US says it brokered deal to end fighting in the Black Sea in talks with Ukraine and Russia

Above, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where talks were held with US mediation to try to reach a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. (AFP)
Above, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where talks were held with US mediation to try to reach a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. (AFP)
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Updated 26 March 2025
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US says it brokered deal to end fighting in the Black Sea in talks with Ukraine and Russia

Above, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where talks were held with US mediation to try to reach a ceasefire.
  • The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet toward a wider ceasefire
  • Americans held separate talks in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine this week to discuss more limited ceasefires on energy and at sea

KYIV, Ukraine: The US said Tuesday that it had reached a tentative agreement for Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting and ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea in separate talks with both sides, but many details were unresolved, and the Kremlin made the deal conditional on lifting some Western sanctions.
The announcement was made as the US wrapped up three days of talks with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on prospective steps toward a limited ceasefire.
While a comprehensive peace deal still looked distant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the talks as the early “right steps” toward a peaceful settlement of the 3-year-old war.
“These are the first steps — not the very first but initial ones — with this presidential administration toward completely ending the war and the possibility of a full ceasefire, as well as steps toward a sustainable and fair peace agreement,” he said at a news conference.
US experts met separately with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, and the White House said in separate statements after the talks that the sides “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”
Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the UN and Turkiye but halted by Russia the next year.
“We are making a lot of progress,” US President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the White House. “So that’s all I can report.”
When Moscow withdrew from the shipping deal in 2023, it complained that a parallel agreement promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer had not been honored. It said restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade. Kyiv accused Moscow of violating the deal by delaying the vessels’ inspections.
After Russia suspended its part of the deal, it regularly attacked Ukraine’s southern ports and grain storage sites.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in televised comments Tuesday that Moscow is now open to the revival of the Black Sea shipping deal but warned that Russian interests must be protected.
In an apparent reference to Moscow’s demands, the White House said the US “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation, hailed the results of the talks as a “major shift toward peace, enhanced global food security and essential grain supplies for over 100 million additional people.”
Trump “is making another global breakthrough by effective dialogue and problem-solving,” he said on X.
But the Kremlin warned in a statement that the Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organizations involved in food and fertilizer trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments is ensured.
The agreement is also conditional on lifting sanctions against Russian food and fertilizer exporters and ships carrying Russian food exports, and removing restrictions on exports of agricultural equipment to Russia, the Kremlin said.
The deal emphasized that inspections of commercial ships would be necessary to ensure they aren’t used for military purposes.
Zelensky bristled at Russia’s demand for lifting sanctions, saying that doing so “would weaken our position.”
Still, Trump indicated that the US was considering the Kremlin’s conditions: “We’re thinking about all of them right now.”
In an interview Tuesday with Newsmax, Trump considered the possibility that Putin could be stalling on ending the war.
“I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet,” said Trump, comparing the negotiation to his own experience in real estate. “I’ve done it over the years. I don’t want to sign a contract. I want to sort of stay in the game, but maybe I don’t want to do it.”
A senior official in the Ukrainian government, who is directly familiar with the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the Kyiv delegation does not agree to lifting sanctions as a condition for a maritime ceasefire and that Russia has done nothing to have sanctions rolled back. The official also said European countries are not involved in the sanctions discussions, despite sanctions being within the European Union’s responsibility.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov warned that Kyiv would see the deployment of Russian warships in the western Black Sea as a “violation of the commitment to ensure safe navigation” there and “a threat to the national security of Ukraine.”
“In this case, Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defense,” he said.

Halting strikes on energy infrastructure
The White House also said the parties agreed to develop measures for implementing an agreement reached in Trump’s calls with Zelensky and Putin to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine.
The talks in Riyadh, which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian contacts, were part of an attempt to work out details on a partial pause in the fighting in Ukraine, which began with Moscow’s invasion in 2022. It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire, which both sides agreed to in principle last week, even while continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.
After the Trump-Putin call last week, the White House said the partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure,” while the Kremlin emphasized that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Tuesday’s White House statement reverted to the wording used by Russia.
The Kremlin, which has accused Ukraine of breaching the agreement to stop strikes on energy infrastructure, on Tuesday published a list of energy facilities subject to a 30-day halt on strikes that began on March 18. It warned that each party was free to opt out of the deal in case of violations by the other side.
Zelensky noted that significant uncertainties remain.
“I think there will be a million questions and details,” he said, adding that the responsibility for potential violations also remains unclear.
He emphasized that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, reaffirming that Kyiv is “ready to quickly move toward an unconditional ceasefire.”
Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
The US noted its commitment to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.
In other developments, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned in a statement that Moscow would not agree to surrender control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, that Russia captured in the opening days of the invasion.
Trump suggested that Zelensky consider transferring ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to the US for long-term security, while the Ukrainian leader said they specifically talked about the Zaporizhzhia plant in last week’s call.
Cross-border strikes continue
The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had “continued deliberate drone strikes against Russia’s civilian energy facilities.”
One Ukrainian drone attack on Monday knocked down a high-voltage power line linking the Rostov nuclear power plant with the city of Tikhoretsk in the southern Krasnodar region, the ministry said, adding that another drone strike had occurred on the Svatovo gas distribution station in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
Russian state media said six people, including three Russian journalists, died Monday after a Ukrainian missile strike in the Luhansk region.
In Ukraine, the number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike in the city of Sumy rose to 101, including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.
The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region that has been partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a missile and 139 long-range drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine and injured multiple people.


Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants

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Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants

Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants
Border shelters were rattled by a letter from FEMA that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity
FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the US

TEXAS, USA: The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the US-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.

Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation.

FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.

“It was pretty scary. I’m not going to lie,” said Rebecca Solloa, executive director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Laredo.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the March 11 letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that FEMA appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.

After receiving the letter, Catholic Charities received eight to 10 people a day from ICE until financial losses forced it to close its shelter in the Texas border city on April 25, Solloa said.

The Holding Institute Community, also in Laredo, has been taking about 20 families a week from ICE’s family detention centers in Dilley and Karnes City, Texas, Executive Director Michael Smith said. They come from Russia, Turkiye, Iran, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and China.

Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, has been receiving five to 10 people day from ICE, including from Honduras and Venezuela, said Ruben Garcia, its executive director.

International Rescue Committee didn’t get a letter but continues receiving people from ICE in Phoenix, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been made public. The releases include people who had been held at ICE’s Krome Detention Center in Miami, the site of severe overcrowding.

Working around conflicting issues

ICE’s requests struck Solloa as a “little bit of a contradiction,” but Catholic Charities agreed. She said some guests had been in ICE detention centers two to four weeks after getting arrested in the nation’s interior and ordered released by an immigration judge while their challenges to deportations wound through the courts. Others had been flown from San Diego after crossing the border illegally.

Those released were from India, China, Pakistan, Türkiye, and Central and South America, Solloa said.

Smith, a Methodist pastor, said that the FEMA letter was alarming and that agreeing to continue caring for people released by ICE was “probably not a good idea.” Still, it was an easy choice.

“There’s some things that are just right to do,” he said.

Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, drew a distinction with large-scale releases under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. The Biden administration worked closely with shelters but, during its busiest times, released migrants at bus stops or other public locations.

“Under the Biden administration, when ICE has aliens in its custody who are ordered released, ICE does not simply release them onto the streets of a community — ICE works to verify a sponsor for the illegal alien, typically family members or friends but occasionally a non-governmental-organization,” McLaughlin said.

The government has struggled to quickly deport people from some countries because of diplomatic, financial and logistic challenges. Those hurdles have prompted ICE to deport people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and — this week — South Sudan. If those options aren’t available, ICE may be forced to release people in the United States.

People can challenge deportations in immigration court, though their options are much more limited when stopped at the border. If a judge orders their release, ICE is generally left with no choice but to release them.

Families pose another challenge. ICE is generally prohibited from holding families with children under 18 for more than 20 days under a long-standing court agreement that the Trump administration said Thursday it would try to end.

The Trump administration has boasted that it virtually ended the practice of releasing people who cross the border illegally with notices to appear in immigration court. The Border Patrol released only seven people from February through April, down from 130,368 the same period a year earlier under President Joe Biden. But those figures do not include ICE, whose data is not publicly available

Close ties between shelters and federal authorities

FEMA awarded $641 million to dozens of state and local governments and organizations across the country in the 2024 fiscal year to help them deal with large numbers of migrants who crossed the border from Mexico.

FEMA has suspended payments during its review, which required shelters to provide “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided.” Executive officers must sign sworn statements that they have no knowledge or suspicions of anyone in their organizations violating the smuggling law.

The releases show how border shelters have often maintained close, if cordial, relations with federal immigration authorities at the ground level, even when senior officials publicly criticize them.

“We have a good working relationship with our federal partners. We always have,” Solloa said. “They asked us to help, then we will continue to help, but at some point we have to say, ‘Yikes I don’t have any more money for this. Our agency is hurting and I’m sorry, we can’t do this anymore.’”

