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NEW YORK — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place by Jan. 20, marking one year since his return to the White House.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street and the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and to support his second-term agenda.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the last year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s.

Trump’s administration, however, has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office. His administration killed a Biden-era regulation that would have capped credit card late fees.

In a joint statement, the banking industry opposed Trump’s proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives,” the American Bankers Assn. and allied groups said.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to [rein] in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long.”

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) released a plan last February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump’s post, Sanders noted that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Sweet and Kim write for the Associated Press and reported from New York and West Palm Beach, Fla., respectively.

Jimmy John had been battling a severe toothache for days. The pain made eating and sleeping almost impossible. Early in the morning on Monday, July 7, 2025, he walked into New Boshang Hospital in Jimeta-Yola, northeastern Nigeria, hoping for relief. He queued, was registered, and eventually called in to see a clinician.

After an examination and scans, he was told that he needed a root canal, a dental procedure that removes infected or inflamed pulp from inside a tooth. Jimmy didn’t bother about the cost; the procedure is covered by his insurance under Adamawa State’s health insurance scheme. 

However, he was asked to wait. 

The hospital needed to confirm his insurance details. A desk officer explained that an authorisation code would be sent from his Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO). It would not take long, he was told. Two days at most.

Jimmy left the facility with painkillers and a promise, but the aches kept getting worse. 

“It was a terrible toothache,” he said. 

Two days passed. Then a week. “It took about three weeks,” Jimmy told HumAngle. “I had to be constantly calling and asking if it had been sent.” Each time, the answer was the same: they were still waiting for the code.

By the third week of waiting, Jimmy made a decision he had hoped to avoid. “I ended up paying ₦35,000 for something my insurance should have covered,” he said. “The money I planned to use for food was what I used for treatment.”

Growing coverage, inconsistent access 

Launched in 2020, Adamawa State’s contributory health insurance scheme has expanded in recent years. The Adamawa State Contributory Health Management Agency (ASCHMA) now covers the formal sector, informal sector, equity, retirees’, and tertiary students’ health plans. Official figures show that more than 170,000 people are enrolled across the state, a significant increase from its early years. 

Yet, Jimmy’s experience showed that being insured does not always mean being able to access care when it is needed.

Under ASCHMA’s design, access to healthcare operates at two levels. At the primary care level, enrollees are entitled to services such as malaria treatment, antenatal care, immunisation, and basic diagnostics by simply presenting their insurance ID card at their chosen facility.

According to ASCHMA’s Executive Secretary, Ujulu Amos, this process does not require involvement from HMOs. “Verification at that point only requires an ID card,” he explained. “Once the hospital cross-checks the enrollee’s number with the list sent to them, the person is entitled to access all primary care. The HMO is not involved.”

The process changes once a patient needs secondary or specialised care, such as surgery or a root canal procedure. At that stage, hospitals must request an authorisation code from the patient’s HMO before treatment can proceed. The code allows the hospital to later claim payment for the service.

Ujulu emphasised that this authorisation step is meant to be fast and tightly regulated.

“In our operational guideline, requesting a code should not take more than one hour,” he said. “Three hours is the maximum. If it takes three days, that is a problem.”

In Jimmy’s case, that process stretched into three weeks.

Where the system breaks down

At the heart of these delays is a lack of interoperable digital health infrastructure. While hospitals can confirm that a patient is enrolled, they cannot proceed with secondary care without explicit approval from the HMO, even when coverage is obvious. 

This multi-step process, often reliant on emails, phone calls, and individual responsiveness, leaves patients stuck in the middle.

Ujulu said patients are not powerless in such situations. According to him, ASCHMA operates a 24-hour toll-free call centre that enrollees can contact if authorisation delays exceed the allowed timeframe. In such cases, the agency can intervene, issue the authorisation, and later deduct the cost from the HMO. HumAngle attempted to reach the agency through the toll-free line, and the line was active at the time of reporting.

Beyond awareness gaps, however, fundamental system weaknesses are a factor. Many health facilities still rely on manual processes, and digital literacy among healthcare workers remains low, slowing down requests.

