Ukrainian president will be holding talks with Mohammed bin Salman
The UK rejected Russian allegations that two British diplomats were suspected of carrying out espionage activities (9:04) as “malicious and baseless,” saying it is not the first time Russia made similar accusations.
Visitors from around the world have been flocking to the Pompidou Centre in Paris this weekend, seizing the last opportunity to enjoy Europe’s largest temple of modern and contemporary art before it closes its doors for a five-year overhaul.
After voluntarily fighting in Ukraine to defend it from Russia’s invasion, and as the White House halts Ukrainian military aid, JD Vance’s first cousin has called the vice-president and Donald Trump “useful idiots” to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Nate Vance’s comments to France’s Le Figaro newspaper came after he reportedly spent three years volunteering to try to help Ukraine repel Russian troops as part of the so-called Da Vinci Wolves first motorized battalion.
Saudi Arabia is to host talks on Tuesday between the United States and Ukraine in a new diplomatic push after an argument erupted during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Feb. 28 visit to the White House. Read More
Gestures of servility from administration members and world leaders alike are sickeningly common in the mad king’s court
Sycophancy is the coin of the realm. In Donald Trump’s court, flattery is the only spoken language. He does not need an executive order to enforce it. Fear is the other side of the coin. Loyalty must be blind. Obedience is safety. Cronyism secures status. His whim is dogma. Criticism is heresy. Debate is apostasy. Expertise is bias. Objectivity is a hoax. Truth is just your opinion. Lies are defended to the death as articles of faith. New ones are manufactured on an industrial scale by his press office for social influencers to spread. Denying facts proves fealty. The rule of law is partisan. Russia is our trusted ally. Britain and France are “random countries”. Retribution is policy.
The deeper the submission to madness, the greater his supremacy. The subjugation is more thorough if the things people are forced to accept are irrational or, better, the reverse of what they had believed. When previously held beliefs are abandoned to conform to their opposite, like the secretary of state Marco Rubio’s formerly adamant support of Ukraine, which went to his core as the son of refugees from Castro’s Cuba, the more Trump’s dominance is demonstrated. Rubio has gone full circle, from his family fleeing one kind of tyranny to Trump sneering at him as “Little Marco” to ambitious embrace of his tormentor. He finds himself as a supplicant to Trump complaining about Elon Musk’s mindless wreckage of the state department. Formally the ranking constitutional officer of the cabinet, Rubio is below Musk in Trump’s hierarchy.
The Russian embassy in Washington in 2023. Most of the 220 Russian diplomats in the U.S. work at the embassy, but dozens are also based in New York and Houston.
Germany, France and UK sweep away old rules in pledge to do ‘whatever it takes’ to defend Europe from Russian threat
When he rose to his feet at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Keir Starmer delivered a stirring tribute to six British soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan 13 years ago.
He read out their names very deliberately, one by one. The House was silent. The prime minister then added a tribute to a 22-year-old British Royal Marine, also killed on 6 March, but in 2007 in Helmand province.
The secretary of state was once a prominent Ukraine supporter and called Putin a ‘war criminal’ – not any more
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, looked on as Donald Trump demanded more gratitude from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and accused the embattled leader of “gambling with world war three”.
“You right now are not in a very good position,” Trump chided Zelenskyy during their confrontation in the Oval Office last week.
President Trump’s admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been endlessly dissected, but the American leader’s policy shifts since taking office again could have profound effects.
President Trump signing an executive order in the Oval Office on Thursday, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in a February photo provided by Russian state media. Mr. Trump sees common cause with Mr. Putin.
Latest attacks came hours after Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin was ‘doing what anybody would do’
Russia launched a devastating attack on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more, hours after Donald Trump defended Vladimir Putin and said the Kremlin leader was “doing what anybody would do”.
Two ballistic missiles hit the centre of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region. Fire engulfed a five-storey apartment building. As emergency services arrived, Russia launched another strike on the same area. Eleven civilians were killed, with five children among the 30 injured.
The strange warmth between the leaders has sent a chill globally at the prospect of a troika of authoritarian states
Donald Trump’s sinister affinity for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has long been the subject of intense speculation. Former KGB officers claim Trump was recruited in Moscow in 1987 and cultivated as an asset in the years prior to his 2016 US election victory.
Two retired Russian spies weighed in again last month, alleging that the then 40-year-old Trump, codename “Krasnov”, was personally compromised in an “active measures” operation and has secretly danced to Putin’s tune ever since.
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President Trump’s admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been endlessly dissected, but the American leader’s policy shifts since taking office again could have profound effects.
President Trump signing an executive order in the Oval Office on Thursday, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in a February photo provided by Russian state media. Mr. Trump sees common cause with Mr. Putin.
According to Reuters, Two Majors, a pro-Russian war blogger, wrote on Telegram on Saturday that Russian troops had begun an assault on Sudzha, a major town about 6 miles (9.5 km) from the border, and that the situation for Ukrainian troops in Kursk was “close to critical”.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.
On the surface, the announcement that Saudi Arabia will host talks between the US and Ukraine in Jeddah next week appears promising news.
After the disastrous meeting between the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Donald Trump in the White House last week, a more neutral location for this meeting of lower-level figures makes sense in terms of trying to dial down the temperature.
With a mixture of regret, laced with incredulity, European leaders gathered in Brussels to marshal their forces for a power struggle not with Russia, but with the US.
Even now, of course at the 11th hour, most of Europe hopes this coming battle of wills can be averted and the Trump administration can still be persuaded that forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table, disarmed and blinded, will not be the US’s long-term strategic interest.
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