First Thing: Russia and Ukraine to begin first direct talks since 2022

Putin and Zelenskyy will not meet after the Russian president refused to travel to Istanbul for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. Plus, the fitness influencers who fake their impossibly ripped physiques

Good morning.

The first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years are expected to take place today in Turkey – but Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not meet, after the Russian leader declined to join the Ukrainian leader in Istanbul.

Russia has instead sent a low-level delegation, which Zelenskyy dismissed as a “theatre prop”. It is unclear what the Istanbul talks will look like at this stage.

Zelenskyy will meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Ankara, and is reportedly expected to decide about sending a delegation to Istanbul after the meeting.

Will Zelenskyy go to Istanbul? He has indicated he will not travel unless Putin also agrees to attend.

Supreme court to hear birthright citizenship arguments that could expand Trump’s power

The US supreme court will hear arguments on Thursday in a dispute that could massively expand presidential power.

While outwardly the cases appear to concern Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship – which appears set to fail, as it directly contradicts the 14th amendment – his legal team is instead challenging whether lower court judges should be able to block presidential orders nationally.

What is the administration asking for? It wants the scope of judges’ injunctions to be reduced so they only apply to the people, organizations or states that sued.

Trump says US should ‘take’ Gaza and turn it into ‘freedom zone’ as Israeli overnight strikes kill dozens

Donald Trump has said he wants the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”, as the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage in the strip.

“I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” Agence France-Presse reported the president as saying during a visit to Qatar, adding that he would be “proud to have the United States have it”.

Palestinian medics reported that Israeli military airstrikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 60 people; the civil defence agency later put the death toll at 82. The medics said most of the victims, including women and children, were killed in their homes and tents by strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

What is the situation in Gaza? Israel’s blockade is in its third month – as a result, nearly half a million Palestinians face possible starvation, according to findings from a leading food security authority this week.

In other news …

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot on X, Grok, has been repeatedly mentioning the far-right conspiracy theory of a “white genocide” in South Africa in its answers to totally unrelated questions.

Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, has fired the two most senior officials at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) after it contradicted Donald Trump’s reasoning for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans without due process.

The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has refused to say whether he would choose to vaccinate his children today, as he told Congress that “people shouldn’t take medical advice” from him.

Three New Zealand MPs who performed the haka, a Mãori ceremonial war dance, in parliament will be temporarily suspended, in what is believed to be an unprecedented punishment.

Stat of the day: Santander bank accused of funneling $600m to firms funding vast deforestation in South America in 2024

Spanish bank Santander financed firms linked to beef, palm oil, soya and supply chains driving deforestation in South America’s Gran Chaco region to the tune of $600m in 2024, according to international environmental and human rights organisation Global Witness. The bank, which is the 14th largest in the world, is financing what some Indigenous people described as “ecocide”.

Don’t miss this: the fitness influencers who fake their impossibly ripped physiques

Despite the dethroning of the “Liver King” – a bodybuilder who claimed he had achieved his bulging physique through eating a diet of “raw liver, raw bone marrow and raw testicles” – thousands of fitness influencers continue to claim their enormous muscles are all natural. (Brian “Liver King” Johnson turned out to be using $11,000 a month worth of muscle-building anabolic steroids.) With so many viewing the fitness industry as a way to make quick money, Joel Snape looks at this tale as old as time (or at least, as old as performance-enhancing drugs).

Climate check: UK to vote on bill to tax superyachts, private jets and fossil fuel producers

The UK parliament will consider a bill that would target oil and gas firms with levies and scrap their subsidies, while also taxing the owners and users of luxury forms of polluting travel such as superyachts and private jets. While it appears highly unlikely to pass, its backers hope it will increase support for measures to make polluters pay.

Last Thing: what a steal! Harvard’s unofficial $27 copy of Magna Carta turns out to be an original

A Magna Carta document held by Harvard’s law school library has been wrongly labeled an unofficial copy for nearly 80 years, it has been revealed after experts dated it back to 1300. The document is in fact one of just seven issued by Edward I that still survive – and the library bought what it believed was a copy for just $27.50 in 1946.

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com