“We discovered low digital literacy among healthcare workers as one of the bottlenecks,” Ujulu admitted. “A good number of them either are not willing or don’t know how to log into the platform to request the code.”

In practice, this means insurance verification is hardly real-time or reliable. 

At New Boshang Hospital, staff say such delays are common once care goes beyond the primary level. Godiya James, a technician at the dental unit, explained that authorisation requests often stall.

“We send the diagnosis and treatment plan for authorisation,” she said. Sometimes it takes a day or two for us to get a response. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes there won’t be a response until we resend it.” 

Some patients, she added, can’t wait longer. 

For patients like Jimmy, long wait periods mean prolonged pain. 

What’s the issue?

Health insurance schemes like ASCHMA are designed to reduce out-of-pocket spending, which dominates healthcare expenditure in Nigeria, yet the systems that support them are not well-connected. Many facilities and HMOs rely on emails, phone calls, paper records or ad-hoc networks to verify coverage. 

Without digital interoperability, the ability for different software and data systems to talk to one another, each verification becomes a manual transaction, dependent on network stability, personal responsiveness, or manual cross-checking.

Farida Abalis Paul, Chief Operating Officer of A&M Healthcare, one of the HMOs working with ASCHMA, said verification depends largely on monthly enrolment lists. 

“Once a facility requests verification, we check the list. If the person’s name is there, they can go ahead with treatment,” she explained. However, the process is delayed when a patient’s name is missing from the list, even if they hold a valid insurance card. 

This can result from delayed updates, data entry errors, or changes in facility selection.

“You may have an ID card, but when we check the list, your name is not there,” she said. “Today you’re on the list, tomorrow you’re not. Along the line, something happened.”

When this happens, HMOs cannot approve care until ASCHMA corrects the records. 

For patients, the consequences are immediate. 

Aishatu Haliru, a lecturer at Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, was turned away from the Specialist Hospital despite presenting her insurance card.

“They told me my name was not on the list,” she said. “I couldn’t understand how that happens when nothing has changed.”

She was referred to ASCHMA, where an official confirmed that her record had been omitted during a routine database update. Although the issue was corrected the same day, Aishatu missed the clinic schedule and had to wait several more days for care.

“But the question is, why did it disappear in the first place?” she asked.

Ujulu, ASCHMA’s Executive Secretary, argued that such disappearances could result from platform migration, noting that data loss also slows down authorisation processes for patients like Jimmy.

These gaps highlight a broader challenge within Nigeria’s evolving digital health system. 

Nigeria’s push toward efficient digital healthcare systems

At the national level, Nigeria has begun laying policy foundations for digital transformation in healthcare, although implementation remains uneven. 

One of the key efforts is the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI), which aims to build a national digital health architecture that supports interoperable electronic medical records and efficient data exchange between healthcare facilities, insurers, and government systems. In practical terms, such a system would allow clinics to instantly confirm a patient’s insurance coverage, treatment entitlements, and provider claims eligibility, eliminating the kind of long delays Jimmy experienced.

Alongside this, the National Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Framework and the emerging Nigerian Data Exchange standards, coordinated by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), seek to promote shared digital rails for public services. These include interoperability, data security, and service integration. 

Applied to healthcare, these principles mean that insurance verification, patient identity, and claims processing should function as shared public infrastructure: secure, privacy-preserving, and accessible across institutions. In practice, a hospital should be able to instantly confirm a patient’s coverage without manual escalation.

NITDA’s ongoing strategic roadmap also emphasises inclusive access to digital infrastructure across the country and equitable digital literacy, both of which are foundational to reliable nationwide digital service delivery. 

The goal of such policies is straightforward: when systems can talk to each other securely and immediately, services like insurance verification become almost instant, reducing delays and unnecessary costs.

“Interoperability sounds like a technical word, but in reality, it’s about time, trust, and dignity,” said Muhammed Bello Buhari, a Nigerian-based digital rights activist. 

In a state like Adamawa, where insecurity and economic pressure already shape access to care, the ability of systems to speak to one another determines whether insurance works in practice or remains theoretical, leaving people insured on paper but uninsured in practice. 

