Trump says he doesn’t think Ukraine will win back land taken by Russia during war
Donald Trump said he didn’t think Ukraine would win back land that was captured by Russia during the war.
“They could still win it,” Trump remarked during his meeting with Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese. “I don’t think they will. They could still win it. I never said they would win it. Anything can happen. You know, war is a very strange thing.”
Trump’s seeming skepticism of a Ukrainian victory came several days after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he appeared more keen on negotiating a peace agreement than supplying the nation with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump told Ukraine and Russia to “stop the war immediately”.
The comments mark yet another shift in Trump’s position on Ukraine’s chances in the years-long conflict. Trump said in September that he believed Ukraine could regain all territory seized by Russia.
During Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024, and early this year, Trump said that Ukraine would have to give up territories seized by Russia to stop the war, The Associated Press notes.
Key events
Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his threat of imposing a 157% tariff on Chinese imports if both nations can’t reach a trade deal.
“We have a tremendous power, and that’s the power of tariff, and I think that China will come to the table and make a very fair deal, because if they don’t, they’re going to be paying us 157% in tariffs,” Trump told reporters during his sit-down with Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese.
Trump, who claimed that “China has treated us with great respect” not afforded to prior administrations, said that if a deal weren’t brokered, “I’m putting on an additional 100%” on 1 November.
Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, are expected to meet in several weeks to discuss trade.
Trump’s reiteration of this tariff threat comes just several days after he admitted that a 157% tax is unfeasible.
“It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the number is,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. “It’s probably not, you know, it could stand. But they forced me to do that.”
Trump says he doesn’t think Ukraine will win back land taken by Russia during war
Donald Trump said he didn’t think Ukraine would win back land that was captured by Russia during the war.
“They could still win it,” Trump remarked during his meeting with Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese. “I don’t think they will. They could still win it. I never said they would win it. Anything can happen. You know, war is a very strange thing.”
Trump’s seeming skepticism of a Ukrainian victory came several days after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he appeared more keen on negotiating a peace agreement than supplying the nation with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump told Ukraine and Russia to “stop the war immediately”.
The comments mark yet another shift in Trump’s position on Ukraine’s chances in the years-long conflict. Trump said in September that he believed Ukraine could regain all territory seized by Russia.
During Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024, and early this year, Trump said that Ukraine would have to give up territories seized by Russia to stop the war, The Associated Press notes.
Trump says Hamas will be ‘eradicated’ if needed
The president has said that Hamas is “going to behave” or will face severe repercussions.
“They’re going to be nice, and if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them,” Trump added.
This comes after Israel launched waves of deadly airstrikes on Sunday and cut off all aid into Gaza “until further notice” after a reported attack by Hamas, in escalations that marked the most serious threat so far to the fragile ceasefire in the devastated territory.
“Hamas has been very violent, but they don’t have the backing of Iran any more. They don’t have the backing of really anybody any more. They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’ll be eradicated,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room at the White House.
Trump seemed unwavering in the 10% tariff on Australian exports.
“Australia pays among the lowest tariffs,” Trump said. “The one thing is, you [Australia] buy a lot of airplanes, so that helps, because you buy a lot of the beautiful Boeings.”
Trump meeting with Australian PM Albanese begins, as both nations sign rare earth mineral deal
Donald Trump’s meeting with Anthony Albanese has started.
“We’re here to talk about trade, submarines, lots of other military equipment,” Trump said, welcoming the Australian prime minister.
The pair just signed a rare earths agreement which opens up Australia’s vast mineral resources. The deal has been in the works for “four or five months”, according to Trump.
Albanese added that the deal was an “eight and a half billion dollar pipeline” to supply critical rare earths to the US. This, amid an re-escalating trade war with China, who have tightened their rare earth exports and are facing a 100% tariff threat from the US.
For some background ahead of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Albanese, one of the main topics of conversation will be Aukus – which stands for Australia, United Kingdom, United States.
