The US president’s words come on the eve of his closely watched Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
One day before the leaders of Russia and the United States are set to meet in the US state of Alaska to discuss ending the Russia-Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump said he believes his Russian counterpart is ready “to make a deal”.
In an interview on Fox News Radio on Thursday, Trump said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin “wanted the whole thing” – in an apparent reference to his territorial aspirations in Ukraine – but was willing to come to the table and make a deal due to the relationship between the two men.
“I think he wants to get it done. I really feel he wanted the whole thing. I think if it weren’t me, if it were somebody else, he would not be talking to anybody,” Trump told interviewer Brian Kilmeade.
Trump and Putin will meet in Alaska on Friday for talks on the more than three-year conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be present at the talks, though Trump has said that should Putin signal a willingness to end the war, another meeting between the two leaders would follow.
“I don’t know that we’re going to get an immediate ceasefire, but I think it’s going to come. See, I’m more interested in an immediate peace deal – getting peace fast. And depending on what happens with my meeting, I’m going to be calling up President Zelenskyy and [saying] let’s get him over to wherever we’re going to meet,” Trump said.
He added that there was the possibility they could simply “stay in Alaska”, but also stressed that if the meeting went poorly, “I’m not calling anyone. I’m going home.”
That hedging represents a seeming cautiousness by Trump, who has spoken about being frustrated by Putin’s broken promises in the past.
Speaking from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said Trump’s metric for success could be boiled down to what read he had on Putin.
“He very much made it clear that what success means in this context is him being convinced that Vladimir Putin is serious about peace, and then arranging a second meeting that would involve the Ukrainians,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Putin praised Trump, saying he was “making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting”.
The words came shortly after Zelenskyy met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, where they discussed security guarantees for Ukraine that could “make peace truly durable if the United States succeeds in pressing Russia to stop the killings and engage in genuine, substantive diplomacy”, Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The meeting, said Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, “was about a show of unity ahead of that summit in Alaska”.
Hull noted there was a “sense of some optimism” following the Wednesday call between Trump, Zelenskyy and European leaders.
“[Trump] took a somewhat stronger line against Putin than was expected, saying the Russian president faced severe consequences if he didn’t meaningfully engage in ceasefire talks,” he noted.
President Donald Trump holds a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. — Reuters/File
US defence team to visit New Delhi for military talks.
Arms purchases continue despite strain over high tariffs.
India says ties with US have weathered challenges in the past.
India said on Thursday that it hoped relations with the United States would move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests, seeking to temper worries that ties were headed downhill in the aftermath of high tariffs imposed by Washington.
A US defence policy team will be in New Delhi this month for talks with Indian officials and its arms purchases from the US are on course despite the strain in ties, the Indian foreign ministry said.
A new friendship built between the two countries has hit a rough patch after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last week from an earlier 25% saying it was a penalty for India’s continued imports of Russian oil.
New Delhi has accused the US of double standards in singling it out for Russian oil imports and called the tariffs unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.
At the same time, it has also indicated that the warming of ties that began at the turn of the century covers a wide range of areas and should not be seen only through the prism of trade, although it hopes that trade talks will continue and result in a deal.
“This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges…and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing.
Purchases of military equipment from Washington were on course, Jaiswal said, adding that a US defence policy team was expected in Delhi this month.
Reuters reported last week that India has put on hold its plans to procure new US weapons and aircraft and that a planned trip to Washington by the Indian defence minister had been cancelled.
The Indian government subsequently said reports of a pause in the talks were wrong.
On August 8th, American president Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to announce a framework that could potentially end the two countries’ decades-long conflict. While many parts of the deal had been in place for almost a year*, the White House ceremony creates the need for swift action for the deal to stick. Europeans can influence the process, with their leverage growing as attention turns to the region’s possible integration into global markets.
A central element of the agreement is Armenia’s consent to open a 43km stretch of its territory for an America-administered corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Iran and Turkey. The goal is that the officially named Trump Corridor for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) becomes part of a major trade route from central Asia through Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey to global markets.
While this is a milestone worth celebrating, my experience from decades of peace talks is that international observers leave ceremonies pleased with how much has been done, while the relevant parties fixate on what they did not achieve. And now there is a risk that the White House event could trigger dynamics that undermine the prospects for peace.
