Newshour

The Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky visits the White House, six months after an Oval Office dressing down, and three days after Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. Several European leaders also flew to DC to show support for Ukraine. But is there any evidence of any progress towards peace? And on what terms? Also in the programme: as Hamas says it accepts the latest Gaza ceasefire offer, our correspondent Lucy Williamson reports from the West Bank, where she witnessed Palestinian farmers being attacked by settlers; plus a cartographer explains why many maps literally distort our picture of the world - a problem the African Union has now joined calls to correct. (IMAGE: United States President Donald J Trump (R) meets President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (L) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 18 August 2025 / CREDIT: Photo by PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock)

President Zelensky has condemned the latest deadly Russian attacks on Ukraine, ahead of his talks with President Trump and European leaders in Washington. Mr Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out what he called demonstrative killings to 'humiliate diplomatic efforts' to end the war. Ukraine says at least ten people have been killed in strikes on Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Also the Egyptian foreign minister and the Palestinian prime minister are visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to highlight the need for more food aid to get through. We have an interview with the Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Mustafa. And Croatian ultra-nationalist mega-gig exposes divided society. (Photo: A residential area damaged by strikes in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine, on Monday. Credit: EPA)

Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, says Vladimir Putin has agreed to 'robust' security guarantees for Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has welcomed the US offer - we'll get more details about what was discussed at the summit in Alaska. Also in the programme: the robots that imitate athletes; and we look back on the life of the English actor Terence Stamp, who has died aged 87. (Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Brussels; 17 August 2025. Credit: OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA/Shutterstock)

What next for Ukraine? EU leaders have said they intend to travel to Washington as President Zelensky prepares for talks with Trump. Also in the programme: Hostage families have called a general strike in Israel; and the great Mayan forest and efforts to save it. (Photograph: President Zelensky and Ursula Von der Leyen in Brussels. Credit: Shutterstock)

Vladimir Putin has reportedly demanded a Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for a freezing of front lines elsewhere. The Russian president made the demand during Friday's meeting with President Trump in Alaska, according to sources involved in the talks. We speak to Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Also in the programme: Environmentalists have welcomed a deal signed by Mexico, Belize and Guatemala to protect the second large rainforest in the Americas; and are mangoes good for diabetes? (Photo credit: Getty Images)

Donald Trump has said he, along with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, have determined that a peace agreement was preferable to a ceasefire in the conflict between the two warring nations. The announcement comes after Mr Trump's high-profile summit in Alaska with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin ended without an agreement. We'll hear a Ukrainian response to the sight of President Putin being given a red carpet welcome in Alaska and get reaction fom the foreign minister of the Czech Republic. Also in the programme: Violent clashes erupt in Serbia's capital after demonstrations by pro-government and anti-corruption groups; and we mark 80 years since the publication of George Orwell's Animal Farm. (Photo shows US.president Donald Trump at a press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska,on 15th August 2025. Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

The world’s media watches as the presidents of Russia and the USA meet in Alaska. Russian officials say they want to discuss broad US-Russian relations, but on Air Force One President Trump said he wanted to focus on Ukraine. Also on the programme: we hear from an Indian soldier who saw the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the people trying to crack an unsolved code sitting right outside the CIA’s headquarters. (IMAGE: Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage, Alaska, 15 August CREDIT: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Can Donald Trump strike a deal with Vladimir Putin in Alaska today and get a ceasefire in Ukraine - and if so, on what terms? President Trump has previously spoken of 'land swaps' but Kyiv has already rejected the idea. We hear from a teenager who lived under Russian occupation in the Donbas for 10 years, and recently escaped. Also in the programme: the world marks 80 years since Japan surrendered, ending World War Two; and as talks on a global plastics treaty collapse – again – is there any hope countries can ever agree?

There's been fierce international criticism of Israeli plans to build more than three-thousand homes in a controversial settlement in the occupied West Bank. The country's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the move - which will split the territory - will "bury the idea of a Palestinian state". Britain's foreign secretary, David Lammy, described the plan as a "flagrant breach of international law" that "must be stopped". Also in the programme: Humanitarian workers in Sudan say they lack the resources to deal with a deadly cholera outbreak in camps for people displaced by the civil war; what sort of welcome are Alaskans preparing for President Putin; and why are some female Australian birds developing male sex organs. (Photo: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

Ahead of the Trump / Putin meeting in Alaska, we ask what's happened to Ukraine's missing children? Ukraine says thousands have been taken by Russian forces - many indoctrinated in Russian military schools – and some are now fighting on the frontline against their home country. Also in the programme: what are Israelis now thinking and saying about the war in Gaza – and how well informed are people about the conflict? Plus the good news that medication for ADHD may also reduce suicidal behaviours and substance misuse, and even make people less likely to have transport accidents and commit crime. (IMAGE: Children's handprints decorate the wall of the culture centre of the Ukrainian frontline village of Kalynove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, April 11, 2025 / CREDIT: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura)

