British horse racing will go on strike on 10 September, taking the unprecedented action of refusing to race in protest against the Government’s proposed tax rise on betting on the sport.
As part of its industry-wide Axe The Racing Tax campaign, four fixtures scheduled for that day at Lingfield Park, Carlisle, Uttoxeter and Kempton Park have been rearranged by the British Horseracing Authority.
It is the first time the sport has voluntarily refused to race in its modern history.
The governing body is campaigning against the Treasury’s proposal to introduce a single remote gambling tax, which would increase the 15% tax rate paid by bookmakers on racing and aligning it with online gaming, which is currently taxed at 21%.
The BHA says this would have a “destructive impact” on the industry with its economic analysis predicting an estimated £330m loss in revenue and putting 2,752 jobs at risk in the first year alone.
BBC Sport has contacted the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for comment.
Brant Dunshea, chief executive at the British Horseracing Authority, said the proposals “threaten the very future” of the sport.
Race meetings in Britain take place 363 days a year, unless called off for adverse weather, equine virus outbreaks and national crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The strike takes place the day before the start of the four-day St Leger festival at Doncaster Racecourse.
“British Racing is already in a precarious financial position and research has shown that a tax rise on racing could be catastrophic for the sport and the thousands of jobs that rely on it in towns and communities across the country,” added Dunshea.
“This is the first time that British Racing has chosen not to race due to Government proposals. We haven’t taken this decision lightly but in doing so we are urging the Government to rethink this tax proposal to protect the future of our sport which is a cherished part of Britain’s heritage and culture.”
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday to deny the Trump administration’s request to end a policy in place for nearly three decades that is meant to protect immigrant children in federal custody.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles issued her ruling a week after holding a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody.
Gee called last week’s hearing “déjà vu” after reminding the court of the federal government’s attempt to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement in 2019 under the first Trump administration. She repeated the sentiment in Friday’s order.
“There is nothing new under the sun regarding the facts or the law. The Court therefore could deny Defendants’ motion on that basis alone,” Gee wrote, referring to the government’s appeal to a law they believed kept the court from enforcing the agreement.
In the most recent attempt, the government argued they made substantial changes since the agreement was formalized in 1997, creating standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.
Gee acknowledged that the government made some improved conditions of confinement, but wrote, “These improvements are direct evidence that the FSA is serving its intended purpose, but to suggest that the agreement should be abandoned because some progress has been made is nonsensical.”
Attorneys representing the federal government told the court the agreement gets in the way of their efforts to expand detention space for families, even though President Trump’s recently signed tax and spending bill provided billions to build new immigration facilities.
Tiberius Davis, one of the government attorneys, said the bill gives the government authority to hold families in detention indefinitely.
“But currently under the Flores Settlement Agreement, that’s essentially void,” he said last week.
The Flores agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, was the result of over a decade of litigation between attorneys representing the rights of migrant children and the U.S. government over widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s.
The agreement set standards for how licensed shelters must provide food, water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation. It also limited how long U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) then takes custody of the children.
The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.
In arguing against the Trump administration’s effort to completely end the agreement, advocates said the government was holding children beyond the time limits. In May, CBP held 46 children for over a week, including six children held for over two weeks and four children held 19 days, according to data revealed in a court filing. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours. That included 14 children, including toddlers, who were held for over 20 days in April.
Gee still has not ruled on the request by legal advocates for the immigrant children to expand independent monitoring of the treatment of children held in CBP facilities. Currently, the agreement allows for third-party inspections at facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley regions, but plaintiffs submitted evidence showing long detention times at border facilities that violate the agreement’s terms.
Britain’s homeowners are heading towards a cliff edge.
Despite interest rates falling over the past 12 months, millions of heavily indebted households are preparing to come off cheap fixed-rate loans taken out when borrowing costs were at rock-bottom.
At the same time, the housing market is at a low ebb, battered by a surge in stamp duty rates that has deterred buyers and helped drive down prices.