Muhammed argues that without shared, real-time systems, patients are pushed into delays and out-of-pocket payments not because they lack coverage, but because institutions cannot confirm what they already know. 

“Interoperability is less about cutting-edge innovation and more about treating health information as essential public infrastructure that respects patients’ vulnerability and ensures care moves quickly, reliably, and with dignity,” he added. “When a patient arrives sick or in pain, insurance must work immediately, or it loses its value.”

This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.

Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe is out of Sunday’s Real Betis clash in La Liga, but could be fast tracked for return in Atletico Super Cup derby.

Real Madrid forward Kylian ‌Mbappe will miss Sunday’s La Liga home game against Real Betis due ‍to a knee ‍injury but is pushing to be available for next week’s Spanish Super Cup semifinal against Atletico Madrid, manager Xabi Alonso has said.

The 27-year-old France captain, who equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s club record of 59 ⁠goals in a calendar year for Real in their 2-0 La Liga win over Sevilla ​on December 20, has a sprain in his left knee.

The initial assumption was that such an injury would mean a spell of at least three weeks on the sidelines.

“We’ll ‍definitely miss Kylian,” Alonso told reporters on Saturday. “We have to have a lot of faith in those who are going to play tomorrow.

“Now we’ll see. We have to wait and see how things ‍develop, and ⁠we’ll do everything we can to get him back as soon as possible.

“We’re going to be pushing the deadlines; it’s very much a matter of feelings. When is as soon as possible? That’s the question. I don’t know. The Super Cup? We hope.”

Alonso’s men were five points clear at the top before their form took a downturn in November. They ​drew three league games in a row before suffering ‌a shock loss to Celta Vigo at home in December, allowing defending champions Barcelona to surge four points ahead in the title race.

Real’s dip in form has coincided with a goalless run ‌for forward Vinicius Jr. The 25-year-old Brazilian winger, who scored 22 goals last season, has struck just five times ‌across all competitions this term and has not ⁠found the net since October.

When asked how Vinicius is doing after being booed by a section of fans in their last match against Sevilla at the Bernabeu, Alonso said: “Vini looks fine to me, ‌cheerful and smiling. The break has been good for all of us to recharge our batteries.

“Tomorrow, we are the ones who have to give in order to ‍receive, to spread that enthusiasm and rhythm that we need. If that flows in both directions, we will enjoy ourselves.”

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday that the Constitution remains a sturdy pillar for the country, a message that comes after a tumultuous year in the nation’s judicial system with pivotal Supreme Court decisions on the horizon.

Roberts said the nation’s founding documents remain “firm and unshaken,” a reference to a century-old quote from President Coolidge. “True then; true now,” Roberts wrote in his annual letter to the judiciary.

The letter comes after a year in which legal scholars and Democrats raised fears of a possible constitutional crisis as President Trump’s supporters pushed back against rulings that slowed his far-reaching conservative agenda.

Roberts weighed in at one point, issuing a rare rebuke after Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who had ruled against him in a case over the deportation of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members.

The chief justice’s Wednesday letter was largely focused on the nation’s history, including an early 19th-century case establishing the principle that Congress shouldn’t remove judges over contentious rulings.

While the Trump administration faced pushback in the lower courts, it has scored a series of some two dozen wins on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. The court’s conservative majority has allowed Trump to move ahead for now with banning transgender people from the military, clawing back billions of dollars of congressionally approved federal spending, moving aggressively on immigration and firing the Senate-confirmed leaders of independent federal agencies.

The court also handed Trump a few defeats over the last year, including in his push to deploy the National Guard to U.S. cities.

Other pivotal issues are ahead for the high court in 2026, including arguments over Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship and a ruling on whether he can unilaterally impose tariffs on hundreds of countries.

Roberts’ letter contained few references to those issues. It opened with a history of the seminal 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense,” written by Thomas Paine, a “recent immigrant to Britain’s North American colonies,” and closed with Coolidge’s encouragement to “turn for solace” to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence “amid all the welter of partisan politics.”

Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.

