Good morning. We’re covering what’s next for Ukraine following the White House talks and how R.V.s are depleting Indonesia’s rainforests. Plus, Paris prepares for extreme heat.
Leaders tried to chart a course for peace in UkrainePresident Trump said yesterday that he would not deploy American troops in Ukraine and a White House spokeswoman said President Vladimir Putin of Russia had agreed to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. But Russia has not confirmed such a meeting. European leaders held talks a day after a White House meeting produced few public signs of tangible progress toward ending the war in Ukraine. Here are the latest updates and a look at where diplomatic efforts are headed. Military aid: Zelensky said Ukraine would receive $90 billion in American weaponry, including sorely needed air defense systems and war planes. How Ukraine would pay for them remained unclear. It is likely that European countries and allies of NATO will foot much of the bill. Security guarantees: The White House meetings ended without a formal agreement on Ukrainian security, and European leaders yesterday scrambled to figure out exactly what it would look like. Trump said that no American ground troops would be sent to Ukraine, but that the U.S. could help in other ways, such as providing air support. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain called for an international force stationed in Ukraine, which could range from hundreds to tens of thousands of troops. Trump has suggested that Russia would accept European troop deployments, even though Russia has rejected the idea. Successes: Zelensky and other European leaders have learned how to work with Trump. Instead of being reprimanded and asked to leave, as Zelensky was during a White House visit earlier this year, he received a warm welcome, promises of U.S. weapons sales and more efforts to broker a face-to-face meeting with Putin. My colleague Michael Schwirtz explains how Zelensky won over Trump, and other small victories, in the video below.
Overnight, Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles. This map shows the front lines now.
Netanyahu under pressure over a proposed Gaza cease-fireSome far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition ruled out a proposed hostage deal with Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to state his position. The deal would see the release of some of the remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. A cease-fire would effectively halt Netanyahu’s plan to invade Gaza City. Related: Israel has held talks with South Sudan about accepting Palestinians from Gaza en masse.
Indonesia’s rainforests are being cleared to build American R.V.sRecreational vehicles, rolling homes that have grown increasingly popular in the U.S., rely on a crucial import: a plywood made mainly from Indonesian wood called lauan. R.V. manufacturers consider lauan, which is lightweight, moisture-resistant and flexible, as irreplaceable for features like cabinets and interior walls. But conservation groups said that the industry’s demand for lauan has accelerated deforestation in Borneo, where rainforests have been razed in the past five years. Here’s what to know.
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Paris is particularly ill-adapted to heat waves. In 2023, the medical journal The Lancet deemed it the European capital whose residents were most exposed to heat-related deaths. But city planners say they are taking steps to prepare for temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius that could force cellphone services to cut out, hospitals to shut down and asphalt streets to melt. They’re planting trees, insulating apartments and converting schools to cooling centers. “It’s a race against time,” a city councilor and environmental engineer said. Read more. Lives lived: Joe Caroff, a quiet giant in graphic design who created the 007 James Bond logo, died at 103.
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Play like a what?A classical musical score seems straightforward: play the notes as the composer intended, following tempo indications like “allegro” or “andante.” But musicians struggle to interpret oblique, ambiguous or outright surreal paratext, the words and images sometimes jotted alongside the score by the composer. The most famous example is Erik Satie, who once asked musicians to play “like a nightingale with a toothache.” George Crumb went beyond written suggestions, producing otherworldly scores in spirals, mandalas or cruciform shapes to coax performers into approaching his music as ritual. “The words don’t tell you what to do,” a violist said. “They tell you how to be.” Read more.
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