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US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet on Friday in Alaska in a high-risk summit that could prove decisive for the future of Ukraine.Putin will step onto Western soil for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a relentless war that has killed tens of thousands of people and has seen Russia make rapid gains just before the summit.Trump extended the invitation at the Russian leader’s suggestion, but the US president has since been defensive and warned that the meeting could be over within minutes if Putin does not compromise.Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Anchorage, Trump sounded a positive note.”There’s a good respect level on both sides and I think something’s going to come out of it,” he said.Every word and gesture will be closely watched by European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included and has publicly refused pressure from Trump to surrender territory seized by Russia.”It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America,” Zelensky said in a social media post.Trump has called the summit a “feel-out meeting” to test Putin, whom he last saw in 2019, and said Friday that he was not going to Alaska to “negotiate.””I’m here to get them at the table,” he said of the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not forecast the outcome of the meeting.”We never make any predictions ahead of time,” Lavrov told Russian state TV after he reached Alaska, wearing what appeared to be a shirt with “USSR” written across it in Cyrillic script.Russia’s “position is clear and unambiguous,” he said.Trump has promised to consult with European leaders and Zelensky, saying that any final agreement would come in a three-way meeting with Putin and the Ukrainian president to “divvy up” territory.- Trump’s latest shift -Trump has boasted of his relationship with Putin, blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the war and had vowed before his return to the White House in January that he would be able to bring peace within 24 hours.But despite repeated calls to Putin, and a stunning February 28 White House meeting in which Trump publicly berated Zelensky, the Russian leader has shown no signs of compromise.Trump has acknowledged his frustration with Putin and warned of “very severe consequences” if he does not accept a ceasefire — but also agreed to see him in Alaska.The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1930 GMT)at Elmendorf Air Force Base, the largest US military installation in Alaska and a Cold War facility for surveillance of the former Soviet Union.Adding to the historical significance, the United States bought Alaska in 1867 from Russia — a deal Moscow has cited to show the legitimacy of land swaps.The Kremlin said it expected Putin and Trump to meet alone with interpreters before a working lunch with aides.Neither leader is expected to step off the base into Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, where protesters have put up signs of solidarity with Ukraine.- A ‘personal victory’ for Putin? -The summit marks a sharp shift from the approach of Western European leaders and Biden, who vowed not to hold discussions with Russia on Ukraine’s future unless Kyiv was also at the table.Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, leading him to curtail travel sharply since the war began.However, the United States is not party to the Hague tribunal and Trump’s Treasury Department temporarily eased sanctions on top Russian officials to allow them to travel and use bank cards in Alaska.Zelensky has called the Alaska summit a “personal victory” for Putin, whose forces have gone on the offensive in eastern Ukraine in recent days.With the trip, Putin “is coming out of isolation,” Zelensky said, and he has “somehow postponed sanctions,” which Trump had vowed to impose on Russia if there was no progress.

All 800 National Guard troops who were ordered to the US capital Washington to aid law enforcement personnel by President Donald Trump have now been mobilized, the Pentagon said Thursday.Trump ordered the deployment — which follows a similar move during protests in Los Angeles in June — as part of what he billed as a crackdown on crime in Washington, where violent offenses are in fact down.”As of today, all 800 Army and Air National Guardsmen are mobilized… as part of Joint Task Force DC, and they are now here in our capital,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told journalists.They “will assist the DC Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement partners with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities and officers” and traffic control posts, Wilson said.The troops “will remain until law and order has been restored in the District, as determined by the president,” she added.The US Army later said the National Guard’s initial mission “is to provide a visible presence in key public areas, serving as a visible crime deterrent.””They will not arrest, search, or direct law enforcement,” but they “have the authority to temporarily detain individuals to prevent imminent harm,” the Army said in a statement.The troops will be equipped with protective gear, it added, saying that weapons would be available if needed but would remain in the armory.Trump announced the National Guard deployment — along with a federal takeover of the city’s police department — on Monday, vowing “to take our capital back.”In a further tightening of control, US Attorney General Pam Bondi signed an order late Thursday granting the head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration the executive powers of Washington police chief, codifying the federal takeover of the capital’s law enforcement.The city’s Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser reacted to Bondi’s order in a post on X, in which she said: “We have followed the law… there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”Bowser’s post also contained images of a letter from the district’s elected attorney general Brian Schwalb to Washington’s police chief Pamela Smith.”It is my opinion that the Bondi Order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it,” Schwalb wrote.The overwhelmingly Democratic US capital faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.However, data from Washington police shows significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was spurred by immigration enforcement raids.It was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor.Most National Guard forces answer to state governors and have to be “federalized” to be brought under presidential control, but in Washington these troops already report only to the US president.