A ‘great leap forward’

But Schwartz told Al Jazeera that the trend towards government data consolidation has continued in the decades since, under both Democratic leaders and Republicans.

“Surveillance is bipartisan, unfortunately,” he said.

With Trump’s second term, however, the process hit warp speed. Schwartz argues that the Trump administration’s actions violate laws like the Privacy Act, marking a “dangerous” shift away from Nixon-era protections.

“The number-one problem with the federal government in the last year when it comes to surveillance is the demolition of the Watergate-era safeguards that were intended to keep databases separated,” he said.

Schwartz noted that Trump’s consolidation efforts have been coupled with a lack of transparency about how the new, integrated data systems are being used.

“Just as the current administration has done a great leap forward on surveillance and invading privacy, so it also has been a less transparent government in terms of the public understanding what it is doing,” Schwartz said.

Already, on March 20, Trump signed an executive order that called on government agencies to take “all necessary steps” for the dissolution of what he called “data silos”.

Shortly afterwards, in April, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inked a deal with the IRS to exchange personal information, including the names and addresses of taxpayers.

The memo was seen as an effort to turn private taxpayer data into a tool to carry out Trump’s goal of deporting immigrants.

A federal court in November paused the agencies’ data-sharing agreement. But other efforts continue.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of giving DOGE access to sensitive Social Security data. And just this month, the Trump administration pressured states to share information about the recipients of food assistance, or else face a loss of funding.

While immigrants appear to be one of the main targets of the data consolidation project, Venzke said that Americans of all stripes should not be surprised if their personal information is weaponised down the line.

“There is no reason that it will be limited to undocumented people. They are taking a system that’s traditionally limited to non-citizens and vastly expanding it to include all sorts of information on US citizens,” Venzke said.

“That was unthinkable just five years ago, but we’re seeing it happen now, and consequently, its potential abuses are widespread.”

Russia says it will take a more hardline stance in negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine after claiming Kyiv tried to attack a Russian presidential residence – allegations Ukraine says Moscow has fabricated to justify further aggression.

Accusations and counteraccusations are rife as the war rages and the push for peace remains precarious.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that the alleged drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences in Novgorod, a region in northwestern Russia, had been intended to derail recent diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict.

“This terrorist action is aimed at collapsing the negotiation process,” Peskov said, adding that Russia’s military ‍knows when and ⁠how it will respond.

“The diplomatic consequence will be to toughen the negotiating position of the Russian Federation.”

Russia said on Monday that Putin’s residence had been targeted by Ukraine with 91 long-range drones that had been shot down by air defence systems with no one injured.

‘No such attack happened’

Ukraine has denied that the attack took place, calling the Russian allegations “false claims” intended to undermine the peace process.

In a post on X, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Moscow had not provided any plausible evidence to back up its accusations.

“And they won’t. Because there’s none. No such attack happened,” he said on Tuesday.

Sybiha said Russia has “a long record of false claims”, calling them its “signature tactic”.

“They also often accuse others of what they themselves plan to do,” he said. “Their words should never be taken at face value.”

He added that Ukraine was ”disappointed and concerned“ by statements by the United Arab Emirates, ​India and Pakistan expressing concern over what he said was an attack that never ‌happened.

Asked by reporters whether Russia could provide evidence of the drone attack, Peskov said air defences shot the drones down but the question of wreckage was for the Ministry of Defence.

He said attempts by Ukraine and Western media to deny the incident were “insane”.

No evidence has been provided by ‌Russia. The Defence Ministry has issued only a statement that said 91 drones had been shot down while they were heading to Putin’s Novgorod residence, which is about 360km (225 miles) north of Moscow.

Speaking on Monday, United States President Donald Trump, who has spearheaded the push to broker peace in Ukraine, said he had been informed of the alleged attack in a phone call with Putin.

“I was very angry about it,” he said, adding that he would find out whether there was evidence to support the allegation.

European leaders hold talks

The dispute over the attack played out as key leaders from Europe and Canada held discussions on advancing the peace process.

After the talks, German ‍Chancellor Friedrich Merz posted on social media that the group was “moving the peace process forward”.

“Transparency and honesty are now required from everyone – including Russia,” he wrote.