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This means that many homeowners are now being confronted with an uncomfortable reality that their flats and houses, which appeared good investments at the time, are worth much less than they had hoped.
Advising sellers on what to do before their mortgage repayments jump has become a careful game of strategy for Howard Davis, of Howard Independent Estate Agents.
For example, one of his clients has been trying to sell a two-bedroom flat in the leafy suburb of Clifton, Bristol, ahead of a painful remortgaging process in November.
However, so far, they are struggling to do a deal for anything above the price paid for the property three years ago.
“We’ve reduced the price and managed to get six people around to look at it on Monday,” says Davis.
“Half of them said they quite like it, but they’re frightened to commit because they’re seeing other prices falling all the time.
“We were expecting, by Tuesday, to have several offers at a dramatically reduced price. And today, we haven’t. So we may have to slice that price again.
“The guy’s probably going to come out even from a property he bought three years ago, because he’s frightened his interest rate is just going to hike up on his mortgage deal in November.”
The same is true across much of the South of England.
However, more serious may be the market’s failure in many parts of the country to rise at all since Liz Truss’s mini-Budget of 2022, which led to a sharp drop in sales.
Prices in London, the South East, the South West and the East of England are all still below their peaks almost three years ago.
Across the UK as a whole, prices are up just 1.1pc over that timeframe.
Worryingly, the long-held British belief that investment in property is a one-way bet is being shattered.
According to Trevor Brown, a surveyor in Southend, Essex, owners can only sell if they accept the reality that their home is not worth as much as they hoped.
“There are fewer potential buyers, borrowing is still very expensive and stamp duty is levied on every sale that we see,” he says. “It makes buying expensive.
“The first-time buyer market is out of the equation unless you have mum and dad ready to contribute considerably. And nobody is buying buy-to-lets any more at all.”
Concerns over the property market have been fuelled by a recent exodus of landlords, triggered by a barrage of tax rises under the Conservatives and the introduction of Labour’s renters’ rights bill, which aims to strengthen the power of tenants.
“Auctions are full of tenanted properties, where landlords are getting out of the marketplace,” says Brown.
All of which is teeing up what some see as a fresh housing crunch, threatening to undermine confidence in the wider economy and curbing much-needed tax revenues.
However, the market has not yet completely stalled.
Banks and building societies approved 188,000 mortgages in the three months to June.
That is down from the 200,000 in the quarter before the stamp duty holiday ended on March 31, but is above the low of 135,000 in early 2023 in the wake of Truss’s mini-Budget.
But this rebound is far short of making up for lost sales in recent years, while mortgages are still running below levels seen before the pandemic.
Worse still, pessimism on prices has crashed to its worst level in a year, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which regularly questions its members on the state of the market.
Even though the Bank of England has cut its headline interest rate from 5.25pc to 4pc over the past 12 months, the average rate paid on mortgages is still rising.
That is because the cheap loans which millions of families locked into before the cost of living crisis are now coming to an end. Those borrowers often bought with a mortgage rate of less than 2pc, but must now refinance with repayments north of 4pc.
The average rate paid on the nation’s mortgages is up from 2.1pc at the end of 2021 to 3.9pc today, with the Bank predicting that it will keep rising to 4.1pc into 2026.
Before the pandemic, the average mortgage payment was less than £700, according to direct debit data from the Office for National Statistics and Vocalink. Now it is just shy of £1,000.
Bank officials estimate that 3.6 million households will remortgage onto higher rates over the next three years, while only 2.5 million will see their rate fall. It means an average increase in repayments of £107 per month in the coming years.
Compounding the problem is a renewed rise in living costs.
David Hickman, a surveyor in Devon, says that Rachel Reeves’s National Insurance tax raid has hammered the local jobs market, undermining confidence among buyers.
“There’s this job insecurity going around, and that’s making people sit tight and not move unless they have to,” he says.
A weaker housing market, in turn, becomes a danger to both the economy and the public finances.
