By LORNE COOK, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine and its backers in Europe insist that the United States and Russia cannot decide on land swaps behind their backs at a summit this week, but the Europeans concede that Moscow is unlikely to give up control of Ukrainian land it holds.

Ahead of the summit in Alaska on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that a peace deal could include “some swapping of territories,” but the Europeans see no sign that Russia will offer anything to swap. Europeans and Ukrainians so far are not invited to the summit.

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European Union foreign ministers are meeting on Monday following talks on Ukraine among U.S. and European security advisers over the weekend. They are wary that President Vladimir Putin will try to claim a political victory by portraying Ukraine as inflexible.

Concerns have mounted in Europe and Ukraine that Kyiv may be pressed to give up land or accept other curbs on its sovereignty. Ukraine and its European allies reject the notion that Putin should lay claim to any territory even before agreeing to a ceasefire.

“As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of the ministerial meeting.

“A sustainable peace also means that aggression cannot be rewarded,” Kallas said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said “it must be obvious to Poland and our European partners — and I hope to all of NATO — that state borders cannot be changed by force.” Any land swaps or peace terms “must be agreed upon with Ukraine’s participation,” he said, according to Polish news agency PAP.

On Sunday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany would not accept that territorial issues be discussed or decided by Russia and the United States “over the heads” of Europeans or Ukrainians.

Still, it’s hard to ignore the reality on the ground.

Russia in 2022 illegally annexed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine’s east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, even though it doesn’t fully control them. It also occupies the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

On the 620-mile front line, Russia’s bigger army has made slow but costly progress with its summer offensive. The relentless pounding of urban areas has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to U.N. estimates.

“In the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table” in any peace talks after the Alaska summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on CBS on Sunday.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte accompanied by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., left and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., right, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rutte said Ukraine’s Western backers “can never accept that in a legal sense,” but he suggested that they might tacitly acknowledge Russian control.

He compared it to the way that the U.S. hosted the diplomatic missions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1940 to 1991, “acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting (it) in a legal sense.”

Giving up any territory, especially without a ceasefire agreement first, would be almost impossible for Zelenskyy to sell at home after thousands of troops have died defending their land.

Ultimately, Putin is seen as being not so much interested in land itself, but rather in a more “Russia-friendly” Ukraine with a malleable government that would be unlikely to try to join NATO, just as pro-Russian regions in Georgia stymied that country’s hopes of becoming a member.

Zelenskyy insists that a halt to fighting on the front line should be the starting point for negotiations, and the Europeans back him. They say that any future land swaps should be for Ukraine to decide and not be a precondition for a ceasefire.

Claims on land could also be part of negotiations on the kind of security guarantees that Ukraine might receive to ensure another war does not break out.

The Europeans believe Kyiv’s best defense is strong armed forces to deter Russia from striking again. They insist there should be no restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s army and the equipment, arms and ammunition it can possess or sell.

Beyond that, they say Ukraine should not be constrained in its choice of joining the EU or being forced to become a neutral country. The Trump administration has already taken Ukraine’s membership of NATO off the table for the foreseeable future.

Associated Press writers Dasha Litvinova, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

NEW YORK — When Carlos Correa picked up the phone on the afternoon of July 31, he could almost sense the words he was about to hear by the tone in Derek Falvey’s voice.

“Something was different, and that’s when I knew,” Correa said.

Suddenly, he had a decision to make.

Correa had never envisioned leaving the Twins, but given the option to go back to Houston, where he began his career, where he maintains his offseason home, where he would be playing for a first-place team, or stay in Minnesota, where it became clear that much of the roster was about to be torn down as the Twins hit the “reset” button.

The three-time all-star took time to process his options. He called his wife, Daniella, a Texas native. He phoned his agent, Scott Boras. Then he chose Houston, and waived his no-trade clause.

“I love Minnesota. I love my house there, living there and the people. So, I never thought I would leave,” Correa said Sunday, hours before he went 2 for 5 with a home run in the Astros’ win over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. “Then this opportunity arose where the situation in Minnesota, the next three years, I don’t want to be rebuilding. I wanted to be able to have a chance to win.”

Increasingly, that looked less and less likely in Minnesota.

Correa and Falvey, the Twins’ president of baseball and business operations, had spoken on Wednesday. Falvey, he said, did not use the word “rebuild,” but the infielder got the sense that the trades — many of them — were coming.

