Category: 2. World

Donald Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The next stage in Trump’s eyes to end the war in Ukraine remains a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, the officials said.

Trump has told advisers in recent days that he intends to host a trilateral meeting with the two leaders only after they have met first, although whether that initial conference takes place remains unclear and Trump does not intend to become involved in that effort.

In a phone interview with talk show host Mark Levin on WABC on Tuesday, Trump also said he thought it would be better for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet without him in the first instance. “I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they’re in the process of setting it up and we’re going to see what happens.”

Trump’s reluctance to push Putin and Zelenskyy to a meeting comes as he has acknowledged in recent days that ending the war in Ukraine has been more difficult than he had anticipated, after saying on the campaign trail last year he could achieve it in 24 hours.

He has since sought a quick peace agreement after his deadline for Russia to end the war expired this month and said after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday that he had initiated steps for a bilateral meeting.

A senior administration official characterized the situation as Trump taking a “wait-and-see approach” to whether a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could be scheduled. But there have been few tangible signs in recent days of progress and the White House does not have a shortlist of locations where the meeting could take place.

In a statement, the White House said: “Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukranian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war… It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly.”

After the meetings at the White House, Trump spoke to Putin on a call that lasted around 40 minutes. Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, later said the two leaders agreed that more senior negotiators would be appointed for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine.

That statement signaled that a bilateral meeting could remain some way off, even as the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, expressed optimism it could happen within two weeks and Putin has rejected previous attempts by Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face since the start of the war.

At a news conference on Monday night after the White House meetings, Zelenskyy said that the European leaders’ meeting with Trump centered on security guarantees for Ukraine in any peace agreement to ensure Russia did not resume its invasion.

Trump offered to contribute to security guarantees, but has since ruled out deploying US troops to be part of a military force on the ground in Ukraine. Any US assistance is expected to come in the form of intelligence sharing or possibly US air support.

Previously, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, had said on CNN’s “state of the union” after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska that Putin agreed the US could offer Ukraine a security guarantee that resembled Nato’s Article 5 collective self-defense mandate.

“We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato,” Witkoff said.

But Putin’s acceptance of Nato-like security guarantees may not be as straightforward. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has also suggested that Russia should be one of the security guarantors for Ukraine – a proposal the White House has privately scoffed at, one official said.

“The Ukrainian side proposed, and our delegation at that time agreed, to work out security guarantees that would involve all permanent members of the UN security council – that is, Russia, the People’s Republic of China, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom,” Lavrov said.

After the White House meetings, Zelenskyy also outlined a plan to purchase $90bn in American weapons through Europe to win security guarantees, and for the US to buy drones from Ukraine. It was not immediately clear whether that was part of the Ukraine weapons deal Trump announced last month.

Did Ronaldo finally get married? Don’t fall for this AI fakepublished at 13:41 British Summer Time

13:41 BST

Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been looking at a picture that’s been surfacing on social media which appears to show Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo marrying his long-time partner Georgina Rodriquez.

It’s one of a number of pictures and videos going viral showing the couple seemingly tying the knot.

This black and white shot has gathered more than 5 million views in a single post on X at the time I’m writing this.

If you scrolled past this picture on your feed you probably wouldn’t look twice.

Anyone who follows Ms Rodriquez on Instagram, external will know they only got engaged last week so a wedding this soon seems unlikely.

So what’s going on here? Well let’s take a closer look at the picture – especially their hands.

As you can see, their fingers appear deformed, like they’re melting into each other.

Strange-looking hands are a common sign of AI-generation.

Experts say this is because the AI image generators available today struggle to understand the three-dimensional geometry of a hand.

This isn’t a problem if you want a generic image of a hand, but as soon as you prompt an image generator to show one doing anything more geometrically complex – like intertwining fingers – it will struggle to accurately recreate it.

The technology is evolving rapidly, but for now if you suspect an image might be an AI fake – a good place to check first is the hands.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made a rare trip to Tibet and hailed the crushing of “separatism” in the once-restive region, as Beijing prepares for a looming struggle over the successor of the aging and exiled Dalai Lama and the hearts and minds of millions of Tibetans.

Communist Party cadres waved Chinese flags, People’s Liberation Army soldiers marched with rifles, and Tibetans in colorful robes performed traditional dances at a ceremony marking 60 years since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

From a stage in front of Lhasa’s towering Potala Palace, Xi watched the meticulously choreographed celebration of Beijing’s firm control over the remote, resource-rich region that has a long history of resistance against Chinese rule.

The Potala Palace once served as the winter residence of successive Dalai Lamas who ruled Tibet as its spiritual and political heads for centuries – until the current Dalai Lama fled into exile after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

On Thursday, the square in front of the palace was packed with a massive audience, including schoolchildren, who clapped in unison during official speeches and a parade attended by thousands. The crowd was flanked by two giant portraits — one of Xi alone, and another of him alongside his predecessors.

