traditionally, a newspaper will print statements from public figures that they know to be untrue by putting them in quotes (since they're not reporting the words as true, only that the person said them). unfortunately this gives the biggest assholes in politics a free pass to lie to the public.
this report isn't saying that Russia will face severe consequences, it's saying that Trump *says* Russia will face severe consequences. it's the same way a paper can report on some Reform dipshit complaining about a "flood of migrants" or a "surge in crime" whether it's true or not.
this is one of a number of challenges confronting the press in this age of disinformation and propaganda, including the "bias to neutrality" and toothlessness of media standards law, and there may be no easy answers to any of them - sadly, the press shows little signs of even trying.
I think whilst you have to report what Trump says it is irresponsible to put it in the headline considering how casually people digest news.
Therein the problem. Same with Farage, Badenoch, Rowling and whoever else. They all know their words will be reported, and that most of the audience will read the words and not the context.
bury the words in the article and folks will have to get context to read them. l "x makes claims/statement about y" as a headline doesn't propagate any falsehoods.
Weaponised the same way ‘balance’ has been.