Still, he didn’t think the sell-off would include him. Correa found out on Wednesday morning that the Astros, the team that drafted him first overall in 2012, had engaged the Twins in trade conversations. Correa’s contract included a no-trade clause and there was only one team he would waive it to go to.

Talks weren’t close initially.

The Astros wanted the Twins to pay down more of Correa’s contract — he is making $36 million this year and had three more years remaining on his six-year, $200 million contract after this one — while the Twins were trying to shed payroll.

Correa traveled to Cleveland with his teammates that Wednesday night and on Thursday, the day of the trade deadline, he detached from his phone and everything going on. The noted Marvel fan instead went to the movies to see “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”

After the film finished, he headed back to the team’s hotel. He was hanging out there when Falvey called.

He approved the deal and was heading back to Houston. In return, the Twins received minor league pitcher Matt Mikulski, who has yet to pitch above Single-A Advanced at age 26. The Twins were sending money along with Correa, but will ultimately save around $70 million across the life of the contract.

Almost as stunningly as he arrived, Correa was gone.

Minnesota Twins’ president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, left, takes questions alongside Twins’ Carlos Correa, center, and agent Scott Boras during a baseball press conference at Target Field, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Minneapolis. The team and Correa agreed to a six-year, $200 million contract. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Twins first agreed to a middle-of-the-night deal with Correa in March of 2022 after he was unable to find the long-term deal he was looking for in free agency during the lockout-disrupted offseason. He signed a three-year, $105.3 million deal with the Twins but opted out after a strong first year in Minnesota in search of a more-permanent home.

He seemed to find it in San Francisco, and then New York, agreeing to deals with the Giants and Mets before each team backed out because of an ankle issue stemming many years back. Finally, he told Boras to get him to Minnesota. The Twins had been interested in bringing him back, though they were not offering nearly as much as either of the other two clubs.

Still, Correa’s contract, the largest in team history, represented a large financial commitment from ownership. Months later, the Twins made another big commitment, handing out a four-year contract extension to ace Pablo López worth $73.5 million.

Those two helped the Twins win a division title in 2023. Once in the playoffs, the Twins laid to rest their 18-game playoff losing streak, which dated back to 2002, before eventually falling in the American League Division Series to the Astros.

It was a time of great optimism in Minnesota. The taste of playoff success had seemingly rejuvenated the team and its fanbase. But almost as soon as that hopefulness returned, it was tugged away when ownership decided to slash payroll.

“I think it was a shock to all of us after the playoffs in ’23 and then when they cut back, it was a little confusing to a lot of us in there, but that’s the way it happened,” Correa said.

Even so, he said, “I never thought I would get traded,” even though he was most expensive player on a team intent on lowering its expenses. Less than halfway into the life of his contract, he was on the way out.

He has fit seamlessly back into the Houston clubhouse, reuniting with old teammates such as Jose Altuve and Lance McCullers Jr., with whom he won a World Series with in 2017.

Correa is a third baseman now, welcoming the change after asking the Twins in recent years if he could shift off shortstop, believing it would be better for his health. Though his defensive numbers had slipped a bit, Correa was still the best shortstop within the Twins’ organization, which is why the move never happened.

Houston Astros’ Carlos Correa runs the bases after hitting a home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

It’s something, he said, he started asking about two years ago when he started dealing with plantar fasciitis, first in his left foot and then last year in his right foot, limiting him to 86 games.

“I felt like it would be better for my body and it would also help my hitting because I wouldn’t feel as tired going into the games and the recovery process and all that,” Correa said. “Now that I’m playing third base, I can see how good it is.”

After a slow start to the season at the plate, Correa said he felt good at there in July, though was not getting the results for which he was looking. But through his first nine games as an Astro, he said, “Everything (is) clicking.” Correa is hitting .405 with a 1.098 OPS, two home runs, a pair of doubles and six RBIs since the trade.

He will return to Houston finally — the Astros have been on the road since the trade deadline — on Monday, where he is sure to get a hero’s welcome at Daikin Park. He was never able to accomplish what he set out to do in Minnesota, but now right back where he started, he has that chance again.

“We never got the job done like we wanted,” Correa said. “I wish that would have been the case, but now it’s a new chapter in my journey.”

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By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan visited Capitol Hill just weeks after Inauguration Day, with other administration officials and a singular message: They needed money for the White House’s border security and mass deportation agenda.

