US envoy Witkoff briefs UN Security Council on Gaza, other issues

US envoy Steve Witkoff briefed members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday about various topics, including Gaza, participants in the closed-door talks said.The informal meeting in New York came a day after Witkoff was formally sworn in as President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East.At the swearing-in ceremony, Trump teased a “very, very big announcement” to come before his multi-nation visit to the Middle East next week, without providing details.Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer and close Trump ally, has been acting as lead US negotiator on several major disputes, including the Israel-Hamas war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and  Iran’s nuclear program.After the meeting Wednesday, ambassadors from the UN Security Council’s 14 other members declined to give details of Witkoff’s remarks.”It was confidential,” Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said.Panamanian Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba called it “an informal meeting, it was very interesting, about various subjects, not only Gaza.”Since Trump’s return to office in January there has not been a permanent US ambassador to the UN, making it difficult for council members to stay abreast of American positions on various issues, some diplomats have said.Witkoff also met separately on Wednesday with Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon.Danon said afterward they had an “important discussion about the regional issues.””We will continue to cooperate with our strongest ally, the United States,” he added.

Pakistan warns will ‘avenge’ deaths from Indian strikes

Pakistan has warned it will “avenge” those killed by Indian air strikes that New Delhi said were in response to an attack in Kashmir, signalling an imminent escalation in the worst violence in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours.At least 43 deaths have been reported so far, with Islamabad saying 31 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, and New Delhi adding at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.”We make this pledge, that we will avenge each drop of the blood of these martyrs,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in an address to the nation late Wednesday.India’s army said it destroyed nine “terrorist camps” in Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday, two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on tourists in the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir — a charge Pakistan denies.Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said five Indian jets had been downed across the border.An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.The two sides have exchanged heavy artillery fire along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, which both countries claim in full but administer separately. The South Asian neighbours have fought two full-scale wars over the divided territory since they were carved out of the sub-continent after gaining independence from British rule in 1947.”There were terrible sounds during the night, there was panic among everyone,” said Muhammad Salman, who lives close to a mosque in Pakistan-administered Kashmir that was hit by an Indian strike.”We are moving to a safer place… we are homeless now,” added 24-year-old Tariq Mir, who was hit in the leg by shrapnel. India said that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory”.Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to “shore up” his domestic popularity, adding that Islamabad “won’t take long to settle the score”.- ‘People are fleeing’ -On Wednesday night, the Pakistani military spokesman said firing was “ongoing” at the Line of Control and that Islamabad would take retaliatory action against the air strikes.Chaudhry reiterated Pakistan’s “right to respond, in self-defence, at time, place, and manner of its choosing,” adding that the armed forces had been “authorised” to do so by the government. The largest Indian strike was on an Islamic seminary near the Punjab city of Bahawalpur, killing 13 people, according to the Pakistan military. A government health and education complex in Muridke, 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Lahore, was blown apart, along with the mosque in Muzaffarabad — the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir — killing its caretaker.Four children were among those killed in Wednesday’s attacks, according to the Pakistan military. Pakistan also said a hydropower plant in Kashmir was targeted by India, damaging a dam structure, after India threatened to stop the flow of water on its side of the border.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the operation was New Delhi’s “right to respond” following the attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir last month. Pakistan has denied any involvement in that assault, which killed 26 people, mainly Hindu men, on April 22.In Muzaffarabad, United Nations military observers arrived to inspect the mosque that Islamabad said was struck by India. Residents collected damaged copies of the Koran from among concrete, wood, and iron debris.In Indian-administered Kashmir, residents fled in panic from the Pakistani shelling.”There was firing from Pakistan, which damaged the houses and injured many,” said Wasim Ahmed, 29, from Salamabad village. “People are fleeing.” – Calls for restraint -India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the Pahalgam attack, which it blamed on Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.The two nations had traded days of threats and tit-for-tat diplomatic measures, and Pakistan conducted two missile tests.The Indian army has reported nightly gunfire along the heavily militarised Line of Control since April 24.Diplomats and world leaders have piled pressure on both countries to step back from the brink.”The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said.On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for a halt to the fighting, adding: “If I can do anything to help, I will be there.”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected in New Delhi late on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate. Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames Pakistan for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.burs-pjm-aha/sst

