Trump and Putin’s no-deal summit was different to what we expected – here’s why

Published

3 months ago

August 17, 2025

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A warm handshake, big smiles, and a red carpet – this was the welcome for Vladimir Putin as he touched down on US soil for critical negotiations on the war in Ukraine.

There had been much build-up to the summit in Anchorage, Alaska, not least from Donald Trump himself – with the US president having threatened “severe” consequences for Russia should it not go well.

But more than two-and-a-half hours of talks resulted in just a brief news conference with little detail given away – and ultimately, no talk of a ceasefire and no deal on Ukraine reached yet.

Here is what was expected from the meeting – based on information from the White House, Mr Trump and the Kremlin beforehand – and what happened on the night.

One-on-one turned into three-on-three

It was thought this would be a one-on-one meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin.

Instead, the US president was joined by US secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, while the Russian leader was supported by his foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

The change seemed to indicate the White House was perhaps taking a more guarded approach than during a 2018 meeting in Helsinki, where Mr Trump and Mr Putin met privately with interpreters. The US leader then shocked the world by siding with the Russian leader over US intelligence officials on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Rolling out the red carpet

Mr Putin was given the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war he started.

The two men greeted each other with a handshake and a smiling Mr Trump even applauded the Russian president as he approached him on the red carpet.

Our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, in Kyiv, gauged the Ukrainian reaction to the arrival – and said people were furious at the 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, went viral, he said, with social media “lit up with fury, anger, and disgust”.

He added: “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.”

Any questions?

Plenty. But no one was really given a chance to ask.

Ahead of the talks, cameras were allowed inside for just a minute – and while this was enough time for a few journalists to shout some questions, these were ignored by the two leaders.

“President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?” one shouted. In response, Mr Putin put his hand up to his ear as if he could not hear.

In their brief media conference after the talks, Mr Putin spoke for almost nine minutes, while Trump took just three-and-a-half to say what he wanted to say.

The two men then did not stay to answer questions from reporters.

Before the event, the Kremlin said it could last between six and seven hours, but the whole visit lasted about four-and-a-half hours.

‘Severe consequences’

Ever since his inauguration in January, Mr Trump had been threatening serious consequences for Russia should a deal on Ukraine not be reached soon. Just two days after the ceremony, he took to social media to declare there could be “high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions” and called for an end to the “ridiculous” war.

In February, he held what he described as a “productive” call with the Russian leader, and about two weeks later he infamously berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to the Oval Office – this one taking place in front of the world’s media.

In July, he started to set deadlines for an end to the war – first giving Mr Putin 50 days and later reducing this to “10 or 12 days”, before announcing the summit last week.

Yesterday, Mr Trump insisted his Russian counterpart was “not going to mess around with me”.

However, while both men insisted the talks were “productive”, it is not clear what agreements have been reached, and whether Ukraine is any closer to finding peace. The word ceasefire was not mentioned by either leader. Instead, they praised each other, with Mr Trump describing Mr Putin’s remarks as “very profound” – and there was no mention of sanctions.

Putin brought his own limo – but travelled in The Beast instead

After shaking hands on the red carpet, the two leaders made their way towards their waiting vehicles.

But despite Mr Putin arriving with his “Aurus” limousine, and it being spotted on the tarmac near the planes, he got into the American presidential limousine, known as “The Beast”, to travel to the meeting location.

The Russian president was seen with a wide smile on his face, while Mr Trump appeared to be waving to the crowds.

US

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

Published

16 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

admin

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.”