against Mackie McDonald of the United States.

After the United States, Germany has been the biggest individual supplier of military aid to Ukraine.“Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself, including against military targets outside its own territory” with its own missiles, Merz said at a joint news conference.

Hours after Merz’s pledge, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct peace talks with Moscow in Istanbul on June 2.In a video statement, he said that Russia would use the meeting to deliversetting out Moscow’s position on “reliably overcoming the root causes of the crisis.” He also said any Russian delegation would again be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.

“We hope that all those who are sincerely interested in the success of the peace process in more than just words will support a new round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul,” Lavrov said.Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said his country isn’t opposed to such direct peace talks but it still hasn’t seen the memorandum promised by Russia and that further meetings would be “empty” without it.

“We call on them to fulfill that promise without delay and stop trying to turn the meeting into a destructive one,” Umerov wrote on X. He said he had handed such a document with the Ukrainian position to the Russian side.

Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held theirLarkin abandons the typical story arc in favor of a more naturally flowing up-and-down journey that basks in beautiful moments like a slice-of-life story. Whether it’s banter at the bar Freya’s working or a leaking roof that is simply one more thing than she can possibly handle right now, the characters and their experiences are so real and pure that their joys and sorrows are amplified tenfold.

As the novel progresses and Freya starts to rebuild her life in Somers, we learn bit by bit the horrific events that led to her departure.Reconnecting with childhood friends, avoiding the demons of her past, and navigating an entirely new level of adulthood via being thrust into homeownership, “Home of the American Circus” is Freya’s journey of empowerment, to reclaim her life and the people and things she holds most dear; to recognize her own resilience and inherent self-worth. Larkin builds a robust picture of Freya’s life, her family, and a small American town home to a circus elephant.

It takes more than a little verve to write a story based on the iconic characters created byin perhaps the 20th century’s most famous American novel, but Claire Anderson-Wheeler has done just that with “The Gatsby Gambit.” And, say, old sport, it’s delightful.