| August 11, 2025 07:19:52 AM |
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| August 11, 2025 07:19:52 AM |
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President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin prepare to meet in Alaska, European nations have rallied behind Ukraine, saying peace in the war-torn nation can’t be resolved without Kyiv.
Welcome to this week’s edition of AP Ground Game. |
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leave 10 Downing Street after a meeting in London on June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File) |
European leaders rally behind Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin meeting |
Saturday's statement, signed by the president of the European Union and leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the UK, stressed the need for a “just and lasting peace” for Kyiv, including “robust and credible” security guarantees. In response, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy thanked European allies in an X post Sunday.
Saturday's support came after the White House confirmed the U.S. president was willing to grant Putin the one-on-one meeting Russia has long pushed for, and suggestions from Trump that a peace deal could include “some swapping of territories." That raised fears that Kyiv may be pressured into giving up land or accepting other curbs on its sovereignty.
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they aren’t allowed to speak publicly, told The Associated Press that Trump remained open to a trilateral summit with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, but for now, he will have a bilateral meeting requested by Putin. Trump previously said he would meet with Putin regardless of whether the Russian leader agreed to meet with Zelenskyy. Read more.
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Of note:
Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukrainian officials previously told the AP privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine’s inability to regain lost territories militarily. But Zelenskyy on Saturday insisted that formally ceding land was out of the question, saying that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.” |
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Trump promises new steps to tackle crime in Washington |
Trump is promising new steps to address homelessness and crime in the nation’s capital, prompting the city's mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets in the nation's capital.
Trump wrote in a social media post that he planned a White House news conference Monday to discuss his plans to make the District of Columbia “safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”
Last week the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option “to extend as needed.” On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington. Read more.
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Of note:
Moves that Trump has said he was considering include bringing in the D.C. National Guard. Mayor Muriel Bowser has questioned the effectiveness, saying Sunday that the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years. |
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Texas Legislature will try again for congressional redistricting vote |
Texas Republicans will again try to convene the state Legislature Monday for a vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party’s favor, an effort that already sparked a national political brawl and prompted Democratic lawmakers to leave the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need.
The Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at Trump's urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president's agenda and twice impeached him.
Now, Democratic-controlled states including California, New York and Illinois are threatening to retaliate against Texas and Trump by proposing their own redistricting, putting the nation on the brink of a tit-for-tat overhaul of congressional boundaries that are typically redrawn only once a decade.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he'll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the 100-member threshold required to vote on the bill. Democratic leaders in other states are planning out their retaliatory redistricting plans if Abbott succeeds. Read more.
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Of note:
As for the Democratic lawmakers who bolted from Texas — some of whom have been appearing alongside the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at news conferences — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state's Supreme Court to remove some of them from office or give them a 48-hour warning to return. |
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President Donald Trump, center, shakes hands with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, right, and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev during a trilateral signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) |
- Trump travels to Alaska to meet with Putin Friday.
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