First, there will be no final agreement for at least a year because Azerbaijan insists Armenia remove from its constitution any reference to periods when Armenia governed parts of Azerbaijan, including areas that have been historically inhabited by ethnic Armenians. Any amendment to Armenia’s constitution will not happen before next year’s election—now set to be overshadowed by this very issue.
The deal also excluded key parties whose support is crucial for the corridor’s success, such as Russia, Iran—whose border runs near it—and Turkey—through which goods will need to pass for the corridor to be viable. Uncertainty about the corridor’s long-term prospects could attract opportunistic actors seeking quick gains, fuelling corruption and leaving the project vulnerable to parties that ultimately would like to see it fail.
The EU can help here. European capital could be the cheapest and most reliable way to insure and finance the corridor, ensuring its success. But the EU will need to increase assistance and investment to Armenia, besides preparing for an emboldened Russia, especially as the US shifts focus away from actively supporting Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian prime minister, or providing infrastructure for free and fair elections in his country.
Trump’s personal stake
Is TRIPP destined to become another “Lake Trump”, the body of water on the Serbia-Kosovo border where the United States president tried to slap a brand name without actually resolving the conflict?
It feels awkward to ask such a sceptical question so soon after a positive event. The ceremony revealed two truths: that the US is a major player in the south Caucasus, long Russia’s backyard, and that peace is achievable, even if politicians in both countries (especially Azerbaijan) keep their publics ready for war. It also marks Trump’s personal involvement in a crucial region, potentially kickstarting massive economic benefits. In fact, Trump’s involvement might have been the key factor in securing this agreement.
In the Biden administration, we did not offer the president’s personal involvement due to concerns over the tens of thousands of Armenians who had fled Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, as well as about Azerbaijan’s crackdown on civil society, including threats to expel USAID. Now the Trump administration itself defunded USAID, and the White House ceremony signals that Washington is no longer concerned over Azerbaijan’s 2020 and 2023 military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Biden approach amounted to a peace-in-practice that key parties would implement as soon as an agreement was reached.
Azerbaijan’s gains
President Ilham Aliyev did not get the complete climb down by Armenia that he wanted, but he won a great deal. Aliyev leaves with an agreement that deepens his relationship with the US, securing help for a safe connection with Nakhchivan and a promise of US investment in the corridor. One foundation of the peace-in-practice proposed by the Biden team was a US pledge to impose sanctions on officials and companies that build, operate or use a corridor without Armenian consent. From Aliyev’s standpoint, a US promise to back the corridor now, before Armenia has taken the final step of amending its constitution, could mean that this bit of leverage has been surrendered. In short, the US paid up front while Aliyev only had to reiterate peace assurances he has offered many times before.
Armenia’s strains
The potential backlash in Armenia will be a problem. There will be no substantial peace dividend for Armenia: no open border with Turkey, no extra investments for Armenia’s benefit (beyond what was promised by former secretary of state Antony Blinken in April 2024 and the US-Armenia agreement signed on August 8th); only a corridor connecting different parts of Azerbaijan. The election campaign will now be dominated by the prospect of a coerced constitutional change. This will be deeply unpopular in Armenia and will hurt Pashinyan further.
This is a shame. Pashinyan has been a courageous, far-sighted leader. A weak and Moscow-dependent Armenia, or one polarised like neighbouring Georgia, will almost certainly not live up to the hard compromises needed for peace. And an Armenia that cannot uphold the agreement will be vulnerable to intervention by Moscow or Baku.
Russia’s shadow
The White House ceremony did send a strong message to Moscow, which has long regarded the south Caucasus as its zone of influence but is now weakened by Ukraine, sanctions and harsh disagreements with both Yerevan and Baku.
However, this is an incremental and maybe only a transitory benefit. Trump seems to be in a hurry to find an accommodation with Vladimir Putin. Sanctions relief, a ceasefire with Ukraine or any understanding with the US president will give Moscow latitude, money and military might to intensify its engagement in the Caucasus—especially in Armenia, where it already has (weak) proxies and security bases.
While anti-Russia sentiment in Armenia is now highly prevalent, Russia has learned in campaigns in Moldova, Romania and Georgia how to help its preferred candidates while avoiding backlash—and will certainly apply these lessons in Armenia’s election. Additionally, after the upcoming Trump-Putin Alaska summit, I believe Putin will almost certainly claim (perhaps privately to the regional leaders) that he secured an understanding from Trump that the south Caucasus is in the Russian sphere. The US and Europe will need to clarify immediately that this is untrue.
