Ukraine managed to wrangle some more favorable terms out of the United States before signing the long-awaited minerals deal on Wednesday.

The agreement on natural resources was finally struck late on Wednesday, after weeks of tense bargaining that at times turned sour and temporarily halted Washington’s aid to Ukraine.

Kyiv eventually convinced US President Donald Trump to drop some of his key demands but failed to make American security guarantees part of the agreement.

Ukrainian officials touted the final accord as an equal partnership between Kyiv and Washington – a notable shift from some of the earlier drafts which were described by Ukraine’s leader President Volodymyr Zelensky as the US asking him to “sell my country.”

What’s in the deal?

Aid: Crucially, the deal does not call for Kyiv to reimburse the US for the aid it has already received – a key concession from Trump who has long framed the agreement as Ukraine “paying back” the US.

Washington initially demanded a $500 billion share of Ukraine’s rare earths and other minerals in exchange for the aid it has already provided to Kyiv. When Zelensky rejected that idea, Trump called him “a dictator.”

Instead, the agreement that was inked on Wednesday says that future American military assistance to Ukraine will count as part of the US investment into a joint reconstruction investment fund that will be used to pour money into Ukraine’s natural resources.

Natural resources: The deal gives the US preferential rights to mineral extraction in Ukraine and states that Kyiv will have the final say in what and where is being mined. Ukraine will also retain the ownership of the subsoil.

“All resources on our territory and in our territorial waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines where and what to extract,” said Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who signed the deal on behalf her country.

And although Trump has referred to the agreement as a “rare earth” deal, the accord signed on Wednesday goes well beyond that by including other natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold and copper.

The tone: In a win for Ukraine, the deal also adopts a strong language on the war with Russia itself. It points at Moscow as the aggressor in the conflict, diverging from some of Trump’s previous false statements about Ukraine and Zelensky being responsible for the war.

The deal also spells out the goal of the agreement as “a peaceful, sovereign and resilient Ukraine” – a notable step away from Trump saying earlier this year that, “Ukraine may be Russia some day.”

EU guarantees: It also keeps the door open for Ukraine’s potential future membership in the European Union, saying that investment needs to be made in accordance with Ukraine’s obligations as an EU candidate state. It adds that if Ukraine was to join the bloc in the future, this deal would be renegotiated “in good faith.”

A boost for the US: But the terms of the agreement also show the US has secured a host of advantages for itself.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized it as a “historic economic partnership,” saying in a statement that it “signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”

It also says that if a conflict arises between the wording of the agreement and Ukraine’s law, the deal will have a legal precedent.

What is missing from the deal?

Security questions: Ukraine has dropped its key demand that the US provides security guarantees as part of this agreement. It was this demand that ultimately led to the shouty meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office in February.

Trump then refused to provide security guarantees, saying he wanted Ukraine to sign the agreement first and talk about guarantees later.

At the time, Zelensky refused, but Ukrainian officials have since indicated that they believe that US investment and the presence of American companies in Ukraine will make Washington more interested in Ukraine’s security.

Exclusive access for the US: While it ensures the US receives preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral riches, the deal doesn’t guarantee any exclusive rights.

Existing resources: The deal is limited to new projects, which means the US and Ukraine will have to invest in order to see profits. Existing mining operations that are already generating revenue for the Ukrainian government are excluded.

How does it play into the peace process?

The Ukrainian government has in the past made the argument that its mineral deposits are one of the reasons the West should support Ukraine – to prevent these strategically important resources from falling into Russian hands.

Experts agree with that idea. Liam Peach and Hamad Hussain, economists at Capital Economics, wrote in an analyst note on Thursday that the agreement “provides some reassurance that the Trump administration is not planning on abandoning Ukraine altogether” because it establishes US economic interests in Ukraine.

Why are the minerals so important?

Materials such as graphite, lithium, uranium and the 17 chemical elements known as rare earths are critical for economic growth and national security.

