Newslinks for Friday 15th August 2025

Trump insists Putin ‘is not going to mess around with me’ as he prepares for Alaska meeting

“Donald Trump insisted Vladimir Putin ‘is not going to mess around with me’ on the eve of their crunch summit. The eyes of the world will be on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, where the two men are due to meet at 8.30pm UK time on Friday. It will be the first time any major Western leader, aside from Putin’s friend Viktor Orban, has met with the dictator since his illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. From the Oval Office on Thursday night, the US President said he would be able to know if the meeting is likely to prove productive in the first few minutes. ‘If it’s a bad meeting it will end very quickly,’ he said. ‘And if it’s a good meeting we’re going to end up getting peace very quickly.’ Asked if he felt Putin has a ‘strong hand’, Mr Trump said: ‘Well, he came to our country.’ He said he believes the dictator ‘would like to see a deal’ adding: ‘If I weren’t president, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine but I am president and he’s not going to mess around with me.’ For the first time, he suggested European leaders may also be present at any second meeting with Mr Zelensky. He also blamed Russia for the war, saying: ‘Everybody’s to blame, Putin is to blame, they’re all to blame.’ It comes as Putin is gearing up to test its nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile after the US president warned him of ‘severe consequences’ if the war continues.” – Daily Mail

• What does Putin want out of the Alaska summit with Trump? – The Times
• West must not be cowed by Putin, warns head of British forces – Daily Telegraph
• Putin’s nuke button, ‘poo briefcase’ & army of bodyguards… Giant security op that will go with Vlad for Trump showdown – The Sun
• Trump the ‘dealmaker’ faces his biggest test with Putin summit – Financial Times
• Putin’s true agenda in Trump summit has little to do with peace – The i

Comment:

• Why Putin is not the grandmaster of three-dimensional chess that some make him out to be – Mark Galeotti, Daily Mail
• Donald Trump has bent the world to his will with everyone falling in line, bar Putin… but why would tyrant fold now? – Harry Cole, The Sun
• Trump-Putin summit will not be a Yalta-style carve-up – Gerard Baker, The Times
• Putin has already emerged as the winner of his Alaska summit with Trump – Bob Seely, Daily Telegraph
• Starmer looks confident on the world stage – but he is walking a tightrope – Isabel Hardman, The i
• Ukraine has lost. Britain must now prepare for Russia’s next onslaught – Sherelle Jacobs, Daily Telegraph

> Yesterday: Garvan Walshe: How to make tomorrow’s Tump-Putin summit irrelevant? Back Ukraine to the hilt

Thought for the Day guest stands by Robert Jenrick ‘xenophobia’ claim

“A guest on Thought for the Day who criticised Robert Jenrick over xenophobia has doubled down on his claims after the BBC apologised to the politician. Dr Krish Kandiah accused the shadow justice secretary of stoking “fear of the unknown” on the Radio 4 Today programme broadcast on Wednesday, prompting the BBC to remove two references to xenophobia. Hours after the BBC posted its edited version Kandiah shared the original audio on social media. “Take a listen and let me know what I am wrong about factually,” he said. Jenrick had said that he did not want his daughters “to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally” in an article for the Mail on Sunday at the weekend. In his response Kandiah, founder and director of the refugee charity Sanctuary Foundation, said Jenrick had increased “fear of the stranger”. He said: “The technical name for this is xenophobia. All phobias are by definition irrational. Nevertheless, they have a huge impact. Over the past year, xenophobia has fuelled angry protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, deepening divisions in our communities.”” – The Times

• Theologian in Jenrick xenophobia row says pair ‘could work together’ – The Guardian
• Thought for the Day guest doubles down on Jenrick ‘xenophobia’ claim – Daily Telegraph

Comment:

• Thought for the Day and the elite empathy problem – Madeline Grant, The Spectator

> Today: Shadow Cabinet League Table: Jenrick’s lead continues – as Holden enters in last place