Xi’s attendance of the event marked a break with precedent. In the past, Beijing sent senior Communist Party leaders to Lhasa for each decennial celebration of the regional government — but never the top leader himself.

At 72 years old, Xi is the oldest top Chinese leader ever to visit Lhasa, the capital of the Himalayan region that sits at 3,700 meters (12,139 feet) above sea level. He last visited the city in 2021 to mark 70 years of what Beijing calls Tibet’s “peaceful liberation” – when Chinese Communist troops took control of the region. Tibetan exiles see it as the brutal invasion and occupation by a foreign army.

“To govern, stabilize and develop Tibet, the first thing is to maintain political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony,” Xi told senior Tibet officials at a meeting after landing in Lhasa on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported. He did not speak at Thursday’s ceremony.

The top leader’s trip comes as Tibet is bracing for a pivotal moment in its future.

The current Dalai Lama, who has spent more than six decades in exile in India but remains deeply revered by many in Tibet, is preparing for a showdown with Beijing over who will control his reincarnation.

Tibetan Buddhists believe in the circle of rebirth, and that when an enlightened spiritual master like the Dalai Lama dies, he will be able to choose the place and time of his rebirth through the force of compassion and prayer.

In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama states that his successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.

And just days before his 90th birthday in July, the Dalai Lama announced that he will have a successor after his death, and that his office will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.

That declaration sets him on a collision course with China’s officially atheist Communist Party, which insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism.

That could lead to the emergence of two rival dalai lamas: one chosen by his predecessor, the other by the Chinese Communist Party.

During his trip to Tibet, Xi did not name the Dalai Lama in comments reported by state media. But he made a veiled reference to the spiritual leader on Wednesday in the meeting with Tibet officials.

According to state media, Xi touted the regional government’s efforts over the past six decades in “carrying out a thorough struggle against separatism.”

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous “separatist” and blames him for instigating Tibetan protests, unrest, and self-immolations against Communist Party rule.

The Dalai Lama has rejected those accusations, insisting that he seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet, not full independence – a nonviolent “middle way” approach that has earned him international support and a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Chinese Communist Party has waged a decades-long campaign to discredit the current Dalai Lama and erase his presence from Tibetan life, while tightening restrictions on religious and cultural practices.

Since coming to power, Xi has ramped up security and surveillance in China’s frontier regions, intensified efforts to assimilate ethnic minorities, and rolled out a nationwide campaign to “sinicize” religion – ensuring it aligns with Communist Party leadership and values.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Xi called for more efforts to systematically advance “the sinicization of religion,” improve the governance of religious affairs and “guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society,” according to state media.

The top leader also called for local officials to advance key infrastructure projects in Tibet, including a plan to build the world’s largest hydropower facility on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river.

“Major projects such as the Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project and the Sichuan-Tibet Railway must be advanced forcefully, systematically, and effectively,” Xi was quoted as saying.

We want to have an understanding of the security guarantees architecture within 7-10 days, Zelensky said.

MOSCOW:

Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow’s participation were a “road to nowhere,” sounding a warning to the West as it scrambles to work out guarantees for Kyiv’s future protection.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticised the role of European leaders who met U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help end the three-and-a-half-year-old war.

“We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Lavrov told a joint press conference after meeting Jordan’s foreign minister.

U.S. and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Lavrov said such discussions without Russia were pointless.

“I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it’s a road to nowhere.”

NATO military leaders holding a video conference on Wednesday had a “great, candid discussion” on the results of recent talks on Ukraine, the chair of the alliance’s military committee said.

“Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace,” Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone wrote in a post on X.

A Western official told Reuters that a small group of military leaders continued discussions in Washington on security guarantees shortly after the bigger virtual meeting.

After Polish officials said that an object that crashed in a cornfield in eastern Poland overnight was likely a Russian drone, Poland accused Russia of provoking NATO countries just as efforts to find an end to the war were intensifying.

“Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are under way,” Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Lavrov’s comments highlighted Moscow’s demand for Western governments to directly engage with it on questions of security concerning Ukraine and Europe, something it says they have so far refused to do.

Moscow this week also restated its rejection of “any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine.”

Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelenskiy of carrying out “a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally … We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there.”

Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any deal to end Russia’s war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting U.S. troops in Ukraine, but the U.S. might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, speaking after a meeting of national security advisers from Western countries and NATO, said work was proceeding on the military component of the guarantees.

“Our teams, above all the military, have already begun active work on the military component of security guarantees,” chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on social media.

Yermak said Ukraine was also working on a plan with its allies on how to proceed “in case the Russian side continues to prolong the war and disrupt agreements on bilateral and trilateral formats of leaders’ meetings.”

Lavrov said Russia was in favour of “truly reliable” guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war.

Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France.

At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid.