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The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Zelenskyy to meet Trump on Monday after Putin summit briefing
Ukraine's president said he would fly to Washington on Monday to meet with Donald Trump after a telephone call with the US president in which he was briefed on the key points of the Alaska summit. The meeting will mark the first return to the White House for Volodymyr Zelenskyy since his infamous row with Trump in late February. Zelenskyy said that his hour-long one-on-one conversation with Trump was 'long and substantive'. 'President Trump informed [me] about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion,' Zelenskyy wrote, adding that Ukraine supported Trump's proposal for a trilateral meeting between the two men and Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy did not spell out what the key points of discussion between Trump and Putin were, while the president's chief communications adviser said that they 'haven't heard anything' about a possible air ceasefire before a leaders summit in response to a social media post from a journalist. European leaders joined the call for a further half an hour, Zelenskyy added, emphasising that 'it is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America'. There were also 'positive signals' from the US, Zelenskyy said, 'regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine's security', echoing diplomatic language from last week in the run-up to the summit. Previously, the US has declined to spell out how it might help prevent a future outbreak of fighting as part of a peace agreement, leading to speculation that Washington was looking to leave the safeguarding of Ukraine almost entirely to Europe.
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
How Trump is using ‘pure lies' about high crime in US cities to justify federal takeovers
When Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department in Washington DC on Monday, he left room for the possibility of making a similar move in other cities across the US, alluding to their high crime rates. 'You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad,' Trump said. 'We're not going to let it happen, we're not going to lose our cities.' But both experts and elected officials have been quick to counter Trump's claims, pointing out how major cities are in fact experiencing dramatic decreases in violent crime rates since they peaked during the pandemic. 'Every category of crime and every population group that the FBI covers is reporting a drop pretty much nationwide,' said Jeff Asher, an analyst who studies criminal justice data, adding that there was no disparity in the trend between red and blue cities or states. The downward trend has been consistent nationally since around 2022, as the country began to recover from the pandemic, experts said. 'It's clear that a lot of what we saw during the Covid-19 era has been reversed,' said Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice who researches crime trends. While it's impossible to isolate the exact causes of the spike in crime during the pandemic, several experts point to the collapse of social services as one cause. Since then, state and federal agencies poured money into communities for projects like gun violence prevention programs as well as more streetlights on local roads. These programs are the same ones being slashed as the Trump administration has prioritized shrinking federal spending. The Department of Justice canceled hundreds of grants earlier this year that funded violence prevention and victims' services programs, affecting organizations in 37 states. Elected officials were quick to slam Trump for floating a possible federal takeover of police in their cities, citing local data that matched the same trend in the FBI data showing public safety improvements as well as pointing out the recent funding cuts. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson said shootings were down by 40% in the last year alone. 'If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence. Sending in the national guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts,' he said. And in Maryland, local and state officials released a joint statement similarly criticizing the president for painting a false narrative about where they lived and worked. 'As leaders in Baltimore and the state of Maryland, we stand in strong opposition to the president's latest power grab, which is based on pure lies about our communities,' the statement said. Officials pointed to a 40% drop in violent crime since 2021 and said that progress was being made on public safety issues, despite the challenge of facing the Trump administration's funding cuts. Instead of calling in the national guard, Trump should be looking to partner with local officials, they said. 'We know from experience how to improve public safety: empower our community partners and violence interrupters, invest in our young people and prosecute repeat violent offenders in collaboration with law enforcement,' the statement said. In New York, officials also pushed back fast on Trump's rhetoric. 'New York is moving in the right direction in public safety,' the mayor, Eric Adams, said on Tuesday. While he added that he would be happy to accept more federal support, he added: 'We don't need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus, we have the finest police department in the globe.' Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Even Trump's FBI director, Kash Patel, said on Joe Rogan's podcast in June that murder rates were on track to reach a historic low this year. 'If we, the FBI and our government partners, achieve the mission, we'll give the American people the lowest murder rate in decades,' he said. While crime rates are trending in the right direction, there's still work to do to improve public safety concerns, said Rachel Eisenberg, the managing director for rights and justice at the Center for American Progress. But, she said, communities are still best positioned to address these challenges rather than federal troops, echoing the concerns of local officials. 'What Trump is doing now is not about public safety,' she said. 'It's political theater.' Trump doubled down on his claims on Wednesday, suggesting that the crime statistics are a fraud, without specifying which statistics. 'Crime is the worst it's ever been,' he said. As national guard troops arrived in Washington DC this week, Thaddeus Johnson, a senior researcher at the Council on Criminal Justice, said that in the short term, it is likely arrests will go up. 'That can really capture the psyche of people and people can be sensationalized as it really plays on the fears of people,' Johnson said. Ultimately, he said, it's critical to address socioeconomic factors such as access to housing, unemployment rates and income inequity in order to improve public safety. 'Putting the feds in is not going to be the long-term answer,' Johnson said. Meanwhile, Trump has already declared his policy move a victory. 'People are feeling safe already,' he said on Wednesday. 'They're not afraid any more.'
Sky News
38 minutes ago
- Sky News
Putin wriggles off the hook yet again, Trump is the clear loser, and Ukrainians are furious
The clear winner in Alaska is Vladimir Putin. A day in a global spotlight, equal billing with a true superpower leader, a red carpet welcome and most importantly for him no need to agree to a ceasefire. He can fly home knowing Donald Trump has handed him a propaganda bonanza. Russian media which he controls completely will crow for weeks to come, milking the pictures like that of Putin laughing in the back of Cadillac One. Crucially, Putin has wriggled off the hook yet again. He had until two weeks ago faced the threat of imminent severe sanctions that could have brought his economy to its knees by targeting his vital oil industry. Donald Trump is one clear loser. He appears to have received nothing in return for bending over backwards to welcome the Russian leader. He said he would not be happy if Russia didn't agree to a ceasefire but has failed to secure one. The US president will not see it that way. He craves attention and big TV moments and yesterday delivered on that front. Ukrainians who were not invited are losers too. It means the shelling and drone attacks on their homes goes on. Many more of them will die. Social media here in Ukraine lit up in fury as the extraordinary pictures from Alaska came in. 5:08 "He occupies territories... destroys entire cities, kills, rapes, robs, kidnaps, tortures, and as a result receives a red carpet welcome," was one comment typical of many. This morning a prominent Ukrainian artist Nikita Titov posted a striking image that sums up the worldview many believe is emerging from Alaska. The communist hammer and sickle but with Donald Trump's trademark red tie replacing the hammer. If Trump was sincere in wanting the killing to end he could resort to far more effective means than inconclusive summitry. Secondary sanctions on Russia's oil industry and those who trade in it would be something for Putin to think about. Ukrainians are hugely frustrated Trump seems strangely reluctant to impose them. To them, this summit was an elaborate ruse to avoid doing so again. In both substance and outcome Alaska sends a clear message to Ukraine and its European allies. America may carry on supporting their defence but now by selling not supplying weapons. It may or may not carry on providing absolutely essential military intelligence. But otherwise they are increasingly on their own. That penny has been dropping for months in European capitals. Alaska has only rammed the point further home. The challenge for Europe is to ramp up its ability to support Ukraine quickly enough to fill the growing vacuum left by an American president whose sympathies increasingly lie elsewhere.
