Is there a direct link between what US President Donald Trump says and what Russian President Vladimir Putin does?

Certainly, the harsh words and bitter violence of recent days in Ukraine suggest the answer is maybe.

First, President Trump vented his frustrations at the lack of commitment from his Russian counterpart to engage in a serious peace process.

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump blustered in a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” he complained.

The very next day, as if infuriated by the remarks, Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine, sending 728 drones and 13 missiles to strike cities around the country in multiple waves.

It was a “telling attack,” observed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who condemned the strikes as timed to rebuff peace efforts.

There are apparent signs of a pattern.

Last week, after Trump publicly bemoaned that he had made “no progress” towards a ceasefire after a lengthy telephone call with the Kremlin leader, Russia unleashed yet another massive barrage on Ukraine. It rained down 539 drones and 11 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as one of the worst attacks of the conflict.

You might be forgiven for thinking that every time President Trump expresses anger, frustration or even negativity about his Kremlin counterpart, the immediate response from Russia is to step up the ruthless punishment it metes out to its Ukrainian neighbor.

But it’s not as straightforward as that.

The problem is, Russia also carries out devastating strikes on Ukraine during periods when the US president is relatively silent about the conflict he notoriously vowed to end in a single day.

On June 29, for example, Moscow launched 477 drones and 60 missiles against Ukraine – at the time, the biggest Russian aerial assault of the war. Yet President Trump had made few significant public comments about Russia in the days before.

Furthermore, when President Trump told fellow G7 leaders of industrialized democracies that he essentially regretted the absence of Putin at the June summit, and criticized previous leaders for kicking Russia out of what was then the G8. Moscow went on to ratchet up attacks on Kyiv, killing at least 28 people in a single night of drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital days later.

Even positive remarks from the US president, which you might reasonably expect to temper any simmering Russian anger at how it is spoken about in the White House, do not appear to act as a brake on the Kremlin’s excesses.

For its part, the Kremlin has played down any suggestion that President Trump’s recent critical outburst has had much impact.

“We are taking it quite calmly,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a daily conference call, adding that “Trump, in general, tends to use a fairly tough style and expressions.”

In reality, Russian military tactics are much more likely to be driven by its own unrelenting military objective of seizing as much territory as possible before the grinding conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, ultimately comes to a halt.

Likewise, the terrifying increase in the use of Russian drones in recent weeks is more likely to be a reflection of missile shortages and increased drone production in Russia than any angry Putin retort to one of President Trump’s off-hand comments.

US President Donald Trump praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for his strong grasp of the English language on Wednesday. But the African leader was educated in Liberia, where English is the official language.

As he hosted five African leaders at the White House, Trump asked Boakai: “Such good English, it’s beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?”

Boakai informed Trump of his place of education, prompting Trump to express his curiosity. “That’s very interesting,” he said, “I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”

Liberia was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society whose goal was to resettle freed slaves in Africa. The country declared independence from the American Colonization Society in 1847, and a variety of languages are spoken in the country today, with English being the official language.

Several Liberians voiced their offense over Trump’s comment to Boakai, given the US president’s past remarks on African countries and the colonial legacy left by the US organization in Liberia.

“For him to ask that question, I don’t see it as a compliment. I feel that the US president and people in the west still see Africans as people in villages who are not educated.”

Veronica Mente, a South African politician, questioned on X: “what stops [Boakai] from standing up and leav[ing]?”

The White House Press Office defended Trump’s statement on Wednesday.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump’s comment was a “heartfelt compliment” and that “reporters should recognize that President Trump has already done more to restore global stability and uplift countries in Africa and around the world than Joe Biden did in four years.”

“What President Trump heard distinctly was the American influence on our English in Liberia, and the Liberian president is not offended by that,” Nyanti said.

“We know that English has different accents and forms, and so him picking up the distinct intonation that has its roots in American English for us was just recognizing a familiar English version,” she continued.

