European leaders gather for Ukraine peace talks at the White House
Trump shows Zelenskyy a portrait of Abraham Lincoln Photograph: Alexander Drago/Reuters
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Donald Trump engage with Finland's president, Alexander Stubb Photograph: Alexander Drago/Reuters
Nato's secretary-general, Mark Rutte, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Macron converse with Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched by senior members of the Trump administration Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, addresses fellow European leaders in the East Room of the White House Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/PA
Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, addresses fellow western leaders Photograph:Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron confer under the gaze of senior Trump officials: the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and vice-president, JD Vance Photograph: Alexander Drago/Reuters
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, Keir Starmer, Alexander Stubb, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni, Friedrich Merz and Mark Rutte Photograph: Alexander Drago/Reuters
Volodymyr Zelenskyy chats with Donald Trump in the Oval Office Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Zelenskyy and Trump were joined by the US special envoy Steve Witkoff (foreground), Maro Rubio (behind him) and JD Vance Photograph:Marco Rubio and JD Vance listen on behind Emmanuel Macron Photograph: Alexander Drago/Reuters
Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with Ursula von der Leyen outside the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC before their visit to the White House Photograph: Planetpix/Alamy
Donald Trump leads Giorgia Meloni, Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron from the Cross Hall to the East Room Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump takes a moment of respite during his multilateral meeting with European leaders
Photograph: Shutterstock
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Metro
28 minutes ago
- Metro
Five key takeaways from Zelensky's talks with Donald Trump at the White House
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US president Donald Trump welcomed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and several European allies to the White House yesterday. Following Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin's summit in Alaska on Friday, in which no ceasefire was reached, the 'coalition of the willing' rallied around Ukraine and strengthened their calls for a solution. UK prime minister Keir Starmer joined Trump and Mr Zelensky alongside several other European leaders – and Sir Keir said 'real progress' had been made during the summit held yesterday afternoon. He described the talks as 'good and constructive', adding: 'There was a real sense of unity between the European leaders that were there, and president Trump and president Zelensky.' Trump also described the talks as 'very good', saying on his Truth Social platform that 'everyone is happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine'. And president Zelensky said the talks were 'the best' so far, adding: 'We are very happy with the president that all the leaders are here and security in Ukraine depends on the United States and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts.' But what did the talks actually achieve? During the meeting, Trump promised the US would be involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump reiterated ahead of the meeting that he is still totally against Ukraine joining Nato – but Putin is reportedly open to allowing the US to provide Ukraine with Nato-like 'robust security guarantees'. Speaking at the weekend, US envoy Steve Witkoff said: 'We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer article five-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato.' Nato's Article Five is the principle that an attack on one member is considered an attack on them all – and Russia has long opposed Ukraine being accepted into Nato. The US president added: 'I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We're going to help them, and we're going to make it very secure.' Trump told the meeting that he had spoken directly with Putin to start planning a meeting between him and Mr Zelensky. In fact, according to an EU diplomat, Trump interrupted the meeting to call the Russian president, Sky News reports. Sir Keir said after the meeting: 'The other material outcome was the agreement that there will now be a bilateral agreement between president Putin and president Zelensky, followed by a trilateral which will then add in president Trump. 'That is a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues, whether it's territory or the exchange of prisoners, or the very serious issue of the return of children, that is something where Ukraine must be at the table. 