Catholic Charities hosted at least 120,000 people at its Laredo shelter since opening in 2021 and housed 600 to 700 people on its busiest nights in 2023, Solloa said. It was counting on up to $7 million from FEMA. The shelter closed with loss of nearly $1 million, after not receiving any FEMA money.

Holding Institute, part of United Women in Faith, has cut paid staff and volunteers to seven from 45 amid the absence of federal funding, Smith said. To save money, it delivers most meals without protein. Language differences have been challenging.

The International Rescue Committee said in a statement that it intends to continue providing support services to released people in Phoenix.

“As the scale and scope of these needs evolve, the IRC remains committed to ensuring individuals have access to essential humanitarian services, including food, water, hygiene supplies and information,” it said.

Bangladesh interim govt calls for unity to stop ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh interim govt calls for unity to stop ‘return of authoritarianism’
Updated 49 min 29 sec ago
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Bangladesh interim govt calls for unity to stop ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh interim govt calls for unity to stop ‘return of authoritarianism’
  • “Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability,” said the interim government

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to “prevent the return of authoritarianism.”

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement after a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August 2024.


Germany mass stabbing suspect has ‘psychological illness’: police

Germany mass stabbing suspect has ‘psychological illness’: police
Updated 24 May 2025
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Germany mass stabbing suspect has ‘psychological illness’: police

Germany mass stabbing suspect has ‘psychological illness’: police
  • The woman has “very clear indications of a psychological illness,” police said
  • She was subdued by two passersby and law enforcement officers

BERLIN: A German woman accused of a mass stabbing attack that wounded 18 people at a train station in Hamburg suffers from mental illness, police said Saturday.

The suspect, a 39-year-old woman, is accused of going on a stabbing spree on Friday at the main station in Hamburg, stunning the northern city in the middle of the evening rush hour.

The woman has “very clear indications of a psychological illness,” police said in a statement, without giving further details on her condition.

They added there were no signs she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the attack, which left four victims seriously wounded.

The woman was subdued by two passersby and law enforcement officers, then taken into custody at the scene without resisting arrest, police said.

She was due to appear before a judge later Saturday.

Police say they have ruled out a “political motive” for the attack and believe the suspect acted alone.

The victims range in age from 19 to 85.

The four in serious condition were a 24-year-old man and three women, aged 24, 52 and 85, police said.

Emergency officials initially said their wounds were life-threatening, but police say all the victims now appear to be out of immediate danger.

The attack took place just after 6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) Friday on one of the platforms in front of a standing train, German media reported.

The suspect was thought to have turned “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told AFP.

Some of the victims were treated onboard waiting trains in the station, German daily Bild reported.

Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.

Forensic police could also be seen walking up and down the platforms where the attack took place.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his shock in a call with the mayor of Hamburg.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Merz said, according to a readout from a spokesman.

Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks with often jihadist or far-right extremist motivations that have put security at the top of the agenda.

The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld.

The investigation into that attack has been handed over to federal prosecutors after the Syrian suspect told the police officers who arrested him that he had jihadist beliefs.

The question of security — and the immigrant origin of some of the attackers — was a major topic during Germany’s recent election campaign.

Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU topped the February vote, which also saw a record score of more than 20 percent for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Last year, Germany toughened its legislation on carrying knives, now banned at public gatherings and on long-distance trains.

They are also banned in specific zones in some cities, including at Hamburg’s train station.
But experts and police unions have previously questioned whether such bans are effective.


Power outage disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival, police investigate possible arson

Power outage disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival, police investigate possible arson
Updated 24 May 2025
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Power outage disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival, police investigate possible arson

Power outage disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival, police investigate possible arson
  • Police have opened an investigation into possible arson
  • Cannes Film Festival organizers confirmed the outage affected the early activities of Saturday

CANNES: A major power outage struck southeastern France on Saturday morning, disrupting traffic and briefly halting events at the Cannes Film Festival as the prestigious event prepared to hand out its top prize.

Power was restored around 3 p.m., as music began blasting again from beachfront speakers. The end of the blackout was greeted with loud cheers from locals.

Earlier, about 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department lost electricity after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, electricity network operator RTE said on X. The outage came hours after a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes overnight had already weakened the grid.

Police have opened an investigation into possible arson.

“We are looking into the likelihood of a fire being started deliberately,” said a spokesperson for the French national gendarmerie.

