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US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was applying pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war, insisting that Moscow agreeing not to take over the entire country was a “big concession.”Trump issued a rare rebuke of Russian leader Vladimir Putin after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing at least 12 in the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital in months.”We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that,” said Trump, who has been accused of favoring Russia in the push to halt the war.Asked what concessions Russia had offered, Trump said “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession.”In response to the attack on Kyiv, he said: “I didn’t like last night. I wasn’t happy with it. And we’re in the midst of talking peace, and missiles were fired.”

Tens of thousands of mourners flocked Thursday to catch a last glimpse of Pope Francis’s body on the second day of public tributes as Italian authorities stepped up security arrangements ahead of his funeral.Some 90,000 people had filed past the late Catholic leader’s red-lined wooden coffin in the first day and a half that it lay in state at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said.Vatican and Italian authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security ahead of Saturday’s ceremony in front of the basilica that is expected to draw huge crowds as well as world leaders including US President Donald Trump.Such was the demand to see the pope that Vatican authorities extended visiting hours on Wednesday from midnight until 5:30 am.After a break of just 90 minutes, the doors reopened, with authorities saying the window would be extended on Thursday night if necessary.On Thursday, the queue quickly stretched far past the two entry points to St Peter’s Square, where spirits were high despite the long wait.”It’s true that it feels oppressive but at the same time you all feel united, everyone happy,” French woman Laure Du Moulin who visited with her family, told AFP.”Everyone seems enthusiastic, fraternal, like a big community.”Florencia Soria and Ana Sofia Alicata, both 26 and — like Francis — from Argentina, came prepared for a long wait with coffees and wondered whether the light rain might work in their favour.”We’re here and we hope it will go as well as possible, with people leaving because of the rain,” joked Soria, although the sun soon returned.- World leaders expected -Francis died on Monday aged 88, after 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed the most vulnerable in society.Lined in red silk, the pope’s wooden coffin has been set before St Peter’s altar, with Francis dressed in his papal vestments — a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes — with a rosary in his hands.Mourners were ushered past the casket in just seconds, while authorities on Thursday banned the use of smartphones inside the Basilica.”It was a brief but intense moment next to his body,” Italian Massimo Palo, 63, told AFP.”He was a pope amongst his flock, amongst his people, and I hope the next papacies will be a bit like his,” he added.Italian football coach Claudio Ranieri and several players form his top flight Roma side were amongst the visitors on Thursday.The coffin is to be sealed on Friday at 8:00 pm in a special ceremony presided over by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo who is running the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected.- Massive security operation -Francis, who suffered a stroke, died at his residence in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican less than a month after he was released from five weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.The Vatican said on Thursday that 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs will attend the funeral. Alongside Trump, they include Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Britain’s Prince William.At least 130 foreign delegations have confirmed their attendance, the Vatican said.Authorities have put fighter jets on standby, deployed electromagnetic devices to prevent drones from flying over the city and will have snipers stationed on rooftops.Further check-points will be activated on Friday night, police said.Italy’s civil protection agency estimates that “several hundred thousand” people will descend on Rome.- No conclave date yet -After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be taken to his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.A group of “poor and needy” will be at the basilica to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.He will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus. People will be able to visit it from Sunday, the Vatican announced.Following that, all eyes will turn to the process to choose Francis’s successor.Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was Francois’s number two, is the favourite with British bookmakers William Hill, ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila.Cardinals from around the world are returning to Rome for the conclave, which must begin no fewer than 15 days and no more than 20 days after a pope’s death.Only those under the age of 80 — currently some 135 cardinals — are eligible to vote. They have already held meetings to discuss preparations for the funeral and looming conclave.Cardinals have agreed that the traditional nine days of mourning for the pope, the so-called “novemdiales”, will begin on Saturday and conclude on May 4.However, the Vatican brushed aside hopes of an announcement of the conclave date, insisting the focus is on the funeral.At the time of his death, Francis was under doctors’ orders to rest for two months but had continued to make public appearances right up until Easter Sunday.

