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Hello, I'm Moira Alderson with the BBC News.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have held more than two and a half hours of talks at their keenly anticipated summit on the war in Ukraine. In a joint appearance before reporters, at which Mr. Putin spoke first, the Russian leader said the meeting had been conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect. "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect. We have very thorough negotiations that were quite useful. I would like to thank once again my American counterpart for the proposal to travel out here to Alaska. It only makes sense that we've met here, because our countries, though separated by the oceans, are close neighbors." The Russian president said he was sincerely interested in putting an end to the conflict, but the legitimate security concerns of Russia had to be addressed. Speaking after the Russian president, Mr. Trump said he'd always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin. He said he would be calling NATO leaders to tell them what had been discussed. "I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant. But we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there." Neither president made reference to a ceasefire. The two leaders left without taking questions from journalists. Our North America correspondent, Sarah Smith, has this assessment of what the two men had to say. Trying to read between the lines of what both of them had to say, it sounded to me as though Vladimir Putin was saying that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to make his case to the American delegation and directly face-to-face in person with Donald Trump about the reasons why he says he felt it necessary to invade Ukraine. It sounded to me as though he had reiterated that case to Donald Trump today and stopped well short of agreeing to stop the fighting. One can only assume that that is the major point that Donald Trump was referring to, that they were unable to reach agreement on it. Meanwhile, the BBC correspondent in Kyiv said that even as the talks were taking place in Alaska, Russian missiles continued to hit Ukrainian cities. Ukraine said its forces had retaken control of villages in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russian troops had made gains in recent days. It said several hundred Russians had been killed or wounded during the fighting near Dobropillia in the Pokrovsk area. Earlier, Ukrainian officials said Russian airstrikes had continued elsewhere. They said a market was attacked in the city of Sumy. BBC News. The United Nations says more than 1,700 people have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May. The U.N. says nearly 1,000 of those who died were shot in the vicinity of food distribution sites run by the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The president of Peru, Dina Boluate, has visited a small border island on the Amazon River, which has become the focus of a territorial dispute with Colombia. She raised the Peruvian national flag in a ceremony attended by residents of Santa Rosa Island, as well as several cabinet ministers and military commanders. Her visit took place a week after the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, traveled to the border. A tropical storm has gained strength as it approached the Caribbean, becoming the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Hurricane Erin is expected to cause heavy rains, landslides and coastal floods in Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Bahamas. A book has been returned 82 years after it was taken out of a library in the U.S. state of Texas. It's believed to have traveled from San Antonio to Mexico City before turning up in the U.S. state of Oregon, and would have racked up fines of nearly $900. Simon Hancock takes up the story. It was in 1943 when the book titled Your Child, His Family and Friends was taken out of San Antonio's public library. Written by Frances Bruce Strain, it was described as a parenting self-help book from the 1940s. The library shared a photo of the ticket stamp on the inside cover of the book, along with a letter that accompanied it on social media. The person who returned the book said their father would have been 11 at the time and that it was found in his possessions. They also wrote in the letter that they hoped there would be no late fee because, in their words, "Grandma would not be able to pay for it anymore." Simon Hancock with that report. BBC News. |