AFP USA

The United States broadened its slate of tariffs Wednesday as sweeping levies on steel and aluminum imports took effect “with no exceptions or exemptions” as promised by the White House — despite countries’ efforts to avert them.President Donald Trump’s 25 percent duties on both metals will likely add to the cost of producing various goods from home appliances to automobiles and cans used for drinks, threatening to raise consumer prices down the road.”It wouldn’t surprise me to see the tariffs pretty quickly show up in prices,” Cato Institute research fellow Clark Packard told AFP.He added that auto manufacturing and construction — spanning both residential and commercial buildings — are among the biggest users of steel in the country.The European Commission said Wednesday it would impose “a series of countermeasures” from April 1 in response to the “unjustified trade restrictions” from the United States.”We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, adding: “As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth” the equivalent in euros.Trump has imposed steep tariffs on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to office, allowing only a partial rollback for his country’s neighbors while vowing fresh levies from April 2.The latest duties will again impact Canada heavily, with the country supplying about half of US aluminum imports and 20 percent of its steel imports, according to a recent note by EY chief economist Gregory Daco.Besides Canada, Brazil and Mexico are also key US suppliers of steel, while the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are among the major providers of aluminum.Wednesday’s levies stack atop earlier ones. This means some Canada and Mexico steel and aluminum products likely face a 50 percent tariff rate unless they are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession have roiled financial markets, with Wall Street indexes tumbling for a second straight day on Tuesday.But Trump has played down fears over his handling of the economy, saying Tuesday he does not see a downturn coming while dismissing losses on Wall Street.- ‘Bumpy’ transition -Trump’s trade decisions have come with volatility, with the president threatening to double the tariff rate on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50 percent less than a day before the levies were due to kick in.Canada’s Ontario province had decided to impose an electricity surcharge on three American states in retaliation for earlier US levies, prompting Trump’s furious response.Washington and Ottawa swapped angry tariff warnings throughout the day as trade tensions surged, and Trump doubled down on provocative plans to annex his country’s northern neighbor.But Ontario halted the surcharge after talks with Washington.White House spokesman Kush Desai said Trump “used the leverage of the American economy” in order to “deliver a win for the American people.”Ontario Premier Doug Ford, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet in Washington on Thursday “to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline,” according to a US-Canada joint statement.Asked about Trump’s oscillation on tariffs, White House senior counselor Peter Navarro told reporters that the process was “a negotiation.””It is a transition,” he added. “It’s going to be at times, perhaps a little bumpy.”- Massive uncertainty -Even before the latest tariffs took effect, manufacturers have scrambled to find cost-effective domestic suppliers.The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute’s Packard, has allowed US steel and aluminum firms to raise their prices.”It’s creating massive amounts of uncertainty,” he added.Some US manufacturers using American steel consider the tariffs a positive development as these have boosted their business.But others warn that tariffs merely add to the cost of imports while allowing US-made goods to become equally expensive.Daco of EY also noted that the new steel and aluminum levies go further than measures Trump imposed in 2018 — covering a range of finished products atop of raw steel and aluminum.There is also a higher rate on aluminum imports this time and with duties layering onto existing restrictions this is “likely to make foreign sourcing more expensive across multiple industries.”The lack of exemptions Wednesday also comes despite US partners like Australia and Japan visiting Washington in recent days to push for exclusions.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday the tariffs were “entirely unjustified” but that his country would not retaliate.It is unclear if Trump will, as he did in his first administration, eventually grant relief to some countries and cut deals with others.Looking ahead, Trump has vowed separate reciprocal levies as soon as April 2 to remedy trade practices Washington deems unfair, raising the potential for more products and trading partners to be specifically targeted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed Wednesday to Canada on the highest-level visit by the administration of President Donald Trump, who has unleashed a trade war described by the United States’ neighbour as an existential challenge.Rubio is attending Group of Seven talks of foreign ministers in Charlevoix, Quebec, where he plans to press the club of industrial democracies — unified in backing Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion — to support Trump’s approach of pushing both Moscow and Kyiv to make concessions.Rubio was taking an unusually circuitous route, departing early Wednesday from the Saudi port city of Jeddah, where a day earlier he met top Ukrainian officials to discuss an initial ceasefire plan.In most US administrations, presidents and senior officials make Canada a first destination and the visits attract little attention, with the friendly neighbours focusing on reaffirming their longstanding ties.But since returning to power Trump has taken a sledgehammer to Canada, mocking the less populous country by saying it should become the “51st state” of the United States and hitting it with tariffs.Rubio arrives the same day that Canada, along with other US trading partners, is being hit by a blanket 25 percent levy on all steel and aluminium imports.Trump on Tuesday threatened to double the tariff rate on Canada but backed down after Ontario, the most populous province, agreed to stand down on a surcharge on electricity to three US states.Rubio acknowledged that he would likely discuss trade tensions when he meets Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly but said the two countries still had “common interests”, including in the G7.”Our obligation is to try, to the extent possible, to not allow the things we work on together to be impacted negatively by the things we disagree on right now,” Rubio told reporters on his way to Saudi Arabia.Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Sunday that the country faced “an existential challenge” from its southern neighbour.Mark Carney, who will soon succeed Trudeau, warned that “the Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country”.The New York Times recently reported that Trudeau’s sense of alarm grew when Trump told him he wants to revise a treaty dating from 1908 that sets the countries’ border.Rubio said he did not know if Trump raised the border treaty but that he did not expect the issue to come up at the G7 talks.

