US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister

Update Ukrainian and US officials began talks on Sunday in Saudi Arabia on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure. (File Photo)
Ukrainian and US officials began talks on Sunday in Saudi Arabia on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure. (File Photo)
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Updated 24 March 2025
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US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister

US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister
  • Ukraine defense minister says talks aim to bring ‘just peace closer’
  • US envoy upbeat, says Russia’s Putin ‘wants peace’; Kremlin warns of ‘difficult negotiations’

RIYADH: The latest round of talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Riyadh on de-escalating the war with Russia were “productive and focused,” Ukrainian defense minister Rustem Umerov said Sunday.
“We have concluded our meeting with the American team. The discussion was productive and focused — we addressed key points including energy,” he said on social media, adding Ukraine was working to make its goal of a “just and lasting peace” a “reality.”

The talks on Sunday focused on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s defense minister said, part of a diplomatic push by US President Donald Trump to end three years of war.

The meeting, which preceded talks on Monday between the US and Russian delegations, came as US special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about the chances for ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

“I feel that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants peace,” Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday.

“I think that 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 into a full-on shooting ceasefire.”

Separately, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday the United States was talking through a range of confidence-building measures aimed at ending the war, including on the future of Ukrainian children taken into Russia.

Long journey to peace

Discussions between the United States and Russia were set for Monday, with Russian state media reporting Moscow’s delegation had arrived in Riyadh on Sunday.

But the Kremlin on Sunday downplayed expectations of a rapid resolution, saying talks were just beginning and warning of “difficult negotiations” and a long journey to peace.

“We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV.

He said there were many outstanding questions over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented.

Despite both sides proposing different plans for temporary ceasefires, attacks have continued unabated. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three civilians overnight, while Ukrainian drones killed two in Russia, officials said Sunday.

Originally scheduled to take place simultaneously to enable shuttle diplomacy — with the US going back and forth between the delegations — the talks on a partial truce are now taking place one after the other.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian call for a full and immediate 30-day pause, proposing instead a halt in attacks only on energy facilities.

“There are difficult negotiations ahead,” Peskov said in the interview, published on social media.

Peskov said the “main” focus in its talks with the United States would be a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian farm exports via the Black Sea.

“On Monday, we mainly intend to discuss President Putin’s agreement to resume the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem,” Peskov said.

Moscow pulled out of the deal — brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations — in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of farm produce and fertilizers.

Peskov said on Sunday that the “potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide variety of spheres between our countries cannot be overstated.”

“We may disagree on some things but that does not mean we should deprive ourselves of mutual benefit,” he added.

Zelensky urges allies to put pressure on Russia

On the eve of the negotiations, both sides launched fresh drone attacks on the eve of the negotiations.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack killed three civilians in Kyiv, including a five-year-old girl and her father.

Deadly strikes on the well-protected city are rarer than elsewhere in the country.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 147 drones at the country in the latest barrage.

Russia said it had repelled nearly 60 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Officials said one man was killed in the southern Rostov region of Russia when his car was set alight by falling drone debris, and a woman was killed in the Belgorod border region, also by a drone attack.

Ukraine’s army, meanwhile, said it had captured a small village in its eastern Lugansk region, a rare battlefield success for Kyiv’s struggling forces.

In an evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “Russia is the only one who is dragging this war out.”

“No matter what we talk about with our partners, we need to push Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes: the one who brought this war must take it away,” he said.

Zelensky urged his country’s allies to put fresh pressure on Russia.

“New decisions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to bring an end to these strikes and this war,” he posted on social media on Sunday.


Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi

Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi
Updated 11 sec ago
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Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi

Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi
  • Around 70 people were killed in violence last week in worst India-Pakistan fighting in decades
  • Around 4,000 veterans have been “identified” as non-combatant volunteers, says Indian government

Srinagar, India: Military veterans will be redeployed as security guards in Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi said on Saturday, a week after it reached a ceasefire with Pakistan to end their most serious conflict in decades.

Around 70 people were killed in the violence, which was sparked by an attack on tourists by gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — a charge it denies.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir approved a “proposal for mobilizing Ex-Servicemen (ESM) to safeguard vital infrastructure across the Union Territory,” according to a government press release.

Around 4,000 veterans have been “identified” as non-combatant volunteers, out of which 435 have licensed personal weapons, it said.

This will help by “significantly enhancing the capacity to respond effectively to localized security situations,” the government added.

Veterans will work in “static guard” roles, focusing on “presence-based deterrence and local coordination.”

India already has an estimated half a million soldiers permanently deployed in the contested region that has been at the heart of several wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who administer separate portions of the divided territory.

