Author: AFP
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.
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.”
The Kremlin on Sunday downplayed expectations for a rapid resolution to the Ukraine conflict, saying talks were just beginning and that “difficult negotiations” were ahead. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are set to hold separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia over the next 48 hours as President Donald Trump pushes for a rapid end to more than three years of fighting. “We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV. He said there were many outstanding “questions” and “nuances” over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented. Russian President Vladimir…
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…
A report by Israeli settlement watchdogs says settlers have used grazing to seize control of 14 percent of the occupied West Bank through the establishment of shepherding outposts in recent years. In their report, “The Bad Samaritan”, Israeli NGOs Peace Now and Kerem Navot said that in the past three years, 70 percent of all land seized by settlers was “taken under the guise of grazing activities”. Settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according…
The UN warned Friday that all of Gaza’s approximately one million children were facing “massive trauma” as fighting in the war-ravaged territory resumed, and amid dire aid shortages. Humanitarians described an alarming situation in Gaza, amid a growing civilian death toll since Israel resumed aerial bombardment and ground operations this week after a six-week ceasefire. Sam Rose, the senior deputy field director in Gaza for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, highlighted the psychological shock for already traumatised children to one again find themselves beneath the bombs. This is a “massive, massive trauma for the one million children” living…
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.”