Ukraine and Russia set for fresh peace talks, Zelensky says
"Today, I discussed with (Ukrainian Security Council chief) Rustem Umerov the preparations for a prisoner exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side," Zelensky said in his daily address on Monday. "Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday."
Zelensky proposed fresh talks at the weekend, days after US President Donald Trump threatened Russia with "severe" sanctions if there was no ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv within 50 days.
Washington has also pledged new weapons for the Ukrainian military, after Russia intensified attacks.
Moscow has not commented on the peace talks yet. Russia's RIA news agency, quoting a source, said the talks would take place over two days, Thursday and Friday.
A Turkish government spokesperson said Wednesday's talks would take place in Istanbul, the same venue where previous negotiations in May and June failed to work towards a ceasefire, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
This week's talks will be yet another attempt to bring an end to the war that has been going on for more than three years, and will come after Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin. The US president told the BBC he was "disappointed" but "not done" with the Russian leader.
I'm 'disappointed but not done' with Putin, Trump tells BBC
Ukrainians unimpressed by Trump's 50-day ultimatum to Putin
The Istanbul talks could focus on further prisoner exchanges and a possible meeting between Zelensky and Putin, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
Moscow, however, has downplayed the likelihood of reaching any concrete outcome anytime soon.
Commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the two sides were "diametrically opposed" and "a lot of diplomatic work lies ahead".
Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, causing record civilian casualties. It launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
Trump threatens Russia with tariffs while unveiling Ukraine weapons plan
Russia's intensifying drone war is spreading fear and eroding Ukrainian morale
Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?
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Fox News
a few seconds ago
- Fox News
MORNING GLORY: President Trump and the next six months
President Donald Trump ran on closing the border and taming inflation. Done. And by "done" on the border, that means completely done: It is closed. Period. No new law was needed as former President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats coast to coast claimed in their failed effort to dupe voters in 2024. Deportations will require years of efforts even if only violent migrants are targeted, but the consequences of President Biden's open border are being reduced on a daily basis. President Trump had promised for more than a decade that Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapons program. Trump sent the B-2s and obliterated it. If Iran tries again to build them, Trump or a strong president down the road will dispatch the B-2s again if Israel doesn't do it herself. President Trump told elites that he would stand with the forgotten men and women passed over and sneered at by the coastal "bigs." And Trump has done so by crushing the cherished projects of the elites —DEI and CRT —programs that ignore merit and our Constitution's mandate to be color-blind. Trump is in court with Harvard and soon more elite universities will be obliged to comply with color-blind admissions and safe campuses. Trump wants American higher education to be for Americans and to be made available on the basis of merit. The Trump promise of "no tax on tips" is done. Ditto for overtime and Social Security. The tax rates he put in place in 2017 have been made permanent. President Trump's "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" includes worlds within it, including tax credits for gifts to scholarship granting schools —who wouldn't use this?— and taxing Big Education endowments. Both are achievements, as is the defunding of NPR and PBS. But there is so much more to do. Reconciliation is a narrow path that includes a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian that any given legislative proposal meets the "Byrd Rule." Here's where the GOP should start: The tax credits which crossed the parliamentarian's goal line in round one of reconciliation. Senator Cruz's carefully crafted provision got the parliamentarian's approval and is a huge victory for proponents of school choice: A $1,700 annual tax credit for individuals that contribute to nonprofits that grant scholarships to elementary and secondary school students. As wonderful as that is, it is also just a start on reforming American K-12 education. It also provides a blueprint for moving a second reconciliation agenda, the centerpiece of which should be education reform. Raise the $1,700 tax credit and make it available to home-school consortiums/co-ops. The tax code also needs to evolve to penalize colleges and universities that admit too many foreign students at the expense of American nationals or which use metrics for admission that are forbidden by the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The tax code may also have to be changed by Congress to deny tax-exempt status to any college or university found to discriminate against Americans on the basis of race, religion or ethnicity. Because such a tax code change which raise revenue by taxing previously untaxed entities, it should travel the same path of approval through the parliamentarian that Cruz's first proposal did. Finally, federal education spending should favor states that have robust school choice options. Engineering a course through the Parliamentarian when only revenue issues are involved should be relatively easy as states without such programs —17 states have them, 33 do not— would lose a percentage of their federal education dollars. What a spur to school choice this would be. President Trump is already the modern-era president who accomplished the most with his first six months of a term. Becoming the education president in his second six months back would leave an indelible and positive legacy for parents and children extending long into the future. Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives America home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
