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WASHINGTON: Donald Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops Sunday to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as the US president seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration.
The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage.
Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing.
In June he controversially ordered nearly 5,000 troops to Los Angeles — ostensibly to quell protests against immigration enforcement raids — triggering ferocious opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential hopeful.
And US media is reporting that the Trump administration also is planning an unprecedented deployment of thousands of National Guard personnel to Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, prompting vocal pushback from Democrats there.
As for Baltimore, “if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, using a derogatory nickname.
Trump’s feud with Moore, who is Black, appeared to escalate dramatically this week, with the governor assailing Trump’s provocative suggestion of deploying troops in Maryland and Trump calling Moore “nasty” and threatening to revoke federal funds to help fix a collapsed bridge.
On Sunday, Moore told CNN he had invited Trump to walk the streets of Baltimore with him so the governor could counter “this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980 scare tactics” used by the president.
“Hey Donald, we can get you a golf cart if that makes things easier,” Moore needled the 79-year-old Trump on X.
Trump for his part said he would “much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk,’” as he cited Moore’s “very bad” record on crime.
Moore said Maryland’s homicide rate has dropped more than 20 percent since he has been governor, “and the last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet.”
Moore, 46, is a US Army veteran, best-selling author, and the third African-American person elected governor of a US state.
The Pentagon meanwhile refused to confirm reports that Chicago would soon receive troops.
Trump had said Friday that Chicago and New York — major Democratic-led cities — would receive National Guard deployments similar to Washington.
“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, strongly rejected the idea.
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to paint their party as one of ‘law and order,’” Pritzker posted on X. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, according to city police, eight percent lower than the year before.

KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Sunday that a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin remained “the most effective way forward” as the two sides exchange prisoners and the country celebrated Independence Day.
Kyiv’s military chief said that Ukrainian troops had recaptured three villages in its Donetsk region that had fallen under Russian control. And Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant.
After a push by US President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, hopes for peace dimmed when Russia on Friday ruled out any immediate Putin-Zelensky meeting.
But Zelensky said Sunday that the “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward,” renewing calls for a bilateral summit with Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier accused Western countries of seeking “a pretext to block negotiations” and condemned Zelensky for “demanding an immediate meeting at all costs.”
Zelensky, speaking at a ceremony attended by Western officials including US envoy Keith Kellogg — whom he awarded with the Ukrainian Order of Merit — vowed to “to push Russia to peace.”
Also Sunday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each sent back 146 prisoners of war and civilians in the latest of a series of swaps that remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the rivals.
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the release of two Ukrainian journalists, Dmytro Khyliuk and Mark Kaliush, denouncing “their abductions and the abuse they suffered in detention.”

3 villages recaptured

With the war having already claimed tens of thousands of lives, Russia has recently claimed new advances, including taking two villages in the eastern Donetsk region Saturday.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky, said Sunday that three other villages had been reclaimed in Donetsk, which has emerged as the focal point for peace talks.
The drone attacks in Russia on Ukraine’s Independence Day included one shot down over the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia.
The plant said a fire sparked by the drone had been extinguished and there were no casualties or increased radiation levels.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the risks from fighting around nuclear plants following Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones had also been shot down over areas far from the front, including Saint Petersburg in the northwest.
Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, sparking a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, local authorities said.
Ukraine’s outgunned army has used drones to target Russia’s oil infrastructure, a key source of Moscow’s revenues to fund the war. Russia has seen soaring fuel prices since the attacks began.
Ukraine said Russia had attacked with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, 48 of which the air force said had been shot down. A Russian drone strike killed a 47-year-old woman in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governor said.

Ukraine marks Independence Day
Speaking at the ceremony to mark the anniversary of Ukraine’s 1991 independence after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Zelensky said: “Today, both the US and Europe agree: Ukraine has not yet fully won, but it will certainly not lose.
“Ukraine has secured its independence. Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.”
The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine once the war ended would be “important,” he said. Kyiv is still working on security guarantees with its allies.
Russia has repeatedly objected to Western troops being stationed in Ukraine.
But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, visiting Kyiv on Sunday, said it was not “the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence, liberty of Ukraine is guaranteed.”
Zelensky thanked other world leaders including Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo for sending messages to mark the occasion.
Norway announced it would contribute seven billion kroner ($700 million) as part of its joint pledge with Germany to provide Ukraine with two complete US Patriot systems that Germany already possesses.
The systems are in Germany and will be delivered to Ukraine “as soon as possible,” the Norwegian government said.
Russia now controls around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
Putin has repeatedly rebuffed calls from Ukraine and the West for an immediate ceasefire.
The fighting has forced millions of people to flee their homes and destroyed cities and villages across eastern and southern Ukraine.