live Trump, Republican senator engage in shouting match over Iran war
U.S. President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, shortly before hi...
The United States and Ukraine have agreed on a revised peace framework to end the war with Russia, saying talks in Geneva produced significant progress toward an updated plan acceptable to both sides, they announced on Sunday.
The joint statement did not provide details of the revised framework, but U.S. officials said it incorporates Ukraine’s core demands, including sovereignty, security guarantees, economic recovery and protection of critical infrastructure.
The White House, however, said Ukrainian negotiators told U.S. officials the revised version “reflects their national interests” and “addresses their core strategic requirements,” though Ukraine itself issued no separate statement.
It remains unclear how the refinements address key issues such as security guarantees for Ukraine or protection against future Russian aggression. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the American delegation, was returning to Washington late on Sunday but said the deadline set by Trump “might not be set in stone.”
Trump has continued to pressure Ukraine to accept a deal, saying on Sunday that Kyiv had shown “zero gratitude” for U.S. support — comments that prompted Ukrainian officials to publicly restate their thanks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could travel to the United States as early as this week to discuss the most sensitive points directly with Trump, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The original plan
The initial 28-point proposal drafted by U.S. officials last week called for Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits on its military and abandon its ambition to join NATO, terms many Ukrainians considered tantamount to capitulation after nearly four years of war.
The plan surprised officials across the administration, and sources say it was shaped at an October meeting in Miami attended by special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and sanctioned Russian emissary Kirill Dmitriev.
Democratic lawmakers denounced the original draft as resembling a “Russian wish list,” though Rubio insisted it was a U.S.-written document informed by input from “both sides of the conflict.”
European counter-proposal
European governments, who said they were not consulted on the initial text, issued their own counter-proposal on Sunday.
It would soften some of the territorial concessions and add a U.S.-backed security guarantee modelled on NATO’s Article 5 should Ukraine face renewed attack.
The situation on the ground
The negotiations come as Russia continues to make incremental gains in parts of the front line. Ukrainian power and gas infrastructure has been battered by drone and missile strikes, leaving millions facing hours-long outages.
Zelenskyy is also managing political pressure at home, with a major corruption scandal involving some ministers fuelling public anger. Ukraine’s fiscal outlook remains fragile as it seeks additional international funding.
Still, Kyiv has taken encouragement from recent U.S. sanctions tightening on Russia’s oil sector, a key revenue source for the Kremlin, and from its own long-range strikes that have damaged Russian energy facilities.
Israel's defence minister said on Wednesday Israeli troops will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, highlighting a hurdle to Iran-U.S. peace talks, as the top U.S. diplomat tours the Middle East to win over allies sceptical about a proposed deal.
A Ukrainian strike has damaged a school building in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to local authorities cited by the TASS news agency. No injuries were reported in the incident.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections into "infinity, despite Tehran's denials, and that unfrozen Iranian assets would be used to buy humanitarian supplies from the United States.
Authorities in France are reporting that about 20 people have died over the weekend while swimming in unsupervised areas of rivers, lakes and coastal waters as they tried to escape the heatwave.
Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surpassed 1,000, with health officials warning that the outbreak is spreading rapidly through displacement camps and across borders.
A cemetery in the Gaza Strip containing the remains of 22 Canadian soldiers killed during a 1956 United Nations peacekeeping mission has been destroyed, according to media reports citing families of the deceased.
Tesla has been sued by the family of a 76-year-old Texas woman who was killed when a driver using the company’s Model 3 driver-assistance system crashed into her suburban Houston home, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday (23 June).
Extreme heat in France has killed hundreds of thousands of poultry and overwhelmed carcass disposal systems, agricultural organisations said. A severe heatwave continues to disrupt farming, energy supplies and daily life across Western Europe.
Israeli forces issued stop-work orders for 15 Palestinian homes in the village of Al-Walaja in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday (24 June), citing a lack of building permits, according to a local official.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he will “most likely” hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Donald Trump during next month’s NATO summit in Ankara, where the American leader is expected to attend.
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