Global Pulse

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  • US, Saudi forces strike Iran-backed groups in Iraq

    US, Saudi forces strike Iran-backed groups in Iraq

    A new wave of instability has swept through the Middle East after the United States and Saudi Arabia launched coordinated retaliatory airstrikes against Iran-aligned militant sites in eastern Iraq this Wednesday, ending a brief multi-day ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

    According to statements from the US military, the joint air operation targeted weapons depots and logistics hubs belonging to what it described as “Iran-aligned terrorists”. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry echoed the claim, confirming the strikes targeted militias linked to previous attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure. The resumption of hostilities came hours after the ceasefire collapsed late Tuesday, when US forces intercepted Iranian missiles fired at American military bases in the Persian Gulf.

    The escalation comes at a key diplomatic moment: US President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for their first face-to-face meeting since the latest round of Middle East hostilities began in late February. The closed-door talks, which ran for roughly 90 minutes, aimed to bridge public disagreements between the two leaders over the ongoing regional conflict. Both leaders described the meeting in positive terms: Netanyahu called it “one of the best conversations I’ve ever had with the president of the United States”, while Trump simply noted the pair held a “very good meeting”. The core focus of the discussions, Netanyahu confirmed, was the shared priority of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. While leaders had been expected to cover the stalled implementation of the US-brokered Israel-Lebanon framework deal and the deadlocked reconstruction of Gaza, no official confirmation has been given on whether those topics were addressed. Israel has not directly participated in the recent US-Iran hostilities that reignited earlier this month when an April ceasefire broke down.

    Fresh tensions over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil supplies, have amplified market volatility. On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had intercepted and attacked three oil tankers that it accused of ignoring navigation warnings and using an unauthorized route through the waterway. Tehran has repeatedly asserted it maintains “full control” over the strait, a stance that puts it at direct odds with the international community’s demand for free navigation.

    Recent diplomatic moves around the strait have only deepened divisions. Earlier this week, Tehran held talks with neighboring Oman, which also borders the waterway, to agree on joint principles and operational mechanisms for shipping traffic. Back in June, the two nations discussed imposing service fees for transiting vessels, a proposal that the US has openly opposed. A recent rift emerged after Oman announced vessels could transit the strait through its territorial waters, a move that prompted Iran to respond with attacks on passing ships.

    The renewed conflict has already sent shockwaves through global energy markets: benchmark crude oil prices jumped more than 4% on Wednesday, as traders renewed fears that disrupted shipping through Hormuz could cut off global oil supplies. Three years after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, with Israel continuing to carry out regular operations targeting individuals it identifies as militants. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, framed Netanyahu’s Washington visit as taking place at a “critical time for the Middle East”, arguing Iran continues “to choose terrorism over negotiations” by blocking access to the strait.

  • A 2:47 a.m. alert, a rabbit and 220,000 evacuees as France’s wildfire rages on

    A 2:47 a.m. alert, a rabbit and 220,000 evacuees as France’s wildfire rages on

    In the early hours of the morning, a jarring, high-pitched blare cut through the silence of a sleeping town in southwest France, popping up on every resident’s smartphone screen marked with an ominous “URGENT” header. The message was stark and uncompromising: *Evacuate immediately*.

  • Scented candle sold in coconut bowl recalled amid fire hazard warning

    Scented candle sold in coconut bowl recalled amid fire hazard warning

    A popular Australian home goods brand has issued a urgent recall of one of its best-selling scented candle products after regulators identified critical fire risks that violate national safety standards.

    Verve & Vibe, an Australia-based home fragrance brand, is pulling its scented candles housed in combined wooden and coconut bowl holders from the market, according to a notice from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The recall covers all units sold between September 1 of last year and the projected end of sales in February 2026, with distribution across three major retail channels: the brand’s official website, eBay, and global e-commerce platform Amazon.

