US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister

Update Ukrainian and US officials began talks on Sunday in Saudi Arabia on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure. (File Photo)
Ukrainian and US officials began talks on Sunday in Saudi Arabia on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure. (File Photo)
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Updated 24 March 2025
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US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister

US and Ukraine concluded ‘productive’ talks in Riyadh: Ukraine defense minister
  • Ukraine defense minister says talks aim to bring ‘just peace closer’
  • US envoy upbeat, says Russia’s Putin ‘wants peace’; Kremlin warns of ‘difficult negotiations’

RIYADH: The latest round of talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Riyadh on de-escalating the war with Russia were “productive and focused,” Ukrainian defense minister Rustem Umerov said Sunday.
“We have concluded our meeting with the American team. The discussion was productive and focused — we addressed key points including energy,” he said on social media, adding Ukraine was working to make its goal of a “just and lasting peace” a “reality.”

The talks on Sunday focused on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s defense minister said, part of a diplomatic push by US President Donald Trump to end three years of war.

The meeting, which preceded talks on Monday between the US and Russian delegations, came as US special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about the chances for ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

“I feel that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants peace,” Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday.

“I think that you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries. And from that, you’ll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire.”

Separately, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday the United States was talking through a range of confidence-building measures aimed at ending the war, including on the future of Ukrainian children taken into Russia.

Long journey to peace

Discussions between the United States and Russia were set for Monday, with Russian state media reporting Moscow’s delegation had arrived in Riyadh on Sunday.

But the Kremlin on Sunday downplayed expectations of a rapid resolution, saying talks were just beginning and warning of “difficult negotiations” and a long journey to peace.

“We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV.

He said there were many outstanding questions over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented.

Despite both sides proposing different plans for temporary ceasefires, attacks have continued unabated. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three civilians overnight, while Ukrainian drones killed two in Russia, officials said Sunday.

Originally scheduled to take place simultaneously to enable shuttle diplomacy — with the US going back and forth between the delegations — the talks on a partial truce are now taking place one after the other.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian call for a full and immediate 30-day pause, proposing instead a halt in attacks only on energy facilities.

“There are difficult negotiations ahead,” Peskov said in the interview, published on social media.

Peskov said the “main” focus in its talks with the United States would be a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian farm exports via the Black Sea.

“On Monday, we mainly intend to discuss President Putin’s agreement to resume the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem,” Peskov said.

Moscow pulled out of the deal — brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations — in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of farm produce and fertilizers.

Peskov said on Sunday that the “potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide variety of spheres between our countries cannot be overstated.”

“We may disagree on some things but that does not mean we should deprive ourselves of mutual benefit,” he added.

Zelensky urges allies to put pressure on Russia

On the eve of the negotiations, both sides launched fresh drone attacks on the eve of the negotiations.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack killed three civilians in Kyiv, including a five-year-old girl and her father.

Deadly strikes on the well-protected city are rarer than elsewhere in the country.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 147 drones at the country in the latest barrage.

Russia said it had repelled nearly 60 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Officials said one man was killed in the southern Rostov region of Russia when his car was set alight by falling drone debris, and a woman was killed in the Belgorod border region, also by a drone attack.

Ukraine’s army, meanwhile, said it had captured a small village in its eastern Lugansk region, a rare battlefield success for Kyiv’s struggling forces.

In an evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “Russia is the only one who is dragging this war out.”

“No matter what we talk about with our partners, we need to push Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes: the one who brought this war must take it away,” he said.

Zelensky urged his country’s allies to put fresh pressure on Russia.

“New decisions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to bring an end to these strikes and this war,” he posted on social media on Sunday.