No business without Turkey
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was neither present nor mentioned in Washington. The problem is that the corridor’s success depends on accessible routes to global markets, with Turkish ports the only scalable option. Turkey, then, will decide whether the corridor lives up to its promise. But the border between Armenia and Turkey remains closed and is likely to stay that way until a final peace deal is signed—and the price is likely to go up if Armenia does not change its constitution.
Until the promised regional super-highway opens, the only real costumer for this short corridor is Baku. Given this uncertainty, early entrants in this project may pursue short-term benefits to themselves, such as taking exorbitant loans on favourable terms, using construction contracts to obtain more loans from interested banks, or quickly selling the concession to unknown third parties. Each step in this cut-and-run capitalism will create opportunities for graft, inefficiency and manipulation.
European money can be the key to guarantee the corridor’s success. With their knowledge of the issues and the preparatory work they have done already, Europeans can ensure transparency, which will be critical to avoiding capture by predatory states. Fossil fuel states from the Arab Gulf and central Asia may have deep pockets, but they have little ability to hold off Russia and Iran, while from my experience in both government and the private sector it seems very unlikely that the US Development Finance Company could quickly commit enough funds to support a project on this scale.
If the corridor fails to develop into a global network soon, it will then be of interest almost exclusively to Azerbaijan. This will tempt Moscow-dependent and hardline Armenian officials to use it as leverage in relations with Azerbaijan. Things could come to this point in a year or two, when Azerbaijan might claim US acquiescence in securing the corridor.
The responsibility to protect the corridor seems to be falling through the cracks among the multiple players
This points to a final problem: the responsibility to protect the corridor seems to be falling through the cracks among the multiple players. Based on private conversations, US troops might be deployed to protect US commercial interests there, if they exist by then. While this sounds like the late-19th-century gunboat diplomacy that appeals to Trump, such a move seems unlikely. It would be unwise for a business to assume that an anti-intervention president would send US troops into territory where Russia, Iran, Turkey and now the twice-victorious Azerbaijan can escalate quickly.
European capital(s)
Even though London, Berlin and Paris have been active behind the scenes, Washington has now taken centre stage on this issue. The reality is that Baku and Yerevan do not see Europe as enough counterweight to Russia.
This should lead Europe to reassess its tools for engaging with conflicts on its borders. European gas purchases from and arms sales to Azerbaijan far outweigh the assistance, tentative enlargement offers and arms sales to Armenia. Even Paris, which has strongly supported Armenia, sought to soften its posture toward Azerbaijan this year.
If peace is achieved and the corridor opens, however, then Europe’s experience with economic integration will become increasingly relevant, as will its newfound military strength.
The Washington ceremony is a material step toward peace. It crystallises American involvement and highlights the two countries’ aspirations for peace—two things that had been known but not fully acknowledged. But the underlying cause of the conflict has not been resolved, just postponed, and the event excluded parties who will try to get what they want in the meantime.
US special envoys Tom Barrack and Steve Witkoff will need to work quickly. Europe can play a key role in designing and financing the corridor, positioning itself to help mitigate some of the risks identified here.
*The author of this piece was in the Biden administration team that worked on the current peace framework.
The European Council on Foreign Relations does not take collective positions. ECFR publications only represent the views of their individual authors.
Millions in Somalia face worsening hunger crisis – Daily Times
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More than four million people in Somalia face “acute food insecurity”, while over 100,000 have been displaced by conflict since June, its disaster authorities said Thursday.
Somalia is grappling with a resurgence of the extremist militant group Al-Shabaab, alongside clashes between regional forces and the federal army.
The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the last five years has experienced both the worst drought in four decades and once-in-a-century flooding.
The food crisis has surged 29 percent since earlier this year, driven by prolonged drought, conflict and reduced humanitarian assistance, the Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) said.
“Somalia faces a severe food security crisis with an estimated 4.4 million people experiencing acute food insecurity,” SoDMA said in an X statement.
Around 2.5 million people in northern Somalia face moderate to severe drought across 26 districts, with over 850,000 in the hardest-hit areas.