    The hazard stems from the product’s design: the candle is held in a container made from combustible natural materials (wood and coconut shell) and also includes decorative dried flowers placed near the wick. When the candle burns, these flammable components can easily catch fire, turning a routine home fragrance product into an immediate danger for households. This design directly violates the ACCC’s existing ban on combustible candle holders, which was put in place to prevent exactly this kind of fire risk.

    Verve & Vibe Australia has moved quickly to notify consumers and address the safety issue. The company is urging every customer who has purchased this specific candle to stop using it immediately, and to store the product in a secure location far from any potential ignition sources until it can be disposed of or returned. To compensate affected consumers, the brand is offering two no-cost resolution options: a full refund of the purchase price, or a free replacement non-hazardous candle product.

    Household product safety regulators have repeatedly highlighted the danger of untested combustible container candles in recent years, noting that undetected fires from these products can spread quickly in residential spaces while residents are sleeping or away from home. Consumers who purchased the recalled Verve & Vibe candle are encouraged to reach out to the brand’s customer service team as soon as possible to process their refund or exchange.

  • Man killed in landslide at Solomon Islands gold mine, police say

    Man killed in landslide at Solomon Islands gold mine, police say

    In a tragic update on a landslide at a key Solomon Islands gold mine, authorities have confirmed the recovery of one person’s body, with search operations set to continue amid unconfirmed reports of additional unaccounted-for people at the site. The disaster struck Monday at the open-pit Gold Ridge mine, located on Guadalcanal island, just a short distance from the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara, in the South Pacific.

    Police confirmed Tuesday that the recovered victim is Ashley Olo, though officials have not publicly confirmed whether Olo was an official employee of the mining operation. Acting Police Commissioner James Aitorea added that Olo’s remains have already been returned to his family for burial. The landslide left a 100-meter stretch of the mine’s main access road destroyed, according to official police statements.

    When the landslide first occurred, Prime Minister Matthew Wale told reporters that the government’s top priority would be determining the root cause of the disaster, particularly whether poor industry practices contributed to the tragedy. “Of interest to the government, of course, is to find out whether this was a result of poor mining practices and perhaps the need to strengthen regulations,” Wale said Monday, when no casualties or missing persons had yet been confirmed.

    In an initial statement released the day of the slide, the mine’s majority owner, China-headquartered and Hong Kong-listed Wanguo Gold Group Ltd, claimed that none of its official employees were injured or missing, and that no mining infrastructure had sustained damage. The company added that commercial mining operations had already resumed shortly after the incident.

    However, local media reports have raised questions about the presence of unregistered informal miners at the site, with multiple families reporting that their relatives who were working the mine illegally have not been contacted since the landslide. The Gold Ridge mine has a long history of controversy, dating back more than a decade. It was originally owned by an Australian mining firm, which sold off the asset in 2015 after public warnings that the site was at high risk of flooding and other geohazards. Since 2019, Wanguo Gold Group has held a majority stake in the operation, with local Solomon Islands landowners holding a small minority share. It remains the only large-scale commercial gold mine in the Solomon Islands. Past conflicts have already broken out at the site between local landowners, unregulated informal miners, and national law enforcement, long before Monday’s deadly landslide.

    Authorities have stressed that search and rescue efforts will continue at the site until all potential missing persons are accounted for, even after the recovery of Olo’s body. The cause of the landslide remains unconfirmed as of the latest updates, with the government set to launch a formal investigation into industry practices at the mine.

  • Name of bar contributes to closure after less than two years in Sydney precinct

    Name of bar contributes to closure after less than two years in Sydney precinct

    Sydney’s competitive hospitality industry is seeing another high-profile closure, as two inner-city food and drink venues will permanently cease operations by the end of August, just 20 months after opening their doors. European-inspired Bar Julius and Mexican rooftop restaurant Lottie, both located within The Eve Hotel Sydney in Redfern’s inner south, are owned by hospitality operator Liquid and Larder. Following their exit, well-known local hospitality brand The Apollo Group will add the two spaces to its expanding portfolio of premium dining and bar venues.

