President Donald Trump said Wednesday that envoys were headed to Moscow and expressed optimism for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war but officials said the United States wants Russia to agree an unconditional halt to the conflict.The Kremlin said it was awaiting details of a proposal agreed by Ukrainian and US officials this week, and gave no indication of its readiness to stop fighting that has left tens of thousands dead in the past three years.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country had shown it was ready to embrace a deal, adding that the United States had indicated it would issue a “strong” response if President Vladimir Putin refuses an accord.”People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Ireland’s prime minister Micheal Martin.The White House said that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, a mediator in the Gaza and Ukraine wars, would be in Moscow this week.Trump did not say whether he would speak with Putin, but added that there had been “positive messages” from Moscow. “I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire.”- ‘Horrible bloodbath’ -He said that if fighting could be suspended, “I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington wanted Moscow’s agreement with no strings attached. “That’s what we want to know — if they’re prepared to do it unconditionally,” Rubio said on a plane heading to a G7 meeting in Canada.”If the response is, ‘yes’, then we know we’ve made real progress, and there’s a real chance of peace. If their response is ‘no’, it would be highly unfortunate, and it’ll make their intentions clear,” he added.Rubio was to give an update on the initiative at the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada.While the Kremlin made no immediate comment on the US-Ukraine proposal — which was agreed at a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday — the Russian foreign ministry said earlier this month that a temporary ceasefire would be unacceptable.Trump said he could order “devastating” sanctions against Russia if it refused but added: “I hope that’s not going to be necessary.”- ‘None of us trust the Russians’ -“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump said.The development was the latest dramatic swing in diplomacy swirling around the conflict. It came less than two weeks after Trump kicked Zelensky out of the White House complaining about the Ukrainian leader’s attitude to US assistance.Trump halted military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv but that resumed after Ukraine agreed to the truce proposal on Tuesday.Trump said earlier he was ready to welcome Zelensky back to the White House and may speak to Putin this week.In Kyiv, Zelensky said the United States would pile pressure on Moscow if it did not accept the idea.”I understand that we can count on strong steps. I don’t know the details yet but we are talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters.”Everything depends on whether Russia wants a ceasefire and silence, or it wants to continue killing people,” the Ukrainian leader added.He said there was no faith among Ukrainians that a ceasefire would happen. “I have emphasized this many times, none of us trust the Russians.”Ukraine is increasingly suffering on the battlefield, losing ground in the east and south of the country, where officials said eight people were killed on Wednesday.Russia has also reclaimed territory in its western Kursk region, pushing back Ukrainian troops who staged a shock offensive last August.Putin on Wednesday visited troops involved in the Kursk counteroffensive and received a report on their progress, TV images showed.Ukraine this week unleashed its largest ever drone attack on Russia, killing three people near Moscow. Russia has also stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine.Even if Putin agrees a ceasefire, much remains uncertain in negotiations. Ukraine has pressed for security guarantees, but Trump has ruled out NATO membership.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he earlier assumed Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz would “inform” Moscow “on the negotiations that took place and the understandings reached.”Earlier, Russian news agencies reported that the heads of the CIA and Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency had held their first phone call in several years.burs-jc/tw/bgs/sms

