Trump says Ukraine is ‘dead’ and dismisses its defense against Russia’s invasion

As Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky met with world leaders at the United Nations (right) to seek continued support in his country's fight against Russian aggression, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday made it clear that Ukraine will not get any help from him if he becomes president again. (AP/AFP photos)
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Updated 25 September 2024
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Trump says Ukraine is ‘dead’ and dismisses its defense against Russia’s invasion

  • Says Ukraine should have made concessions to Putin in the months before Russia’s February 2022 attack
  • Blames Biden and Harris for giving egging on Ukraine to fight rather than pushing it to cede territory to Russia

Former US President Donald Trump described Ukraine in bleak and mournful terms Wednesday, referring to its people as “dead” and the country itself as “demolished,” and further raising questions about how much the former president would be willing if elected again to concede in a negotiation over the country’s future.
Trump argued Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the months before Russia’s February 2022 attack, declaring that even “the worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now.”
Trump, who has long been critical of US aid to Ukraine, frequently claims that Russia never would have invaded if he was president and that he would put an end to the war if he returned to the White House. But rarely has he discussed the conflict in such detail.
His remarks, at a North Carolina event billed as an economic speech, come on the heels of a debate this month in which he pointedly refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. On Tuesday, Trump touted the prowess of Russia and its predecessor Soviet Union, saying that wars are “what they do.”
The Republican former president, notoriously attuned to slights, began his denunciation of Ukraine by alluding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent criticism of Trump and running mate JD Vance.
Zelensky, who is visiting the US this week to attend the UN General Assembly, told The New Yorker that Vance was “too radical” for proposing that Ukraine surrender territories under Russian control and that Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”

Said Trump, “It’s something we have to have a quick discussion about because the president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me.”
Trump painted Ukraine as a country in ruins outside its capital, Kyiv, short on soldiers and losing population to war deaths and neighboring countries. He questioned whether the country has any bargaining chips left to negotiate an end to the war.
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they made a bad deal it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”
“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” he added. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”

Zelensky is pitching the White House on what he calls a victory plan for the war, expected to include an ask to use long-range Western weapons to strike Russian targets.
While Ukraine outperformed many expectations that it would fall quickly to Russia, outnumbered Ukrainian forces face grinding battles against one of the world’s most powerful armies in the country’s east. A deal with Russia would almost certainly be unfavorable for Ukraine, which has lost a fifth of its territory and tens of thousands of lives in the conflict.
Trump laid blame for the conflict on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in November. He said Biden “egged it all on” by pledging to help Ukraine defend itself rather than pushing it to cede territory to Russia.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelensky money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said.
Notably, Trump did not attack Putin’s reasoning for launching the invasion, only suggesting Putin would not have started the war had Trump been in office. He did say of Putin, “He’s no angel.”


Cardinals vote in the Vatican for a second day to elect a new pope

Updated 8 sec ago
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Cardinals vote in the Vatican for a second day to elect a new pope

The 133 cardinals had resumed voting in the morning
The cardinals have been sworn to secrecy in the centuries-old ritual

VATICAN CITY: Black smoke again billowed out of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, the second day of the conclave, indicating that no new pontiff has been chosen after the second or third ballots. There are still two more votes possible later in the day.
The 133 cardinals had resumed voting in the morning, after spending the night sequestered at the Vatican residences. On Wednesday evening, black smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney indicating no pope was elected on the first ballot of the conclave.
The cardinals have been sworn to secrecy in the centuries-old ritual to elect a new leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church. To become pope, a cardinal needs a two-thirds majority, or 89 votes. This conclave is the most geographically diverse conclave in the faith’s 2,000-year history.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, expressed hope that a new pope would be elected within hours, according to reports in major Italian newspapers.
“I hope that when I return to Rome this evening, I’ll find the white smoke already rising,” he said, speaking from the city of Pompei on Thursday.
Re is 91 years old, which makes him too old to participate in the conclave of 133 cardinals who are electing the next pope and who all have to be under 80.
However, he has been prominent and delivered a Mass on Wednesday before the cardinals began their conclave.
As the Mass ended he was caught on a hot mic saying to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, viewed as a favorite for the papacy: “auguri doppi” (“double best wishes”)

Saudi minister visits Delhi as tensions rise between India, Pakistan

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar shake hands in New Delhi
Updated 38 min 54 sec ago
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Saudi minister visits Delhi as tensions rise between India, Pakistan

  • Adel Al-Jubeir holds ‘good’ talks with Indian counterpart
  • India launched missile strikes on Pakistan on Wednesday following deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir last month

NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir made a surprise visit to India on Thursday to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, amid escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Al-Jubeir’s trip comes a day after India launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine locations in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, from where Delhi said terrorist attacks against India had been planned and directed.

Jaishankar said on X that he had a “good meeting” with Al-Jubeir on Thursday morning, during which he “shared India’s perspectives on firmly countering terrorism.”

India said Wednesday’s missile strikes were in response to an attack on tourists near the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 people — 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen — were killed.

At least 31 people were killed in the retaliatory strikes, Pakistani officials said. With the two militaries engaged in escalating exchanges, world leaders have urged both sides to exercise restraint and called for a de-escalation of hostilities.

Kashmir has been the subject of dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Both countries claim the Himalayan region in full and rule in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.

Indian-administered Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgency to resist control from the government in Delhi, which accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants since 1989. Islamabad denies the allegations, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.