'These were the two outcomes that were the most important coming out of today. They're positive outcomes, there was a real sense of unity. We've made real progress today.' Speaking to Fox News after the Alaska summit, Trump suggested it could be 'up to Zelensky' to make peace with Russia. If Trump is able to set up a meeting between Putin and Mr Zelensky, it would be only the second time the two leaders have met face-to-face. They last met in 2019 at the Élysée Palace in Paris to try and negotiate a solution after Russia annexed Crimea illegally in 2014 and Russian-backed separatists started to take control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Trump also said that 'if everything works out well today' he would organise a meeting between himself, Putin, and Mr Zelensky. Mr Zelensky was reportedly using the meeting to push for a trilateral meeting between himself, Trump and Putin after he was excluded from the Alaska summit. From the perspective of Mr Zelensky and other European leaders, the priority for yesterday's talks seemed to be that further negotiations and talks about Ukraine's future must include Ukraine's input. French president Emmanuel Macron said while a trilateral meeting is important, he also wanted a 'quadrilateral' summit to take place afterwards. It wasn't clear whether he wanted the fourth party in the meeting to be France, Nato, the EU, or the 'coalition of the willing' as a whole. Following Friday's Alaska summit, where the prospect of a ceasefire was not discussed, Trump said there doesn't need to be a ceasefire in Ukraine, as a peace deal could be worked out while the two countries are still at war. He commented: 'I don't think you need a ceasefire. You know, if you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war, I didn't do any ceasefires. 'I know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand, strategically, why one country or the other wouldn't want it. 'You have a ceasefire and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and maybe they don't want that.' German chancellor Friedrich Merz seemed to oppose this, telling media in the White House: 'I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let's work on that and let's try to put pressure on Russia.' Trump later pushed back, saying: 'So if we can do the ceasefire, great, and, if we don't do a ceasefire… many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us, great points.' Trump repeatedly said before this meeting that a discussion about territory exchanges needed to be discussed. He said any exchanges would need to 'take into consideration the current line of contact', adding: 'That means the war zone, the war lines that are now, pretty obvious, very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions.' It's understood that during the Alaska summit on Friday Putin demanded Ukraine hand over its Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for ending the war – a move which Trump reportedly endorsed privately. In exchange, Russia would reportedly give up other Ukrainian territories held by its troops. More Trending However Mr Zelensky has repeated that he is not able to give up any of his country's territory – including Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Speaking in April about the possibility of ceding land, he simply said: 'There is nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.' Article two of Ukraine's constitution states that its sovereignty 'extends throughout its entire territory' which 'within its present border is indivisible and inviolable'. For any change to the country's borders to happen, the Ukrainian parliament must authorise a national referendum for its citizens to vote on. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Fact check: Donald Trump boasts he's ended 'six wars in six months' but has he? MORE: Zelensky tells Trump 'it's the best I had' after turning up in black suit with no tie MORE: Russian troops troll Zelensky by flying US flag on mission into Ukraine
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni caught rolling her eyes as Merz ‘lectures' Trump during Ukraine talks
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was caught rolling her eyes at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during the Ukraine peace talks. In the clip, Merz can be heard telling Donald Trump about the importance of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, as Meloni is seen rolling her eyes. The Italian Prime Minister was one of several European leaders in Washington on Monday (18 August) as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Trump for crunch peace talks. This is not the first time Meloni's reaction has gone viral. She hit the headlines for her response to Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit two months ago.
