First Thing: Trump rules out sending US troops to Ukraine to enforce peace deal

President says US may provide air support to Kyiv as part of security guarantees. Plus, the boy who founded his own country

Good morning.

Donald Trump has ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine to enforce a potential peace deal with Vladimir Putin, tempering a promise to provide Kyiv with security guarantees that European allies had called a significant breakthrough towards halting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asked during a phone interview with Fox News whether he could assure listeners – including many members of his Maga base who support an isolationist America-first foreign policy – that the US would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine, Trump said: “You have my assurance, and I’m president.”

He did, however, say Washington may be willing to provide air support to Ukraine to backstop a deal, in what would still be a remarkable shift in his administration’s policy on the conflict.

• Where do the talks stand? At the heart of Tuesday’s talks among European allies was the question of what security guarantees could be offered to Ukraine. On Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy described security guarantees as “a key issue, a starting point towards ending the war” and he appreciated Trump’s indication that the US was ready to be part of that guarantee.

Republicans sue to block Newsom’s fast-track California redistricting plan

Republican state legislators in California filed a suit on Tuesday to block a mid-year redistricting plan meant to counter Texas’s effort to redraw congressional district lines.

The emergency petition argues that the process being used in the California assembly violates laws requiring a 30-day period between the introduction of legislation and voting on it.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced his state’s redistricting plan last week in terms on social media mocking Trump, intent on using the voting power of the US’s most populous state to counteract Texas’s redrawn map, which would be expected to deliver a net gain of five congressional seats to Republicans in 2026.

• Which law firm have Republicans chosen? The Mandeep Dhillon law firm filing the suit was previously owned by Harmeet Dhillon, who is now assistant attorney general overseeing the Department of Justice civil rights division. Dhillon was known for her efforts to sue California’s university system to overturn policies which barred controversial conservative speakers from appearing.

Microsoft workers occupy HQ in protest against company’s ties to Israeli military

Dozens of Microsoft employees occupied the company’s east campus in Redmond, Washington, to protest against what they say is the use of its software by the Israeli military to carry out operations in Gaza and enable the surveillance of Palestinians.

Less than a week after the company said it was launching an independent investigation into the use of its Azure software, current and former staff occupied a space they declared the “Free Zone”, holding placards that read “Join the worker intifada – no labor for genocide” and “Martyred Palestinian children’s plaza”.

The protests, organised by the No Azure for Genocide group, has demanded Microsoft divest from Israel.

• What’s the background? This month, the Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine revealed Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, was making use of Microsoft Azure to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. The company said it was not aware “of the surveillance of civilians or collection of their cellphone conversations using Microsoft’s services”.

In other news …

• Hurricane Erin remained far out at sea on Tuesday, yet was still producing huge swells, with waves towering 20ft (6 meters) or more and crashing across sand dunes along North Carolina’s barrier islands.

• Israel has said it will deliver its response to international mediators by Friday over a new Gaza ceasefire plan accepted by Hamas, amid mounting pressure for a truce after more than 62,000 Palestinians killed.

• A speechwriter for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security has been linked to hate speech online. Eric Lendrum compared the experience of US conservatives to that of enslaved people and Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

• The actor Aubrey Plaza spoke about the death of her husband, Jeff Baena, who took his own life in January, saying it’s “a daily struggle, obviously”.

Stat of the day: Health groups warn of spiralling Somalian diphtheria cases, with children more than 97% of cases

Cases of diphtheria, a potentially deadly bacterial disease mainly affecting children, are rapidly increasing across Somalia, experts have warned. Doctors Without Borders said the rise is partly due to lack of vaccination coverage. The Demartino public hospital in the capital, Mogadishu, said 42 people had died so far this month. Somalian healthcare has also been affected by cuts to USAID.

Don’t miss this: The boy who saw some unclaimed land – and founded his own country

Daniel Jackson was just 14 when he and his friends saw a strip of forest between Serbia and Croatia, and decided to claim it. Now 20, he is the president of the Free Republic of Verdis, but has been forced to live in exile in the UK. “The world is boring without trying something crazy,” he said.

Climate check: Wildfire smoke far more dangerous to health than thought, study says

Smoke spewed by wildfire is far more dangerous than previously thought, a study has found, with death tolls from short-term exposure to fine particulates underestimated by 93%. Researchers found that 535 people in Europe died on average each year between 2004 and 2022 as a result of breathing the toxic particles.

Last Thing: Swedish town begins to roll historic building 5km

After eight years of planning and an estimated cost of 500m kronor ($52m), a church in northern Sweden began a 5km (3-mile) journey yesterday to make way for the expansion of Europe’s biggest underground mine. Eventually, the whole town of Kiruna will be moved.

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