive but investors more concerned US is sliding into authoritarianism
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News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Zelensky, European leaders hope to sway Trump before Putin summit
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders were to hold urgent talks with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, hoping to convince him to respect Kyiv's interests in his looming summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Amid frantic diplomatic activity, Zelensky was to be in Berlin to be with Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the video conference, a German government source told AFP. Merz has also invited French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders as well as the heads of the EU and NATO to one conference call from 2:00 pm (1200 GMT). They to hold a second call an hour later with Trump and Vice President JD Vance before Merz and Zelensky give press statements. The Trump-Putin meeting on Friday in Alaska is so far planned to go ahead without Zelensky. This has fuelled fears Kyiv could be forced into painful concessions, notably over land. Ahead of the conference call, Zelensky, who spoke with more than 30 international leaders in a few days, said "pressure must be exerted on Russia for the sake of a fair peace". "We must learn from the experience of Ukraine and our partners to prevent deception on the part of Russia. There are currently no signs that the Russians are preparing to end the war," he said in a social media statement. EU leaders stressed on Tuesday "the inherent right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny" and that "international borders must not be changed by force". - 'Constructive conversations' - Merz's office said the conference call would discuss "further options to exert pressure on Russia" and "preparation of possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security". The talks would include leaders from "Finland, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, the heads of the European Commission and Council, the secretary general of NATO, as well as the US president and his deputy", Berlin said. Macron, Merz and Starmer are then set to lead a round of talks of the so-called Coalition of the Willing of Ukraine's military backers. Trump on Monday played down the possibility of a breakthrough in Alaska but said he expected "constructive conversations" with Putin. "This is really a feel-out meeting a little bit," Trump said. But he added that eventually "there'll be some swapping, there'll be some changes in land". Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the aim was "for the president to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war". "I think this is a listening exercise for the president." Zelensky meanwhile has called the Alaska encounter a "personal victory" for Putin. Russia, as a prerequisite to a peace settlement, has demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of several regions claimed by Moscow, commit to being a neutral state, shun US and EU military support and be excluded from joining NATO. Ukraine has said it would never recognise Russian control over its territory, though it acknowledged that retrieving land captured by Russia would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield. Zelensky on Tuesday ruled out withdrawing troops from the Donbas region which Moscow claims. - 'Difficult' battles - Ukraine said it was engaged in "difficult" battles with Russian forces after Moscow made advances in a narrow but important section of the eastern front. Zelensky said on social media that "we see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war. On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations." Moscow launched fresh drone and missile attacks on Ukraine Wednesday, despite having scaled back the intensity of its aerial assaults since the Alaska summit was announced last week. The Russian military fired at least 49 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine between during the night, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. At least three people were killed in Russian artillery and drone attacks on the southern Kherson region, regional officials said. In the Donetsk region, regional authorities announced they had evacuated 1,200 people including 42 children from front line areas since Tuesday.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
Trump and Putin will meet this weekend in Alaska — here's what we know
The White House has released new details of the upcoming Alaskan summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The lead-up to the talks has seen Russia make gains on the battleground in Ukraine, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out any deal that involves giving up land. Here's what we know. The summit will be held on Friday, Alaska time, at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. Anchorage is Alaska's largest city, although its population is less than 300,000. At time of writing, the exact meeting time had not yet been revealed. The location is seen as being geographically significant as Alaska was part of the Russian Empire until 1867, when the United States purchased it for $US7.2 million, which is about $254 million in today's Australian dollars. Alaska is also the closest US state to Russia. The two superpowers are separated by the Bering Strait, a narrow sea crossing which is just 82 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. The White House says the talks will be one-on-one between Trump and Putin, meaning there is no room at the table for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Putin said last week he wasn't against meeting Zelenskyy, but said "certain conditions need to be created" for that to happen, and that they were "still a long way off". The White House appears to be trying to dampen down expectations of a quick ceasefire deal, stating the Anchorage talks will be "a listening exercise for the president''. "This is for the president to go and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end," Leavitt told reporters. Russia has previously demanded that Kyiv hand over the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which were illegally annexed by Moscow in 2022 at the start of the three-and-a-half-year war. Last weekend Zelenskyy said: "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier." However Trump has said "there'll be some land swapping going on … for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff, not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both". This will be Putin's first trip to the US since 2015, when he travelled to New York to speak at the UN General Assembly. Putin and Trump met multiple times during Trump's first presidency, while the Russian leader also met with then-US president Joe Biden in 2021. Although the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin's arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine in 2023, the US is not a member of the court and is under no obligation to arrest him. In 2019, during his first presidency, Trump travelled to the Korean Peninsula to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, becoming the first US leader to step into the communist-controlled North Korea. Russian troops have been gaining ground in Ukraine's east, with Ukraine throwing extra troops into heavy fighting around the coal-mining town of Dobropillia in the Donetsk region. Kremlin officials have demanded Ukraine cede "strategically vital" territory in Donetsk as part of a ceasefire agreement, according to Washington-based think-tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Surrendering the rest of Donetsk, according to ISW, would force Ukraine to abandon its "fortress belt" of multiple major cities and settlements running along a 50-kilometre stretch of highway. "Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defence … infrastructure in and around these cities," the ISW said. "Russian forces are currently still attempting to envelop the fortress belt from the south-west and are engaged in an effort to seize it that would likely take several years to complete." Russia has also launched Russian summer camps and programs designed to send Ukrainian children across the border as part of a "Russification" campaign. Details of exactly when the talks will take place have not been released. Alaska's time zone is 18 hours behind eastern Australia, meaning talks on Friday US time would be happening on Saturday morning AEST. ABC/wires
ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
Donald Trump's National Guard troop deployment tests limits of 150yo law
US President Donald Trump is pushing the bounds of military activity on American soil, but a 150-year-old law could spell trouble for his plans. On Monday, Mr Trump said he was deploying the National Guard and taking over Washington, DC's police department to reduce crime in the nation's capital. As hundreds of National Guard troops filed into Washington, DC on Tuesday, a judge thousands of miles away in California was hearing arguments about whether such an act violated federal law. The three-day, no-jury trial is considering whether the Trump administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act when it mobilised the National Guard during protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles in June. Experts say in both the California and Washington cases, there are clear limitations to the law's enforcement. Here's what to know. Protests erupted in Los Angeles on June 7 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested people at multiple locations, including workplaces, hardware stores and bus stops. Despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and city leaders, the Trump administration federalised the California National Guard and sent members into the city. The Department of Defense ordered the deployment of about 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles. The guard members accompanied federal immigration officers on raids throughout Los Angeles and at two marijuana farm sites in Ventura County. Marines stood guard around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, which includes a detention centre that was holding some of those arrested. Most of the troops have since left, but 250 National Guard members remain on duty, according to the latest figures provided by the Pentagon. California is asking the court to order the Trump administration to return control of the remaining National Guard troops to the state. It's a section of the military that can be used as reserves for the army and air force. Each state has its own unit, which answers to the relevant state governor and the president. Its members have been used to assist with crowd control in the past, but presidents have rarely deployed them without the relevant governor's approval. Before Mr Trump in June, President Lyndon B Johnson was the last to do so in 1965. Judge Charles Breyer says the central question is whether the Trump administration may have violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. That federal law generally prevents the military from participating in domestic law enforcement. It also prevents the military from investigating local crimes, overriding local law enforcement or compelling certain behaviour. The law typically doesn't apply to the National Guard because members report to their relevant governor rather than the federal government. But because the Trump administration took control of the Guard members, the Posse Comitatus Act came into play, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The state of California says the federal government violated Posse Comitatus when it deployed National Guard soldiers and US Marines to conduct law enforcement actions normally conducted by police. At the time of the ICE protests, Mr Trump pointed to a provision called Title 10 that allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country "is invaded", or when "there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the Government". But Judge Breyer found the protests fell "far short of 'rebellion'". He also previously found the Trump administration had violated the US Constitution's 10th Amendment, which defines power between federal and state governments. The Trump administration immediately appealed, arguing that courts can't second-guess the president's decisions. It secured a temporary halt, allowing control of the California National Guard to stay in federal hands as the lawsuit unfolds. During the trial's first day, a handful of witnesses were called for testimony. Deputy Commanding General for the National Guard Major General Scott Sherman said the military can protect federal property and federal agents in their mission carrying out federal operations. He said they could take certain law enforcement actions, such as setting up a security perimeter outside of federal facilities, if a commander on the ground felt unsafe. Ernesto Santacruz Jr, the Los Angeles field office director for ICE, argued in court documents the troops were needed because local law enforcement was slow to respond when a crowd gathered outside the federal building to protest the June 7 immigration arrests. "The presence of the National Guard and Marines has played an essential role in protecting federal property and personnel from the violent mobs," he said. Beyond the legal exemptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, there is a question around how the law can actually be enforced, Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program counsel Joseph Nunn said. Because the Posse Comitatus Act is a criminal statute, the US Department of Justice is responsible for prosecution in criminal court, Mr Nunn said. "It's premised on the executive branch policing itself," he said. That makes it unclear whether a state government such as California has a right to sue in a civil court in the first place. Georgetown University Law Center professor of law Steve Vladeck said the ruling in the California case would likely be a narrow interpretation based on the circumstances of the Guard's deployment in Los Angeles. But he said a precedent could still dictate how the administration used the Guard in California and other states. On Monday, Mr Trump announced he was deploying the National Guard across Washington, DC, and has suggested he may do the same in Chicago. But a court ruling against the Trump administration's use of the National Guard in California could put a pin in those plans. Mr Trump said he was deploying the National Guard and taking over Washington's police department to reduce crime. The president has warned of a takeover since a former Department of Government Efficiency employee Edward Coristine, better known by his online alias Big Balls, was allegedly assaulted during an attempted carjacking last week. Washington falls under federal control, meaning Congress has ultimate jurisdiction over the city. The president is also already in charge of the National Guard in Washington and can legally deploy troops for 30 days without congressional approval, as well as take control of the city's police department for 30 days if he determines there is an emergency. However, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser says the crime rate in the nation's capital is already falling after a spike in 2023. ABC/AP