“When asset prices rise, it gives people confidence to go out and spend,” says Sam Miley, at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. “And when prices are falling, it encourages people to be a bit more cautious.
“At the moment, it is an environment of slower house price growth, so that plays out in a slower rate of consumption growth.”
Such concerns will not go unnoticed for those in the Government, particularly as the Chancellor prepares to plug a black hole worth as much as £50bn.
The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that Labour’s pledge to build more homes will trigger more property sales, which in turn will help the Treasury bring in more stamp duty for each sale.
The watchdog anticipates annual revenues from stamp duty and other transaction taxes will rise from £13.5bn last year to £24.5bn by the end of the decade.
But dwindling house prices will serve as a threat to that, fuelled by a recent drop-off in construction activity.
Housing starts have barely budged and planning approvals have fallen to a record low since the Government unveiled its pledge to build 1.5m homes by 2030.
Any shortfall in property transactions could prove critical for Reeves, says Andrew Wishart, economist at Berenberg Bank.
“It is a relatively small tax but when the Chancellor is working with headroom of 0.2 or 0.3pc of GDP, any small tax could make the difference,” says Wishart.
“The forecast looks optimistic – when looking at housing construction volumes, they are a long, long way off the target.”
However, support for the market might be on the way.
Not only is the Bank of England expected to cut interest rates a little further in the coming months, but looser mortgage lending rules should also make life a little easier for first-time buyers.
Yet regardless of that, many believe it will remain a buyer’s market, including Jeremy Leaf, an estate agent in north London.
“There is a hell of a lot of property on the market, and if you want to stand out, you have to be realistic about price,” he says.
“A lady came in wanting to look at one of our properties. She said, ‘It is very nice. But I have got 12 to see today.’”
New Zealand held off a second-half fightback to beat Argentina 41-24 in their Rugby Championship opener and return to the top of the world rankings for the first time in four years.
Winger Sevu Reece and substitute hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho each scored two tries for the All Blacks who replace world champions South Africa, who were beaten 38-22 by Australia in Johannesburg, as the number one team in the world.
The visitors were 10-0 ahead inside the opening 10 minutes in Cordoba thanks to Beauden Barrett’s penalty and Reece’s first try.
Pumas winger Rodrigo Isgro went over to reduce the deficit to three points, but quickfire tries from Ardie Savea, Cortez Ratima and Reece again put New Zealand 31-10 ahead at the break.
Argentina launched a spirited recovery after the break, with Tomas Albornoz powering over 11 minutes after the restart.
And when Billy Proctor was sent to the sin bin, Joaquin Oviedo’s try reduced the deficit to seven points and raised hopes of a famous comeback win.
But substitute Taukei’aho snuffed out those hopes with two tries in the final 12 minutes to seal an All Blacks victory.
“We talked about starting well and I think we did that. We finished the second half quite strong – it was a bit of a statement there,” said All Blacks captain Scott Barrett.
“In the second half we were a little bit slow and probably a little bit of indiscipline fed their game, which was disappointing and allowed the crowd to get in behind them.
“They threw a lot of punches at us and I’m pleased the guys who finished the game were able to win some arm wrestles, get some territory and most importantly come away with a good win.”
The defeat extends Argentina’s winless record on home soil against New Zealand to 15 matches.
The two sides meet again in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 13, 2025 in New York.ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
AI optimism is driving the S&P 500 price-to-book ratio to records, surpassing dot-com levels.
High valuations reflect expectations for AI-driven earnings.
While the ratio’s level is head-turning, it doesn’t necessitate that stocks are in a bubble.
Stock-market bulls convinced of the power of AI to transform the economy often shrug off comparisons to the dot-com bubble a quarter century ago. The real profits are already showing up, unlike in the early days of the internet boom — so it is different this time, the thinking goes.
But Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett has a message for these investors: “It better be different this time.”
