Key takeaways from Alaska summit from Sky News correspondents

Published

3 months ago

August 17, 2025

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All eyes were on Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as they met for the first time in more than six years, the Russian president visiting the US for high-stakes talks anticipated beforehand to potentially shape the war in Ukraine.

The two leaders greeted each other with a handshake after stepping off their planes at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, Alaska – and a smiling Trump even applauded Putin as he approached him on a red carpet that had been laid out.

Trump-Putin summit – latest updates

Following the talks, both leaders described the summit as productive but said no deal had been reached – and the word ceasefire was not mentioned by either.

They did not take questions from reporters – leaving perhaps even more than before the talks started.

Here is the view from our correspondents on what the summit means for Ukraine, Putin and Trump.

‘The first question: what’s the most significant stumbling block?’

Had they mentioned a ceasefire today, it would have changed the nature of the discussion, says US correspondent James Matthews. We appear to be well short of that, I think.

Putin’s statement about the fundamental causes – to make this settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate the primary cause to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia. That’s been Russia’s starting point and it’s been the sticking point throughout this whole process.

For Putin to stand on that stage alongside Trump and have the confidence to articulate that tells me that that resonates with Trump, and Putin is welded to that as an ongoing position – a position which is unacceptable to Ukraine.

In terms of Trump, he was talking up the meeting, called it very productive. We haven’t quite got there, he said. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.

He spoke about how he was going to call NATO, Zelenskyy, and it was an extremely productive meeting, he said – accentuating the positive, but in there was the negative. He said there are many points that we agree to, but many points yet to be agreed – some not significant, one most significant.

Of course, the first question would have been, had they taken questions, well what’s the most significant stumbling block? And what are you going to do about it? Are you with him on that? And if you’re not, what are the consequences

So frankly, if both those men, both big beasts in this conflict, the two individuals most influential, if they are both welded to Russia’s headline ask, what Russia has wanted all along throughout this, then I have to say there will be pessimism around the prospect of taking this any further.

I’m not quite sure what the reaction is that Trump expects in Ukraine and in European capitals, but it might be a very difficult phone call. Elsewhere in that discussion or these two separate statements, we got a sense, I thought, of Putin the player, how he has succeeded in reeling in Donald Trump and engaging with him as an old friend – that’s how it very much appeared, the old friend that he’s invited back to Moscow.

‘A dictator riding alongside the most powerful man in the world’

Donald Trump landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with the aspiration of departing a few hours later hailed as a peacemaker and a deal broker, says US correspondent Martha Kelner.

Instead he goes back to Washington having let an international pariah back in from the cold and seemingly received precious little in return.

If Putin pitched up on the tarmac of many of the world’s airports, he could, in theory, be immediately handcuffed. This, after all, is a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, including for the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children.

Instead, the red carpet was, quite literally, rolled out for him in Anchorage. A flypast was arranged, featuring F-35 fighter jets, the very planes that are regularly scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft operating off the coast of Alaska. Various military members lined up to salute him.

Then came the most surprising moment of all. Alongside Trump, Putin climbed in the Beast, the US president’s heavily armoured limousine. A dictator, who invaded a sovereign nation three-and-a-half years ago and has been in isolation ever since, riding alongside the most powerful man in the world on a US military base.

No wonder he was grinning in the back seat.

Read Martha’s full analysis here.

‘Putin spoke as if he was the host’

“It was one of the most unusual press conferences, that I’ve attended,” says Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett, who travelled with the Russian delegation to Alaska. “And that says something because I’ve been to all of Vladimir Putin’s recent ones. And those are very unusual.

“First and foremost, they said they agreed on many points, but we don’t know what those are. We were told it would be a joint press conference, but it wasn’t. There were no questions. That must be the first and only time that Donald Trump has not taken any questions from the press. And that’s probably because Vladimir Putin made that a condition – he often does at press conferences.

“Donald Trump has said first he has to take what has been agreed to the Ukrainians, to NATO, to get sign off. But I thought what was really interesting was the fact that Vladimir Putin was the first person to speak at the press conference. It was as if he was the host rather than Donald Trump.

“And he said that he welcomed Donald Trump like a neighbour again, kind of cementing this idea that he was the one in charge here, he was the one calling the shots. And even though the banner behind him, the slogan, said ‘Pursuing Peace’, it felt like he was pursuing something else here. He was pursuing better bilateral relations with the United States, because that’s the first thing he talked about.

“He talked up the common shared history between these two countries. He talked about the need to repair bilateral relations because they’ve plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War. And there was lots of flattery for Donald Trump’s efforts to find peace.

“But we still don’t know what has been agreed here. Putin said the root causes of the conflict still need to be resolved. That suggests that all of Russia’s red lines still remain, that it doesn’t want NATO to expand any further east. It wants Ukraine to agree to permanent neutrality, wants limits on its armed forces. It basically sees Ukraine as a buffer state in between Russia and NATO. And that term ‘root cause’ suggests all of those demands still stand.

“So it doesn’t look like Vladimir Putin has made any concessions, despite Donald Trump claiming that many points have been agreed upon over there.”

‘Red carpet treatment sticks in the craw for Ukrainians’

Our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, in Kyiv, gauged the Ukrainian reaction to Putin’s arrival – and says people are furious at the red carpet welcome extended by the Trump team.

Images of US soldiers on their knees, unfurling the red carpet at the steps of the Russian leader’s plane, have been going viral, he reports.

Social media has been lit up with fury, anger, and disgust, he says. There are different ways of welcoming a world leader to this type of event, and Trump has gone all out to give a huge welcome to Putin, which is sticking in the craw of Ukrainians.

