Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuffs Republicans calling for him to resign
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rebuffed US officials calling for him to resign as the president of Ukraine.
His comments come after Republicans including senator Lindsay Graham and speaker Mike Johnson suggested he should step down from his position following Friday's fiery Oval Office exchange with Donald Trump.
In response to a question from Sky News' lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim this evening, Mr Zelenskyy said: "I can give [Lindsay Graham] citizenship of Ukraine and he will become a citizen of our country.
"And then his voice will start to gain weight, and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president."
"The president of Ukraine will have to be chosen not in Lindsay Graham's home but in Ukraine," he added.
Mr Zelenskyy also confirmed there has been communication between Ukraine and the Trump administration since the disastrous meeting, but "not on my level".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Inflation is so high, even Rachel Reeves's voice is going up: Chancellor suffers from technical gaffe as inflation surges to 3.5% - far higher than expected as Labour's economy spinsout of control
Rachel Reeves demonstrated it isn't just inflation soaring higher today as she was seen on TV defending her economic record in a bizarre falsetto. An unfortunate technical error meant the under-fire Chancellor's response to a dramatic spike in prices was delivered in a tone more akin to Mickey Mouse. The episode left Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost - son of Sir David - briefly dumbfounded before he said: 'I think we have a problem...' Ms Reeves said: 'The numbers today are clearly disappointing. We want to see inflation coming down after the cost of living challenges that people have been through these last few years.' Her voice was then silenced entirely as broadcast bosses realised things were going awry. The glitch sparked hilarity on social media, with users comparing the rise in Ms Reeves's voice to Labour party policies which have caused 'ballooning national debt'. Speaking to Sky News , Ms Reeves said: 'The numbers today are clearly disappointing. We want to see inflation coming down after the cost of living challenges that people have been through these last few years' Ms Reeves was facing the music after headline CPI rate rocketed from 2.6 per cent in March to 3.5 per cent last month, a peak not seen since January 2024. Worryingly, it was significantly more than the 3.3 per cent analysts had pencilled in, with Ms Reeves acknowledging the figures were 'disappointing' and her national insurance hikes were partly to blame. Core CPI - excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco - was also at the highest for a year. The grim data will fuel Bank of England concerns about underling pressures, with chief economist Huw Pill having already warned that interest rate cuts have been too fast. Experts immediately suggested that Threadneedle Street might pause reductions at the next monetary policy committee meeting next month. The Bank had forecast that inflation would top out at 3.5 per cent in the third quarter of the year. The spike comes after Ofgem 's energy price cap rose by 6.4 per cent in April, having fallen a year earlier. That was alongside a raft of bill rises for struggling households, including steep increases to water charges, council tax, mobile and broadband tariffs. Meanwhile, Labour's NICs and minimum wage increases will have been stoking pressure in the system. Office of National Statistics (ONS) acting director-general Grant Fitzner said: 'Significant increases in household bills caused inflation to climb steeply. 'Gas and electricity bills rose this month compared with sharp falls at the same time last year due to changes to the Ofgem energy price cap. 'Water and sewerage bills also rose strongly this year, as did vehicle excise duty, which all pushed the headline rate up to its highest level since the beginning of last year.' Ms Reeves said: 'I am disappointed with these figures because I know cost of living pressures are still weighing down on working people. 'We are a long way from the double-digit inflation we saw under the previous administration, but I'm determined that we go further and faster to put more money in people's pockets. 'That's why we have increased the minimum wage for millions of working people, frozen fuel duty to protect commuters and struck three trade deals in the past two weeks that will go towards cutting bills.' Asked if the inflation figures had been pushed up by measures including the NICs hike, Ms Reeves said: 'When I became Chancellor last year, I faced the very difficult challenge that there was a £22billion black hole in the public finances. 'We had to fix that, and if we hadn't have done the Bank of England would not have been able to cut interest rates four times this last year, which has obviously had a direct effect on the mortgages and the rents that people pay. 'And also that money that we raised from national insurance, but also cracking down on non-doms, tax - VAT - on private schools, increasing capital gains, particularly on private equity firms, that money has gone into our National Health Service, which is why waiting lists and waiting times are going down after spiralling out of control the last few years. 'So I do recognise that all policies have consequences, but if I hadn't have acted to stabilise the public finances, we would be in a worse position today.' However, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride squarely blamed Ms Reeves for the hike in inflation. He said: 'This morning's news that inflation is up - and now well above the 2 per cent target - is worrying for families. 'We left Labour with inflation bang on target, but Labour's economic mismanagement is pushing up the cost of living for families - on top of the £3,500 hit to households from the Chancellor's damaging jobs tax. 'Higher inflation could also mean interest rates stay higher for longer, hitting family finances hard. 'Families are paying the price for the Labour Chancellor's choices.' Speaking at an event held at Barclays in London yesterday, Mr Pill said the pace of interest rate reductions since August last year has been 'too rapid'. He said progress of 'disinflation' was partly a signal that easing monetary policy – meaning rates coming down – was working. 'And in my view, that withdrawal of policy restriction has been running a little too fast of late, given the progress achieved thus far with returning inflation to target on a lasting basis.' 'I remain concerned about upside risks to the achievement of the inflation target,' he added. Mr Pill, who is a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), was among the members to vote against cutting rates to 4.25 per cent, instead preferring to leave them unchanged. The bank's base rate has come down from a peak of 5.25 per cent, when it was hiked to try to quell surging inflation across the UK. He said his vote to hold interest rates at this month's policy meeting was more of a 'skip' than a 'halt' in rate cuts. This reflects his view that the 'pace of bank rate reduction should be 'cautious', running slower than the 25bp (basis points) per quarter we have implemented since last August', the economist said. 'That requires a 'skip' in that quarterly pattern at some point. And I decided that the May meeting was an appropriate moment for that 'skip'.' Meanwhile, Mr Pill stressed that he was concerned about inflation persistence – meaning price rises remaining elevated – which would mean 'you need to run the economy a little bit cooler'. 'That's an uncomfortable message, but it may be an important message for policymakers with inflation targets to normalise,' he said. 'I do worry about the fact that inflation has stayed stubbornly high, and pay dynamics have stayed stubbornly strong, even as activity has been relatively disappointing… over the last two to three years. 'So that's what I worry about… and I think that does influence the way I vote in the committee as an individual.' Daniel Casali, chief investment strategist at wealth manager Evelyn Partners, said: 'This acceleration in inflation for April was driven by a triple-whammy of factors. One, large indexed and regulated price increases, including mobile phone charges, vehicle excise duty, and water and energy bills. 'Two, a later-than-usual Easter weekend, which lifted airfare and accommodation prices, and three, businesses passing on the higher National Minimum Wage and employers' National Insurance (NI) contributions to consumers... 'If inflation exceeds expectations – as today's figure suggests it could - the MPC could well delay a further interest rate cut at its next meeting on June 19, particularly if news on the real economy remains stable.'