Hartnett, who has often expressed skepticism of the market’s bull run over the last few years, shared a head-turning chart that highlights just how optimistic investors have become about the impact AI will have. It shows the S&P 500’s price-to-book ratio, which measures the total market cap of the index’s constituents compared to their total assets minus liabilities.
The valuation measure is at a record high of 5.3, topping the 5.1 level seen in March 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble.
Bank of America
Other classic valuation measures show market froth relative to history. For instance, Hartnett also shared a chart showing the S&P 500’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio. Except for August 2020, it’s at the highest level since the dot-com era.
Bank of America
And the Shiller cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, which measures current prices against a 10-year rolling average of earnings, is at similar levels to 1929, 2000, and 2021.
GuruFocus
High valuations reflect high expectations for future earnings. Sometimes those expectations turn out to be too elevated, and prices correct, but they don’t necessitate a bubble scenario. So far, many AI firms have continually beat earnings expectations, suggesting the optimism could be justified.
Valuations are also better predictors of average long-term returns than near-term performance, and views on Wall Street on where the market goes in the months ahead differ. Though there are calls for caution, many strategists continue to raise their year-end S&P 500 price targets.
Earlier this week, Rick Rieder, the chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock, said the market is in the “best investing environment ever” thanks to factors like strong demand for stocks, looming rate cuts, and recent boosts in productivity and earnings growth.
If the market does start to unwind, however, Hartnett said he sees bonds and non-US stocks benefiting. Examples of funds that offer exposure to these trades include the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU).
Thousands of residents have fled Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighbourhood, where days of continuous Israeli bombardment have created a “catastrophic” situation, the city’s Hamas-run municipality has told the BBC.
At least 40 people were killed by Israeli attacks across the territory on Saturday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.
The Israeli military said it would begin allowing tents to be brought into Gaza by aid agencies again. Israel plans to forcibly displace a million people from Gaza City to camps in the south.
In Israel, a one-day general strike is due to be held in Sunday in protest of the government’s plan to seize Gaza City.
The stoppage was demanded by the families of hostages and others who say the expansion of the war puts the lives of Israelis being held by Hamas at greater risk.
It comes a week after Israel’s war cabinet voted to occupy Gaza City, the territory’s largest city, and displace its population, in a move condemned by the UN Security Council.
“As part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume,” the Israeli military body Cogat said.
A spokesperson for the Gaza City municipality said mass displacement was already taking place in Zeitoun after six days of relentless Israeli air strikes, shelling and demolition operations.
The Zeitoun neighbourhood is home to about 50,000 people, most of whom have little to no access to food and water, according to the civil defence agency.
Ghassan Kashko, 40, who is sheltering with his family at a school building in the neighbourhood, told news agency AFP that air strikes and tank shelling were causing “explosions… that don’t stop”.
“We don’t know the taste of sleep,” he said.
Hamas said in a statement that Israeli forces had been carrying out a “sustained offensive in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, particularly in Zeitoun”.
The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable of when its forces would enter Gaza City. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to want the entire city under Israeli occupation from 7 October.
The municipality spokesperson said that 80% of Gaza City’s infrastructure had been damaged over nearly two years of Israeli attacks, while the four remaining hospitals there were operating at less than 20% of their capacity due to severe shortages of medicines and supplies.
At least 1.9 million people in Gaza – or about 90 per cent of the population – have been displaced, according to the UN.
The international body has indicated there is widespread malnutrition in Gaza, with experts backed by the organisation warning last month in a report that the “worst-case scenario” of famine is playing out in Gaza.
On Saturday, Gaza’s hospitals reported 11 more deaths from malnutrition, including a child, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 251, including 108 children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Meanwhile, a Gazan woman who was evacuated to Italy for treatment while severely emaciated has died in hospital. The 20-year-old, who was identified as Marah Abu Zuhri, flew to Pisa with her mother on an overnight flight on Wednesday under a scheme established by the Italian government.
The University Hospital of Pisa said that she suffered a cardiac arrest and died on Friday, less than 48 hours after arriving. The hospital said she had suffered severe loss of weight and muscle, while Italian news agencies reported she was suffering from severe malnutrition.