Rebels in India’s Jammu and Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Fighting had decreased since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the territory’s partial autonomy and imposed direct control from New Delhi.

But last year, thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across the territory’s mountainous south following a series of deadly rebel attacks that had left more than 50 soldiers dead in three years.

A similar veteran volunteer program took place with 2,500 veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the government.


Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not

Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not
Updated 11 min 24 sec ago
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Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not

Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not
  • As enshrined in the US Constitution, citizenship is granted to anyone born in the US, regardless of the parents’ immigration status
  • Most countries with unconditional birthright citizenship are concentrated in the Americas. The rest are in Africa and Asia

As the Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments Thursday on whether to allow President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship to take effect, he falsely claimed on Truth Social that the United States is the only country that offers such a right.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term, that would deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are living in the US illegally or temporarily. It has been put on nationwide holds by lower court orders.
The administration is now appealing, on an emergency basis, the authority of individual judges to issue these rulings, known as nationwide, or universal, injunctions. The constitutionality of the executive order itself is not yet before the court.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
Trump, discussing birthright citizenship in a Truth Social post: “The United States of America is the only Country in the World that does this, for what reason, nobody knows.”
The facts: This is not true. About 30 countries, including the US, offer unconditional birthright citizenship, according to the CIA World Factbook and the Library of Congress. Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution after the Civil War to ensure that formerly enslaved people would be citizens.

“The statement is pretty obviously wrong,” said Ilya Somin, a professor of law at George Mason University who is an expert on constitutional law and migration rights. “Many countries have birthright citizenship, though in some of them the rules are different from those in the US.”
Birthright citizenship is a principle known as jus soli or “right of the soil.” It bases citizenship on a person being born within a country’s territory. In contrast, the principle of jus sanguinis or “right of blood” determines citizenship based on the citizenship of one’s parents or other ancestors.
Citizenship is granted to anyone born in the US, regardless of the parents’ immigration status. Only children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government, and of enemies present in the US during hostile occupation do not qualify. Those born to parents of sovereign Native American tribes were also excluded until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Most countries with unconditional birthright citizenship, among them Canada and Mexico, are concentrated in the Americas. The rest are in Africa and Asia. Some countries offer citizenship to those born in their territory to noncitizen parents only under certain conditions, such as the legal status of their parents or the age of the person applying for citizenship based on place of birth.

These are: Antigua & Barbados, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, The Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The first sentence of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, often referred to as the Citizenship Clause, guarantees birthright citizenship. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
This clause effectively overturned the notorious Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the Supreme Court held that Black people, no matter whether or not they were enslaved, were not citizens. It was ratified, along with the rest of the 14th Amendment, in 1868 after it was passed by the Senate in 1866. The Civil War ended in 1865.
Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship conflicts with a Supreme Court decision from 1898 that held that the Citizenship Clause made citizens of all children born on US soil with narrow exceptions that are not at issue in the case currently before the court.
The justices are also considering appeals from the Trump administration on several other issues, many related to immigration.


Poland votes in tight election as Europe watches

Poland votes in tight election as Europe watches
Updated 53 min 42 sec ago
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Poland votes in tight election as Europe watches

Poland votes in tight election as Europe watches
  • Warsaw's pro-EU mayor Rafal Trzaskowski face off with nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki
  • Winner to succeed Andrzej Duda., who can't run again after serving two consecutive 5-year terms

WARSAW: Poles vote on Sunday in a tight presidential election that will be decisive for the future of the country’s centrist government as well as for abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Pro-EU Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski is expected to get 30 percent, ahead of nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki’s 25 percent, according to opinion polls.
That would put both through to the runoff on June 1 at a particularly fraught moment for Europe as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, far-right populists continue to rise and ties with Washington come under strain.
Polls open at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and close at 9:00 p.m. when exit polls are to be released. There are 13 candidates in total and definitive results are expected only on Monday.
Ever since former EU leader Donald Tusk’s coalition came to power in 2023, key government initiatives have been blocked by the veto of nationalist President Andrzej Duda.
Some Poles are hoping that logjam is about to end.
“I hope that these elections will complete the change,” said Hubert Michalowski, a self-employed 50-year-old.
Michalowski told AFP he was opposed to any rightward turn for Poland and instead wanted his country to “stay in the center and reverse this trend in Europe as well.”