    The Apollo Group already has an established presence in the immediate area, running neighboring hit venues including Olympus Dining, The Apollo and Cho Cho San. The incoming takeover forms part of the ongoing development of Redfern’s $500 million Wunderlich Lane precinct, a mixed-use hub that already hosts a boutique hotel, independent grocer, and multiple popular dining outlets.

    Bar Julius first made the closure announcement public via a brief, warm Instagram post on Tuesday. “Bar Julius will be closing its doors at the end of August,” the post read. “We’d love to see you before last drinks.” The announcement caught many local regulars off guard, with dozens of commenters expressing surprise and asking for clarification on why the venue, which only launched in early 2025, would shut so soon after opening.

    In an interview with *The Sydney Morning Herald*, Liquid and Larder owner James Bradey, who owns both venues, confirmed the closure stemmed from a failure to meet required financial performance targets. “I’m really proud of what we’re doing, but we haven’t hit the heights financially (that) we’d like,” Bradey explained.

    Bradey also shared an unexpected contributing factor: the venue’s name itself. Bar Julius was positioned as an all-day dining spot that served breakfast to hotel guests, but the “bar” label led many potential customers to assume it only opened for evening trade. Bradey revealed the team had originally planned to name the venue Baptist, but another local business in the development claimed the name first. “It’s certainly more successful at night … maybe we should have called it Bistro Julius or just Julius,” he said.

    The closure is far from an isolated case in Australia’s current hospitality landscape. Amid a worsening national cost-of-living crisis that has pushed operating and supply costs sharply higher, dozens of beloved Sydney venues have closed their doors in recent months. One of the most high-profile losses was MoshPit Newtown, a iconic inner-west live music venue that announced plans to shut in November. The 9-year-old space, which launched in 2016 as a launching pad for emerging punk and alternative music acts, cited skyrocketing operating costs as the core driver of its decision, saying the announcement came with “truly heavy hearts” and left the local music community reeling.

  • Ryan Meuleman: Man injured in crash with Dan Andrews’ car in 2013 charged over alleged carjacking

    Ryan Meuleman: Man injured in crash with Dan Andrews’ car in 2013 charged over alleged carjacking

    A high-profile legal matter involving a 28-year-old man with a long-running dispute connected to former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has taken a new turn, after the man was arrested on alleged carjacking charges and is now fighting for release from custody.

    Police have laid out their case against Ryan Meuleman, accusing him of attempting to steal a vehicle with a woman and her young twin children in the backseat outside a laundromat in Pakenham, a suburb of Melbourne, on the evening of May 3. According to law enforcement testimony during a Wednesday bail hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, the childrens’ father had stepped inside the laundromat around 9:40 p.m. to collect pre-washed laundry when Meuleman allegedly climbed into the car’s front driver’s seat and shifted the vehicle into drive.

    The children’s mother, who was already seated in the car, physically struggled with Meuleman over the gearshift and screamed to alert her husband, Detective Senior Constable Sean McIntyre told the court. The father immediately rushed back to the vehicle, punched Meuleman through the open driver’s window, dragged him out of the car onto the laundromat’s front sidewalk, and held him down until officers arrived to place him under arrest, the detective added.

    McIntyre told the court Meuleman appeared heavily impaired by drugs at the time of his arrest and gave police a false name, identifying himself as “Crew Thompson.” He was deemed unfit to participate in a police interview following his arrest. The court also heard Meuleman was already free on bail at the time of the alleged carjacking, awaiting trial on separate burglary and theft charges connected to a break-in at a commercial property.

    This new arrest comes 12 years after a collision that left Meuleman seriously injured, and which has sparked years of legal conflict. In January 2013, when Meuleman was 15 years old, he was hit while cycling by a Ford Territory driven by Catherine Andrews, wife of Daniel Andrews, who was then leader of Victoria’s Labor opposition. Daniel Andrews and the couple’s three children were passengers in the vehicle at the time. A post-crash investigation by Victoria Police resulted in no charges being filed against anyone in the Andrews family.

