In today's issue:

▪ Trump wants peace. Does Putin?

▪ The Hill interview: Newsom defends redistricting fight

▪ Progressives take center stage in mayoral contests

▪ Israel steps up Gaza offensive

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President Trump heads to Alaska on Friday for a make-or-break summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk about ending the war in Ukraine, while the world holds its breath.

Trump has provided few details on his goals for the meeting, telling reporters Monday he’s using the summit as an opportunity to “feel out” Putin, who has so far rebuffed all his calls for a ceasefire and increased the pace of attacks on Ukraine. The White House on Tuesday downplayed its expectations for the meeting, referring to it as a “listening exercise” for the president.

Trump said his version of a peace agreement would include “good stuff, not bad stuff, also some bad stuff for both.”

“We’re going to change the lines, the battle lines,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will not attend the summit, said Tuesday after a phone call with Trump, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders that Russia is showing signs it may want to end the war.

Zelensky, Trump, European leaders and Vice President Vance will meet virtually today in a series of calls to discuss the summit.

Zelensky told NewsNation on Tuesday that Ukraine is supportive of a trilateral track of negotiations, to establish a ceasefire, an “all-for-all exchange” of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

But foreign policy experts warn the summit itself constitutes a victory for Putin.

“Putin has already won. He is the leader of a rogue state, and he’ll get a picture on U.S. soil with the president of the United States,” former national security adviser John Bolton told The Atlantic. “Trump wants a deal. And if he can’t get one now, he may walk away from it entirely.”

▪ Politico: “Trusting Trump’s instincts”: The White House sets modest expectations ahead of the Putin summit.

▪ CNN: Trump will meet Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, on the northern edge of Anchorage, though the White House had hoped to avoid the optics of hosting the Russian leader and his entourage on a military installation.

CEDING GROUND? Trump’s sharp criticism of Zelensky is sending chills across Europe, where leaders are working to guard against the worst-case scenario: Trump aligning with Putin to force a bad deal on Kyiv. Last week, Trump blew past a deadline to impose punishing sanctions on Russia and its primary trading partners in exchange for the face-to-face meeting with Putin.

And while the president has expressed increased frustration with Putin and Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, he this week reverted to criticisms that Zelensky is to blame for starting the war.

“[Trump] is very unpredictable,” Lesia Zaburanna, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and the deputy chair of the budget committee, told The Hill’s Laura Kelly. “We highly appreciate all American support, and we highly appreciate all military, financial support. But if we talk about the situation with Trump’s negotiation, we are not sure what we will have on Friday.”

LAND SWAPS: Trump confirmed Monday that he and Putin will discuss “land swapping” when they meet on Friday in Alaska. But the president expressed frustration with Zelensky for putting conditions on such a potential agreement — including a national referendum on any peace deal that stipulates Russian control over territory that Ukraine occupied during the war.

Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine, from the country’s........

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