Trump has previously applauded the English language abilities of other leaders during diplomatic meetings. During a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump complimented his “good English” and asked if it was as good as his German.

Merz laughed and noted that he tries to “understand almost everything” and said he makes an effort “to speak as good as I can.”

The US president has centered the English language as part of this “America First” platform. During a 2015 presidential debate, Trump asserted that the US is “a country where we speak English.” In March, he signed an executive order making English the official language of the US.

Trump has previously landed in hot water for things he has said about the African nations. In 2018, the president referred to migrants from African countries and other nations as coming from “shithole countries.”

In May, he lectured South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on false claims that White South African farmers are the victims of a genocide.

Trump struck a different tone on Wednesday as he met with the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal, praising their countries as “all very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits, and wonderful people.”

In turn, he was met with approval from the African leaders, who heaped praise on the president as they urged him to invest in their countries and develop their plentiful natural resources.

Boakai even remarked that Liberia “(believes) in the policy of making America great again.”

Russia launched a large-scale aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, marking a second consecutive night of ferocious attacks on the country, as Russia ramps up its bombardment more than three years into the war.

At least two people were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in Thursday’s attacks, which involved multiple drones and cruise missiles, according to Kyiv authorities.

The offensive comes one night after Russia conducted its largest drone assault since the start of its full-scale invasion, launching 728 drones and 13 missiles in strikes that killed at least one person, according to Ukrainian officials.

The damage on Thursday morning appeared to be substantial. Residential buildings, cars, warehouse facilities, offices and other buildings were on fire across the city, Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said.

Tkachenko urged residents to stay in shelters and avoid windows and balconies, as Ukraine’s air defense systems worked to repel the attack.

“Property can be restored, but human life cannot,” Tkachenko said.

Russia has significantly scaled up its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, launching near-nightly assaults involving hundreds of drones and missiles.

Work towards a peace deal has simultaneously slowed down, triggering frustration in the White House, where US President Trump on Tuesday took aim at Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.

“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting. “He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Russia’s sustained assault in recent days has injected new urgency into questions surrounding Washington’s commitment to defending Ukraine, as the Trump administration pledged to send additional defensive weaponry to Kyiv in an apparent policy reversion.

Moscow downplayed Trump’s harsh words in a press briefing Wednesday. A Kremlin spokesperson said it is reacting “calmly” to Trump’s criticism of Putin. “Trump in general tends to use a fairly tough style and expressions,” Dmitry Peskov said, adding Moscow hopes to continue dialogue with Washington.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Thursday.

Following Wednesday’s record drone attack, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said there had been “so many attempts to achieve peace and cease fire, but Russia rejects everything.”

International law violations

Thursday’s attack on Kyiv follows a landmark ruling by Europe’s top human rights court Wednesday, which found that Russia committed major international law violations in Ukraine.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on four cases concerning Russian military operations in Ukraine since 2022, as well as the conflict in eastern Ukraine which began in 2014 and includes the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

It found that Russia had committed a pattern of human rights violations in Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The ECHR also ruled Russia was responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in 2014. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for MH17’s destruction, which killed 298 people.

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is back in custody over an independent investigation into his declaration of martial law last year.

According to the independent counsel leading the probe, the Seoul Central District Court approved a warrant for Yoon’s re-arrest early Thursday morning, because of concerns over the destruction of evidence.

Yoon’s shocking December declaration plunged South Korea into a constitutional crisis and was widely condemned as striking at the heart of the nation’s democracy. He reversed course within six hours, after lawmakers forced their way into parliament and voted unanimously to block it.

Yoon was detained in January on charges of leading an insurrection, becoming the first president in South Korean history to be arrested while in office. He was released in March after the Seoul court canceled his arrest warrant for technical reasons.

In April, the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove Yoon from office, calling his actions a “grave betrayal of the people’s trust.”

He has since faced multiple criminal investigations. According to the independent counsel, Yoon is now facing charges including abuse of power and obstruction of official duties.