The US president reportedly told European leaders that his goal for the summit was to secure a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow. Poland's president, Karol Nawrocki, was one of the Nato leaders on the call with the Donald Trump. We'll hear from his foreign policy advisor, Marcin Przydacz. Also on the programme: Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun has warned against foreign interference in the country’s affairs during a visit by a senior Iranian official, as his government takes steps towards disarming Hezbollah; and we'll hear about one project in Australia that's hoping to ease the world's rare earth bottleneck. (Photo: US President Donald Trump delivers a speech as he hosts an event at the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, in Washington, DC, USA, 13 August 2025. Credit: WILL OLIVER/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock)

European leaders are holding talks with Ukraine's President Zelensky ahead of a Trump-Putin summit on Friday. We hear about the latest developments on the frontline in Ukraine. Also in the programme: Will a $5m bounty help capture Haiti's most powerful gang leader? And how toothpaste made from hair could help repair teeth. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (R) attend an online meeting with other European leaders to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, 13 August 2025. Credit: John Macdougall/Pool/ EPA/Shutterstock

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will not abandon the eastern Donbas region -- which has been partially seized by Russia and its proxy forces since Twenty- Fourteen. He warned doing so would give Russia a springboard for future attacks on other areas. Also in the programme: We'll hear from the UN investigator on systematic abuses spreading in Myanmar; a warning over changes to federal funds for scientific research in the US; North Koreans tell BBC they are being sent to work 'like slaves' in Russia; and can cats get dementia? (Photo credit: EPA)

Amid the devastation in Gaza, remarkable stories of hope and resilience do emerge. Sixteen-year-old Sama Nijm, a gifted violinist from Gaza, is using music to bring comfort and healing to the youngest victims of the conflict. Some of the children have lost their parents, and in some cases, their limbs or arms. BBC Newsday's Charlene Rodrigues spoke to Sama, and began by asking her what inspired her to become a violin teacher in the midst of war.

Russia has been trying to tackle a significant labour shortage by recruiting North Koreans; the BBC has been speaking to some of them. Also in the programme: the American surgeon recycling surgical pins and plates in Gaza; and how studying cat dementia can help humans. Photograph: President Putin and Kim Jung Un meeting in Pyongyang in 2024. Credit: Reuters.

Funerals have been held in Gaza City for five journalists from the news channel Al Jazeera who were killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Sunday night - including the prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif. The BBC understands before the war, he worked for a Hamas media team, but Israel accuses him of posing as a journalist, while serving as the head of a Hamas cell. We'll speak to war correspondent Jon Lee Anderson about the killings. Also on the programme: Donald Trump says he's sending in the National Guard to regain control of the hell-scape that he says Washington DC has become; And we'll hear about the beachside solution that's being offered to inveterate snorers. (Picture:Palestinians inspect the destroyed tent of the Al Jazeera team following an Israeli strike, outside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 11 August 2025. Credit: Photo by MOHAMMED SABER/EPA/Shutterstock)

The Israeli military says it targeted 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif, alleging he had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", but has produced little evidence to support that claim. We speak to Al Jazeera's Managing Editor. Also in the programme: The Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay has died from wounds sustained when he was shot at a campaign rally in June; and mentally fit at 96 - we meet the man willing to have his mental arithmetic tested on a television gameshow. (Photo: Al Jazeera staff members gather at the network’s studios, to remember their colleagues Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and another colleague, who were killed in Gaza City by an Israeli strike. Credit: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Israel's Prime Minister defends his plan to seize Gaza City - but the cousin of an Israeli hostage tells us it's a terrible idea, and explains why he's supporting the call for a general strike in protest. Also in the programme: what Russians want from the Putin-Trump summit on Ukraine; and the last news hawker of Paris, about to be honoured by President Macron. (IMAGE: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu holds a press conference for international media, Jerusalem, Israel - 10 Aug 2025/ CREDIT: ABIR SULTAN/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock)

The leaders of Europe's largest military and economic powers have issued a statement, saying that Ukraine must play a role in peace talks, ahead of a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Sergie Marvov, former member of parliament for Vladimir Putin's United Russia party tells our programme that Russia will demand that European troops cannot be stationed in Ukraine following any ceasefire deal. Also in the programme: Mo Salah criticizes UEFA after the killing of Palestinian footballer Suleiman Obeid during an Israeli strike in Gaza. We get the reaction of the Palestinian national football team manager Ehab Abu Jazar; and amid a deadlock over global negotiations to end single use plastics, we hear from John Chweya, President of the Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association. Picture: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk walk to attend a joint press conference following a meeting of the 'Coalition of the willing' at the Mariinskyi Palace, the official residence of the president of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 10 May 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. Credit: SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Hundreds of people have been arrested in London for protesting against the UK government’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. We hear from one of the protest organisers, who says the right to free speech is being undermined, and from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which supports the move. Also in the programme: after President Trump talked about Ukraine giving up territory to Russia, President Zelensky says that's not happening; and the protests in Mexico City against foreign expat gentrification. (IMAGE: Supporters of Palestine Action attend a mass protest organized by the Defend Our Juries group as part of their campaign to end the proscription of Palestine Action, in Parliament Square, London, Britain, 09 August 2025 / CREDIT: TOLGA AKMEN/EPA/Shutterstock)