Trump says Gaza ceasefire is 'possible'
He made the comments to reporters at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, where he was meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Mr Trump also said that he will cut the 50-day deadline he has set Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
"I'm disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him. So we're going to have to look and I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number".
The prime minister travelled to Ayrshire, where the US president is staying at his Turnberry golf resort, for wide-ranging discussions on trade and the Middle East as international concern grows over starvation in Gaza.
The two leaders have built a rapport despite their differing political backgrounds, with Mr Trump praising Mr Starmer for doing a "very good job" in office ahead of their talks.
But humanitarian conditions in Gaza and uncertainty over US import taxes on key British goods in America threaten to complicate their bilateral meeting.
Peace talks in the Middle East came to a standstill last week after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff blaming Hamas for a "lack of desire" to reach an agreement.
Since then, Israel has promised military pauses in three populated areas of Gaza to allow designated UN convoys of aid to reach desperate Palestinians.
But the UK, which is joining efforts to airdrop aid into the enclave and evacuate children in need of medical assistance, said that access to supplies must be "urgently" widened.
During discussions with Mr Trump, Downing Street said the prime minister will "welcome the president's administration working with partners in Qatar and Egypt to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza".
"He will discuss further with him what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long," it said.
The leaders will also talk "one-on-one about advancing implementation of the landmark Economic Prosperity Deal so that Brits and Americans can benefit from boosted trade links between their two countries", it added.
The agreement signed at the G7 summit last month cut trade barriers on goods from both countries.
But tariffs for the steel industry, which is of key economic importance to the UK, were left to stand at 25% rather than falling to zero as originally agreed.
Concerns had previously been raised that the sector could face a levy of up to 50% - the US's global rate - unless a further agreement was made by 9 July, when Mr Trump said he would start implementing import taxes on America's trading partners.
But that deadline has been and gone without any concrete update on the status of UK steel.
Downing Street said both sides are working "at pace" to "go further to deliver benefits to working people on both sides of the Atlantic" and to give UK industry "the security it needs".
The two leaders are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, which Number 10 said would include "applying pressure" on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion, before travelling on together for a private engagement in Aberdeen.
It comes after Mr Trump announced he had agreed "the biggest deal ever made" between the US and the European Union after meeting Ursula von der Leyen for high-stakes talks at Turnberry yesterday.
After a day playing golf, the US president met the president of the EU Commission to hammer out the broad terms of an agreement that will subject the bloc to 15% tariffs on most of its goods entering America.
This is lower than a 30% levy previously threatened by the US president.
The agreement will include "zero for zero" tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals, as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars (€638bln) over three years.
Speaking to journalists yesterday about his meeting with the prime minister, Mr Trump said: "We're meeting about a lot of things. We have our trade deal and it's been a great deal.
"It's good for us. It's good for them and good for us.
"I think the UK is very happy, they've been trying for 12 years to get it and they got it, and it's a great trade deal for both, works out very well."
Mr Trump said he thinks discussions will feature "a lot about Israel".
"They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen," he said.
"He's doing a very good job, by the way," he added.
Mr Trump's private trip to the UK comes ahead of a planned state visit in September.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Fergus Finlay: The ghost of presidents past could give Trump some tips
'Donald, can you hear me?' President Trump sat bolt upright in his bed. What was that ghostly voice? Surely he must be dreaming. But as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he became aware of a shadowy figure in a chair in the corner of the bedroom. He reached for the bedside button that would bring the Secret Service running into the room, but the sepulchral voice stopped him in his tracks. 'It's me Donald. It's Dick, your old friend. And your former president. We need to talk, because the bastards are trying to do you in, the way they destroyed me.' Nixon? Was it really Richard Nixon, sitting there in the corner of the room? Yes, they had been friends, sort of, for a couple of years after Nixon's resignation Trump had supported him in his disgrace, and they even wrote to each other quite a bit (Donald was really regretting right now his habit of writing witty letters, as he called them, to his friends). But Nixon had died more than 30 years ago. What was he doing here now? 