Putin says he is happy to talk to Trump

Vladimir Putin doesn't want Donald Trump to be pissed off with him. If Joe Biden had been pissed off with him he wouldn't have bothered get out of bed. But with Trump it's different. This is because Putin realises it's better to keep on the friendly side with Trump to stop shimhim going ahead with his threat to impose massively tough tariffs on Russia, including heavy penalties on any country that buys Russian oil and gas. This really could harm Russia's economny and screw over Putin's plan to carry on fighting Ukraine. Whatever Putin says about agreeing a ceasefire or whatever, what he really wants to do is continue bombing Ukraine until there is nothing left to bomb. A bit like what the Israelis are doing to Gaza, except, of course, Gaza is tiny and Ukraine is huge. But if Trump is genuinely angry with him, then Putin will be in a tricky position. So he has let it be known through his Kremlin spokesman that he would be happy to get a call from Trump. They haven't spoken for a bit. This is the first sign of Putin backing down, or at least taking a softer line. He wants Trump to carry on with his deal-making even if he really doesn't want any sort of deal with Zelensky. What he needs is for the negotiations in Saudi Arabia to carry on because it then looks as if Moscow is playing ball, even if it's all a scam. So, expect a call between Trump and Putin in the next few weeks so that a smiling Putin can tell the world that Trump is not pissed off with him after all but is his jolly good friend.

Trump gets angry with Putin

It just shows how the great instant end-of-war-in-Ukraine promise from Donald Trump is slowly going to pot. Now he says he is very angry that Putin has dared to cast aspersions on the leadership role of Volodymyr Zelensky as the bona fide president of Ukraine. Putin has said there can be no ceasefire deal or eventual peace settlement if the signature on the Ukrainian side comes from Zelensky. Putin wants a temporary new leader in place who he feels will have more legitimacy, ie more pro-Moscow, and he even puts it out there that a United Nationa transition government could be acceptable. Trump sees that as another delaying tactic by Putin because it would all take too much time to bring in a new government. Trump, no friend of Zelensky, wants Zelensky in charge in Kyiv because he thinks he can force through a deal while the formker stand-up comedian is the president. Somehow, I doubt Putin will worry too much about "pissing off" Trump. It's all part of the game which he is currently winning hands down.

JD Vance gets the chills in Greenland

Apparently no one told the US vice president that it's pretty cold in Greenland. He arrived for his unofficial, unwanted visit with his wife, the Second Lady, and confessed he couldn't believe how freezing it was. A basic bit of pre-flight homework would have given him a few facts that might have includedd the average temperature in Greenland. It's in the Arctic by the way, Mr Vice President, and that means it's literally below freezing every day of the year. The highest tenmperature could be about 5.6 degrees Centigrade if you arrive on a good day. About 80 per cent of Greenland is covered in ice. I don't think Vance was aware of this and maybe he will go back to Washington and warn Trump that he's wasting his time and taxpayers' money if he wants to grab Greenland. I doubt he will be making a return trip. So, perhaps the unwelcome visit by Vance and his wife might after all have been the best thing for the islanders who, thank you very much Washington, would like to say under the venerable ownership of Denmark.

If Trump gives Putin what he wants he will demand more

The way things are going so far in the negotiations wqith Moscow, Vladimir Putin is going to get what he wants. But the fact is that if you give someone like Putin what he wants he will demand more and more. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, has said he thinks Putin is a smart guy and he's right. This is why it's even more important to pile the pressure on the Russian president and use as much leverage as possible to force him to back down and to call off the war. But there is no incentive for Putin to back down an inch because he knows that Trump is prepared to give him anything provided he brings the deaths and destruction to an end. Putin knows Trump is desperate to fulfill his promise which was to end the war in 24 hours. That has patently failed. So, Putin's tactic is to accept or to pretend to accept little bits here and there but not giving a centimetre of movement on his key demands. Trump is so consumed by the thought of having Ukraine's rare minerals, gas and oil, that he seems prepared to concede to all or most of Putin's demands in order to sign up the business deal and leave the Europeans to work out the peacekeeping responsibilities. My fear is that if there is ever a ceasefire and the Europeans really do send peacekeeping troops into Ukraine there will come a moment when Europe and Russia will be at war with each other. Not necessarily on a grand scale but on the battlefield frontlines in Ukraine. Soldiers from both sides will die. Moscow is never gpoing to back down.

