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The Independent
7 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's approval rating dips again in new poll as some of his supporters sour on his performance
President Donald Trump 's approval rating has declined again in a new poll as some of his supporters sour on his performance. Trump's so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' and other policies, don't seem all that pretty to Americans, whose views of the president have grown more negative in the almost seven months he's been in office. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted between August 4 and 10, just 38 percent of respondents approve of the way Trump is handling his job, while 60 percent disapprove. A majority of Americans, 53 percent, say Trump is making the federal government work worse, while just 27 percent say he's making it work better. In early July, Trump signed the massive bill that extended his 2017 tax cuts and increased border security spending while cutting social programs including Medicaid and SNAP. The new poll shows 46 percent of Americans disapprove of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' while 32 percent approve. An even larger group of respondents, 61 percent, disapprove of Trump's sweeping global tariffs. Trump announced a baseline 10 percent tariff. Even Trump's own party has a less glowing view of him than when he first took office. In the new poll, 55 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said Trump is making the federal government work better, which is down from the 76 percent of Republicans who expected he would make it work better in the weeks after he took office. Trump's approval rating among people who identify as strong Republicans sits at 93 percent, which is only slightly down from 96 percent at the start of his term. When looking at another key issue, the Trump administration's handling of the files related to the government's investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Republicans are divided. The new poll finds 53 percent of Republicans disapprove of the administration's handling of the so-called Epstein files, while 44 percent approve. In general, 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the administration's handling of the Epstein files, and 63 percent have little to no trust in what the administration is saying about the information related to the wealthy financier who socialized with the president decades ago.
The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Putin says US making ‘sincere efforts' to end war as Russian troops make gains
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the US was making 'sincere efforts' to halt the war in Ukraine and suggested Moscow and Washington could agree a nuclear arms deal as part of a wider effort to strengthen peace during his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday. Speaking to his most senior ministers and security officials in televised comments he said that the US was 'making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict'. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov however warned that it would be a big mistake to predict the outcome of the upcoming summit, the Interfax news agency reported. Peskov said there were no plans to sign any documents after the summit in the Alaska city of Anchorage, Interfax said. Trump said he believed Putin was ready to make a deal on Ukraine, but his suggestion the Russian leader and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could 'divvy things up' was likely to have caused alarm some in Kyiv. The US president implied there was a 75% chance of the Alaska meeting succeeding, and that the threat of economic sanctions may have made Putin more willing to seek an end to the war. Trump insisted that he would not let Putin get the better of him in Friday's meeting, telling reporters: 'I am president, and he's not going to mess around with me. 'I'll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes … whether or not we're going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting. The Russian president will set out to woo his US counterpart and dangle financial incentives for siding with Moscow over Ukraine at their summit on Friday, Pjotr Sauer reports. On Thursday, Putin's adviser Yuri Ushakov said the leaders would discuss the 'huge untapped potential' in Russia-US economic relations. 'An exchange of views is expected on further developing bilateral cooperation, including in the trade and economic sphere,' Ushakov said. 'This cooperation has huge and, unfortunately so far, untapped potential.' European leaders praised Trump on Thursday for agreeing to allow US military support for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine – a move that vastly improves the chances of success for an operation that could prove essential for the country's security. The leaders said Trump offered American military backup for the European 'reassurance force' during a call they held with him ahead of his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. They did not say what the assistance might involve, and Trump himself has not publicly confirmed any support. UK prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine ahead of the Alaska summit. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer's offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments. Around an hour later, Starmer walked Zelenskyy back to his waiting car, and the two leaders shared another embrace as the Ukrainian president departed. Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said that Ukrainian troops had stabilised the battlefield in an area of eastern Ukraine where Russian forces had made a sudden push this week to pierce Ukrainian defences. Ukraine said small groups of Russian infantry had thrust 10 kilometres (six miles) toward its main defensive line near the town of Dobropillia, raising fears of a wider breakthrough that would further threaten key cities. The advance appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv to give up land in pursuit of peace three-and-a-half years into Russia's invasion of its neighbour. 'The situation in the Dobropillia sector has stabilised,' Filashkin wrote the Telegram messaging app. 'Thanks to the heroic efforts of our Defence Forces, the frontline is reliably holding.' However Ukraine on Thursday ordered more evacuations in the east, from a town close to where Moscow made its breakthrough. 'We began the mandatory evacuation of families with children from the town of Druzhkivka,' said Donetsk regional military administration head Vadym Filashkin, adding that four more villages near the town were also ordered to evacuate. He added that 1,879 children were remaining in the settlements. Earlier on Thursday, Russian forces claimed to have captured the village of Iskra and the small town of Shcherbynivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in September 2022. The US Agency for International Development did not monitor the uses of 5,175 Starlink terminals sent to Ukraine, with nearly half of the operational units ending up in areas fully or partly held by Moscow, according to a report by the agency's internal watchdog. USAID's inspector general found that the agency failed to keep track of the terminals of Elon Musk's satellite internet service because it had accepted a higher risk of misuse due to 'the complex wartime environment' and Ukraine's urgent need for them. The report did not say how those terminals ended up in those areas, who had them or the purposes for which they were used. Russia and Ukraine exchanged 84 prisoners each on Thursday, both sides said, the latest in a series of swaps that has seen hundreds of PoW released so far this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that among the exchanged prisoners were 'both military personnel and civilians', some of whom had been 'held by the Russians since 2014, 2016, and 2017'. He said 'defenders of Mariupol' were also part of the swap, referring to a Ukrainian port city that fell to Russian forces in 2022 after a nearly three-month siege. Russia has put Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on its list of 'undesirable' organisations, effectively banning the media watchdog from operating in the country, Moscow's justice ministry register showed on Thursday. Under a controversial law passed in 2015, but rarely used before its offensive on Ukraine, Russia can ban overseas organisations deemed a threat to national security. Russian State Duma chair Vyacheslav Volodin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during an official visit to Pyongyang, the Russian parliament said on Thursday. Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, conveyed greetings from the Russian leader and thanked Kim for North Korea's support of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
After uproar, documentary on Hamas 2023 attack will screen at Toronto Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival will screen a documentary on the 2023 Hamas attack, after all, following an uproar over the film's disinvitation from the upcoming festival. Earlier this week, TIFF withdrew its invitation to the film 'The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue." The festival said the decision was based in part on legal clearance for footage used in the documentary. Deadline, which first reported the news, said a sticking point was the identification and legal clearance of Hamas militants' own livestreaming of the attack. On Thursday evening, TIFF chief executive Cameron Bailey and 'The Road Between Us' filmmaker Barry Avrich issued a joint statement announcing the film's selection. 'Both TIFF and the filmmakers have heard the pain and frustration expressed by the public and we want to address this together,' said Bailey and Avrich. 'We have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal, and programming concerns.' 'In this case, TIFF's communication around its requirements did not clearly articulate the concerns and roadblocks that arose and for that, we are sorry,' they continued. The film chronicles the story of retired Israeli Gen. Noam Tibon, whose efforts to save his family and others during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack was profiled in a '60 Minutes' segment. After being informed that the film wouldn't screen at the festival, the 'Road Between Us' filmmakers issued a statement claiming TIFF 'censored its own programming by refusing the film.' Bailey disputed that allegation, and pleaded that the situation demanded sensitivity. 'The events of October 7, 2023, and the ongoing suffering in Gaza weigh heavily on us, underscoring the urgent need for compassion amid rising antisemitism and Islamophobia,' Bailey said on Wednesday.
