International
Trump to host pivotal Alaska summit with Putin next week

Quick Hit:
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday, August 15. The announcement follows months of backchannel talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, including a recent meeting between Trump’s special envoy and Putin in Moscow that the White House called “highly productive.”
Key Details:
- In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump wrote: “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. Further details to follow.”
- CBS News reported that planning for the meeting remains “fluid,” with a senior White House official noting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could “end up being involved in some way.”
- Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov confirmed Thursday that a venue had been agreed upon after U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow.
Diving Deeper:
President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he will meet face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week, setting the stage for high-stakes talks on the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“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 wrote on Truth Social. “Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
CBS News, citing multiple sources familiar with the planning, reported that the meeting is still being finalized and could potentially include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The network quoted a senior White House official describing the arrangements as “fluid.”
The Kremlin confirmed that a venue for the talks has been locked in. Top aide Yury Ushakov announced the agreement Thursday, following what Trump described as “highly productive” discussions in Moscow the previous day. Those discussions were led by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who met directly with Putin.
The White House characterized Witkoff’s mission as a last-bid attempt to push forward negotiations that have dragged on for months without significant breakthroughs. While American and Russian officials have met repeatedly this year, U.S. officials acknowledge that Russia’s resistance to concessions has tested Trump’s patience, shifting his stance from early optimism to visible frustration and warnings of consequences.
In a statement to Breitbart News after Witkoff’s trip, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “As President Trump said earlier today on TRUTH Social, great progress was made during Special Envoy Witkoff’s meeting with President Putin. The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky.”
The Alaska meeting—if all sides agree on final terms—would mark the first in-person sit-down between Trump and Putin since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Health
RFK Jr. cuts $500 million for mRNA vaccine projects, says no new contracts will be issued

From LifeSiteNews
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that HHS is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development contracts and moving away from the technology in favor of ‘safer’ alternatives.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has announced it is “winding down” almost $500 million worth of mRNA vaccine projects and rejecting future exploration of the technology in favor of more conventional vaccines, in perhaps the biggest delivery yet of what his supporters hoped for when President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the department.
“We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” Kennedy said in a Tuesday press release. “BARDA [the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority] is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
“Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them. That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions,” Kennedy added.
We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted. BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward… pic.twitter.com/GPKbuU7ywN
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 5, 2025
Some projects will be canceled outright, while others will be modified to shift focus away from mRNA and toward other work. “While some final-stage contracts (e.g., Arcturus and Amplitude) will be allowed to run their course to preserve prior taxpayer investment, no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated,” HHS explains.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who voted to confirm Kennedy after receiving assurance he was less opposed to conventional vaccines than his history suggested, said the move has “conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease,” and “works against” President Trump’s goals to “Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again.”
READ: mRNA vaccines linked to genetic changes that can cause cancer, autoimmune disorders
When asked about HHS’s decision the next day, Trump said “we’re going to look at that” before declaring that his first administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, under which the COVID-19 shots were developed in record time, was “considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” but suggested now the focus was on other solutions for other diseases. “We are speaking about it, we have meetings about it tomorrow … and we’ll determine,” the president said.
Whether or not mRNA research will resume in the future under more rigorous standards, the technology has drawn controversy due to its use by the most prominent COVID-19 shots, which were developed in record time by the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
The federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports 38,709 deaths, 221,030 hospitalizations, 22,331 heart attacks, and 28,966 myocarditis and pericarditis cases as of June 27, among other ailments. U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) researchers have recognized a “high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination,” leading to the conclusion that “under-reporting is more likely” than over-reporting.
An analysis of 99 million people across eight countries published in the journal Vaccine “observed significantly higher risks of myocarditis following the first, second and third doses” of mRNA-based COVID shots, as well as signs of increased risk of “pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis,” and other “potential safety signals that require further investigation.” In April 2024, the CDC was forced to release by court order 780,000 previously undisclosed reports of serious adverse reactions, and a study out of Japan found “statistically significant increases” in cancer deaths after third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 shots, and offered several theories for a causal link.
In May, U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Marty Makary and vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad announced that there would no longer be blanket recommendations for all Americans to receive the shot, but the “risk factors” it would still be recommended for include asthma, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney diseases, a handful of chronic liver and lung diseases, diabetes, disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, heart conditions, HIV, dementia, Parkinson’s, obesity, smoking, tuberculosis, and more. Kennedy Jr. subsequently announced COVID shots would not be recommended to healthy children or pregnant women.
However, in June, the Trump administration approved a new mRNA-based COVID-19 shot from Moderna, for “individuals who have been previously vaccinated with any COVID-19 vaccine and are: 65 years and older, or 12 through 64 with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.”
Brave New Normal
China Fuses with Mexican Cartels in Canada

Brave New Normal is a podcast hosted by Jason James.
Every episode focuses on current events and interesting ideas emerging in the world of culture, politics and more.
Sam Cooper is an investigative journalist and publisher of The Bureau. We discuss the suspicious circumstances around a stay of charges against a Chinese scientist caught with large amounts of MDMA precursor in Richmond, BC, the melding of CCP linked organized crime with Mexican cartels in Canada, and the politicians who appear to be complicit in a vast criminal conspiracy that has caught the attention of the Trump administration in the US.
Read more at The Bureau: https://thebureau.news
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