Thursday morning news: July 24, 2025

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Ukraine-Russia talks » Cameras flashed in Istanbul, Turkey, as negotiators from Russia and Ukraine met across the table Wednesday for a third round of peace talks.

Ukraine wants the meeting to lay the groundwork for a summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But Moscow has played down any expectations of a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the White House says President Trump remains ready to impose heavy secondary sanctions against Russia if there is no peace deal in place soon. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is talking to lawmakers in Washington about those sanctions:

LEAVITT: But the president has always maintained he's the commander in chief and the president for a reason.. And so any decisions that are made with respect to sanctions, the president wants to reserve that authority and that right to himself.

Trump gave Putin 50 days to sign a peace deal or else the U.S. will hit Russia’s trading partners with heavy sanctions.

Gabbard on Obama criminal referral » Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed to reporters that she has referred former President Barack Obama and several of his aides to the Justice Dept for criminal prosecution.

GABBARD:  The evidence that we have, uh, found and that we have released, uh, directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.

She told reporters at the White House that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence documents to craft a false narrative that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia ahead of the 2016 election.

Gabbard also released a declassified report from the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee that scrutinizes the handling of the so-called Russia probe.

The current chairman of the committee, Rick Crawford, says President Trump was the victim of political activists in the intelligence community.

CRAWFORD: Well, I think this is really sad that, um, this fraud was perpetrated on the American people, uh, for almost eight years now, and without any accountability.

But the top Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee, Mark Warner, fired back, saying—quote— “It's just another reckless act by the Director of National Intelligence, so desperate to please Donald Trump that she's willing to risk classified sources.” And he charged that Gabbard and other Trump officials are the ones politicizing intelligence, not the Obama administration.

Former President Obama's office has dismissed the accusation as a "distraction."

Epstein files » Tulsi Gabbard also fielded questions about the Jeffrey Epstein case. She told reporters that she’s seen no evidence to suggest that Epstein had any sort of written list of clients, naming those tied to his trafficking of underage girls.

GABBARD:  If anything comes before me, uh, that that changes, that in any way, uh, support the president's statement that if any credible evidence comes forward, he wants the American people to see it.

Meantime, at the Capitol:

A House subcommittee has voted to subpoena the Justice Department for files in the Epstein investigation.

The bipartisan 8-to-2 vote came just hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and leave Washington for a monthlong break.

The committee has also subpoenaed Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition next month. She would answer those questions from a federal prison.

Trump touts trade deal with Japan » At the White House, President Trump on Wednesday touted a new trade agreement with Japan which he announced one day earlier.

He said he is cutting the planned 25% tariff on Japanese imports:

TRUMP:  We agreed to reduce it to 15 based on the fact that Japan has agreed for the first time ever to open up its country to trade.

The president said American businesses will have greater access than ever before to the Japanese market.

He also said Japan is also planning a new investment of more than a half-trillion dollars in the United States.

Texas lawmakers begin review of floods » State lawmakers in Texas have begun a review of the devastating flash floods that struck Central Texas earlier this month, killing at least 137 people.

Nim Kidd heads the Texas Division of Emergency Management. He told lawmakers:

KIDD: I grieve for those, the families and those lives that have been devastated. The sadness and pain for the families to find and the friends of the 136 now 137 fatalities, uh, it will not leave me, and it drives us forward to do a better job.

Republican State Senator Charles Perry said the Senate panel isn’t seeking to assign blame or “armchair quarterback” as they review the disaster.

PERRY: To do so would undermine the very goal and committee's creation. The goal of our committee is to find constructive policy solutions, which we will prevent future loss of life.

State and county emergency response officials are testifying, but no officials from Kerr County, the hardest-hit area.

Twenty-seven campers and counselors, most of them children, were killed at the all-girls Christian summer camp in Kerr County, which does not have a warning system along the river.

NY photographer win » New York prosecutors are backing down in a legal battle with a Christian photographer over her First Amendment rights. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Prosecutors have agreed not to enforce the state’s nondiscrimination law against photographer Emilee Carpenter.

She argued the law would force her to violate her religious beliefs by photographing same-sex weddings.

The settlement ends a yearslong legal fight.

Before the agreement, Carpenter had faced the possibility of losing her business, jail time, and fines of up to $100,000.

She was represented by the nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom. Attorney Jonathan Scruggs told WORLD that while the settlement directly protects only Carpenter, it sends a clear message that Christians across New York will have stronger protections for living out their faith.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: .State attorneys general urge the N-C-A-A to restore fairness in women’s sports.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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