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.


France ‘strongly’ condemns Israel’s Gaza conquest plan

France ‘strongly’ condemns Israel’s Gaza conquest plan
Updated 46 sec ago
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France ‘strongly’ condemns Israel’s Gaza conquest plan

France ‘strongly’ condemns Israel’s Gaza conquest plan
  • France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s new military campaign in the Gaza Strip
PARIS: France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s new military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s unacceptable,” Jean-Noel Barrot said in a radio interview, saying the Israeli government was “in violation of humanitarian law,” after its security cabinet approved a plan that an Israeli official said will entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories.

Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections

Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections
Updated 50 min ago
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Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections

Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections
  • Zia has been pressuring Bangladesh’s interim government to hold national election in December this year
  • Her physical presence in country has huge symbolic value for her party as ex-PM Hasina remains in exile

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh’s ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia returned to the country from London on Tuesday morning after four months of medical treatment, adding to pressure for its interim leaders to hold elections.

The South Asian country has been under a government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a students-led mass uprising in August last year.

Zia, Hasina’s archrival, and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party have been pushing Yunus’ government to hold a national election in December to return the country to democratic rule.

Many welcomed Hasina’s overthrow as a chance to return to democratic elections, but suspicion and uncertainty have surfaced in recent months about the new government’s commitment to hold elections soon. It has said the next election will be held in either December or by June next year, depending on the extent of reforms in various sectors
Crowds gathered outside Dhaka’s main airport to welcome Zia.

Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, Zia arrived on a special air ambulance arranged by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who also arranged her transport to London in January. Zia suffers from various serious health conditions and she has not attended any public gatherings for many years. Her elder son, Tarique Rahman, leads the party as acting chief from exile in London.

Zia’s physical presence in the country has huge symbolic value for her party while Hasina is in exile in India.

Zia and Hasina have alternately ruled the country as prime ministers since 1991 when the country returned to a democracy after the ouster of authoritarian President H.M. Ershad.

Zia served the country as prime minister three times, twice for full five-year terms and once for just a few months.

Zia is the widow of former military chief-turned-president Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981. Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh’s independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971.


Trump official says Harvard banned from federal grants

Trump official says Harvard banned from federal grants
Updated 9 min 47 sec ago
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Trump official says Harvard banned from federal grants

Trump official says Harvard banned from federal grants
  • Harvard has drawn Trump’s ire by refusing to comply with his demands that it accept government oversight of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s education secretary said Monday that Harvard will no longer receive federal grants, escalating an ongoing battle with the prestigious university as it challenges the funding cuts in court.

The Trump administration has for weeks locked horns with Harvard and other higher education institutions over claims they tolerate anti-Semitism on their campuses — threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and enrollment of foreign students.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in a letter sent to Harvard’s president and posted online, said that the university “should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided.”

She alleged that Harvard has “failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor.”

Harvard — routinely ranked among the world’s top universities — has drawn Trump’s ire by refusing to comply with his demands that it accept government oversight of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant.

That prompted the Trump administration to in mid-April freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding, with a total of $9 billion under review.

McMahon, a former wrestling executive, said that her letter “marks the end of new grants for the University.”

Harvard is the wealthiest US university with an endowment valued at $53.2 billion in 2024.

The latest move comes as Trump and his White House crack down on US universities on several fronts, justified as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.

The administration has threatened funding freezes and other punishments, prompting concerns over declining academic freedom.

It has also moved to revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in the protests, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel provoked the war.

Trump’s claims about diversity tap into long-standing conservative complaints that US university campuses are too liberal, shutting out right-wing voices and favoring minorities.


Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow forces airports’ closure, officials say

Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow forces airports’ closure, officials say
Updated 06 May 2025
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Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow forces airports’ closure, officials say

Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow forces airports’ closure, officials say

Russian air defense units destroyed a swarm of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow for the second night in a row, prompting the closure of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said early on Tuesday.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow “from different directions.”
“At the sites where fragments fell, there was no destruction or casualties,” Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Specialists from the emergency services are working at the sites where the incidents occurred.”
Some of the debris had landed on one of the key highways leading into the city, he said.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Telegram it had halted flights at all four airports that serve Moscow. Airports in a number of regional cities were also closed.
On Tuesday, Russia’s air defense units destroyed four Ukrainian drones on their approach to Moscow, with no damage or injuries reported.
The war began more than three years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine, a move Moscow described as a special military operation. Since then, Kyiv has launched several drone attacks on Moscow. Its biggest attack in March killed three people.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv about the latest drone attack. Ukraine says its drone attacks are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow’s overall war efforts and are in response to Russia’s continued assault on Ukrainian territory, including residential areas and energy infrastructure.


OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company

OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company
Updated 06 May 2025
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OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company

OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company

SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Monday that the company behind ChatGPT will continue to be run as a nonprofit, abandoning a contested plan to convert into a for-profit organization.
The structural issue had become a significant point of contention for the artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer, with major investors pushing for the change to better secure their returns.
AI safety advocates had expressed concerns about pursuing substantial profits from such powerful technology without the oversight of a nonprofit board of directors acting in society’s interest rather than for shareholder profits.
“OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,” Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company’s website.
“We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,” he added.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and later created a “capped” for-profit entity allowing limited profit-making to attract investors, with cloud computing giant Microsoft becoming the largest early backer.
This arrangement nearly collapsed in 2023 when the board unexpectedly fired Altman. Staff revolted, leading to Altman’s reinstatement while those responsible for his dismissal departed.
Alarmed by the instability, investors demanded OpenAI transition to a more traditional for-profit structure within two years.
Under its initial reform plan revealed last year, OpenAI would have become an outright for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC), reassuring investors considering the tens of billions of dollars necessary to fulfill the company’s ambitions.
Any status change, however, requires approval from state governments in California and Delaware, where the company is headquartered and registered, respectively.
The plan faced strong criticism from AI safety activists and co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company he left in 2018, claiming the proposal violated its founding philosophy.
In the revised plan, OpenAI’s money-making arm will now be fully open to generate profits but, crucially, will remain under the nonprofit board’s supervision.
“We believe this sets us up to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone,” Altman said.
OpenAI’s major investors will likely have a say in this proposal, with Japanese investment giant SoftBank having made the change to being a for-profit a condition for their massive $30 billion investment announced on March 31.
In an official document, SoftBank stated its total investment could be reduced to $20 billion if OpenAI does not restructure into a for-profit entity by year-end.
The substantial cash injections are needed to cover OpenAI’s colossal computing requirements to build increasingly energy-intensive and complex AI models.
The company’s original vision did not contemplate “the needs for hundreds of billions of dollars of compute to train models and serve users,” Altman said.
SoftBank’s contribution in March represented the majority of the $40 billion raised in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, marking the largest capital-raising event ever for a startup.
The company, led by Altman, has become one of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups, propelled to prominence in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, its generative AI chatbot.