From its first edition 100 years ago through the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and on to the present day, New Yorker covers have won both artistic and journalistic acclaim.Here are some of the magazine’s most memorable covers:- Dandy turned mascot -The publication’s first edition came out on February 21, 1925 priced at 15 cents, emblazoned with a caricature of a fictional dandy, inspired by the Count d’Orsay, looking at a butterfly through a monocle. Created by the artist Rea Irvin, the fictional character dubbed Eustace Tilley has become the mascot of the journal, reappearing year after year in a humorous way, depicted variously as a hipster, wearing an anti-Covid mask — and with a smartphone in place of a monocle.- Hiroshima -In 1946, the New Yorker devoted an entire issue to John Hersey’s report on the consequences of the US atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The cover features a bucolic landscape, drawn by Charles E. Martin. At the time, “the images had to be almost a way to console ourselves over the world’s trauma,” said the New Yorker’s artistic director, Francoise Mouly. The disparity is such that it necessitated the inclusion of banner on the cover — “this entire issue is devoted to the story of how an atomic bomb destroyed a city.”- September 11, 2001 attacks -The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center adorn the front cover, shrouded in darkness so black and opaque that they are barely distinguishable. “It responds to what I experienced that day,” said Mouly, who was near the towers with her husband, the famous cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and her daughter when the two skyscrapers collapsed. The couple co-signed the cover. “I really felt that there was no possible reaction,” Mouly said.- Controversial Obama issue -One cover of note published when the 2008 presidential campaign was in full swing, as hardline conservatives had brought a lawsuit against Barack Obama, questioning his “American-ness” and falsely insinuating that he was not born in the United States, or that he was Muslim. The New Yorker responded to the kerfuffle with satire, a drawing titled “The Politics of Fear” by Barry Blitt, depicting the Democratic candidate in a djellaba, and his wife Michelle dressed as an armed militant in the Oval Office. The illustration shows a portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall and an American flag burning in the fireplace. The caricature “raised an outcry,” said Mouly.

