Ukrainian and E.U. leaders will visit the White House
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is set to meet with President Trump today. Their sit-down will come three days after Trump met with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and broke with allies to back Putin’s proposed peace plan, which would require Ukraine to cede a large portion of territory.
Here are the latest updates and what you need to know.
European leaders — including Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain — said they would accompany Zelensky in a show of solidarity.
Trump’s friendly meeting with Putin, which took place in Alaska on Friday, was a setback for Ukraine and its European allies. But Kyiv was left with one glimmer of hope: a U.S. proposal to create security guarantees for Ukraine, designed to deter future Russian aggression.
Context: Russia’s proposal to end the war centers on persuading Ukraine to give up the Donbas, the industrial Russian-speaking region in the east.
On the ground: Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes because of Russia’s aerial bombardments called the Trump-Putin summit an insult.
| Fadi Alzant, 6, arrived with his mother from Gaza for emergency medical treatment in New York in May. Anna Watts for The New York Times |
The U.S. paused visitor visas for Gazans
The Trump administration said it had stopped approving visitor visas for people from Gaza, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the U.S., including young children with serious conditions.
The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by the right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a “national security threat” in a flurry of social media posts. She wields extraordinary power in Trump administration decisions.
One Ohio-based group that aids Palestinian families and children said it had used the visas to evacuate 11 children, many of whom had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza, to U.S. hospitals this month.
Israel: Hundreds of thousands joined a rally to call for an immediate cease-fire and the release of hostages in Gaza as the Israeli military prepared to expand its offensive.
| Evo Morales’s headquarters in Bolivia is guarded by loyalists. Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times |
Bolivia’s phantom presidential campaign
Former President Evo Morales isn’t on the ballot, but he’s still trying to influence the outcome of Bolivia’s presidential election. Barred from running again and accused of impregnating a 15-year-old girl, Morales has been conducting a shadow campaign from a compound in the woods. The first round of voting was yesterday.
Morales, who has surrounded himself with devoted loyalists, has urged supporters to cast null votes. His former leftist allies say that tactic could swing the election to Samuel Doria Medina, a center-right businessman, or Jorge Quiroga, a conservative former president.
Background: Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader, reshaped the political landscape by giving marginalized Bolivians a voice. But his bid for a fourth term ended in unrest and temporary exile.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
| Canada: The union representing striking Air Canada flight attendants said it would defy a court’s back-to-work order as travel disruptions continued. Pakistan: Flash floods killed at least 194 people in a single day, adding to the growing death toll of a devastating monsoon season. Turkey: Hundreds of people tied to the opposition have been arrested since March in what critics are calling a political crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. |
| Plastic: Negotiations over a global plastic pollution treaty collapsed after opposition from petroleum-producing countries, including the U.S. U.S.: Protesters filled Washington, D.C., streets in a peaceful march to oppose Trump’s National Guard deployment in the city. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
| Soccer: Arsenal defeated Manchester United, 1-0, at Old Trafford with help from an inventive set-piece routine. Formula 1: After decades of failure in America, the sport is enjoying a surge in popularity. Tennis: Coco Gauff lost to Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz face off in today’s men’s final. |
| MORNING READ |
What if your child’s teddy bear talked back?
Silicon Valley start-ups are beginning to make stuffed animals with chatbots linked to an A.I. language model that has been calibrated to interact with young children. Curio, one of several A.I. toymakers, promotes toys like Grem, a fuzzy cube styled like an anime alien, as an alternative to screen time — but they may have unexpected consequences for parents.
“Children already talk to their toys, with no expectation that they talk back,” writes Amanda Hess, a Times critic at large. “As I fell into stilted conversation with Grem, I began to understand that it did not represent an upgrade to the lifeless teddy bear. It’s more like a replacement for me.” Read more here.
| CONVERSATION STARTERS |
| Beauty broker: A former dental technician rose to fame by connecting stars and socialites with top plastic surgeons. A.I. ads: A man who licensed his face to TikTok is rethinking the deal as his doppelgänger sells supplements online. Chip art: Techno-archaeologists are discovering how engineers in the 1970s etched tiny doodles onto silicon chips. Bad bunnies: Some rabbits in Colorado are hopping around with hornlike growths. |
| CLIMATE |
To fight the heat, Seville looks to the old ways
Europe has been suffering through a miserable summer heat wave, and the southern Spanish city of Seville is no exception. But the city has a long history of sweating it out with common-sense coping mechanisms, like the traditional siesta and fabric awnings that can reduce temperatures by dozens of degrees.
Our reporter Jason Horowitz and a photographer were on the ground to see how the city is adapting to heat, with methods old and new.
In one striking example, hospitals are being chilled by running cold water through pipes, a technique that dates back to Muslim caliphates in Spain more than 1,000 years ago. In a modern twist, the water is chilled further at night by redirecting it to the roof, where it flows over slanted solar panels.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
Churn: This easy vanilla ice cream recipe uses cream cheese for better scoopability.
