German political group proposes buying Mallorca
The youth wing of a German political party has put forward a cheeky and audacious proposal to buy the entire Spanish island of Mallorca. The Ulm-Biberach branch of Junge Liberale (Young Liberals) raised eyebrows after it proposed to bringing the party island into German control.
'In doing so, we are assuming responsibility for an island that has long been a cultural part of our lives, providing legal certainty for the many Germans living there, and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.'
The account denied that the post was satirical in a comment underneath. The post, which had the hashtag '#trump', was immediately compared to the US president's bid to buy Greenland.
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Reuters
a few seconds ago
- Reuters
Trump-Putin direct talks over Ukraine conclude as summit stretches on
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met face-to-face for almost three hours over Moscow's war in Ukraine on Friday, the Kremlin said, as the two world leaders sought an end to the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years. There was no immediate word on whether the talks had produced any progress toward a ceasefire in the war, a goal that Trump had set at the outset. The pair were set to jointly speak to reporters shortly. Trump and Putin, along with top foreign-policy aides, conferred in a room at an Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska in their first meeting since 2019. A blue backdrop behind them had the words "Pursuing Peace" printed on it. Trump's publicly stated aim for the talks was to secure a halt to the fighting and a commitment by Putin to meet swiftly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to negotiate an end to the war, which began when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Earlier in the week, Trump said he would know if Putin was serious about peace within minutes of seeing him. He also threatened to walk out of the talks if they were unproductive. Zelenskiy, who was not invited to the summit, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict with Russia and recognizing - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. Trump sought to assuage such concerns as he boarded Air Force One, saying he would let Ukraine decide on any possible territorial swaps. "I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine, I'm here to get them at a table," he said. Asked what would make the meeting a success, he told reporters: "I want to see a ceasefire rapidly ... I'm not going to be happy if it's not today ... I want the killing to stop." Once on the ground in Alaska, Trump greeted Putin on a red carpet on the base's tarmac. The two shook hands warmly and touched each other on the arm before riding in Trump's limo to the summit site nearby. The initial talks also included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump's special envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, Russian foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Trump hopes a truce in the 3-1/2-year-old war that Putin started will bring peace to the region as well as bolster his credentials as a global peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Putin, the summit is already a big win that he can portray as evidence that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow is retaking its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court, accused of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia denies allegations of war crimes and the Kremlin has dismissed the ICC warrant as null and void. Russia and the United States are not members of the court. Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. A conservative estimate of dead and injured in the war in Ukraine - from both sides combined - totals 1.2 million people, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said in May. Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher task than he had expected. He said if Friday's talks went well, quickly arranging a second, three-way summit with Zelenskiy would be more important than his encounter with Putin. Zelenskiy said Friday's summit should open the way for a "just peace" and three-way talks that included him, but added that Russia was continuing to wage war. A Russian ballistic missile earlier struck Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding another. "It's time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Zelenskiy has ruled out formally handing Moscow any territory and is also seeking a security guarantee backed by the United States. Trump said before the summit that there is mutual respect between him and Putin. "He is a smart guy, been doing it for a long time, but so have I ... We get along," Trump said of Putin. He also welcomed Putin's decision to bring businesspeople to Alaska. "But they're not doing business until we get the war settled," he said, repeating a threat of "economically severe" consequences for Russia if the summit goes badly. The United States has had internal discussions on using Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker vessels to support the development of gas and LNG projects in Alaska as one of the possible deals to aim for, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. One source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs Moscow could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine, given that Putin understood Russia's economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war. Reuters has previously reported that Putin might be willing to freeze the conflict along the front lines, provided there was a legally binding pledge not to enlarge NATO eastwards and to lift some Western sanctions. NATO has said Ukraine's future is in the alliance. Russia, whose war economy is showing strain, is vulnerable to further U.S. sanctions - and Trump has threatened tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, primarily China and India. "For Putin, economic problems are secondary to goals, but he understands our vulnerability and costs," the Russian source said. Putin this week held out the prospect of something else he knows Trump wants - a new nuclear arms control accord to replace the last surviving one, which is due to expire in February. Russia has said it is open to a full ceasefire but that how it would be monitored needs to be agreed. One compromise could be a truce in the air war.