US Fed pauses rate cuts again and warns of inflation, unemployment risks

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced another pause in rate cuts and warned of higher risks to its inflation and unemployment goals in a likely reference to President Donald Trump’s tariff rollout.Policymakers voted unanimously to hold the US central bank’s key lending rate at between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent, the Fed said in a statement.Speaking to reporters in Washington after the decision was published, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there was “a great deal of uncertainty” about where the Trump administration’s tariff policies will end up. The US president introduced steep levies last month on China and lower “baseline” levies of 10 percent on goods from most other countries, sparking weeks of turbulence in the financial markets. The White House also slapped higher tariffs on dozens of other trading partners and then abruptly paused them until July to give the United States time to renegotiate existing trade arrangements.Many analysts have warned that the administration’s actions will likely push up inflation and unemployment while slowing growth — at least in the short run.That could complicate the path towards rate cuts for the Fed, which has a dual mandate to act independently of political pressure to keep inflation at two percent over the longer term, and the unemployment rate as low as possible. – ‘A really difficult choice’ -The Fed said Wednesday that “swings in net exports” did not appear to have affected the solid economic activity — a nod to the pre-tariff surge in imports in the first quarter ahead of the introduction of Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.Wall Street stocks closed higher following the Fed’s decision.The “hard” economic data published in recent weeks points towards an economic slowdown, while the unemployment rate has hovered close to historic lows, and the inflation rate has trended towards the Fed’s two percent target.However, the “softer” economic survey data have pointed to a sharp drop-off in consumer confidence and growing expectations of higher inflation over the longer term — in contrast to the market’s inflation expectations, which remain relatively well-anchored.”All the hard data are backward looking,” former Fed economist Rodney Ramcharan told AFP on Wednesday. “And all the soft data that they’re getting…those data look pretty bad.””The Fed doesn’t have a lot of good options in front of them,” added Ramcharan, now a professor of finance at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. “It’s a really difficult choice.”- Rate cuts delayed – Powell was also asked about the recent public criticism leveled at him and the Fed by senior government officials — including the president, who has called for him to cut rates to boost economic growth.An upbeat Powell said Trump’s criticism didn’t affect the Fed’s job of tackling inflation and unemployment “at all.””We are always going to consider only the economic data, the outlook, the balance of risks, and that’s it,” he added. Following the April tariff rollout, many analysts pared back or delayed their expectation of rate cuts for this year, predicting that tariffs will push up prices and slow growth — at least in the short run.  “The best course of action for the FOMC may simply be to wait for more clarity about trade policy and its implications for the U.S. economy,” Wells Fargo chief economist Jay Bryson wrote in an investor note after the decision was published by the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.”While the Fed is, and should be, focused on the fragility of inflation expectations, we expect that by late summer labor market weakness will prompt a policy response,” JPMorgan chief economist Michael Feroli wrote in a note to clients, penciling in a first rate cut for September. 

New accuser testifies against Weinstein in New York retrial

A Polish model testified Wednesday against fallen film mogul Harvey Weinstein in his retrial on sex assault charges, the first time the woman claiming the former Miramax boss forced oral sex on her has been heard in criminal court.Kaja Sokola, 39, alleges that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in spring 2006 in a Manhattan hotel, claims the former cinema scion denies.While the other accusers in the New York case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial, Sokola is being heard for the first time.The accounts of the other two women helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted as Weinstein faces a new trial in New York.Weinstein’s 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.The former Miramax studio boss is charged in the New York retrial with the 2006 sexual assault of Haley and the 2013 rape of Mann, as well as the assault on Sokola.He was in court Wednesday, pushed to the defense bench in a wheelchair to which he was handcuffed until he was unshackled by one of the two court officers guarding him.He leaned back in his chair as Sokola entered the courtroom and swore an oath, listening intently to her recall her experience which was not shared with the jury at his initial trial in 2020.Prosecutor Shannon Lucey walked Sokola through her education and first forays into modeling, showing the court several shots of her as a teen adorning magazine spreads, before touching on how she came to New York in 2002 to work. Her testimony will continue Thursday.Weinstein — the producer of box office hits such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” — has never acknowledged any wrongdoing.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.