They are essential to the production of electronics, clean energy technology, including wind turbines, energy networks and electric vehicles, as well as some weapons systems.

China has long dominated the global production of rare earth minerals and other strategically important materials, leaving Western countries desperate for other alternative sources – including Ukraine.

The US largely depends on imports for the minerals it needs. Of the 50 minerals classed as critical, the US was entirely dependent on imports of 12 and more than 50% dependent on imports of a further 16, according to the United States Geological Survey, a government agency.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has deposits of 22 of these 50 critical materials, according to the Ukrainian government.

The country has some of the world’s largest deposits of graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium, all of which are classed by the US as critical minerals. Some of these reserves are in areas that are currently under Russian occupation.

State prosecutors in Thailand announced Thursday that they don’t intend to press charges against an American academic arrested for royal defamation, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The arrest last month of Paul Chambers, a political science lecturer at Naresuan University in the northern province of Phitsanulok, had drawn concern from the academic community, especially from Asian studies scholars around the world, as well as the US government

The decision not to prosecute the 58-year-old Oklahoma native doesn’t immediately clear him of the charge of insulting the monarchy— also known as “lèse majesté” — or a related charge of violating the Computer Crime Act, which covers online activities.

The announcement said that the Phitsanulok provincial prosecutor will request the provincial court to drop the charges and forward the case file and nonprosecution order to the commissioner of Provincial Police Region 6, covering Phitsanulok, who may review and contest the decision.

Chambers, a 58-year-old Oklahoma native with a doctorate in political science from Northern Illinois University, was arrested in early April on a complaint made by the northern regional office of the army’s Internal Security Operations Command.

He has studied the power and influence of the Thai military, which plays a major role in politics. It has staged 13 coups since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, most recently 11 years ago.

The army’s Internal Security Operations Command told a parliamentary inquiry that it filed the complaint based on a Facebook post that translated words from a website operated by ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, a think tank in Singapore, about a webinar on Thai politics that included Chambers as a participant.

Chambers’ supporters said that the blurb for the webinar, which was cited in his charge sheet as evidence, wasn’t written by him.

He had been jailed in April for two nights after reporting himself to the Phitsanulok police, and then granted release on bail, with several conditions, including wearing an ankle monitor. A court on Tuesday allowed him to take off the device.

Chambers’ visa was revoked at the time of his arrest on the basis of an immigration law barring entry to foreigners who are deemed likely to engage in activities contrary to public order or good morals, prostitution, people smuggling and drug trafficking. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the revocation will stand.

“This case reinforces our longstanding concerns about the use of lèse majesté laws in Thailand,” a US State Department statement said after Chambers’ arrest. ”We continue to urge Thai authorities to respect freedom of expression and to ensure that laws are not used to stifle permitted expression.”

Thailand’s lèse majesté law calls for three to 15 years imprisonment for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent. Critics say it’s among the harshest such laws anywhere and also has been used to punish critics of the government and the military.

The monarchy has long been considered a pillar of Thai society and criticizing it used to be strictly taboo. Conservative Thais, especially in the military and courts, still consider it untouchable.

However, public debate on the topic has grown louder in the past decade, particularly among young people, and student-led pro-democracy protests starting in 2020 began openly criticizing the institution.

That led to vigorous prosecutions under the previously little-used law. The legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has said that since early 2020, more than 270 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating the law.

Hip hop Irish trio Kneecap is being investigated by UK counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for politicians to be killed and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

It comes after the group, who are vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, came under fire for their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel messaging at the Coachella music festival last month.

The British police investigation follows widespread criticism of the band’s alleged comments, which led to several of their upcoming gigs being canceled. Some lawmakers are also calling for Glastonbury organizers to drop Kneecap from next month’s festival line-up.

Meanwhile, dozens of musicians and artists have signed an open letter supporting the group’s right to freedom of expression.

