Author: AFP
US President Donald Trump’s envoy said on Sunday that he does not see President Vladimir Putin wanting to invade beyond Ukraine and described fears of broader Russian aggression as “academic.” “I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe,” Steve Witkoff told Fox News. “I take him at his word in this sense, so, and I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn’t matter. That’s an academic issue…. The agenda is, stop the killing, stop the carnage. Let’s end this thing.”
US President Donald Trump’s envoy said Sunday he expects Ukraine and Russia to make progress on a ceasefire in the Black Sea when they talk Monday in Saudi Arabia. “I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries. And from that you’ll naturally gravitate to a full-on shooting ceasefire,” Steve Witkoff told Fox News.
More than 20 years after his success with “Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra”, French director Alain Chabat has again teamed up with the plucky Gauls for a 3D animated series that was presented Sunday at a festival in Lille before it runs on Netflix. The series is based on the 1961 comic book “Asterix and the Big Fight”, the seventh in the series illustrated by Albert Uderzo and written by Rene Goscinny about the pugnacious warrior Asterix and his menhir deliveryman sidekick Obelix. There are five episodes of about 20 minutes each, with three being shown to an appreciative audience…
Moscow is hoping to achieve “some progress” at talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a Russian negotiator told state media on Saturday, ahead of US officials holding separate talks with Ukraine and Russia on a possible ceasefire. Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukraine proposal of a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, instead suggesting just to halt aerial strikes on energy infrastructure. The US will hold parallel talks with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations on Monday in a bid to secure a breakthrough. “We hope to achieve at least some progress,” senator Grigory Karasin told the Zvezda TV channel, owned by…
Russia reserves the right to a “symmetrical response” to Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Friday of blowing up a Russian gas pumping station in a border area where Ukrainian troops have been retreating. Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure in three years of fighting, and Ukraine has struck energy facilities in Russia. “As in 2022, provocations are being used again with the aim of disrupting the negotiation process. We are clearly warning that if the Kyiv regime continues its destructive line, the Russian Federation…
The United States is importing Turkish and South Korean eggs to ease an avian flu-fueled supply crunch that has pushed up prices across the country, Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary confirmed Friday. Brooke Rollins told reporters in Washington that imports from Turkey and South Korea had already begun and that the White House was also in talks with other countries about temporarily importing their eggs. “We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term,” she added. The cost of eggs has skyrocketed due to multiple bird flu outbreaks in the United States, forcing farmers to cull…
Tunisian President Kais Saied has dismissed prime minister Kamel Madouri, his office said on Friday, as the North African country grapples with major economic issues. Madouri, a technocrat appointed last August as part of a cabinet reshuffle, was replaced by Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, the former minister of public works, the presidency said. Zaafrani, 62, becomes Tunisia’s second woman premier after Najla Bouden, who was in the post from October 2021 to August 2023. She takes office as Tunisia also faces criticism from the United Nations over the imprisonment of Saied’s political opponents and as rights groups decry a rollback on…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed “concern” over a fresh Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip and said Moscow was ready to help “de-escalate” the situation. In a readout of a phone call between Putin and the Emir of Qatar, the Kremlin said “concern was expressed over the resumption of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, and the readiness of both countries to promote de-escalation and long-term normalisation in the region was stressed.”
Israel’s attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara said Friday that the prime minister was not allowed to appoint a new internal security agency chief after the government decided to sack Ronen Bar. “According to the decision of the Supreme Court, it is prohibited to take any action that harms the position of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar,” she said in a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published by a spokesperson. “It is prohibited to appoint a new head of Shin Bet, and interviews for the position should not be held.”
Ankara on Friday condemned what it said was a “deliberate” attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in the Gaza Strip. “We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” said a foreign ministry statement.