After weeks of concerning releases on the situation unfolding inside “frontier” AI labs, Anthropic has made a move. But not everyone is happy.
The company behind the extremely successful Claude AI assistant has now supplied its own draft of the rule book that aims to “pace the frontier” and stop a potentially catastrophic superintelligence incident.
Under the draft the government could seek to block a model’s release or use if it posed a foreseeable, imminent risk of killing or seriously injuring more than 50 people, or causing more than US$1 billion ($1.44 billion) in damage.
The move has predictably lit a fire under certain safety campaigners, who disagree with the premise that the industry should recommend its own regulations.
It came as a group of anti-ICE protesters were booted from a Trump campaign rally in Georgia.
Donald Trump was riffing on Venezuela’s oil reserves at rally in Dalton when he was interrupted by the audience booing at a group of people waving anti-ICE banners.
Rally staff and security rushed over and escorted the demonstrators – which appeared to be a group of four people – out.
Earlier, Mr Trump fired his new press secretary Katie Zacharia after less than one week in the job.
The US President told reporters on Friday, US time, he told Ms Zacharia she “should reconsider” her role. She was sacked moments later, according to media reports.
Tanker struck by RPG off Saudi Arabia
A tanker has been damaged by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat off Saudi Arabia.
The strike damaged the vessel’s rear-left section about 144km northeast of Al Jubail, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations.
All crew members were accounted for and safe, but the full extent of the damage and any environmental impact still remains unknown.
Authorities are investigating, with ships nearby advised to exercise caution and report suspicious activity.
UKMTO had earlier reported a tanker struck by an unidentified projectile about 126km northeast of Al Jubail. Its crew were safely evacuated, with no environmental impact reported.
Vance's desperate plea to Tucker Carlson
JD Vance has hinted he was in disagreement with Donald Trump over the highly controversial Iran fiasco, urging one of the war’s loudest right-wing critics against abandoning the president.
Trump’s vice has spent a large part of this year attempting to damage control the fallout to a catastrophic war that many say is unnecessary.
During a recent interview with former White House spokesman Sean Spicer, Vance carefully signalled he was not in agreement with Trump on certain issues.
“Even if you disagree with him on that one issue, you can have that disagreement. And I think I have had that disagreement,” Vance said.
He was answering a question about his relationship with Tucker Carlson, the conservative commentator whose opposition to the war has put him at odds with a man he once heavily endorsed.
Vance described Carlson as “very, very angry” about the conflict.
That’s quite the understatement.
The former Fox News host has committed to a near-daily podcast on the matter, insisting the US had been hijacked by foreign interests. He has build an extremely large following in the US, capitalising on the troves of MAGA deserters who have become increasingly vocal in 2026.
“He and I have had that conversation in private, in public. I know how he feels, and I understand,” Vance said.
His appeal was for Carlson to weigh the war against the president’s other policies, including on borders and university admissions, rather than discard his support entirely.
“What I’ve said to Tucker is don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater … Aren’t closed borders and ending the ridiculous anti-white racial discrimination in our university admissions, aren’t these things worth actually acknowledging that Donald Trump has done a lot of good?”
Politician at heart, Vance’s comments were exceptionally vague. It is still unclear what he actually disagreed with Trump about on Iran.
His earlier position before taking office was much easier to follow.
“And our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran,” he told The Tim Dillon Show in October 2024, warning it would be “massively expensive to our country”.
Since taking office, however, Vance has repeatedly defended the administration’s actions. At a September 3 briefing, he resisted even describing the conflict as a war.
“I wouldn’t call it a war,” he said. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”
In a Reuters interview published on October 6, he was still defending the administration’s stated goal, despite the polls showing Americans were fed up.
“The goal here is to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon, and really to prevent regional nuclear proliferation,” he said.
AI giant drafts law to stop catastrophe
After weeks of concerning press releases on the situation unfolding inside the world’s “frontier” AI labs, Anthropic is asking the White House for the power to stop dangerous artificial intelligence.
The company behind the extremely successful Claude AI assistant has now supplied its own draft of the rule book.
The tech giant announced on Friday that it was circulating proposed legislation among US politicians. Warnings about increasingly autonomous systems are now colliding heavily with the industry’s determination to keep accelerating runaway developments.
Under the draft the government could seek to block a model’s release or use if it posed a foreseeable, imminent risk of killing or seriously injuring more than 50 people, or causing more than US$1 billion ($1.44 billion) in damage.
That arbitrary number will be highly discussed amongst safety researchers this week.