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Poll: Trump's latest approval rating falls
A new poll shows that President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen after his public feud with Elon Musk over the spending bill he is trying to push through Congress. Trump's approval rating is now at 47 percent, according to the latest Daily Mail tracking poll conducted with J.L. Partners. The majority of Republicans, 59 percent, side with Trump, while just 12 percent side with Musk. Twenty-eight percent of Republicans remain unsure. Twenty-six percent of unaffiliated Americans also support Trump, with 20 percent siding with Musk. A plurality of Democrats now side with Musk, with 35 percent now backing him rather than just ten percent who support Trump. The majority of Democrats and unaffiliated Americans, each at 54 percent, are also uncertain about who to side with, suggesting room for each figure to grow their support. Despite Musk's threat on Thursday to create a new political third-party, there is still minimal support among American voters for the idea. Just four percent of voters signal support for a Musk party while 42 percent support a Democratic candidate and 35 percent support Republicans. After hardcore Trump supporters publicly called for Musk to get deported, just 30 percent of Americans support the idea while 35 percent of opposed. Musk left the White House at the end of May ending his time as a special advisor to Trump and spearheading his effort to cut government waste, fraud, and abuse with his DOGE team. But voters are increasingly skeptical about the success of his efforts. Forty-one percent view Musk's DOGE as a failure and 33 percent view it as a success.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
Florida Republicans criticize Trump's immigration arrests: ‘Unacceptable and inhumane'
A co-founder of a group for Latinas who support Donald Trump has excoriated the president on some of the immigration-related arrests being carried out by his administration, which she called 'unacceptable and inhumane'. In a statement posted on X over the weekend, Ileana Garcia wrote, 'This is not what we voted for.' The post from the Florida state senator asserted that she had supported Trump, her fellow Republican, 'through thick and thin' and understood the need to remove from the US undocumented people who had committed crimes. But she criticized how federal authorities had arrested people at immigration courts across the country despite 'credible fear of persecution claims' as the Trump White House ramped up his mass deportation campaign after his second presidency began in January. Referring to Stephen Miller, Trump's homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff, Garcia said: 'What we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings … all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal. 'This undermines the sense of fairness and justice that the American people value.' Garcia's statement expressed solidarity with comments issued Friday by another Florida Republican: US House member Maria Elvira Salazar. In a statement, Salazar had said the Trump administration's policies had exposed thousands to deportation and seemed to disregard for the 'duty to due process that every democracy must guarantee'. Salazar's statement added that those with pending asylum claims deserved 'to go through the legal process' while urging the Trump administration to keep focused on removing 'every criminal here illegally'. Garcia alluded to how she represents Salazar's congressional district in Florida's state senate and said her Cuban refugee parents are 'now just as American, if not more so, than Stephen Miller'. 'I am deeply disappointed by these actions,' Garcia's statement said. 'And I will not stand down.' Garcia's remarks are not the first time she has gotten cross with the Trump administration. She served as a deputy press secretary for the US homeland security department during Trump's first presidency before leaving the post in March 2019, ahead of his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden and her joining the Florida state senate. During his unsuccessful 2020 run, Trump's campaign launched its own official Hispanic outreach coalition and delivered multiple cease and desist letters threatening legal action against the Latinos for Trump organization who had supported his victorious first presidential run, as ABC News reported at the time. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion The Latinas for Trump organization that Garcia helped establish was affiliated with that group, and she said she was stunned to learn of the cease and desist letters in question. Garcia accused the Trump administration of having 'refused to embrace surrogates from the Latino community who did the real groundwork, took the bullets, took the insults and lost their jobs' as he ascended to the presidency. 'It's actually quite disappointing,' she said then. Trump won the Florida vote in each of his three presidential campaigns. His Mar-a-Lago resort is in the state as well.