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump wants to change how elections are run. The Constitution won't let him
Donald Trump has vowed to implement significant changes to the conduct of US elections, despite constitutional constraints limiting his ability to act unilaterally. His pledges, made on his social media platform, are rooted in the same false information and conspiracy theories he has consistently used to account for his 2020 election defeat. Mr Trump specifically targeted mail voting, which remains popular and is utilised by approximately one-third of all voters, and voting machines, a form of which is employed across nearly all of the country's thousands of election jurisdictions. Ironically, these are the very systems that facilitated Mr Trump's victory in the 2024 election and enabled Republicans to secure control of Congress. Trump's post marks an escalation even in his normally overheated election rhetoric. He issued a wide-ranging executive order earlier this year that, among other changes, would have required documented proof-of-citizenship before registering to vote. His Monday post promised another election executive order to "help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm elections." The same post also pushed falsehoods about voting. He claimed the U.S. is the only country to use mail voting, when it's actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Similar complaints to Trump's, when aired on conservative and conservative-leaning networks such as Newsmax and Fox News, have led to multimillion dollar defamation settlements, including one announced Monday, because they are full of false information and the outlets have not been able to present any evidence to support them. Trump's post came after the president told Fox News that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in their Friday meeting in Alaska, echoed his grievances about mail voting and the 2020 election. Trump continued his attack on mail voting and voting machines in the Oval Office on Monday, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The announcement signals yet another way that Trump intends to stack the cards in his favor in the 2026 midterm elections, after he already has directed his attorney general to investigate a Democratic fundraising platform and urged states to redraw their congressional districts to help the GOP maintain its majority in the House of Representatives. Here's a breakdown of Trump's latest election post and why Congress is the one entity that can implement national election rules. Trump's post Trump for years has promoted false information about voting, and Monday was no exception. He claimed there is "MASSIVE FRAUD" due to mail voting, when in fact voting fraud in the U.S. is rare. As an example, an Associated Press review after the 2020 election found fewer than 475 cases of potential fraud in the six battleground states where he disputed his loss, far too few to tip that election to Trump. Washington and Oregon, which conduct elections entirely by mail, have sued to challenge Trump's earlier executive order — which sought to require that all ballots must be received by Election Day and not just postmarked by then. The states argue that the president has no such authority, and they are seeking a declaration from a federal judge in Seattle that their postmark deadlines do not conflict with federal law setting the date of U.S. elections. Trump also alleged that voting machines are more expensive than "Watermark Paper." That's a little-used system that has gained favor and investments among some voting conspiracy theorists who believe it would help prevent fraudulent ballots from being introduced into the vote count. Watermarks would not provide a way to count ballots, so they would not on their own replace vote tabulating machines. While some jurisdictions still have voters use electronic ballot-marking devices to cast their votes, the vast majority of voters in the U.S. already vote on paper ballots, creating an auditable record of votes that provides an extra safeguard for election security. In his post, Trump also claimed that states "are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes" and must do what the federal government "as represented by the President of the United States" tells them to do. Election lawyers said that's a misrepresentation of the U.S. Constitution. It also flies in the face of what had been a core Republican Party value of prioritizing states' rights. Thousands of elections, none under presidential control Unlike in most countries, elections in the U.S. are run by the states. But it gets more complicated — each state then allows smaller jurisdictions, such as counties, cities or townships, to run their own elections. Election officials estimate there are as many as 10,000 different election jurisdictions across the country. A frequent complaint of Trump and other election conspiracy theorists is that the U.S. doesn't run its election like France, which hand counts presidential ballots and usually has a national result on election night. But that's because France is only running that single election, and every jurisdiction has the same ballot with no other races. A ballot in the U.S. might contain dozens of races, from president on down to city council and including state and local ballot measures. The Constitution makes the states the entities that determine the "time, place and manner" of elections, but does allow Congress to "make" or "alter" rules for federal elections. Congress can change the way states run congressional and presidential elections but has no say in the way a state runs its own elections. The president is not mentioned at all in the Constitution's list of entities with powers over elections. "The president has very limited to zero authority over things related to the conduct of elections," said Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Courts have agreed — no presidential involvement Parts of Trump's earlier executive order on elections were swiftly blocked by the courts, on the grounds that Congress, and not the president, sets federal election rules. It's unclear what Trump plans to do now, but the only path to change federal election rules is through Congress. Although Republicans control Congress, it's unclear that even his party would want to eliminate voting machines nationwide, possibly delaying vote tallies in their own races by weeks or months. Even if they did, legislation would likely be unable to pass because Democrats could filibuster it in the U.S. Senate. Mail voting had bipartisan support before Trump turned against it during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election, but it's still widely used in Republican-leaning states, including several he won last November — Arizona, Florida and Utah. It's also how members of the military stationed overseas cast their ballots, and fully eliminating it would disenfranchise those GOP-leaning voters. The main significance of Trump's Monday statement is that it signals his continuing obsession with trying to change how elections are run. "These kinds of claims could provide a kind of excuse for him to try to meddle," Hasen said. "Very concerned about that."