The risks would reportedly have to involve biological weapons, cyberattacks or a model evading its developer’s controls.
The Commerce Department would then need a federal judge’s approval to halt the model.
A company spokesperson said the proposal “grants the federal government the ability to block or deter dangerous deployments of the most powerful models.”
“It requires frontier developers to test the most powerful models, be transparent to the public about their findings, submit them to independent evaluation, and maintain a robust security program,” the spokesperson said.
Charlie Bullock, from the Institute for Law & AI, called the proposal “pretty reasonable” and “more than other frontier labs have done”, but considered it “weaker” than the competing FRONTIER Act in some key respects.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark offered a comparison that was a bit easier to grasp for the layman.
Speaking at the most recent round of IMF-World Bank meetings in Bangkok, he said “the toys I buy for my children are regulated more than the literal superintelligence I work on at my day job”.
But for the world’s most ardent safety campaigners, the proposed legislations are still being seen as a weak band-aid to the root issue of eventual superintelligence, which many believe could be impossible to contain.
Nat Purser, US policy director at the AI Verification and Evaluation Research Institute, acknowledged the on-paper provisions but argued the proposal went backwards compared with the FRONTIER Act.
With AI capabilities advancing rapidly, she wrote that “it just doesn’t make sense to cement a weaker federal ceiling into place now”.
Lawyer Jay Shooster, who has been extremely vocal on the topic of safety, was even more scathing.
“This bill is outrageous and unacceptable and does not remotely represent the position of the AI safety community,” he wrote on X.
“I urge politicians to think beyond the AI politics of today and consider the AI politics of a year from now.”
Japan falsely warns millions of strongest ever earthquake
Japan has mistakenly issued an emergency warning for an earthquake larger than any on record, sending emergency services scrambling for eight minutes before the error was fixed.
At around midday Friday local time, Japan Meteorological Agency’s system calculated a shake at a whopping 9.9 magnitude, triggering alerts across a vast stretch of the country from Hokkaido to central Japan.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded was Chile’s monstrous magnitude-9.5 disaster in 1960, which killed 1655 people and left about two million homeless.
The actual earthquake that struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula measured in at 6.9. It only produced a light tremor in Hakodate, located in the nation’s north.
“We deeply apologize for causing great inconvenience,” agency official Ayataka Ebita told a news conference, Jiji Press reported.
The eight minute window was enough to rattle several industries across the famously punctual nation of 122 million people.
At Tokyo Disneyland, staff urged visitors to crouch and protect their heads.
“Hundreds of people were there, and everyone’s phones started ringing at once,” one visitor told Fuji News Network in comments translated from Japanese.
Golfer Shiho Kuwaki said she crouched down during a tournament in Chiba as spectators’ phones sounded the alarm.
“I was really scared. I thought it was going to shake, so I crouched down. But it didn’t shake at all,” she said, translated from Japanese.
Tokaido Shinkansen (bullet train) services temporarily stopped between Shin-Yokohama and Toyohashi, as officials rushed to explain the unprecedented withdrawal of a public earthquake warning to customers.
By late Friday, investigators had identified a malfunctioning safeguard that should have excluded readings from stations more than 700km from the earthquake’s epicentre.
Fuji News Network reported emergency changes to the system were implemented that evening and that further investigations were continuing.
The agency also rejected early suggestions the incident was the result of a cyberattack. Officials instead described faults in their existing automated calculations, which reportedly applied a formula intended for domestic earthquakes to a distant event while using inconsistent epicentre information.
'Sanctioned hit': Trump chief of staff arranged fateful Katie Zacharia interview
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles arranged Katie Zacharia’s fateful interview with Fox News Thursday night.
Ms Zacharia was grilled by host Sean Hannity over her first press conference and her legal credentials. Ms Zacharia was ousted hours later on Friday.
A source told Politico the prime time interview was a “sanctioned hit” on Ms Zacharia, who was not Ms Wiles’ preferred choice for the role.
“[White House spokesperson] Danielle [Alvarez] and Susie fed her to Hannity,” a second unnamed source told the US outlet.
A senior White House official, also granted anonymity, pushed back on the claim.
“Susie and Sean do talk, but Susie did not need to feed her to Sean or anybody else. It’s not her style,” they said.
“And Hannity wasn’t the nail in her coffin; her hit [on Fox & Friends] this morning was, as well as her weird answer on being a lawyer,” the senior White House official said.
White House communications director Steven Cheung said reporting on Ms Wiles’ involvement was “speculation.”