The Sun
a few seconds ago
- The Sun
I walked streets of Washington and saw scenes straight from disaster movie after terrifying breakdown in law and order
THE armoured vehicles were stationed in position, troops in combat fatigues buzzed around and temperatures headed towards 33C. But this wasn't a scene from Iraq or Afghanistan. We were standing in Washington DC, the birthplace of American democracy. 4 4 Donald Trump's decision to send in the National Guard was met with outrage, but a tour of the capital's streets by The Sun revealed, in just one single night, a terrifying breakdown in law and order. Washington's Lincoln Memorial is such a symbol of America that it features on the five-dollar bill. But the monument now serves as a backdrop to row after row of tents where homeless people are massed in a camp which looks like the cross-Channel migrant 'jungle' in Calais. Rubbish was strewn everywhere, and the occupants were clearly in it for the long haul. One had even somehow set up a washing machine. Under a nearby bridge, mattresses and glass beer bottles lay scattered everywhere. Piercing scream I have never seen so many homeless in a city. Within 30 seconds of arriving at the world-famous Union Station, I was confronted by a woman lying on the floor, with her trousers falling down. More rows of homeless were slumped outside a library just a street away from the White House, and they took no heed of Trump's warning – telling me: 'We are never leaving.' Some had been smoking what they told me was super-strength cannabis, and were lying comatose on the floor unable to wake up. A security guard at a nearby Hilton hotel said: 'You think this is crazy? You should have seen it last week. There was a shooting nearby.' Five US cities where Donald Trump could next launch militarized crime crackdown as DC launch exposes Democrat failures He claimed that at the weekend, kids go to party and take fentanyl – a drug said to be more dangerous than heroin – on the rooftop of a nearby hotel. Its swimming pool sits a matter of yards from the Capitol, home of America's parliament. One such get-together ended in a shooting – and when I left town the killer was still on the loose. Not far away was a posh restaurant where the cheapest glass of wine will set you back 15 dollars. But diners peering through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows can see the canvas of a tent and half a dozen homeless people shouting and swearing. Locals say they are a group out of their minds on crack cocaine. One man verbally abused me as he held a sign condemning 'the human race' and another was seen shouting at a little girl that she was a 'b***h', because she didn't give him a dollar. Suddenly, there was a piercing scream and a woman had been knocked over by a speeding car. Later, in scenes straight from a Hollywood disaster movie, we witnessed hundreds of FBI officers being briefed at a base near one of Washington's most dangerous neighbourhoods, Anacostia. One by one, their cars left the centre in dramatic fashion. That evening's mission: A crackdown on 'bloodthirsty criminals'. We attempted to take a leaf out of the FBI's book and venture into the neighbourhood ourselves but swiftly realised that was a bad idea, as masked gangs loitered on the streets looking for trouble. As we cruised back to town, we spotted six blacked-out SUVs full of Drug Enforcement Administration officers armed with machine guns stopping a car and arresting a wrong 'un. A crazed man sat in just his underpants at a bus stop he had turned into a makeshift home, and was terrifying people. A woman coming home from work was so scared she jumped on the wrong bus just to escape from him. He had taken fentanyl and, when he saw us, put his middle finger up. Another man was half-naked and trying to dance with scared tourists who just wanted to see the city's famous landmarks. It seemed the men who Trump called 'drugged-out maniacs' were lurking around almost every corner. And his plan was in full force, as nearly every street had a police car parked up, or a special agent. There were too many of them to count. 4 4
Times
16 minutes ago
- Times
Trump-Putin meeting ends and press conference called — live
Two lecterns with microphones have been set up on stage and a Russian translator has performed a sound check, suggesting Putin will join Trump at the press conference. Reporters have also been given translation headsets and the Russian press corps is in the room. The meeting between Trump and Putin has ended after almost three hours, Fox News said. Reporters covering the summit have been called into the press conference room and preparations are under way for a briefing to begin. From Marc Bennetts Russia's religious leaders have urged believers to pray for a successful summit meeting between President Putin and President Trump. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, said at a service in Moscow: 'Let us turn to the Lord with sincere prayer, that the Lord will show His mercy, so that He would facilitate this interaction between the leaders of the two most powerful countries on the planet.' Kirill has been a vocal supporter of the war in Ukraine, which he has portrayed as a holy war against 'dark forces'. The Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia also organised 'collective prayers in support of Putin and the success of the Russia-US talks in Alaska' at mosques across the country on Friday, Russia's RBC media outlet said. From Marc Bennetts The sight of Putin bring greeted by Trump on the runway in Alaska has sparked a spot of trademark trolling from Moscow. 