Iran rejects US claim to Hormuz as ship attacks mount600 drones head for Moscow as Russia strikes Kyiv and Kryvyi RihDeath toll passes 50 after magnitude 7.7 quake off FloresIsraeli strikes kill 11 in south Lebanon, deadliest since June truceColombia asks Trump to suspend tariffs as quake toll climbsRhine hits record low at Kaub as Hungary sinks barges to cool reactorUS readies unprecedented economic measures against IranUS boat strikes pass 200 dead as Ecuadorean fishermen describe attacksBond traders struggle to price $70bn of credit backstops behind AI buildoutAlibaba says its open AI models passed three billion downloadsDeath toll rises to 68 after Lake Kariba ferry sinkingTaliban mark five years in power as UN warns of rights crisisEU aircraft join fight against Belgium's record wildfireUS presses Netanyahu over settlers as Qusra homes are occupiedMokha port halts operations as Houthi missiles hit MaribSeoul proposes talks to end the Korean war as North rejects drillsChina-led perovskite solar plant outperforms silicon in three-month field testOpenAI revenue run rate passes $40bn as revenue chief departsHamas leader in Cairo as Kushner trip nearsWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the responseTurkish parliament passes amnesty law for PKK membersMorocco detains scores near Ceuta as feared mass crossing fails to materialiseChina publishes ecology reports to bolster South China Sea claimsMyanmar says more than 300,000 Rohingya verified for repatriationPetrobras detects signs of oil off the mouth of the AmazonChina condemns Japanese politicians' moves at Yasukuni ShrineUS inflation cools as wages again lag behind pricesModi offers free exam coaching after youth protests in IndiaOil from grounded Russian tanker reaches Oman's coastPanama Canal cuts draught again as Mexico pitches rival corridorUkraine's idle ports cost $1.75bn as farm exports fallFormer Chinese premier Zhu Rongji diesAt least 20 killed in communal clashes in central NigeriaIran accuses Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riotsIran rejects US claim to Hormuz as ship attacks mount600 drones head for Moscow as Russia strikes Kyiv and Kryvyi RihDeath toll passes 50 after magnitude 7.7 quake off FloresIsraeli strikes kill 11 in south Lebanon, deadliest since June truceColombia asks Trump to suspend tariffs as quake toll climbsRhine hits record low at Kaub as Hungary sinks barges to cool reactorUS readies unprecedented economic measures against IranUS boat strikes pass 200 dead as Ecuadorean fishermen describe attacksBond traders struggle to price $70bn of credit backstops behind AI buildoutAlibaba says its open AI models passed three billion downloadsDeath toll rises to 68 after Lake Kariba ferry sinkingTaliban mark five years in power as UN warns of rights crisisEU aircraft join fight against Belgium's record wildfireUS presses Netanyahu over settlers as Qusra homes are occupiedMokha port halts operations as Houthi missiles hit MaribSeoul proposes talks to end the Korean war as North rejects drillsChina-led perovskite solar plant outperforms silicon in three-month field testOpenAI revenue run rate passes $40bn as revenue chief departsHamas leader in Cairo as Kushner trip nearsWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the responseTurkish parliament passes amnesty law for PKK membersMorocco detains scores near Ceuta as feared mass crossing fails to materialiseChina publishes ecology reports to bolster South China Sea claimsMyanmar says more than 300,000 Rohingya verified for repatriationPetrobras detects signs of oil off the mouth of the AmazonChina condemns Japanese politicians' moves at Yasukuni ShrineUS inflation cools as wages again lag behind pricesModi offers free exam coaching after youth protests in IndiaOil from grounded Russian tanker reaches Oman's coastPanama Canal cuts draught again as Mexico pitches rival corridorUkraine's idle ports cost $1.75bn as farm exports fallFormer Chinese premier Zhu Rongji diesAt least 20 killed in communal clashes in central NigeriaIran accuses Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riots
Bota
Symbolic image: Trump and Zelensky discuss Patriot interceptor production in UkraineSymbolic image

Trump and Zelensky discuss Patriot interceptor production in Ukraine

13 sources

Donald Trump received Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Tuesday for a closed meeting of a little over an hour on ending the war with Russia. Zelensky said the two discussed licences that would let Ukraine build its own interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems, and called for the diplomatic process to be reinvigorated. Trump wrote afterwards only that the meeting "went very well", before receiving Benjamin Netanyahu separately.

What happened

According to Daily Sabah, the meeting took place in the Oval Office, closed to the media, and lasted just over an hour with no press statements planned. Zelensky said afterwards that he and Trump discussed licensing the production of Patriot interceptors in Ukraine "and some other ideas that could help", along with diplomacy, and that both teams would arrange the details of further contacts. Trump posted that the "meeting went very well!" without specifying the content, and used similar wording about his separate meeting with Netanyahu. Zelensky opened by offering condolences over the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on 11 July, and later watched from the Senate gallery as the chamber advanced a Russia and Iran sanctions bill. Reuters reported, citing sources, that Ukrainian and American officials discussed a proposal for an air ceasefire to be presented to Russia.

The view from outside

Le Monde placed the Patriot licence talks in a longer arc, arguing that Ukraine has spent three years turning from a recipient of Western aid into a supplier of military technology to Europe and the Middle East. It cites the Kyiv School of Economics on roughly 800 drone producers and an annual capacity of 10 million units, in a sector worth about one billion dollars before February 2022 whose value has since multiplied more than fiftyfold. German outlets framed the day mainly as a double appointment, with FAZ and Handelsblatt presenting the two wars as converging on one White House schedule.

What could happen next

The licensing arrangement remains at the level of talks between the two delegations, and the sanctions bill has cleared only a procedural hurdle rather than a final vote. Zelensky said in Washington that Putin no longer holds "the initiative", while also warning that Putin is not ready to stop the war and could mobilise hundreds of thousands of Russians after the parliamentary elections in September. A second front to the visit is Iran: Ukraine said on Saturday it had struck a ship carrying Iranian-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the target was an Iranian commercial vessel and that a sailor was killed, and Tehran summoned a Ukrainian diplomat and warned the attack would not go unanswered. The American Conservative quotes critics who accuse Zelensky of trying to merge the two wars to pull Washington in further.

How the camps see it

  • Ukraine: Kyiv wants licences to build Patriot interceptors itself and a revived diplomatic track, and says Putin has lost the initiative but is not ready to stop the war.

  • Russia: Moscow has rejected earlier Ukrainian ceasefire offers, and state agency TASS highlighted Trump's remarks that the late Senator Graham "liked war" and wanted the conflict continued to the end.

Also involved

United StatesIran

To the edition