The agency said roughly 1.7 million under-five-year-olds were acutely malnourished, 466,000 of them in a critical condition.
In recent weeks, clashes in Gedo region — in Jubaland state, long at odds with the central government — have displaced 38,000 people internally and forced 10,200 across the Kenyan border.
Health services have been affected by the conflict and cuts to humanitarian aid, with services reduced or suspended in 21 districts across nine regions.
The federal government said it had pledged $700,000 to support the drought-stricken population.
US cuts to foreign aid this year have hit countries such as Somalia, which was already under-funded.
British charity Save the Children warned in May that funding shortfalls would force it to shut more than a quarter of its health and nutrition facilities in Somalia.
Cholera has claimed at least 40 lives in Sudan’s Darfur region over the last week as the country weathers its worst outbreak of in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.
At a cholera isolation tent at a Sudanese displacement camp, an AFP journalist saw women and a young girl receiving intravenous fluids, while exhausted and weak patients sprawled on camp beds.
Citing rising cases of cholera which “exacerbate the worst effects of malnutrition”, the European Union called on all parties to “urgently” allow in international aid.
Medical charity MSF said the vast western region, which has been a major battleground over more than two years of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had been hardest hit by the year-old outbreak.
“On top of an all-out war, people in Sudan are now experiencing the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years,” MSF said in a statement.
“In the Darfur region alone, MSF teams treated over 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths in the past week.”
The NGO said 2,470 cholera-related deaths had been reported in the year to August 11, out of 99,700 suspected cases.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with bacteria, often from faeces.
It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps.
Cholera can kill within hours when not attended to, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.
There has been a global increase in cholera cases, which have also spread geographically, since 2021.
MSF said mass displacements of civilians sparked by the war in Sudan had aggravated the outbreak by denying people access to clean water for essential hygiene measures, such as washing dishes and food.
The delivery of humanitarian aid has become almost impossible.
“This cannot continue,” the EU said, in a joint statement with several countries including Britain, Canada and Japan. “Civilians must be protected, and humanitarian access must be granted.”
– No other choice –
“The situation is most extreme in Tawila, North Darfur state, where 380,000 people have fled to escape ongoing fighting around the city of El-Fasher, according to the United Nations,” MSF said.
“In Tawila, people survive with an average of just three litres of water per day, which is less than half the emergency minimum threshold of 7.5 litres needed per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene.”
At a cholera isolation centre in a tent at a Tawila displacement camp, an AFP journalist watched met patients suffering in the latest outbreak.
“We mix lemon in the water when we have it and drink it as medicine,” said Mona Ibrahim, who has been living for two months in a hastily erected camp in Tawila.
“We have no other choice,” she said. “We don’t have toilets — the children relieve themselves in the open,” she added.
According to the World Health Organization, between January of 2023 and July of this year, Sudan had the highest number of cholera deaths of any country in the world.
Sudan’s mortality rate from cholera, at 2.1 percent, is more than 2.5 times higher than the global average.
– Contaminated water –
Since forces loyal to the regular army recaptured the capital Khartoum in March, fighting has again focused on Darfur, where the paramilitaries have been attempting to take El-Fasher.
The besieged pocket is the last major city in the western region still under the army’s control and UN agencies have spoken of appalling conditions for the remaining civilians trapped inside.
“In displacement and refugee camps, families often have no choice but to drink from contaminated sources and many contract cholera,” said Sylvain Penicaud, MSF project coordinator in Tawila.
“Just two weeks ago, a body was found in a well inside one of the camps. It was removed, but within two days, people were forced to drink from that same water again.”
MSF said that heavy rains were worsening the crisis by contaminating water and damaging sewage systems, while the exodus of civilians seeking refuge was spreading the disease.
“As people move around to flee fighting, cholera is spreading further, in Sudan and into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan,” it said.
MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, Tuna Turkmen, said the situation was “beyond urgent”.
“The outbreak is spreading well beyond displacement camps now, into multiple localities across Darfur states and beyond,” he said.
“Survivors of war must not be left to die from a preventable disease.”
From Silk Road to doorways: How Chinese chili peppers became Uzbekistan’s protective charm
MARGILAN, Fergana Valley: Strung into garlands, hung above doorways, walls, and crafted into traditional textiles and ceramics, red hot chili peppers are a distinctive ornament in Uzbek culture: a legacy of ancient beliefs that made them amulets against the evil eye and demons.
