Macron and Starmer will co-chair coalition of willing meeting on Ukraine on Tuesday
The countries will work on security guarantees for Ukraine, added Macron's Elysee office.
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Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Morning Joe host stuns panel by heaping MORE praise on Trump as he warms up to former arch-enemy
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has said Donald Trump 'holds the cards' over Vladimir Putin in their diplomacy talks surrounding the war in Ukraine. The Morning Joe star made the declaration amid ongoing peace talks between the two leaders on Wednesday. 'You know, there are a lot of people talking about, "who has cards... who's not playing cards,"' he told fellow anchor Willie Geist. 'I heard some people over the weekend said Vladimir Putin is the 'only person that might...' Scarborough continued, before interrupting himself with what was billed as the only answer. 'No. It's Donald Trump. Donald Trump has the cards. 'He has the cards with, first of, with sanctions,' he said. A former Florida Republican who today is one of the left-leaning networks' leading voices, the host went on to outline why he believes Trump has little to worry about. 'He can just say, "Lindsey [Graham], go ahead - let's pass the sanctions bill and let's grind him down,' he explained, referring to the GOP senator from South Carolina. The Morning Joe star made the declaration amid ongoing peace talks between the two, pictured convening in Alaska on Friday 'And the second thing is, well, you know, there was talk about a possible $90million military aide bill to Ukraine,' he went on. 'There's two things that would change the dynamics very quickly.' The comments continued Scarborough's surprise support for the president in recent weeks, and Geist, in turn, observed how Putin has continued to attack Ukraine despite the recent peace talks. Scarborough dismissed such talk as mere posturing. 'Vladimir Putin can huff and puff and say he's going to blow the house down all he wants,' he said. 'He's not the one holding the cards. Donald Trump's holding the cards right now. 'It will be very interesting to see if he'll play them over the next 10 days.' Just last week, he criticized Democrats for publicly complaining about Trump 's takeover of Washington, DC - where Morning Joe is based - while secretly pining for a crackdown behind closed doors. Without naming names, the host detailed how he'd received calls from his friends who quietly expressed support for the deployment of federal agents to DC. Their political allegiance? 'All democrats,' Scarborough said on-air August 12. A few days before, he said he agreed with Trump in his assessment that DC is now a dangerous city. 'Certainly don't need the National Guard in there, or certainly not Marines,' he said with wife Mika Brzezinski by his side. 'But you look at Washington, DC, and it's been dangerous for years. 'There have been, you know, a year, a couple of years here, a couple of years there, where it's been a bit better - but certainly over the past five years it has just been an absolute mess. 'Its quality of life has been terrible.' Earlier this week, Scarborough - who faced criticism for meeting with Trump in Mar-a-Lago after the election - revealed MSNBC would be changing its name to 'MS NOW'. The change, CEO Mark Lazarus said in a memo viewed by Daily Mail, represents the new company's focus on 'building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses.' MSNBC will also lose the peacock logo long associated with NBCUniversal when the name change goes into effect later this year. MS NOW is an acronym for My Source News Opinion World, execs said - after previously promising the network would keep the 'NBC' in its its name as it prepares to spearhead a spinoff company that's been dubbed Versant. The firm, also based in 30 Rock, is comprised of Comcast channels like MSNBC that had been causing declines in the parent company's share price. The stars of Morning Joe, Brzezinski and Scarborough, are said to be in the midst of exploiting their power to 'leverage their stature within the network,' according to Mediaite's Colby Hall. In a report penned earlier this month, Hall cited an unusual number of absences from both after execs pulled their show off the air following the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump. 'It's hard to ignore the timing,' Hall wrote. 'With MSNBC's realignment on the horizon and talent contracts under review, Joe and Mika's extended absences feel like a flex - a reminder that Morning Joe doesn't work without them,' he added. The Versant spin off is expected to take place between late 2025 and early 2026. An exact date has not yet been announced.
