By DASHA LITVINOVA and EMMA BURROWS

In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shook hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump ended summit praising their relationship and calling Russia “a big power … No. 2 in the world,” albeit admitting they didn’t reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.

By Saturday morning Moscow time, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea of a ceasefire as a step toward peace -– something he and Ukraine had pushed for months -– in favor of pursuing a full-fledged “Peace Agreement” to end the war, echoing a long-held Kremlin position. The “severe consequences” he threatened against Moscow for continuing hostilities were nowhere in sight. On Ukraine’s battlefields, Russian troops slowly grinded on, with time on their side.

The hastily arranged Alaska summit “produced nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for,” said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia.

The summit spectacle

Putin’s visit to Alaska was his first to the United States in 10 years and his first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging U.S.-Russia relations to the lowest point since the Cold War. Crippling sanctions followed, along with efforts to shun Russia on the global stage.

In another major blow, the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin on accusations of war crimes, casting a shadow on his foreign trips and contacts with other world leaders.

Trump’s return to the White House appeared to upend all that. He warmly greeted Putin, even clapping for him, on a red carpet as U.S. warplanes flew overhead as the world watched.

The overflight was both “a show of power” and a gesture of welcome from the U.S. president to the Kremlin leader, “shown off to a friend,” said retired Col. Peer de Jong, a former aide to two French presidents and author of ”Putin, Lord of War.”

Russian officials and media reveled in the images of the “pomp-filled reception” and “utmost respect” that Putin received in Alaska.

Putin has “broken out of international isolation,” returning to the world stage as one of two global leaders and “wasn’t in the least challenged” by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant for Putin from the ICC, Bristow told The Associated Press.

For Putin, ‘mission accomplished’

Putin “came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.”

In recent months, Trump has pressed for a ceasefire, something Ukraine and its allies supported and insisted was a prerequisite for any peace talks. The Kremlin has pushed back, however, arguing it’s not interested in a temporary truce -– only in a long-term peace agreement.

Moscow’s official demands for peace so far have remained nonstarter for Kyiv: It wants Ukraine to cede four regions that Russia only partially occupies, along with the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and shrink its military, the Kremlin says.

After Alaska, Trump appeared to echo the Kremlin’s position on a ceasefire, posting on social media that after he spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire.

The pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda described it as a “huge diplomatic victory” for Putin, whose forces will have time to make more territorial gains.

The summit took place a week after a deadline Trump gave the Kremlin to stop the war or face additional sanctions on its exports of oil in the form of secondary tariffs on countries buying it.

Trump already imposed those tariffs on India, and if applied to others, Russian revenues “would probably be impacted very badly and very quickly,” said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. consultancy.

In the days before Alaska, Trump also threatened unspecified “very severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to stop the war. But whether those consequences will materialize remains unclear. Asked about it in a post-summit interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said he doesn’t need “to think about that right now,” and suggested he might revisit the idea in “two weeks or three weeks or something.”

Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and a former adviser at the Russian Central Bank, posted on X that it was “an important tactical victory for Putin” that gives Moscow “an opportunity to build alternatives and be prepared.”

More pressure on Ukraine

In a statement after the summit, Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” But Trump said “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

In his Fox interview, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy “to get it done,” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.

Zelenskyy will meet Trump at the White House on Monday. Both raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said it wasn’t discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long maintained that Putin would only meet Zelenskyy in the final stages of peace talks.

“Trump now appears to be shifting responsibility towards Kyiv and Europe, while still keeping a role for himself,” Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center wrote on X.

Fiona Hill, a senior adviser on Russia in his first administration, told AP that Trump has met his match because “Putin is a much bigger bully.”

Trump wants to be the negotiator of “a big real estate deal between Russia and Ukraine,” she said, but in his mind he can “apply real pressure” only to one said — Kyiv.

Hill said she expects Trump to tell Zelenskyy that “you’re really going to have to make a deal” with Putin because Trump wants the conflict off his plate and is not prepared to put pressure on the Russian president.

