Supreme Court allows enforcement of Mississippi social media age verification law
The justices rejected an emergency appeal from a tech industry group that is challenging laws passed in Mississippi and other states that require social media users to verify their ages.
NetChoice, which brought the lawsuit, argues the Mississippi law threatens privacy rights and unconstitutionally restricts the free expression of users of all ages.
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The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘Putin clearly won': Pundits say meeting was ‘bad for Americans' after Trump's ‘no deal' Alaska summit
Donald Trump appeared to be 'steamrolled' by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the world leaders' summit in Alaska. The highly anticipated meeting in Anchorage on Friday ended after around three hours with little clarity. Both leaders suggested progress had been made on talks about the future of the war in Ukraine but neither disclosed details during their joint appearance in front of the world's press where neither took questions from journalists. Putin spoke first, an atypical move for statements with the U.S. president on U.S. soil, touting the 'agreement that we've reached together.' While Trump called the meeting 'extremely productive' and said the pair made 'great progress,' he emphasized no agreement had been reached: 'There's no deal until there's a deal.' Former government officials and commentators seemed to overwhelmingly agree that Putin walked away from the meeting triumphant. John Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser during his first administration, told CNN that Putin came off victorious: "Trump did not lose but Putin clearly won.' 'Putin achieved most of what he wanted and Trump achieved very little,' he told the network. Bolton then said Trump looked drained: 'I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean, very tired. Not disappointed, tired." California Governor Gavin Newsom also remarked on Trump's energy levels on X, writing in a style that he's been using recently to troll the U.S. president. 'TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN — NO QUESTIONS, NOTHING! TOTAL LOW ENERGY. THE MAN LOOKED LIKE HE'D JUST EATEN 3 BUCKETS OF KFC WITH VLAD,' the governor wrote. MSNBC host Jen Psaki, who is the former White House Press Secretary for Joe Biden, said the meeting similarly appeared to be a 'big victory' for Putin, who was greeted warmly in Alaska by Trump. 'For a decade now, Vladimir Putin has been isolated on the world stage,' Psaki said, noting Russia's ousting from the G8 in 2014 and the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Putin in 2023. 'Today that isolation ended and he was welcomed back on U.S. soil.' She added: "That is the big victory for Vladimir Putin today.' Fox News' Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who was reporting from Anchorage, said the Russian president 'steamrolled' his U.S. counterpart. 'The way that it felt in the room was not good. It did not seem like things went well. And it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say and got his photo next to the president and then left,' Heinrich said. Michael McFaul, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama, told MSNBC that the meeting outcome was unfavorable to both Ukraine and America: 'Even the most minimal, minimal outcome, which is agreement to a trilateral meeting with Presidents Zelensky, Putin and Trump, was not announced today. So there was no outcome that was good for the Ukrainian people. But I want to say this was bad for the American people.' He believed the meeting showed the U.S. 'normalizing' imperialism, terrorism, annexation, and dictatorship, he said. America has "always been the leader of the free world. It certainly didn't feel that way tonight.' Despite the criticism, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Friday evening that on a scale of 1 to 10, the president believed the meeting was a 10. NewsNation host Leland Vittert said he believed Putin "rolled over" in the pair's speech to press and 'did everything to ingratiate himself' to Trump. Vittert said it's unclear whether Putin did the same during negotiations. The Russian president used endearing terms including calling the U.S. a 'dear neighbor.' Putin also echoed one of Trump's oft-repeated claims, suggesting that the war in Ukraine would not have started if Trump had remained in office after the 2020 election. Earlier in the day, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin, greeting him warmly before they hopped into the U.S. president's armored stretch vehicle, known as 'The Beast.' Fox News host Laura Ingraham similarly defended the U.S. president. 'Anyone saying that the Trump- Putin meeting was a failure is ignorant, biased or both,' she wrote on X. 'Dealing with the Russians, forging peace, requires strength, knowledge, respect and patience—and that's what we saw from Donald Trump today. This was a step forward.' At the end of the meeting, the Russian leader proposed the pair have their next meeting in Moscow. 'That's an interesting one, I'll get a little heat on that one,' Trump replied. 'But I could see it possibly happening.'