In the wake of the meeting, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a government meeting that he believed ‍peace could be achieved in Ukraine in a matter of weeks.

“Peace is on the horizon. There is no doubt that things have happened that give grounds for hope that this war can end, ‍and quite quickly, but ⁠it is still a hope, far from 100 percent certain,” Tusk said.

“When I say peace is on the horizon, I’m talking about the coming weeks, not the coming months or years. By January, we’ll all have to come together … to make decisions about the future of Ukraine, the future of this part of ​the world.”

He said security guarantees offered by Washington to Kyiv gave a reason to believe the conflict could end soon but Ukraine would need to compromise on territorial issues.

Russia wants Kyiv to withdraw its troops from ‌the parts of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has failed to occupy in almost four years of war.

It remains the key sticking point in the talks, ceding territory or not.

Kyiv wants fighting ‍halted along the current front lines, and Washington has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine pulls its forces back.

Zelenskyy has insisted Kyiv won’t give up land and the nation’s constitution also forbids it.

Black Sea ports attacked

As leaders met for talks, Kyiv said Russia had attacked ‍infrastructure in the ‍Odesa region, damaging a civilian ship and facilities in the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk, which are crucial for Ukraine’s foreign trade and integral to its wartime economy.

In a post on Telegram, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said ⁠a Panama-flagged civilian ship loaded with grain was damaged and oil storage tanks hit with one person wounded.

“This is yet another targeted attack by Russia on civilian port infrastructure. The ‍enemy is trying ⁠to disrupt logistics and complicate shipping,” Kuleba said.

Despite the attacks, both ports continued to operate, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine ordered the evacuation of several hundred people from 14 settlements in the northern region of Chernihiv, which borders Moscow-allied Belarus and which, Ukraine said, has been the target of daily Russian shelling.

Dec. 28 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that a long-criticized public-sector custom in which junior officials take turns paying for meals for senior executives has declined, as central and local governments expand measures such as anonymous reporting systems and Dutch pay.

Seoul’s city government has set up an anonymous reporting channel inside its electronic personnel system to curb the practice, known as “hosting days,” in which subordinates feel pressured to cover a superior’s meal. Reports can be filed anonymously by staff at headquarters or affiliated agencies, triggering investigations aimed at treating cases as an organizational issue rather than a personal complaint.

In South Jeolla Province, officials have promoted a “sympathy pay” campaign to formalize a Dutch treat principle under which each person pays their share. The province also banned the use of pooled office funds to cover department dinners or meal costs.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said its review of eradication efforts across central and local governments found “tangible improvements.” The custom refers to employees treating executives to meals at their own expense, a practice critics say undermines integrity and a horizontal workplace culture.

A joint survey by the Interior Ministry and the Personnel Innovation Ministry found that the share of central government employees who said they had paid for a superior’s meal in the past month fell to 7.7% in April from 10.1% in November last year. Among local government workers, the rate fell to 12.2% from 23.9% over the same period, a larger decline than in central agencies.

The ministry said agencies have combined integrity education with internal surveys, emphasizing awareness and voluntary participation rather than relying only on crackdowns or one-time campaigns. Efforts have also focused on changing communication patterns inside organizations, it said.

The Food and Drug Safety Ministry said its head personally urged elimination of the practice and operated an intensive reporting period. It also sought to ease hierarchical meal culture through events such as lunchtime communication sessions between senior officials and staff.

Asan, a city in South Chungcheong Province, held a “cushion word” contest to encourage softer expressions as part of broader efforts to reshape workplace culture starting with everyday language use. The Korea Forest Service promoted a “warm words” campaign to encourage communication based on mutual respect.

Programs aimed at narrowing generational and rank gaps are also expanding. The Personnel Innovation Ministry’s “Blue Out of Indigo” program allows young civil servants to share commuting-related difficulties with executives and seek improvements together. Gangwon Province’s “Lunch&Learn” runs as a reverse mentoring program, with Grade 6 and below employees mentoring senior officials during lunch breaks, officials said.

