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By taking over the Balkan’s largest refinery from Lukoil, Bulgaria has for now avoided punishing US sanctions against the Russian oil giant, which enter into force on Friday.But what comes next for the crucial refinery on the outskirts of Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Burgas is uncertain.- Why has Sofia stepped in? -On October 22, Washington announced it would impose sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil to stifle the financing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that started in 2022.Among European Union members, Bulgaria took the hardest hit from the measure as it hosts Lukoil’s largest refinery in the Balkans. Lukoil has owned the Neftochim plant since 1999.Bulgarian authorities said the US sanctions would effectively shut the refinery down as all business partners have refused to pay companies sheltered by Lukoil.In a move aimed at preventing such an outcome, Bulgaria’s parliament on November 7 adopted legal changes to place all Lukoil assets in the country under state control.Last week, the government named senior government official Rumen Spetsov, who was the National Revenue Agency director and is also a former bodybuilding champion, to take control of the refinery.Just after that, the US Treasury Department issued a license authorising transactions involving certain Lukoil entities in Bulgaria — including the refinery — until April 29 next year.- Why does the refinery matter?  -The Burgas refinery plays a key economic role for Bulgaria. It is the largest company in the poorest EU member with turnover of 4.68 billion euros ($5.39 billion) in 2024.Lukoil is the dominant force in Bulgaria’s wholesale fuel market as well as in sales to end-customers owing to its large network of petrol stations. Its presence in Bulgaria made it “a key part of Russian influence”, said Martin Vladimirov, an expert at the Sofia-based think-tank CSD.But Lukoil’s importance goes well beyond Bulgaria’s borders, he added, describing the company as “effectively a market maker for the whole of southeast Europe”.”It is no coincidence that fuel prices in Romania are rising, as the refinery in Bulgaria plays a key role in supplying the Romanian market,” Vladimirov told AFP.And “Romania is a major distribution hub for the region -– Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Austria,” he added.- What’s next? -Bulgaria has given free rein to administrator Spetsov to sell the refinery with the government’s consent.The US has set a December 13 deadline to find a buyer, with the potential contract subject to Washington’s approval.”The situation is stable for the moment” in terms of supply, Vladimirov said.But for its part, Lukoil on Wednesday called on Bulgarian authorities not to interfere with its efforts to sell its assets in the country, warning it “reserves the right to seek judicial remedies to protect its rights and legitimate interests”.Lukoil’s parent company sheltering its foreign units is based in Vienna, and if Lukoil decides to sell it, Sofia would lose control over the refinery, said a Bulgarian government source.In late October, Lukoil said it had accepted an offer from Geneva-based oil trading group Gunvor, which Washington has described as “the Kremlin’s puppet”.The bid was then pulled back immediately.

New York’s incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, after an exchange of barbs that has seized national attention.Mamdani, a 34-year-old political insurgent who came from nowhere to win leadership of America’s biggest city, said Thursday he was “ready for whatever happens.”Sparks could fly when the self-declared Democratic Socialist comes face-to-face with the 79-year-old Republican. Trump brands Mamdani a “communist” and has suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported.”It speaks volumes that (Friday) we have a communist coming to the White House,” Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.Both men are from the Queens area of New York City and both have a talent for political messaging, but with vastly different styles.Trump has threatened to make life difficult for the young political upstart.The Republican, whose presidency revolves around harsh anti-immigrant policies, has derided Mamdani’s South Asian name.More seriously for New York, Trump is threatening cuts to the city’s federal funding alongside national guard deployments like those to other Democratic cities once Mamdani, set to be the first Muslim mayor, takes office.- One million-plus votes -Mamdani was elected after a campaign focused on the often crippling expenses facing New Yorkers and promising innovative  — if untested — measures like rent freezes, free buses and experimental city-run grocery stores.Virtually unknown at the start of the campaign, he became the first mayoral candidate to surpass the one-million-vote mark in New York since 1969.But he has also been careful to placate centrists.He named incumbent police commissioner Jessica Tisch — seen as a safe pair of hands and reportedly popular with rank-and-file officers — as his pick to run the police department. He also named veteran bureaucrat Dean Fuleihan, 74, as his first deputy mayor.While campaigning, the leftist leader positioned himself as part of the anti-Trump resistance. Since then, Mamdani has struck a more conciliatory tone, stressing his desire to work with Trump on the cost of living.”It’s more critical than ever, given the national crisis of affordability, one that New Yorkers know very well…and the specific challenge many cities are facing in balancing public safety and steps taken by this administration,” Mamdani said in front of City Hall on Thursday.While noting