“All of this breathless speculation is just that – speculation. And it’s fiction that’s not even creative,” Mr Cheung said.
“Katie took on a very important job, and she will continue to support the President as she transitions to a new role. She is an amazing teammate and tremendous talent.”
A Fox News insider also pushed back on any notion of a “sanctioned” hit.
“It was clear by the end of this week that she did herself in with her own performance. If you can’t answer simple questions about your credentials, that speaks volumes,” they said.
Russia 'poised' to use space weapon on US satellite
Russia is poised to use a space weapon on a US satellite being used by Ukraine, aerospace experts have warned.
Clayton Swope and Chantal Li from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, said Russia’s Cosmos 2612 was on a trajectory bringing it into “very close proximity” to a US-registered commercial satellite.
The satellite, which supports Ukraine, is operated by ICEYE, a company founded in Finland.
“Given Russia’s history of testing on-orbit weapons, policymakers should assume Cosmos 2612 could take an action that threatens the commercial satellite. But the risk extends beyond just one satellite. A Russian counterspace activity in the vicinity of Western satellites should be assessed within the context of aggressive Russian gray zone activities targeting US and European interests,” the academics wrote in a recent article.
“To date, neither the United States nor Europe has been able to deter Russia from expanding the scope and frequency of these gray zone actions. As Russia appears poised to increase hostile actions in outer space to test Western resolve, the United States and Europe should decide how they would respond to a hostile act in space and make that response clear.”
The aerospace boffins said Cosmos 2612 was one of five Russian satellites to execute “unusual” high-energy maneuvers in September. On September 30, Cosmos 2612 placed itself at nearly the same altitude as the ICEYE.
They said such close-proximity operations can have a benign purpose, such as satellite servicing or debris removal. They also indicate the deployment of a kinetic or non-kinetic “counterspace weapon” or a hostile grappling operation.
“No one should assume to know what Russia will do next with Cosmos 2612, but the potential for a threat is there,” Mr Swope and Ms Li wrote.
“Washington and its allies may think that hostile actions targeting a Western satellite would be highly escalatory – but Moscow may be willing to take that risk, believing the West will not respond forcefully.”
“The United States and Europe must respond assertively if Russia makes a hostile act against another nation’s satellite. A muted Western response would signal to Moscow that it can continue to expand the envelope of its gray zone actions with little risk of escalation, with reverberations well beyond outer space,” they added.
Doomsday Glacier melting faster than expected
The world’s widest glacier is melting more aggressively than previously thought, according to new research.
Glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory found Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica could contribute up to 1.2 inches of sea level rise by 2100 – twice previous estimates, according to the research, which was published Monday in the journal Nature Communications.
Scientists found Thwaites’ “grounding line” – the point at which the ice rises up from the seabed and starts to float on the ocean as an ice shelf – was actually a “grounding zone” kilometers wide, according to reporting by CNN.
The report’s lead author Mattia Poinelli said this meant more warm seawater was able to reach deep underneath ice sheets than previously recognised and had caused “vigorous melting.”
At Mouginot Ridge – a large ice ridge on the glacier – the study found there was a 60 per cent chance of it breaking up by the end of the century. The glacier would likely retreat down sloping bedrock toward the next major ridge.
The results “predict greater risk of and exposure for coastal flooding than anticipated in the coming decades,” said Eric Rignot, a report author and professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine.
Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica was nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier because of the catastrophe its collapse would trigger.
UK Army chief issues blunt warning to troops as Putin's shadow war on Europe heats up
The UK’s top army chief has told troops to prepare for war because the world was in “extreme jeopardy.”
Chief of general staff General Sir Roly Walker said the nation was waking up to the prospect of war on its doorstep, adding the days of not thinking about conflict were long gone.
He said UK’s leaders would “very soon” have a frank conversation with the public about how they need to prepare for conflict. This included “consent to sacrifices” to bolster the nation’s defences, he said.
“You didn’t know this, but our nation is going to need you,” he recently told 700 soldiers at Catterick Garrison.
“There was a time that our nation didn’t want to think of a time when it would need its soldiers to fight in a war.
“But as anyone who is studying the trajectory of world affairs, and the geopolitical system within which our nation sits and thrives, will realise, there is extreme jeopardy in the world at the moment.
“And the business of soldiering is coming back into the nation’s psyche.”
It comes as the heads of Europe’s intelligence agencies warned Russian President Vladimir Putin was planning to attack NATO territory.