In recent days, footage has been circulating online that appears to show one of the group’s members shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” in November last year. Separately, video from November 2023 appeared to show one member of the group, who are from Northern Ireland, saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Tory is another word for Conservative, and MP is an abbreviation of Member of Parliament. In the past decade, two British MPs – Jo Cox and David Amess – have been murdered.

Kneecap has apologized to the families of Cox and Amess. It said it has never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and that the footage circulating online has been “deliberately taken out of all context” as part of a “smear campaign” following their criticism of Israel and the United States in regards to the war in Gaza.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement Thursday that it was aware of the footage and that counter-terrorism officers are investigating.

“Both videos were referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offences linked to both videos,” the police statement said.

Backlash

Katie Amess, daughter of Conservative lawmaker David Amess, who was fatally stabbed in a 2021 attack while meeting with his constituents, has called Kneecap’s rhetoric “abhorrent.”

“(It) poses a direct threat to the safety and well-being of elected officials and the democratic institutions they represent,” she said in a statement provided to the PA Media news agency.

Amess commended the action taken by law enforcement and called for those who incite “violence and hatred” to be held accountable.

“As a society, we must stand united against all forms of extremism and ensure that our public spaces, including artistic and cultural venues, are not exploited to propagate messages of hate,” Amess said.

Both videos have been widely circulated online in wake of the band’s Coachella set, where they led the crowd to chant “Free Free Palestine,” criticized Israel’s campaign in Gaza – which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to the ministry of health there – and also criticized US support for the war.

Brendan Cox, whose wife was stabbed and shot to death in 2016 by a far-right extremist while meeting with her constituents, told Sky News that the band’s apology was “not enough.”

“What’s clear (about the video) is that it wasn’t a joke, that it wasn’t out of context, that it was incitement to violence against members of parliament,” he said. Cox added that Kneecap’s comments “overstepped the mark in a frankly grotesque way,” putting them on the “wrong side of people who might agree with them” on issues, such as Gaza and Northern Ireland.

Since the videos emerged, a string of the band’s scheduled performances have been canceled.

The group said on X that it would not be performing at Hurricane or Southside Festival this year – two of Germany’s biggest music festivals – and announced three concerts in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne instead, which have since been canceled too.

Another concert scheduled to take place at the Eden Project in Cornwall, southwest England, has been canceled.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch told ITV News Wednesday she believes the band should be prosecuted for incitement. “There are people in jail for saying things that are not as bad as what Kneecap have said… they’ve been avoiding justice for far too long,” she told the broadcaster.

Band’s supporters

Others have come out in support of the group, with several artists signing an open letter calling out the “clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform” the band.

“In a democracy, no political figures or political parties should have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals or gigs that will be enjoyed by thousands of people,” read the letter, which was signed by musicians including Pulp, Paul Weller and Massive Attack.

“Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story,” wrote the band on X, echoing a separate statement of support from Massive Attack.

Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ Tuesday that the controversy “has nothing to do with Kneecap… it’s about telling the next young band… that you cannot speak about Palestine.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that defeating Israel’s enemies is more important than securing the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

While the prime minister acknowledged that freeing the 59 remaining hostages is a “very important goal,” he described Israel’s fight against its enemies as the “supreme objective” of the war.

“We have many objectives, many goals in this war. We want to bring back all of our hostages,” Netanyahu said. “That is a very important goal. In war, there is a supreme objective. And that supreme objective is victory over our enemies. And that is what we will achieve.”

Netanyahu’s remarks, which came on Israel’s Independence Day, mark the first time that the prime minister has explicitly described returning the hostages as a secondary goal of the war. He has previously described defeating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages as the primary goals of Israel’s war in Gaza.

His comments drew a backlash from representatives of hostage families.

“Prime minister, the return of the hostages is not ‘less’ important – it is the supreme goal that should guide the government of Israel,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “The families of the hostages are concerned.”