    Meuleman spent 11 days recovering in a hospital after the collision. He has long claimed the Andrews vehicle struck him as he cycled, while the Andrews family has consistently maintained that Meuleman crashed into their stationary car.

    Meuleman’s defense attorney, Tom Smedley, referenced the 2013 collision during the bail hearing, arguing the crash left his client with long-term, unresolved trauma that has severely impacted his mental health. “Ryan identified this period as a significant turning point in his life,” Smedley told the court. “He identifies his substance use has been a longstanding coping mechanism connected to unresolved psychological distress and trauma.”

    Smedley told the court Meuleman had already spent 87 days in pre-trial custody and was requesting bail so he could enroll in a 12-week inpatient rehabilitation program based in regional Victoria. Meuleman’s father, Peter, was present in the court gallery to support his son during the hearing.

    Magistrate Phillip Goldberg adjourned the bail application to a future hearing date after raising concerns about the rehabilitation facility’s security protocols, noting the center does not offer 24-hour on-site monitoring of patients. Smedley requested additional time to arrange alternative security measures, including fitting Meuleman with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, to address the magistrate’s concerns. The bail application will resume on August 5.

    The alleged carjacking is separate from an ongoing defamation lawsuit Meuleman filed against Daniel and Catherine Andrews last year. The defamation case stems from a 2013 injury compensation claim Meuleman filed over the collision. Earlier this year, Meuleman settled a separate lawsuit against his former legal team, Slater and Gordon, over claims the firm failed to properly represent him during negotiations for an $80,000 settlement with Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission. That case concluded in April 2025 with a confidential, out-of-court settlement that Meuleman’s current legal team described as “too good to refuse.”

    During the public proceedings around that lawsuit, the Andrewses released a joint media statement in September 2024 that noted they were not involved in the case against Slater and Gordon and repeated their assertion they “did nothing wrong” in the 2013 collision. Meuleman claims the statement falsely implies he lied about the details of the 2013 crash to seek undeserved financial compensation. The Andrewses have denied the defamation claim and are defending the lawsuit, which is scheduled to return to court later this year.

  • Wildfires are more extreme in Europe and North America, but global burning is oddly decreasing

    Wildfires are more extreme in Europe and North America, but global burning is oddly decreasing

    This summer, headlines from across the Northern Hemisphere have painted a grim picture of out-of-control wildfires: Spain is battling its largest recorded blaze, Canadian and American wildfire seasons are far outpacing historical averages, and thick smoke has choked entire regions, creating hazardous air quality for millions. Yet hidden beneath these alarming regional events is a counterintuitive global trend: according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, total global wildfire carbon emissions hit a 25-year low in 2025, driven by dramatic declines in fire activity across Africa and Asia.

    Experts emphasize that these two opposing trends are not contradictory — both are rooted in human activity reshaping fire patterns across the planet. “It does seem like a paradox because we’re talking increases in fires, yet the global numbers have been going down and down. But they’re both true,” explained Mike Flannigan, a fire scientist at Canada’s Thompson Rivers University.

    Regional data bears out the growing severity of wildfires in wealthy Northern Hemisphere nations. Spain’s ongoing wildfire has already scorched more than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), making it the largest in the country’s recorded history, while total area burned across Europe is just slightly below the all-time record set earlier this decade. In North America, data from national wildfire monitoring centers shows total burned land this summer is at least 25% higher than the 10-year average, and more than double the levels seen 30 years ago. Jennifer Balch, a fire scientist at the University of Colorado, noted that wildfires across these regions are growing more extreme in every measurable way: size, intensity, spread speed, and frequency. “Extreme wildfires are on the rise globally in different parts of the world. And that’s the piece that you know has us shaking in our boots,” Balch said.

