A listening exercise. That's what the White House is now calling President Trump's upcoming summit with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

But without Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance, what's the point?

I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News.

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Preparations are underway in Alaska for a summit between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. It will be their first meeting of Trump's second term and comes

as Ukraine's leader raises alarms that Russia may be planning a new offensive in the fall.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt is downplaying the chances of a breakthrough,

describing the summit as a, quote, listening exercise.

So this is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can,

hopefully bring this war to an end.

NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is traveling today to Alaska,

joins us now before heading to the airport.

So, Tam, I mean, it's a listening exercise at this point, though.

...