Newsweek
a few seconds ago
- Newsweek
Electricity Prices Are Soaring Under Donald Trump
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Newsweek
a few seconds ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump's Approval Rating Nosedives With Conservatives
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But perceptions of where the economy is heading have darkened. In May, 59 percent of conservatives said the economy was getting better, compared to just 14 percent who said it was getting worse. That optimism fell to 50/15 in June and 53/17 in July. Approval of Trump's handling of inflation has dropped more sharply. In May, conservatives backed his approach by a margin of 84 to 14. By June, support had fallen to 74/22, and by July 18, it was down to 66/25 — a significant net drop of 29 points in just two months. The souring sentiment comes as inflation ticked up nationally: annual inflation rose to 2.7 percent in June, up from 2.4 percent in May, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Meanwhile, Americans now face an average tariff rate of 18.7 percent, the highest since 1933, according to the Yale Budget Lab — a direct result of Trump's expansive tariff policies. "Big Beautiful Bill" and Epstein Fallout Add to Conservative Frustration Trump's signature legislative package — known as the "Big Beautiful Bill" — is also starting to lose ground among conservatives. In June, 73 percent of conservatives supported the bill, while 18 percent opposed it. Although still a majority, this level of support masks unease about its contents: critics argue that the bill prioritizes tax cuts for the wealthy while cutting safety-net programs, such as Medicaid and SNAP. Adding further strain is the backlash surrounding Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Approval among conservatives on the issue sits at just 44 percent, with 32 percent disapproving — unusually high for his base. Notably, 55 percent of conservatives believe the government is covering up evidence in the case, and 77 percent say all documents should be released. The discontent intensified after a Justice Department memo last week confirmed Epstein died by suicide in 2019 and that the government does not possess a "client list" — directly contradicting conspiracy theories promoted by some Trump-aligned figures. Trump reportedly lashed out at his own supporters, calling them "weaklings" for being "duped" by what he called a "hoax" pushed by Democrats. He later walked back the comments and directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of unsealing grand jury materials related to Epstein. Immigration Still a Relative Strong Point — But Slipping But there is one topic where Trump fares slightly better among conservatives, with the president's numbers having only seen a marginal decline since May. In July, 85 percent of conservatives approved of Trump's job performance on immigration — down slightly from 88 percent in May and up from 83 percent in June, suggesting his aggressive second-term agenda, including mass deportation operations, expanded detention facilities, and record-low border crossings, continues to resonate with much of his base. Throughout his second term, Trump has aggressively expanded immigration enforcement—launching mass deportation operations, increasing raids in sanctuary cities, and reviving thousands of old deportation cases. Meanwhile, crossings at the southern border hit a historic low last month, and he has secured billions in additional funding for border security and expanded enforcement operations. His administration has also dramatically scaled up detention capacity, allocating $45 billion to expand ICE facilities and construct large-scale temporary camps, including a tent facility in Florida nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz." Broader Sentiment On The Decline Nonetheless, broader sentiment is cooling. The latest YouGov/Economist polling shows that 69 percent of conservatives now say the U.S. is on the right track, down from 75 percent in May. It comes as Trump has seen his approval ratings dip to a second-term low nationwide. That includes the most recent Big Data Poll survey, conducted July 12 to 14, which showed 48 percent of voters approving of Trump's performance, while 49 percent disapproved. The downward trend contrasts with earlier in the year. In May, Big Data Poll had Trump narrowly above water, with 48 percent of respondents approving and 47 percent disapproving. That figure was already a notable drop from January, shortly after Trump returned to office, when the pollster recorded one of his strongest ratings: 56 percent approval and 37 percent disapproval, a net positive of 19 percentage points. That broader decline is mirrored in other major polling. Newsweek's approval tracker currently places Trump at a net minus 10 rating, with 44 percent of Americans approving and 54 percent disapproving. It is one of his lowest net approval scores in recent weeks. The latest Atlas Intel survey, conducted between July 13 and 18 among 1,935 respondents, paints a similar picture: Trump's approval rating has dipped to 44 percent, down from 45 percent last month, while disapproval has ticked up to 55 percent. That results in a net rating of minus 11—his worst showing of the term in that poll. The sharpest drop comes from YouGov/CBS News polling conducted between July 16 and 18, which shows Trump's approval at just 42 percent, with 58 percent disapproving—a net rating of minus 16. That figure represents the president's lowest approval level recorded in any national poll so far in his second term.
