Trump-Putin summit starting to feel quite 'Midnight Sun' - as White House confirms location
In parts of Alaska, the sun doesn't set in summer, casting light through the night but leaving you disorientated.
The Trump-Putin summit is pitched as "transparent" but it's difficult to find any path to peace right now.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has reduced it to a "listening exercise" where Donald Trump will seek a "better understanding" of the situation.
There isn't much to understand - Russia wants territory, Ukraine isn't ceding it - but Ms Levitt rejects talk of them "tempering expectations".
It's possible to be both hopeful and measured, she says, because Mr Trump wants peace but is only meeting one side on Friday.
It's the fact that he's only meeting Vladimir Putin that concerns European leaders, who fear Ukraine could be side-lined by any Trump-Putin pact.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims Mr Putin wants the rest of Donetsk and, in effect, the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He's ruled out surrendering that because it would rob him of key defence lines and leave Kyiv vulnerable to future offensives.
0:57
European leaders - including Sir Keir Starmer - will hold online talks with Mr Zelenskyy twice on Wednesday, on either side of a virtual call with Mr Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
Their concerns may be getting through, hence the White House now framing the summit as a cautious fact-finding exercise and nothing more.
The only thing we really learned from the latest news conference is that the first Trump-Putin meeting in six years will be in Anchorage.
A White House official later confirmed it would be at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a US military facility.
Alaska itself, with its history and geography, is a layered metaphor: a place the Russians sold to the US in the 1800s.
A remote but strategic frontier where the lines of ownership and the rules of negotiation are once again being sketched out.
On a clear day, you can see Russia from Alaska, but without Mr Zelenskyy in the room, it's difficult to see them conquering any summit.
In the place where the sun never sets, the deal might never start.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Mexico says 26 capos extradited to US were requested by Trump administration
Mexico sent 26 alleged cartel figures to face justice in the United States because the Trump administration requested them and Mexico did not want them to continue running their illicit businesses from Mexican prisons, officials said Wednesday. The mass transfer was not, however, part of wider negotiations as Mexico seeks to avoid higher tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, they said. 'These transfers are not only a strategic measure to ensure public safety, but also reflect a firm determination to prevent these criminals from continuing to operate from within prisons and to break up their networks of influence,' Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in a news conference on Wednesday. The 26 prisoners handed over to American authorities on Tuesday included figures aligned with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel among others. They were wanted by American authorities for their roles in drug trafficking and other crimes. It comes months after 29 other cartel leaders were sent to the U.S. in February. In the exchange, the U.S. Justice Department promised it would not seek the death penalty against any of the 55 people included in the two transfers, which experts say may help avoid any violent outburst by the cartels in response. Authorities said the operation involved nearly a thousand law enforcement officers, 90 vehicles and a dozen military aircraft. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier Wednesday that the transfers were 'sovereign decisions,' but the move comes as the Mexican leader faces mounting pressure by the Trump administration to crack down on cartels and fentanyl production. García Harfuch also confirmed Wednesday that a U.S. government drone — non-military — was flying over central Mexico, but at the request of Mexican authorities as part of an ongoing investigation. So far, Sheinbaum has tried to show the Trump administration a greater willingness to pursue the cartels than her predecessor — a change that has been acknowledged by U.S. officials — and continued to slow migration to the U.S. border, in an effort to avoid the worst of Trump's tariff threats. Two weeks ago, the two leaders spoke and agreed to give their teams another 90 days to negotiate to avoid threatened 30% tariffs on imports from Mexico. 'Little by little, Mexico is following through with this demand by the Americans to deliver drug capos," said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo. "It's buying (the Mexican government) time." Saucedo said the Mexican government has been able to avoid a burst of violence by cartels – a reaction often seen when capos are captured – in part, because Ovidio Guzmán, a son of infamous capo Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, showed it's possible to negotiate with U.S. prosecutors. Ovidio Guzmán pleaded guilty last month to drug trafficking and other charges and hopes for a lighter sentence in exchange for his cooperation. But Saucedo warned that if such mass prisoner transfers continue, the Latin American country is bound to see another outburst of violence in the future.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Is the Trump-Putin meeting a 'listening exercise' or an attempt to secure an immediate ceasefire?
The "if" was doing some heavy lifting. President Trump floated the idea of a second meeting, this one between Putin, Zelensky and possibly himself, "if" the Alaska summit goes well. Speaking to European leaders earlier, in a virtual call he rated at "10" and "very friendly", he'd shared his intention to try to broker a ceasefire on Friday. So, the strategy is crystallising - he will press for a trilateral meeting to discuss territory "if" he manages to secure a truce during the bilateral meeting. But that begs the obvious question: what if he can't? The US President is keeping his options open - rating the chance of a second meeting as "very good" but preparing the ground for failure too. "There may be no second meeting because if I feel that it is not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we're not going to have a second meeting," he said. Unusually, given how often he talks about his abilities, he conceded that he may not persuade Vladimir Putin to stop targeting civilians. 4:25 But without elaborating on what any sanctions might be, he warned that Russia would face "very severe consequences" if it doesn't end the war. Even if he achieves the seemingly impossible - a halt to the fighting - there seems little chance of agreement on any swapping of territory. President Zelensky has told President Trump that Putin "is bluffing" and wants to "push forward along the whole front" not return land. In the space of a week, Donald Trump has gone from talking about a land-swapping deal, to a "listening exercise", to the potential for a ceasefire. His expectations appear changeable, an indication of how fluid back-room negotiations are in the run-up to his first face-to-face with Vladimir Putin in six years. He described Friday's summit as "setting the table for a second meeting", but that's presumptuous when the meal - or deal - isn't cooked yet.
Channel 4
an hour ago
- Channel 4
‘Compromising Ukraine is not something Trump wants'
We spoke to Jennifer Kavanagh, who is Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities, about the upcoming Trump-Putin summit.
