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AIR FORCE ONE: US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should end the war in Ukraine instead of testing a nuclear-powered missile, adding that the US had a nuclear submarine positioned off Russia’s coast. Putin said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon Moscow says can pierce any defense shield, and will move toward deploying the weapon.
Asked on Air Force One about the test of the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – which Moscow said had flown for 14,000km, Trump said the United States did not need to fly so far as it had a nuclear submarine off the coast of Russia. “They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores, so I mean, it doesn’t have to go 8,000 miles,” Trump told reporters, according to an audio file posted by the White House.
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying, either, by the way: You ought to get the war ended, the war that should have taken one week is now in ... its fourth year, that’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest since World War Two, though he has said that finding peace has been harder than reaching a ceasefire in Gaza or ending conflict between India and Pakistan.
Since first announcing the 9M730 Burevestnik in 2018, Putin has cast the weapon as a response to moves by the United States to build a missile defense shield after Washington in 2001 unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and to enlarge the NATO military alliance.
“They’re not playing games with us and we’re not playing games with them either,” Trump said. “We test missiles all the time.”
Reuters reported from Washington on Oct. 25 that Trump’s administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of Russia’s economy if Putin continues to delay ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Asked if he was considering additional sanctions on Russia, Trump said: “You’ll find out.”

JOHANNESBURG: Former Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has been stripped of his citizenship by after he was ousted during a military takeover just over a week ago.
Rajoelina, whose whereabouts remains unknown after he fled the country following protests that demanded his resignation, also holds French citizenship.
The country’s new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, has signed a decree invoking laws which strip all Madagascans of their citizenship if they have citizenship of another country.
Rajoelina’s possession of French nationality had previously caused a debate about his eligibility to run for the president in the 2023 polls, an election he won.
He fled the country at the height of youth-led protests which brought thousands into the streets in several cities and initially sparked a harsh crackdown by security forces that left 22 people dead and more than 100 injured, according to the United Nations.
At the time, he said he feared for his life and, and addressed the nation from an unknown location days before the military took over and Col. Michael Randrianirina was sworn in as president.
Madagascar has had several leaders removed in coups and has a history of political crises since it gained independence from France in 1960.
The 51-year-old Rajoelina first came to prominence as the leader of a transitional government following the 2009 coup that forced then-President Marc Ravalomanana to flee the country.
Constant water and electricity cuts were at the center of the latest youth revolt, but this quickly evolved to frustration over other issues like poverty and unemployment.