Donald Trump’s administration must facilitate the return of a second man wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador, a federal judge has ruled, deepening a standoff between the courts and White House over the president’s radical immigration policies.District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said Wednesday the 20-year-old Venezuelan, along with multiple other migrants, was protected by a 2024 class action settlement prohibiting the deportation of migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors until their asylum claims are fully adjudicated.His case comes amid a mounting political row over the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran returned to his native country and still imprisoned there, despite the US Supreme Court ordering the government to facilitate his return.The United States has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up scores of migrants it says are criminals and gang members, in a maximum security prison with a history of alleged human rights violations.Abrego Garcia, who has not been charged with any crime, was detained in Maryland last month and expelled to El Salvador along with 238 Venezuelans and 22 fellow Salvadorans who were deported shortly after Trump invoked a rarely used wartime authority.The Trump administration has claimed that it doesn’t have the power to bring him back, raising fears that its defiance of the Supreme Court was placing the country on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.Gallagher, a Maryland-based Trump appointee, said she concurred with the ruling in Abrego Garcia’s case that “facilitation” meant taking concrete steps to bring wrongly deported migrants back to the United States.The Venezuelan man — identified in court papers as “Cristian” — came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor and sought asylum in December 2022. His case was still pending when he was deported in March.”Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation. In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return,” Gallagher said.

Authorities charged a teenager with aggravated arson, prosecutors said Thursday, after a forest fire scorched 15,000 acres of land in New Jersey, in the northeastern United States, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.The fires spreading in Ocean County, the coastal region of New Jersey, south of New York, are only half contained, according to the latest update from firefighters posted on Facebook.The fire, which has so far destroyed a commercial building, could become the largest in New Jersey for 20 years.Prosecutors said that on Wednesday they charged a 19-year-old man from the region with aggravated arson following what they allege was an improperly extinguished bonfire.Since Tuesday, images have shown thick smoke in the sky above the region. New York health authorities warned Thursday morning that air quality would be degraded, recommending vulnerable communities limit their outdoor activities.The blaze erupted in the pine forests of New Jersey, one of the largest protected areas on the East Coast. The state was put under drought alert in March.

Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday asked the US Supreme Court to permit the president’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military to take effect while legal challenges play out.A US judge issued a temporary injunction last month blocking the implementation of the ban and an appeals court subsequently denied the government’s request to stay the lower court’s order.”In this case, the district court issued a universal injunction usurping the Executive Branch’s authority to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed forces,” Trump’s Justice Department said in an application for a stay by the top court.The Supreme Court “should stay the district court’s injunction in its entirety. At minimum, this Court should stay the injunction except as to the eight individual respondents in this case,” it said.In a January 27 executive order, Trump stated that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent others from joining.If the ban were to go into effect, it could affect thousands of currently serving troops.The restrictions in the Pentagon memo are aimed at those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — of whom there were 4,240 serving in the military as of late last year, according to a senior defense official — as well as those who have a history of the condition or exhibit symptoms of it.Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will sit for an interview with the reporter who uncovered a major security lapse after being inadvertently added to a group chat in which top US officials shared secret military strike plans.The Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg was propelled to global fame — and roundly attacked by Trump and other cabinet officials — after publishing details of the sensitive exchanges on the Signal app in the run up to US strikes on rebel Huthis in Yemen.Trump referenced the so-called “Signalgate” scandal when he announced the interview — scheduled for later Thursday — in a social media post that accused Goldberg of being “the person responsible for many fictional stories about me.””I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful,’ Trump said.Goldberg’s stunning inclusion in the Yemen strikes chat sent shockwaves through the national security establishment and around the world, leading to calls for the resignation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host. Hegseth, who is a military veteran but had no previous national security experience, revealed the times of strikes on the Iran-backed Huthis and the type of aircraft, missiles and drones used — all before the attacks actually happened.Democrats have claimed that the lives of US service members could have been put at risk by the breach, and the row has raised serious questions about potential intelligence perils.Trump has so far stood by Hegseth and other top officials on the chat, dismissing the scandal as a “witch hunt” and arguing that his Pentagon chief is doing a “great job.”Goldberg — who will conduct Thursday’s interview with two Atlantic colleagues, according to Trump’s post — also drew the president’s ire in 2020 for an article in which he reported senior US military officers hearing the president call soldiers killed in World War I “suckers” and “losers.”Trump has angrily denied the claim on multiple occasions but John Kelly, his chief of staff at the time of the purported remark, confirmed Goldberg’s reporting. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his first visit to South Africa on Thursday for agreeing to an unconditional ceasefire in the war with Russia so that peace talks could begin.Ramaphosa threw South Africa’s weight behind the push for an end to the more than three-year war, holding talks with Zelensky hours after agreeing in a call with US President Donald Trump that the conflict should be ended urgently.”It is a good signal from President Zelensky that Ukraine is agreeable to an unconditional ceasefire so that discussions and negotiations can then ensue,” Ramaphosa told reporters after talks with the Ukrainian leader.”It is a confidence-building measure that should be a key ingredient in a negotiation process.”Even while welcoming Zelensky to South Africa, Ramaphosa has maintained warm ties with Russia, a historical ally of the post-apartheid government for its support in the struggle against white minority rule.He said he had spoken to Putin earlier in the week and “we both committed to work together towards a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict”.Earlier on Thursday, he spoke with Trump and they agreed “that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to stop further unnecessary deaths”, the South African president said.They would “meet soon to address various matters regarding US-South Africa relations,” he said, referring to a nosedive in bilateral ties after Trump came to power this year.US attacks on various South African domestic and international policies culminated in the cutting of aid and expulsion of Pretoria’s ambassador last month. Ramaphosa said his country was ready to play a role in the “inclusive multilateral efforts” to reach peace in Ukraine.”And we call upon all parties, both Russia and Ukraine, to ensure that there is a comprehensive ceasefire, an unconditional ceasefire, so that discussions and negotiations can start between the two countries.”- United for peace -Zelensky said he believed South Africa’s backing “will help stop Russia and force Putin to support… a complete unconditional ceasefire,” according to translated remarks released by the South African government.Global efforts need to be as “united as possible” to pressure Russia, he said.The G20 group of leading economies, which is this year under South Africa’s presidency and convenes a summit in November, also has a role in the “defence of life”, Zelensky said. “And we are very much counting on it.”He had handed Ramaphosa a list of 400 Ukrainian children being held in Russia “against their will” in the hopes South Africa could help to secure their return, he added.Ukraine also wanted to build ties with South Africa, including in energy security and industries such as fertiliser production, he said.Hours after arriving in South Africa early Thursday, the Ukrainian leader said he would cut short his trip to return to Kyiv after the capital was hit at dawn by the deadliest strike in months, with a dozen people killed.Ramaphosa’s invitation to Zelensky to visit was seen as a shift in Pretoria’s non-aligned stance on the war, which began in 2022. In February for the first time, Pretoria joined a UN General Assembly resolution criticising Russia for “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.South Africa believes it can work with both sides and facilitate an inclusive peace process, drawing on its own relatively smooth transition out of apartheid in 1994 after decades of armed struggle.”The negotiations that brought an end to the nightmare of apartheid were held on a no-precondition basis,” Ramaphosa said, urging Moscow and Kyiv to follow that example.The South African leader said Zelensky had taken “significant strides” in expanding Ukraine’s relations with the African continent. Moscow’s own influence in Africa has been growing, including militarily, and it has been trying to build new partnerships after being isolated by the West for its offensive against Ukraine.

Former directors of Voice of America nominated across party lines are pressing Congress to intervene to restore the broadcaster, after a judge said President Donald Trump’s shutdown violated the law.In a letter to lawmakers, nine of the 10 former VOA directors who were alive as of last month asked Congress to “act quickly” to reverse Trump’s effort to end the eight-decade-old US-funded broadcaster.”All these steps were made without consultation with Congress, which has voted repeatedly to support these networks and has had no hand in the plans to shut them down,” they wrote.”At the same time, the orders amount to a gift to China, Iran, Russia and other oppressive regimes around the world.”The signatories included Dick Carlson, the father of conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who has a close relationship with Trump.The elder Carlson was VOA’s longest serving director, leading it from 1986 under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He died on March 24, after the letter was first put together.Organizers publicly released the letter Wednesday after a federal judge issued a preliminary order to restore VOA, saying that the administration had no authority to cut so drastically the funding that was approved by Congress.The administration is expected to appeal, and VOA has been shut down since mid-March.David Ensor, who served as VOA’s director from 2011 to 2015 and led the letter, said that China and Russia have already been taking over signals used by VOA around the world.He said that VOA could also have helped explain the US stance to Iranians as the Trump administration meets with Tehran on its nuclear program.”We are hoping that — there don’t have to be very many — there will be a few Republicans who will come to the view that they want to reassert congressional authority and that they didn’t want to abolish Voice of America,” Ensor told AFP.”Obviously, every week is more damage, so we have a very urgent sense that we’d like to see Voice of America get back to work again.”Trump has questioned why Voice of America is not promoting the administration’s viewpoint, bristling at the editorial “firewall” that let the network operate independently.

