Vladimir Putin congratulates ‘courageous’ Donald Trump on US election win

Published

6 hours ago

November 7, 2024

admin

Vladimir Putin has hailed Donald Trump as “courageous” for his response to an assassination attempt as he congratulated the next US president.

Mr Trump won a decisive victory in the 2024 election – comfortably clearing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the presidency and clinching five battleground states.

Throughout his campaign, Mr Trump said he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours – without explaining how he would do so.

Speaking in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, the Russian leader also noted the president-elect’s “desire to restore relations,” but added he has “no idea” what to expect from Mr Trump’s second term in office.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already congratulated the Republican on his win, he raised concerns that his plan to end the war with Russia quickly means “losses for Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump told Sky’s partner network NBC News that he has not spoken to Mr Putin yet, but said “I would think that we’ll speak”.

After giving a speech at an international forum in Sochi, Mr Putin said Mr Trump’s “behaviour at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me”.

“He turned out to be a courageous man,” the Russian president said. “And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals…

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man.”

Putin won’t be popping champagne corks just yet

It was a classic curveball from Vladimir Putin.

Initially, the Kremlin played it cool. “No plans to congratulate Donald Trump,” it said, “the US is a hostile nation”.

But halfway through another one of Putin’s marathon Q&As, that suddenly changed.

It felt like the start of a courtship – an attempt by Russia’s president to rekindle their bromance.

He praised Trump’s bravery and called him a real man. Flattery of a man who sees himself as a tough leader.

As for the claim Russia is “open to dialogue”? Read that as “call me”.

This was an overture from Putin, no doubt, but he doesn’t want to make the first move.

I think that’s because Moscow is still cautious about another Trump term. The first failed to live up to their expectations.

Despite warm words from Trump, sanctions increased and the US sent weapons to Ukraine.

So unlike 2016, Russia’s not popping any champagne corks just yet.

Mr Putin said he felt Mr Trump was “hounded from all sides” when he was last president, and added: “I do not know what is going to happen now.

“I have no clue. For him, this is his last term. What he will do, these are questions for him.”

The Russian president added what Mr Trump has said “about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News that if the new Trump administration seeks peace rather than “continuation of war” then it will “be better in comparison with the previous one”.

But when asked about Kamala Harris’s debate suggestion that Mr Putin will “eat Donald Trump for lunch”, he bizarrely responded: “Vladimir Putin does not eat people.”

It came as the president-elect told NBC News that he has spoken to about 70 world leaders after winning the 2024 election, but not Mr Putin.

Mr Trump said in a phone interview: “Well, I would think that [he and Mr Putin] will speak. I would certainly think so.”

He added he is not aware of any plans to speak to the Russian leader.

It comes as Mr Zelenskyy said in Budapest on Thursday he was not aware of any details of Mr Trump’s plan to end the Ukraine war quickly – but fears a quick resolution would mean major concessions for Kyiv.

“If it’s just fast, it means losses for Ukraine,” he said. “I just don’t yet understand how this could be in any other way. Maybe we do not know something, do not see.”

Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy met at Trump Tower in New York in September – days after the future president complained at a rally that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” to end the war.

World

US election: When will Donald Trump get the keys to the White House? This is what happens next

Published

6 hours ago

November 7, 2024

admin

US election: When will Donald Trump get the keys to the White House? This is what happens next

The US election is all but over, the headline result is known with just a couple of states left to declare for either candidate.

Donald Trump is headed back to the White House in January, but before then there are still a few things that have to happen.

Here’s what happens next:

Final counting in remaining states

We are still waiting for official results from some states. And while we know that Mr Trump has secured enough Electoral College votes to win the presidency, a handful of states have still not been declared for either candidate.

They include Alaska, Arizona and Nevada.

There is also the matter of the popular vote, which looks set to go to the Republican. That would mark the first time Mr Trump has won the popular vote in his three election campaigns, and the first time his party has done so since George W Bush in 2004.

Trump finalises his team

We also do not know exactly who Mr Trump will bring to the White House with him.

Robert F Kennedy, who dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed the Republican, is among the names being discussed for roles in the new Trump administration.

The same goes for X owner Elon Musk, who spent at least $119m (£92m) canvassing for him in the seven battleground states.

26 November: Trump to be sentenced in hush money case

Being elected president for a second time doesn’t stop Mr Trump having to appear before a New York court on 26 November.

His sentencing in the hush money case was delayed until after the election but will now take place.

He was found guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star

17 December: Electors meet

The Electoral College is made up of electors who technically cast their votes on behalf of their state.

On 17 December, the electors will meet in their respective states (and the District of Columbia) to select the new president and vice president.

25 December: Deadline for electoral votes to be received

Christmas Day is the deadline by which electoral votes must be received by the president of the Senate (currently Kamala Harris in her role as vice president) and the Archivist of the United States.

3 January: Congress convenes

A couple of days into the new year, Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives) will convene for its 119th session.

The two legislatures will meet and elect a speaker on 3 January.

6 January: Votes are counted in Congress

On 6 January (this date may sound familiar), Vice President Harris will preside over the Electoral College vote count at a joint session of Congress.