Other efforts pair employees across departments. The Overseas Koreans Agency runs a “Random Coffee” program that matches staff from different units. Buk-gu District in Gwangju subsidizes team discussion costs through a program called “A Spoonful of Communication,” which officials say is meant to encourage freer exchanges of opinion.

The Interior Ministry said it has held meetings with organizational culture officials across central and local governments along with the personnel ministry and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, while sharing best practices through official guidance and on-site discussions.

The ministry said it plans another joint survey with the Personnel Innovation Ministry in the first half of next year and will share best practices identified in the review. Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae said it was meaningful that agencies are continuing improvements tailored to their circumstances, adding that the goal is to eliminate unreasonable practices such as “executive day” and build a public service culture that supports open communication across generations and ranks.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Ukrainian president highlights ‘significant progress’ in talks, but Moscow says Kyiv is working to ‘torpedo’ deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet with his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, in Florida on Sunday to discuss territorial disputes that continue to block progress towards ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Announcing the meeting on Friday, Zelenskyy said the talks could be decisive as Washington intensifies its efforts to broker an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. “A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelenskyy said.

Territory remains the most contentious issue in the negotiations. Zelenskyy confirmed he would raise the status of eastern Ukraine and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been under Russian control since the early months of Russia’s invasion.

“As for the sensitive issues, we will discuss both Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. We will certainly discuss other issues as well,” he told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.

Moscow has demanded that Kyiv withdraw from parts of the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control as it pushes for full authority over the wider Donbas area, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine has rejected that demand, instead calling for an immediate halt to hostilities along the existing front lines.

Territorial concessions

In an attempt to bridge the divide, the US has floated the idea of establishing a free economic zone should Ukraine relinquish control of the contested area although details of how such a plan would operate remain unclear.

Zelenskyy reiterated that any territorial concessions would require public approval. He said decisions on land must be made by Ukrainians themselves, potentially through a referendum.

Beyond territory, Zelenskyy said his meeting with Trump would focus on refining draft agreements, including economic arrangements and security guarantees. He said a security pact with Washington was nearly finalised while a 20-point peace framework was close to completion.

Ukraine has sought binding guarantees after previous international commitments failed to prevent Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022.

Trump has previously voiced impatience with the pace of negotiations, but he has indicated he would engage directly if talks reached a meaningful stage.

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country is the only mediator that can speak to both sides to secure a peace agreement. At the same time, he downplayed the importance of the conflict for Washington.

“It’s not our war. It’s a war on another continent,” he said.

Zelenskyy said European leaders could join Sunday’s discussions remotely and confirmed he had already briefed Finnish President Alexander Stubb on what he described as “significant progress”.

Despite Zelenskyy’s assertion, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov accused Ukraine of working to “torpedo” the peace talks, saying a revised version of the US peace plan promoted by Kyiv was “radically different” from an earlier version negotiated with Washington.

“Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party,” he said during a television interview on Friday.

Ryabkov said any agreement must remain within the parameters set out between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a summit in August, which Ukraine and European partners have criticised as overly conciliatory towards Russia’s war aims.

On the ground, Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and the southern port city of Odesa while an attack on Kharkiv on Friday killed two people.

Khalid Mishain, from the Youth Citizens Observers Network, says cuts to humanitarian funding are deepening Sudan’s crisis, with famine spreading, aid groups pulling back, and hunger set to worsen without immediate action.

Washington, DC – For the past two years, weekdays for Susanna have meant thumbing through picture books, organising cubby holes and leading classroom choruses of songs.

But her work as a pre-school teacher came to a screeching halt in October, when she found out her application to renew her work permit had been denied.

Susanna, who uses a pseudonym in this article for fear of reprisals, is one of the nearly 10 percent of teachers in the United States who are immigrants.

But while the US has increasingly looked abroad to fill teacher shortages, some foreign-born teachers say the deportation push under President Donald Trump has threatened their livelihoods — and risks traumatising their students.

Susanna, an asylum applicant who fled violence in Guatemala nearly a decade ago, said that losing her permit meant she had to stop working immediately.

She recalls breaking the news to her students, some of whom are only three years old. Many were too young to understand.

