While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 23, 2025
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US President Donald Trump holding a photo of himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, while speaking in the Oval Office on Aug 22.
PHOTO: TIERNEY L. CROSS/NYTIMES
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Trump again threatens Russia sanctions
US President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia on Aug 22 if there is no progress towards a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Mr Trump said.
He was unhappy about Russia’s strike on an American-owned factory complex in Ukraine this week, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said on Aug 22 that Russia was doing everything it could to prevent a meeting between him and Mr Putin, while Russia’s foreign minister said the agenda for such a meeting was not ready.
Ukraine warns Belarus against provocations
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Aug 22 warned Minsk against staging provocations during joint Belarus-Russian “Zapad” military drills in September and called on European partners to remain vigilant.
“The build-up of Russian troops on the borders of Ukraine in 2021-2022 took place under the cover of the joint military exercises of Russia and Belarus ‘Zapad-2021’. We warn Minsk against reckless provocations,” the ministry said on X.
It urged Belarussian authorities “to remain prudent, not to approach the borders and not to provoke” Ukrainian armed forces.
Trump nominates Sergio Gor as ambassador to India
PHOTO: AFP
President Donald Trump said on Aug 22 he would nominate Sergio Gor, one of his closest aides, to be the next US ambassador to India, where he will oversee frosty relations that have worsened with the planned doubling of US tariffs on India next week.
Mr Gor, who is currently the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, would also serve as a special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs.
Mr Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account that Mr Gor would remain in his current position until he is confirmed for the India post by the US Senate.
Maxwell never saw Trump behave inappropriately
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, told a top Justice Department official in July that she never saw President Donald Trump in an “inappropriate setting”, according to a transcript of an interview released on Aug 22.
“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript of her two-day interview in July with Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche.
“The President was never inappropriate with anybody.”
UK delays China embassy ruling over lack of detail
PHOTO: REUTERS
The British government on Aug 22 extended the deadline until October to decide on whether to approve China’s plans to build the largest embassy in Europe in the country’s capital after Beijing refused to fully explain why the plans contained blacked out areas.
China’s plans to build a new embassy on the site of a two-century-old building near the Tower of London have stalled for the past three years because of opposition from local residents, lawmakers, and Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain.
Politicians in Britain and the US have warned the government against allowing China to build the embassy on the site over concerns that it could be used as a base for spying.