In September, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said intelligence shared by Poland, Ukraine and NATO indicated Russia could soon conduct drone or missile attacks against countries supporting Ukraine while attempting to portray them as accidents, according to the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
Anti-ICE protesters booted from Trump's campaign rally in Georgia
A group of anti-ICE protesters have been removed from a Trump campaign rally in Georgia.
Mr Trump was riffing on Venezuela’s oil reserves at a rally in Dalton when he was interrupted by the audience booing at people waving anti-ICE banners.
Rally staff and security rushed over and escorted the demonstrators – which appeared to be a group of four people – out.
Mr Trump claimed, without evidence, the protesters had been paid to disrupt his rally.
“You know what? Their mother and father are watching and they’re going to smack those kids around when they go home tonight. Because they both voted for Trump. Everybody voted for us,” he quipped afterwards.
He also praised a woman in a yellow cape who helped escort protesters out of the venue.
“Did you see her? To hell with the women’s sports stuff. She went up there and ripped them out of their seats and took them the hell out of here,” he said.
“Man, she was great. I’m going to bring her to Washington. I love her.”
Mr Trump also lambasted the media outlets in attendance, calling them “fake news” and accusing them of wanting to exaggerate the protest.
It comes as a string of Trump rallies have been disrupted by protesters.
Trump in 'no rush' to name Katie Zacharia replacement
Donald Trump is in no rush to name a replacement for former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia.
The White House has not had a press secretary in place since Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy said he spoke to Mr Trump, who was on board Air Force One to a campaign rally in Georgia.
“President Trump says that he is in no rush to name a replacement for the press secretary,” Mr Doocy said.
“The gist of it is they haven’t had a press secretary for a couple of weeks after Karoline Leavitt left and the president thinks that things have been going okay.
“As for potential replacements, there’s no shortlist at the moment but he [Mr Trump] says a lot of people have been calling him because he says that people know if you get that job, it makes a star.”
Ms Zacharia was reportedly fired by Mr Trump just after five days in the role.
Armed bystander who killed Oregon school shooter is 'traumatised,' mother says
The armed bystander who shot dead a teenage gunman at an Oregon elementary school is said to be traumatised by the incident, his mother has said.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, was on his lunch break when he heard gunshots at Silver Rail Elementary School in the city of Bend Thursday afternoon.
Mr Giamanco saw the 16-year-old shooter enter the school and followed him in and shot him dead.
The 36-year-old’s mother Kenda Freeman told The Times her son was not seeking recognition for his brave efforts.
“He’s traumatised, that’s all’s I’m going to say,” Ms Freeman, 50, said. “He’s absolutely a hero. I’m very proud.”
The family added in a statement: “He is not seeking recognition but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support.”
The Times reports Mr Giamanco has two daughters at Silver Rail Elementary School.
US President Donald Trump on Friday praised Mr Giamanco as a “great hero,” saying the situation could have been “much worse.”
The 16-year-old attacker, named by his mother as John J Griffin II, killed three children – aged five, eight and 11 – and a teacher. Another child and teacher were critically wounded.
Musk reportedly behind Ukraine Starlink throttling
SpaceX founder Elon Musk reportedly urged Donald Trump to cap Starlink’s speed in Ukraine.
The tech billionaire is said to have approached the president with a plan to place speed limits on the much-used system, according to four sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the UK’s Telegraph.
Mr Trump was allegedly supportive of the plan. The Pentagon is claimed to have then slowed down Starshield, the military-grade version of the satellite communications system.
Earlier this week, Mr Musk blamed his former boss for the debacle, claiming any changes would have been decided by the US military and ultimately the president. Mr Trump has firmly denied these accusations.
Mr Musk was also shocked by the devastation caused by a recent Russian missile attack on Kyiv which left 600,000 in a blackout. The tech titan was said to have been alarmed about a negative reaction from customers in Europe.
“He tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it. The reality is that they were both in it,” one source told The Telegraph.
A high-ranking European official and two well-placed Ukrainian sources also confirmed this version of events.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian troops noticed a slowing down on Starshield to around 160kmph. This made is almost impossible to intercept Russia’s barrages of jet-powered drones and missiles, which travel double the speed.
Ex-White House press secretary takes swipe at Zacharia
Former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci has taken a light-hearted swipe at Katie Zacharia.
Mr Scaramucci previously held the record for the shortest tenure as press secretary when he was fired after just 11 days in the role during the first Trump administration.
Ms Zacharia, who was reportedly fired by Donald Trump just five days after taking the role, now holds that record.