Earlier this week, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying “famine is unfolding in front of our eyes” and urged action to “reverse starvation”.
Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of aid it allows into Gaza and continues to insist there is no starvation there. It accuses UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.
The civil defence agency said at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by Israeli troops as they waited for food near distribution sites in the territory. The latest figures from the UN, released on Friday, indicate that at least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since late May, mostly by Israeli forces.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
On June 30, the Education Department abruptly informed states it would not release key fiscal year 2025 education funds as scheduled, affecting programs like teacher training, English learner support and after-school services.
After bipartisan backlash — including lawsuits from 24 states and pressure from Republican senators — the administration reversed course on July 25, announcing it would release the remaining funds. But the damage had already been done.
The administration claimed the freeze was part of a “programmatic review” to ensure spending aligned with White House priorities. Yet, the review was conducted without transparency while the funds were only released after intense political pressure.
The Education Department stated “guardrails” would be in place to prevent funds from being used in ways that violate executive orders, which is a vague statement that should raise concerns about future interference.
Districts had built their budgets assuming these funds would arrive by July 1, as they do each year. Instead of preparing for the new school year, states and districts were forced to scramble to minimize the damage.
In my home state of Texas, nearly 1,200 districts faced a freeze of $660 million, which represented about 16 percent of the state’s total K-12 funding.
I have spoken to superintendents, chief academic officers and chief financial officers who described how these unanticipated funding deficits undermined strategic investments into high-quality instruction and mental health services.
In Tennessee, $106 million was frozen, representing 13.4 percent of the state’s K-12 funding. Knox County Schools eliminated 28 central office positions, including staff supporting instruction for English learners.
Florida had $400 million frozen. Pinellas County School District alone stood to lose $9 million. The superintendent reported that they would have to make cuts that directly affect student achievement while the school board chair said the freeze “feels kind of like the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Kansas saw $50 million frozen. Kansas City, Kan. Public Schools warned families that $4.9 million in lost funding would affect “programs that directly support some of our most vulnerable students — including those from low-income families, English language learners and students with disabilities.”
Even with the funds now being released, the uncertainty and disruption caused by the freeze will have lasting impacts. In some cases, district leaders were forced to make staffing and programming decisions without knowing whether critical federal support would be unfrozen.
All who care about public education must make clear that this kind of reckless disruption is unacceptable and will carry political consequences.
Governors from both parties should press their congressional delegations to pass legislation preventing future executive overreach. And Congress must require the Education Department to provide advance notice and justification for any future funding delays.
The funding freeze was a reckless policy choice that disrespected educators, destabilized schools and put children at risk. Public education cannot function on the Trump administration’s political whims and such unwarranted actions cannot go unchecked without the risk of normalizing executive overreach at the expense of students.
Now is the time for all policymakers and educators to stand up for our schools and ensure that no child’s education is ever again held hostage to such problematic politics.
David DeMatthews is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin.
Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SKWD) is one of the best small cap low volatility stocks to invest in. On August 1, Piper Sandler lowered the firm’s price target on Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SKWD) to $59 from $69, keeping an Overweight rating on the shares.
Skyward Specialty Insurance Group, Inc. (SKWD): Among Stocks Insiders Are Selling In March
An executive in a suit flanked by workers, all smiling and looking confident.
The rating update came after Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SKWD) reported its fiscal Q2 2025 results on July 30.
The firm told investors that the top-line slowdown in recent quarters posed an issue for some investors. However, results from this quarter led it to believe that the rise in growth last year was not an anomaly.
Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SKWD) reported $38.8 million in net income for fiscal Q2 2025, or $0.93 per diluted share, compared to $31.0 million in the same quarter last year. Net income for H1 2025 reached $80.9 million, up from $67.8 million for the same 2024 period.
Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SKWD) is a specialty insurance company that provides commercial property and casualty (P&C) solutions and products on an admitted and non-admitted basis, predominantly in the US.