All 800 National Guard troops who were ordered to the US capital Washington to aid law enforcement personnel by President Donald Trump have now been mobilized, the Pentagon said Thursday.Trump ordered the deployment — which follows a similar move during protests in Los Angeles in June — as part of what he billed as a crackdown on crime in Washington, where violent offenses are in fact down.”As of today, all 800 Army and Air National Guardsmen are mobilized… as part of Joint Task Force DC, and they are now here in our capital,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told journalists.They “will assist the DC Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement partners with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities and officers” and traffic control posts, Wilson said.The troops “will remain until law and order has been restored in the District, as determined by the president,” she added.The US Army later said the National Guard’s initial mission “is to provide a visible presence in key public areas, serving as a visible crime deterrent.””They will not arrest, search, or direct law enforcement,” but they “have the authority to temporarily detain individuals to prevent imminent harm,” the Army said in a statement.The troops will be equipped with protective gear, it added, saying that weapons would be available if needed but would remain in the armory.Trump announced the National Guard deployment — along with a federal takeover of the city’s police department — on Monday, vowing “to take our capital back.”In a further tightening of control, US Attorney General Pam Bondi signed an order late Thursday granting the head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration the executive powers of Washington police chief, codifying the federal takeover of the capital’s law enforcement.The overwhelmingly Democratic US capital faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.However, data from Washington police shows significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was spurred by immigration enforcement raids.It was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor.Most National Guard forces answer to state governors and have to be “federalized” to be brought under presidential control, but in Washington these troops already report only to the US president.

The US and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are to meet at a US air base in Alaska on Friday for talks on the Ukraine war.Expectations are high for the first summit between sitting US and Russian presidents in more than four years, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart in their visions on how to end the conflict.It will be Putin’s first trip to a Western country since launching his invasion in February 2022, as well as his first US visit in 10 years.Here is a look at what each side hopes to achieve from the talks:- Russia -For Putin, who has faced years of isolation from the West since the invasion, the summit is an opportunity to press Russia’s hardline demands for ending the conflict.In a draft peace plan published in June, Russia called on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions that Moscow claimed to annex in 2022. Ukraine has rejected the idea.Russia has also called on Ukraine to halt its military mobilisation, abandon its NATO ambitions, and for Western countries to immediately stop weapon supplies — something critics say amounts to capitulation.In addition to territory, Russia wants Ukraine to ensure the “rights and freedoms” of the Russian-speaking population and to prohibit what it calls the “glorification of Nazism”.It also wants Western sanctions lifted.Ukraine says Russia’s allegations of Nazism are absurd and that it already guarantees rights to Russian speakers.- Ukraine -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not scheduled to take part in the summit, but has said there can be no peace deal without its involvement. He has called the meeting a “personal victory” for Putin.Ukraine has called for an unconditional ceasefire on land, sea and sky as a prerequisite to peace talks.It wants both sides to release all prisoners of war and demanded the return of Ukrainian children it says Russia illegally kidnapped.Ukraine says Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainian children into areas under its control since the war began, often adopting them into Russian families and assigning them Russian citizenship.Russia rejects the kidnapping allegations but acknowledges that thousands of children are on its territory.Ukraine says any deal must include security guarantees to prevent Russia from attacking again, and that there should be no restrictions on the number of troops it can deploy on its territory.It says sanctions on Russia can only be lifted gradually and that there should be a way of reimposing them if needed.- United States -Trump promised he would end the war within “24 hours” after taking office in January. But eight months on, and even after repeated calls with Putin and several visits to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff, he has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.The summit is his first opportunity to broker a deal in person.The US president, author of the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal” said on Wednesday that Russia would face “very severe consequences” if it did not halt its offensive.The US leader initially said there would be some “land swapping going on” at the talks, but appeared to walk back after speaking with European leaders on Wednesday.Trump has said he would “like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly”. But the White House has played down expectations of a breakthrough, describing it as a “listening exercise” for the former reality TV star.”If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump said, hinting Zelensky could take part in a subsequent summit.- Europe -Despite providing military support for Ukraine and hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees, European leaders have been sidelined from the peace talks that may affect the region’s security architecture in the future.European representatives were neither invited to the past three meetings between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul, nor to the Russia-US talks in Riyadh in February.In a statement last week, the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and the EU Commission warned there could be no meaningful peace without Ukraine’s participation.”Territorial questions concerning Ukraine can be, and will be, negotiated only by the Ukrainian president,” French President Emmanuel Macron said after speaking with Trump on Wednesday.Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have signalled they are willing to deploy peacekeepers in Ukraine once the fighting ends, an idea Russia has vehemently rejected.