'Listen,' Nixon said, as if anticipating Trump's questions. 'I don't know why, and from everything I do know it's not in your character, but you were kind to me for a little while when I needed friends and recognition. So I want to help you now. You're in more trouble than you know, and I need to give you some advice.' 'If you're talking about the Epstein stuff,' Trump said, 'I've got it covered. With all the dirt I've got on the Democrats, there's no way they can get me.' Nixon laughed, and it wasn't a pretty sound. 'The Democrats,' he said scornfully. 'Do you think it was the Democrats that got me? They never laid a glove on me. It was three things. I made a few mistakes along the way, and you ought to remember what they were. "But it was the media, the damn media, and most of all it was my own people who abandoned me in the end. And that's always the way it is, Donald. The opposition always do their best to punish you, but if you're looking for your real enemies they will always – always – appear on your own side. Realising he had Trump's rapt attention, the ghost went on. 'I'm surprised they haven't given the issue a name yet. But they will, they'll make it something that people can remember. And they'll probably name it after me, or that bloody building that's always associated with my name. Epsteingate, they'll call it, and when you see that name appear in the media you'll know they really have their claws into it, and into you.' 'You've already made my first mistake,' the ghost of Nixon told him. 'Being in the afterlife gives you certain insights, along with a lot of other stuff I don't want to talk about. But it doesn't enable me to see everything in those bloody files. "I do know there's something in there, maybe just one thing or maybe a few, that you are terrified of. And from everything the world already knows about your private life it must be pretty bad – it's certainly not something you and I ever talked about over drinks, or when you were trying to persuade me to buy an apartment in Trump Tower." 'It's never going to come out,' Trump told him. 'My people have promised me they'll never let that happen.' Nixon laughed his deathly laugh again. 'You're forgetting the prime lesson of Watergate – and you're not the only one who's done that. That fool in London Boris Johnson forgot it too and look what happened to him. The crime is one thing, but in politics the cover-up becomes the real crime. And you're up to your neck in a cover-up right now.' 'That's the way it has to be,' Trump said. 'No,' Nixon retorted. 'The pressure will build and build, and soon you'll have to appoint a Special Prosecutor. And you won't get away with hand-picking one of those fools from Fox News that you seem to love. It will have to be someone who at least looks independent. "And the first thing they will ask for is the files. All the files. And suddenly they won't be under your lock and key anymore. They'll come after what they always called the smoking gun in my day.' 'Have you forgotten?' Nixon demanded. 'They looked for all my tapes, and I knew if they got them, I was finished. By the way I hope you haven't been taping your private conversations …' Trump didn't reply. 'That probably tells me everything I need to know,' Nixon pressed on. 'Remember that night in 1973 – the Saturday night massacre they called it. I told the Attorney General to fire the prosecutor, and he resigned rather than follow my orders. Then his deputy walked away. "Then when I finally got rid of that stuffed shirt Archibald Cox as Special Prosecutor I was forced to accept an even tougher bastard in his place. And they got the files, and their smoking gun, in the end.' 'My people aren't quitters,' Trump said. 'They knew what they were getting into. They'd be prepared to go down fighting rather than betray the MAGA movement.' Nixon laughed out loud, and for the first time the president felt fear. 'If you believe that,' Nixon said, 'you're a bigger fool than I think you are. Do you remember how many went down fighting with me? Not one, not bloody one. The hypocrite Kissinger, even him, offering to pray with me as if I was facing execution. In the end I was entirely alone.' 'So what are you telling me to do?' Trump wanted to know. 'Let it out,' Nixon said. 'Whatever is there, make a virtue of openness. They'll comb through it for all the dirt. Tell them you're going to publish the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then you can start denying it afresh. Your base would rather believe you – or at least forgive you. And you won't be the only one who has denials to issue. But for God's sake don't make the terrible mistake I did when I said I wasn't a crook. Don't make a speech saying, 'your president is not a paedophile' – there'd be no coming back from that. There was silence then, enough for the president to think. Of all the advice he had hoped for from Richard Nixon, telling the truth wasn't it. And he knew he couldn't. He'd built a movement, and two terms in the Oval Office, without ever once telling the truth. He knew it couldn't be that way. Nixon had to do better. But when he opened his mouth to speak, he realised the other man was silent too. And the shadowy figure in the corner was gone, had faded into nothing. Donald Trump was alone. He was perspiring heavily, and deathly afraid. What had that vision been? A voice foretelling the future, or just a bad dream? Yes, he decided. It must have been something I ate. Just a bad dream. That was all. Maybe.
