France, UK propose one-month Ukraine truce; European allies rally around Zelensky amid US row

France, UK propose one-month Ukraine truce; European allies rally around Zelensky amid US row
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and France's President Emmanuel Macron meet during the European leaders' summit to discuss Ukraine at Lancaster House, London, on March 2, 2025. (Pool via AP)
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Updated 03 March 2025
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France, UK propose one-month Ukraine truce; European allies rally around Zelensky amid US row

France, UK propose one-month Ukraine truce; European allies rally around Zelensky amid US row
  • Urges European countries to raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP
  • European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned the continent urgently had to rearm to “prepare for the worst”

PARIS: France and Britain are proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine “in the air, at sea” after crisis talks in London, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
In an interview with France’s Le Figaro newspaper, he also suggested that European countries should raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP to respond to Washington’s shifting priorities.
“For three years, the Russians have spent 10 percent of their GDP on defense,” he told the paper. “So we have to prepare for what’s next.”

Macron announced the proposal as he flew back to France from a summit in London on Sunday, during which European leaders closed ranks in support of Kyiv at a London summit, pledging to spend more on security and assemble a coalition to defend any truce in Ukraine.

Bringing together 18 allies, the talks came just two days after US President Donald Trump berated Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at a live White House news conference.
And UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain, France “and others” would work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, which they would then put to Washington.

 

The London meeting came at a delicate moment for war-battered Ukraine, which faces uncertain backing from Trump and is on the back foot against Russia’s three-year invasion.
And Trump’s row with Zelensky raised fresh questions over the US commitment to Ukraine and NATO.
Starmer said Europe found itself “at a crossroads in history.”
“This is not a moment for more talk — it’s time to act. It’s time to step up and lead and unite around a new plan for a just and enduring peace,” the premier said.
With no guarantee of US involvement, “Europe must do the heavy lifting,” Starmer said. Several countries were ready to help defend any truce, he added — without naming them.

Zelensky was warmly embraced by many of the summit’s attendees, including Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Outside the UK leader’s home, demonstrators gathered to show their support for Ukraine, some dressed in the country’s blue and yellow national colors.
His reception in London was in stark contrast to his reception at the White House two days earlier.
There, Trump accused Zelensky of not being grateful enough for US aid and not being “ready” for peace with Russia.
Their argument, played out in front of the world’s news cameras, raised fears that Trump wanted to force Kyiv into a peace deal giving Russian President Vladimir Putin what he wants.
Starmer insisted the United States was “not an unreliable ally.” Any deal “must have strong US backing” to succeed, he added.
But after the leaders gathered on Sunday, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned the continent urgently had to rearm to “prepare for the worst.”
And Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for the United States and Europe to show Putin “that the West has no intention of capitulating before his blackmail and aggression.”

 

Starmer and Macron have said they are prepared to deploy British and French troops to Ukraine to help preserve any truce.
But Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — whose hard-right coalition government includes Moscow-friendly politicians — appeared to play down the possibility of Italy contributing soldiers.
“I see this as a solution that risks being very complex and probably less decisive than others,” she said.
Rutte pointed to promises from more European countries to “ramp up defense spending,” while insisting that Washington remained committed to the transatlantic alliance.
In addition to attending the security summit, Zelensky also met King Charles III at his Sandringham estate.

Friday’s row in Washington marked a change from Zelensky’s previous treatment there, where he was hailed as a Churchillian figure by the previous US administration.
Trump and his Vice President JD Vance angrily accused Zelensky of not being “thankful” and refusing to accept their proposed truce terms.
On Sunday, top Washington Republicans doubled down on their criticism of the Ukrainian leader, suggesting he may have to step down, underscoring Trump’s stunning shift in approach to the war with Russia.
“We need a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war,” Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser told CNN.
Republican Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, said: “Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country.”
Trump has cast himself as a mediator between Putin and Zelensky, sidelining Kyiv and Europe while pursuing rapprochement with Putin.
Zelensky, though he did not apologize after the White House clash, indicated that he was still open to signing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral wealth — coveted by Trump.
The US president on Sunday shared a reposting on his Truth Social platform arguing that the mineral agreement itself would give Ukraine the security it was seeking and that “in the end, Zelensky will have no choice but to concede.”
Moscow meanwhile branded the Ukrainian leader’s Washington trip a “complete failure” and said that Trump’s changed stance “aligns” with its vision.
 

