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Well before this month's restrictions on Ukraine's military access to Elon Musk's satellite communications system, the Biden and Trump administrations had repeatedly asked SpaceX to turn its Starlink service on or off in various countries, according to six former senior...

Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss how Donald Trump’s dismissal of Russian aggression against Ukraine has prompted bipartisan backlash.

The United States once declared that Ukraine’s fight was the front line in a global battle for freedom. Now the Trump administration is sending money to Moscow.

President Donald Trump blames Ukraine for continuing its defensive war against Russia. He does so even as Ukraine has agreed to ceasefires proposed by Trump but rejected or broken systematically by Russia. Trump pretends that Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy network are intended to increase American gas prices rather than, as they are, to drain […]

Ukraine’s military on Friday struggled with a still-slowed Starlink satellite system despite President Trump’s promise a day earlier that SpaceX owner Elon Musk had restored the service. Connections with Starshield — the military version of Starlink, a major tool for Ukraine to defend itself from missile and drone attacks from Russia — continued to fail...

Republican lawmakers are threatening to block President Donald Trump’s nominees and derail his legislative agenda over restrictions on satellite services used by Ukraine’s military, according to The New York Times. Senators from both parties have told senior White House officials they will hold up pending nominations until the administration restores critical satellite communications capabilities used ...

Trump reportedly asked Musk to lift restrictions on military-grade Starlink assets in Ukraine that impacted the country’s drone capabilities.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe leads an agency that’s at war with Russia, even as Trump makes nice with Putin.

The US president is portraying Zelenskyy as the villain as he strives for Russia’s approval If Donald Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and return to wave the document as “peace in our time”, hoping to claim at least the second Fifa peace prize. Whatever the complicated motives of Neville Chamberlain, his well-grounded fear after the carnage of a world war of another apocalypse and his wishful thinking that Hitler would be satiated after carving up Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain had not sent his son-in-law and former golf partner and real estate partner in advance to cut back-end deals with the Nazis to profit for his family and cronies. Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man , Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth . He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of the Court of History podcast Continue reading...

The satellite service was still operating at a cap of 161km/hr, crippling key air defences But Macron’s government has ramped up restrictions and security measures to try and stop the widespread looting and ransacking we saw on the fringes of the wider peaceful demonstrations last week. What protests are planned? Both student groups and trade unions have planned rallies across the country. France’s ⁠main student union, UNEF, has called for demonstrations on Saturday and the Yellow Vest movement also filed plans to march through central Paris. There are already overnight curfews in place in Paris and many other cities. In Marseille and Lyon, the second and third-largest cities, all demonstrations have been banned for the weekend. The Marseille city government also initially said it would stop public transport running on Saturday; they’ve hastily reversed that severely unpopular decision this morning. In Paris, protesters have been told they can only march a designated route between the Bastille and Nation squares. Le Monde has this handy map on their site with all the curbs and restrictions and local curfew times Many shops and businesses, tourist sites and events are boarding up and closing for the weekend. Marseille’s business council advised shops to do so. In Paris, the Louvre Museum will be shut while the Art Basel Paris art fair is also finishing up early. On top of the protest bans and restrictions in place, the government says they’ll deploy 20% more police onto the streets this weekend Macron held a Security Council meeting on Thursday with senior ministers; he’s chairing a Defence Council meeting this morning discussing other measures with law enforcement This afternoon the French president is also due to host student protest leaders for the first time for negotiations at the Elysee. Continue reading...