    The global decline in total fire activity, by contrast, is driven by shifting human land and fire management practices across the world’s most fire-prone continents. Statistics from Copernicus show that Africa and Asia account for more than three-quarters of all global carbon emissions from vegetation burning, while North America and Europe contribute less than one-eighth. This means changes in African and Asian fire activity overwhelmingly shape global totals.

    “Africa dominates the global fire activity,” said Park Williams, a water and fire scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “So if there’s a trend in Africa, then that’s going to be the trend in the global fire activity. In sub-Saharan Africa, fire activity over the last 25 years has gone down pretty dramatically.”

    Traditionally, annual large-scale grassland fires swept across African savannas, contributing the single largest share of global burned area. But John Abatzaglou, a fire scientist at the University of California Merced, explained that expanding agriculture and residential development have reduced the scope of these traditional burns, while human-built barriers also limit the spread of any fires that do start. In Asia and the Amazon, where fire has long been used as a low-cost tool to clear forest for agricultural land, shifting demographic and land use patterns have also cut the number of intentional burns. “It really is all driven by human demographic change,” Williams said.

    For the worsening extreme wildfires seen in North America and Europe, scientists say the primary human driver is climate change. Burning fossil fuels for energy has raised global average temperatures, creating hotter, drier conditions that are ideal for large, intense wildfires to ignite and spread. Five separate experts interviewed by The Associated Press confirmed this link between human-caused warming and more extreme fire activity.

    Hotter temperatures don’t just dry out vegetation — they also eliminate the natural overnight recovery period that once allowed forests and firefighters to gain the upper hand on blazes. “Hotter temperatures mean humans ‘have our foot on the gas pedal’ for bigger fires, but we also have lost the brakes on fire’ because warmer and wetter nights don’t give forests — or firefighters — time to recover during darkness like they used to,” Balch said.
    Flannigan added that rising temperatures pull more moisture out of soil and vegetation, turning plant material into ready fuel for fires, and have extended the length of the wildfire season across North America, especially in northern boreal forests. Where once just a handful of days each year had conditions suitable for large wildfires, now entire months carry high fire risk. When more extreme fires hit densely populated regions, they also cause far greater economic and human harm, destroying higher-value property and displacing more communities, Flannigan noted.

    Abatzaglou added that while North America has a long history of successful aggressive fire suppression, climate change has made blazes so intense and frequent that traditional suppression strategies are no longer sufficient to keep them under control.

    Looking ahead, scientists warn that the developing strong El Niño event will likely worsen wildfire activity in coming months across tropical regions. El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern marked by warmer ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific, typically creates drier, hotter conditions that favor more intense wildfires across tropical zones. “The most predictable outcome of El Niño is going to be more tropical fire, specifically tropical forests,” Williams said, noting that increased fire activity is likely in the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific.

    While El Niño is expected to bring more rain and reduce the risk of large forest fires in the western United States, Abatzaglou noted that increased rainfall can also spur extra grass growth in arid desert regions, creating extra fuel that can ignite into devastating grass fires later — a pattern that contributed to major destructive blazes in Los Angeles in 2025 and Hawaii in 2023.

    Regardless of El Niño’s impact, scientists agree that communities across North America and Europe will need to improve long-term wildfire planning and adaptation to address the worsening trend of extreme blazes. Key strategies include intentional prescribed burns to reduce excess built-up vegetation that can fuel large out-of-control fires. “It’s not a question of whether our landscapes are going to burn, it’s the question of when they’re going to burn,” Balch said.

    This reporting on climate and wildfires from The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • AFL reveals final rounds fixtures with huge double-headers to decide finals race

    AFL reveals final rounds fixtures with huge double-headers to decide finals race

    With the 2026 Toyota AFL home-and-away season drawing to its closing stages, the Australian Football League has officially confirmed the full match schedules for the penultimate and final rounds of regular season play, headlined by a rare historic event that has only taken place three other times in the competition’s 150-plus year history.