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Now we know just how useless Trump's Alaska summit really was ... to everyone but Vladimir Putin
Before President Trump's tête-à-tête with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, press secretary Karoline Leavitt was already downplaying the stakes. Wednesday morning, she described the summit as a 'listening exercise' — which is, frankly, a relief. After all, when you're a time-poor autocrat juggling a Monday invasion, a midweek labor camp opening, and a weekend of jailing political opponents, it's easy to feel unheard. Sure, Putin invaded Ukraine. And yes, countless people have suffered ... on both sides. But perhaps — and I think we can all agree this is the real tragedy here — no one has taken the time to validate his feelings. So it was heartening, then, to see Vlad and Donald touch down on Alaskan soil midday Friday and greet each other with warmth: a smattering of applause from Trump, a weirdly prolonged handshake, and then the two friends sliding into the same back seat — a notable break in protocol — for the drive to their meeting. Waiting for them on the tarmac was a stage emblazoned 'ALASKA 2025,' festival-style, primed for the photo-op. Meanwhile, at least seven civilians had just been killed in Ukraine by Russian missiles. When they emerged again for a post-meeting press conference, earlier than expected, it was clear a good time had been had by all. They had agreed on 'most points,' said Trump. He was going to 'call up NATO,' he added, saying, 'I will, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting." Very good of him. They should meet, Putin added, but 'next time in Moscow.' Trump laughed at that point, calling his suggestion 'an interesting one.' 'I'll get a little heat on that one,' the American president added, 'but I could see it possibly happening.' The two men leaned in toward each other and smiled, like they were sharing an inside joke. The bottom line: a nebulous amount of 'progress' made, some 'headway,' stuff to talk about, but 'there's no deal until there's a deal.' Ah well. Maybe Vlad just needs more time. I'm pretty sure, however, that he already got what he came for — and that the joke is on America. Contrast the kid-gloves treatment of everybody's favorite dictator with the treatment of Volodymyr Zelensky a few months ago, when he visited the White House. Indeed, it is hard to recall another Oval Office meeting where an allied head of state was treated quite like the Ukrainian president was in February. Lest we forget, Zelensky had arrived to discuss a minerals deal that might have bolstered his country's three-year fight for survival. He left having been publicly chided, mid-meeting, for 'disrespect' and insufficient gratitude. Trump accused him of 'gambling with World War III', while JD Vance, in full Wormtail mode, jumped in to ask: 'Have you even said thank-you once?' It was both difficult and embarrassing to watch. This is the asymmetry at the heart of Trump-era foreign policy: allies get the tongue-lashing, rivals get the literal red carpet. Zelensky's reward for resisting an existential threat was a televised scolding. Putin's reward for creating it has been years of deference and flattery. Recall the Helsinki summit, where Trump sided with the Russian leader over his own intelligence agencies, or the warm praise for Putin's 'genius'. Too self-satisfied to realize he's been manipulated, The Donald simply keeps walking into the same trap, over and over again. Trump himself seems to have realized how poor his own negotiating skills are in the past few weeks. Putin's not a blowhard like his American counterpart; he just does what he feels like, and everyone else be damned. Indeed, it was Donald himself who put it best in a press conference earlier in July where he described his ongoing efforts to help broker an end to the war in Ukraine thus: 'I get home, I say to the First Lady, 'I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we are finished,'' to which Melania will apparently respond in kind: 'That's funny, because they just bombed a nursing home.' Therein lies the entire issue. Trump is brittle and easily manipulated; Putin talks him round again and again. Trump leaves those conversations utterly convinced of both Putin's integrity and his own genius. Then Putin goes on dropping bombs and killing people. It's a familiar story that's played out not just in Russia, and that we can expect to play out anywhere where there's a strongman leader with a penchant for basic flattery. And really, where better to stage this utterly redundant spectacle than Alaska — the state Trump accidentally referred to as Russia earlier this week, and which, of course, once belonged to the Russian Empire. After all, isn't the whole point to start returning old territories to their former owners? Alaska, a place that is currently arranging citizen evacuations because of an uncontrolled glacier flood due to the effects of climate change, where water is thundering toward a dam called Suicide Basin. (Anchorage is on the other end of the state to where all that is happening in Juneau, meaning that Trump was able to fly right over Suicide Basin and shutter his Qatari-gifted Air Force One windows to the sight of climate catastrophe before he landed at a military base to meet with the man who started a war to talk about ending it.) Alaska, the perfect place to propose — as leaks have suggested — that Russia has a 'West Bank-style occupation of Ukraine,' since all available geopolitical sources suggest that solution has already played out so well for everyone involved. And so the dance goes on, and tangible progress is not made but cameras and microphones and spotlights are perpetually trained on two geriatric egomaniacs. This kind of time-wasting theater always works in Russia's favor. The war will rumble on in Ukraine. The deal will never be made. Trump will get a few nice words, Putin will get his headlines. And the rest of us are left with just the images of Donald and his little band of spray-tanned comrades marching about in the Alaskan summer, isolated together in a cold state in the middle of nowhere, with only a friendly dictator to keep them warm.