“In one week, I lost everything,” Susanna told Al Jazeera in Spanish. “When I told the kids goodbye, they asked me why, and I told them, ‘I can only tell you goodbye.’ There were kids that hugged me, and it hurt my heart a lot.”

Looking abroad for teachers

Estimates vary as to how many foreign-born teachers currently work in the US. But one 2019 report from George Mason University found that there were 857,200 immigrants among the country’s 8.1 million teachers, in roles ranging from pre-school to university.

For the 2023-2024 school year alone, the US government brought 6,716 full-time teachers to the country on temporary exchange visas to fill openings in pre-kindergarten, primary and secondary school education.

Many hailed from the Philippines, as well as countries like Jamaica, Spain and Colombia.

The uncertainty for immigrants under Trump’s second term, however, has proven disruptive to schools that rely heavily on foreign-born teachers.

That is the case for the pre-school where Susanna worked, CommuniKids, which offers language immersion programmes in Washington, DC.

Cofounder and president Raul Echevarría estimates that immigrants — both citizens and non-citizens working with legal authorisation — comprise about 90 percent of CommuniKids’s staff.

But Echevarría told Al Jazeera that the push to rescind legal pathways to immigration has jeopardised the employment of several faculty members.

Five other teachers at the school have seen their ability to work affected by changes to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme.

All five, Echevarría explained, were originally from Venezuela. But in October, the Trump administration ended TPS status for more than 350,000 Venezuelan citizens, including the teachers at CommuniKids.

Their authorisation to work legally in the US will expire on October 2, 2026, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

“These teachers lost their ability to make a living,” Echevarria said, noting that his school requires educators with expertise in languages like Spanish, French and Mandarin.

‘Strong bonds’

For the schools themselves, the losses can be devastating. Every state in the US has reported teacher shortages to the federal government.

But advocates say the high stress and low pay of education make teachers difficult to recruit and keep.

That leads some states to look abroad for education workers. In North Carolina, for example, 1,063 foreign nationals worked full-time as grade-school teachers on temporary J-1 visas during the 2023-2024 school year.

The top destinations for such recruits were all southern states: North Carolina was followed by Florida with 996 teachers on J-1 visas, and Texas with 761.

But Echevarria said some of the biggest impacts of the deportation drive are felt by the students themselves.

“Our students develop strong bonds with their teachers, and all of a sudden, overnight, they lost their teachers,” said Echevarría.

“Their number one superpower”, he added, “is their ability to empathise and to create strong, effective bonds with people from any background”.

But when those bonds are broken, there can be mental health consequences and setbacks for educational achievement, particularly among younger children.

A 2024 study published by the American Educational Research Association found that, when teachers leave midyear, children’s language development takes a measurable hit.

In other words, the loss of a familiar teacher — someone who knows their routines, strengths and fears — can quietly stall a child’s progress. The consequences extend to a child’s sense of self and stability.

Mental health consequences

For parents like Michelle Howell, whose child attends CommuniKids, the loss of teachers has also made the classroom environment feel fragile.

“The teachers there aren’t just teachers for these young kids,” Howell said of CommuniKids. “They’re like extended family.

“They hug them, they hold them, they do the things a parent would do. When those people disappear, it’s not just hard for the kids. It’s hard for everyone.”

Howell, who is Chinese American, said the sudden disappearances reminded her of her own family’s history.

“I used to read about things like this happening in China, the place my family left to find safety,” she said. “It’s very disturbing to know that what we ran from back then is our reality now. People disappear.”

School psychologist Maria C, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her work in the Texas public school system, has noticed the children she works with struggling with instability caused by the deportation push.

The disappearance of a loved one or mentor — say, a favourite teacher — could flood a child’s body with cortisol, the hormone meant to protect them in moments of danger, she explained.

But when that stress becomes chronic, the same hormone starts to hurt more than it helps. It interferes with memory, attention and emotional regulation.

“For some, it looks like anxiety. For others, it’s depression or sudden outbursts,” Maria said. “They’re in fight-or-flight mode all day.”

She added that selective mutism, an anxiety disorder, is on the rise among the children she sees, who range in age from five to 12.