US president says Starshield military communications system is back, but declines to comment on whether he spoke to Musk on the matter. What we know on day 1,703 Donald Trump has claimed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fully restored Ukraine’s Starlink access , restrictions on which have hampered Ukraine’s attack missions and air defence. However, a senior European official told the Associated Press on Thursday that nothing has changed in the operation of the military-grade Starshield service. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of ⁠the system. Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm that the service had been down, but claimed it was once again working at optimal speeds. “You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.” Questions over who ordered interruptions to Starshield – which plunged relations between Kyiv and Washington to a new low – have ignited a blame game within the Trump administration and its allies . Trump has denied being involved in the decision concerning the slowdown, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that decisions regarding Ukraine’s access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and Musk, not the White House. Musk last week posted to X: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ⁠on Thursday – before Trump’s latest comments – that Starlink had not ⁠been fully restored. Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles overnight , after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin to discuss the resumption of peace talks. Russia’s aerial attacks hit 12 regions of Ukraine, killing at least four people and wounding scores of others, including five children, Zelenskyy said on social media Thursday. Two women, aged 50 and 60, were killed and dozens of other people were wounded in a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, in Ukraine’s northeeastern Kharkiv region, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. Another person was killed in other strikes on Kharkiv. Downing Street has rejected the description of Putin as a “humanitarian” made by Witkoff after meeting the Russian president. When asked about the US envoy’s comments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We certainly do not recognise that characterisation, and President Putin has killed thousands of people, both innocent Ukrainians and his own Russian people, who he has sent to their deaths on the frontline.” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha chided Witkoff for flattering Putin, saying on social media the latest “brutal” Russian attacks demonstrate “what Russian ‘humanism’ truly sounds like.” Nato member Denmark said on Thursday it has agreed to buy its first ⁠long-range precision missiles as ⁠it seeks to bolster its security to deter Russian aggression in Europe, drawing condemnation from Moscow. Defence minister Jeppe Bruus said the new missile systems would boost Denmark’s capabilities and enable strikes “behind enemy lines” ⁠if attacked. “We’re in a serious and deteriorating security situation and that ​is why we are ‌building up the defence ‌and strengthening our combat power,” he said. The Russian embassy in ‌Copenhagen said Denmark’s missile policy aimed at confrontation with Moscow and warned of “inevitable disastrous consequences”. Romania will accelerate development of surveillance capabilities and equipment to counter mines ⁠and drones in the Black Sea after a series of drone attacks on commercial ships off ⁠its coast , its ⁠top defence council ​said on Thursday. At least seven cargo ships have been hit near the coasts of Nato members ⁠Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, with 30 sailors reported dead or missing. No ⁠deals should ​be made to buy gas from ⁠Russia as long as Moscow’s war ⁠in Ukraine continues, Finland’s prime ⁠minister Petteri Orpo said in Kyiv on Thursday . The EU banned Russian pipeline gas under short-term contracts ​from 17 June, and will ​apply it to long-term contracts from 1 November next year. Senior Russian political and energy officials meanwhile have urged the EU to reconsider plans to ban imports of ⁠Russian LNG, arguing the bloc’s ⁠low storage levels ​had put Europe in a precarious position. “I ‌hope there is still time to reconsider these decisions,” Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Novatek, Russia’s largest liquefied natural ‌gas producer, told an economic forum in Istanbul on Thursday. “Europe should support its industry, in my view. There is still time.” Continue reading...

The call from the president about the Starshield network came after officials in Ukraine reported that they found new limits on the use of military drones in their war against Russia.

President Trump wouldn’t say Thursday whether he was the one who called SpaceX founder Elon Musk to restore Starlink for Ukraine. “Well, I don’t want to say, but I know it was a very interesting situation,” he told reporters before departing the White House. “I don’t want to comment one way or the other.” “Whether...

Mr. Trump has been searching for his Yalta in the war in Ukraine ever since he returned to the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump asked Elon Musk on Wednesday to lift restrictions on Starlink satellite services in Ukraine after the SpaceX founder allegedly ordered a slowdown that hampered Ukrainian defenses against Russian attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the Trump administration was not responsible for throttled Starlink connectivity in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump reportedly called Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked the SpaceX chief to lift restrictions on a satellite communications system that had disrupted Ukrainian drone operations. Service improved Thursday, although some Ukrainian officials said it had not returned to full functionality, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Trump confirmed ...

President Donald Trump spoke to SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on his company’s Starlink satellite system, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Washington Post reports White House holds up Patriot interceptor transfers to Ukraine while Russian missiles keep falling on Ukrainian cities.

Europe’s leaders can no longer trust a word that comes out of Washington. No more slaps on the wrist – we need concrete steps to punish Trump Historical comparisons are always inexact. No one conflict precisely mirrors another. Yet Donald Trump’s shameless appeasement of Vladimir Putin carries more than a noxious whiff of Neville Chamberlain’s failed attempt in Munich in 1938 to head off war with Nazi Germany. To be fair to the former UK prime minister – and history largely hasn’t been – his peacemaking efforts had the enthusiastic backing of most people in Britain and France who, like him, were desperate to avoid a repeat of the horrors of the first world war. Trump enjoys no equivalent public support for his treachery . Nor does he face the prospect of a US war with Russia. His betrayal of Ukraine is cynically self-interested, globally dangerous and utterly contemptible. US-Russian talks on agreeing the shoddy terms of a precedent-setting American sell-out of Ukraine are at an advanced stage, after meetings in St Petersburg this week. Trump has zigzagged over the war ever since returning to office. Now, panicked by record-low poll ratings , he seems determined to scapegoat Ukraine and force its de facto capitulation. Recent steps – his shocking decision to fund Putin’s war machine by buying Russian diesel, his waiving of tougher sanctions, his mysterious, lethal interruptions in US satellite and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and his renewed attempt to oust Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – mark Trump out as the skulking Judas, the craven Brutus of the modern age. He makes Chamberlain look like a man of iron principle. All that’s lacking is an umbrella. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Putin is losing ground. This is no time to reward him.

Trump’s latest lurch toward Russia may be unlike the previous several.

Asked if Elon Musk ordered the slowdown, Trump said, "I don't know who did it, but I was not involved."

President Donald Trump has blamed Ukraine for surging diesel prices that are hurting Republicans' election chances with the midterms just two weeks away.

After Russia released an American prisoner, President Trump’s special envoy praised President Vladimir V. Putin as “a humanitarian.” Our White House and national security correspondent, David E. Sanger, describes how the release comes amid Mr. Trump’s broader shift toward Russia and away from Ukraine.