Netanyahu’s comments put him at odds with the majority of the Israeli public, which overwhelmingly supports a deal to release all the hostages and end the war in Gaza, according to recent opinion polls.

But it puts the prime minister in the company of Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who recently made similar comments.

“We need to tell the truth – bringing back the hostages is not the most important goal. It is, of course, a very, very, very, very important goal,” Smotrich said last week. “But anyone who wants to destroy Hamas and eliminate the possibility of another October 7 must understand that in Gaza, there can’t be a situation where Hamas remains present and intact.”

Members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition have been pushing the prime minister to continue fighting. Senior Israeli officials have warned for weeks that the military will intensify its operations in Gaza if there is no ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Israel says its bombardment of Gaza, coupled with a two-month total blockade, is an attempt to put pressure on Hamas to make concessions in ceasefire negotiations. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and said it cannot continue to rule the enclave.

Pressure mounts on Netanyahu

This is the second time this week that Netanyahu has faced backlash from the families of hostages. On Monday, his wife Sara was overheard on a microphone saying that “fewer” than 24 hostages are still alive in Gaza. The remark outraged families and prompted demands for clarity on what the government knows about their loved ones’ fate, as well as questions on why the prime minister’s wife has sensitive information about their loved ones that they do not.

“You sowed indescribable panic in the hearts of the families of the hostages – families already living in agonizing uncertainty,” the forum said in a statement. “If there is intelligence or new information regarding the condition of our loved ones, we demand full disclosure.”

Israel has publicly said in recent weeks that it believes up to 24 of the 59 remaining hostages are still alive. Sara Netanyahu’s claim appears to be an indication that the government may have information that some of the 24 hostages have died.

Pressure has also been mounting on Netanyahu from military reservists who have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the war, with several public letters saying that the Gaza war mainly serves the political and personal interests of officials, not the country’s security interests.

The hard-right party Reform UK led by Nigel Farage won a seat in Parliament by a handful of votes and looked set to make more gains in results Friday from local elections the party hopes will show it is a major player in British politics.

Reform’s Sarah Pochin was declared winner of the seat of Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by six votes after a recount, defeating Labour candidate Karen Shore.

Labour easily won the district in last year’s national election, but its lawmaker, Mike Amesbury, was forced to quit after he was convicted of punching a constituent in a drunken rage.

Although Reform’s victory was one of the narrowest in British history, Farage said “it’s a very, very big moment indeed” for politics.

The local elections Thursday in many areas of England were a test of feeling about Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left Labour government, 10 months after it was elected in a landslide. Both Labour and the main opposition Conservative Party braced for losses in the midterm poll.

The Runcorn victory gives Reform, which got about 14% of the vote in last year’s national election, five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. National polls now suggest its support equals or surpasses that of Labour and the Conservatives, and it hopes to displace the Conservatives as the country’s main party on the right before the next national election, due by 2029.

Farage’s party was on course, with partial results in, to win the newly created mayoralty of the Greater Lincolnshire region of east-central England. Labour retained three other mayoralties.

Reform hopes to scoop up hundreds of municipal seats in the elections that are deciding 1,600 seats on 23 local councils, six mayoralties and one seat in Parliament. Ballots in most of those contests are being counted Friday.

A majority of the local seats being contested were held by the Conservatives, whose leader Kemi Badenoch could face revolt if the party does very badly.

Badenoch acknowledged that the results could be “very difficult” for the Tories. The party did extremely well when these areas were last contested in 2021, a time when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government enjoyed a surge in popularity due to the Covid-19 vaccine program.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the Conservatives and Reform are in “a fight for the soul of the right wing of UK politics.” He said Farage’s “populist radical right insurgency” also poses a threat to Labour, targeting working-class voters with pledges to curb immigration, create jobs and cut government waste.

The centrist Liberal Democrats also hope to build on their success in winning more affluent, socially liberal voters away from the Conservatives.