Cannes Film Festival organizers confirmed the outage affected the early activities of Saturday and said the Palais des Festivals — the Croisette’s main venue — had switched to an independent power supply.

“All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions,” the statement said. “At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway.”

Traffic lights in parts of Cannes and the surrounding city of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m., leading to traffic jams and confusion in city centers. Most shops along the Croisette remained closed, and local food kiosks were only accepting cash. Train service in Cannes was also disrupted.

Screenings at the Cineum, one of the festival’s satellite venues, were briefly suspended, the festival added.


Former Minneapolis police chief recalls ‘absolutely gut-wrenching’ moment of seeing George Floyd video

Former Minneapolis police chief recalls ‘absolutely gut-wrenching’ moment of seeing George Floyd video
Updated 24 May 2025
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Former Minneapolis police chief recalls ‘absolutely gut-wrenching’ moment of seeing George Floyd video

Former Minneapolis police chief recalls ‘absolutely gut-wrenching’ moment of seeing George Floyd video
  • What he saw conflicted with what his own people had told him about the deadly encounter
  • The video shows Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, pinning him to the pavement

MINNEAPOLIS: Former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo vividly remembers receiving a call around midnight from a community activist. The caller told him to watch a video spreading on social media of a white officer pinning a Black man to the ground, despite his fading pleas of “I can’t breathe.”
The dying man was George Floyd. The officer was Derek Chauvin. And Arradondo was the city’s first Black police chief.
“It was absolutely gut-wrenching,” Arradondo, 58, recalled in an interview ahead of the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s murder.
What he saw conflicted with what his own people had told him about the deadly encounter, and he knew immediately it would mean changes for his department and city. But he acknowledged he didn’t immediately foresee how deeply Floyd’s death would reverberate in the US and around the world.
“I served for 32 years,” he said. “But there’s no doubt May 25th, 2020, is a defining moment for me in my public service career.”
The video shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, pinning him to the pavement outside a convenience store where Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Chauvin maintained the pressure for 9-1/2 minutes despite pleas from onlookers to stop, even after an off-duty firefighter tried to intervene and another officer said he couldn’t find a pulse.
‘Remnants of pain and anger’
Arradondo sat for the interview in a public library that was heavily damaged in the unrest that followed Floyd’s death. It’s on Lake Street, a major artery that saw some of the worst destruction, a street that he says still bears “remnants of the pain and anger of what occurred five years ago.”
Just down the block, there’s the empty shell of a police station that was torched during the riots. And within sight is a Target store and a Cub Foods supermarket that were looted. Storefronts remain boarded up. While some businesses were rebuilt, empty lots sit where others did not.
Arradondo still stands by his and Mayor Jacob Frey’s decision to abandon the Third Precinct and let it burn. Protesters breached the building, and police — who were spread thin — didn’t have the resources to hold it. So he ordered his officers to evacuate.
“During the most significant crisis we’ve ever experienced, arguably in the state, when it’s life or death, I’ve got to go on the side of keeping people alive and safe,” he said.
Police reform
Arradondo subsequently helped launch an overhaul of policing in the city despite a resistant police culture and a powerful officers union. He testified against Chauvin in his 2021 murder trial, a rare breach of the “blue wall” that traditionally protects officers from being held accountable for wrongdoing.
Five years on, Arradondo, who retired in 2022, said he believes law enforcement agencies nationwide have made progress on police accountability — albeit incremental progress — and that police chiefs and sheriffs now move faster to hold officers responsible for egregious misconduct.
Arradondo was promoted to chief in 2017, and his elevation was greeted with hope among local African Americans who affectionately called him “Rondo.” But his department had a reputation for being too quick to use force and many were angry about police killing young Black men in Minnesota and beyond.
Arradondo said he wishes he had made more changes to the police department before Floyd was killed.
“I would have pushed harder and sooner at trying to dismantle some of the toxic culture that allowed that indifference to exist that evening, on May 25th, 2020,” he said. “I certainly would have invested more time elevating the voices in our community that had been pleading with police departments for decades to listen to us and change.”
Making amends
Arradondo just published a book, “Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd,” that explores leadership, justice and race, the broader impacts of policing, and the challenges of working within a flawed system. He closes it with a letter dedicated to Floyd’s daughter, Gianna.
“I never had an opportunity to meet Gianna, but I wanted her to know that, even though I was not out there that evening, at that intersection when her father was pleading for help, that I heard him, and I was going to do everything I could to bring him justice,” he said.
He wanted to say the words that she has not heard from the four former officers who were convicted for their roles in George Floyd’s death:
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your father being taken from you.”