C1: Fabian Ruiz, version champion d’Europe

A l’image de son but fantastique, le milieu du Paris SG Fabian Ruiz a livré une prestation digne de celles qui ont aidé l’Espagne à être championne d’Europe, mercredi en demi-finale retour de Ligue des champions contre Arsenal au Parc des Princes (2-1).Fabian Ruiz est-il si pressé d’être champion d’Europe en club, comme il l’a été un an plus tôt avec sa sélection ? C’était l’impression que donnait sa demi-volée surpuissante depuis l’extérieur de la surface, légèrement déviée par William Saliba, et propulsée dans le petit filet gauche de David Raya (27e).Ruiz a profité d’une tête défensive de Thomas Partey sur un coup franc de Vitinha pour récupérer le ballon, et se l’emmener d’une pichenette astucieuse hors de portée de la défense, avant de faire parler le fouet de son pied gauche.Une rage de buteur qui a rappelé son Euro-2024 en Allemagne, inauguré par un but sur un beau slalom dans la surface contre la Croatie (3-0), puis poursuivi par une place de titulaire indiscutable, et une tête pour faire passer l’Espagne devant contre la Géorgie (4-1).Mais Ruiz a tardé à gagner une place de titulaire cette saison, face au robuste Warren Zaïre-Emery. Il a profité d’une blessure à la cheville du titi parisien au coeur de l’hiver pour s’imposer.“J’ai fait un très bon Euro, je me sentais très bien”, expliquait-il en février. “Mais à Paris, j’ai commencé plus tard avec le groupe, et n’ai pas eu le temps de faire une pré-saison. Mais ça va de mieux en mieux”.Car dans l’absolu, “c’est assez similaire entre la sélection et ici, ce sont des idées de jeu semblables avec la possession du ballon”, avait-il confié.- “Un joueur rare” -Dont acte. Mercredi, sa technique sûre, sa vision du jeu et son solide gabarit (1,89m) ont aussi fait merveille pour aider le PSG a mettre le pied sur le ballon après l’assaut des Gunners en début de match. Par exemple, mis sous pression par Declan Rice et Thomas Partey à la 52e minute, il a calmement et adroitement reculé d’un mètre pour conserver le ballon et contrôler le rythme.Idem huit minutes plus tard: à la suite d’un coup franc d’Arsenal dégagé par la défense, Ruiz a parfaitement protégé son ballon pour neutraliser la pression adverse, dans une zone critique. Et quelques instants plus tard, après une perte de balle coupable de Désiré Doué dans l’axe, c’est lui qui reprend le cuir pour lancer en profondeur, d’une chandelle, Bradley Barcola qui n’en fera rien.Son entraîneur Luis Enrique avait confié avoir regretté de ne pas l’avoir emmené, lorsqu’il était sélectionneur, au Mondial-2022. L’Espagne était alors sortie par la petite porte, aux tirs aux buts en huitième de finale contre le Maroc.Il a retenu la leçon et ne tarit désormais pas d’éloges à propos de Ruiz: “C’est l’un des rares joueurs qui joue en fonction de ce que font les autres, capable de combler les espaces. Il a un bagage, une expérience.”La lenteur de ce brun longiligne, jugée rédhibitoire la saison dernière, passe cette saison pour de la tranquillité, précieuse au sein d’un effectif jeune. Au sommet de sa carrière à 29 ans, Fabian Ruiz rayonne en plein coeur d’une des meilleurs équipes du continent.