Braverman hails ‘victory for ordinary folk’ after stopping Labour housing migrants in her constituency

“More than 200 years ago, what is now the unremarkable Hampshire town of Waterlooville, was founded by returning soldiers celebrating the defeat of Napoleon. On a damp Wednesday evening over two centuries later, Waterlooville is the scene of another victory party, as residents descend on its high street to celebrate following the news that the Home Office has backed down on plans to house migrants in the town centre. Union flags are draped over shoulders, Sweet Caroline (and AC/DC) blares out of loudspeakers, placards say “Keep our women & children safe”. Some are dressed head to toe in red, white and blue; even those who have stumbled across the rally by accident while running their errands are getting into the party spirit. The atmosphere is upbeat, but it’s also defiant: speakers are also lambasting the “woke liberal agenda”. Residents’ anger at the thought of being neighbours with 35 unknown asylum seekers housed up in flats above a junk emporium on that inauspicious high street – and relief that they now, for the moment, won’t – has even been backed by local Conservative MP and former home secretary Suella Braverman who, with her husband Rael and family friends, and carrying a Union flag, is mingling and taking selfies with protesters. Braverman’s appearance marks a defiant hit-back at her critics. Philip Munday, who heads up the local Havant council’s Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green coalition, had accused Braverman of seeking to “exacerbate fear in the hearts and minds of our concerned residents” on the migrant housing issue, and said her comments on it were “deeply inappropriate, potentially inflammatory and ultimately misleading.”” – Daily Telegraph

• ‘Patriotic’ Waterlooville residents protest against migrants again as MP says ‘invasion must end’ – The Portsmouth News
• WATCH: Suella Braverman thanks constituents in Waterlooville after asylum housing ‘victory’ – GB News
• ‘Migrant from Canary Wharf hotel’ is arrested on suspicion of common assault after allegedly entering a blind woman’s flat – Daily Mail

Comment:

• UK’s front door is being kicked in as our elites take 1 gamble Britain can’t afford – Lt Col Stuart Crawford, Daily Express

Farage demands right to nominate Reform UK peers

“Nigel Farage has demanded that Sir Keir Starmer allow him to nominate Reform UK peers to the House of Lords for the first time. Farage, the party leader, has accused the prime minister of presiding over a “democratic disparity” that meant Reform had four MPs and controlled ten councils, but no representation in the second chamber. He pointed out that the Green Party, which also has four MPs, has two working peers while the Democratic Unionist Party, which has only five MPs, has six members in the upper chamber. Political appointments to the House of Lords are entirely within the gift of the prime minister, who is under no constitutional obligation to elevate politicians from opposing parties.Political convention has it that Downing Street asks opposition leaders to nominate candidates for peerages at the same time as the prime minister elevates his own supporters. In December Starmer nominated thirty Labour figures, including Sue Gray, his former chief of staff, to the House of Lords. He allowed the Conservatives to appoint six new peers, including Therese Coffey, a former deputy prime minister, while the Liberal Democrats were allowed to appoint two. Despite winning five seats at the election and 14 per cent of the popular vote, Reform were not asked by No 10 to nominate anyone. Farage said in his letter to Starmer that it was wrong that his party was effectively being shut out of the second chamber.” – The Times

• Nigel Farage urges PM to appoint Reform peers to House of Lords – BBC News
• Simon Case: Reform UK could bring huge change to Whitehall – Civil Service World

> Today: Rupert Matthews: Why I defected to Reform UK

> Yesterday: Albie Amankona: The right needs grown-ups, not grifters

News in brief:

• How Nicola Sturgeon failed Scotland – Kathleen Stock, Unherd
• Kim Jong Un will be watching the Trump-Putin summit closely – Edward Howell, The Spectator
• Bulldozing Britain’s brand – Stephen Simmons, The Critic
• Brexit doesn’t matter, EU sin taxes will fuel mayhem here too – David Campbell Bannerman, CityAM

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