    The action for Round 23 will get underway on a prime Friday night slot at Perth’s Optus Stadium, where the competition’s current ladder leaders, the Fremantle Dockers, will go head-to-head with the resilient Adelaide Crows. The following Saturday brings a packed slate of matches with direct, high-stakes implications for teams still vying for a spot in the upcoming finals series. Geelong Cats will travel to Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium to take on North Melbourne, while the Brisbane Lions will host the Gold Coast Suns at Brisbane’s iconic Gabba ground.

    The standout highlight of Round 23 is a men’s double-header hosted at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, widely known as the sport’s Victorian colosseum. This rare back-to-back match event will mark just the fourth time such a scheduling arrangement has occurred in AFL history. Opening the MCG’s Saturday matchday at 12:35 pm, Richmond will face off against St Kilda, with the nightcap kicking off at 7:40 pm between Hawthorn and traditional powerhouse Collingwood.

    Moving into Round 24, the final round of the home-and-away season, play will kick off on Thursday night at Marvel Stadium, where St Kilda will play host to the Gold Coast Suns. The round’s marquee Friday night fixture at the MCG will serve as a highly anticipated rematch of the 2023 AFL Grand Final, pitting Collingwood against the Brisbane Lions.

    Saturday of Round 24 brings a full day of consequential matches that will all impact the final ladder standings and which teams will earn the critical advantage of home finals during the September playoffs. Carlton will face Fremantle at Marvel Stadium, reigning premiers Melbourne will take on the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, Geelong will host Richmond at GMHBA Stadium, and Adelaide will meet Greater Western Sydney at Adelaide Oval. Every result across these matches will reshape the final ladder and change the trajectory of multiple teams’ finals campaigns.

    In an official statement following the fixture announcement, AFL Head of Strategy and Scheduling Josh Bowler emphasized that both closing rounds will play a defining role in determining which teams advance to the 2026 finals series. “A number of clubs are still competing for top-four positions, home finals and places in September,” Bowler said. “Fans can look forward to several marquee match-ups featuring some of the competition’s leading teams as the race to the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series reaches its conclusion.”

  • South Korea’s Kospi share index falls 8%, other Asian shares are also mostly lower

    South Korea’s Kospi share index falls 8%, other Asian shares are also mostly lower

    A widespread sell-off of semiconductor stocks sparked a sharp single-day drop across South Korean equities on Wednesday, dragging most other major Asian benchmark indexes into negative territory as investor sentiment turned bearish for the region’s tech manufacturing sector.

    The downward spiral began at South Korea’s leading memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which saw its share price plummet 12.6% by midday trading in Seoul. The steep decline came despite the firm reporting that its full-year operating profit had surged sixfold year-over-year to a new all-time high of 60.5 trillion won, equal to roughly $41.2 billion. Market participants reacted negatively to the results after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings fell short of the consensus forecasts compiled by Wall Street analysts, triggering a wave of panic selling that spread across the entire chipmaking sector.

    South Korea’s benchmark Kospi Composite Index absorbed the full brunt of the selling pressure, sinking 8% to 5,547.77 by the midpoint of the daily trading session. Industry peer Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer, could not escape the rout, with its share price falling 8% to add more downward momentum to the broader index.

    The negative sentiment spilled over across regional markets, leaving most major Asian benchmarks in the red by the middle of the trading day. Japan’s Nikkei 225, one of the region’s most closely watched large-cap indexes, declined by 1.1% from its previous close. Taiwan’s Taiex, which is heavily weighted toward the global semiconductor industry, fell an even steeper 3.6%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index also posted a modest loss of 0.5%, extending the broad-based downturn across Asian equity markets.

  • Zelensky hails ‘good’ Trump talks on Patriot air defenses

    Zelensky hails ‘good’ Trump talks on Patriot air defenses

    On a high-stakes visit to Washington DC on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emerged from a more than hour-long White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump calling the discussions productive, revealing the American leader had pledged to approve licenses for domestic Ukrainian production of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles. The talks came at a critical juncture in the more than four-year-old full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as frontline violence intensifies and U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire remain deadlocked.