US President Donald Trump’s administration is set to eliminate environmental justice offices that address pollution in low-income and minority communities across the United States, including Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”The move, which will impact the agency’s 10 regional offices and headquarters, was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lee Zeldin on Wednesday.”The problem is that in the name of environmental justice, a fortune has been sent to left-wing activist groups,” Zeldin told reporters. “President Trump wants us to help usher in a golden age in America that is for all Americans, regardless of race, gender, background,” he added.Environmental groups reacted with anger.”President Trump and his allies have no regard for the well-being of people living in America and care only about protecting the profits of polluters,” said Chitra Kumar, of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “This abhorrent move will leave those living, working, studying, and playing near polluting industries, smog-forming traffic, and contaminated waterways and soil, with little support from the very agency they rely on to enforce protective law.”Former president Joe Biden made environmental justice a central pillar of his green agenda. His Justice40 initiative — since rolled back by Trump — aimed to direct 40 percent of federal investments in climate, clean energy, and affordable housing to historically marginalized communities.The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate law, allocated $3 billion to the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which was established under Republican former president George H.W. Bush in 1992.Zeldin’s EPA on Monday announced it was cutting 400 grants totaling $1.7 billion related to environmental justice initiatives. Last week, Trump’s Justice Department also announced it was dropping a lawsuit on behalf of the EPA against Denka Performance Elastomer concerning its neoprene manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. The plant is located in a stretch of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” which accounts for around a quarter of US petrochemical production and has among the highest cancer rates in the country.Zeldin’s EPA plans to cut 65 percent of its budget. “The total amount of spending that was made in 2024 totaled over $60 billion,” he said, referring to the amount appropriated to the agency by the The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “We don’t need that much money. We don’t want that much money. We can operate with less than 35 percent of that amount.”The former Republican congressman said there were a “few hundred” probationary employees that had already departed, and the remaining staff were being asked to justify their positions.”I want to know what every employee would define as their job description, what they believe their job to be, who they believe is their supervisor, what they believe their supervisor’s job is,” he said, adding these answers would help determine the next rounds of staffing cuts. 

A lawyer for disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein called Wednesday for him to be given a “fresh eye” when he is retried for rape and sexual assault.Weinstein, 72, looked frail as he appeared in a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing ahead of a retrial on legal grounds that follows the overturn of his 2020 convictions.The judge has set the date of his retrial for April 15 and previously declined to move proceedings.A lawyer for the former movie mogul, who is in poor health and underwent emergency heart surgery last year, said “you have to be looking at this with a fresh eye.”The judge in the case, Curtis Farber, said “everything is being done anew.” Weinstein, who did not speak at the hearing, is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted on separate rape charges in California.His New York conviction in 2020 was for the rape and sexual assault of an actress and for forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant.He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in that case.But the New York Court of Appeals overturned the conviction.Allegations against Weinstein helped launch the #MeToo movement in 2017, a watershed moment for women fighting sexual misconduct.More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.Weinstein claimed any sexual relations in question were consensual.Another lawyer for Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said Wednesday “what happened was consensual and therefore there is no victim.”Weinstein and his brother Bob co-founded Miramax Films.Their hits included 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” for which Weinstein shared a best picture Oscar.

Mobile games giant Scopely will pay $3.5 billion to acquire Niantic’s game unit including the studio behind Pokemon Go, the companies announced on Wednesday.The purchase will add Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now teams to a Scopely stable that includes popular mobile title Monopoly Go.”We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world,” Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said of Niantic.”We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership.”San Francisco-based Niantic plans to spin off its geospatial artificial intelligence business into a new company led by founder and chief executive John Hanke.Niantic is known for mobile games that combine real-world mapping and exploration with play by synching challenges or accomplishments with locations detected by smartphones.More than 100 million people play Niantic games, according to the company.”We spun out as a small team from Google with a bold vision: to use technology to overlay the world with rich digital experiences,” Niantic said of separating from the internet giant in late 2015.”Our goal: to inspire people to explore their surroundings and foster real-world connections, especially at a time when relationships were becoming increasingly digital.”Niantic sees the rapid advance of AI as an opportunity to put its geospatial technology to work in consumer and business applications along with games.The new company, called Niantic Spatial, is developing a model to enable people and machines to understand and navigate the real world.It will keep some of its augmented reality games including Ingress Prime, and Scopely will be an investor in the enterprise, according to Niantic.Scopely games include Monopoly Go, Marvel Strike Force, and Star Trek Fleet Command.Scopely said the deal, valued at $3.5 billion, will bring it Niantic’s entire team of game makers.