Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on Vladimir Putin praising Donald Trump amid rising Russia-West tensions

Vladimir Putin has praised US President-elect Donald Trump as an “intelligent and experienced” politician capable of finding “solutions”, as tensions ramp up between Russia and the West.

The Russian President has also blamed current President Joe Biden for “creating additional difficulties” for the incoming administration, after Biden gave Ukraine permission to fire longer-range American missiles inside Russia.

Trump had previously pledged to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, without saying how.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Orcas in the Pacific are embracing a new fashion trend.
The whale watchers and scientists in the US have spotted
orcas with dead salmon on top of their heads. Apparently
the orcers are wearing the salmon like hats. And this
is not the first time it's Happened's actually the second time.
I know, second time it's happened. Is that you Dan
just chipping in?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Sorry?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yes, this, Dan waiting in line. So shocked at this
that whales are wearing salmon like hats. Apparently they started
doing it in nineteen eighty seven, and then by the
following year they decided that the trend was passe. And
nobody knows why the orcers are doing it. That is
quite shocking and weird, isn't.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It, Dan? It is.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I'm sorry about that. You know you're getting older when
you start talking back to the radio. I just didn't
realize we were listening at the time.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
What that's what we were all doing in our heads,
So you only said it out loud. Hey, So Putin
loves Trump by the sounds of things, he's Stokeday.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
He does, he does, calling him intelligent and experienced. And
I find this interesting that he's saying. This is all
these tensions are ramping up between Russia and Ukraine right now,
and of course, as you just mentioned, you've got the
US and the long range missiles that have been given
the go ahead by Biden too. So it'll be interesting
to see what happens when Trump gets into the office,
because he was the guy, don't forget that said he

(01:17):
could end this whole war between those two countries on
day one, within twenty four hours of getting into the
White House.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So might be getting a hit of himself here a
little bit. Because we were all laboring under the impression
that what was going to happen was Trump was going
to get in and force Selen Zelenski to give up
land for peace. But actually a counter narrative has started
to emerge, which is possibly what Trump is going to
do is just armed Zelensky to the teeth and let
him rain hell down on Putin.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, yeah, and I think that's why we may be
hearing some of these nice comments from Vladimir Putin as
well too, you know, because Trump has said, you know,
we're going to secure peace through strength, So take that
as you will. And I mean this is also just
a big sort of turnaround from what the Kremlin's been
saying over the last few weeks, last couple of months,
actually against Biden the whole administration, because he's been accusing

(02:05):
the US and Joe Biden specifically of escalating this war
with the Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Dan, why is it that we are now all of
a sudden thinking gen z as might be the loneliest
generation just.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Because they're spending so much time on social media.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
They're spending six hours or more a day, and I mean,
this is you know, this is loneliness is an emotion,
as psychologists are saying right now, and they've come out
with a study and they're saying, at some point we're
all going to be lonely in our lives, and especially
since the pandemic. The problem is gen z is feeling
lonely all the time and they feel like this loneliness
is never going to go away. And this is ironic,

(02:39):
I guess you could say, because they're finding new ways
every day to connect without connecting, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
I mean seventy three percent.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Of these kids say I said, kids twenty something years
old say they fill alone and disconnected, but they're not
willing to go out and make that human interaction.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
You talk to my daughter and she says, I've got friends. Okay,
are you going to talk to your friends?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh? I don't talk to them. Have you seen them? No?
I text with them. And that's what this generation is
doing with them, and they call them friends.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay. So does your daughter go out and have a party.
Does she drink? Does she no? Look up with no people?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
No?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Nothing, no, No. Same with my son. They're twins, they're
both they're both eighteen, and most of their friendships and
their school friends and college friends are are the same.
I mean, they'll interact with each other in the classrooms,
but outside of the classroom, most of them are on
their phone texting with one another.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
And that's why they live with one of them? Does
the other one is away on living on campus okay?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And the one that lives with you, do they go
out at the weekend or do they hang about at home?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
No?

Speaker 3 (03:42):
No, total introvert, just totally gaming, doing homework online. That
doesn't really socialize with anybody, even though he was in
abandoned school and stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I know it does.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
It does because I find that when this generation goes
out and they have to interact with people in the office,
or they have to that first big interview when they
graduate from university. It's like, well, how are you going
to get these social skills if you're not around real people.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, yeah, totally. I'd be worried about it too, Dan, Listen,
tell me quickly. This California man went missing for twenty
five years and then his sister sees his picture in
the news and finds them. How does she recognize him?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Though, Well, he just vanished.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
It was just happened to see a picture of him
online in an article and said, well, wait a minute,
this homeless guy looks very familiar. So contacted police. Police
reached out for help with the sheriff's apartment with a
missing person's unit. They were able to fingerprint this guy
who had been hospitalized, and they were able to positively
identify him as.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
The same person who went missing in ninety nine. He was, Yeah,
he had just forgotten who he was and was just
down on the streets.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
So I mean, it's a I guess you could call
it over here at least a nice Thanksgiving or a
nice holiday miracle.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
However you look.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
At it, Wow, that's remarkable, he Dan, Thanks very much,
appreciate it. Dan minchenson uas correspondent. For more from Hither
Dukelassy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be
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