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Putin and Trump fail to reach Ukraine peace deal
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin failed to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine after three hours of high-stakes talks in Alaska. The US president described the discussion as 'extremely productive' but said a deal to end the long-running conflict had not ultimately been agreed. 'We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,' Mr Trump said in a press conference at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. 'There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there.' 'There's no deal until there's a deal,' he added. Putin, who travelled to the US for the first time in a decade, was allowed to open the press conference, saying the war in Ukraine was a 'tragedy for us and a terrible wound'. The leaders departed the stage after just 12 minutes without taking any questions. Putin, who spoke for twice as long as Mr Trump, also had the last word, suggesting the pair would meet 'next time in Moscow'. It was an abrupt ending to an otherwise friendly meeting that began when Mr Trump greeted the Russian leader with a smile and an outstretched hand as he disembarked his private aircraft. The leaders walked down respective red carpets and Mr Trump clapped as the Russian president approached, before they shared a warm embrace. Standing side by side on the tarmac in front of the travelling press pool, Putin faced a barrage of questions about his war in Ukraine. Under the roar of a US military flyover, the Russian leader shrugged and gestured to his ear, suggesting he couldn't hear the reporters who asked if he would stop killing Ukrainian civilians. 'I would like to hope that the agreement that we have reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine..,' Putin later said during the post-summit press conference. He added: 'We expect that Kiev and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won't throw a ranch in the works.' It came after the White House unexpectedly announced the joint press briefing would go ahead earlier than planned. Hundreds of journalists crammed into the room, divided with Russian media on one side and western journalists on the other. An expanded bi-lateral meeting, which had been planned to take place over lunch with the president's economic advisors, was scrapped. During his six hour 45 minute flight to Alaska, the US president had warned that he would 'walk' if the meeting did not go to plan. But after three hours of discussions he appeared on stage flanked by Putin, whom he referred to at one point as 'the boss'. Near the end of the conference, Mr Trump said he would contact Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to discuss the progress of the talks. 'I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and of course, call up president Zelensky and tell them about today's meeting. It's ultimately up to them,' he said. Mr Trump's talks with Putin were initially intended to be one-on-one, but the White House announced both leaders would be accompanied by two of their advisers while Mr Trump was mid-flight. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy who had been credited with bringing Putin to America, flanked the president. Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine had proved a 'failure' as Mr Trump failed to secure a ceasefire. Mr Merezhko told The New York Times that Putin had appeared as an equal to the US leader. 'He won the informational war... He used Trump to show that he is not isolated,' he said. Mr Trump also faced criticism from democrats and US media who accused the president of legitimising Putin and the war with the welcome he afforded him. While Mr Trump failed to produce any details about a path to peace, The Telegraph on Friday revealed that Britain is poised to put 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine within a week of a ceasefire being declared. Plans have been made for hundreds of British military trainers and engineers to enter the country if fighting pauses, to help rebuild Ukraine's armed forces. Sir Keir Starmer has also signed off on the use of RAF fighter jets to help police the skies over Ukraine with allies to ensure Russia does not breach any truce. It would mark a significant escalation in Britain's role in helping Kyiv see off the Russian threat towards Ukraine, bringing with it risks for those deployed. European allies, who have been working on the plans for months under a partnership dubbed the 'coalition of the willing', pushed them ahead with renewed urgency this week in anticipation of the summit.
