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Rubio doubts 'anything productive' will happen in Ukraine peace talks without Trump, Putin

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Rubio doubts 'anything productive' will happen in Ukraine peace talks without Trump, Putin

Secretary of State Macro Rubio cast a pessimistic tone ahead of talks in Turkey now set for Friday after both Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump said they would not be in attendance. 

The peace talks, which were supposed to happen on Thursday, got thrown into disarray after both Russian and Ukrainian delegations, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, landed in various cities in Turkey as confirmation arrived that not only would Putin not be engaging in the discussions, but neither would senior members from the Kremlin.

According to reports, frustration grew as the delegations and mediators spent much of the day questioning when, and even whether, they would meet on Thursday before the meeting was ultimately pushed to Friday.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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“Frankly, at this point, I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters. “It’s going to require that level of engagement to have a breakthrough in this matter. 

“I don’t think anything productive is actually going to happen from this point forward… until they engage in a very frank and direct conversation, which I know President Trump is willing to do,” he added. 

The peace talks first came about after Putin suggested last week that Ukraine and Russia should engage in direct talks. Zelenskyy agreed and said those talks should be held by the leaders of the warring nations. 

Trump sparked surprise earlier this week when he suggested he might travel to Turkey from the UAE if progress was made in the talks on Thursday, but it was never previously suggested that the U.S. president, who was set to be wrapping up a Middle East tour, would be present for the negotiations. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey, on May 15, 2025. (Turkish Presidency/Murat Kula/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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The Kremlin on Thursday confirmed Putin was not going to participate in the peace talks. 

Aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Trump suggested Putin did not attend because of a scheduling miscommunication and told reporters that there was no hope on any real progress in negotiations until he and Putin speak.

“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together. OK?” Trump said. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. 

“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” he added.

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Any future plans for Trump and Putin to talk remain unknown.

“What I can say with certainty is that the president’s… willing to stick with [this] as long as it takes to achieve peace,” Rubio said. “What we cannot do, however, is continue to fly all over the world and engage in meetings that are not going to be productive.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, on May 15, 2025, ahead of potential peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey. (Umit Bektas/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“The only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is with President Trump sitting face to face with President Putin and determining once and for all whether there’s a path to peace,” he added.

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Zelenskyy did not hold back in expressing his frustration over what he said is proof that Putin’s “attitude is unserious.”

“No time of the meeting, no agenda, no high-level of delegation – this is personal disrespect to Erdoğan, to Trump,” Zelenskyy reportedly said at a Thursday news conference after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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Google puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push

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Google puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is deepening a push into enterprise software, signaling to investors at Google’s annual ​cloud conference that AI agents — human-like digital assistants — are a lynchpin of its strategy to monetize artificial intelligence.
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Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report

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Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report

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Some landlords in England are apparently advertising “Muslim-only” apartments online, according to a local media report.

An investigation by The Telegraph found that alleged listings posted in London on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram feature phrases such as “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “Muslims preferred.”

Other ads appeal to Punjabi and Gujarati speakers, while some job vacancies on the platforms are advertised for men only.

Some listings specify “Hindu only,” in addition to posts that likely use religious subtext by stating: “The house should be alcohol and smoke-free.”

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On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” “one double room is available for Muslims,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” A Meta spokesman told Fox News Digital that Facebook then removed the company’s page “for violating the platform’s policies on discriminatory practices.”

Apartment buildings in Westminster, London, U.K. (John Keeble/Getty Images)

The ads run afoul of Britain’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race and other protected characteristics.

“These adverts are disgusting and anti-British. It goes without saying that there would be a national outrage if the tables were turned,” Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, told The Telegraph. “All forms of racism are unacceptable, and no religious group should get a special exemption to discriminate in this way.”

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Houses and properties line Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London, U.K. Some landlords in the city are illegally advertising for “Muslim only” tenants across the city, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images)

One landlord told The Telegraph to “go away” when asked about an ad for a “Muslims only” room for $1,150, and whether it was available to renters of other faiths.

A spokesperson for Gumtree told the newspaper that the company has clear policies in place that prohibit unlawful discrimination.

On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“We take reports of inappropriate listings very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The ads referenced appear to relate to private rooms within shared homes, where existing occupants may express preferences about who they live with. This is different from renting out an entire property, which is subject to stricter rules under the Equality Act.”

Telegram did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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Is Europe too late to the metal recycling game?

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Is Europe too late to the metal recycling game?

Europe’s critical raw materials crisis has a partial answer sitting in the waste stream — but the continent has been too slow to see it.

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Dorota Włoch, CEO of Eneris Surowce, was direct: recycling is no longer optional.

Unlike plastics, metals can be recovered and reused indefinitely, making urban mining — the recovery of raw materials from existing products and waste — increasingly valuable, particularly for batteries.

“From recycling, we recover metallic aluminium and so-called black mass, which is a concentrate of metals, mainly cobalt-nickel. These are some of the most valuable battery metals. And batteries are crucial today, not only in the automotive sector, but also in storing energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar,” she said.

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‘Europe is 25 years late’

Włoch put the scale of the problem plainly. “Deposits are critical — any machine can be bought, but natural resources are not. They are non-transferable and non-renewable. If we use them, they simply disappear,” she said.

Europe’s belated recognition of that reality has cost it dearly.

“The regulation of critical raw materials came 25 years after other regions of the world had invested heavily in deposits. Europe was too passive. Today we are catching up, but the regulations are often so demanding that countries like Poland have difficulty implementing them.”

Who benefits most from extraction?

Poland holds significant reserves of raw materials critical to the modern economy, such as copper, coking coal, nickel, platinum group metals, helium, rhenium, lead and silver.

But the minerals needed most for the energy transition, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, exist only in limited quantities, forcing imports.

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Arkadiusz Kustra, dean of the faculty of civil engineering and resource management at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, told a panel at the European Economic Congress that awareness of the full supply chain, and who profits from it, was now essential.

He pointed to Serbia as a case study.

“Serbia has lithium deposits and is already in talks with Mercedes or Stellantis,” he said. Belgrade is using that leverage to attract investment in battery factories and car plants, keeping more of the value chain at home.

The goal, Kustra argued, should be regional supply chains that retain added value locally.

“You can earn the least at the beginning and the most from the end customer,” he said.

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The bigger obstacle is Chinese dominance.

“Margins in critical raw materials largely go to the Chinese, who control more than 90% of processing and trading, even though they do not own most of the deposits,” he said.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo — among the world’s most resource-rich countries — Chinese entities control around 90% of deposits.

The panel also pointed to growing interest in new supply partnerships, with Poland eyeing assets in the Congo region and the Americas.

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