Trump–Putin Alaska Summit Looms as High-Stakes Gamble for Ukraine

With Kyiv shut out, Trump calls Friday’s meeting a “feel-out” session while threatening “severe consequences” if Putin refuses a ceasefire — a move critics say risks handing Moscow a propaganda win

Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could be a decisive moment for both the war in Ukraine and the U.S. leader’s anomalous relationship with his Russian counterpart. Trump has long boasted that he’s gotten along well with Putin and spoken admiringly of him, even praising him as “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine. But in recent months, he’s expressed frustrations with Putin and threatened more sanctions on his country. At the same time, Trump has offered conflicting messages about his expectations for the summit. He has called it “really a feel-out meeting” to gauge Putin’s openness to a ceasefire but also warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war. For Putin, Friday’s meeting is a chance to repair his relationship with Trump and unlace the West’s isolation of his country following its invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. He’s been open about his desire to rebuild U.S.-Russia relations now that Trump is back in the White House. The White House has dismissed any suggestion that Trump’s agreeing to sit down with Putin is a win for the Russian leader. But critics have suggested that the meeting gives Putin an opportunity to get in Trump’s ear to the detriment of Ukraine, whose leader was excluded from the summit. “I think this is a colossal mistake. You don’t need to invite Putin onto U.S. soil to hear what we already know he wants,” said Ian Kelly, a retired career foreign service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime Russia hawk and close ally of Trump’s, expressed optimism for the summit. “I have every confidence in the world that the President is going to go to meet Putin from a position of strength, that he’s going to look out for Europe and Ukrainian needs to end this war honorably,” Graham wrote on social media - AP

For my exclusive commentary on the upcoming Alaska summit and some nuances picked up over a few days here in Europe, scroll below to my video for paid subscribers.

“Diplomacy is supposed to reduce risks, not increase them. Walking into a high-stakes encounter with a hostile power without a plan is the opposite of strategy; it is gambling with the lives of American troops, the unity of our alliances, and the credibility of the United States itself” - former Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council

Watch my live CNN International interview, live from Rome early this morning. I bring together the different strands connected to the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska tomorrow…

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Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded four more hunger-related deaths over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of Palestinians who starved to death during Israel’s war on Gaza to 239, including 106 children. At least 23 Palestinians, including 10 aid seekers, have been killed since dawn in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and an aid point near southern Gaza’s Rafah, as Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that large swaths of the enclave’s north have been turned into “lifeless wastelands”. Natasha Davies, a nursing activity manager with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has told Al Jazeera that aid entering Gaza is “a drop in the ocean”, and that the GHF aid distribution sites are “slaughter masquerading as aid, which create mass casualty incidents”. UN experts have accused Israel of carrying out “medicide” through its destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, and the killing and starvation of health workers - Al Jazeera

Sony ended all operations in Russia and dissolved its local subsidiary, part of moves both within the country and without to cut Russians off from the wider world. The Japanese tech company has operated in Russia since 2006, but after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine began scaling back operations, halting console shipments and closing online and brick-and-mortar stores. Moscow is adding to its own isolation, blocking all calls on the messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram in what it called an effort to fight crime and terrorism: The apps are end-to-end encrypted and thus their calls cannot be easily monitored by the government. Since the war, Russia has clamped down significantly on its previously largely unrestricted internet.

European journalists are increasingly using generative artificial intelligence tools in the newsroom despite concerns the technology could spur fake news and erode trust, a new survey shows. Just more than half of the 286 journalists surveyed in Belgium and the Netherlands said they used generative AI tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, researchers at the universities of Ghent and Amsterdam wrote in a study published Wednesday. Of those who do use it, 32 percent reported using it weekly, while 14 percent use it daily. The researchers said those numbers were "in line" with other industry studies. However, the vast majority of those surveyed said they're pessimistic about the technology itself: 85 percent believe AI will worsen fake news and 83 percent think it erodes trust in journalism. The most popular use is for automated translation (45 percent), transcribing interviews (35 percent) and proofreading (30 percent). Common reasons for the use of generative AI are saving time, working more efficiently or seeking inspiration. The application of generative AI "primarily supports existing tasks rather than transforming or reinventing journalistic processes," the study pointed out - Politico

The percentage of Americans who say they drink has fallen to a record low, according to a new Gallup poll. The dip coincides with a growing concern among those surveyed that drinking even in moderation is unhealthy. This year, only 54% of Americans said they drink alcohol, said the analytics company, which has tracked Americans' drinking habits since 1939. That's one percentage point under the previous record low in 1958. Sarah Dermody, a psychology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, says the change could be driven by the public becoming more knowledgeable about the health risks of consuming alcohol. "For quite some time, there's been this heavy focus on [the effects of] heavy drinking or binge drinking," she said. Previous research into moderate drinking (one to two drinks a day) found that some alcohol, like red wine, could be good for you. In the recent Gallup survey, only 50% of Americans from ages 18 to 34 reported drinking alcohol, compared to 56% of people 35 and up. Furthermore, 66% of young people said they think drinking in moderation is harmful, compared to about 50% of people ages 35 and up, according to Gallup. "They grew up with that safe-level messaging, whereas a lot of us did not," said Sara McMullin, a psychology professor at Webster University. McMullin says it's more socially acceptable not to drink than it once was, pointing to the popularity of no-drinking challenges like Dry January and Sober October, and the rise of mocktails and alcohol-free beer - NPR