With Pakistan-India, Trump turns back to cautious US diplomacy

President Donald Trump has been shaking up how the United States does business in the world. But with the violence between Pakistan and India, Trump has marked a return to a traditional, and even cautious, diplomacy.The United States across successive administrations has sought to build ties with India and Trump voiced solidarity after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 26 people in  Indian-administered Kashmir, nearly all Hindus.Trump did not criticize India after it carried out retaliatory strikes against Pakistan but has pleaded for a quick resolution.”It’s so terrible,” Trump said Wednesday. “I get along with both. I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop.”India briefed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also interim national security advisor, on the overnight strikes. After the Kashmir attack, Rubio spoke to Pakistan’s prime minister to urge condemnation and cooperation but also asked India’s foreign minister to avoid escalation.Lisa Curtis, who was the National Security Council senior director on South Asia during Trump’s first term, said the United States remained unique in its influence on both sides.”There are other countries that are worried and may be in touch with their Indian and Pakistani counterparts, but when it comes down to it, it is the role and responsibility of the United States to help the countries find a face-saving way out of the crisis,” said Curtis, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also ordered strikes after a deadly attack, which was against soldiers rather than civilians.Mike Pompeo, then Trump’s secretary of state, later said that he defused tensions after an Indian official contacted him to voice suspicion that Pakistan was readying a nuclear strike.”I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration,” Pompeo wrote in his memoir.- Leverage with Pakistan -India blames Islamabad for the attack and points to remarks beforehand by Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir who called Kashmir — the Muslim-majority Himalayan region divided between the powers — as Pakistan’s “jugular vein.”Pakistan denies responsibility for the attack.Former president Joe Biden had little patience for Pakistan, keeping it at arm’s length as he fumed over Islamabad’s role in the two-decade Afghanistan war.Pakistan was stunned late in Biden’s term when his deputy national security advisor, Jon Finer, called its long-range missiles “an emerging threat” to the United States, Islamabad’s Cold War-era military partner.Trump on returning to the White House quickly invited Modi but Pakistan has also reached out, arresting a purported perpetrator of the 2021 suicide bombing in Kabul on US troops, with Trump trumpeting the move in an address to Congress.”One of the motivating factors for Pakistan to de-escalate this situation is in order to have a better relationship with the United States,” Curtis said.Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the United States faced a dilemma on its public stance.”If the United States government were to be seen as either unsupportive of India or interfering in any way in Kashmir, it would be a serious setback to the US-India partnership. But the risk of escalation between two nuclear-armed neighbors is also real,” she wrote in an essay.- Placing priorities -Trump has largely sidelined career diplomats since his return, relying on his friend Steve Witkoff to crisscross the globe.Trump has so far failed in his quest to quickly end the Ukraine war and Israel has ended a Gaza ceasefire with Hamas, with Witkoff still pursuing diplomacy with Iran and recently reaching a deal with Yemen’s Huthi rebels.”The Trump administration has several global crises to deal with currently and would like to avoid another one right now,” said Aparna Pande, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.”The Trump administration would also like the focus to remain on trade and commerce and the competition with China and any conflict detracts India, a partner in this endeavor, away from these efforts,” she said.

Ex-US police officers acquitted in beating death of Black motorist

Three former Memphis police officers were found not guilty of all charges Wednesday in the beating death of a Black motorist that sparked calls for police reform, local media reported.Five Black police officers were charged in connection with the January 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed.The five officers, members of a since-disbanded special anti-crime squad called the Scorpion Unit, were captured on video beating Nichols during a traffic stop near his home in the Tennessee city of Memphis.He died at a hospital three days later.Two of the officers pleaded guilty to state and federal charges while the three others — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — chose to go to trial.A jury acquitted Bean, Haley and Smith on Wednesday of all of the state charges they faced, including the most serious charge of second-degree murder, the Commercial Appeal reported.The Memphis newspaper said the mostly white jury deliberated for eight and a half hours before delivering the not guilty verdict.Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, prominent civil rights attorneys who have represented the Nichols family, condemned the verdict as a “devastating miscarriage of justice.””Tyre’s life was stolen, and his family was denied the justice they so deeply deserve,” they said in a statement. “We are outraged, and we know we are not alone.”Bean, Haley and Smith have already been convicted of federal charges including witness tampering and could face up to 20 years in prison. Haley was also convicted of using excessive force.Sentencing was delayed until the conclusion of the state trial.The two other former Memphis police officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills, reached plea agreements in the state and federal cases in which they pleaded guilty to using excessive force and witness tampering.Then-vice president Kamala Harris attended Nichols’s funeral and his relatives were invited to president Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in Washington.