By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ironic twist, President Donald Trump is set to discuss the war in Ukraine with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a military base in Alaska that was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and still plays a role today.

The meeting is scheduled to take place Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

The base created by merging Elmendorf Air Force Base and Army Fort Richardson in 2010 has played a key strategic role in monitoring and deterring the Soviet Union during much of the Cold War.

FILE – President Donald Trump greets troops after landing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson for a refueling stop en route to Japan for a four-day state visit, May 24, 2019, in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Throughout its long history, the base hosted large numbers of aircraft and oversaw operations of a variety of early warning radar sites that were aimed at detecting Soviet military activity and any possible nuclear launches. It earned the motto “Top Cover for North America” at this time, according to the base website.

While much of the military hardware has since been deactivated, the base still hosts key aircraft squadrons, including the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet. Planes from the base also still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace.

The irony of Putin visiting an American military base that long has — and still does — aimed to counter Russian threats comes as Trump works to reach a ceasefire deal in a war that he promised during the 2024 campaign to end quickly.

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Officials from Ukraine and Europe fear that the one-on-one meeting they will not take part in could lead to an outcome that favors Russian goals.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump was “very clear” that the United States wants to achieve a ceasefire at the summit. Macron spoke after a virtual meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders.

Trump has said any major agreement could involve land swaps and that Zelenskyy and Putin could meet next or he could meet with both leaders.

“There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting, which will be more productive than the first, because the first is I’m going to find out where we are and what we’re doing,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “It’s going to be a very important meeting, but it’s setting the table for the second meeting.”

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday mocked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to help with Iran’s water crisis.

Pezeshkian said on X that Israel has denied Palestinians access to water and food, so can’t be trusted.

“A regime that deprives people of Gaza from water and food says it will bring water to Iran? A MIRAGE, NOTHING MORE,” he said.

Pezeshkian also said during a Cabinet meeting in Tehran that “those with a deceptive appearance are falsely claiming compassion for the people of Iran.

“First look at the difficult situation of Gaza and (their) defenseless people, especially children who are struggling … because of hunger, lack of access to potable water and medicine, because of a siege by the brutal regime.”

Netanyahu addressed Iranians in a video message on Tuesday, pledging that Israel would help solve the country’s severe water shortages once Iran is “free” from the current government, according to Israeli media, including The Jerusalem Post.

The remarks represent a transformation from a state of a war to political spats. In June, Israel carried out waves of airstrikes on Iran, killing nearly 1,100 people, including many military commanders. Retaliatory Iranian strikes killed 28 people in Israel.

On Sunday, Pezeshkian told a group off officials that “we do not have water, we do not have water under our feet and we do not have water behind our dams, so you tell me what do we do? Someone comes and tells me what do I have to do?”

He said that “we are in a serious and unimaginable crisis,” and added that his administration is in touch with experts who are trying to find a solution to the problem.

Experts say years of drought and water mismanagement led to the crisis.

The body of a Chisholm, Minn., man was recovered from an Iron Range lake after a canoe overturned.

The incident happened Tuesday on Shannon Lake. According to a news release, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 3:34 p.m. reporting a body floating near an overturned canoe.

The sheriff’s office identified the victim as Louis Vajdl, 76. The news release said Vajdl told family members Tuesday that he was going out to check on wild rice, which he had done for many years previously. When Vajdl was found, he was not wearing a life jacket, the sheriff’s office said.

The incident is still under investigation, pending results from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, but the sheriff’s office said no criminal activity is suspected.

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By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein faces sentencing and a possible retrial in his New York City sex crimes case, but when they’ll happen — and whether he’ll be back in front of another jury — is still up in the air.

Manhattan Judge Curtis Farber said Wednesday he could sentence Weinstein on Sept. 30 — but only if there’s no retrial on a rape charge that the last jury failed to reach a verdict on.

Weinstein, 73, was convicted in June of forcing oral sex on TV and movie production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006. The charge carries a possible sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

At the same time, the jury acquitted him of forcing oral sex on another woman, one-time model Kaja Sokola, but couldn’t decide a charge that he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in 2013.

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Manhattan prosecutors told Farber that they’re ready to take Weinstein to trial for a third time on the rape charge, which is punishable by up to four years in prison. That’s less time than Weinstein has already served.

Mann is on board to testify again, they said.

Prosecutors requested a January trial date, citing witness availability and their own caseload. Farber balked at that, saying a January date is too far away and conflicts with another, unrelated trial he’s already scheduled. He proposed having the trial in the fall.

“The case needs to be tried this year,” Farber said.

Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala agreed, telling Farber he’d prefer a trial at “the earliest the court can accommodate us.”

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said she would ask Mann and other witnesses about their availability for a trial in the fall.

If a fall trial happens, it would likely put Weinstein’s high-profile #MeToo case back in court as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is in the final throes of his reelection bid.

Bragg, a first-term Democrat who made prosecuting sex crimes cases a priority, has expressed satisfaction with Weinstein’s conviction on a criminal sex act charge in the Haley assault and has been resolute in wanting the Oscar-winning studio boss retried on the Mann rape charge.

“The jury was not able to reach a conclusion as to Ms. Mann, and she deserves that,” Bragg said in June. “This work, first and foremost, is about the survivors and that’s why we’re prepared to go forward.”

Aidala told reporters outside court that, in his view, it’s on prosecutors to resolve the rape charge — either by dropping it and clearing the way for sentencing, or promptly taking it to trial again.

Weinstein sat in court in a wheelchair while wearing a blue suit and black-rimmed glasses. The “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” producer is committed to fighting the rape charge at another trial, Aidala said, though the lawyer didn’t rule out the possibility of reaching a deal with prosecutors to end the case.

For now, the trial date remains unresolved, leaving Weinstein’s possible Sept. 30 sentencing in limbo.

At Weinstein’s first trial in 2020, jurors convicted him of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on production assistant and producer Miriam Haley.

Then an appeals court overturned those convictions and sent the case back for retrial because of legal issues involving other women’s testimony.

This spring, a new jury convicted him again of sexually assaulting Haley and acquitted him of doing the same to another woman who wasn’t part of the first trial. But amid fractious deliberations, the majority-female jury got stuck on the charge related to Mann.

Mann has testified that she also had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein, but that she told him “I don’t want to do this” as he cornered her in the hotel room. She said he persevered with advances and demands until she “just gave up.”

Weinstein already stands convicted of sex crimes in California. He denies all of the allegations against him.