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Paul Kearns: It's not as simple as Bob Geldof thinks for Israelis to 'snap out of it'
'What has happened to the Israeli people?'. Bob Geldof last week made an impassioned plea to Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ's Primetime for 'Israelis to snap out of it' and 'to rise up against their government'. In the context of the daily horrific images from Gaza and more than 20 months of onslaught on the Palestinian civilian population, Geldof asks an important and, I would argue, very profound question: 'What has happened to the Israeli people?'. But here is a startling fact. In no other country in the world over the past two and a half years have there been larger and more consistent political demonstrations against the current far-right Israeli messianic government than in Israel itself. Within weeks of assuming power, hundreds of thousands of Israelis began protesting weekly against the anti-human rights agenda of their government. The coalition of five right-wing, religious, and Jewish supremacist parties that make up the government received a minority of the popular vote (48.4%) in the election that brought them to power. Political parties to the left — admittedly a broad spectrum from centre-right to progressive left — won more than 50% of the vote in that fateful election. Sometimes the vagaries of the electoral system tip victory to the loser. Those demonstrations have at times reached more than a quarter of a million on a single Saturday night in Tel Aviv alone. Since the October 7 Hamas terror attack, and despite an inevitable rallying around the flag effect, tens of thousands of Israelis opposed to Netanyahu have continued to take to the streets. Demonstrations only ceased when rockets rained down from Hamas at the start of the war, and more recently, over the 12-day war with incoming ballistic missiles from Iran. Yet despite two years of weekly protests and plunging political popularity, this government remains in power. Most Israelis feel exhausted. Most feel powerless. If families of the remaining hostages have been unable to pressure their government to prioritise Israeli lives, the lives of their children held in underground tunnels for two years, does Geldof think that they can pressurise the government to consider the fate of Palestinian children? Mainstream, secular, and centrist Israelis feel under assault. First, they came under attack from their government, then came the trauma of October 7 and the murder of over 1,200 Israelis by Hamas in a short few hours. Within 48 hours of those terror attacks, anti-Israeli demonstrations had erupted around the world, and then came months of rocket attacks, including cruise missiles from Iran. Despite the war, or perhaps because of it, the government continues to assault its civil liberties by advancing authoritarian legislation. In addition, the exponential growth of global anti-Semitism is undeniable. A protest outside the US embassy demanding the end of the war and immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv earlier this month. Picture: AP/Maya Alleruzzo Most Israelis are vehemently opposed to their messianic revolutionary government. They are revolted by the images of marauding settlers on the West Bank, and also sickened by the words of many far-right ministers that ricochet around the world in minutes. Some of those same far-right ministers have mocked and belittled the families of hostages. Today, 70% want the war to stop, irrespective of so-called concessions to Hamas. International revulsion at the dystopian images coming from Gaza is understandable. With that, revulsion has come an undeniable visceral hatred of all Israelis. I think hate is not too strong a word. Visceral hatred of Israelis is now not just politically acceptable; it is widely socially championed — and let's be clear, we are talking about Israeli Jews. One in five Israeli citizens is a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab. The dehumanisation of all Palestinians by too many Israelis is now arguably matched by the demonisation of Israeli Jews by non-Israelis. There is a similar groupthink, and an 'othering' that lumps all Israelis together. This demonisation can have, has had, chilling outcomes. Geldof says Israelis are subject to 'heavily censored news'. There is, however, no government censorship of the news in Israel, at least not in the general understanding of the word. The mainstream commercial TV news channels indeed refuse to show what the rest of the world sees nightly. Ironically, it is the public service broadcaster, Kan, which recently shows the most graphic footage. News editors have told me Kan's two commercial rivals are more concerned about a TV ratings war than revealing the truth of the war in Gaza. In fact, many journalists of the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, the Israeli paper of record, are fearless in their criticism and condemnation of both the government and the war on Gaza. Some of the most powerful investigative journalism exposing Israel's war crimes in Gaza has come from Israeli Haaretz investigative journalists. This includes a recent damning revelation of a shoot-to-kill policy of Israeli soldiers at food distribution points in Gaza. Haaretz is on sale in every town and city in Israel. Perhaps the very fact Haaretz is readily available makes the seeming indifference of too many Israelis more inexcusable. Geldof argues there are no excuses for the seeming Israeli difference to genocide 70km from Tel Aviv. He is right, there aren't. I have written many times in this newspaper about the moral failures of Israeli society, particularly its universities, trade unions, and television media stars, to speak out more loudly about the undeniable Israeli war crimes. There is, of course, no context to acts of genocide. There is, however, a context to the simple assertion that Israelis 'snap out of it' and 'rise up against their government'. If the fate of governments were determined by the scale and duration of street power alone, this unpopular far-right regime would have long since been consigned to the dustbin of political history by Israelis themselves. And perhaps, just perhaps, tens of thousands of dead Palestinians would be alive today. Paul Kearns is an Irish journalist living in Israel
