Germany sees Ukraine truce efforts as deadlocked, while China says the talks are encouraging

Germany sees Ukraine truce efforts as deadlocked, while China says the talks are encouraging
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attend a joint press conference in Kyiv, Apr. 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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Updated 01 April 2025
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Germany sees Ukraine truce efforts as deadlocked, while China says the talks are encouraging

Germany sees Ukraine truce efforts as deadlocked, while China says the talks are encouraging
  • German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said European allies’ continued support for Ukraine in the war is “absolutely crucial”
  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday that the latest version of the mineral deal remained under discussion

KYIV: Germany’s chief diplomat on Tuesday described US President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure a truce in the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine as deadlocked, while China’s foreign minister said that it was encouraging that the talks between Washington and Moscow on finding a settlement are continuing.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, arriving in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, said that “due to the deadlock” between the US and Russia on forging a ceasefire deal, European allies’ continued support for Ukraine in the war is “absolutely crucial.”
Trump on Sunday scolded Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressing frustration at the continued fighting in a war that he had pledged to swiftly stop.
Trump insisted progress was being made in the negotiations, but said that he would consider imposing further sanctions to put pressure on Moscow and accused Zelensky of trying to back out of a deal with the US on access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday that the latest version of the mineral deal remained under discussion and that Ukraine had conducted its first round of consultations on that version.
Putin has effectively refused a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, despite Trump’s prodding. Also, a partial ceasefire in the Black Sea that could allow safer shipments has fallen foul of conditions imposed by Kremlin negotiators.
“We consider the models and solutions proposed by the Americans quite seriously, but we can’t just accept all of them as they are,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
Moscow is holding out on a deal to ease shipping in the Black Sea in order to “stall efforts toward a general ceasefire and extract additional concessions from the West,” according to an assessment Monday by the Institute for the Washington-based Study of War think tank.
Trump has signaled that he could consider new oil sanctions on Russia — a development Ukraine would view favorably.
“I believe we have reached the point where stronger sanctions are needed, because I believe the Russians are breaking the promises they made to America,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with Baerbock in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“For us, decisive action is crucial. Words are not enough,” Zelensky added. “We are the ones who suffer.”
Putin previously has ruled out a temporary break in hostilities, saying that it would only benefit Ukraine and its Western allies by letting them replenish their arsenals. He has insisted that Moscow wants a comprehensive agreement that would ensure a lasting settlement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Tuesday that a breakthrough in negotiations isn’t imminent.
“The issues that we are discussing in connection with the Ukrainian settlement are quite complex and they require a lot of additional efforts,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
New drone attacks on energy facilities
Meanwhile, deadly attacks by both Russia and Ukraine have continued, and they are gearing up for spring campaigns in their war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.
Overnight, Russia fired no Shahed drones at Ukraine for the first time in more than five months, according to authorities.
But Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, detected no change in Russian strategy.
“For now, this means nothing,” he said on Telegram.
Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of launching new drone attacks on energy facilities in Russia’s Belgorod region and in the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Zelensky accused Russia of failing to uphold its commitment to a ceasefire targeting the energy infrastructure.
“I’ve asked our side to pass information through various institutions about Russia’s breaches of the agreement not to strike energy facilities,” he said, adding that the reports have been sent almost daily. “We’re sharing this information with the United States, and we see that America is beginning to understand it.”
Ukraine’s European backers say they will keep supporting Kyiv’s efforts to defeat Russia’s invasion. Zelensky said a closed-door meeting with military officials from several partner countries will take place Friday to further discuss the possible deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine as a part of future security guarantees.
“It will be the first in-depth meeting... based on proposals prepared by the Ukrainian side,” he said.
‘A fair, long-term, binding peace’
Putin is getting military help from North Korea and Iran.
China, too, has given diplomatic support to Russia and has provided economic help through trade in energy and consumer goods.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a visit to Moscow, was quoted as saying Tuesday that “certain results have been achieved” in Washington’s attempt to stop the war as US-Russia relations have improved under Trump.
Beijing supports the goal of “a fair, long-term, binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties involved,” he said in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
At the start of his meeting with Putin, Wang said they would discuss future relations. “The China-Russia relationship will not stand still, but will only become more and more extensive,” he said.


More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses

More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses
Updated 11 sec ago
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More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses

More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses
  • Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021
  • A local resident confirmed that the Buddhist monastery hall was ‘completely destroyed’
BANGKOK: More than 20 civilians, including children, were killed after a recent air strike on a monastery in central Myanmar, an anti-junta fighter and a resident said Saturday.
Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021, and central Sagaing region has been particularly hard-hit, with the junta pummeling villages with air strikes targeting armed groups.
The most recent occurred around 1:00 am Friday in Lin Ta Lu village when “the monastery hall where internally displaced people were staying” was hit with an air strike, said an anti-junta fighter, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
He said that 22 people were killed, including three children, while two were wounded and remained in critical condition at the hospital.
“They had thought it was safe to stay at a Buddhist monastery,” the anti-junta fighter said. “But they were bombed anyway.”
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
A local resident confirmed that the monastery hall was “completely destroyed,” adding that he saw some bodies loaded into a car and transported to a cemetery at dawn on Friday after the air strike.
He said when he went to the cemetery to take photos to help with identifying the dead, he counted 22 bodies.
“Many of the bodies had head wounds or were torn apart. It was sad to see,” said the resident, who also asked to remain anonymous.
Sagaing region was the epicenter of a devastating magnitude-7.7 quake in March, which left nearly 3,800 people dead and tens of thousands homeless.
After the quake, there was a purported truce between the junta and armed groups, but air strikes and fighting have continued, according to conflict monitors.
In May, an air strike on a school in the village of Oe Htein Kwin in Sagaing killed 20 students and two teachers.

Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two

Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two
Updated 52 min 22 sec ago
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Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two

Russia’s drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine’s west, kills two
  • Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks

KYIV: Russia launched a new barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, targeting the west of the country and killing at least two people in the city of Chernivtsi on the border with Romania.

Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks, and other Ukrainian regions were also hit, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said.

“Russia continues to escalate its terror, launching another barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles, damaging residential areas, killing and injuring civilians,” Sybiha said in a post on X, reiterating the call for stronger sanctions against Moscow.

“Russia’s war machine produces hundreds of means of terror per day.

Its scale poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the entire transatlantic community.” Ruslan Zaparaniuk, the governor of the Chernivetskyi region, said that two people were killed and 14 others wounded as Russian drones and a missile struck the city, located about 40 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Romania.

Several fires broke out across the city, and residential houses and administrative buildings were damaged, regional officials said.

In the city of Lviv, on Ukraine’s border with Poland, 46 residential houses, a university building, the city’s courts, and about 20 buildings housing small and medium-sized businesses were damaged in the attack, mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.


Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills

Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills
Updated 12 July 2025
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Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills

Taiwan deploys advanced US HIMARS rockets in annual drills
  • Two armored trucks with HIMARS were seen maneuvering around the city of Taichung
  • Deployment of weapons on fourth of 10 days of Taiwan’s most comprehensive annual exercises yet

TAICHUNG, Taiwan: Taiwan’s military began deploying one of its newest and most precise strike weapons on Saturday, ahead of live-fire drills meant to showcase the island’s determination to resist any Chinese invasion.

Two armored trucks with HIMARS – High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems – were seen maneuvering around the city of Taichung near Taiwan’s central coast on the fourth of 10 days of its most comprehensive annual exercises yet.

The live-fire portion of the Han Kuang drills is expected next week.

In wartime, said Col. Chen Lian-jia, a military spokesperson, it would be vital to conceal HIMARS from enemy aerial reconnaissance, satellites “or even enemy operatives behind our lines” until the order to fire was given.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has intensified military pressure around the island over the last five years, staging a string of intense war games and daily naval and air force patrols around the territory.

Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, with President Lai Ching-te saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

China’s defense ministry said this week the Han Kuang drills were “nothing but a bluff” while its foreign ministry said its opposition to US-Taiwan military ties was “consistent and very firm.”

Regional military attaches say the HIMARS deployment in a warlike exercise will be closely watched, given that they have been used extensively by Ukraine against Russian forces. Australia has also purchased the Lockheed Martin systems. Taiwan took delivery last year of the first 11 of 29 HIMARS units, testing them for the first time in May. With a range of about 300 kilometers, the weapons could strike coastal targets in China’s southern province of Fujian on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwanese military analysts say the weapon would be used with its locally developed Thunderbolt 2000 launchers so Chinese forces could be targeted as they left port or attempted to land on Taiwan’s coast. A Thunderbolt unit was also seen in a park near the HIMARS units.

Senior Taiwanese military officials say the Han Kuang drills are unscripted and designed to replicate full combat conditions, starting with simulated enemy attacks on communications and command systems, leading to a full-blown invasion scenario.

The drills aim to show China and the international community, including Taiwan’s key weapons supplier the US, that Taiwan is determined to defend itself against any Chinese attack or invasion, the officials say.


Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list

Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list
Updated 12 July 2025
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Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list

Cambodian sites of Khmer Rouge brutality added to UNESCO heritage list
  • The three locations were inscribed to the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday
  • The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site

PHNOM PENH: Three locations used by Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have been added by UNESCO to its World Heritage List.

The three locations were inscribed to the list by the United Nations cultural agency Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.

The inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List lists sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia’s Angkor archaeological complex.

The three sites listed Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalized in a Hollywood film.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, located in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.

The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, also was regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.

Choeung Ek, located about 15 kilometers south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there are the focus of the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.

The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city’s residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighboring Vietnam.

In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $337 million over 16 years but convicted just three men.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.

“May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended,” Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. “From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity.”

Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country is “still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity.” But naming the three sites to the UNESCO list will play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide.

“Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal,” he said.

The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and is among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement Friday.

Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.


Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America

Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America
Updated 12 July 2025
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Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America

Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of Italian mafia in Latin America
  • Italian Giuseppe Palermo, also known as ‘Peppe,’ was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries
  • He was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation

BOGOTA: Colombian authorities said Friday they captured an alleged leader of the Italian ‘ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and managing illegal trafficking routes to Europe.

Police identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as “Peppe,” an Italian who was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries.

He was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, according to an official report.

Palermo is believed to be part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ‘ndrangheta mafia, said Carlos Fernando Triana, head of the Colombian police, in a message posted on X.

The ‘ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful and secretive criminal organizations, has extended its influence abroad and is widely accused of importing cocaine into Europe.

The suspect “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and land routes used to transport the drugs to European markets,” Triana added.

Illegal cocaine production reached 3,708 tons in 2023, an increase of nearly 34 percent from the previous year, driven mainly by the expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, according to the United Nations.