In a leaked warrant request, the counsel alleged that Yoon declared martial law in an attempt to overcome political gridlock caused by the opposition party’s majority in the National Assembly and its impeachment of several senior officials.

He is accused of deploying troops to block lawmakers from entering the national assembly building to overturn the decree and of giving orders to “break down the doors” of parliament and “drag people out, even if it takes firing guns.” Yoon’s lawyers deny he ordered the use of firearms.

The counsel also alleges that Yoon instructed his commander to prioritize the arrest of key political figures, including the then opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who is now the country’s president. He is further accused of ordering the presidential security service to obscure communication records from secure phones used afte the martial law was lifted.

In addition, Yoon is accused of obstructing warrant executions by the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) in December and January by mobilizing the presidential security detail and authorizing the use of force.

Yoon’s lawyers said the warrant request was “rushed and unjustified” and called the investigation “flawed and politically motivated.” They said the independent counsel’s questions during Yoon’s investigation were only at a basic level regarding the allegations, and that the warrant request did not include any treason charges.

They added that most individuals involved have already been detained and are standing trial, so all relevant evidence has been secured and there is no risk of evidence being destroyed.

Independent counsel teams were established to investigate Yoon following his removal from office, and the election of Lee in a snap presidential election in June.

Rescuers pulled six crew members alive from the Red Sea after Houthi militants attacked and sank a second ship this week, while the fate of another 15 was unknown after the Iran-aligned group said they held some of the seafarers.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the assault that maritime officials say killed four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C before the rest abandoned the cargo ship. Eternity C went down Wednesday morning after attacks on two previous days, sources at security companies involved in a rescue operation said.

The six rescued seafarers spent more than 24 hours in the water, those firms said.

The United States Mission in Yemen accused the Houthis of kidnapping many surviving crew members from Eternity C and called for their immediate and unconditional safe release.

“The Yemeni Navy responded to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care, and transport them to a safe location,” the group’s military spokesperson said in a televised address.

The Houthis released a video they said depicted their attack on Eternity C. It included sound of a Yemen naval forces’ call for the crew to evacuate for rescue and showed explosions on the ship before it sank. Reuters could not independently verify the audio or the location of the ship, which it verified was the Eternity C.

The Houthis also have claimed responsibility for a similar assault on Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.

The strikes on the two ships revive a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who had attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians. In May, the U.S. announced a surprise deal with the Houthis where it agreed to stop a bombing campaign against them in return for an end to shipping attacks, though the Houthis said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

Leading shipping industry associations, including the International Chamber of Shipping and BIMCO, denounced the deadly operation and called for robust maritime security in the region via a joint statement on Wednesday.

“These vessels have been attacked with callous disregard for the lives of innocent civilian seafarers,” they said.

“This tragedy illuminates the need for nations to maintain robust support in protecting shipping and vital sea lanes.”

Rescue search

The Eternity C and the Magic Seas both flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek firms. Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets had made calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis showed.

“We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light,” said an official at Greece-based maritime risk management firm Diaplous.

The EU’s Aspides naval mission, which protects Red Sea shipping, confirmed in a statement that six people had been pulled from the sea.

The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, has long been a critical waterway for the world’s oil and commodities but traffic has dropped sharply since the Houthi attacks began.

The number of daily sailings through the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, at the southern tip of the Red Sea and a gateway to the Gulf of Aden, numbered 30 vessels on July 8, from 34 ships on July 6 and 43 on July 1, according to data from maritime data group Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, maintaining their highest levels since June 23, also due to the recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Multiple attacks

Eternity C was first attacked on Monday afternoon with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats by suspected Houthi militants, maritime security sources said. Lifeboats were destroyed during the raid. By Tuesday morning the vessel was adrift and listing.

Two security sources told Reuters that the vessel was hit again with sea drones on Tuesday, forcing the crew and armed guards to abandon it. The Houthis stayed with the vessel until the early hours of Wednesday, one of the sources said.

Skiffs were in the area as rescue efforts were underway.