Chilies most likely arrived in Central Asia from China, brought by spice caravans that traveled the Silk Road — the ancient trade network that for hundreds of years linked East Asia with the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Present-day Uzbekistan was a major crossroads on this route, which passed through the Fergana Valley in the east to Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva in the southwest.
In the region’s hot climate, the properties of red chili, which in Uzbek is known as kalampir, were quickly noticed and became valued.
“It not only added flavor to food but also helped preserve it. People noticed that the spice protected products from spoiling. In folk medicine, it was used to warm the body, reduce inflammation, and ‘drive away’ illness,” said Prof. Elmira Gyul of the “Silk Road” International Research Institute, Uzbekistan’s leading center for the study of Silk Road history and material culture.
“Over time, the pepper, prized for its beneficial properties, also acquired symbolic meaning — as a protector not only against disease but also against the evil eye, curses, and malevolent spirits such as jinn and the witch-like albasty.”
Not only the pepper itself but also its image was attributed to hold benevolent magical power. Gradually, it became a dominant motif in folk art, featured in Uzbek embroidery, ceramics, and handwoven palak fabrics, and often appeared alongside other talismanic symbols like almonds, needles, knives, and designs of traditional amulets and protective charms known as tumor or tumar.
“The tradition of depicting chili peppers was especially characteristic of the Fergana Valley, where this motif is found most frequently. This is likely connected to the fact that peppers were introduced to Central Asia from China,” Prof. Gyul said.
“For example, in the collection of the State Museum of Arts there is a Fergana embroidery on gray silk, where the central rosette is surrounded by a protective garland of bright red, meticulously rendered peppers. Interestingly, alongside them appear images of tumor jewelry amulets and stylized Arabic inscriptions, which in folk tradition were also perceived as talismans.”
While kalampir is used in Uzbek cuisine to add flavor and color, it is not a dominant spice or condiment. But chili peppers often appear as protective decoration on ceramic dishes, especially large ones used for communal meals, to safeguard the food from going bad.
Today, the motif of kalampir is most often associated with the famous black skullcap known as tubeteika or doppa, which originates from Chust in the Fergana Valley and is traditionally worn by Uzbek men on special occasions.
The monochrome cap is decorated with chili peppers painted or embroidered in white.
“This was originally a different symbol — the wings of khvarna, the divine blessing in Zoroastrianism, bestowed from the heavens,” Prof. Gyul said. “In the Islamic period, the original meaning gradually faded, and the wings transformed into the image of a chili pepper.”
Although these “peppers” were not kalampir at first, their protective function was already present and continues to this day.
There is a legend about the power of chili peppers that many Uzbek children hear at home. It is about a man who went to the mountains to find food for his family and encountered wolves.
“The only thing that saved him from this bunch of wolves and scared them off was the chili pepper. He came back later to his family with food and a symbol of protection, which then carried on for centuries,” said Kamila Erkaboyeva, a culture and tourism consultant.
“To this day, you will see a doppa hat with kalampir. It’s sharp-edged and something that protects us … from a lot of things.”
ATHENS, Greece — Fire crews in Greece, Spain and Portugal raced Thursday to contain wildfires, taking advantage of calmer winds that slowed the blazes’ advance. Much of southern Europe, however, remains at high risk under hot, dry conditions.
A drop in wind speeds allowed firefighting aircraft in the three hard-hit countries to step up water drops, concentrating on existing fire zones rather than chasing fast-moving fronts. Authorities warned that extreme temperatures are likely to persist.
Spanish authorities reported the death of a 37-year-old volunteer firefighter who sustained severe burns in an area north of Madrid this week. It was the third reported death in Spain due to the recent fires. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the region and still can’t return.
In Greece, the Fire Service said a major blaze outside the southern port city of Patras has been contained on the outskirts of urban areas after a large-scale deployment. Three people have been arrested in connection with the fire, which authorities said may have been deliberately set.
The European Union’s civil protection agency said it responded to requests for assistance this week from Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania, sending firefighting planes and helicopters from other member states.
The agency said it had already activated assistance 16 times amid this summer’s wildfires as European countries have been hit by “a high number of catastrophic wildfires.”
The number of activations for 2025 already matches the total for wildfires during the entire 2024 fire season, it said.