US Supreme Court intervenes to block Trump deportations

US Supreme Court intervenes to block Trump deportations
Updated 6 sec ago
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US Supreme Court intervenes to block Trump deportations

US Supreme Court intervenes to block Trump deportations
  • Trump justifies summary expulsions — and the detention of people in El Salvador — by insisting that he is cracking down on violent Venezuelan criminal gangs now classified by the US government as terrorists

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court, in a dramatic nighttime intervention Saturday, blocked President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.
The emergency ruling noted that two of the most conservative justices on the nine-member panel had dissented.
The order temporarily prevents the government from continuing to expel migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act — last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II.
Trump invoked the law last month to deport Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador that holds thousands of that country’s gangsters.
The court decision was triggered by imminent plans late Friday to expel dozens more Venezuelans under the act, meaning they would have been deported with next to no ability to hear evidence or challenge their cases.
The court said “the government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order.”
Trump justifies summary expulsions — and the detention of people in El Salvador — by insisting that he is cracking down on violent Venezuelan criminal gangs now classified by the US government as terrorists.
But the policy is fueling opposition concerns that the Republican is ignoring the US constitution in a broader bid to amass power.
The row over the Alien Enemies Act comes amid muscular assaults by the administration against big law firms, Harvard and other universities, and major independent media outlets.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the lead in seeking to halt Friday’s planned deportations, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.
“These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court,” attorney Lee Gelernt said.
On Saturday the government filed a motion with the Supreme Court arguing that it should not be prevented from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people it says are terrorists.
The government also asserted that even if it is blocked, the court should state that such deportations can go ahead using other laws.
Trump won the White House election last November in large part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed is an invasion of criminal migrants.
Trump’s rhetoric about rapists and murderers descending on suburban homes resonated with swaths of voters concerned about high levels of illegal immigration.
Trump has sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.
A right-wing influencer who meets often with Trump, Laura Loomer, said Saturday that the president was “gracious” for flying out people who entered the country illegally, rather than having them “shot to death” at the border.
Democrats and civil rights groups have expressed alarm at an erosion of constitutional rights.
Under Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act — previously seen only during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II — migrants have been accused of gang membership and sent to El Salvador without going before a judge or being charged with a crime.
Trump has also repeatedly said he would be open to sending American citizens convicted of violent crimes to the notorious El Salvador prison, CECOT, outside San Salvador.
Attorneys for several of the Venezuelans already deported have said their clients were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.
In the most publicized case to date, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported last month to CECOT before the Trump administration admitted he was sent there due to an “administrative error.”
Even after a court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Trump has doubled down and insisted he is a gang member — including posting an apparently doctored photo on social media Friday that showed MS-13 on his knuckles.
As court challenges pile up, the president and his allies have repeatedly attacked what they call “activist” judges.
Another right-wing influencer with a large social media following, Jesse Kelly, responded to the overnight order freezing deportations by posting: “Ignore the Supreme Court.”


Another round of anti-Trump protests hits US cities

Another round of anti-Trump protests hits US cities
Updated 35 min 57 sec ago
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Another round of anti-Trump protests hits US cities

Another round of anti-Trump protests hits US cities
  • Organizers hope to use building resentment over Trump’s immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressuring of universities, news media and law firms, to forge a lasting movement

NEW YORK: Thousands of protesters rallied Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States for a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hard-line policies.
In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans like “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.”
Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting “No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” a reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in rounding up migrants.
In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process.
The administration is carrying out “a direct assault on the idea of the rule of law and the idea that the government should be restrained from abusing the people who live here in the United States,” Benjamin Douglas, 41, told AFP outside the White House.
Wearing a keffiyeh and carrying a sign calling for the freeing of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested last month, Douglas said individuals were being singled out as “test cases to rile up xenophobia and erode long-standing legal protections.”
“We are in a great danger,” said 73-year-old New York protester Kathy Valy, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, adding that their stories of how Nazi leader Adolf Hitler rose to power “are what’s happening here.”
“The one thing is that Trump is a lot more stupid than Hitler or than the other fascists,” she said. “He’s being played... and his own team is divided.”

Daniella Butler, 26, said she wanted to “call attention specifically to the defunding of science and health work” by the government.
Studying for a PhD in immunology at Johns Hopkins University, she was carrying a map of Texas covered with spots in reference to the ongoing measles outbreak there.
Trump’s health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jab to autism.
“When science is ignored, people die,” Butler said.
In deeply conservative Texas, the coastal city of Galveston saw a small gathering of anti-Trump demonstrators.
“This is my fourth protest and typically I would sit back and wait for the next election,” said 63-year-old writer Patsy Oliver. “We cannot do that right now. We’ve lost too much already.”
On the West Coast, several hundred people gathered on a beach in San Francisco to spell out the words “IMPEACH + REMOVE,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Others nearby held an upside-down US flag, traditionally a symbol of distress.
Organizers hope to use building resentment over Trump’s immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressuring of universities, news media and law firms, to forge a lasting movement.
The chief organizer of Saturday’s protests — the group 50501, a number representing 50 protests in 50 states and one movement — said some 400 demonstrations were planned.
Its website said the protests are “a decentralized rapid response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies” — and it insisted on all protests being non-violent.
The group called for millions to take part Saturday, though turnout appeared smaller than the “Hands Off” protests across the country on April 5.
 


Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided
Updated 19 April 2025
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Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided
  • “Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow,” Zelensky said

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that, according to his top commander, Russian artillery fire had not subsided despite the Kremlin’s proclamation of an Easter ceasefire.
“As of now, according to the Commander-in-Chief reports, Russian assault operations continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided,” Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X.
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow.”


He recalled that Russia had last month rejected a US-proposed full 30-day ceasefire and said that if Moscow agreed to “truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia’s actions.”
“If a complete ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20,” Zelensky wrote.


Ministers from Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss security, trade cooperation, border management

Ministers from Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss security, trade cooperation, border management
Updated 19 April 2025
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Ministers from Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss security, trade cooperation, border management

Ministers from Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss security, trade cooperation, border management
  • Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on visit to Kabul
  • Border management also on agenda in Ishaq Dar’s talks in Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, held discussions on Saturday with Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on security, border management and regional trade, Pakistan’s Foreign Office reported.

Dar arrived in Kabul on Saturday morning for a day-long visit to discuss Islamabad’s security concerns and trade and investment opportunities with Afghanistan amid strained ties between the neighbors.

His visit was taking place amid surging militancy in Pakistan, which Islamabad blames on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban are accused of providing the group with sanctuaries, allegations that Kabul has repeatedly denied.

HIGHLIGHT

Dar’s visit is seen as a continuation of Pakistan’s efforts to engage with Afghanistan despite frosty ties.

Dar’s visit also takes place as Pakistan intensifies its campaign to deport what it says are “illegal immigrants,” mostly Afghan nationals, which it has blamed without evidence for being involved in suicide attacks and militancy in the country. Pakistan’s deportation drive has further soured ties between the two nations.

“The discussions encompassed a comprehensive range of topics pertaining to bilateral relations, underscoring the need to devise strategies for enhancing cooperation across diverse areas of mutual interest, including security, trade, transit, connectivity, and people-to-people contacts,” the foreign office said.

Dar stressed the importance of addressing all issues between the two countries, particularly those related to security and border management, to fully realize the potential for regional trade and connectivity, the foreign office added.

“Both parties reaffirmed their commitment to fostering mutually beneficial relations and agreed on the importance of maintaining high-level engagement,” its statement said.

The deputy prime minister was also scheduled to meet Afghanistan’s Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund.

Speaking to the state-run Pakistan Television before leaving for Kabul, Dar acknowledged there had been “coldness” in ties between the countries in recent years.

“I believe the security of Pakistan, its people, their lives and properties, is very important,” Dar said. “So one of our concerns is regarding terrorism, which we will discuss.”

He said there was also immense potential for economic, trade and investment opportunities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Our connection with Central Asian states can be established through rail links, but that’s not possible unless Afghanistan becomes a partner in this,” he said.

Dar’s visit is seen as a continuation of Pakistan’s efforts to engage with Afghanistan despite frosty ties, and its aim to address mutual concerns and explore avenues for cooperation with the country.

 


Russia says Ukraine struck its energy infrastructure 10 times in last 24 hours

Russia says Ukraine struck its energy infrastructure 10 times in last 24 hours
Updated 19 April 2025
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Russia says Ukraine struck its energy infrastructure 10 times in last 24 hours

Russia says Ukraine struck its energy infrastructure 10 times in last 24 hours
  • Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating a US-brokered 30-day moratorium

MOSCOW: Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of attacking Russian energy facilities 10 times over the past 24 hours.
The US brokered a 30-day moratorium in March between Ukraine and Russia against strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating it.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked if the energy moratorium was over, said it had already been a month but that no orders from the president had been received to change Russia’s position.