that he and Trump had “many disagreements,” Mamdani said that he would “pursue all avenues and meetings that can make our city affordable.”He added that it was customary for a newly elected New York mayor to meet the US president.”Look for the outcome of that meeting to be something to the effect of, ‘I think I can work with (him) — but we will see how it goes and I’m hopeful — we both want the city to succeed’,” said Syracuse University politics professor Grant Reeher. – ‘Turn the volume up’ -Oval Office meetings with Trump can be perilous affairs, with the president using the impressive setting to ambush both US and foreign visitors, notably including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Columbia University political analyst Lincoln Mitchell warned that Mamdani could walk into a Zelensky-like situation, where Trump watched his vice president, JD Vance, censure the wartime Ukrainian leader in front of the world’s media.”It certainly could — you could see Vance just picking at him,” he told AFP.During his acceptance speech on winning the mayor’s chair, Mamdani looked down the camera and said: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you — turn the volume up!”The White House confirmed that Trump had been watching.

In Washington’s embassy district, years’ worth of wildly overgrown vegetation outside an empty building was finally pruned away in September as the flag of Syria was raised.The symbolic reopening of the compound after 11 years of closure serves as a reminder that a number of buildings in the area of Washington called Kalorama are in a state of sad abandon, thanks to the violent jolts of world diplomacy.Since the embassy of Afghanistan closed a few months after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, its mailbox outside has been filled with yellowing newspapers.And not far away, weeds grow in the parking lot of a mansion that used to house the Russian trade delegation in Washington. The State Department ordered it closed in reprisal for Russia’s alleged attempt to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.The Syrian Embassy was shut down by the US government in 2014 after three years of civil war. Now, in principle at least, it can reopen.The Trump administration announced this on November 10 after a White House visit by Syria’s new president Ahmed al-Sharaa, the formerly blacklisted jihadist who led the ouster of Assad in late 2024.- Angry neighbors -But the building is in such bad shape it could take years to get it up and running again, former Syrian diplomat Bassam Barabandi told AFP.Barabandi left his post in 2013 after it emerged that he had secretly made passports for people opposed to the Assad regime.He recalled that even back then, before he left, areas of the building had been partially condemned.”So, just imagine,” he said, of its state now.Down the street, the overgrown hedges outside the abandoned ambassador’s residence were sometimes trimmed by gardeners employed by wealthy neighbors irked by the unsightliness.A utility company notice of gas being cut off still hangs from the front door knob.A few buildings away, near a mansion owned by Barack and Michelle Obama, the embassy of Afghanistan stands.”So one day it was there. The next day it just was, it was gone,” said US postal worker Trina Thompson, who has done rounds in the neighborhood for 25 years.That was in March 2022 and then-deputy ambassador Abdul Hadi Nejrabi watched it all. It was he who handed the keys to the embassy back to the US government.Kabul had fallen to the Taliban seven months earlier and Hadi Nejrabi and his diplomatic colleagues represented a government that no longer existed.Soon their bank accounts were frozen and they were no longer paid.The embassy was still offering consular services to Afghan citizens but “we reached a point the State Department officially asked us to close the embassy and just hand over the keys,” Hadi Nejrabi told AFP.A team from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions went to the embassy to oversee the closure.”We checked every room, and then we just came out and we locked the door and I just gave the key,” the former diplomat said.It is this State Department section which is responsible for the upkeep of other countries’ embassies.Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, states are supposed to respect and protect other countries’ embassies in cases where diplomatic relations are severed.- ‘Border on theft’ -The State Department lists 29 such buildings which it is supposed to be looking after: three associated with Afghanistan, six with Venezuela, and 11 with Iran — these three countries have no relations with the United States now. But the list also features three buildings for China and six Russian ones.The buildings now off limits to the Russians include consulates in San Francisco and Seattle and a massive compound in Maryland.They were closed in a spat of tit for tat reprisals after the 2016 election won by Donald Trump.The Russian Embassy told AFP these closures are illegal under the Vienna Convention and “border on theft.””While property rights of the Russian Federation for these six objects are recognized and have not been challenged by the US side, continuously denying access for Russian diplomats even to inspect the grounds and buildings is preposterous, cementing the bilateral relations’ ‘toxic legacy’ of previous years.”Elsewhere in Kalorama the embassy of Iran has stood empty since 1980, after the Islamic revolution that ousted the US-backed shah.The squat, blue-domed building used to host fancy receptions for the Washington diplomatic crowd. But unlike the Syrian embassy, it looks far from reopening as US-Iran tensions remain fierce.