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By summer, Congress delivered.

The Republican Party’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law July 4 included what’s arguably the biggest boost of funds yet to the Department of Homeland Security — nearly $170 billion, almost double its annual budget.

The staggering sum is powering the nation’s sweeping new Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, delivering gripping scenes of people being pulled off city streets and from job sites across the nation — the cornerstone of Trump’s promise for the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Homeland Security confirmed over the weekend ICE is working to set up detention sites at certain military bases.

“We’re getting them out at record numbers,” Trump said at the White House bill signing ceremony. “We have an obligation to, and we’re doing it.”

Money flows, and so do questions

The crush of new money is setting off alarms in Congress and beyond, raising questions from lawmakers in both major political parties who are expected to provide oversight. The bill text provided general funding categories — almost $30 billion for ICE officers, $45 billion for detention facilities, $10 billion for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — but few policy details or directives. Homeland Security recently announced $50,000 ICE hiring bonuses.

And it’s not just the big bill’s fresh infusion of funds fueling the president’s agenda of 1 million deportations a year.

In the months since Trump took office, his administration has been shifting as much as $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other accounts to pay for immigration enforcement and deportation operations, lawmakers said.

“Your agency is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Noem during a Senate committee hearing in the spring.

FILE – A protestor holds a sign during a demonstration organized by the Service Employees International Union protesting ICE detentions, in New Orleans, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The senator warned that Homeland Security would “go broke” by July.

Noem quickly responded that she always lives within her budget.

But Murphy said later in a letter to Homeland Security, objecting to its repurposing funds, that ICE was being directed to spend at an “indefensible and unsustainable rate to build a mass deportation army,” often without approval from Congress.

This past week, the new Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, along with a subcommittee chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, requested a briefing from Noem on the border security components of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, which included $46 billion over the next four years for Trump’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“We write today to understand how the Department plans to outlay this funding to deliver a strong and secure homeland for years to come,” the GOP lawmakers said in a letter to the homeland security secretary, noting border apprehensions are at record lows.

“We respectfully request that you provide Committee staff with a briefing on the Department’s plan to disburse OBBBA funding,” they wrote, seeking a response by Aug. 22.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Associated Press the department is in daily discussions with the committee “to honor all briefing requests including the spend plan for the funds allocated” through the new law.

“ICE is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity,” she said. “This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss.”

Deportations move deep into communities

All together, it’s what observers on and off Capitol Hill see as a fundamental shift in immigration policy — enabling DHS to reach far beyond the U.S. southern border and deep into communities to conduct raids and stand up detention facilities as holding camps for immigrants.

The Defense Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies are being enlisted in what Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, calls a “whole of government” approach.

FILE – Federal agents escort a family to a transport bus after they were detained following an appearance at immigration court, July 22, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

“They’re orienting this huge shift,” Bush-Joseph said, as deportation enforcement moves “inward.”

The flood of cash comes when Americans’ views on immigration are shifting. Polling showed 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a “good thing” for the country, having jumped substantially from 64% a year ago, according to Gallup. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now.

At the same time, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has slipped. According to a July AP-NORC poll, 43% of U.S. adults said they approved of his handling of immigration, down slightly from 49% in March.

Americans are watching images of often masked officers arresting college students, people at Home Depot lots, parents, workers and a Tunisian musician. Stories abound of people being whisked off to detention facilities, often without allegations of wrongdoing beyond being unauthorized to remain in the U.S.

A new era of detention centers

Detention centers are being stood up, from “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida to the repurposed federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and the proposed new “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. Flights are ferrying migrants not just home or to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison but far away to Africa and beyond.

Homan has insisted in recent interviews those being detained and deported are the “worst of the worst,” and he dismissed as “garbage” the reports showing many of those being removed have not committed violations beyond their irregular immigration status.

FILE – White House border czar Tom Homan speaks with reporters at the White House, Aug. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

“There’s no safe haven here,” Homan said recently outside the White House. “We’re going to do exactly what President Trump has promised the American people he’d do.”

Back in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, emerged from their private meeting saying Trump administration officials were “begging for money.”

As Graham got to work, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a leading deficit hawk, proposed an alternative border package, at $39 billion, a fraction of the size.

But Paul’s proposal was quickly dismissed. He was among a handful of GOP lawmakers who joined all Democrats in voting against the final tax and spending cuts bill.