Sales of existing US homes pulled back more than expected in March, logging their biggest drop since late-2022 according to industry data released Thursday, as high mortgage rates weighed on affordability for homebuyers.Existing home sales slid 5.9 percent last month from February to an annual rate of 4.02 million, seasonally adjusted, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said.This was significantly below a 4.2 million rate expected in a Briefing.com consensus estimate, and marked the biggest month-to-month drop since November 2022, the association said on a call.”Home buying and selling remained sluggish in March due to the affordability challenges associated with high mortgage rates,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.The popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hovered around 6.7 percent as of mid-March, similar to levels for the same period last year.Yun warned that residential housing mobility is “at historical lows,” signaling the “troublesome possibility of less economic mobility for society.”- ‘Subdued’ -“The big picture still is one of a very subdued housing market,” said Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.The market is “frozen by the gulf” between the typical rates on new mortgages, which are nearly seven percent right now, and rates on existing mortgages, which averaged 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter.With mortgage rates elevated in recent times, current homeowners have been reluctant to enter the property market — after having locked in lower rates previously.”The tariff shock is unlikely to alter this dynamic dramatically and has so far worsened it at the margin,” Allen said, referring to sweeping new tariffs US President Donald Trump imposed this year.But he warned: “A hit to housing demand from the economic slowdown likely to follow the tariffs will add to the downward pressure on price growth.”Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, added: “Prices for home furnishing will likely rise soon due to tariffs, and rising anxiety among consumers over inflation and jobs may magnify the instinct to hunker down already being felt by many families.”From a year ago, existing home sales fell 2.4 percent, the NAR said.The median price of previously-owned homes in March was up 2.7 percent from a year ago at $403,700 — and all four US regions logged price hikes.Inventory jumped by 8.1 percent from February as of end-March, the NAR said, but Yun told reporters that the volume of units appears to still be “lagging.”

After years spent working in sweatshops in California, Francisco Tzul got a job at a trendy lingerie brand that prides itself on ethical business practices and a “Made in America” approach.But the 60-year-old immigrant from Guatemala now fears being laid off over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on US trading partners.Trump acknowledges his tariffs will cause Americans some pain initially, but believes that in the long run they will help bring industrial production back to the United States.But for the Cantiq brand, which makes lingerie in Los Angeles from fabrics often sourced from Asia, the additional tariffs mean higher production costs and potential layoffs.The tariffs “will harm the economy, not only for the owners, but the workers as well,” Tzul, who has been employed at Cantiq for five years, told AFP on a recent afternoon.- ‘Everybody’s going to get hurt’Chelsea Hughes, 35, founded Cantiq 10 years ago as an “ethical” company that would employ people from her local community, pay them proper wages and maintain decent working conditions.But with Trump’s tariffs, she said, all that could go out the window.”Now they’re just going to make it even more difficult for me to keep jobs for people that are here, and keep all of my production here,” Hughes told AFP from her boutique in the trendy Echo Park neighborhood. Marketed as lingerie for all body types and styles, the brand’ most popular item is a racy $35 brief that can be worn by women and men alike. It’s made out of three different fabrics: two sourced from China, and one from Taiwan.With imports from China now subject to an additional 145 percent tariff, Hughes estimates that the price tag on the briefs may jump to $42, making it unaffordable to many customers.”I think it doesn’t matter big or small, I think everybody’s going to get hurt by this, it’s just a question of how hard,” she sighed.- ‘Reduce my workforce’ -Buying fabric in the United States would be prohibitively expensive, Hughes said.”We have an amazing variety of incredible garment workers, don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to producing stretch fabrics like lace, like mesh, no one does it here as cost effective as they do overseas.”And it’s not just her profits — her commitment to supporting local employment is also being called into question with the tariffs.”My whole point was that I wanted to… create jobs in an ethical way, and now they’re making it impossible for me to do that,” Hughes said. “I need programs that support me financially, otherwise I’ll have to reduce my workforce, which is contrary to what they say they want to do.”In Cantiq’s sewing workshop located behind the boutique, Tzul has nothing left but to hope that the tariffs would eventually be rescinded or reduced.Tzul said he came to the United States from Guatemala two decades ago because his government, like in many others across Latin America, ruined local economies with their policies.”That’s one of the reasons that millions of us had to leave our countries, because the decisions that governments made, instead of helping the people, they just destroy the economies,” he said.”And we don’t want that to happen in America,” he said.