'Western media are in a state that can be called frenzy, turning into complete madness: for three years they talked about Russia's isolation, and today they saw a red carpet that greeted the Russian president in the United States,' said Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. Ukrainian sources have been critical of the red-carpet welcome that greeted Putin when he exited his plane at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Olga Rudenko, editor of the Kyiv Independent, posted an image to X showing soldiers, apparently American, preparing the carpet at the bottom of steps leading to the Russian plane, which had the country's name painted on the side. 'This is Putin's new phone wallpaper,' Rudenko said. 'American soldiers kneeling under the big letters reading RUSSIA. To fix the red carpet. For a war criminal.' The make-or-break summit between Presidents Trump and Putin has been under way for two hours, with little indication of how the talks are going. Before sitting down with the Russian leader Trump said he would know within minutes if it was going to be a 'good meeting or a bad meeting'. 'If it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly, and if it's a good meeting, we're going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,' Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. Optimists may view the fact that the meeting did not end immediately as a good sign. Putin appeared to nod in the affirmative when asked by a Russian-speaking journalist if he was ready for a three-way meeting with Zelensky and Trump before the bilateral talks began. Putin said last week that 'certain conditions' would have to be met before he would be ready to sit down for talks with the Ukrainian leader. 'Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions,' he said. The Russian president was treated to a red-carpet welcome, a ride in the presidential limousine and military flyover by a B-2 bomber and four F-35 fighter jets as he arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson a few hours ago. In June, seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers conducted a bombing raid on nuclear facilities in Iran. The bombers flew in a co-ordinated 18-hour mission from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, refuelling in mid-air, before dropping 14 massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) bombs on Fordow and Natanz which were designed for deep penetration of fortified underground structures. At the time, Putin said the US strikes on Russia's close military ally were unjustified, and pushed the world towards great danger. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special economic envoy, posted a video to X of an encounter with a black bear hours before the summit began. 'Hopefully a good sign,' Dmitriev wrote. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. The bear is widely recognised as a symbol of Russia, and has been depicted in cartoons, articles and dramatic plays since the 16th century. A moose and a black bear were also spotted roaming the grounds outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Friday. It's far from an uncommon site in Anchorage; the city is home to about 1,500 moose and as many as 350 black bears. The Trump administration is considering sanctions against the Russian energy giants Lukoil and Rosneft if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire, according to Bloomberg. The report, which cites unnamed sources, noted that measures aimed at squeezing the Russian energy sector may be implemented gradually. US officials have largely avoided targeting Russia's oil sector over fears that doing so could raise domestic energy prices. Fox News has released a brief clip of an interview with Trump conducted by its chief political anchor Bret Baier on board Air Force One. 'Hillary Clinton said that if you got this deal done and not capitulate to Putin, she would nominate you for the Nobel peace prize,' Baier said. Trump responded: 'Well that was very nice. I may have to start liking her again.' • How Trump hopes to win the Nobel peace prize Trump and Putin appeared to engage in a friendly discussion on their way to the summit without the presence of interpreters, leading many to wonder about the Russian leader's proficiency in the English language. Putin rarely speaks English in public, but world leaders including George W Bush and Tony Blair have remarked that he is capable of holding informal conversations. There are clips online of the Russian leader greeting people, making jokes and giving brief remarks in English. During a series of interviews in 2017 with the American film-maker Oliver Stone, Putin used English and Russian interchangeably. In 2021 his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, claimed he was so proficient that he often corrected his own interpreters. Putin is fluent in German, having been stationed in Dresden, East Germany, from 1985 to 1990 while serving as a KGB officer. 1: Yury Ushakov, a top foreign policy aide in the Kremlin 2: Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister 3: An unidentified translator 4: President Putin 5: President Trump 6: A second unidentified translator 7: Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state 8: Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy The two sides are in a room and talking about the war in Ukraine. Here are five things they are likely to be discussing — and one they almost certainly won't be. The two leaders have arrived at a building on the military base where they will hold a three-on-three meeting. As they took their seats in front of a blue backdrop with the words 'Pursuing Peace', US reporters shouted questions at Putin, asking: 'Mr Putin, will you commit to not killing any more civilians?' and 'President Putin, why should President Trump trust your word now?' Putin made an inaudible comment, and put his hands round his mouth in a gesture that appeared to indicate he could not hear what was being said. 