A man who was believed to have been running from a raid by US immigration agents died Thursday after being hit by a car on a freeway, police said.City managers in Monrovia, near Los Angeles, said police had been called after there were reports of activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at a Home Depot.During the raid, one man ran from the parking lot of the hardware store — a place where day laborers commonly gather looking for casual work — and onto a busy freeway during rush hour, Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik told media.A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said the 40-year-old man was taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries a few hours later.Neither CHP nor the city were immediately able to provide any details on the man’s identity.Feik said: “The city has not received any communication or information from ICE.”ICE did not immediately respond to an AFP request for information.Masked and armed agents from ICE and US Border Patrol began carrying out raids in and around Los Angeles earlier this year, as President Donald Trump looked to fulfill his election promise to carry out the most deportations in US history.The raids, which target hardware stores, carwashes and other businesses where undocumented people seek work, sparked fury in the mutlicultural city.Protests in Los Angeles, some of which saw isloated instances of violence, were met with the mass deployment of soliders by the federal government, even as local law enforcement said they could handle the unrest.A federal court in July ordered a halt to ICE’s roving patrols in several California counties, after rights groups argued that the raids appeared to be arresting people largely based on their race, the language they were speaking or the place they had gathered.

YouTube has started using artificial intelligence (AI) to figure out when users are children pretending to be adults on the popular video-sharing platform amid pressure to protect minors from sensitive content.The new safeguard is being rolled out in the United States as Google-owned YouTube and social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are under scrutiny to shield children from content geared for grown-ups.A version of AI referred to as machine learning will be used to estimate the age of users based on a variety of factors, including the kinds of videos watched and account longevity, according to YouTube Youth director of product management James Beser.”This technology will allow us to infer a user’s age and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections,” Beser said.”We’ve used this approach in other markets for some time, where it is working well.”The age-estimation model enhances technology already in place to deduce user age, according to YouTube.Users will be notified if YouTube believes them to be minors, giving them the option to verify their age with a credit card, selfie, or government ID, according to the tech firm.Social media platforms are regularly accused of failing to protect the well-being of children.Australia will soon use its landmark social media laws to ban children under 16 from YouTube, a top minister said late last month, stressing a need to shield them from “predatory algorithms.”Communications Minister Anika Wells said four-in-ten Australian children had reported viewing harmful content on YouTube, one of the most visited websites in the world. Australia announced last year it was drafting laws that will ban children from social media sites such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram until they turn 16. “Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens,” the company said in a statement at the time. “It’s not social media.” On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world. It is due to come into effect on December 10. The legislation has been closely monitored by other countries, with many weighing whether to implement similar bans.

Outside the busiest train station in Washington, newly deployed National Guard troops wearing camouflage lean on a huge military Humvee.Wary residents and curious tourists stop to take photos, while inside the elegant Union Station a string trio plays “What a Wonderful World.”Christian Calhoun, a 26-year-old consultant who was born and raised in the US capital, told AFP that seeing the troops made him “more than disappointed — I’m furious.””It’s a lot of standing around,” he added.Declaring that Washington is overrun by crime and plagued by homeless people, President Donald Trump has deployed 800 National Guard troops, as well as ordering a federal takeover of the city’s police department.Over more than an hour on Thursday afternoon, the most that the handful of troops at Union Station interacted with the public was to let a French tourist take a selfie with them.Larry Janezich, an 81-year-old resident, said he had not seen the troops taking part in “any kind of meaningful action that is dedicated to the prevention of crime.”Patricia Darby, a 65-year-old retiree, said that the troops “don’t want to be here,” pointing to how some had their faces covered.Calhoun said he does “feel bad” for them as they wore heavy combat gear as temperatures soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius).- ‘Fake news’ -On his Truth Social platform, Trump this week described Washington as “under siege from thugs and killers,” with higher crime rates than “many of the most violent Third World Countries.”Residents outside Union Station rejected the apocalyptic image.”It’s ridiculous, and it really just shows how (Trump) sees the people that live here,” Calhoun said.”It’s totally false, and obviously promulgated on his media to justify an unwarranted exercise of federal power,” Janezich said.Gerry Cosgrove, a 62-year-old tourist from the Scottish city of Edinburgh only in Washington for two days, had a simple response when asked about Trump’s portrayal of the city: “To quote a phrase: fake news.”Trump has also ordered homeless people to “move out” of Washington.”Where are they going to go?” Darby asked, after fetching a bottle of water for a homeless person in the heat.Randy Kindle, who volunteers with a protest group in a tent outside Union Station, told AFP he was afraid that homeless people could now end up in confinement or jail “when all they need is help.”Guadalupe, a homeless man in his late 70s originally from Mexico, told AFP that the troops had asked him to move on Wednesday night.”They have no manners,” he said in Spanish.”I almost felt sick” during the interaction, he added.Calhoun said he had mostly seen the troops outside train stations, adding that he noticed they had “a lot of focus on cannabis use.”Washington legalized cannabis use on private property in 2015, however it is still prohibited under federal law. Several residents also raised the cost of deploying the troops in their city.”It’s a waste of money — I think DC was safe,” Darby said.