It specializes in industry solutions, healthcare professional liability, medical stop-loss, management and professional liability, specialty property and liability, programs and captive solutions, and surety.
The company’s operations are divided into eight divisions: Accident & Health, Captives, Global Property and Agriculture, Industry Solutions, Professional Lines, Programs, Surety, and Transactional E&S.
While we acknowledge the potential of SKWD as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
Baker is also a prolific note-maker, something he puts down to his education.
At the time of his first stress fracture he was targeting a place to study biology at the University of Oxford and now he records analysis on opposition batters in a little book, along with plans and hopes for the future.
“I’ve just found it keeps me involved in the analysis stuff and then really remember it,” Baker says.
“It would be an absolute nightmare if you’re not really sure whether you’re meant to bowl wide or straight and then you pick the wrong one.
“You can’t really justify that to yourself at the end of the game.”
The Hundred means there is already a page in Baker’s notebook titled with the name of an Australian great.
Of the 12 balls Baker bowled to Steve Smith when Welsh Fire hosted Manchester Originals last Monday, three were hit for four and another three resulted in a false shot.
“It has been surreal, writing notes on Steve Smith thinking ‘am I actually going to be opening the bowling at him?'” Baker says.
This is the company Baker now keeps, however and, having rehabbed in Sydney after his most recent back injury, he has spent the past two winters in Australia.
Another will likely come this year with the young quick expected to be part of the Lions squad shadowing the Test team around the Ashes series.
From there anything can happen.
Far more unlikely names have been plucked by England to make a Test debut down under.
“I mean, that would be good fun, wouldn’t it?” Baker says.
“I’ll refer back to notes on any matters and Steve Smith is one of the red-ball GOATs [greatest of all-time] so I’d definitely be coming back to that analysis if I end up needing it.
“But let’s just worry about the next few games first. Let’s not get too far out of ourselves.
“We’ve got a Hundred to try and win and then South Africa series to try and win and then Ireland series try and win way before we think about any of all of that stuff.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tore into President Trump early Saturday after his high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska ended without a deal, accusing the president of “selling out” Ukraine.
“Looks like once again Trump is selling out Ukraine and bowing down to dictator Putin,” he wrote on social media platform X. “No Nobel Peace Prize for that.”
His critique comes days after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quipped that she would nominate Trump for the coveted prize if he successfully squeezed a ceasefire agreement out of the Russian leader.
Trump and Putin met at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday for a roughly three-hour discussion. While details of the conversation have not been released, the president touted the meeting as “productive” and signaled that while progress was made, a deal was not yet on the table.
“We didn’t get there, but we have a good chance,” he told reporters following the summit, but did not take questions. The president later briefed NATO and European leaders — who responded by doubling down on their support for Ukraine — on the meeting.
Schumer, in separate comments late Friday, accused Trump of rolling out the red carpet for Putin, who he called an “authoritarian thug.”
“Instead of standing with Ukraine and our allies, Trump stood shoulder to shoulder with an autocrat that has terrorized the Ukrainian people and the globe for years,” he wrote on X. “While we wait for critical details of what was discussed — on first take it appears Trump handed Putin legitimacy, a global stage, zero accountability, and got nothing in return.”
“Our fear is that this wasn’t diplomacy — it was just theater,” the New York Democrat added.
Trump defended the outcome of the summit in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity late Friday, saying it is up to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to come to an agreement. Trump and Zelensky are expected to meet on Monday at the Oval Office.
Clinton earlier this week said she would support Trump’s quest for a Nobel Peace Prize if he is able to negotiate an end to the more than three-year war that repudiates the Kremlin’s claims to Ukrainian territory. The president later expressed gratitude for his former opponent’s remarks.
Zelensky has pushed back on Trump’s suggestion that any truce would likely require a land swap of territories Russia has taken over since it’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“We will never leave the Donbas,” the Ukrainian leader told reporters on Tuesday.