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: State must be ready to step in
Despite the sense of relief from some (and reaction is mixed) in the wake of the US-EU trade talks at Donald Trump's golf course in Scotland on Sunday, there is still much to distil from the agreement and its effects across Europe's industrial, manufacturing, energy, and agriculture sectors. While many businesses received a certain clarity, there are still numerous dark corners which need light shone upon them and it is now incumbent on our Government to identify those at risk as a result of the new tariffs and provide a financial bulwark for them. In the same way that Brexit introduced a new level of challenges to Irish industries and businesses, the new tariff regime will require the Government to act similarly — by introducing supports — if widespread job losses, factory closures, and business shut-downs are to be avoided. Our pharmaceutical industry remains our biggest sector vulnerable to the capriciousness of US economic policy. It will take some time for the effects of this deal to percolate down through our exporters, whatever products they are engaged in manufacturing, and to see which of our manufacturing businesses are going to take the biggest hits. While we can console ourselves that the outcome was not as bad as it might have been, even for the business that see it as a successful conclusion to talks it still represents a considerable threat to their wellbeing as industries and therefore the job security of the employees. The Government has a limited pot of cash to provide the necessary supports, but must clearly target those sectors — and jobs — where the risks are greatest. Even in a best-case scenario turbulent economic times lie ahead and dropping the ball could be catastrophic. Swift and decisive interpretation of the tariffs is needed to identify where we most need to provide resources to sustain businesses and employment. Israel reaction is to deflect blame With some 2m people starving in Gaza, the slight relaxing by Israel of its aid blockade is is little other than a PR exercise by the government in Tel Aviv. Israel is pursuing this course in order to try and remove itself from blame for the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. With the international community — including dozens of governments, UN agencies and other international agents, alongside opponents to the war within Israel itself — intent on detailing Israel's culpability, the reaction in Tel Aviv has been to obfuscate. Ministers there have suggested that there is no hunger in Gaza and even if it does exist it is not Israel's fault; rather, the blame lies with Hamas and the UN or the many aid organisations trying to provide both food and succour to the Palestinian people. As far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu's government remain unapologetic about policies seemingly intent on wreaking starvation, disease, ethnic cleansing, and genocide on the people of Gaza, official Israeli denials ring hollow. Government claims that 'there is no famine in Gaza — there is a famine of truth' are palpable nonsense and illustrate clearly that the Netanyahu administration is deceiving itself and its people and attempting to do the same to the rest of the world. Thankfully the international community is having none of this guff and its ratcheting up of pressure on the Israeli government has at least provided the respite of 'military pauses' which are at least proving a small window for aid to get through. But that pressure has to be maintained and intensified if Israel is to be prevented from committing war crimes far greater than anything it has heretofore been accused of. Make them stars The success of the Women's European Championships — which ended with overall victory for England — highlighted not only the massive growth in popularity of women's sport, but the increasing feeling here in Ireland that we need to be part of the bigger picture. While we have for years been able to savour the skills on display in our native camogie and football codes, the international successes Ireland has recently enjoyed in soccer, horse racing, rugby, golf, hockey, swimming, and athletics — to name a few — have increased the profile of our sportswomen to hitherto unprecedented levels. There seems little doubt that women's sport is going to be one of the biggest growth segments in sport worldwide and Ireland has the opportunity to play a huge role in that. Historically we have not properly exploited the successes of such as Katie Taylor, the late Maeve Kyle, Sonia O'Sullivan as much as we did those of Barry McGuigan, Ronnie Delaney, Stephen Roche, and many others. A weekend event in Páirc Uí Chaoimh promoting involvement and demanding investment was a wonderful occasion. But the idea of creating many more world-beaters is even better. It is to the nation's eternal shame that the equal rights as specified in the 1916 Proclamation were never fulfilled — but women's sport represents a new, bright horizon. To properly mine the current and future successes of Irish women across the sporting spectrum, massive investment is needed to not only increase participation, but to find those future stars who will make Ireland an exemplar of equal opportunity. Read More Irish Examiner view: This may be the dawn of the clean energy era