This was the trilateral defense agreement signed by the former leaders of the respective countries in 2021 – Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden. This treaty guarantees that nuclear-powered submarines to Australia by the US in the 2030s, and the construction of a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines by Australia and the UK in the 2040s.
This is now being reviewed by the Pentagon to see if it meets the administration’s “America First” policy.
Trump welcomes Australian PM to the White House
Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived at the White House. Donald Trump said that he “loves” the Australian people and that the pair will achieve “a lot” today, when answering questions from reporters as the pair stood for pictures.
A reminder that Albanese leads the country’s Labor party, which is the main centre-left party in Australia. He was elected in 2022, and this will be his first formal meeting with Donald Trump since he returned to office in January.
Russia says call with Rubio was ‘constructive’, ahead of Trump’s Budapest meeting with Putin
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said his call with secretary of state Marco Rubio was “constructive” ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest. The date is yet to be determined, but it will be the second bilateral with the Kremlin leader this year.
Speaker: representative-elect should ‘serve her constituents’ instead of ‘making TikTok videos’
House speaker Mike Johnson, once again addressed questions from reporters about the decision to stave off swearing in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election in Arizona at the end of September. Johnson maintains that he will carry out the formal proceedings when the Senate advances a bill to reopen the government and the House is back in session.
“In the meantime, instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents,” Johnson said. “She could be taking their calls. She can be directing them, trying to help them through the crisis that the Democrats have created by shutting down the government.”
Johnson says shutdown is exclusively about top Democrat’s ‘political survival’
House Republicans are holding a press conference on day 20 of the government shutdown.
Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, said the shutdown was about “one thing and one thing only, Chuck Schumer’s political survival”. GOP lawmakers have maintained that the Senate’s top Democrat is being squeezed by progressive members to stall passing a House-passed stopgap funding bill.
Johnson has claimed that that Democrats wanted to wait for the No Kings protests across the country to take place before passing a funding extension.
Supreme court agrees to hear case over law that bans drug users from possessing guns
The supreme court has agreed to hear a case to review the federal law which prohibits illegal drug users having a gun – to determine whether this violates the second amendment.
The US fifth circuit court of appeals said the law was unconstitutional, but the Trump justice department is challenging the ruling, arguing that drug users pose a unique threat when they have access to firearms. The government will have to clear a hurdle used in a 2022 gun rights at the supreme court, which said that any firearm regulation must satisfy a “history and tradition” test.
A reminder, Hunter Biden, the former president’s son, was convicted on felony charges under the very law in question, when a jury determined that he lied about his drug use in order to obtain a gun.
White House economic adviser says shutdown likely to end this week
Kevin Hassett, the White House’s economic adviser, said that the ongoing government shutdown – which entered its 20th day – is likely to end this week.
“There’s a shot that this week, things will come together, and very quickly,” Hassett said in an interview with CNBC today. “The moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we could negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate with regular order.”
Hassett added that it would have been “bad optics” for Democrats to pass a funding bill to reopen the government before the No Kings protests that swept the country over the weekend.
Vance to travel to Israel as top Trump envoys return to preserve ceasefire deal
A reminder, that my colleagues are bringing you the latest developments out of the Middle East, as the US brokered ceasefire deal faced one of its first major tests over the weekend.
Israeli forces launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza and an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory was halted “until further notice”. The strikes across the territory killed at least 45 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said.
The Israeli military claimed it struck after Hamas were said to have attacked Israeli troops operating “to dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the southern city of Rafah.
My colleague, Tom Ambrose, reports that Vice-President JD Vance is to visit Israel on Tuesday, the country’s airport authority said in a statement on Monday announcing preparations for his arrival at Tel Aviv’s airport. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner have returned to Israel, a US embassy spokesperson has said. They are overseeing, and helped broker, the ceasefire agreement, and are expected to meet members of prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Read more below.