A senior White House official later told Fox News Ms Zacharia was now “transitioning out” of the role. It is not clear when she will leave the White House payroll.
“Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” Mr Scaramucci posted on X.
In a follow-up post a short time later, Mr Scaramucci appealed directly to Ms Zacharia.
“Dear @katiezacharia — speaking as the world’s leading expert on short White House tenures: turn off the news and go enjoy your family. In time you’ll realise that the Universe did you a major favour,” he wrote.
Ms Zacharia’s first press briefing earlier this week was widely panned. She seemed unsure of her notes, confused her husband for “my President” and only took three questions.
She was also forced into a humiliating climbdown when she revealed she never passed the bar exam.
Trump fires new press sec after just five days
Donald Trump has reportedly fired new press secretary Katie Zacharia after just five days on the job.
On Friday, US time, Donald Trump appeared to throw his new hire under the bus telling reporters he told her – that day – that “Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider” her role as his official spokesman.
“Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this,” he added.
“I will talk to her… “Maybe it’s not for her”.
Mr Trump said Ms Zacharia had been “brutalised” by the media.
The US President was insistent he hadn’t sacked her and it was up to Ms Zacharia to consider her position. But minutes later CNN reported that advisers to the President had said she had been let go.
A senior White House official later told Fox News that Ms Zacharia was now “transitioning out” of the role.
Ms Zacharia’s first press briefing, just days ago, was widely panned. She seemed unsure of her notes, confused her husband for “my President” and only took three questions. One was a Dorothy Dixer and another she couldn’t answer. After 14 minutes she wrapped the briefing up to audible gasps from journalists. Her predecessor Karoline Leavitt’s first briefing lasted 45 minutes.
However, she also had issues with the fact she had referred to herself as a “lawyer”, while Mr Trump had said she was an “attorney”. But media outlets couldn’t find any record of her passing the bar exam in the US. When Mr Trump publicly asked her last week where she had passed the bar, she said “China”.
She later admitted she had not passed the bar exam, and so was not a lawyer, but had worked in a number of law firms including in China.
“I had already pre-registered for the bar exam, and basically during the summer, I knew I would be living in China and the result of the bar would be inconsequential,” she told Fox News on Thursday.
“I sat for it because I didn’t want to have a withdraw status,” she said.
Ms Zacharia’s tenure could be the shortest ever for a White House press secretary taking the crown from Anthony Scaramucci who was infamous for lasting just 11 days – almost three times as long. But it’s also possible the White House will keep her on the payroll just long enough – until the end of next week – so she doesn’t suffer that indignity.
Teen former student identified as elementary school killer
A teenaged former student of a school where three children and one teacher were killed on Thursday, US time, has been identified.
It comes as a father of a child at the school is being hailed as a hero for reportedly charging into the school when he saw the gunman and killing him.
John J Griffin, 16, has been identified by various US media outlets as the killer at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, south east of Portland.
It’s claimed he was using his mother’s pump action shot gun when he slaughtered students aged 5, 8 and 11 as well as the 54-year-old teacher.
The 5-year-old victim has been identified as Rhoam Summer, who had just started kindergarten last month.
“Today has been the worst day of my life,” the boy’s heartbroken father, Kelik Summer, posted on Facebook.
“My son Rhoam was killed in a school shooting. We are broken and lost, but are surrounded by friends and family who are keeping us safe.”
A seven year old is in a critical condition.
Authorities have said Griffin’s parents are cooperating.
Police said they received a 1pm emergency call from a man whose vehicle was targeted with fire just outside the school.
It’s the claimed Griffin went over a fence into the school grounds then forced open a door to go inside.
Police said they turned up at 1.02pm – three minutes later – by which time Griffin had killed four people but himself been shot by a bystander.
'That's a disgrace': Trump lashes out at Zelensky
US President Donald Trump lashed out at his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in a Thursday, US time, TV interview after Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was “done” honouring Trump’s demand to hold off on striking Russian energy sites.
“If you tell me that Zelensky is again shooting at refineries, all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher,” the President told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty. “I think that’s a disgrace. There’s plenty of other targets.”
Mr Trump also described Mr Zelensky as “not a good guy for us to deal with” as the White House tries to resurrect attempts to end the four-and-a-half-year-old invasion of eastern Europe by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the New York Post reported.
“I think they actually both would like to see it end,” the President added, “but I think I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin”.
Order to restrict Ukraine's use of critical satellite 'came from White House'
An order to slow Ukraine’s access to a critical, US-controlled satellite system came from within the White House, a new report claims.