The crew comprised 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who was one of those rescued.

The vessel’s operator, Cosmoship Management, has not responded to requests for confirmation of casualties or injuries. If confirmed, the four reported deaths would be the first fatalities from attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since June 2024.

Greece has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, over the latest incident, according to sources.

Australian universities may lose funding if they’re not judged to be doing enough to address anti-Jewish hate crimes, according to new measures proposed by the country’s first antisemitism envoy.

Jillian Segal was appointed to the role a year ago in response to a surge in reports of attacks against Jewish sites and property in Australia, following Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and was tasked with combating antisemitism in the country.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Thursday, Segal released a report nine months in the making proposing strong measures, including the university funding threats and the screening of visa applicants for extremist views.

“The plan is not about special treatment for one community; it is about restoring equal treatment,” Segal said. “It’s about ensuring that every Australian, regardless of their background or belief, can live, work, learn and prosper in this country.”

Like in the United States, Australian campuses were once the hub of pro-Palestinian protests led by students who pitched tents demanding action to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The campus protests dwindled after restrictions were tightened and some protesters were threatened with expulsion, a move condemned by the activists as an infringement on free speech.

Segal’s report said antisemitism had become “ingrained and normalised” within academia and university courses, as well as on campuses, and recommended universities be made subject to annual report cards assessing their effectiveness in combating antisemitism.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said the organization had been working “constructively” with the special envoy and its members would “consider the recommendations.”

“Academic freedom and freedom of expression are core to the university mission, but they must be exercised with responsibility and never as a cover for hate or harassment,” he said in a statement.

Surge in antisemitism

Antisemitic attacks in Australia surged 300% in the year following Israel’s invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

In the past week alone, the door of a synagogue was set on fire in Melbourne, forcing 20 occupants to flee by a rear exit, as nearby protesters shouting “Death to the IDF” – using the initials of the Israeli military – stormed an Israeli-owned restaurant.

A man is facing arson charges over the synagogue attack, and three people were charged Tuesday with assault, affray, riotous behavior and criminal damage over the restaurant raid.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which Segal once led and is the umbrella organization for hundreds of Jewish community groups, said the report’s release “could not be more timely given the recent appalling events in Melbourne.”

However, the Jewish Council of Australia, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza, voiced concerns about Segal’s plan, saying it carried the overtones of US President Donald Trump’s attempts to use funding as a means of control over institutions.

In a statement, the council criticized the plan’s “emphasis on surveillance, censorship, and punitive control over the funding of cultural and educational institutions,” adding that they were “measures straight out of Trump’s authoritarian playbook.”

Max Kaiser, the group’s executive officer, said: “Any response that treats antisemitism as exceptional, while ignoring Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and other forms of hate, is doomed to fail.”

Education, immigration and the arts

The envoy’s 20-page plan includes sweeping recommendations covering schools, immigration, media, policing and public awareness campaigns.

Segal wants Holocaust and antisemitism education baked into the national curriculum “as a major case study of where unchecked antisemitism can lead,” according to the report.

Arts organizations could be subject to the same restrictions as universities, with threats to pull public funding if they’re found to have engaged in, or facilitated, antisemitism.

“While freedom of expression, particularly artistic expression, is vital to cultural richness and should be protected, funding provided by Australian taxpayers should not be used to promote division or spread false/ distorted narratives,” the report said.

Under the recommendations, tougher immigration screening would weed out people with antisemitic views, and the Migration Act would enable authorities to cancel visas for antisemitic conduct.

Media would be monitored to “encourage accurate, fair and responsible reporting” and to “avoid accepting false or distorted narratives,” the report added.

During Thursday’s press conference, Albanese pointed to an interview on the country’s national broadcaster with a protester, saying the interviewee tried to justify the Melbourne restaurant attack.

“There is no justification for that whatsoever,” he said. “The idea that somehow the cause of justice for Palestinians is advanced by behavior like that is not only delusional, it is destructive, and it is not consistent with how you are able to put forward your views respectfully in a democracy,” he said.