US producer price inflation bounced in July to its highest reading since 2022, data showed Thursday, with underlying signs that businesses are facing pressures from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.The rise in services costs exceeded that in goods, contributing to a markedly larger advance than analysts expected.But economists noted that the headline increase might be overstated — boosted by a range of volatile factors — even as there are also price gains in goods exposed to tariffs.The producer price index (PPI) rose 0.9 percent on a month-on-month basis after a flat reading in June, said the Department of Labor.A Briefing.com analyst consensus forecast expected a much smaller jump of 0.2 percent.The PPI measures changes in producers’ prices, and the report is seen by some as a bellwether for what consumers could face in the months ahead if firms choose to pass on more costs.On Wall Street, all three major US indexes retreated after the report but generally shook off early losses.Businesses have been grappling with Trump’s sweeping tariffs after he targeted most trading partners with a 10-percent levy this year, alongside steeper levels on sectors like steel and aluminum.The latest numbers took the overall PPI figure to 3.3 percent from a year ago, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The cost uptick in goods was 0.7 percent while that of services was 1.1 percent — marking the biggest such jump since March 2022 as well.While the advance was “broad-based” in July, more than three-quarters can be traced to services, the Labor Department said. Much of this was due to trade services, relating to changes in margins for wholesalers and retailers. Economists noted this was a sign that trade disruptions are hitting supply chains, though trade services are also a volatile component.Prices for final demand goods made a big advance too, with 40 percent of the July increase traced to foods.- Fed dilemma -All of this complicates the Federal Reserve’s job as it seeks to balance inflation risks with the health of the labor market in mulling the right time for the next interest rate cut.Fed policymakers have been monitoring the impact of tariffs on consumer inflation, with some officials arguing the hit will be one-off and others cautious about more persistent effects.”Input costs for producers jumped in July as price pressures for businesses build from compounding tariff impacts,” said Nationwide senior economist Ben Ayers in a note.”While businesses have assumed the majority of tariff costs increases so far, margins are being increasingly squeezed by higher costs for imported goods,” he added.He said that tariff price hikes were most obvious within metal and food categories, with readings for steel and aluminum — both targeted with 50-percent levies — jumping in recent months and adding to cost concerns for manufacturers.Ayers expects more of the tariff burden borne by companies so far to pass through to consumer prices in the coming months.”Tariff-exposed goods are rising at a rapid clip, indicating that the willingness and ability of businesses to absorb tariff costs may be beginning to wane,” added Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics.The effects of Trump’s tariffs on consumer inflation have been limited for now, with a key gauge — the consumer price index — steady at 2.7 percent in July.This, combined with government employment data showing that recent hiring numbers were significantly weaker than estimated, has raised the odds of a September rate cut by the central bank.Martin said the PPI data “provides a counter-balance to these reports” and highlights the Fed’s dilemma.”The big picture remains that inflation is further away from the Fed’s target than the unemployment rate and is likely to climb further over the coming months,” he said.”The path forward will have to traverse a tight rope between the next employment and price reports,” Martin added.