Reuters cites two US officials as stating the Pentagon was instructed to restrict SpaceX’s Starshield service, which is used by Kyiv for battlefield communication and attack and air-defence drones, by people inside the White House.
They did not specify who, however, when approached by the publication for comment a senior official said: “No such request was ever made by the President”.
A senior official separately told Bloomberg the purported order was not personally given by President Donald Trump.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that any limits placed on Starshield are decided by the US military or the president as the government controls those systems.
On Friday Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said the satellite services were still being restored.
“Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is the speed being restored now? Yes,” he said.
Zelensky's dig after Trump calls him 'more difficult than Putin'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked “real leaders” in Europe for their support after US President Donald Trump branded him “more difficult to deal with than Putin”.
Appearing at an EU summit in Brussels, European leaders rallied around Mr Zelensky as Kyiv’s relationship with Washington continues to sour.
“This is no time to withdraw support to Ukraine. This is no time to relieve Russia’s sanctions,” European Council chief Antonio Costa said, while standing beside Mr Zelensky.
“Now it is time to increase our support, to increase our pressure.”
Mr Zelensky said there were no signals that Moscow is ready “to end this war”.
Mr Zelensky said he was grateful: “I’m so thankful that we have such huge support from (the) EU Council, Commission and leaders – real leaders – so that they stay with us from the very beginning of this war”.
Earlier this week Mr Zelensky said he felt “betrayed” by the US after Ukraine was essentially left in the dark when access to a critical US-controlled satellite system was restricted.
It meant Ukraine was battered by ballistic missiles from Russia without any warning.
The unsignaled attacks came after Mr Trump declared an “energy ceasefire” between the two warring nations following the easing of sanctions on Russia by the US.
However, that ceasefire was swiftly broken by Russia who went on to strike Ukrainian power plants and other targets, prompting Mr Zelensky to on Thursday declare Kyiv would be resuming strikes on Russian oil refineries after a three day pause.
That decision did not go down well with Mr Trump who called it a “disgrace” while speaking to the media on Thursday night, US time.
Mr Zelensky responded to the comment in Brussels on Friday, saying he still finds Mr Trump easier “to deal with than Putin”.
“I defend the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people exclusively,” he said, “We were attacked, occupied and our people were killed. It is only logical that we have the right to defend ourselves.
“In my view, we cannot accept these diesel deals, these agreements, because gas deals will follow. I am absolutely certain of this. After gas, sanctions will be lifted on other things as well,” he added.
Meanwhile President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen pushed for an increase of Russian sanctions at the same EU summit.
“Of course we supported President Trump’s energy ceasefire but we’ve seen that Russia did not respect it, not a single minute,” she said.
“Russia escalated and therefore we have to increase sanctions on Russia… We will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war.”
When asked if Mr Trump had made him a scapegoat for problems in the US, Mr Zelensky smiled at reporters and held his tongue. He said: “This is my answer,” as they laughed.
Canadian PM fumes: 'Working to break us'
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned that the US administration wants to “break” his country apart so they can “own us”, urging voters in Alberta not to gamble with separation.
Speaking to a Calgary rally attended by about 5000 people, Carney delivered an impassioned plea to the oil-rich province ahead of its referendum on Monday.
“This referendum comes at the worst possible time,” he said.
“The world has become more dangerous and divided. Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us.”
Carney did not explicitly name Donald Trump or the United States in that passage, but the warning coincides with Trump’s ongoing trade war with Canada and repeated threats to make it America’s 51st state.
It’s important to note that Monday’s vote will not actually decide whether Alberta leaves Canada. The non-binding question asks whether the province should remain or begin the legal process towards a future binding referendum on separation.
Carney warned the province against treating it as a protest vote.
“Don’t be fooled by the idea you can ‘send a message’ with your vote,” he said.
“This is not poker. A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep division and great uncertainty.”
The prime minister, who himelf grew up in Alberta, acknowledged the province’s long-running grievances over federal energy policies.
“The frustrations that many Albertans have felt are real,” he said.
He has backed a proposed pipeline to the Pacific, arguing it would help reduce Canada’s dependence on the US.
Separatist leader Keith Wilson rejected Carney’s argument that global instability made this the wrong moment.
“The worst timing for this, why? I don’t understand what’s the logic,” he told AP.
“Then it’s the best time for him to get back to Ottawa.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who called the vote but opposes separation, said she had voted to remain.
“Canada can still work,” she said. “We just need to make some changes.”