'Thank you very much,' Trump said, before the press was ushered out of the room. Despite assurances from the White House that the two leaders would not hold one-on-one talks, the two men drove off accompanied only by Secret Service agents. Putin could be seen smiling in the backseat of the US president's armoured limousine, known as the Beast. Trump said earlier today that he would know within a few minutes of meeting Putin if the meeting would be a success. The two leaders disembarked from their respective planes and walked down a red carpet on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Trump applauded his Russian counterpart before shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. The two leaders stood on a stage marked 'Alaska 2025', as Putin ignored reporters' questions whether he would agree to a ceasefire. The two leaders then entered a US presidential limousine. Putin's plane has just landed at Elmendorf-Richardson base in Anchorage, a few minutes ahead of schedule. Trump is yet to emerge from Air Force One, and has apparently been waiting for Putin's arrival. The US president has been meeting on board the aircraft with Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Alaska's Republican senators, as well as Mike Dunleavy, the state governor, according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. What does the Russian leader want from these talks? Marc Bennetts analyses his motivations, from land deals to history lessons — and why he is already at an advantage. Shortly before Trump arrived in Alaska to meet his Russian counterpart, President Zelensky released a videotaped statement in which he reiterated that Russian military strikes were continuing across Ukraine. 'On the day of negotiations, the Russians are killing as well. And that speaks volumes,' he said. 'Ukraine is ready to work as productively as possible to bring the war to an end, and we count on a strong position from America. Everything will depend on this.' Trump will no longer have a one-on-one meeting with President Putin, the White House has said. Instead, the US president will be accompanied by Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio for a three-on-three meeting. The two Russians joining Putin will be Sergey Lavrov, his foreign minister, and Yury Ushakov, his top foreign policy aide. This meeting will be followed by a working lunch at which Trump, Witkoff and Rubio will be joined by Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary and Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff. Trump has landed in Anchorage for his summit with Putin. Air Force One touched down at 10.25am local time (7.25pm BST). Two podiums are set up in a ballroom on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in front of the words 'Pursuing Peace' (David Charter writes in Anchorage). The arrangement suggests a joint press conference will take place later with both Trump and Putin. About 300 journalists, photographers and TV camera crews crammed into a media tent next door awaiting the arrival of Air Force One. One half of the room is for 'US Press', including international media based in the United States, and one half for 'RU Press'. The day began for media members covering the summit with a 5am local time meet up in a shopping centre car park on the edge of Anchorage to load into buses for the short drive into the base. After a few hours of delays and a thorough screening with security wands, bag searches and sniffer dogs, we arrived in the media tent at 9.45am local time (6.45pm BST). Trump made a series of comments about the summit earlier today as he took questions from reporters on Air Force One. Here is a summary: On a ceasefire: 'I want to see a ceasefire. This has nothing to do with Europe, Europe's not telling me what to do. But they're going to be involved in the process obviously, as well as Zelensky. I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to stop. On territorial concessions: The president said these would be discussed at the meeting but would have to be approved by Ukraine. 'I have to let Ukraine make that decision,' Trump said. 'I think they'll make a proper decision, but I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at a table.' On security guarantees for Ukraine: 'Along with Europe and other countries, not in the form of Nato. Because that's not going to, you know, there are certain things that aren't going to happen. But yeah, along with Europe, there's possibility [of security guarantees].' On continuing Russian drone strikes: '[Putin] is trying to set a stage. In his mind, it helps him make a better deal. It actually hurts him,' Trump said. 'But in his mind that helps him make a better deal if they can continue the killing. Maybe it's a part of the world, maybe it's just his fabric, his genes, his genetics. I'll be talking to him about it.' On 'economic incentives': 'I notice he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that's good. I like that because they want to do business, but we're not doing business until we get the war settled. We have the hottest country on Earth. We have the hottest economy on Earth. 'He wants a piece of that, because his country is not hot economically. In fact its the opposite. I want everybody to do well. But the war's got to stop and the killing's got to stop.' Putin and Trump arrived in Alaska with several key members of their administrations in tow. The US contingent is full of familiar faces. The delegation from the Kremlin, however, may surprise — it includes a poet, Harvard student and sanctions-buster, as Marc Bennetts explains.
