Jeffrey Epstein files won't ‘break apart' MAGA base
'I have to say I'm with the President on this, I don't know why people are so obsessed with this story,' Ms Ungar-Sargon told Sky News host Rita Panahi.
'I don't think the average American is thinking about the Jeffrey Epstein file, I think they're thinking about whether groceries are going to go up, I think they're thinking about whether they're going to be able to afford presents for Christmas.
'Anyone who's bothered by this should keep pushing for it, I totally support that and I totally respect it, I just don't see this breaking apart the MAGA base.'
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Sky News AU
17 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Anthony Albanese warned over 'cagey' Taiwan stance, with Sky News' Peta Credlin claiming it will lead to US 'reckoning'
Sky News host Peta Credlin has warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese his "cagey" stance on Taiwan risks placing further strain on Australia's alliance with the United States. Credlin said Mr Albanese's noncommittal answers to questions about sending troops to defend Taiwan would encourage the US to question if Australia were really committed to the alliance. She added that if "America does defend Taiwan, Australia will have to be involved. There are no ifs or buts here." Noting the Albanese government refused to send a frigate to the Red Sea in December 2023, marking the 'first time since ANZUS was finalised in 1951 that we have declined a US request for military assistance', Credlin claimed questions about Taiwan were a telling indicator on whether Australia would back its ally. 'Every previous Australian government has recognised that the alliance is a two-way street. We can't expect the Americans to support us in our military campaigns if we're not prepared to support them in theirs,' she said. 'This is where the travelling press pack with the Prime Minister miss the point. The question is not would Australia help Taiwan, it's would Australia help the United States?' Credlin added Mr Albanese was spending a 'remarkably long' time in China and would meet President Xi Jinping for the fourth time on Tuesday, while still not having met President Donald Trump and continuing to refuse calls to increase defence spending. The Sky News host echoed the words of former prime minister Tony Abbott, who said defence spending needed to be 'swiftly' increased to three per cent of GDP. 'If we want the Pax Americana to survive, this unprecedented era of global peace in general terms, then we cannot expect the Americans to do all the heavy lifting on their own,' Credlin said. 'There's a reckoning on the way and few Australians really appreciate just how grave things are.' Credlin said Mr Albanese needed to get some of 'our eggs out of the China basket' given Beijing's aggression economically and militarily, characterised by the rising tension around Taiwan and recent trade boycotts 'only just lifted' against Australia. 'There were $20 billion worth of boycotts placed on our annual exports to China – just because we had the temerity to ask for an independent investigation of the Wuhan virus,' she said. 'For China, trade is politics by other means. Trade is something to be turned on and off like a tap to secure its strategic objectives. 'It's not just the folly of making Australia more economically vulnerable to China. It's the folly of turning trade into a climate crusade.' Credlin said the 'inconvenient truth' was China relied heavily on billions of dollars of Australian iron and coal. The Sky News host said Mr Albanese was mistaken if he thought China shared his 'emissions obsession', when in fact it had not committed to net zero and is building two new coal-fired power stations every week. 'How about that inconvenient truth?' she said. 'So not only is Anthony Albanese missing the point on national security, he's missing it on economic security too.'
9 News
35 minutes ago
- 9 News
Trump threatens Russia and boosts weapons for Ukraine
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here US President Donald Trump has threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance towards Moscow after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending the war . The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the Republican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump once focused his criticism on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he described as unwilling to compromise, but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin. "My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night," Trump said. He complained that "it just keeps going on and on and on." US President Donald Trump has unveiled a new weapons pipeline to Ukraine. (AP) Trump said he would implement "severe tariffs" unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia's trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy. In addition, Trump said European allies would buy "billions and billions" of dollars of US military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country's supplies of weapons. He made the announcement in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Included in the plan are Patriot air defence systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles. Trump with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House. (AP) Doubts were recently raised about Trump's commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that US stockpiles were running low. Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Denmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. He said "speed is of the essence here," and he suggested that some weapons would be rushed to Ukraine and later replaced with purchases from the US. Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and he repeatedly asserted that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. He also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a "dictator without elections". But Russia's relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump's patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to "STOP!" launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader "has gone absolutely CRAZY!". While Rutte was in Washington, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg pose for a photo in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP) Zelenskyy said he had "a productive conversation" with Kellogg about strengthening Ukrainian air defences, joint arms production and purchasing US weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin. "We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its ... ambitions are stopped by force," Zelenskyy said on Telegram. Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defences are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said. At the same time, Russia's bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1000km front line. Trump confirmed the US is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defence missiles and that the European Union will pay the US for the "various pieces of very sophisticated" weaponry. Trump is reportedly growing frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) A senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, said Trump's plan had "only one beneficiary – the US military-industrial complex." Germany has offered to finance two Patriot systems, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Monday in Berlin. The country has already given three of its own Patriot systems to Ukraine. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was traveling to Washington on Monday to meet US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. A top ally of Trump, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict was nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion. Although Trump had previously dismissed the effort as a waste of US taxpayer money, Graham told CBS' Face the Nation that "you'll see weapons flowing at a record level." "One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump," he said. "And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there's going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table." Firefighters work at a destroyed apartment building after a Russian drone and missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's envoy for international investment who took part in talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia in February, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington. "Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure," Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. "This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means." Although Trump proposed targeting Russia with new tariffs, he expressed doubts about bipartisan legislation to punish the country even further. "I'm not sure we need it," he said. "It could be very useful. We'll have to see." The legislation increases sanctions and places 500 per cent tariffs on products imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas and other exports. Trump on Monday proposed unilaterally implementing 100 per cent tariffs. "I use trade for a lot of things," he said. "But it's great for settling wars." Since December 5, 2022, when the European Union banned Russian oil, China has bought 47 per cent of Russia's crude oil exports, followed by India at 38 per cent. Turkey and the EU have each accounted for 6 per cent, according to the Centre for Research and Clean Air, a Finnish nonprofit that tracks the energy industry. Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow in China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, doubted that tariffs would change the course of the war. "Oil is fungible, and Russia has developed a nimble shadow fleet," he said. "So enforcement would be a challenge.'' However, the tariffs could still have a dramatic effect, depending on how they're implemented. Adding a 100 per cent tariff on China, on top of import taxes already in place, would essentially halt trade between the US and China, the world's two largest economies. CONTACT US
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Donald Trump announces US will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, says Putin ‘talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening'
The US will ship Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine in its fight against Russia because Vladimir Putin 'talks nice but then bombs everybody in the evening,' President Trump said Sunday. Although Trump did not get into specifics about how many missiles he would send, he reassured American citizens that the European Union would pick up the tab and reimburse the US for the associated costs. Trump's frustration with the Russian dictator has grown more and more recently as his efforts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia have been derailed and attempts at a ceasefire have gone nowhere. 'A lot of people are dying and it should end,' the president told reporters during a Cabinet meeting last week. 'We get a lot of b******* thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked for more defensive capabilities to fend off a daily barrage of missile and drone attacks from Russia. The country has been the subject of four major Russian assaults this month alone. At least 13 Ukrainian civilians were killed Saturday when Russia unleashed hundreds of drones and missiles – including so-called 'kamikaze drones,' Ukraine's air force said. The attacks struck western cities which until recently were considered safe from Russian reach. The Kremlin' onslaught included 623 drones and 26 missiles, including 319 Iranian-made Shahed drones. In response, Trump said he is going to ship the Patriots to aid in Ukraine's defense. 'We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it,' Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington. The commander in chief plans on meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine along with other pressing issues this week. 'We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that, and that's the way we want it,' Trump said. Originally published as Donald Trump announces US will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, says Putin 'talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening'