German spy agency pauses ‘extremist’ classification for AfD party

Updated 38 min 51 sec ago
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German spy agency pauses ‘extremist’ classification for AfD party

  • The agency would not publicly refer to the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist movement“
  • The extremist classification allows the Cologne-based spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD

BERLIN: Germany’s domestic spy agency BfV has paused its classification of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an extremist organization in what the AfD on Thursday called a partial victory for its challenge against the decision.
The agency would not publicly refer to the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist movement” until an administrative court in the western city of Cologne has ruled on an AfD bid for an injunction, a court statement said.
The BfV’s move last week to classify the far-right AfD as extremist produced sharp reactions along the fault lines of German politics, with some lawmakers calling for the AfD to be banned and the AfD casting it as an attack on democracy.
It also sparked strong criticism from US President Donald Trump’s administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on the German authorities to reverse their decision.
The extremist classification allows the Cologne-based spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD, for example by recruiting informants and intercepting party communications.
“The measures associated with the classification will also be suspended,” a court spokesperson said without elaborating.
The agency’s 1,100-page experts’ report, which will not be released to the public, found the AfD to be a racist and anti-Muslim organization.
Founded in 2013, the AfD has surged to become Germany’s second biggest party but other parties have shunned it as toxic.
The AfD says its designation is a politically motivated attempt to discredit and criminalize it.
Its leadership welcomed the decision by the BfV, which the court said was not acknowledging any legal obligation.
“This is a first important step toward our actual exoneration and thus countering the accusation of right-wing extremism,” party leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said in a joint statement.
The BfV did not immediately comment.
The agency’s decision to pause the AfD’s classification does not mean the BfV has revised its assessment of the party.
The AfD has previously lost a legal challenge when its now-defunct youth organization was classified as right-wing extremist.
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee called for American spy agencies to “pause” intelligence sharing with the BfV, whose mission includes counter-terrorism.
Senator Tom Cotton called for the pause until Germany’s government “treats the AfD as a legitimate opposition party,” according to a letter to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of National Intelligence.


Diners Club International® Announces $750,000 Donation for World Central Kitchen

Updated 08 May 2025
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Diners Club International® Announces $750,000 Donation for World Central Kitchen

  • “Diners Club is proud to collaborate with World Central Kitchen as part of our 75th Anniversary celebration,” said Leite
  • WCK halted on Wednesday its work in the Gaza Strip, saying it had run out of supplies as it had been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid

RIVERWOODS, USA: Diners Club International announced on Thursday a donation of $750,000 to World Central Kitchen to aid communities impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide.
For every purchase made with a Diners Club card globally on May 7, 2025, the company provided one meal, up to a total of $750,000.
Diners Club’s $750K donation to World Central Kitchen will provide approximately 150,000 meals to impacted communities worldwide.
This contribution is part of its 75th-anniversary celebrations that began in February. Through this collaboration, Club members will have a direct role in providing comforting meals to survivors of natural disasters and humanitarian causes.
“Diners Club is proud to collaborate with World Central Kitchen as part of our 75th Anniversary celebration,” said Ricardo Leite, president of Diners Club International.
As part of Diners Club’s Together for Change program, this global initiative empowers Diners Club Issuers and Club members to support causes that matter most in their communities. For over 20 years, Diners Club has supported various causes, with a focus on sustainability, health care, education and disaster relief.
Meanwhile, US-based World Central Kitchen charity halted on Wednesday its work in the Gaza Strip, saying it had run out of supplies as it had been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid.
“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” it said in a post on X.
The charity said it would continue to support Palestinian families by distributing critically needed potable water where possible, but vital food distribution cannot resume until Israel allows aid back into the enclave.


Bill Gates to give away fortune by 2045, $200bn for world’s poorest

Updated 08 May 2025
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Bill Gates to give away fortune by 2045, $200bn for world’s poorest

  • Microsoft co-founder said It’s unclear whether world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for the poorest people amid widespread aid and development funding cuts
  • Gates Foundation has given away $100 billion in its first 25 years, saving millions of lives

LONDON: Bill Gates pledged on Thursday to give away almost his entire personal wealth in the next two decades and said the world’s poorest would receive some $200 billion via his foundation at a time when governments worldwide are slashing international aid.
The 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said he was speeding up plans to divest his fortune and close the Gates Foundation on Dec. 31, 2045.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote in a post on his website.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
In an implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump’s slashing of aid from the world’s biggest donor the United States, Gates’ statement said he wanted to help stop newborn babies, children and mothers dying of preventable causes, end diseases like polio, malaria and measles, and reduce poverty.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” he added, noting cuts from major donors also including the UK and France.
Gates said that despite the foundation’s deep pockets, progress would not be possible without government support.
He praised the response to aid cuts in Africa, where some governments have reallocated budgets, but said that as an example polio would not be eradicated without US funding.
Gates made the announcement on the foundation’s 25th anniversary. He set up the organization with his then-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000, and they were later joined by investor Warren Buffett.
“I have come a long way since I was just a kid starting a software company with my friend from middle school,” he said.
Since inception, the foundation has given away $100 billion, helping to save millions of lives and backing initiatives like the vaccine group Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
It will close after it spends around 99 percent of his personal fortune, Gates said. The founders originally expected the foundation to wrap up in the decades after their deaths.
Gates, who is valued at around $108 billion today, expects the foundation to spend around $200 billion by 2045, with the final figure dependent on markets and inflation.
The foundation is already a huge player in global health, with an annual budget that will reach $9 billion by 2026.
It has faced criticism for its outsize power and influence in the field without the requisite accountability, including at the World Health Organization.
Gates himself was also subject to conspiracy theories, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gates has also spoken to US President Donald Trump several times in recent months on the importance of continued investment in global health.
“I hope other wealthy people consider how much they can accelerate progress for the world’s poorest if they increased the pace and scale of their giving, because it is such a profoundly impactful way to give back to society,” Gates wrote.