Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

Pope Francis “is more unwell than yesterday”, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday, adding that he had suffered a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis” earlier in the day. The Vatican statement said the pope, who is being treated in hospital for double pneumonia, was alert, but added that the prognosis for him “remains guarded”.

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to vote on a brief draft resolution marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday before the 193-member General Assembly votes on the same text, diplomats said on Saturday. The U.S. move at the U.N. pits it against Ukraine and the European Union, who have for the past month been negotiating with U.N. member states on their own draft text on the war, which is due to be voted on by the General Assembly on Monday. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the U.S. had declined to co-sponsor the text…

A second meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States is planned for the next two weeks, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Moscow and Washington held their first talks on ending the nearly three-year war in Ukraine on Tuesday, aimed at restoring relations and preparing to conclude the conflict. The meeting will take place in a third country and the specific location is being agreed upon, Ryabkov told RIA in an interview, without naming who would attend from the Russian or American sides. Ryabkov said there was “principled agreement”…

The Trump administration said on Wednesday it was rescinding federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program that is designed to reduce traffic and raise money to upgrade aging subway and bus systems. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the move will halt a program that “leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways.” Under the program, which launched on January 5, most passenger vehicles are charged $9 during peak periods to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. Trucks and buses pay up…

Ukraine needs to rein in criticism of the United States, which is trying to secure a peace deal acceptable to all sides, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said Thursday in an interview. “They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” Waltz told Fox News, referring to a critical minerals deal with Washington. At the same time, Waltz said he believed U.S. differences with Ukraine could be reconciled.

The head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, Kyrylo Budanov, believes a ceasefire in the war with Russia could happen this year. “I think it is going to happen. There are most of the components for it to happen,” Budanov said in a YouTube interview with journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. He gave no details. Ukrainian officials largely dismiss the idea of a ceasefire, warning it will only give Russia time to rearm and prepare for further aggression. “How long it will be, how effective it will be – is another question,” Budanov added. Discussions about a possible ceasefire intensified after Donald…

Russia and the United States on Tuesday agreed to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion. Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point”, following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some European leaders, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky…

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pumping station in southern Russia might have been coordinated with its Western allies. Putin said that he believed Ukraine could not have organised such an attack on its own and was likely provided with Western intelligence. “Attacks of this kind are impossible without space reconnaissance. Ukraine receives high-precision data on the targets only from its Western allies,” Putin said. A drone strike hit a pumping station on the oil pipeline in Russia on Monday, reducing flows from Kazakhstan to world markets pumped…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he was counting on unity and courage from his compatriots and pragmatism from the United States. “We are standing strong on our own two feet. I am counting on Ukrainian unity, our courage…on the unity of Europe and the pragmatism of America,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. He said it was important that the current visit to Ukraine by the U.S. envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, be “constructive”.

Russia and the United States on Tuesday agreed to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion. Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point”, following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some European leaders, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky…