Trump urges direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy, says war can reach endgame within weeks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday during talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders that a potential ceasefire and who gets Ukrainian territory seized by Russia should be hashed out during a face-to-face meeting between the warring countries’ two leaders.
The talks at the White House came days after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit at a U.S. military base in Alaska in which he tilted toward Putin’s demands that Ukraine make concessions over land seized by Russia, which now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
“We’re going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders. Trump and Zelenskyy also expressed hope of soon holding three-way talks among the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as he met with Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as the president of the European Commission and the head of NATO.
Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders.
What to know about Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss how to end Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine.
Months of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting haven’t made headway, but the stakes have risen since Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. After that summit, Trump abandoned the requirement of reaching a ceasefire in order to hold further talks and aligned with Putin’s position that negotiations should focus on a long-term settlement instead.
The presence of several European leaders at the talks in Washington shows how central the conflict — and any settlement — is to wider security questions on the continent.
They are looking to safeguard Ukraine and Europe more broadly from any further aggression from Moscow — but also are providing a show of support for Zelenskyy after his last visit to the White House led to an angry confrontation. The American and Ukrainian leaders are scheduled to first meet privately, without the Europeans.
On “Trump’s ultimate policy towards the Russia-Ukraine war hangs not just the future of Ukraine security, but Europe’s as well,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The stakes could not be higher for the continent.”
Texas Democrats end walkout over redistricting as California prepares to retaliate
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats ended a two-week walkout Monday that stalled Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts as part of a national partisan brawl over President Donald Trump’s desire to reshape U.S. House maps to his advantage.
Their return to the Texas Capitol — which will now involve escorts by state police to make sure the lawmakers don’t bolt again — puts the Republican-run Legislature in position to satisfy Trump’s demands as California Democrats separately advance new congressional boundaries in retaliation. The tit-for-tat puts the nation’s two most populous states at the center of an expanding fight over control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The battle also has rallied Democrats nationally after infighting and frustrations among the party’s own voters since Republicans took control of the White House and Capitol Hill in January.
In Texas, dozens of state House Democrats left the state Aug. 3 to deny their Republican-majority colleagues the attendance necessary to vote on redrawn maps intended to send five more Texas Republicans to Washington. After spending nearly two weeks in Illinois and elsewhere, they declared victory when Republicans adjourned their first special session on Friday and Democrats around the country rallied in opposition to the Trump-led gerrymandering effort. They pointed specifically to California’s release of proposed maps intended to increase Democrats’ U.S. House advantage by five seats, effectively neutralizing any Republican gains in Texas.
Many of the absent Democrats left Chicago early Monday and landed hours later at a private airfield in Austin, where several boarded a large charter bus to the Capitol. Once inside, they were greeted by cheering supporters. And for the first time since Trump’s redistricting push accelerated into a national issue, the Texas House floor was near full capacity when lawmakers convened briefly Monday afternoon.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows did not mention redistricting on the floor Monday but promised swift action on the Legislature’s agenda.
Trump vows to change how elections are run. The US Constitution doesn’t give him that power
President Donald Trump on Monday vowed more changes to the way elections are conducted in the U.S., but based on the Constitution there is little to nothing he can do on his own.
Relying on false information and conspiracy theories that he’s regularly used to explain away his 2020 election loss, Trump pledged on his social media site that he would do away with both mail voting — which remains popular and is used by about one-third of all voters — and voting machines — some form of which are used in almost all of the country’s thousands of election jurisdictions. These are the same systems that enabled Trump to win the 2024 election and Republicans to gain control of Congress.
Trump’s post marks an escalation even in his normally overheated election rhetoric. He issued a wide-ranging executive order earlier this year that, among other changes, would have required documented proof-of-citizenship before registering to vote. His Monday post promised another election executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm elections.”
The same post also pushed falsehoods about voting. He claimed the U.S. is the only country to use mail voting, when it’s actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Similar complaints to Trump’s, when aired on conservative networks such as Newsmax and Fox News, have led to multimillion dollar defamation settlements, including one announced Monday, because they are full of false information and the outlets have not been able to present any evidence to support them.
Mississippi becomes fourth state to send National Guard troops to DC in expanding federal crackdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joining forces from three other Republican-led states, the Mississippi National Guard will deploy 200 troops to Washington as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing federal policing and immigration overhaul in the nation’s capital.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement Monday that he has approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, D.C.
“Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it,” Reeves said.
Mississippi joins three other states that have pledged to deploy hundreds of National Guard members to the nation’s capital to bolster the Republican administration’s operation aiming to transform policing in the Democratic-led city through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness.
West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 troops, South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it will send 150 in the coming days, deployments that built on top of President Donald Trump’s initial order that 800 National Guard troops deploy as part of the federal intervention.
Texas declares measles outbreak over
The Texas measles outbreak that sickened 762 people since late January is over, state health officials said Monday.
It’s been more than 42 days since the last new case was confirmed, meeting the threshold public health officials use to declare measles outbreaks over. The last person to have an outbreak-related case got a rash on July 1, according to state data.
Two unvaccinated Texas children died of the virus earlier this year and 100 people were hospitalized throughout the outbreak, which spread to 37 counties. The outbreak and was linked to outbreaks in Canada and Mexico and other U.S. states.
The U.S. is having its worst year for measles in more than three decades, as childhood vaccination rates against the virus decline and more parents claim exemptions from school requirements. The U.S. has confirmed 1,356 cases as of Aug. 5, according U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The nation’s third measles death was unvaccinated adult in New Mexico who died in March.
West Texas was the nation’s measles epicenter for months. The virus started spreading there in close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite communities in Gaines County.
Hamas accepts an Arab ceasefire proposal on Gaza as Palestinian death toll passes 62,000
RAFAH, Egypt (AP) — Hamas said Monday it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as Israel indicated its positions haven’t changed, while Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from 22 months of war has passed 62,000.
U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the long-running negotiations that Washington has mediated as well. “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” he posted on social media.
Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks appeared to break down last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.
Plans to expand the offensive, in part aimed at pressuring Hamas, have sparked international outrage and infuriated many Israelis who fear for the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. Hundreds of thousands took part in mass protests on Sunday calling for their return.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said mediators are “exerting extensive efforts” to revive a U.S. proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, during which some of the remaining 50 hostages would be released and the sides would negotiate a lasting ceasefire and the return of the rest.
Hurricane Erin forces evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks but expected to stay offshore
Hurricane Erin forced tourists to cut their vacations short on North Carolina’s Outer Banks even though the monster storm is expected to stay offshore after lashing part of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday.
Evacuations were ordered on a couple of barrier islands along the Carolina shore as authorities warned the storm could churn up dangerous rip currents and swamp roads with waves of 15 feet (4.6 meters). Tropical storm and surge watches were issued Monday for much of the Outer Banks.
Tourists and residents waited for hours in a line of cars at Ocracoke Island’s ferry dock — the only way to leave other than by plane.
“We definitely thought twice,” said Seth Brotherton, of Catfish, North Carolina, whose weeklong fishing trip ended after two days. “But they said ‘mandatory’ and that pretty much means, ‘get out of here.'”
Forecasters are confident that Erin will turn north and away from the eastern U.S., but it’s still expected to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds along the coastal islands, Dave Roberts of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
‘Ketamine Queen’ accused of selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry agrees to plead guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman known as the “Ketamine Queen,” charged with selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, agreed to plead guilty Monday.
Jasveen Sangha becomes the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the “Friends” star to strike a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, avoiding a trial that had been planned for September.
She agreed in a signed statement filed in court to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perry’s death.
In a brief statement, Sangha’s lawyer Mark Geragos said only, “She’s taking responsibility for her actions.”
Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., as a prolific drug dealer who was known to her customers as the “Ketamine Queen,” using the term often in press releases and court documents.
No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Penn St each place 3 players on Associated Press preseason All-America first team
Texas and Penn State, the top two teams in The Associated Press preseason Top 25, each had three players selected for the preseason AP All-America team announced Monday.
No. 1 Texas had one player from each level of its defense on the first team: edge rusher Colin Simmons, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and safety Michael Taaffe. No. 2 Penn State’s picks were running back Nicholas Singleton, offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane and defensive lineman Zane Durant.
No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Clemson, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 8 Alabama and Pittsburgh each had two players on the first team.
The Southeastern Conference had 12 players on the 27-man first team determined by media members on the AP Top 25 voting panel.
The Big Ten had seven players, the ACC four and the Big 12 two.
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