The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
BBC ‘not institutionally antisemitic', editor says after row over Gaza coverage
The BBC is 'not institutionally antisemitic', a newspaper editor has said following a row over the broadcaster's coverage of the conflict in Gaza. James Harding, The Observer 's editor-in-chief said the perception of a 'political presence looming over the BBC' is a problem and the broadcaster needs to be 'beyond the reach of politicians'. The BBC has been criticised for a number of incidents in recent months which include breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of 'Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)'. Following the incident, UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers expect 'accountability at the highest levels' for the BBC's decision to screen the performance. Mr Harding discussed the difficulties of covering the Gaza conflict when he delivered this year's James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday. He described how 'newsrooms are in a furious argument with ourselves over the coverage of Israel and Gaza', with the situation 'very hard to view dispassionately'. The Observer chief said this is true for all media organisations, particularly the BBC, and it is 'about as difficult as it gets in news'. Mr Harding said: 'This summer, Lisa Nandy has weighed in.' He said the Culture Secretary's office insists she did not explicitly ask Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to 'deliver up' director-general Tim Davie 's resignation following the Bob Vylan incident, but 'people inside the BBC were left in no doubt that was the message'. Mr Harding said: 'The place became paranoid about how the BBC itself would cover the story; people around him thought the political pressure would be too much. 'Whatever your view of the hate speech vs freedom of speech issues, an overbearing government minister doesn't help anyone. 'The hiring and firing of the editor-in-chief of the country's leading newsroom and cultural organisation should not be the job of a politician. It's chilling. 'Political interference – and the perception of a political presence looming over the BBC – is a problem, one that we've got too accustomed to. 'It looks likely to get worse. We need to get on with putting the country's most important editorial and creative organisation beyond the reach of politicians now.' The broadcaster is also facing an Ofcom investigation into its documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after a review found it had breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy. The programme was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture. Mr Harding said the BBC is not antisemitic. 'I am Jewish, proudly so,' he said. 'I'm proud, too, to have worked for the most important news organisation in the world. 'The BBC is not institutionally antisemitic. It's untrue to say it is. 'It's also unhelpful – much better to correct the mistakes and address the judgment calls that have been wrong, than smear the institution, impugn the character of all the people who work there and, potentially, undermine journalists in the field working in the most difficult and dangerous of conditions.' The UK Government and the BBC have been asked for comment. Mr Harding is co-founder of Tortoise Media, which acquired broadsheet newspaper The Observer in April. Before he co-founded Tortoise Media, Mr Harding was editor of The Times from 2007 to 2012 and was in charge of the BBC's news and current affairs programming from 2013 up until the beginning of 2018. He also co-presented On Background on the BBC World Service and wrote the book Alpha Dogs: How Political Spin Became A Global Business. A spokesperson for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: 'The Culture Secretary has been repeatedly clear that the role of the director-general is a matter for the BBC board. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue. 'The BBC has itself acknowledged a number of serious failings in recent months, including the broadcasting of the Bob Vylan set at Glastonbury. 'It is entirely right that the Culture Secretary raised these issues with the BBC leadership on behalf of licence fee payers.'
The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ukraine security talks are ‘road to nowhere' says Lavrov as Nato chiefs meet
Nato defense chiefs held a 'candid discussion' on Wednesday about what security guarantees they could offer Ukraine – as Russia warned that any talks without its participation were a 'road to nowhere'. Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of Nato's Military Committee, said 32 defense chiefs from across the alliance held a video conference amid a diplomatic push to end the fighting. He said there was a 'great, candid discussion' in the call. 'We are united, and that unity was truly tangible today, as always,' he said. Assurances that it won't be invaded again in the future are one of the keys for getting Ukraine to sign up for a peace deal with Russia. It wants Western help for its military, including weapons and training, to shore up its defenses, and Western officials are scrambling to figure out what commitments they might offer. But Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed efforts to work on security arrangements in Ukraine without Moscow's involvement. 'We cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to resolve collective security issues without the Russian Federation. This will not work,' he said. He also criticised the role of European leaders who met Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday. Lavrov said Russia was in favour of 'truly reliable' guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war. At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid. 'I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it's a road to nowhere,' Lavrov said. He accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelenskiy of carrying out 'a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there.' Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting US troops on the ground to do so, but Britain said it is readying its own troops to take part in a European 'peace assurance' force. Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept Nato troops in Ukraine. French president Emmanuel Macron has proposed a trilateral summit in Geneva. Putin's ability to travel abroad is limited because he is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on a warrant dating back to March 2023, but Switzerland intends to ask the ICC to exempt it from sanctions in order to allow Putin in for a summit. Meanwhile, attacks on civilian areas in Sumy and Odesa overnight into Wednesday injured 15 people, including a family with three small children, Ukrainian authorities said. Russian strikes also targeted ports and fuel and energy infrastructure. Poland 's defence minister accused Russia of again provoking Nato countries after an official said an object that landed in a cornfield may have been a Russian drone. 'Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone,' Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. 'We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace are underway.'