Far from the summit venue and its backdrop saying “Pursuing Peace,” Russia continued to bombard Ukraine and make incremental advances on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front.

Russia fired a ballistic missile and 85 drones overnight. Ukraine shot down or intercepted 61 drones, its air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had taken control of the village of Kolodyazi in the Donetsk region, along with Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine did not comment on the claims. Russian forces are closing in on the strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 but still only partially controls.

“Unless Mr. Putin is absolutely convinced that he cannot win militarily, the fighting is not going to stop,” said Bristow, the former ambassador. “That’s the big takeaway from the Anchorage summit.”

——

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elise Morton and Pan Pylas in London contributed.

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Amy Lindgren

We’re hearing that the job market has tightened, and I’m seeing the signs myself. Between layoffs in nonprofits and government, and downsizing for corporations affected by tariffs or other factors, hiring is slowing noticeably.

Job seekers who want to prevail will need to do more than respond to postings. One option might be hiding in the document you’ve been emailing with all your applications: Your résumé.

“Shopping your résumé” is what I call the process of looking for new work opportunities by reviewing each position you’ve held. While anyone with a work history is a candidate for success here, this is one of those times when older workers have an advantage. They’ve simply worked more places and with more people than younger job seekers.

To get started, gather up your current and previous résumés. (By the way, this exercise is reason enough to save all your old résumés. Even though the oldest jobs may have fallen off the page, so to speak, they still represent your personal and professional history.)

With your work history in hand, the next step is fairly simple: Look at all the employers and rank them — which would you work for again? That would include your high school jobs, by the way. I once had a client who snagged a manager role in a grocery store after completing his driving career. He had enjoyed working in groceries as a teenager and found it even more satisfying in his 60s.

But what if you don’t find an employer in your background that you would work for again? Or what if they don’t really exist anymore?

No worries, the shopping can continue. By my count, there are four categories that can be exploited for potential leads or employment when you sift through your work history: The employer; clients you served for the employer; vendors, partners or consultants you worked with on behalf of the employer; and co-workers / past managers from your time with the employer.

As an example, I introduced this concept to participants in a daylong workshop a few years ago. One fellow took me seriously and when we broke for lunch, he began calling past co-workers. In just an hour, he was able to nail down a meeting with a co-worker’s new boss, at a different company, based on her referral. That was a big grin he was wearing for the afternoon session.

You might have a more intuitive or efficient method, but here’s how I might organize things: On a word processing page or piece of paper, I would list each employer, with subheadings for co-workers, managers, clients, vendors, etc. Then I would populate the sub-sections as best I could.

All kinds of things are going to happen as you do this. First, your memory will play some tricks — was Sally the CPA at XYZ company or was she at Acme? Who was that consultant you were assigned to help back at Acme?

Next, you’ll realize that you don’t know how to reach most folks, or that some have retired or even passed away. This is normal, so keep going — there will be gaps no matter how hard you squint and try to fill them.

Now you have decisions to make. If there’s an employer in your past that you would work for again, do you still know anyone there? If so, you don’t need a complicated plan — just reach out and ask if they’d have time for a cup of coffee or phone call.

If you can’t find a past contact, you can try to make a new one. The gold standard would be the current manager of the department where you’d like to work. If you can find that name and contact information, your outreach could be a short email where you introduce yourself as a former employee who has added skills and industry knowledge, while retaining an understanding of how that company works. Ask for a meeting and attach your résumé, then move on to the next one.

In addition to contacting the employers themselves, don’t forget about the other people on your list. For example, if you regularly attended meetings with people from other companies, they could be good contacts. In all cases, your goal is to have a conversation, ask if they or their departments need help, and ask who else you should contact.

