The Guardian 16 October 2025 Trump says he will meet Putin in Hungary after ‘productive’ call – live US president says he and Russian leader agreed to convene next week in an undetermined location in Budapest LIVE Updated now now 8 m ago

 The Guardian 

16 October 2025

 Trump says he will meet Putin in Hungary after ‘productive’ call – live

US president says he and Russian leader agreed to convene next week in an undetermined location in Budapest

LIVE Updated now

now  8 m ago 

Democrats block defense spending bill as shutdown tensions rise and bipartisan trust deteriorates

38m ago

Kremlin says Putin told Trump supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine would harm peace chances and US-Russia ties

41m ago

Trump warns Hamas not to kill people in Gaza or 'we will have no choice but to go in and kill them'

2h ago

Trump says he will meet Putin again in Budapest after 'productive' call

2h ago

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2h ago

Schumer says Thune hasn't offered him any proposal to end the shutdown

3h ago

Jeffries says GOP 'can't be trusted on a wing and a prayer' and ACA commitments must be 'ironclad' to end shutdown

3h ago

Prosecutors expected to ask grand jury to indict Trump critic John Bolton

3h ago

Trump says he's speaking with Putin, will disclose details of the call

3h ago

Senate fails to pass funding bill to reopen government for 10th time

4h ago

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4h ago

Johnson condemns Young Republicans group chat messages

5h ago

Johnson says Republicans have 'no idea' how shutdown ends and continues to blame Democrats

6h ago

Pennsylvania Democrats launch plans to oust Fetterman – report

6h ago

Schumer criticizes Vance's comments over Young Republicans group chat leak

6h ago

Top Senate Republican says he can 'guarantee' vote on key healthcare provision as government shutdown enters day 16

US president Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Lucy Campbell (now) and Shrai Popat (earlier)

Thu 16 Oct 2025 20.57 CEST

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From 2h ago

19.23 CEST

Trump says he will meet Putin again in Budapest after 'productive' call

Donald Trump has said that his call with Vladimir Putin – which lasted more than two hours – was “good and productive” and that they agreed to convene a meeting of high-level staff, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, next week in an undetermined location.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he and Putin would then also meet again in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end”. Trump said he would be discussing the call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow, but he believed “great progress was made” today.

Trump also said he believed “the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine”. He said Putin thanked Melania Trump “for her involvement with children … and said that this will continue” and that the two leaders had also discussed trade between Russia and the US for when the war is over.

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Updated at 

20.04 CEST

now

20.57 CEST

Democrats block defense spending bill as shutdown tensions rise and bipartisan trust deteriorates

Senate Democrats blocked debate on a defense appropriations bill on the floor earlier this afternoon, which was seen as a test for whether regular individual bipartisan funding bills can gain any traction despite the shutdown, now dragging into its third week.

The bill, which passed out of committee with strong bipartisan support earlier this year, needed 60 votes to advance, but the final vote was 50 to 44. Several Democrats including Jeanne Shaheen voted to advance the bill.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer objected to considering the bill without also voting on the annual labor, health and human services appropriations bill.

“Right now, the only thing that is on the floor is just the defense bill. [John] Thune needs unanimous consent to add anything else to it. We don’t even know if he’ll get that,” Schumer told reporters earlier ahead of the vote.

It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people, in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety.

Senate majority leader John Thune expressed frustration that they couldn’t take that first step and said the optics were bad for the Democrats.

If they want to stop the defense bill, I don’t think it’s very good optics for them. Particularly since this is just getting on it, and they would have multiple opportunities after this to block it if they want to.

“I believe it is critical that the Senate and Congress return to a bipartisan appropriations approach and try to begin rebuilding trust,” Shaheen said in a statement after voting. “This vote would allow us to consider Senate appropriations bills which were passed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.”

The other Democratic senators who voted with Republicans were Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman. Majority leader John Thune changed his vote to “no” so that procedurally he can bring the bill up for consideration again.

Cortez Masto and Fetterman have previously voted for the GOP’s House-passed bill to reopen the government while Shaheen has been at the heart of talks with GOP colleagues about finding a way to end the shutdown.

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38m ago

20.20 CEST

Kremlin says Putin told Trump supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine would harm peace chances and US-Russia ties

Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in their phone call today that supplying US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage US-Russia ties, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

As I said earlier, this comes a day before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump at the White House tomorrow in which he is set to push for more US military support, including the crucial long-range offensive missiles.

Ushakov said the planned new summit between the two presidents will be preceded by a phone call between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.

The Putin-Trump call took place at Russia’s initiative, Ushakov added.

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43m ago

20.17 CEST

Trump warns Hamas not to kill people in Gaza or 'we will have no choice but to go in and kill them'

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has just said:

If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.

It comes after Hamas fighters have been captured on video in recent days ramping up their presence and reasserting the group’s authority by executing members of rival groups on the streets of Gaza.

This is Trump’s clearest indication on the matter yet, after giving mixed messages in recent days, initially saying the violence “didn’t bother me much” as Hamas was clearing up “gangs”. Yesterday he appeared to concede that it could be “gangs plus” when asked if there was a possibility that Hamas was killing innocent civilians.

“They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump also said yesterday, though, as with the statement today, he hasn’t specified how he would follow through on his threat.