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US sanctions Russian oil companies as Moscow holds nuclear drills

The U.S. Treasury Department said Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, were targeted in a bid to damage Moscow’s ability to fund its war machine.

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The United States hit Russia’s major oil companies with sanctions on Wednesday and accused the Russians of a lack of commitment toward ending the war in Ukraine, as Moscow conducted a major training exercise involving nuclear arms, Reuters reported.

The new sanctions were unveiled one day after plans for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin fell apart. Trump told reporters he cancelled the meeting because “it didn’t feel right to me.”

The U.S. Treasury Department said Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, were targeted in a bid to damage Moscow’s ability to fund its war machine.

The move marked a sharp turnaround for the White House, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine. Only last week Trump appeared ready to hold off on new actions targeting Moscow.

“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. Oil prices extended gains after Bessent’s comments, rising by more than $2 a barrel.

For months, Trump has resisted pressure from U.S. lawmakers to impose energy sanctions, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time.

Trump said he was still not ready to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested. Talking to reporters as he met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said it would take the Ukrainians at least six months to learn how to use them.

Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump said he would like to see Xi use his influence on Putin to halt the fighting. Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries, read the report.

In a fresh show of force, the Kremlin released video showing General Valery Gerasimov, head of the General Staff, reporting to Putin on the drills. Russia said it fired missiles from ground launchers, submarines and aircraft, including intercontinental ballistic weapons capable of striking the United States.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its long-range Tu-22M3 strategic bombers flew over the Baltic Sea, escorted at various points by fighter jets from foreign – presumably NATO – states.

At key moments in the war in Ukraine, Putin has issued reminders of Russia’s nuclear might as a warning to Kyiv and its Western allies. NATO has also been conducting nuclear deterrence exercises this month.

EU countries also approved a 19th package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine, which includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports, the Danish rotating presidency of the EU said on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal said the United States lifted a restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, which would allow Ukraine to increase attacks on targets inside Russia. In a social media post, Trump denied the report.

On Wednesday, Sweden said it had signed a letter of intent to export Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, as European governments act to boost Kyiv’s defences in a war that has ground on for three years and eight months since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and shows no sign of ending soon, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian pilots have been in Sweden to test the Gripen, a rugged and relatively low-cost option compared to aircraft such as the U.S. F-35.

Kyiv aimed to receive and start using Gripens next year and expected to acquire at least 100, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a visit to Swedish defence manufacturer Saab.

Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with heavy overnight missile attacks as renewed uncertainty enveloped the U.S.-led peace effort.

After months of stalled diplomacy, Putin and Trump spoke last week and unexpectedly announced they would hold a summit in Hungary soon.

But following a phone call on Monday between the two countries’ top diplomats, the White House said the next day that Trump had no plans to meet Putin “in the immediate future”. Trump said he did not want to have a wasted meeting – something the Kremlin said Putin also wanted to avoid.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, departing Washington for the Middle East on Wednesday, told reporters the United States would still like to meet with Russia, Reuters reported.

Russian officials said that preparations continued for a summit. “The dates haven’t been set yet, but thorough preparation is needed before then, and that takes time,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The summit delay came after Russia reiterated to the U.S. its previous terms for reaching a peace deal, including that Ukraine cede control of the whole of the southeastern Donbas region, three sources told Reuters.

That amounted to a rejection of Trump’s statement last week that both sides should stop at the current front lines.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency RIA as saying he could not confirm that Moscow had conveyed its position as reported by Reuters.

Through the first nine months of his second term, Trump has pressed for an end to the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.

Sharply critical at times of Zelenskiy, he has also expressed frustration with Putin.

European defence shares rose on the delay to the Putin-Trump summit. Most European governments strongly back Kyiv and have pledged to raise military spending to help Ukraine meet its defence needs.

European Union leaders are due on Thursday to discuss a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to extend a $163 billion loan to Ukraine. Moscow says the scheme amounts to theft and has vowed to retaliate.

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Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, PM Netanyahu says

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Israel ​has ‌rejected U.S. President ​Donald ​Trump’s Board ⁠of ​Peace 15-point ​plan for Gaza, ​and ​will not withdraw ‌until ⁠Hamas fully disarms, ​Prime ​Minister ⁠Benjamin Netanyahu ​said ​on ⁠Sunday, Reuters reported.

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Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says

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Former U.S. President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him severe pain, his son Hunter Biden has said in an interview with the BBC.

“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden told BBC’s Newsnight, according to video of the interview posted online on Friday. He described the illness as “very painful” and “very debilitating in many respects.”

A spokesperson for the 83-year-old Biden declined to comment on Hunter Biden’s remarks on Saturday.

Biden announced in May 2025, less than four months after leaving the White House, that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. At the time, he said the cancer had already spread to his bones.

In October, a spokesperson said Biden was receiving radiation treatment and hormone therapy.

Biden was the oldest person to be elected U.S. president when he won the 2020 election. His physical health and mental fitness also came under increased scrutiny during his presidency from 2021 to 2025.

Biden attended the dedication of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago in June. He served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.

Biden’s presidential memoir is scheduled to be released on November 17.

 
 
 
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US Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, ​calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”

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The U.S. Senate easily passed sweeping Russia sanctions legislation on Friday, advancing a long-delayed measure backed by late ​Senator Lindsey Graham and setting the stage for consideration by the House of Representatives within weeks, Reuters reported.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died ‌last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

It also includes expanded sanctions on Iran sought by President Donald Trump as lawmakers pushed for a vote on the measure well over a year since it was introduced in 2025.

The Senate’s Republican leaders had not ​brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second ​term in January 2025.

The Senate voted 86-11 to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” to sanction ⁠Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, ​calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”

However, broad support may not be enough to secure House passage, with some lawmakers and industries wary that new tariff ​powers for Trump could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers while exposing Republicans to political blowback.

Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, read the report.

“What the bill does grant … are ​sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House ​Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.

Trump’s fellow Republicans control only slim majorities in both the House and Senate.

Only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of ‌Kentucky, voted ⁠against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.

The chamber erupted into applause after Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, read out the final tally.

The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities, Reuters reported.

If it is approved by ​the House and signed into law by ​Trump, the measure would allow the ⁠president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.

The legislation’s backers insist that the tariffs ​are narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine ​without negative consequences.

Supporters called the legislation ⁠the best opportunity to support Ukraine, and the strong bipartisan Senate vote provided momentum for it to pass the House after it returns from its summer recess on August 31.

Graham had announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation.

The legislation lets the president impose targeted ⁠tariffs on ​imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia’s ​evasion of sanctions.

The bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion. The measure includes a provision to ​prevent a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.

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