Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
‘Until Putin is removed, crisis will never end’, says reader
It comes as no surprise that the overhyped Alaska meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ended without any concrete peace proposals for the war in Ukraine (Metro, Mon).
How could it when the only person who can end the conflict has no intention of doing so unless and until he achieves all of his objectives.
Putin wants Ukraine back in his new version of the USSR, which would include the Baltic and Caucasian countries, while reducing the influence of Nato.
The Russian president claims his actions are to counter a threat from the West.
Of course he doesn’t want western democracies liberating the Russian people from a dictatorship in which he and a privileged elite of oligarchs hold the power and wealth.
Unfortunately, until Putin is removed one way or another, the crisis will never end. Trump’s response should be to work with the EU and provide Ukraine with all the modern arms it can to repel the constant attacks on its civilians and infrastructure and push back the Russian offensive. Peter Fieldman, Paris
‘Nothing less than a load of hoo-ha and hot air’, reader comments on the Alaska summit
Watching Putin shaking hands with Trump after that disastrous summit in Anchorage on Friday, I couldn’t help but recall that picture of Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain shaking hands after their 1938 meeting in Munich, which was also a farce.
Putin and Hitler left their meetings shaking their heads at the gullibility of Trump and Chamberlain, while the deluded Trump and Chamberlain left believing that they had achieved something. It didn’t take long to reveal Chamberlain had been duped – and the world was embroiled in World War II.
Putin is not interested in peace with Ukraine – he wants Ukraine to surrender so he can advance his megalomaniacal dream of regaining all the former territories of the former USSR.
This is borne out by the fact that Putin’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, arrived in Anchorage wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Cyrillic letters ‘CCCP’, which translates to ‘USSR’.
If that wasn’t giving the middle finger to Trump, I can’t think of what would be!
Like everything in which the US president is involved, this weekend’s summit has been nothing less than a load of hoo-ha and hot air. Bob Readman, Sevenoaks
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Reader says Trump is being ‘played like a fiddle’ by Putin following the summit in Anchorage
I rarely agreed with former US president Ronald Reagan but he was spot on when he called the Soviet Union the ‘evil empire’.
Now, 40-odd years later, we see Putin attempting to rebuild this evil empire through the invasion of Ukraine and extra-judicial killings of any opponents or dissidents. And who do we have in the White House to counter this threat?
Only a reality TV star and golf course peddler who is being played like a fiddle by the Russian president! Robert Boston, Kent
An ‘unfastened jacket’ and ‘flapping’ tie, reader comments on Trump’s ‘cringeworthy’ appearance
For Ukraine and Nato’s sake, let’s hope Trump’s mystery dialogue with Putin at the Alaskan summit was better judged than his attire.
Trump’s necktie – a garment traditionally associated with power and authority, was bright red, which is a colour that was not adopted by the US Republican party until 2000, but has been associated with Sovietism since Lenin’s Russian Revolution in 1917.
The wider tail of Trump’s tie should have ended at the top of his belt but it hung much lower.
Putin’s maroon necktie was more subtle and avoided similarity with the Republican colour. His suit jacket was correctly worn with the top button fastened, thus concealing the tail of his tie.
By comparison with Putin’s immaculate appearance, Trump’s unfastened jacket and overly long tie flapping around his crotch on a gusty runway looked cringeworthy. Robert Hughes, London
‘Incinerators recover energy from burning waste’, reader say authorities are using incineration to manage waste
Fred (MetroTalk, Fri) has a point regarding ‘wasteful’ disposable nappies being buried as landfill – however, a significant number of local authorities utilise waste incineration to manage waste rather than send it to landfill.
In England, the number of incinerators has increased, with 52 operational in the past five years and more planned or under construction.
Many of these incinerators are designed to recover energy from burning waste, either as electricity or for heat generation. Ant, Manchester
How can you help save the planet?
I agree with Adrian (MetroTalk, Fri) that nuclear power produces waste our descendants will have to deal with.
And while we can’t all buy e-cars or have wind turbines on our homes, we can all work in whatever way we can to help save our one and only planet.
Fly less, cover up your drive with plants or maybe even plant a tree, eat less ultra-processed foods and more whole foods – food that isn’t full of things our nans had never heard of…
We can’t rely on our government or leaders in other countries – we need to start ourselves. Chris Silvers, London