 


Militant attacks hit Mozambique as Total readies to resume gas project

Militant attacks hit Mozambique as Total readies to resume gas project
Updated 1 min 42 sec ago
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Militant attacks hit Mozambique as Total readies to resume gas project

Militant attacks hit Mozambique as Total readies to resume gas project
  • TotalEnergies paused its multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project in 2021
  • TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said that the security situation had ‘greatly improved’
MAPUTO: A series of attacks in northern Mozambique this month point to a resurgence of violence by Daesh-linked militants as energy giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume a major gas project, analysts say.
The group terrorized northern Mozambique for years before brazenly vowing in 2020 to turn the northern gas-rich Cabo Delgado province into a caliphate.
TotalEnergies paused a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project there in 2021 following a wave of bloody raids that forced more than a million people to flee.
The insurgency was pushed to the background by a months-long unrest that followed elections in October.
But there has been a new wave of violence. In May, the Islamists attacked two military installations, claiming to kill 11 soldiers in the first and 10 in the second.
A security expert confirmed the first attack and put the toll at 17. There was no comment from the Mozambican security forces.
There were two dramatic strikes earlier – a raid on a wildlife reserve in the neighboring Niassa province late April killed at least two rangers, while an ambush in Cabo Delgado claimed the lives of three Rwandan soldiers.
Also unusual was a thwarted attack on a Russian oceanographic vessel in early May that the crew said in a distress message was launched by “pirates,” according to local media.
“Clearly there is a cause and effect because some actions correspond exactly to important announcements in the gas area,” said Fernando Lima, a researcher with the Cabo Ligado conflict observatory which monitors violence in Mozambique, referring to the $4.7 billion funding approved in mid-March by the US Export-Import Bank for the long-delayed gas project.
“The insurgents are seeing more vehicles passing by with white project managers,” said Jean-Marc Balencie of the French-based political and security risk group Attika Analysis.
“There’s more visible activity in the region and that’s an incentive for attacks.”
Conflict tracker ACLED recorded at least 80 attacks in the first four months of the year.
The uptick was partly due to the end of the rainy season which meant roads were once again passable, it said.
TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said last Friday that the security situation had “greatly improved” although there were “sporadic incidents.”
The attack that stalled the TotalEnergies project in 2021 occurred in the port town of Palma and lasted several days, sending thousands fleeing into the forest.
ACLED estimated that more than 800 civilians and combatants were killed while independent journalist Alex Perry reported after an investigation that more than 1,400 were dead or missing.
Rwandan forces deployed alongside the Mozambique military soon afterwards, their number increasing to around 5,000, based on Rwandan military statements.
The concentration of forces in Cabo Delgado “allows insurgents to easily conduct operations in Niassa province,” said a Mozambican military officer on condition of anonymity.
The raid on the tourist wildlife lodge straddling Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces was for “propaganda effect,” said Lima, as it grabbed more international media attention than hits on local villages that claim the lives of locals.
Strikes on civilians, with several cases of decapitation reported, often fall under the radar because of the remoteness of the impoverished region and official silence.
“More than 25,000 people have been displaced in Mozambique within a few weeks,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week.
This was in addition to the 1.3 million the UN said in November had been displaced since the conflict began in 2017.
“The renewed intensity of the conflict affects regions previously considered rather stable,” said UNHCR’s Mozambique representative Xavier Creach.
In Niassa, for example, about 2,085 people fled on foot after an attack on Mbamba village late April where women reported witnessing beheadings.
More than 6,000 people have died in the conflict since it erupted, according to Acled.

East Timor deports ex-Philippine lawmaker wanted in 2023 killings

East Timor deports ex-Philippine lawmaker wanted in 2023 killings
Updated 28 sec ago
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East Timor deports ex-Philippine lawmaker wanted in 2023 killings

East Timor deports ex-Philippine lawmaker wanted in 2023 killings
  • Former Philippines congressman allegedly masterminded a March 2023 attack that killed then-provincial governor Roel Degamo and nine others
  • “The Government hereby informs that Arnolfo Teves Jr. will be deported from Timor-Leste”

MANILA: East Timor deported an Interpol-wanted Filipino murder suspect on Thursday whose case the government has linked to its aspirations to join the regional ASEAN bloc, after more than two years of political wrangling.

