Good morning. This is Hanna Lee. 

The U.S. and Russian presidents are set to meet in Alaska for a summit that experts say is unlikely to yield any major developments in ending the years-long Russia-Ukraine war. We'll have more on that below. We'll also be covering the meeting live, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET.

THE LATEST

• China on Friday filed a complaint with the WTO against Canada's import restrictions on steel and other products, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said.
   
• The Canadian Real Estate Association is releasing its July home sales data today. In June, the number of homes changing hands rose 3.5 per cent year over year.
   
• A documentary about the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas is back on at TIFF, after the festival had initially pulled it due to footage rights and potential security issues.
   
• Talks in Geneva on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution ended without an agreement Friday.

Trump tries to turn the page on Ukraine war with historic Putin summit in Alaska

(Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)

U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting with his Russian counterpart in person for the first time in six years to try and do something he once famously promised he could do in 24 hours: End the Russia-Ukraine war.

What's happening: Experts say the chances of anything meaningful being announced, especially after just one meeting, are unlikely. Trump himself had to go back on his one-day pledge, saying it was a joke as it became apparent there was no easy way to stop the conflict.

What each side wants: Russia is expected to show up with maximalist demands, like a commitment not to expand NATO beyond its current borders. That would be unpalatable for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has also raised the potential of land swaps — another non-starter for Ukrainians. But the U.S. president himself has said it will take at least two meetings for a full deal. For Vladimir Putin, that the summit is taking place on U.S. soil is already a symbolic win.

Meanwhile, in Moscow: Russians are starting to feel the economic pain of more than three years of war — though not enough to push for it to end. Chris Brown has more on that.

Replanting forests after wildfires comes with complex challenges, but there are opportunities in the ashes

(Integrity Reforestation)

This year is already the country's second-worst season on record for wildfires. And as climate change makes these fires more intense, the forests we rebuild likely won't resemble what was there before. But there's still room for optimism.

What's happening: The odds are stacked against us — it typically takes years to start replanting after a fire, and ensuring survival is often easier said than done. A particularly hot and deep fire can create a glass-like layer in the ground that repels water; even humans cannot help with replanting in those cases. 

Some solutions: New strategies include digging into the ground with high-power pressure washers and creating seeds coated in nutrients and water-retaining material. And while most of our replanted forests are black spruce, some tree alternatives are more resilient or faster growing, if less commercially desirable. That includes jack pine and white birch. It may never be the same — some experts suggest allowing burnt forests to return to grasslands — but the goal is to make land better than what it used to be.

U.K. cops are going undercover as joggers. Will it stop women runners from being harassed?

(Eric Gay/The Associated Press)

A new police campaign in the U.K., meant to stop people from harassing female runners, is getting a lot of attention — perhaps not for the right reasons.

What's happening: Undercover female police officers in the county of Surrey have been posing as joggers in areas identified as high risk. If they experience harassment, a support team steps in. The police have made 18 arrests in its operations, which include these jogging patrols. Some online have criticized the campaign, saying it amounts to a strange social experiment.

Other concerns: Some critics worry that this approach focuses too much on individual perpetrators, rather than addressing the larger structural issues that make catcalling and the like quotidian in the first place. Others say it's reductive — a greeting, a compliment and a hateful epithet all get lumped into the same category.

PICTURE THIS

The Labubufication of everything continues, this time at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. The fair, whose gates open today, previewed its lineup of, let's say, interesting foods for media earlier this week. Pictured are Labubu-themed deep-fried cheese curds, topped with icing, cotton candy and pieces of candy. Other oily indulgences include sushi corndogs, deep-fried pizza on a stick and butter tart cotton candy. Hungry yet? Read more here.

In case you missed it

• Ontario is ordering public servants back to the office four days a week in the fall, and full time in January.
   
• The union for Air Canada's flight attendants is accusing the federal jobs minister of speaking "on behalf" of the company amid their contentious labour dispute.
   
• The U.S. is blocking Canadian access to a road on which residents of a southern Alberta county have long relied.
   
• The United Nations is protesting a proposal from a far-right Israeli minister to divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.

IN LIGHTER NEWS

The world's oldest chicken keeps surviving everything life throws at her

(Submitted by Sonya Hull)

Here is a 14-year-old hen named Pearl. Life hasn't been easy in her long life. Fellow (jealous) hens have tried to kill her, she once broke a leg fleeing a raccoon, and she's even had chicken pox. But she still stands today, and she's set the world record for oldest chicken — or at least, the oldest chicken whose owner bothered to file the paperwork. "I think she just has a love for life," says Sonya Hull, her owner. "She is still trying to live like she would if she were younger, and she seems to enjoy it."