The electoral campaign in the European Union and NATO member has largely revolved around foreign policy, showcasing a clash of philosophies over Poland’s engagement with the EU and the United States.
But social issues have also played a major part.
Trzaskowski, 53, has promised to support abortion and LGBTQ rights — a prospect that has raised the hopes of Malgorzata Mikoszewska, 41, a tourism agency employee.
“Above all, I hope for the liberalization of the law on abortion and sexual minorities,” she said.
The Law and Justice party (PiS), which backs Nawrocki, was frequently at odds with Poland’s Western allies and EU institutions in Brussels over rule-of-law concerns. It lost power in 2023.

Karol Nawrocki, a candidate for Polish presidential election supported by Poland's main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), gestures during his rally on the final day of the campaign in Lublin, Poland, May 16, 2025. (Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS)

Nawrocki, 42, admires Donald Trump and said the US president told him “You will win” when they met at the White House earlier this month.
The key to the election could be whether supporters of Slawomir Mentzen, a far-right candidate polling in third position with around 12 percent, cast their ballots for Nawrocki in the second round.
Mentzen is a Euroskeptic libertarian staunchly against abortion and migrants. He has accused the country’s one million Ukrainian refugees of taking advantage of Poland.
Echoing some of Mentzen’s rhetoric, self-employed 25-year-old Radoslaw Wiecek said he did not want Poland to be “totally subject to the EU.”
Wiecek said he wanted “a fresh wind” to end the dominance of the two main political groups — Law and Justice and the Civic Coalition (KO) which backs Trzaskowski.
For Anna Urbanska, a 74-year-old pensioner, the key electoral issue is immigration.
“I don’t want these immigrants to be allowed in here, in Poland. I want us to be able to live more peacefully,” she said.The governing coalition is hopeful a victory by Trzaskowski would enable it to fulfil its hitherto undelivered campaign pledges.
Tusk’s administration has been stymied from easing Poland’s stringent abortion laws and introducing other changes by the head of state’s veto power, to the disappointment of some voters.
Poland’s president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, steers foreign policy and can introduce and veto legislation.
“With Nawrocki as president, the government would be paralyzed, and that could eventually lead to the fall of the ruling coalition,” said political scientist Anna Materska-Sosnowska.
His victory could mean “the return of the populists with renewed force” at the next general election, she told AFP.
The stakes are high for Europe.
Under Tusk, Poland has grown more important on the continent, reinforcing its position as a key voice on NATO’s eastern flank against Russian aggression.
Materska-Sosnowska said the ballot was fundamental for “attempts to stop the anti-democratic, populist trend running through Europe.”
 


Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine talks, Rubio says, after pope renews an offer to help

Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine talks, Rubio says, after pope renews an offer to help
Updated 18 May 2025
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Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine talks, Rubio says, after pope renews an offer to help

Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine talks, Rubio says, after pope renews an offer to help
  • In a speech to eastern rite Catholics on May 8, Pope Leo XIV begged Russia and Ukraine to meet and negotiate
  • The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality and had long offered its services, and venues, to try to help facilitate talks

ROME: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks, taking up the Holy See’s longstanding offer after Pope Leo XIV vowed to personally make “every effort” to help end the war.
Speaking to reporters in Rome before meeting with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Vatican point man on Ukraine, Rubio said that he would be discussing potential ways the Vatican could help, “the status of the talks, the updates after yesterday (Friday) and the path forward.”
Asked if the Vatican could be a peace broker, Rubio replied: “I wouldn’t call it broker, but it’s certainly — I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going.”
“So we’ll talk about all of that and obviously always grateful to the Vatican for their willingness to play this constructive and positive role,” said Rubio, who also met Saturday with the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister.
The Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality and had long offered its services, and venues, to try to help facilitate talks, but found itself sidelined during the all-out war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Pope Francis, who occasionally angered both Kyiv and Moscow with his off-the-cuff comments, had entrusted Zuppi with a mandate to try to find paths of peace. But the mandate seemed to narrow to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia, and the Holy See also was able to mediate some prisoner exchanges.
During their meeting at the US Embassy in Rome, Rubio thanked Zuppi for the Vatican’s humanitarian role, citing in particular prisoner swaps and the return of Ukrainian children. Rubio “emphasized the importance of continued collaboration under the new leadership of Pope Leo XIV,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Leo, who was elected history’s first American pope on May 8, took up Francis’ call for peace in Ukraine in his first Sunday noon blessing as pope. He appealed for all sides to do whatever possible to reach “an authentic, just and lasting peace.”
Leo, who as a bishop in Peru had called Russia’s war an “imperialist invasion,” vowed this week personally to “make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”
In a speech to eastern rite Catholics, including the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, Leo begged warring sides to meet and negotiate.
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” he said.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, repeated the Vatican’s offer to serve as a venue for direct talks, saying the failure of negotiations in Istanbul to reach a ceasefire this week was “tragic.”
“We had hoped it could start a process, slow but positive, toward a peaceful solution to the conflict,” Parolin said on the sidelines of a conference. “But instead we’re back to the beginning.”
Asked concretely what such an offer would entail, Parolin said that the Vatican could serve as a venue for a direct meeting between the two sides.
“One would aim to arrive at this, that at least they talk. We’ll see what happens. It’s an offer of a place,” he said.
“We have always said, repeated to the two sides that we are available to you, with all the discretion needed,” Parolin said.
The Vatican scored what was perhaps its greatest diplomatic achievement of the Francis pontificate when it facilitated the talks between the United States and Cuba in 2014 that resulted in the resumption of diplomatic relations.
The Holy See has also often hosted far less secret diplomatic initiatives, such as when it brought together the rival leaders of South Sudan in 2019. The encounter was made famous by the image of Francis bending down to kiss their feet to beg them to make peace.
Perhaps the Holy See’s most critical diplomatic initiative came during the peak of the Cuban missile crisis when, in the fall of 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered a secret deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba that were soon detected by US spy planes.
As the Kennedy administration considered its response, with the threat of nuclear war looming, Pope John XXIII pleaded for peace in a public radio address, in a speech to Vatican ambassadors and also wrote privately to Kennedy and Khruschev, appealing to their love of their people to stand down.
Many historians have credited John XXIII’s appeals with helping both sides step back from the brink of nuclear war.
 


Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes

 Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes
Updated 18 May 2025
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Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes

 Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes
  • "I’ll be watching," Trump warned, adding that Walmart "made billions of dollars last year, far more than expected"
  • Walmart warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children’s car seats could increase in price

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday ripped into Walmart, saying on social media that the retail giant should eat the additional costs created by his tariffs.
As Trump has jacked up import taxes, he has tried to assure a skeptical public that foreign producers would pay for those taxes and that retailers and automakers would absorb the additional expenses. Most economic analyzes are deeply skeptical of those claims and have warned that the trade penalties would worsen inflation. Walmart warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children’s car seats could increase in price.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, lashed out at the retailer, which employs 1.6 million people in the United States. He said the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, should sacrifice its profits for the sake of his economic agenda that he says will eventually lead to more domestic jobs in manufacturing.
“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump posted. “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”

The posting by the Republican president reflected the increasingly awkward series of choices that many major American companies face as a result of his tariffs, from deteriorating sales to the possibility of incurring Trump’s wrath. Trump has similarly warned domestic automakers to not raise their prices, even though outside analyzes say his tariffs would raise production costs.
So far, those tariffs have darkened the mood of an otherwise resilient US economy. The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment on Friday slipped to its second lowest measure on record, with roughly 75 percent of respondents “spontaneously” mentioning tariffs as they largely expected inflation to accelerate.
In April, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was among the retail executives who met with Trump at the White House to discuss tariffs. But the Trump administration went forward despite warnings and has attacked other companies such as Amazon and Apple that are struggling with the disruptions to their supply chains.
Walmart chief financial officer John David Rainey said he thinks $350 car seats made in China will soon cost an additional $100, a 29 percent price increase.
“We’re wired to keep prices low, but there’s a limit to what we can bear, or any retailer for that matter,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday after the company reported strong first-quarter sales.
The administration recently ratcheted down its 145 percent tariffs on China to 30 percent for a 90-day period. Trump has placed tariffs as high as 25 percent on Mexico and Canada due to illegal immigration and drug trafficking, harming the relationship with America’s two largest trading partners.
There is a universal baseline tariff of 10 percent on most countries as Trump promises to reach trade deals in the coming weeks after having shocked the financial markets in early April by charging higher import taxes based on trade deficits with other countries. Trump insists he intends to preserve the tariffs as a revenue source and that a framework agreement with the United Kingdom would largely keep the 10 percent tariff rate in place.
Trump has also placed import taxes on autos, steel and aluminum and plans to do so on pharmaceutical drugs, among other products.
The tariffs and Trump’s own reversals on how much he should charge have generated uncertainty across the US economy, such that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has held the central bank’s benchmark rates steady until there is more clarity. Powell has warned that tariffs can both hurt growth and raise prices.
On Saturday, Trump repeated his calls for Powell to cut the benchmark rates. That could cause inflation to accelerate, but the president has maintained that inflationary pressures have largely disappeared from the economy.
“Too Late Powell, a man legendary for being Too Late, will probably blow it again — But who knows???” Trump posted on Truth Social.