Former Philippines congressman Arnolfo Teves allegedly masterminded a March 2023 attack that killed then-provincial governor Roel Degamo and nine others.

AFP journalists saw him boarding a turboprop plane with Philippine Air Force markings that then took off from Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport.

Teves was detained at a driving range in the capital Dili last year, but a Timorese court blocked his extradition. The Philippines justice secretary suggested the decision may have been bought, saying it was “obvious that some people are making money out of this.”

In an abrupt turnaround, East Timor announced Teves’ impending deportation late on Wednesday, saying his continued presence represented a security risk.

“The Government hereby informs that Arnolfo Teves Jr. will be deported from Timor-Leste,” it said in a statement, using the country’s alternate name.

It added that East Timor’s “imminent full accession” to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had reinforced its responsibility to collaborate regionally on legal matters.

On Thursday, the Philippines’ Department of Justice said it was preparing a team to facilitate Teves’ repatriation based on deportation documents from East Timor.

Ex-lawmaker Teves is the prime suspect in the murder of Degamo, the former governor of Negros Oriental province.

Degamo had been distributing aid at his home in Pamplona when six people carrying rifles and dressed in military fatigues entered the compound and opened fire on March 4, 2023.

The killings came months after Degamo was declared winner of a disputed vote, unseating Henry Teves, the ex-lawmaker’s brother.

Arnolfo Teves was expelled from the House of Representatives after refusing to return to the Philippines to face murder charges.

On Wednesday, Teves’ son Axl posted videos on social media of his father being dragged away by Timorese police, claiming he had been “kidnapped.”

Degamo’s widow Janice, meanwhile, called the arrest a “significant step toward justice.”


Thai, Cambodian army chiefs to meet over border clash

Thai, Cambodian army chiefs to meet over border clash
Updated 29 May 2025
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Thai, Cambodian army chiefs to meet over border clash

Thai, Cambodian army chiefs to meet over border clash
  • A Cambodian soldier was killed on Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with the Thai army at the border
  • Cambodia and Thailand have long been at odds over their more than 800-kilometer-long border

BANGKOK: The military chiefs of Thailand and Cambodia will meet Thursday, both governments said, after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a border clash.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra told reporters on Thursday that “both sides should remain calm and discuss to see what we can agree,” and called for peaceful discussion.

Her Cambodian counterpart Hun Manet wrote on Facebook that he hoped the meeting between the two army commanders “will yield positive results.”

Thai Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told journalists the talks will be held on Thursday afternoon, adding that there had been a “misunderstanding by both sides.”

A Cambodian soldier was killed on Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with the Thai army at the border, a Cambodian army spokesman said.

His death – a rare fatality along the long-sensitive frontier – came after Cambodian and Thai leaders attended a Southeast Asian summit where the regional ASEAN grouping vowed greater cooperation.

Thailand’s military said Wednesday that its soldiers fired in response to gunshots from Cambodia’s border force, leading to an exchange lasting around 10 minutes before the Thai side said the Cambodians requested a ceasefire.

Cambodian Royal Army spokesman Mao Phalla confirmed the clash on Wednesday, but said Thai soldiers had attacked Cambodian troops who were on border patrol duty in northern Preah Vihear province.

“Our soldier died in the trenches. The Thais came to attack us,” Mao Phalla said.

Cambodia and Thailand have long been at odds over their more than 800-kilometer-long (500-mile) border, which was largely drawn during the French occupation of Indochina.

Bloody military clashes between the Southeast Asian neighbors erupted in 2008 over the Preah Vihear temple near their shared border.

The row over a patch of land next to the 900-year-old temple led to several years of sporadic violence, resulting in at least 28 deaths before the International Court of Justice ruled the disputed area belonged to Cambodia.

In February, Bangkok formally protested to Phnom Penh after a video of women singing a patriotic Khmer song in front of another disputed temple was posted on social media.

On Thursday, influential former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen – Hun Manet’s father, and an ally of Paetongtarn’s father, ex-Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra – urged calm and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing border issues between the two countries.