Ukraine would give up a swathe of eastern territory to Russia and slash the size of its army under a sweeping 28-point peace plan backed by US President Donald Trump, according to a draft obtained by AFP.Kyiv would also pledge never to join NATO, and would not get the Western peacekeepers they have called for, although European warplanes would be stationed in Poland to protect Ukraine.A US official told AFP the draft plan includes a powerful security guarantee for Kyiv, modeled on NATO rules, which would commit the US and European allies to respond to any attack on Ukraine.Russia would meanwhile be readmitted to the G8 group of nations and be rewarded with sanctions relief under the plan, which US officials said was still a “working document.”The proposal involves major concessions by Kyiv, which has previously refused to cede any land, while appearing to meet many of Moscow’s maximalist demands following its 2022 invasion.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected to discuss the plan with Trump “in coming days.” He said any deal must bring a “dignified peace” that respected Kyiv’s sovereignty.The White House denied reports it had cooked up the proposal with Moscow, saying envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been “quietly” working with both sides for the past month.”The president supports this plan. It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.Trump himself would preside over a “peace council” to oversee the ceasefire, similar to the one proposed for the Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas, according to the plan.- Territory – Key parts of the proposal correspond to Moscow’s previous demands and cross Ukraine’s red lines.These include that Ukraine would withdraw from the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, the frontline industrial belt known collectively as the Donbas that Ukraine still partly holds.The two regions and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, “will be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States,” while a demilitarized zone would be created in the Donbas.The war-torn southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — which Russia falsely claims to have annexed — will be “frozen along the line of contact,” it said.Russia’s army occupies around a fifth of Ukraine — much of it ravaged by years of fighting.- Ukraine security – Ukraine had been hoping for European-led peacekeepers but Russia’s refusal to accept any such force also wins out in the plan.NATO would agree not to station troops in Ukraine, while the country would be barred from joining NATO by both its own constitution and the alliance’s statutes.Kyiv meanwhile would reduce its army by a little less than half, to 600,000 personnel.In return, Ukraine would receive “reliable security guarantees,” the plan says without specifying, but “European fighter jets” would be stationed in neighboring Poland.Ukraine would also have to hold elections in 100 days — a further Russian demand and one echoed by Trump, who called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier this year.Amid a spiralling corruption scandal in Ukraine that has claimed the jobs of two ministers, Kyiv had meanwhile removed language about an audit of foreign aid and replaced it with a call for a “full amnesty,” a senior US official told AFP.- G8 return for Russia? – Under the proposal, Russia would be “reintegrated into the global economy” and be allowed back into the G8, from which it was expelled in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.Sanctions would snap back if it invades Ukraine again.Yet Russia meanwhile faces few military restrictions under the plan, which says only that “it is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries.”The contents of the proposal plan have fuelled suggestions that Moscow was involved in drafting it. “It seems that the Russians proposed this to the Americans, they accepted it,” a senior Ukrainian source told AFP.But US officials insisted all sides were involved. Zelensky also met a Pentagon delegation headed by US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll in Kyiv on Thursday.The timing has also raised questions, coming as the corruption row rattles Zelensky and Russia pushes forward with its grinding offensive.On the ground, Russia claimed Thursday to have recaptured the key city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine — which Kyiv denied — as Putin visited an army command post to speak with officers.A Russian strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Thursday killed five people and wounded three others, emergency services said.Since returning to the White House, Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.He rowed with Zelensky in the Oval Office in February but has also shown increasing frustration with Putin after a summit in Alaska produced no results.burs-dk/sla/jgc

A Mexican court sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison for her involvement in the April 2024 killings of two Australian surfers and an American at a surfing hotspot in Baja California, judicial authorities said Thursday.The victims were Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and Jack Carter Rhoad, a 30-year-old US citizen. The three had been camping in a remote beachside area when they were killed in what investigators believe was an attempt to steal their pickup truck.A Mexican judge in Ensenada sentenced Ary Gisell Silva, 23, who admitted during the trial that she had instigated and participated in the robbery of the tourists’ belongings, which subsequently led to the murder of the three surfers.”They have good phones and good tires” on their truck, the young woman allegedly told her three accomplices before they committed the murder, according to evidence gathered in the prosecutor’s investigation.Silva was found guilty of crimes related to “violent robbery,” according to the ruling published Thursday in the public records of the judicial authority of Baja California, bordering the United States.According to evidence presented by the prosecution, Silva was the first to make contact with the tourists and noticed they had valuables. That prompted her to urge her boyfriend and the other two men to commit the robbery.The three other individuals have already been arrested and charged with murder, but they are being tried in separate proceedings.The surfers were reported missing on April 27, 2024, while camping in Ensenada, where they had traveled from the United States to surf.According to the prosecution, the assailants “intentionally surprised the surfers and shot them with firearms, taking their lives on Sunday, April 28.”The crime caused great indignation and sadness in their home countries, where an intense search campaign was launched in the media and on social networks. The bodies were found on May 3, 2024, hidden in a cliff.Other foreign tourists visiting the Mexican Pacific region had already been targets of criminal attacks.In November 2015, two other Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered and their bodies later burned while traveling through the state of Sinaloa.

Towering stacks of oversized saucers and furniture fit for giants are some of the treasures on display in Los Angeles at a new exhibition of the work of Robert Therrien.The landmark showing at The Broad is the largest ever museum exhibition of the late artist’s oeuvre.With more than 120 works created over five decades, the show offers visitors the chance to explore both the intimate sketches and the large-scale work of one of Los Angeles’ most celebrated artists.”There’s a lot of works in this show that are sort of an environmental headspace,” Paul Cherwick, co-director of the Robert Therrien Estate, told AFP.”Being under those tables…where it takes you in that area of like remembering being a different size and scale.”Your…perceptions are altered.
”Therrien, who died in 2019 at the age of 71, bucked the minimalist trend in sculpture during the late 20th century, reimagining the mundane as gigantic immersive artworks.Museum managers promise visitors will be able to walk under the huge table and chairs, marvel at enormous hanging beards, and wonder at the stacks of pans huddled in a human-sized cupboard.Ed Schad, curator at The Broad, said the sheer size of some of the exhibits had an almost visceral effect on the viewer.”Sometimes things are bigger than us, sometimes things are smaller than us, but that impacts us physically, but it also impacts us psychologically,” he said.”So when I look at this table and chairs, I think of those experiences from our childhood that might still loom very large for us.””Robert Therrien: This is a Story” runs at The Broad until April 5. 

