Emil Bove: Trump's ex-lawyer confirmed as appeals court judge
Bove will serve on the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which oversees cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania."He has a strong legal background and has served his country honourably. I believe he will be diligent, capable and a fair jurist," the Republican chairman of the judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, said ahead of the vote. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, of Maine, were the two Republican senators who sided with Democrats to oppose Bove's confirmation.Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in a statement: "Mr Bove's primary qualification appears to be his blind loyalty to this president." Since Trump returned to office in January, Bove has been serving as principal associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice.Democrats accuse Bove of overseeing mass firings of prosecutors who were seen as being insufficiently loyal to Trump.Two whistleblowers had accused Bove of telling subordinates that court orders thwarting Trump's deportation efforts might have to be ignored.A third whistleblower alleged Bove had misled senators when discussing his role in the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Democrats say the charges were dropped after Adams agreed to co-operate on Trump's immigration enforcement goals in the city. Bove denied any wrongdoing.More than 900 former justice department employees signed an open letter, calling for Bove's name to be withdrawn.A group of more than 75 retired state and federal judges also wrote to the committee.They said it was "deeply inappropriate" for a president to nominate his own criminal defence attorney for a federal judgeship.Trump has selected several lawyers who were part of his legal defence team to serve in government roles.In addition to Bove, Alina Habba was chosen to be New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, and Todd Blanche is now serving as the deputy attorney general.
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The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Russians crow over Trump-Putin summit being held in Alaska: ‘Makes the US an Arctic nation'
It's the first time that a Russian leader has been invited to American soil outside of the United Nations since 2007, and comes without the Kremlin having made any apparent concessions amid its war of aggression in Ukraine. Just days before the summit was announced, Trump was sharing his anger at Putin's consistent bombing of Ukraine and threatened to increase sanctions on Russia. The sudden decision to meet with the Russian leader prompted European and Ukrainian officials to scramble to respond to the new arrangement. One of the top interlocutors between the Kremlin and the Trump administration is Russia's special economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who argued that the decision to have the meeting in Alaska was symbolically significant. The U.S. bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, roughly two cents per acre. 'Born as Russian America — Orthodox roots, forts, fur trade — Alaska echoes those ties and makes the U.S. an Arctic nation,' he said on X. Konstantin Malofeyev is a billionaire who the Obama administration sanctioned for funding separatists in Ukraine backed by the Kremlin and interfering in elections in a number of countries. He claimed Alaskans 'respectfully remember their Russian past and their Orthodox present.' Alexander Kots, a war correspondent supportive of the Kremlin, said in his Telegram channel that 'The meeting in Alaska has every chance to become historic.' 'That is, of course, if the West does not try to pull off another scheme,' he added. Meanwhile, analysts in the West urged caution. Michael McFaul served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration. 'Trump has chosen to host Putin in a part of the former Russian Empire,' he said on X. 'Wonder if he knows that Russian nationalists claim that losing Alaska, like Ukraine, was a raw deal for Moscow that needs to be corrected.' 'The symbolism of holding the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska is horrendous — as though designed to demonstrate that borders can change, land can be bought and sold,' said King's College London Russian Politics professor Sam Greene, according to The Washington Post. 'Never mind that mainstream Russian discourse maintains a claim that Alaska should be returned to Russia.' While Czar Alexander II offered up Alaska for sale, Putin has taken Ukrainian territory by force via the unlawful annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, when he illegally claimed to annex four regions of Ukraine. Russia analysts told The Post that it's unlikely that the Kremlin has left behind any of its goals for Ukraine, such as demilitarization, the replacement of the current regime with a pro-Russia one, and for Ukraine not to join NATO. A senior fellow with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Tatiana Stanovaya, said Trump 'didn't want to fall into confrontation with Russia.' 'Trump himself said that further sanctions probably wouldn't force Putin to change his mind. We could see from these signals that Trump could be open to a new attempt, and he did so just days before the end of his ultimatum,' Stanovaya added. The deputy head of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Janis Kluge, told The Post that Putin's proposal is 'part of the war.' 'It's just a temporary ceasefire in exchange for land,' said Kluge. 'It is meant to give Putin an advantage in the longer run against Ukraine and the West.' A former top Kremlin official told the paper that Russia appeared willing to compromise, as it indicated that it was ready for a ceasefire. 'Politically, it is easier [for the Kremlin] to continue the war until Ukraine's final collapse than to make peace,' the anonymous official said. 'This is why they are clinging on to the idea that there needs to be a temporary but not permanent truce — and then in the meantime [Ukrainian] elections can be conducted.' While the Kremlin has pushed for a friendly regime in Kyiv, Ukrainians have often demonstrated their wish for free and fair elections and a democratic future as part of the European Union. Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov said, 'Russian troops are not going to make any step backward,' as part of a deal to reach a ceasefire. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that he wouldn't agree to any deal that included handing over territory to Russia, saying Ukraine's constitution prohibited it. 'There are no guarantees,' Markov added, according to The Post. 'But there are also no guarantees that Ukraine won't begin the war again.' He went on to say that Russia's top goal during the summit was to paint Europe and Ukraine as impediments to Trump's dream of achieving a peace deal. 'Russia hopes that Trump will finally become sensible and see that Zelensky is the main reason for the war that is happening now, and that the second reason for the war is European leaders … and that they are his enemies too,' said Markov, adding that Trump will realze that 'Putin is one of his few good political friends.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The government needs to face up to reality
Martin Kettle's analysis of the dysfunctionality of government is spot-on, but incomplete (The biggest problem for Starmer and co: the machinery of government is broken and they can't fix it, 7 August). The core problem is our unwillingness to face up to reality, whether it is on tax, the need to invest in reform, the impact of Brexit, the pros and cons of legal migration, the real steps necessary to stem illegal migration at source, the implications of the new cold war, or the new world order under Donald Trump. By biting our tongue and trying to fudge the hard choices, successive governments have both confused and misled. Now is the time to treat the public as adults and trust them to recognise the need to get real. We need to rebuild the country to make it relevant for both today and the future, and that means moving beyond the Widow Twankey politics of saying a lot but doing nothing. Now is the time for genuine leadership and a promise to lead, not follow, the KellyPrime minister's official spokesperson 2001-07 Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Why are Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska?
The US and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin next Friday, to discuss ways forward to end the war in announced the meeting last Friday, the same day of his self-imposed deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or else face more US sanctions. Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump's behest this summer have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace. Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska - a former Russian territory which only became a US state in 1959. Why are Putin and Trump meeting? Trump has been pushing hard - without much success - to end the war in Ukraine. As a candidate, Trump pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours after taking office. He has also repeatedly claimed that the war "never would have happened" if he had been president at the time of Russia's month, Trump told the BBC that he was "disappointed" by grew and Trump set a 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions. As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August. The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held "highly productive" talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump. Is Ukraine attending the meeting? A White House official has said that Trump is willing to hold a trilateral meeting which would also include Ukrainian President Volodymyr for now, it remains a Trump-Putin summit, as initially requested by the Russian response to the news of the Alaska summit, Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Kyiv will amount to "dead decisions".And on Friday, after Trump said there would need to "be some swapping of territories" in order for Moscow and Kyiv to reach an agreement, Zelensky spoke out on Telegram."We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated," Zelensky wrote. "Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace."Speaking to Fox New on Sunday, US Vice-President JD Vance suggested that Zelensky could join Putin and Trump for talks at a later for now, he said it would not be "productive" for Zelensky to meet Putin ahead of Trump's meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska. "Fundamentally, the president of the United States has to be the one to bring these two together," he said. What do both sides hope to get out of it? The US president claimed on Friday that a deal "to stop the killing" is "very close". He also has reportedly floated some thoughts on what may be necessary for both sides to agree to stop the both Russia and Ukraine say they, too, want the war to end, both appear to want things that the other harshly opposes. Ukraine has been adamant that it won't accept Russian control of regions it seized, most notably Crimea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the idea outright. "There's nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution," he said. So far, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine's neutrality and the future size of its army. Russia invaded the country, in part, over Putin's belief that Ukraine was becoming westernised and accused the Western defensive alliance, Nato, of using the country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia's borders. The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC's US partner CBS News deal would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control."There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. Vance, in his Fox interview, said any future deal is "not going to make anybody super happy"."You've got to make peace here… you can't finger point," he said. "The way to peace is to have a decisive leader to sit down and force people to come together." Where will Trump and Putin meet? On Friday evening, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that a "highly anticipated meeting" between him and Putin would take place on 15 August in the "great state of Alaska". "Further details to follow," he said. Trump had said the meeting location would be "a very popular one for a number of reasons". The exact location of their meeting in Alaska has not been released. Why did they choose a US site? The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, giving a historical significance to the presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov said the location is "quite logical" and that both countries are neighbours, with the Bering Strait dividing them. "It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska."The last time Alaska took centre stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden's newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of "condescension and hypocrisy". ANALYSIS: Why Trump-Putin relationship has souredEXPLAINER: Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?VISUALS: Tracking the war in mapsGLOBAL FALLOUT: How the global economy could be impactedVERIFY: Russian attacks on Ukraine double since Trump inaugurationGROUND REPORT: On Ukraine's front line, twisted wreckage shows sanctions haven't yet stopped Russia