    In a late-night broadcast interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Zelensky outlined the outcomes of the meeting, noting that after securing Trump’s commitment on production licenses, he held follow-up discussions with leaders of major U.S. defense contractors. “I hope that we will do co-production,” he told Hannity, adding that the bilateral discussions were overwhelmingly constructive. Trump echoed the positive tone on his social media platforms shortly after the meeting, sharing photos from the sit-down and writing, “Many things were discussed. The meeting went very well!”

    This encounter marks the latest warming of ties between the two leaders since Trump began his second presidential term. Earlier this month, Trump publicly stated that Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory could help create conditions to end the war, and he already praised Zelensky for doing “an amazing job” during their previous meeting in Turkey earlier this month, when he first floated the possibility of Patriot production licenses for Kyiv.

    The improvement in relations comes after a high-profile public clash in the Oval Office in February 2025, when Trump publicly accused Zelensky of ingratitude and “gambling with World War III.” Since returning to the presidency in 2025, Trump has halted direct U.S. arms deliveries to Ukraine, instead allowing European nations to purchase weapons on Kyiv’s behalf. Washington has nevertheless maintained its core support for Ukraine, continuing to share critical battlefield intelligence and grant access to the Starlink satellite communications system that Ukrainian forces rely on for frontline operations.

    Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, a senior Ukrainian government official told Agence France-Presse that Kyiv’s top priorities were securing new supplies of anti-ballistic missiles and making progress on restarting diplomatic negotiations with Moscow. The request for additional air defense capabilities comes after last month became the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022, according to United Nations data, as Russia has drastically increased its use of relatively difficult-to-intercept ballistic missiles against Ukrainian population centers and infrastructure. “It is crucial that Washington approve the purchase of a package of Patriot missiles. That is super important,” the official said.

    During his Washington visit, Zelensky also took part in a memorial ceremony for longtime Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a fierce and vocal supporter of Ukraine who died unexpectedly earlier this month at the age of 71. Following the memorial and White House meeting, Zelensky addressed U.S. senators ahead of an initial procedural vote on a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting Russia that Graham had spent more than a year championing.

    Graham had finalized a revised agreement on the legislation with the White House shortly before his death. While some Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns over provisions that would expand Trump’s authority to impose tariffs on nations that purchase Russian energy, the procedural vote advanced the bill, moving it closer to a final Senate vote and increasing pressure on the House of Representatives, where the legislation faces deeper partisan divisions. Zelensky, who attended the vote in person, wrote on social media platform X that the vote was “the first step toward implementing Lindsey’s plans and undoubtedly a step toward peace.”

    On the military front, Zelensky used his interview to frame the war as shifting in Kyiv’s favor, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost the strategic initiative on the frontline amid crippling personnel losses. “So now Putin is losing 30,000 of his soldiers per month…it’s many losses, but he doesn’t want to stop this war. So now initiative is not in the hands of Putin,” he told Hannity.

    In the hours before Zelensky’s meeting with Trump, Ukraine launched a massive drone strike targeting sites across Russia, and Kyiv has recently stepped up attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, including depots and refineries, as well as Black Sea shipping, contributing to domestic fuel shortages in Russia. For its part, Russia launched over 100 drones at Ukrainian territory overnight Tuesday, and has continued its campaign of strikes targeting the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa as well as civilian ships carrying Ukrainian agricultural exports.

    Diplomatic progress remains elusive, with tensions between Washington and Moscow having cooled since Trump met Putin for talks in Alaska last August. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied on Monday that any negotiations for an aerial ceasefire between the two sides are currently underway, while previous U.S. mediation efforts collapsed over disagreements on territory that Russia illegally claims to have annexed. Zelensky had previously held discussions with Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner last week about plans to “reinvigorate diplomacy,” after the war in the Middle East pushed negotiations over Ukraine off Washington’s foreign policy agenda.