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(Left) President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a Keep America Great rally in Phoenix on Feb. 19, 2020; (Right) Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 23, 2020. (Jim Watson and Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 as part of an effort to bring the war in Ukraine to a close.

 

“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” Trump announced on Truth Social on Aug. 8. “Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

 

Trump said earlier in the day that increased military spending by NATO and new U.S. sanctions on nations that buy oil from Russia may have contributed to Moscow’s agreement to the talks.

 

“We’ve been working on this one for a long time,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that the talks to lay the groundwork for a cease-fire negotiation were complicated.

 

When asked if Putin and Zelenskyy could be signing a peace deal similar to Friday’s pact between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the president was optimistic.

 

“I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it,” Trump said.

 

The summit will be Trump’s first meeting with Putin since he returned to the White House in January.

 

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow earlier in the week and met with Putin for three hours of talks on Wednesday. Witkoff arrived in Moscow only days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to make progress on a peace deal.

 

Over the past month, Trump has adopted more coercive measures to get Moscow to come to the table, including imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on India for purchasing oil from Russia, raising India’s total rate to 50 percent.

 

The new tariff rate on India is now the largest of the tariffs imposed on U.S. trading partners.

 

Trump had said he would also implement “severe tariffs” on Russia if Moscow did not make progress on peace talks with Ukraine by Aug. 9.

 

India has also been in the crosshairs of Trump’s push against the BRICS coalition, a group of emerging market countries headlined by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

 

In an Aug. 4 Truth Social post, the president said that India is also using the Russian oil it purchases to sell it “on the open market for big products.”

 

“They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” he said.

 

India has defended the transactions as a means to provide its population with affordable energy because conventional supplies were diverted to Europe following the war in Ukraine.

IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long testifies during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 20, 2025. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

President Donald Trump is replacing Billy Long as commissioner of the IRS less than two months after his confirmation, a White House official confirmed to The Epoch Times.

 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner.

 

Long confirmed on social media that he will be the ambassador to Iceland.

 

“It is [an] honor to serve my friend President Trump and I am excited to take on my new role as the ambassador to Iceland,” Long said in an X post. “I am thrilled to answer his call to service and deeply committed to advancing his bold agenda. Exciting times ahead!” Since Danny Werfel stepped down earlier this year, several acting commissioners have served.

 

Doug O’Donnell, who was the first successor to Werfel, retired in February. Melanie Krause, a career government official at the IRS and Government Accountability Office, accepted the position and resigned in April. Gary Shapley, a career IRS agent, was then selected but was shortly removed from the position.

 

Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender was the acting commissioner until the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Long.

 

Trump nominated Long in December 2024. Long was confirmed by the Senate in a 53—44 vote. He was sworn in on June 16.

 

The confirmation process was a contentious one, as Democrats in the upper chamber established an inquiry shortly after the president’s announcement. (More)

 

More Politics:

When students in Jamie Rector’s Energy and Civilization course at the University of California, Berkeley, came to him with the idea for a project on California’s abandoned oil wells, he was intrigued.

 

The state has more than 120,000 abandoned oil and gas wells, as well as 30,000 idle and 70,000 active wells. Many were drilled or dug in the late 1800s, clustered in areas such as downtown Los Angeles and near present-day Dodger Stadium, where the California oil boom began.

 

The concern among some is that these wells might be emitting methane or other hydrocarbons. Older ones are likely to have been improperly or shallowly sealed.

 

The federal government has spent $4.7 billion to plug and reclaim abandoned wells. California has plugged around 1,400 wells at a cost of $29.5 million since 1977, and now requires operators to eliminate idle wells or face increasing fees.

 

As they researched California’s abandoned oil wells, Rector’s students discovered an abundance of natural oil seeps located above the same fields—and came to a surprising conclusion. Geologically driven, natural oil seeps are a major contributor to California’s greenhouse emissions, they say. And drilling—long seen as the problem, not the answer—might be a panacea for emissions. (More)

 

More U.S. News:

President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House, where they signed joint declarations on Friday ending decades of conflict and paving the way for a transit corridor through the South Caucasus region.

 

Dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity the planned corridor will traverse southern Armenia just north of the Iranian border.

 

Here’s the background to the long-running conflict—and what the new transport corridor could mean.

 

Since before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Azerbaijan and Armenia, two small states in the South Caucasus region, have remained implacable enemies.

 

The people of Azerbaijan are ethnically Turkic and have historically adhered to Shiite Islam. Armenians are an Indo-European people, the vast majority of whom are Christian.

 

Within the past four decades the two former soviet republics have fought two major wars—and countless skirmishes—over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh in Armenian.

 

While Nagorno-Karabakh has long been internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, it was, until recently, populated mostly by ethnic Armenians.

 

Following a war that lasted from 1988 to 1994, Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh from Turkey-supported Azerbaijan, leading to the expulsion of the region’s Azerbaijani inhabitants.

 

Armenia remained in control of Nagorno-Karabakh until 2020, when Azerbaijan, with Turkish support, retook most of the region in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

 

The six-week conflict, in which thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed, ended with a ceasefire brokered by Russia, which has historically viewed the South Caucasus as its backyard.

In 2023, Azerbaijan staged a 24-hour offensive that brought Nagorno-Karabakh under its full control, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region to next-door Armenia. (More)

The trail of a disintegrating waterspout is seen on the Havana waterfront on Aug. 8, 2025. Due to the intense summer heat, the island experiences various meteorological phenomena daily, including fatal lightning strikes and destructive tornadoes. (Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images)

📸 Day in Photos: Texas Capitol Deserted, Waterspout in Cuba, and JD Vance Goes Fishing (Look)

 

✍️ Opinion

🎵 100 Days of Mozart: Day 8, Symphony No. 27 (Listen)

 

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Howard (James Cosmo) and Annie (Brid Brennan), in “My Sailor, My Love.” (GJW+)

Romance-themed films that focus on older adults offer perspective. There’s a quiet kind of emotional intelligence in these stories, shaped not by hormones and impulsive flings but by time, grief, healing, and hard-earned lessons.

 

A film like “My Sailor, My Love” doesn’t pander or overcompensate. It simply portrays what it’s like to open your heart again when you’ve already lived through the storm.

 

Directed by Klaus Haro (“The Fencer”), “My Sailor, My Love” initially appears to chart a familiar course: a widowed, grizzled seafarer; a compassionate caregiver; and the slow thaw of two guarded souls. What sets it apart isn’t some twist or reinvention. It’s the patience, the subtlety, and the authenticity with which it navigates those deep currents.

 

The performances are lived-in and unflashy, and the writing trusts you to pick up on the unsaid. It’s a love story without illusions, which, ironically, makes it feel more romantic.

 

Veteran actor James Cosmo plays retired sea captain Howard. He spends his days adrift in solitude on Ireland’s wind-battered coast. His days are filled with crossword puzzles, framed pictures, and memories filling the void left by a life once ruled by the tides.

 

His adult daughter, Grace (Catherine Walker), regularly visits her aging father only to find him stubborn and distant. Hoping to improve his circumstances (his house is filthy), she hires a local widow, Annie (Brid Brennan), to help keep the house and perhaps pierce the fog of his isolation.

Howard meets Annie’s warmth with icy resistance; she eventually walks away until their reconciliation blooms into something deeper. As their bond grows, Howard invites Annie into his home and life, unknowingly setting off emotional fault lines. (More)

 

“My Sailor, My Love” is now available on Gan Jing World.As an exclusive to our subscribers, the film will be available to watch for free until Sun, Aug. 10.

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