Paetongtarn traveled to Cambodia in April for a two-day visit, during which she met Hun Manet to discuss cross-border cooperation on issues such as online scams and air pollution.


Navy plane crashes in South Korea

Navy plane crashes in South Korea
Updated 29 May 2025
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Navy plane crashes in South Korea

Navy plane crashes in South Korea

SEOUL: A navy plane has crashed in the southern city of Pohang in South Korea, a local government official said on Thursday.
The crash happened at around 1:50 p.m. (0450 GMT), the official at the Pohang city government said.
Four people were on board the patrol plane which crashed in the mountains on the east coast, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing authorities.
Smoke was seen from the location where the plane appeared to have crashed, Yonhap said, citing a civilian witness.


Early voting starts for South Korea election triggered by martial law

Early voting starts for South Korea election triggered by martial law
Updated 29 May 2025
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Early voting starts for South Korea election triggered by martial law

Early voting starts for South Korea election triggered by martial law
  • South Koreans are desperate to draw a line under months of political turmoil
  • The Asian democracy has been led by a revolving door of lame duck acting presidents

SEOUL: Early voting in South Korea’s presidential elections began on Thursday, with both main candidates casting ballots in a poll triggered by ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated suspension of civilian rule last year.

South Koreans are desperate to draw a line under months of political turmoil sparked by Yoon’s declaration of martial law, for which he was impeached.

Since then the Asian democracy has been led by a revolving door of lame duck acting presidents as its export-driven economy grapples with trade turmoil abroad and sluggish demand at home.

All major polls have placed liberal Lee Jae-myung as the clear frontrunner in the presidential race, with a recent Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate.

Trailing behind him is conservative ex-labor minister Kim Moon-soo of the ruling People Power Party – Yoon’s former party – at 35 percent.

While election day is set for June 3, those who want to vote early can do so on Thursday and Friday.

South Koreans have in recent years turned out in growing numbers for early voting, with 37 percent casting their ballots ahead of polling day in the 2022 presidential election.

By midday the early voting turnout rate was 8.7 percent, the highest yet for that time in South Korean election history, according to Seoul’s National Election Commission.

The overseas voter turnout also reached a historic high, with four-fifths of 1.97 million eligible voters casting their ballots.

“Given that this election was held in the wake of an impeachment and a martial law crisis, it naturally reflects the public’s strong desire to express their thoughts about democracy in South Korea,” Kang Joo-hyun, a political science professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, said.

Voting in Seoul on Thursday morning, Lee told reporters: “There’s a saying that a vote is more powerful than a bullet.”

“Even an insurrection can only truly be overcome through the people’s participation at the ballot box,” added Lee of the Democratic Party.

According to a Gallup poll, more than half of his supporters said they planned to vote early, compared to just 16 percent of Kim’s supporters.

Kim has said he will cast his vote in Incheon, west of Seoul, with his campaign framing it as “the beginning of a dramatic turnaround,” a nod to General Douglas MacArthur’s landing there during the Korean War.

Kim’s decision to vote early has surprised many on the right, where conspiracy theories about electoral fraud – particularly during early voting – are rife.

The 73-year-old however reassured his supporters that there is “nothing to worry about.”

“If you hesitate to vote early and end up missing the main election, it would be a major loss,” said Kim on Wednesday.

“Our party will mobilize all its resources to ensure strict monitoring and oversight of early voting,” he said.

“So please don’t worry and take part in it,” he said.

After early voting, Kim insisted he still has time to win the race.

“We’re closing the gap quickly, and at this pace, I’m confident we’ll take the lead soon,” he told reporters.

Conservative candidate Kim shot to public attention in the aftermath of Yoon’s martial law debacle, when he declined to bow in apology to the public for failing to prevent the suspension of civilian rule.

In contrast, lawyer-turned-politician Lee played a central role in stopping the push to suspect civilian rule, live-streaming his frantic drive to parliament and his scramble over the perimeter fence as he and other lawmakers raced to vote down the decree.

He has since vowed to “bring insurrection elements to justice” if elected president.

But whoever succeeds Yoon will have to grapple with a deepening economic downturn, some of the world’s lowest birth rates and a soaring cost of living.

He will also have to navigate a mounting superpower standoff between the United States, Seoul’s traditional security guarantor, and China, its largest trade partner.