Hopes For Peace in Ukraine Emerge From US-backed Saudi Talks
The ball is now in Russia's court...
After a month in which Donald Trump turned American foreign policy on its head and Russian forces made progress in a key battle, the Kremlin now appears keen at least to entertain the 30-day cease-fire proposal made by Ukraine and the United States on Tuesday. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday that the Kremlin was “carefully studying” the outcome of Tuesday’s talks between the United States and Ukraine, and their call for a monthlong cease-fire. He said he expected the United States to inform Russia in the coming days of “the details of the negotiations that took place and the understandings that were reached.” He raised the possibility of another phone call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, signaling that the Kremlin saw the cease-fire proposal as just a part of a broader flurry of diplomacy. - NYT
BBC News reported last night that Mr. Trump may invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky back to the White House. It would be a stunning turn of events after the U.S. leader berated and humiliated his Ukrainian counterpart in an Oval Office dustup almost two weeks ago.
As I told BBC World Television, even though the high-level US team in Saudi Arabia, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had agreed to a ceasefire proposal between Ukraine and Russia, Donald Trump may change his mind on pressuring Russia to sign on the dotted line. It’s not the gold old days when America’s word is as good as gold, I said. Zelensky said in an evening address that the proposed ceasefire would apply not only to the air and sea, but also along the entire 1,000-km or so frontline. Left unclear yesterday were security guarantees and monitoring mechanisms.
Meanwhile, US aid deliveries to Ukraine through Poland have resumed, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said. Strikes on Ukraine continued overnight, with four people killed in the port city of Odesa and one killed in Kryvyy Rih. The strike on a Bahamian-flagged vessel also damaged a berth and grain silo in Odesa port, which adjoins the city center. Officials said five people died, including three Syrians and one Ukrainian crew members.
“In the good old days, when America placed its signature on an agreement, its word was as good as gold. But we now live in this crazy era where Mr. Trump could change his mind very quickly. This is the same leader who said on multiple times ‘let’s annex Canada.’ He has also said Ukraine could one day be part of Russia.”
Mercenaries with Russia’s Wagner Group, fighting alongside Malian soldiers, have assaulted women, massacred civilians and burned villages in Mali, the displaced say - a campaign of wanton violence that is fueling a rapidly growing refugee crisis in neighboring Mauritania. “We have never seen anything like this,” said Kossi ag Mohamed, a 31-year-old herder who described fleeing his village in Mali’s Timbuktu region. Wagner, he said, had brought “catastrophe”. Mali’s military junta, which seized power from the democratically elected president in a coup d’état in 2020, began working with Wagner in late 2021. Nearly two years later, the future of the Kremlin-linked mercenary group was thrown into doubt when its founder, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash after a short-lived rebellion against President Vladimir Putin. But Wagner never went away, and its fighters have continued to deploy overseas - a shadow force that experts say now operates as an extension of Russia’s Defense Ministry. In Mali, the group’s footprint has only grown providing a revenue stream for Putin’s cash-strapped government and a base of influence for Moscow in an increasingly anarchic West Africa. Malian authorities say the partnership is designed to combat Tuareg separatists - who have long agitated for their own state in northern Mali - as well as militant groups loyal to al-Qaeda and Islamic State. But it is civilians, not armed groups, that have borne the brunt of Wagner’s brutality - Washington Post
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a response to new US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, unveiling a package of countermeasures aimed at US exports. Early Wednesday morning, the EU executive launched a set of proportionate countermeasures on US imports into the EU, targeting a variety of American products, ranging from boats to bourbon to Harley-Davidson motorbikes. The move comes in response to what the EU deems as unjustified and disruptive tariffs imposed by Washington, which took effect at midnight. “We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States,” she continued - Euronews
The ship's captain arrested in connection with a crash into a US flagged tanker off the coast of England is a Russian national, the German company which owns the vessel said. The Solong crashed into the Stena Immaculate, a tanker carrying jet fuel for the US military, on Monday. A day later, British police arrested the Solong's captain on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. Police said the 59-year-old man remained in custody. Hamburg-based owner Ernst Russ said the captain of the Portuguese-flagged Solong was Russian, adding the rest of the 14-person crew was a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals. The Stena Immaculate was at anchor when it was struck by the smaller Solong causing huge fires and explosions, leaving one crew member missing presumed dead, and releasing fuel into the sea, leading to fears about the impact on the environment. As speculation about the cause of the collision mounts, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the Solong had failed steering-related safety checks last year, citing a routine safety check carried out by Irish officials in Dublin in July - Wires via France 24
A senior official at the main U.S. aid agency, which is being dismantled by the Trump administration, told employees to clear safes holding classified documents and personnel files by shredding the papers or putting them into bags for burning, according to an email sent to the staff. The email, sent by Erica Y. Carr, the acting executive secretary, told employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development to empty out the classified safes and personnel document files on Tuesday. “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Ms. Carr wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by The New York Times. The agency has fired thousands of employees, put some on paid leave and asked a few to work from home, so its headquarters have been mostly empty for weeks. It is unclear if Ms. Carr or any other official at U.S.A.I.D. got permission from the National Archives and Records Administration to destroy the documents. The Federal Records Act of 1950 requires U.S. government officials to ask the records administration for approval before destroying documents. The documents being destroyed could have relevance to multiple court cases that have been filed against the Trump administration and the aid agency over the mass firing and sudden relocation of employees, the rapid dismantlement of the agency and a freeze on almost all foreign aid money - NYT
The White House said Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump will go ahead with a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum just after midnight, capping off yet another chaotic day of trade threats and 51st state taunts. Trump said earlier in the day he would hike the tariff rate on those metals to 50 per cent because Ontario Premier Doug Ford slapped a tax on all electricity the province sends to the U.S., pushing up energy prices for 1.5 million American households and businesses. After speaking with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump's tariff czar, Ford agreed to pause the tax until he has trade discussions with the administration in Washington on Thursday. In a joint statement after the call, Ford and Lutnick said they had a "productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada." - CBC News
Hopes for the release of detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai are higher following U.S. President Donald Trump's return to office, Lai's son said on Tuesday in Washington, where he and advocates plan to meet Trump administration officials. Lai, the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper that was forced to close after a police raid and asset freeze in June 2021, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. China-imposed national security legislation in Hong Kong has been used to jail pro-democracy activists after violent street protests there in 2019. The United States and other foreign governments have criticized the law as a tool for authorities to clamp down on dissent. Lai's case is a source of friction between Washington and Beijing, with Trump having said last year during his campaign for the presidency that he would "100%" get Lai out of China - Reuters
After passengers on a recent Air Canada flight discovered that Israel had been removed from the in-flight interactive map and relabeled as the Palestinian Territories, the Canadian flag carrier says that the change is the result of a “display issue.” Air Canada has been made aware of a display issue with the interactive map on the IFE systems of its B737 aircraft,” it says in response to an image posted on X of the altered flight map. “The issue has affected other carriers using the same system and we are working with the third-party provider on a remedy,” it adds. Last September, passengers noticed a similar change had been made to the interactive maps aboard a JetBlue flight. The airline similarly said that the map had been provided by a third party company, and decided “after a careful review” to switch to a new map vendor - Times of Israel
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