Wednesday20 August, 2025 {HMC}  The Kremlin has played down talk of an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, as Donald Trump renewed his call for the two leaders to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

The push for a bilateral meeting comes after the US president met Putin in Alaska last week, and welcomed seven European leaders and Zelensky to the White House on Monday.

Trump admitted the conflict was “a tough one” to solve and conceded it was possible the Russian president was not interested in ending hostilities.

“We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal.”

Putin faced a “rough situation” if that were the case, Trump added, without offering any details.

Trump suggested “it would be better” if Putin and Zelensky met without him, in an interview with conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin late on Tuesday night.

He added that he would attend a meeting with the two leaders “if necessary”, but wanted to “see what happens”.

The Russian president told Trump on Monday that he was “open” to the idea of direct talks with Ukraine, but the next day Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov watered down that already vague commitment.

Any meeting would have to be prepared “gradually… starting with the expert level and thereafter going through all the required steps”, he said, repeating a frequent Kremlin line.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, a Russian deputy representative to the UN, told the BBC “nobody [had] rejected” the opportunity for direct talks, “but it shouldn’t be a meeting for the sake of a meeting”.

Nato’s military chiefs are expected to hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday, while the UK’s military chief, Admiral Tony Radakin, is travelling to Washington for discussions on the deployment of a reassurance force in Ukraine.

It was reported on Tuesday that Putin had suggested to Trump that Zelensky could travel to Moscow for talks, something Ukraine was never likely to accept.

The proposal may have been Russia’s way of putting forward an option so far-fetched Kyiv could not possibly have agreed to it.

Talks over the last few days appear to have given Trump a renewed understanding of the complexities of the war and the gulf between Moscow’s demands and Kyiv’s position.

The much-vaunted ceasefire he said he could get Putin to agree to has not materialised, and now the US president has said Ukraine and Russia should move directly to a permanent peace deal instead – but some headway was made in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky and European leaders seem to have convinced Trump that such commitments would be paramount to Kyiv’s sovereignty in the event of a peace deal.

Source BBC NEWS

Wednesday20 August, 2025 {HMC} The US has reached bilateral deportation agreements with Honduras and Uganda as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration, according documents obtained by the BBC’s US partner CBS.

Uganda has agreed to take an unclear number of African and Asian migrants who had claimed asylum on the US-Mexico border, and Honduras will receive several hundred deported people from Spanish-speaking countries, CBS said.

The move is part of an attempt by Donald Trump’s administration to get more countries to accept deported migrants that are not their own citizens.

Human rights campaigners have condemned the policy, saying migrants face the risk of being sent to countries where they could be harmed.

Under the agreement, Uganda has agreed to accept deported migrants as long as they don’t have criminal histories, but it’s unclear how many the country would ultimately take, CBS reported.

Honduras agreed to receive migrants over two years, including families travelling with children, but documents suggest it could decide to accept more.

Both deals are part of the Trump administration’s broader push for deportation arrangements with countries on several continents – including those with controversial human rights records.

So far, at least a dozen nations have agreed to accept deported migrants from other countries.

Last week, the US State Department announced it had signed a “safe third country” agreement with Paraguay to “share the burden of managing illegal immigration”.

The White House has also been actively courting several African nations, with Rwanda saying earlier this month it will take up to 250 migrants from the US.

A condition of the deal specifies that Rwanda would have “the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement”, a government spokesperson told the BBC.

Rwanda has previously been criticised for its human rights record, including the risk that those sent to the East African nation could be deported again to countries where they may face danger.

Earlier this year, Panama and Costa Rica agreed to take in several hundred African and Asian migrants from the US.

Government documents show the Trump administration has also approached countries like Ecuador and Spain to receive deported migrants, CBS reported.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has embarked on sweeping efforts to remove undocumented migrants – a key election promise that drew mass support during this campaign.

In June, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to resume deportations of migrants to countries other than their homeland without giving them the chance to raise the risks they might face.

At the time, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority ruling, calling the decision “a gross abuse”.

UN rights experts and human rights groups have also argued that these removals to a nation that is not the migrant’s place of origin could violate international law.

Source BBC NEWS

Wednesday20 August, 2025 {HMC} The Military Court of the Armed Forces on Wednesday carried out the execution of two convicted members of the Kharijite terrorist group, who were found guilty of committing multiple murders in the capital, Mogadishu.

The executed individuals, Saleebaan Hussein Nur Ali and Abdikadir Abuukar Ahmed, had previously been sentenced to death after the court established their direct involvement in killings targeting innocent civilians in the city.

According to the ruling, both men confessed to their crimes during trial proceedings and were executed by firing squad in accordance with the court’s judgment.

The Military Court reiterated its commitment to ensuring justice for victims of terrorism and protecting the Somali people from the ongoing threat posed by Al-Shabaab and its affiliates.

The execution underscores the Federal Government of Somalia’s determination to uphold law and order, deliver justice for victims, and deter criminal and terrorist activities threatening peace and security in the country.

Source SONNA