A self-portrait by legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $54.66 million in New York on Thursday, setting a new record for the price of a painting by a woman, the auction house Sotheby’s said.The sale of Kahlo’s 1940 artwork, titled “El sueno (la cama)” — which translates to “The dream (The bed)” — breaks the previous record in this category, set by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, whose 1932 painting “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” sold for $44.4 million in 2014.Kahlo’s painting is “the most valuable work by a woman artist ever sold at auction,” Sotheby’s said in a post on X. The auction house said Kahlo’s work was “painted in 1940 during a pivotal decade in her career, marked by her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera.”Kahlo’s self-portrait went on the auction block at Sotheby’s with an estimated price ranging from $40 million to $60 million.The buyer’s name was not disclosed. The artwork depicts the artist sleeping in a bed that appears to float among clouds in the sky, laying beneath a skeleton with legs that are wrapped with sticks of dynamite. This painting is a “very personal” image, in which Kahlo “merges folkloric motifs from Mexican culture with European surrealism,” Anna Di Stasi, head of Latin American art at Sotheby’s, told AFP. The Mexican artist, who passed away in 1954 at age of 47, “did not completely agree” with her work being associated with the surrealist movement, Di Stasi said. However, “given this magnificent iconography, it seems entirely appropriate to include it” in this movement.The record-setting sale came two nights the New York auction house reeled in another record sale, with a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt fetching $236.4 million on the block — the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” which he painted between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of his main patron dressed in a white imperial Chinese dress, standing before a blue tapestry with Asian-inspired motifs.  The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the “Salvator Mundi,” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for $450 million in 2017. 

The US health agency has updated its official website to reflect the vaccine skepticism of a senior Trump official, a move that medical and public health experts widely condemned.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late Wednesday revised its site with language that undermines its previous, scientifically grounded position that immunizations do not cause the developmental disability autism.Years of research demonstrate that there is no causal link between vaccinations and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.But Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nation’s health chief, has long voiced anti-vaccine rhetoric and inaccurate claims connecting the two.The CDC webpage on vaccines and autism had previously stated that studies show “no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder,” citing a body of high-quality research including a 2013 study from the agency itself.That text reflects medical and scientific consensus, including guidance from the World Health Organization.But the changes rebuke it. The website now asserts that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”The revised language accuses health authorities of having “ignored” research supporting a link and said the US health department “has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism.”A purported connection between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism stems from a flawed study published in 1998, which was retracted for including falsified data. Its results have not been replicated and are refuted by subsequent research.Amid the site rewrite, one header remained: “Vaccines do not cause Autism.”A footnote explains that the line wasn’t cut due to an agreement Kennedy had made with the Republican Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor and senator from the southern state of Louisiana who chairs the Senate committee focused on health.Cassidy on Thursday insisted on vaccine safety and efficacy in a post on X. He did not name Kennedy, but said “any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.””What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism,” he said.- ‘Do not trust this agency’ -The CDC website edits were met with anger and fear by career scientists and other public health figures who have spent years combatting such false information, including from within the agency.”Staff are very worried and upset about everything happening surrounding vaccines,” a CDC union member, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, told AFP.Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University’s Center for Autism Research Excellence, called the changes “terribly disturbing.””I feel like we are going back to the Dark Ages. I feel like we are undermining science by tying it to people’s political agendas,” the psychologist told AFP.”We’re going to see a significant increase in these childhood diseases.”Demetre Daskalakis — the former director of the agency’s arm focused on immunization and respiratory diseases, who resigned earlier this year in protest — was unequivocal: “DO NOT TRUST THIS AGENCY.”And Susan Kressly, president of American Academy of Pediatrics, said “we call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”Pointing to “40 high-quality studies,” she said that “the conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism.”The anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense meanwhile praised the revisions. The organization’s CEO Mary Holland said “thank you, Bobby” on X.Kennedy is the founder and former chairman of the nonprofit.

