PHOENIX: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized Tuesday after a video was posted online showing part of a private phone call between the independent presidential candidate and Republican former President Donald Trump.
The video shows Kennedy listening on a speakerphone as Trump shares disproven claims about childhood vaccines, an issue that has helped Kennedy amass a loyal following among people who reject the scientific consensus that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risk of rare complications. Trump also appears to pitch Kennedy on endorsing his campaign.
“I would love you to do so,” Trump tells Kennedy. “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.”
Kennedy says little in the portion of the conversation that was leaked, which begins while Trump is already speaking about vaccines.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer,” Kennedy wrote on the X platform. “I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
The video was first posted by Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III, who said it was recorded Sunday, a day after Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania and a day before the start of the Republican National Convention. It was deleted a short time later but copies continue to circulate on social media.
A spokesperson for Kennedy, Stefanie Spear, said Monday he is not dropping out. His campaign has focused on the arduous task of getting on the ballot in all 50 states without the support of a political party, which requires considerable time and money.
Allies of both Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden worry about how Kennedy’s campaign will affect their own White House prospects. Third-party candidates rarely get more than a few percentage points of the vote, but Democrats blame Green Party candidates in 2000 and 2016 for tipping the elections toward Republicans.
Kennedy has used nontraditional platforms including podcasts and YouTube to build a following with younger voters and those who distrust institutions, groups Trump hopes to bring into his fold. Democrats worry that Kennedy will pick up some of the anti-Trump voters they hope would instead go to Biden, helping the former president to win.
In his call with Kennedy, Trump discusses the assassination attempt against him and the phone call he received afterward from Biden, which he said “was very nice.” He likened the feeling of the bullet slicing his ear to “the world’s largest mosquito.”
Kennedy apologizes after a video of him speaking to Trump leaks
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Kennedy apologizes after a video of him speaking to Trump leaks
- The video shows Kennedy listening on a speakerphone as Trump shares disproven claims about childhood vaccines
- Trump also appears to pitch Kennedy on endorsing his campaign
UN calls for Myanmar support as quake death toll reaches 3,354
Myanmar’s neighbors, such as China, India and Southeast Asian nations, are among those that dispatched relief supplies and rescuers
BANGKOK: The United Nations called for the world to rally behind quake-hit Myanmar on Saturday as the death toll rose to 3,354.
In addition to those killed by the March 28 earthquake, 4,850 people were injured and another 220 are missing, state media said.
During a visit to Myanmar’s second-biggest city, Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude quake, United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher appealed for international support.
“The destruction is staggering. Lives lost. Homes destroyed. Livelihoods shattered. But the resilience is incredible,” he said in a post on X. “The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar.”
Myanmar’s neighbors, such as China, India and Southeast Asian nations, are among those that dispatched relief supplies and rescuers to aid the recovery effort in quake-hit areas that are home to about 28 million people over the past week.
The United States, which was until recently the world’s top humanitarian donor, had pledged at least $9 million to Myanmar to support earthquake-affected communities, but current and former US officials say the dismantling of its foreign aid program has affected its response.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday the junta was restricting aid supplies to quake-hit areas where communities did not back its rule.
The UN office also said it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against opponents, including air strikes, of which 16 were after the ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Free Burma Rangers, a relief group, told Reuters on Saturday that the military had dropped bombs in Karenni and southern Shan states on Thursday and Friday despite the ceasefire announcement, killing at least five people.
The victims included civilians, according to the group’s founder, David Eubank, who said there had been at least seven such military attacks since the ceasefire.
ELECTION PLANS
The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta’s plans to hold “free and fair” elections in December when the two met in Bangkok, Myanmar state media said on Saturday.
Min Aung Hlaing made the rare trip to attend a summit of South and Southeast Asian nations on Friday, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Modi called for the post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar’s civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be “inclusive and credible,” an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
Since overthrowing the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including health care, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the earthquake.
The civil war that followed the coup has displaced more than 3 million people, with widespread food insecurity and more than a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says.
Sri Lanka, India forge defense, energy ties during Modi’s visit
- Indian leader awarded Mithra Vibhushan, island nation’s highest civilian honor
- Sri Lanka, India, UAE agree to build energy hub in Trincomalee
Colombo: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a ceremonial guard of honor in Colombo on Saturday as his delegation signed energy and defense agreements with Sri Lanka, where New Delhi competes with China for greater influence.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake rolled out the red carpet for Modi and welcomed him with a 19-gun salute in the capital’s Independence Square.
He also conferred Sri Lanka’s highest civilian honor, Mithra Vibhushan, on the Indian prime minister.
“This prestigious honor, which was introduced in 2008, is conferred upon heads of states and government for their friendship, and honorable Prime Minister Modi highly deserves this honor. That is what we firmly believe,” Dissanayake said during a joint press conference with Modi, after the two countries signed seven cooperation agreements.
Modi arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday evening from Thailand, where he participated in the annual summit of BIMSTEC, a regional grouping of the seven countries on the Bay of Bengal.
He is accompanied by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who signed agreements on defense cooperation, information and technology sharing, and energy imports and exports with the Sri Lankan government.
Another energy deal was signed between India, Sri Lanka, and the UAE on cooperation in the development of Trincomalee port as an energy hub.
“We welcome the important agreements made in the area of defense cooperation. We have also agreed to work together on the Colombo security conclave and security cooperation in the Indian Ocean,” Modi said.
“The agreement reached to build a multiproduct pipeline and to develop Trincomalee as an energy hub will benefit all Sri Lankans. The Grid Inter-Connectivity Agreement between the two countries will create opportunities for Sri Lanka to export electricity.”