She will announce the result and declare who has been elected.

Last time this happened, a mob sought to break into the US Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

20 January: Inauguration day

Two weeks after the votes are certified, it’s inauguration day.

Mr Trump and JD Vance will take their respective oaths of office during the swearing in ceremony at midday, after which the second Trump administration will begin.

World

Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill 40 while ‘unlawful’ Gaza response expands

Published

15 hours ago

November 7, 2024

admin

Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill 40 while 'unlawful' Gaza response expands

Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon have killed 40 people, according to the country’s health ministry.

The strikes also wounded 53 more people around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley on Wednesday, as Israel’s operation against the Hezbollah militant group continues.

The Israeli military has not commented.

More than 3,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the past year, but most deaths have happened over the past six weeks as violence between the Iran-backed militants and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) escalated.

Late on Wednesday and earlier on Thursday, further strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, after the Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate several locations.

This morning, one large airstrike hit a site next to Lebanon’s only international airport. Israel said there were Hezbollah facilities there, without giving more details.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a speech aired on Wednesday that the Lebanese militant group is open for ceasefire negotiations only once “the enemy stops its aggression”.

More attacks in northern Gaza

Meanwhile, what has been a year-long relentless military campaign on the besieged enclave of Gaza raged on with more attacks on the north.

Israel’s ground operation in the region – said to be aimed at stopping Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, from regrouping – has extended to a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war.

The military said in a statement on Thursday that “troops started to operate” in the area of Beit Lahiya after intelligence indicated the presence of militants there.

Israel launched another major offensive in nearby Jabaliya, a decades-old urban refugee camp, in early October.

It has sharply restricted the amount of aid entering northern Gaza and ordered a full evacuation.

Tens of thousands have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest mass displacement of the war.

‘Absolute despair’

The war in Gaza, launched on 8 October last year following Hamas’s attack into southern Israel, has so far claimed the lives of more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Israel has been criticised by the Norwegian Refugee Council after its secretary general, Jan Egeland, visited northern and central Gaza and said the IDF’s campaign is “in no way a lawful” response to the 7 October attacks last year – when 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and 250 were taken hostage by Hamas.

Mr Egeland described the situation as “worse than anything I could imagine as a long-time aid worker”.

“What I saw and heard in the north of Gaza was a population pushed beyond breaking point,” he added.

“Families torn apart, men and boys detained and separated from their loved ones, and families unable to even bury their dead. Some have gone days without food, drinking water is nowhere to be found.

“It is scene after scene of absolute despair.”

Mr Egeland continued: “The families, widows and children I have spoken to are enduring suffering almost unparalleled anywhere in recent history.

“There is no possible justification for continued war and destruction. To avert tens of thousands of additional innocent lives lost, we need an immediate cease-fire, release of the hostages and those arbitrarily detained and the start of a real peace process.”

World

UK sanctions Russian military officer accused of Salisbury novichok poisoning in crackdown on Kremlin

Published

17 hours ago

November 7, 2024

admin

UK sanctions Russian military officer accused of Salisbury novichok poisoning in crackdown on Kremlin

The UK has sanctioned a Russian military officer accused of helping poison former double agent Sergei Skripal with novichok in Salisbury.

The Foreign Office has imposed 56 new sanctions on people and entities linked to Russia, including those in the Wagner mercenary group that operates unofficially on Vladimir Putin’s behalf, and companies based in China, Turkey and central Asia supplying parts to Russia.

Denis Sergeev, who the Met Police charged over the attempted murder of double agent Mr Skripal, has been sanctioned under the chemical weapons sanctions regime.

Politics latest: Trump victory dominates European leaders’ summit

“Sergeev provided support in the preparation and use of the chemical weapon novichok in Salisbury…and provided a coordinating role in London on the weekend of the attack,” the Foreign Office said.

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March 2018.

Police said nerve agent novichok was applied to the front door of his home.

Three Russians, who police said are GRU military intelligence officers, have been charged in absentia over the incident.

Sergeev was the last to be charged after police said he was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov.

A public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, a woman unwittingly killed after coming across a sample perfume bottle containing novichok, heard Mr Skripal believed Mr Putin had ordered the attack on him.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations the Kremlin was involved.

The inquiry heard the amount of novichok in the perfume bottle was enough to kill thousands of people.

Also included in the latest sanctions round are companies supplying Russia with military equipment being used in its war against Ukraine.

Ten companies based in China, and a handful from Turkey, Estonia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are on the list for supplying and producing machine tools, microelectronics and components for drones used by Russia in Ukraine.

Russian-based mercenary groups operating in sub-Saharan Africa with links to the Kremlin are also on the list.

The Foreign Office said they have threatened peace and security in Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, and have committed widespread human rights abuses across Africa.

👉 Listen to Politics At Jack And Sam’s on your podcast app👈

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine.

“And smashing the illicit international networks that Russia has worked so hard to forge.

“Putin is nearly 1,000 days into a war he thought would only take a few. He will fail and I will continue to bear down on the Kremlin and support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom.”