California unveiled plans to redraw its electoral districts Thursday, as Democrats push back on what they say is Donald Trump’s effort to rig next year’s Congressional elections to safeguard his slim Republican majority.Governor Gavin Newsom said he would ask voters to approve new maps that would effectively neutralize changes Texas is planning that are expected to give Republicans more seats in the House of Representatives.”Today is Liberation Day in the State of California,” Newsom told supporters at the Democracy Center in Los Angeles.”Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” he said, a reference to the animal that symbolizes the 39-million strong state.The move came after weeks of maneuvering in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott — acting at Trump’s behest — is trying to redraw electoral districts to benefit his Republican Party, a process known as gerrymandering.Districts are usually redrawn every ten years after the national census and are supposed to be based on its findings, so that districts accurately represent the people who live there.The mid-decade effort to change the boundaries is seen by Democrats as a naked attempt to bolster the GOP, and to help it retain its narrow House majority in next year’s mid-terms.Dozens of Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session, even as Republicans have threatened to arrest them.Newsom said a special ballot on November 4 would ask California voters to create temporary congressional districts for the next two elections, with power to set boundaries returned to an independent commission thereafter.”We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘find me five seats.'”He is, once again, trying to rig the system. He doesn’t play by a different set of rules; he doesn’t believe in the rules.”We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire.”Newsom, who is believed to harbor Oval Office ambitions, has emerged as a leading anti-Trump voice from a Democratic Party still floundering after last year’s ballot box drubbing.The two men have frequently locked horns, including over aggressive immigration enforcement raids the administration ordered in Los Angeles.In June, after thousands took to the streets to protest seemingly indiscriminate arrests by masked and unidentified agents, Trump sent in the National Guard and the Marines, claiming it was necessary to restore order.On Thursday, masked Border Patrol agents were seen outside the Democracy Center, part of a museum in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, despite there being no obvious presence of their usual arrest targets.Newsom’s press conference came after he had trolled Trump for days on social media, aping the president’s instantly recognizable style.A series of all-caps posts from Newsom’s official account have employed Trumpian language and been sprinkled liberally — if not logically — with punctuation, as well as nicknames, boasts and silly-sounding threats.”DONNIE J. AND KaroLYIN’ LEAVITT WILL HAVE THEIR (LITTLE) HANDS “FULL” TODAY,” read one tweet on Thursday, referring to the president and his press spokeswoman.”I, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR (MANY SAY), WILL HOST THE GREATEST PRESS CONFERENCE OF ALL TIME. AFTER THAT — “THE MAPS” WILL SOON BE RELEASED. VERY MUCH ANTICIPATED.”

US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he would not be intimidated by Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the eve of a high-stakes summit and said Ukraine would be involved in any deal on its fate.Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.As Russia made gains on the battlefield, the Kremlin said the two presidents planned to meet one-on-one, heightening fears of European leaders that Putin will cajole Trump into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.Trump insisted to reporters at the White House: “I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me.””I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes… whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting,” Trump said.”And if it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,” said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced wide criticism after a 2018 summit in Helsinki where he appeared to accept the Russian’s denials of US intelligence on Moscow’s meddling in US elections.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska summit, which he has denounced as a reward to Putin, and has refused Trump’s calls to surrender territory.Trump promised not to finalize any deal with Putin and said he hoped to hold a three-way summit with Zelensky, possibly immediately afterward in Alaska.”The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term,” Trump told Fox News Radio.Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters any future deal needed also to ensure “security guarantees” for Ukraine.But Trump has previously backed Russia’s stance in ruling out letting Ukraine join NATO.- Shifting Trump tone -Trump had boasted that he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January.But his calls to Putin — and intense pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions — have failed to move the Russian leader and Trump has warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin keeps snubbing his overtures.Putin on Thursday welcomed US diplomacy which he said could also help yield an agreement on nuclear arms control.”The US administration… is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting,” Putin told a meeting of top officials in Moscow.The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, a major US military installation in Alaska that has been crucial in monitoring Russia.”This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.- European support for Zelensky -Zelensky met in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who vowed solidarity, a day after receiving support in Berlin.Russia has made major gains on the ground ahead of the summit.Ukraine on Thursday issued a mandatory evacuation of families with children from the eastern town of Druzhkivka and four nearby villages near an area where Russia made a swift breakthrough.Russian forces had on Tuesday swiftly advanced by up to 10 kilometers (six miles) in a narrow section of the front line, their biggest gain in a 24-hour period in more than a year, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.  Ukraine in turn Thursday fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.Diplomacy since Russia’s invasion has largely failed to secure agreements beyond swaps of prisoners.Russia said Thursday it had returned 84 prisoners to Ukraine in exchange for an equal number of Russian POWs in the latest exchange.burs-sct/bjt