Does shopping your résumé work? In my experience, sometimes it does. Since you can’t know until you try, you’ll have to jump in to find that answer yourself.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

In many cultures throughout history, spring and summer have been associated with rebirth, life and vitality, and are celebrated. But for some people, this time of year is anything but celebratory. For them, warm weather brings on feelings of anxiety and persistent agitation.

In the popular consciousness, Seasonal affective disorder is most often associated with the feelings of depression that arise during cold, overcast winter months — but there is a warm-weather variant as well.

Jami Dumler, regional clinic director for Thriveworks in Pennsylvania, said warm-weather SAD is more associated with anxiety and agitation than depression, and is less common.

“With winter seasonal depression, that might look like increased sleeping, weight gain, lacking energy, withdrawing from your social circles, versus that more agitated summer SAD [which] might look like insomnia, weight loss, agitation or mood swings and anxiety as a whole,” Dumler said.

Winter SAD’s onset is associated with the changing of the seasons and the cold weather, being stuck indoors, shorter days and less sunlight exposure. However, Dumler said, there is a correlation between extreme heat and agitation. People on psychiatric medications such as antidepressants or mood stabilizers, for example, may have more difficulty regulating their body’s temperature, she said.

Dr. Dhanalakshmi Ramasamy, psychiatrist at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley Health Network, said increased sunlight also can lead to sleep disturbances, which can have a downstream effect on mental health. However, Ramasamy added, SAD during warm weather months is not quite as well understood as the winter variant and more research is needed.

Dumler added that for people who are already prone to depression or anxiety, the onset of summer SAD may have a compounding effect. Even beyond SAD, summer and spring can create mental health challenges for some. Suicides and suicide attempts tend to be higher in spring.

“It can be a challenging time of year when folks are turning a corner and seeing the joy and brightness of summer, getting out and getting active, and if you are still struggling, that can feel really alienating and lead to people stepping more into that suicidal space,” Dumler said.

The warm weather months and all that go with it can cause flare-ups or problems for people with other mental health conditions or mental illnesses, doctors said.

Dr. Jordan Holter, psychiatrist with St. Luke’s Penn Foundation, said going to pools or the beach may have impacts on people with body dysmorphia, as wearing more revealing clothes may be triggering.

Holter added that for children with conditions like autism spectrum disorder or who have intellectual disabilities, the loss of a structured environment may be disruptive and exacerbate their condition. For children with ADHD, depression or anxiety, the return to school and all the stresses and pressures that come with it may lead to visits to the emergency room, he said.

“By having them be outside of a structured setting, that can oftentimes exacerbate those symptoms and that can cause anxiety,” Holter said. “Oftentimes, what happens too is they call it like a like a drug holiday — people that have been diagnosed ADHD are on stimulants oftentimes, will frequently be recommend to go off of the medication for a brief period of time, usually during the summer months where they don’t really have the same kind of academic demand, where they need to focus and concentrate. Because of that, you can oftentimes have a remission, reemergence of those symptoms.”

Ramasamy said that overall, LVHN sees fewer children presenting to emergency departments during the summer but those who do show up usually present with more severe and complex issues.

All the mental health professionals The Morning Call spoke to said that taking care of your mental health during summer is possible with available tools.

Dumler said that for her patients, she prioritizes social connection, physical health and mental health.

“Often, if you have both or all three of those things going, you’re going to have more impact than just focusing on one,” Dumler said.

Getting exercise, eating a healthy diet with lots of fiber, and taking time to plan things with family and friends can all play a part in improving mental health during the summer. She added that light therapy can help in treating both summer and winter variants of SAD.

Holter said selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants and traditional therapy are, of course, options as well.

Ramasamy said one of the things she recommends is making lifestyle modifications that allow people to increase the levels of vitamin D in their bodies. She said another is adopting good sleep hygiene habits like going to bed at a consistent time and not spending time on devices right before bed.

“We cannot exclude suicidal thoughts and things like that,” Ramasamy said. “If it’s getting worse, of course, they can go to the ER, call 911, the suicide hotline [988] to get the support they need.”