Asked if the country had become less tolerant of different views and had, perhaps, lost the ability to have a debate, Albanese pointed to social media.

“I think there is an impact of social media, where algorithms work to reinforce people’s views,” he said. “They reinforce views, and they push people towards extremes, whether it be extreme left, extreme right. Australians want a country that is in the center.”

His comments came as Grok, X’s AI chatbot, was called out for spreading antisemitic tropes that the company said it was “actively working to remove.”

Albanese said, regarding antisemitic views, “social media has a social responsibility, and they need to be held to account.”

Asked whether anti-Israel protests were fueling the antisemitic attacks, the prime minister said people should be able to express their views without resorting to hate.

“In Israel itself, as a democracy, there is protest against actions of the government, and in a democracy, you should be able to express your view here in Australia about events overseas,” he said. “Where the line has been crossed is in blaming and identifying people because they happen to be Jewish.”

The remains of a famous sycamore tree, which stood on Britain’s Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall in northern England for more than 200 years, has found a new home nearly two years after it was illegally felled.

The removal of the tree from its spot known as “Sycamore Gap,” a pronounced dip in Hadrian’s Wall, in September 2023 sparked global outrage. Sycamore Gap was considered one of the most photographed trees in England and was made famous to millions when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

In May, two men were found guilty of criminal damage for felling the landmark tree.

Now, a section of it will be put on permanent display at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre, about two miles (three kilometers) from where it once stood.

The UK’s National Trust gave the largest remaining piece of the salvaged trunk to the Northumberland National Park, where the tree was located.

“In the days and months after the tree was felled, The Sill became a place of celebration and memory. Visitors left post-it notes, letters, drawings and messages expressing grief, love, and hope,” the park said in a press release Thursday.

A public consultation was held in the aftermath of the felling on the future of the tree trunk. “The resulting exhibit honours the tree’s natural form while inviting people to engage with it in a deeply personal way,” The Sill said in a press release Thursday.

Tree trunk ‘is huggable’

The trunk is positioned upright, as it once was, and is surrounded by tree oak benches and streams of wood bent to form a canopy in the shape of a huge leaf – recreating the shelter the tree once offered for people to sit and reflect.

Some tributes from the local community have been carved into the wood.

“The original tree may be gone in the form we knew it, but its legacy remains, and what has come since has been endlessly positive, affirming our belief that people nature and place cannot be separated and are interdependent,” said Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Park Authority, in the release.

“This commission has been the biggest honour of my career,” said Charlie Whinney, the artist behind the new exhibition, in the release.

“I really hope what we’ve done in some small way allows the people of Northumberland and those who held this tree close to their hearts to process the loss they still feel from that day in September 2023, when the tree was illegally cut down,” he added.

“The work looks forward with hope, the tree is regrowing, and Sycamore Gap will always be a magical place to visit,” Whinney continued.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday, brought by mainly far-right lawmakers who alleged she and her team undermined trust in the EU through unlawful actions.

As expected, the motion failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. Only 175 members of parliament backed the motion, while 360 voted against and 18 abstained.

Romanian nationalist Gheorghe Piperea, the lead sponsor of the motion, had criticized among other things the Commission’s refusal to disclose text messages between von der Leyen and the chief executive of vaccine maker Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The decision-making has become opaque and discretionary, and raises fears of abuse and corruption. The cost of obsessive bureaucracy of the European Union such as (tackling) climate change has been a huge one,” Piperea told the parliament on Monday.

During the debate on her leadership, von der Leyen defended her record in parliament, rejecting criticism of her management of the pandemic and asserting that her approach ensured equal vaccine access across the EU.

Although the censure motion had little chance of success, it was a political headache for von der Leyen as her Commission negotiates with US President Donald Trump’s administration to try to prevent steep US tariffs on EU goods.

It was the first time since 2014 that a Commission president has faced such a motion. Then President Jean-Claude Juncker also survived the vote.