US

Epstein files: Bill to release documents gets all-clear from Congress

Published

17 hours ago

November 19, 2025

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Epstein files: Bill to release documents gets all-clear from Congress

A bill that would force the US Justice Department to release all of its files on Jeffrey Epstein will be sent to the desk of Donald Trump after both houses of Congress gave it the all-clear.

The House of Representatives was near unanimous in voting for the material to be released, with 427 in favour and one against.

Epstein votes as they happened – catch up on the latest

Hot on the heels of that vote, which was met with cheers in the chamber, the Senate said it too would pass the bill.

“As soon as it comes over from the House, we will pass the House’s bill without changes, without delay, and we will finally get this done,” said minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Once the Republican-controlled Senate has formally transmitted the bill – set to happen on Wednesday, according to majority leader John Thune – it will go to Mr Trump for approval.

Once the president signs it, the justice department has 30 days to release the files.

How did we get here?

Sky News US correspondent David Blevins said “things are now moving very fast indeed”.

“It may be because of the scale of the result in the House,” he explained. “Or it may simply be because in the last few days, the president has sought to seize control of the narrative.”

Mr Trump has spent weeks decrying the Epstein files as a Democratic “hoax”.

His links to the disgraced financier, a convicted paedophile, have long been subject to scrutiny. The US president has always denied any wrongdoing.

Speaking at the White House ahead of the vote on Tuesday, he said: “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert and I guess I would turn out to be right.”

In a later post on his Truth Social platform, he said he doesn’t care when the Senate passes the bill.

His change of heart on releasing the files came as a surprise over the weekend, as he called on Republicans in Congress to vote for the so-called Epstein Files Bill and indicated he’d sign it.

The issue has proved to be a major source of division within Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

‘Time to see who is listening’

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a long-time Trump backer who publicly fell out with the president just days ago, stood with Epstein survivors on the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

She said: “These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up.

“That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today.”

One of the group, Liz Stein, added: “We have told our stories over and over and over. Now it’s time to see who is listening. We ask that you vote to release the files. All of them.”

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Tuesday’s votes followed the release of thousands of files related to Epstein as part of an investigation by Congress’ House Oversight Committee.

Emails, messages, photos and other documents released in recent weeks have included references to Mr Trump, the UK’s since sacked US ambassador Lord Mandelson, and former British prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, who has faced calls from members of the committee to give evidence.

Like Mr Trump, both Britons have denied any wrongdoing and expressed regret about their relationship with Epstein.

US

‘Deeply ashamed’ former US treasury secretary Larry Summers quits public life over links to Jeffrey Epstein

Published

1 day ago

November 18, 2025

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'Deeply ashamed' former US treasury secretary Larry Summers quits public life over links to Jeffrey Epstein

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers has said he is stepping back from public life as emails showed he continued to communicate with Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

Mr Summers, a former president of Harvard University, kept in touch with Epstein after the billionaire financier pleaded guilty in 2008, emails released last week showed.

The Harvard professor said in a statement sent to the university’s student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and other media outlets on Monday that he wanted to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me”.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein,” he said.

Epstein took his own life in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

In an email that year, Mr Summers asked Epstein for guidance in relation to a woman with whom he was trying to start a relationship.

In the message, Mr Summers wrote: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.”

Epstein, who often wrote with spelling and grammatical errors, replied: “You reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”

Their correspondence was among thousands of Epstein emails published by the US House of Representatives.

When asked about the emails last week, Mr Summers said in a statement that he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgement”.

The emails showed many in Epstein’s vast network of wealthy and influential friends continued to stay in touch long after his 2008 guilty plea.

Mr Summers, a Democrat who served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under former US president Bill Clinton and National Economic Council director under former US president Barack Obama, would continue to teach, he said.

According to his website, he teaches several economics courses at the prestigious US university, where he was president for five years from 2001.

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He is also a director of the school’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and serves on the board of OpenAI.

Sky News has contacted Harvard University for comment.

Current US President Donald Trump called on Sunday for all the files to be released, a change of tack after he earlier dismissed the matter as a “hoax” perpetrated by the Democrats.

Mr Trump is one of a number of high-profile figures, who have been referenced in some of the documents.

The president has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” are an attempt to “create a fake narrative” to smear Mr Trump.

The House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on forcing the release of the documents.

On Monday, US attorney general Pam Bondi said she ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein’s ties to Mr Trump’s political enemies, including Mr Clinton.

US

Most advanced US aircraft carrier arrives close to Venezuela as Donald Trump administration builds-up forces

Published

2 days ago

November 17, 2025

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The most advanced US aircraft carrier has travelled to the Caribbean Sea in what has been interpreted as a show of military power and a possible threat to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.

The USS Gerald R Ford and other warships arrived in the area with a new influx of troops and weaponry on Sunday.

It is the latest step in a military build-up that the Donald Trump administration claims is aimed at preventing criminal cartels from smuggling drugs to America.

Since early September, US strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting narcotics in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Mr Trump has indicated that military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the US would “stop the drugs coming in by land”.

The US government has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists”, however.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford now rounds off the largest increase in US firepower in the region in generations.

With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and marines.

Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere”.

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the US commander who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that the American forces “stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilise our region”.

Government officials in Trinidad and Tobago have announced that they have already begun “training exercises” with the US military that are due to run over the next week.

The island is just seven miles from Venezuela at its closest point.

The country’s minister of foreign affairs, Sean Sobers, said the exercises were aimed at tackling violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago, which is frequently used by drug traffickers as a stopover on their journey to Europe or North America.

Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression.

They had no immediate comment on Sunday regarding the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford.

The US has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because its warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country.

Some experts say the Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation to push Mr Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US, to step down.

Mr Maduro has said the US government is “fabricating” a war against him.

The US president has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the country is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organisations.

US politicians have pressed Mr Trump for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.

Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region, said: “This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America.

“And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”