The Indian prime minister is the first foreign head of state to visit the island nation since Dissanayake and his leftist alliance swept last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The visit comes as Colombo balances ties with India, its powerful neighbor, and China, its biggest lender, which at the same time is India’s main regional foe.
Dissanayake’s first foreign visit as president was to New Delhi in December, followed by a visit to Beijing in January, highlighting Sri Lanka’s careful diplomacy between the two powers.
“Within the Indian subcontinent and Chinese belt, Sri Lanka is caught as a strategic island — not only in the Indian Ocean — between these two giants,” historian and analyst Dr. B.A. Hussainmiya told Arab News.
“Their geopolitical interest is centering in the Indian Ocean and in the Himalayas, so Sri Lanka, being a very small country, cannot hold its strength unless it creates a balanced and nuanced diplomatic approach between these two powers to keep it afloat in the system.”
Ukrainian drones hit explosives plant in Russia’s Samara region, Kyiv source says
- The SBU continues to conduct targeted operations against Russian enterprises
KYIV: Ukrainian drones struck an explosive production facility in Russia’s Samara region overnight, causing multiple explosions and fires, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters on Saturday.
“The SBU continues to conduct targeted operations against Russian enterprises that are part of the military-industrial complex and produce weapons for the war against Ukraine,” the source said.
“Such facilities are absolutely legitimate military targets.”
USAID team fired while in Myanmar earthquake zone, ex-official says
- “This team is working incredibly hard, focussed on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination — how can that not be demoralizing?” said Wong
- The Trump administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff in recent weeks
BANGKOK: Three US aid workers were laid off while in Myanmar helping the rescue and recovery from the country’s massive earthquake, a former senior staffer said, as the Trump administration’s dismantling of foreign aid affects its disaster response.
After traveling to the Southeast Asian nation, the three officials were told late this week they would be let go, Marcia Wong, a former official at the US Agency for International Development, told Reuters.
“This team is working incredibly hard, focussed on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination — how can that not be demoralizing?” said Wong, former deputy administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which oversees Washington’s disease response efforts overseas.
President Donald Trump’s government has pledged at least $9 million to Myanmar after the magnitude-7.7 quake, which has killed more than 3,300. But his administration’s massive cuts to USAID have hindered its ability to respond, while China, Russia, India and other nations have rushed in assistance.
The Trump administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff in recent weeks, as billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending. The three USAID workers have been sleeping on the streets in the earthquake zone, Wong said, adding that their terminations would take effect in a few months. Residents have been sleeping outside for fear of aftershocks and further building collapses, Wong said she is in contact with remaining USAID staff and that she heard about the terminations after an all-staff meeting on Friday. Former USAID staff say most of the people who would have coordinated the response have been let go, while third-party implementing partners have lost contracts. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday rejected criticism that Washington was slow to respond to the March 28 earthquake because USAID was dismantled.
Rather, he told reporters in Brussels, Myanmar was not “the easiest place to work,” saying the military government does not like the United States and prevents it from operating in the country as it wants to.
The United Nations has said the junta was limiting humanitarian aid.
Rubio said the US would no longer be the world’s top humanitarian donor, calling on other wealthy nations to step up in assisting Myanmar.
Zelensky slams ‘weak’ US reply to Russian strike on his hometown
- “Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote
- “They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children“
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday slammed the US embassy for what he called a “weak” statement that did not blame Russia for a missile strike on his home town which killed 18 people, including nine children.
In one of the deadliest strikes in recent weeks, a Russian missile on Friday evening struck a residential area near a children’s playground in the central Ukrainian town of Kryvyi Rig, followed up by attack drones.
Seventy-two people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said after the end of emergency operations overnight, with city officials declaring three days of mourning.
Zelensky in an emotional statement on social media named each of the children killed in the attack, accusing the US embassy of avoiding referring to Russia as the aggressor.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote.
“They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children.”
Zelensky singled out the United States for criticism as President Donald Trump has pushed for a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine while seeking a thaw in ties with Moscow.
The Ukrainian president was taking aim at a message posted on X by US Ambassador Bridget Brink on Friday evening, which said: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant.”
Brink, who was appointed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, has been ambassador since May 2022, added that “this is why the war must end.”
In recent posts on X she has not directly named Russia while referring to attacks on Ukraine, which she did regularly until mid-February, when Zelensky and Trump had an angry exchange in the Oval Office.
Zelensky wrote Saturday: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.”
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, said three days of mourning had been declared on April 7, 8 and 9 in the city.
“This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians,” he said.
Pictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
“This is the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy,” Lysak said.
Russia’s defense ministry said it “delivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile on a restaurant” in the city “where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.”
The commander of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was “trying to cover up its cynical crime” and “spreading false information” about the target of the strike.
He accused Russia of “war crimes.”
Trump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
Zelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
“Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it,” he said.
“The missile struck an area near residential buildings, a playground and ordinary streets,” he said. Then Russia launched attack drones “right during the rescue operation.”
“People who are capable of that kind of thing aren’t human,” Zelensky said.
Kryvyi Rig, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian leader was born in the industrial city, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
He said the children killed by the latest attack ranged in age from a three-year-old boy, Tymofiy, to a 17-year-old teenage boy, Nikita.
Zelensky on Friday met the heads of the British and French militaries in Kyiv to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a “reassurance” force to Ukraine if and when a deal on ending the conflict is reached.
This is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree on a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaking a supposed deal to stop firing on energy sites, though a formal agreement has not been put in place.
Russia on Saturday once again claimed Ukraine targeted its energy infrastructure, with the defense ministry saying Kyiv had attacked 14 sites in the last 24 hours.