“It used to be rare, maybe one case per school,” she said. “Now I see it constantly. It’s a quiet symptom of fear.”

Preparing for the worst

Back at CommuniKids, Echevarría explained that he and other staff members have put together contingency plans, just in case immigration enforcement arrives at the pre-school.

The aim, he said, is to make both employees and students feel safer coming to class.

“We put those steps in writing because we wanted our staff to know they’re not alone,” he said. “We have attorneys on call. We’re partners with local police. But above all, our job is to protect our children.”

But as an added precaution, teachers are advised to carry their passports or work permits with them.

Even Echevarría, a US citizen born in Virginia, said he carries his passport wherever he goes. The fear of deportation has a way of lingering.

“I’m bilingual and of Hispanic descent,” he said. “Given how things are, I want to be able to prove I’m a citizen if anyone ever questions it.”

A new wave of Israeli policies is changing the reality and boundaries on the ground in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government has approved the formalisation of 19 so-called settlement outposts as independent settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is the third wave of such formalisations this year by the government, which considers settlement expansion and annexation a top priority. During an earlier ceremony of formalisation, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “We are advancing de facto sovereignty on the ground to prevent any possibility of establishing an Arab state in [the West Bank].”

Settlement outposts, which are illegal under international law, are set up by a small group of settlers without prior government authorisation. This does not mean that the settlers, who are often more ideological and violent, do not enjoy government protection. Israeli human rights organisations say that settlers in these so-called outposts enjoy protection, electricity and other services from the Israeli army. The formalisation opens the door to additional government funds, infrastructure and expansion.

Many of the settlement outposts formalised in this latest decision are concentrated in the northeastern part of the West Bank, an area that traditionally has had very little settlement activity. They also include the formalisation of two outposts evacuated in 2005 by the government of Israeli then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

While these government decisions may seem bureaucratic, they are in fact strategic in nature. They support the more ideological and often more violent settlers entrenching their presence and taking over yet more Palestinian land, and becoming more brazen in their attacks against Palestinians, which are unprecedented in scope and effect.

The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem estimates that settler attacks against Palestinians have forcibly displaced 44 communities across the West Bank in the past two years. These arson attacks, vandalism, physical assault and deadly shootings are done under the protection of Israeli soldiers. During these settler attacks, 34 Palestinians were killed, including three children. None of the perpetrators has been brought to justice. In fact, policing of these groups has dropped under the direction of Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is a settler himself.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently sounded the alarm about Israel’s record-breaking expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and the unprecedented levels of state-backed settler violence. In a briefing to the UN Security Council, Guterres reminded states that all settlements are illegal under international law. He also warned that they erode Palestinian rights recognised under this law, including to a state of their own.

In September, United States President Donald Trump said he “will not allow” Israel to annex the West Bank, without offering details of what actions he would take to prevent such a move.

But Israel is undeterred. The government continues to pursue its agenda of land grab, territorial expansion and annexation by a myriad of measures that fragment, dispossess and isolate Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and continues its genocidal violence in Gaza.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank for nearly a year. The Israeli army continues to occupy Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps and ban residents from returning. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have demolished and damaged 1,460 buildings in those camps, according to a preliminary UN estimate. This huge, destructive campaign has changed the geography of the camps and plunged more families into economic and social despair.

This is the state hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the West Bank find themselves in because of Israeli restrictions, home demolitions and land grabs. The Israeli army has set up close to 1,000 gates across the West Bank, turning communities into open-air prisons. This has a direct and devastating effect on the social fabric, economy and vitality of these communities, which live on land that is grabbed from under them to execute the expansion of illegal settlements, roads and so-called buffer zones around them.

According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Israeli practices and policies over the past two years have cost the Palestinian people 69 years of development. The organisation recently reported that the Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) has shrunk to 2010 levels. This is visible most starkly in Gaza, but it is palpable in the West Bank as well.

The results of these policies and this reality are Palestinians leaving their homes and Israel expanding. During the summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a local news station he was on a “historic and spiritual mission”, in reference to the vision of the Greater Israel that he said he was “very” attached to.