Trump: Peacemaker or Putin’s Pawn?
As talks drag on in Alaska, Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line — and onto the red carpet — lifted from the grave of diplomatic isolation to appear a statesman, welcomed back by Trump
High-stakes talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are underway in Alaska — but the optics are already delivering a win to the Kremlin leader. In the opening minutes after touching down, Putin stepped across what some in the West once called a “red line” and straight onto the red carpet, lifted from the grave of diplomatic isolation and made to look every bit the statesman.
As images of Putin and Trump standing shoulder-to-shoulder on U.S. soil — with Trump even applauding his Russian counterpart — were broadcast worldwide, Ukrainians voiced shock and outrage across social media. One former Kyiv envoy told Britain’s Sky News it felt like “a hallucination.”
As of World Briefing publication (2100 GMT), the bilateral meeting had stretched past the two-hour mark. On his way to Alaska, Trump boasted he would know within the first two or three minutes whether a deal could be made and whether the talks were worth continuing. The fact that they are still going suggests that Mr. Putin has made some sort of impression — and that the discussions may now be moving into substantive territory. In the lead-up to the summit, Russian officials even hinted the talks could last six or seven hours.
As I told CNN and other media outlets this week, simply granting Putin - a wanted war criminal by the ICC - a U.S.-hosted stage is an unearned gift, akin to lifting him out of a diplomatic coffin and placing him center stage with the most powerful man in the Western world. It is exactly the kind of symbolic victory Moscow craves, without conceding a single substantive point.
The stakes could not be higher. Behind closed doors, Putin will be pressing his maximalist demands: recognition of Russia’s hold over four partially occupied Ukrainian regions, acknowledgement of Crimea as Russian territory, a reduction of Ukraine’s armed forces, Kyiv dropping its NATO bid, and no reparations for the destruction wrought since 2022. Meanwhile, Trump enters the summit without a cohesive national security team, surrounded by loyalists with little foreign policy depth — a setup that plays directly into Putin’s decades-honed negotiating style.
Even before a word of substance is agreed, the Alaska summit is already shaping the narrative: Putin as a world leader back on equal footing with Washington, and Trump as either the master dealmaker he claims to be — or the willing pawn of Moscow’s long game.
The U.S. is considering imposing sanctions on Russian oil companies "Rosneft" and "Lukoil" as part of a set of measures aimed at forcing Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. Other possibilities include additional restrictions on Moscow's shadow oil tanker fleet and additional tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, including China. Sources warn that any measures may be implemented gradually, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
A desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize appears to be motivating US President Donald Trump’s efforts to facilitate a ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump cold-called the Norwegian finance minister last month to discuss the prize, the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reported. Several countries have already nominated him for the award; Trump claimed credit for defusing border clashes between India and Pakistan in May and a long-running dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trump is “obsessed” with the prize, Le Monde argued, partly because his first predecessor Barack Obama won one early in his presidency: He grumbled last year that “If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds.” - Semafor
Anton Liagusha, Dean of the Graduate Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Kyiv School of Economics, told Euronews that if Ukrainian authorities are pressured into territorial concessions, “it will force the Ukrainian people to take to the streets…This will not so much be a story of protest against the authorities, but a cry from the Ukrainian people to the whole world to be treated as a great country in the centre of Europe, and not just viewed by the US as a piece of land," Liagusha said. "Ukrainians are a full-fledged nation, and Ukraine is a great state with its own legislation.” Liagusha explained that ever since Ukraine became an independent county, the society has clearly established its decisive power when “during the Revolution of Dignity (in 2014), and before that the Orange Revolution (in 2004) and before that the Revolution on Granite in 1991, we saw that people do not accept power in terms of authoritarianism and clear hierarchy….The president in Ukrainian society is not a king, meaning that his will does not determine the will of the entire Ukrainian people," he pointed out.
Watch my live interview from Rome early Friday on CNN, where we set the stage for the Trump-Putin talks in Alaska.
Israel’s far-right finance minister pushed for expanding Jewish settlements across the Palestinian territories, despite increasing international pushback. Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday that construction plans were approved for a West Bank project that “finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” days after he said Israel was “closer than ever” to reestablishing settlements in Gaza that were evacuated two decades ago. Much of the world considers the settlements illegal under international law, and the expansion push comes as more countries vow to recognize a Palestinian state. Washington, though, has scaled back pressure on Israel under Donald Trump. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians reached a record high this year, according to United Nations data, registering nearly 130 monthly assaults - Seamfor
The District of Columbia filed an emergency motion on Friday challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to take over the city’s police department, and a judge is set to hear the matter at 2 p.m. The lawsuit comes after the Trump administration moved to expand its control of the city’s police department by installing an “emergency commissioner” and revoking policies that limited officers’ cooperation with immigration enforcement - NYT
Hong Kong's pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is in the final stage of his national security trial. Closing arguments were scheduled to start on Thursday for Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law. But the hearing has now been postponed until Monday. It was first delayed for a day as a typhoon swept through Hong Kong. On Friday, a judge called for another adjournment so that a medical device could be installed to monitor Lai's heart. Lai's lawyers and his son Sebastien have raised concerns over his deteriorating health over the past year. The 77-year-old was noticeably thinner when he appeared in court on Friday. His trial has drawn international attention, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for the release of Lai - who is a British citizen. US President Donald Trump had earlier said he would do "everything [he] can" to save Jimmy Lai. He has been detained since December 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted. Critics say Lai's case shows how Hong Kong's legal system has been weaponised to silence political opposition. Lai has been a persistent thorn in China's side. Unlike other tycoons who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory - BBC
More than 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada are poised to walk off the job around 1 a.m. ET on Saturday, followed by a company-imposed lockout if the two sides can't reach an eleventh-hour deal. The Canadian Union of Public Employees released a statement on Friday afternoon urging Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu "not to intervene" in negotiations by invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, "thereby permitting collective bargaining to continue and allowing the parties to negotiate a resolution." Air Canada had previously asked CUPE to consider binding interest arbitration, which would bring an arbitrator into the negotiations to make decisions on key agenda items that the two sides haven't been able to agree on. Air Canada warned Friday it is cancelling around 500 flights previously scheduled to take off today in anticipation of the work stoppage, with a full stoppage looming Saturday. The airline said on X that as of noon on Friday, 294 flights had been cancelled and more than 55,000 passengers had been impacted - CBC
**My heartfelt thanks to the management and staff of dotcampus Rome for hosting me during the working phase of my visit to the Italian capital. A great place to work, stay, play, entertain, exercise, hydrate and network.
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