Ukraine would give up the eastern Donbas region to Russia under a 28-point peace plan backed by US President Donald Trump, according to a draft obtained Thursday by AFP.Kyiv would also agree to limit its army to 600,000 personnel, and while European fighter jets would be based in Poland to protect Ukraine, no NATO troops would be stationed in Ukraine.Russia would meanwhile be readmitted to the G8 group of nations and be integrated back into the global economy under the plan, which US officials said was still a “working document.””The president supports this plan. It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been “quietly” working on the plan with both Russia and Ukraine for around a month, Leavitt said.She rejected concerns that the plan echoes many of Moscow’s maximalist demands.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected to discuss the plan with Trump “in coming days.” He said any deal must bring a “dignified peace” with “respect for our independence, our sovereignty.”Zelensky also met a Pentagon delegation headed by US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll in Kyiv.Here are the details of the US plan: – Territory –   Under the document seen by AFP, “Crimea, Lugansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States.”Kyiv still partly holds Lugansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas industrial belt on the front line of the war. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.Areas from which Ukraine has withdrawn in Donetsk would be deemed a demilitarized zone which Russian forces will not enter, according to the plan.The southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — which Russia falsely claims to have annexed — will be “frozen along the line of contact,” it said.The plan for Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia corresponds to Moscow’s previous demands.Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, would be supervised by the International Atomic Energy Authority and the electricity it produces be shared between Russia and Ukraine, the plan says.Russia’s army occupies around a fifth of Ukraine — much of it ravaged by years of fighting, particularly in the east.Ukraine has previously said it will never recognize Russian control over its land, but has conceded it might be forced to get it back through diplomatic means.- Ukraine security – The US-backed plan calls for Ukraine to reduce its army to 600,000 personnel, according to the draft.NATO would agree not to station troops in Ukraine — dashing Kyiv’s hopes for a European peacekeeping force — and the country would be barred from joining NATO by both its own constitution and the alliance’s statutes.That fits with previous Russian demands that have been made public and goes against what Ukraine has cast as red lines.Ukraine would receive “reliable security guarantees,” the plan says without specifying. But European jets would be stationed in neighboring Poland.Amid a spiralling corruption scandal in Ukraine that has claimed the jobs of two ministers, Kyiv had meanwhile removed language about an audit of foreign aid and replaced it with a call for a “full amnesty,” a senior US official said.- Whose plan? -Under the proposed deal, Russia would be “reintegrated into the global economy” after nearly four years of tough sanctions and be allowed back into the G8.”It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further,” it says.But all sanctions would snap back if Russia invades Ukraine again — “in addition to a decisive coordinated military response.”The contents of the plan have fuelled suggestions that Moscow was involved in drafting it.”It seems that the Russians proposed this to the Americans, they accepted it,” a senior Ukrainian source told AFP.But US officials strongly denied that it was a Russian plan, saying it had been drafted after weeks of consultations involving Witkoff, Rubio, the Ukrainians and Moscow.Since returning to the White House, Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.He rowed with Zelensky in the Oval Office in February before saying in September that Ukraine should try to reclaim its land.Trump has also hit Russia with sanctions after becoming increasingly frustrated with President Vladimir Putin, with a summit in Moscow having produced few results.On the ground, Russia claimed Thursday to have recaptured the key city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine, as Putin visited an army command post to speak with officers about the situation at the front.The Ukrainian army denied Russia had retaken Kupiansk.burs-dk/mlm

“Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman was posthumously honored on Thursday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Ryan Coogler, who directed Boseman in the 2018 hit, actress Viola Davis and Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward-Boseman, led the emotional ceremony in the heart of Tinseltown.”Today was a beautiful day,” Ledward-Boseman told AFP.”Everyone was just so full of love and joy. And we’re all so proud of this person that we knew, that we shared.”Coogler remembered Boseman as an “incredibly generous” person. “Even when he knew his days were limited, and his moments were numbered, he still gave to the art form. He still threw himself into the fire,” he said.Chadwick Boseman began his career in theater and television before making the leap to film. Boseman’s most famous character T’Challa/Black Panther was introduced in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016).Two years later he reprised the role in the hugely successful standalone “Black Panther,” becoming the first Black actor to take the lead in the sprawling Marvel franchise.Boseman died in 2020 at the age of 43 after suffering from colon cancer for four years.The debilitating disease did not keep him from making movies or from fully committing to his craft, Coogler said.”Even though he was going through what he was going through, he would do his own stunts, he would be there for off-camera dialogue readings. It was incredible.”Viola Davis, with whom he shared the screen in 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which would be his final outing, said Boseman’s work “reminded us that we are less alone.””That was Chadwick, more than just an actor who you can observe on screen doing wonderful work.”Disney CEO Bob Iger, actor Michael B. Jordan, and the late actor’s brothers, Kevin and Derrick Boseman, also attended the ceremony.