Newshour Can Trump and Putin strike a deal?
Also in the programme: the world marks 80 years since Japan surrendered, ending World War Two; and as talks on a global plastics treaty collapse – again – is there any hope countries can ever agree?
(IMAGE: U.S. President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One, as he departs for Alaska to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., August 15, 2025 / CREDIT: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Love in a cold climate: Putin romances Trump in Alaska with talk of rigged elections and a trip to Moscow
That was the moment he knew it was true love. Donald Trump turned to gaze at Vladimir Putin as the Russian president publicly endorsed his view that, had Trump been president instead of Joe Biden, the war in Ukraine would never have happened. 'Today President Trump was saying that if he was president back then, there would be no war, and I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so,' Putin said. 'I can confirm that.' Vladimir, you complete me, Trump might have replied. To hell with all those Democrats, democrats, wokesters, fake news reporters and factcheckers. Here is a man who speaks my authoritarian alternative facts language. The damned doubters had been worried about Friday's big summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a cold war-era airbase under a big sky and picturesque mountains on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. They feared that it might resemble Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Munich 1938, or Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin carving up the world for the great powers at the Yalta Conference in 1945. It was worse than that. Trump, 79, purportedly the most powerful man in the world, literally rolled out the red carpet for a Russian dictator indicted for alleged war crimes over the abduction and transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children. Putin's troops have also been accused of indiscriminate murder, rape and torture on an appalling scale. In more than 100 countries, the 72-year-old would have been arrested the moment he set foot on the tarmac. In America, he was treated to a spontaneous burst of applause from the waiting Trump, who gave him a long, lingering handshake and a ride in 'the Beast', the presidential limousine. Putin could be seen cackling on the back seat, looking like the cat who got the cream. As a former KGB man, did he leave behind a bug or two? Three hours later, the men walked on stage for an anticlimactic 12-minute press conference against a blue backdrop printed with the words 'Pursuing peace'. Putin is reportedly 170cm (5.7ft) tall, while Trump is 190cm (6.3ft), yet the Russian seemed be the dominant figure. Curiously, given that the US was hosting, Putin was allowed to speak first, which gave him the opportunity to frame the narrative. More curiously still, the deferential Trump spoke for less time than his counterpart, though he did slip in a compliment: 'I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin – with Vladimir.' The low-energy Trump declined to take any questions from reporters – a rare thing indeed for the attention monster and wizard of 'the weave' – and shed little light on the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine. Perhaps he wanted to give his old pals at Fox News the exclusive. Having snubbed the world's media, Trump promptly sat down and spilled the beans – well, a few of them – to host Sean Hannity, a cheerleader who has even spoken at a Trump rally. The president revealed: 'Vladimir Putin said something – one of the most interesting things. He said: 'Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting … No country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.' 'And he said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said: 'You won that election by so much and that's how we got here.' He said: 'And if you would have won, we wouldn't have had a war. You'd have all these millions of people alive now instead of dead. And he said: 'You lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.'' In other words, the leader of one of the world's oldest democracies was taking advice from a man who won last year's Russian election with more than 87% of the vote and changed the constitution so he can stay in power until 2036. In this warped retelling of history, the insurrectionists of January 6 were actually trying to stop a war. Evidently Putin knows that whispering Trump's favourite lies into his ear is the way to his heart. It worked. The Russian leader, visiting the United States for the first time in a decade, got his wish of being welcomed back on the world stage and made to look the equal of the US president. He could also go home reassured that, despite a recent rough patch, and despite Trump's brief bromance with Elon Musk, he loves you yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Next time in Moscow,' he told Trump in English. 'Oh, that's an interesting one,' the US president responded. 'I'll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.' Trump's humiliation was complete. But all was not lost. At least no one was talking about Jeffrey Epstein or the price of vegetables.
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Putin stuns Trump as he breaks into English to make surprise Moscow offer after leaders announced 'no deal' on ending Ukraine war
Four words, spoken in English by Russian President Vladimir Putin, seemed to surprise even Donald Trump at the end of their Alaska summit Friday: 'Next time in Moscow.' Trump, who admitted peace talks in Anchorage 'didn't get there', appeared to have been caught off guard, but winged an answer that was both encouraging and non-committal. 'That's an interesting one, I'll get a little heat on that one,' Trump said with a laugh. 'But I could see it possibly happening.' The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for further comment on Putin's invitation. No American president has visited Russia since Barack Obama attended the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2013. Many were shocked by the overture from Putin to Trump in the moment. 'History is unfolding before our eyes,' one pro-Trump commenter stated. 'That must be the first time he's spoken English on camera in years,' noted journalist Saagar Enjeti. Liberals, unsurprisingly, were critical of the offer as they were of much of the entire meeting. 'Putin opened and spoke first, spoke longer and got the last word inviting his pal Trump to Moscow. Stuffed Trump in a locker. Pathetic and Weak,' wrote former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock. Trump has been to Moscow in the past, including in 2013 to stage the Miss Universe Pageant. He also went with his first wife Ivana on a trip to the then-Soviet Union in 1987, writing in The Art of the Deal that it was after a representative of the USSR suggested he could do business there, potentially building a hotel. Obama was also the last president to go to the Russian capital in Moscow, where he first met with Putin in 2009. However, relations between the United States and the Kremlin have gone downhill since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the 'Russiagate' hoax and allegations of interfering in US elections in 2016 and the War in Ukraine that began in 2021. Joe Biden's lone meeting with Putin took place in Geneva in June 2021, just months before the war began. At the summit today, Putin claimed the conflict would not have happened had Trump been president at the time. Bill Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon all went to Russia at least once. grea Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the famous Yalta Conference to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill just months before his death in 1945. Joe Biden's lone meeting with Putin took place in Geneva in June 2021, just months before the war began. At the summit today, Putin claimed the conflict would not have happened had Trump been president at the time. But the president left the world hanging announcing no details and answering no questions about his 'extremely productive meeting ' with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the future of Ukraine. What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war out of Friday's Anchorage, Alaska talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. 'We didn't get there,' the usually ebullient president acknowledged, 'but we have a very good chance of getting there.' In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first - at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference - and then didn't answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage. Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes following more than three hours of private conversation. 'I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left,' Trump said. He added, 'Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant.' In his opening statement, Putin flattered Trump by saying his assessment about the Ukraine war was true and that it never would have happened under Trump's watch. 'Today when President Trump's saying that if he was the president back then there will be no war. I'm quite sure it would indeed be so, I can confirm that,' Putin said in Russian through a translator. Putin also placed blame on former President Joe Biden for the U.S.-Russia relationship unraveling, not his February 2022 invasion of America's ally Ukraine. 'I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities,' Putin said, adding it was a 'big mistake.' Putin noted that the U.S.-Russia relationship had soured 'to the lowest point since the Cold War.' 'I think that's not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole,' Putin said. 'It's apparent that sooner or later we had to amend the situation and move on from the confrontation to dialogue.' But Putin's comments were mostly backward-looking, a glaring indication that the U.S. and Russia remained apart on the crucial issues that could lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine. What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war out of Friday's Anchorage, Alaska talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. 'We didn't get there,' the usually ebullient president acknowledged, 'but we have a very good chance of getting there.' In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first - at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference - and then didn't answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage. Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes following more than three hours of private conversation. 'I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left,' Trump said. He added, 'Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant.' During a sit-down with Sean Hannity taped in the room the summit occurred, the Fox News host asked if the president would reveal to him what that one issue is. 'No, I'd rather not,' Trump replied. 'I guess somebody is going to go public with it, they'll figure it out, but no, I don't want to do that. I want to see if we can get it done.'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Bill Maher stuns with savage Hunter Biden barb after Melania Trump threatens $1 billion lawsuit for Epstein remarks
Bill Maher took aim at Hunter Biden after Melania Trump revealed she plans to sue him for defamation after he claimed she was introduced to Donald Trump by Jeffrey Epstein. The first lady revealed Wednesday that she will sue Hunter for $1 billion after he refused to apologize and take down a podcast video where he made the false claim. Maher, one of the few liberals who criticized the coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story, took his shots at the troubled former First Son on his HBO show. 'Melania says she's gonna sue Hunter Biden,' he said, to immediate chuckles from the audience. 'That's not the joke part! I really like this where she says she's gonna sue him for a billion dollars.' He then explained why the first lady was suing Biden before delivering the punchline. 'If Hunter loses, it's going to be weird for him writing a woman a check because she's not a prostitute,' Maher joked to laughs and applause. Maher famously said in 2022 there was a 'conspiracy to get rid of' ex-President Donald Trump that involved suppressing the New York Post's infamous Hunter Biden laptop story. The controversy began in an interview with the Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan podcast, where Hunter Biden cited a Daily Beast report for his claim about the first lady sourced to author Michael Wolff. The first lady's lawyer Alejandro Brito called Hunter Biden's comments 'false, defamatory, and lewd'. 'Given your vast history of trading on the names of others-including your surname-for your personal benefit, it is obvious that you published these false and defamatory statements about Mrs. Trump to draw attention to yourself,' Brito wrote in a letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital. After Mrs. Trump threatened legal action, Hunter shared his public reaction on Callaghan's show. 'F**k that. That's not going to happen,' Biden replied, after Callaghan showed him a copy of the letter. Hunter defended his comments, citing reporting from Wolff's book, and a 2019 story from the New York Times that reported Epstein was 'claiming to people that he was the one who introduced Mr. Trump to his third wife, Melania Trump'. Other media outlets backed down from the false claim, including the Daily Beast, which retracted the story and apologized. Political operative James Carville also deleted a podcast video where he made the claim and apologized. Hunter defied the lawsuit threat and vowed to take the Trumps to court, even as he estimated the lawsuit would probably cost 'millions' of dollars. 'If they want to go through the process, then they know it's going to cost them an enormous amount of money to do it,' he said. 'We gotta figure out how we're going to pay for it.' The president is championing the decision by his wife to sue Biden for his claim. 'I told her, let's go ahead and do it. I let her use my lawyers,' Trump revealed to Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade in an interview on Thursday. 'She was very upset about it.' Trump repeated that the claim was false and easily disproven. 'Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania and introducing,' he said, criticizing Hunter and other media outlets that aired the claim. 'But they do that to demean, they make up stories ... I mean, I can tell you exactly how ... it was another person, actually. I did meet through another person. But it wasn't Jeffrey Epstein.' The president pointed to his success in getting media outlets to back down in response to lawsuits, which prompted his endorsement of the lawsuit. 'I said go forward, you know, I've done pretty well on these lawsuits lately,' Trump said.