Should Europe worry about JD Vance and Pete Hegseth?

It's difficult to remember a time when the most senior officials in a US administration were so rude and antagonistic about Europe. Both Vice President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth vented their dislike of all things Europe in the now notorious Signal group chat about bombing the Houthis. Hegseth said he loathed Europe. It sounds like he needs to spend time with his family in, say, Florence or Paris or Barcelona or take in a show in London and go down the Rhine in a small cruise liner, and perhaps then he might warm towards us. We're really not that bad and, as far as we can, we certainly try and do our stuff militarily to keep the world a safer place. Any time the US wants to do something with its army or navy mor air force, we, the Brits, generally join them. Ok, Harold Wilson, the long-serving Labour prime minister way back refused to send British troops to Vietnam but other than that, the UK has served alongside American comrades all over the world. Like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. So, this driving hatred for Europe is based on a not unfamiliar ignorance of what Europe is about. As far as the Hegseths and Vances of this world are concerned, the US does everything and Europe are just freeloaders. It's not true but what IS true is that the US is a military superpower - we are not - and as the leading nation of the Nato alliance, does more than anyone to try and stop the world from entering a new devastating war. So, we are blessed to have America on our side and long may it last. But we really don't need the Americans, any Americans, to loathe us and disparage us all the time. We're allies and friends and comrades-in-arms.

Putin winning all the way

Whatever way you look at it, Vladimir Putin is winning the Ukraine war debate so far. The tewmporary partial ceasefire stopping attacks on energy facilities and the so-called ceasefire to end strikes on the Black Sea suit Putin as much as Zelensky and in return the Russian president is going to get more goodies, such as a lifting of some economic sanctions. Win, win, win. No details yet but it will be making Putin smile. And he has effectively been promised by Trump and his negotiators that if the war ends, Ukraine will never be a member of Nato and will be so reduced in size as a country that it will be like having a sovereignty-lite existence. Trump has now been in office for eight weeks and with two mini ceasefires under his belt, it could take months and months to finalise the end-of-war deal, if it's going to happen at all. But at least the show is on the road, even though it doesn't give Zelensky and the Ukrainian people much hope for the future. What we can't have is what is happening in Gaza, with full-scale war back again after the brief ceasefire and release of some hostages. More and more Palestinians are going to be killed. With the focus on the war in Ukraine, the efforts to stop the killing in Gaza seem to have run out of steam.

Journalist listens in on top secret Trump administration discussions about Houthi bombings

It was the invitation all journalists would die for: please join our Signal encrypted discussions about how and when we are going to bomb the Houthis. It seems beyond belief but this is what happened with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic magazine in the US and his initials, JG, were duly included in the long list of top Trump officials, including Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, Michael Waltz, national security adviser, Marco Rubio, secretary of state, and JP Vance, vice president. Oh my goodness, was this going to be an eye opener for the innocent journalist sitting back and getting a flow of highly personal and classified and insightful texts from the other participants, including all the details about the planned bombing, what type of weapons would be used, timings and targets. JG sat silent throughout, imagining for much of the time that it was all a hoax or a giant piece of comic theatre to somehow undermine his magazine. But no, it was all authentic. JG knew everything about the Houthi bombings two hours before they happened. Trump, meanwhile, was in ignorance of these unwise chats and when asked to comment on the huge breach of security admitted he hadn't read the Atlantic article and knew nothing about it. Oh my goodness, whoops indeed!