The New Yorker magazine, a staple of American literary and cultural life defined by its distinctive covers, long-form journalism, witty cartoons and particular grammar, is celebrating 100 years on newsstands.To mark the publication’s centenary milestone, four commemorative issues are being released, while its namesake city will host seven exhibitions ahead of a Netflix documentary on the title known for its artistic cover creations.Despite its storied history, the New Yorker often puts a mirror up to current events. Three founding fathers were shown on a recent cover design being marched out of office, carrying their effects in cardboard boxes in a satirical commentary on US President Donald Trump’s assault on the status quo.Francoise Mouly, the magazine’s artistic director, said the New Yorker was not immune from the crisis plaguing the media.”But I’m stubborn and I see the future with a lot of confidence and hope,” she said.Mouly has been one of the conductors of the New Yorker orchestra since 1993, selecting the cover that week after week lends the magazine its unique identity.”There are some printed products that will never be replaced by digital — children’s books, comics, and the New Yorker,” she told AFP at a recent exhibition showcasing the magazine’s art, held at New York’s Alliance Francaise cultural center.One example of cover art on display depicts a rush-hour subway scene in which all the passengers are animals, while another by Mouly’s husband Art Spiegelman shows a Black woman kissing a Hasidic man.That 1993 design, which followed clashes between the two communities in a Brooklyn neighborhood, stirred controversy at the time and remains one of the title’s most discussed covers.With more than 5,000 editions over the past century, the magazine has published literary greats like Truman Capote’s 1965 “In Cold Blood”, while also giving James Baldwin space to write about race relations.- ‘Incredibly successful’ -Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag and JD Salinger are among the authors to have graced the pages of the magazine which combines current affairs, analysis, fiction, reviews, criticism, poetry, and of course its legendary cartoons.Published weekly, the magazine has reported global scoops like the fullest account of the US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with the entirety of the August 31, 1946 edition given over to John Hersey’s article.In 1961 Hannah Arendt covered the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the reporting of which she coined the phrase “the banality of evil.”In recent years the magazine won a Pulitzer Prize for Ronan Farrow’s reporting of predatory film mogul Harvey Weinstein, fuelling the “MeToo” movement.”These were all remarkable, long-form stories that really changed the course of American history, not just American journalism,” said Julie Golia, curator of an exhibition on the magazine at The New York Public Library.Founded on February 21, 1925, the New Yorker did not always have such lofty ambitions.At the height of the Jazz Age, amid post-war and pre-depression euphoria, husband and wife founders Harold Ross and Jane Grant set out to create “a magazine of wit and cosmopolitanism, an urbane magazine, but not one that took itself too seriously.”One hundred years on, it boasts 1.3 million subscribers, most of whom subscribe in both print and digital formats. It is a jewel in the crown of media group Conde Nast, which also publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, having bought the New Yorker in 1985.Despite its highbrow image, the magazine has adapted to the digital age emphasizing subscriptions over advertising, editor-in-chief since 1998 David Remnick said in a recent radio interview.”The New Yorker is much more than those pages that people get in the mail,” said Golia.”It’s a website, it’s podcasts, it’s a festival, and it’s a brand (and) as a brand, it’s incredibly successful.”

NASA announced Tuesday the dismissal of its chief scientist and others to comply with orders from President Donald Trump, marking the latest in a series of administration actions undermining climate change research.While the move affects only 23 people, a spokeswoman indicated more cuts are coming.The first round notably eliminates the Office of the Chief Scientist, led by Katherine Calvin, a renowned climatologist who contributed to key UN climate reports. She and other US delegates were also barred from attending a major climate science meeting in China last month.”To optimize our workforce, and in compliance with an Executive Order, NASA is beginning its phased approach to a reduction in force, known as a RIF,” agency spokeswoman Cheryl Warner said.”A small number of individuals received notification March 10 they are a part of NASA’s RIF. If they’re eligible, those employees may opt to participate in the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, or VERA, or complete the RIF process.”Also eliminated are the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.NASA has so far avoided the deep cuts affecting other agencies, reportedly due to last minute intervention by Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominee for NASA chief. Isaacman, an e-payments billionaire and SpaceX customer, is seen as close to Elon Musk — Trump’s key advisor and architect of federal cost-cutting efforts.In February, NASA had been preparing to lay off around a thousand probationary employees. However, Isaacman reportedly asked for the cuts to be put on hold, according to Ars Technica. NASA has not explained the reversal.The new layoffs, first reported by NASA Watch citing an internal memo, could signal a shift away from research and toward exploration.Trump and Musk both support a human mission to Mars. In his State of the Union address last week, Trump declared the US would “plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.”NASA plays a crucial role in climate research, operating a fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites, conducting airborne and ground-based studies, developing sophisticated climate models, and providing open-source data to researchers and the public.Trump, who has called climate change a “scam” and expressed disdain for the UN and climate science, has already pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement for a second time.Meanwhile, his administration has dismissed hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the nation’s other key climate agency, with more cuts expected.

Donald Trump’s Department of Education said Tuesday it was slashing its staff numbers by almost half, the opening gambit in a plan to dismantle a department that right-wing Republicans have long detested.The move is the latest to roil the US federal government in the six weeks since the president returned to the White House pledging to drastically slim what he says is a flabby and inefficient bureaucracy, with thousands of employees across the country already fired.Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News the decision to chop her staff — just five days after she started work — was a step toward fulfilling Trump’s order last month that she “put herself out of a job.” “His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished,” said McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.”But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat.”Employees at the agency, which manages student loans, monitors achievements among learners and enforces civil rights, were locked out of their offices on Tuesday.”As part of the Department of Education’s final mission, the Department today initiated a reduction in force impacting nearly 50 percent of the Department’s workforce,” said a statement.- Congress -The department had around 4,100 employees when Trump took office.Almost 600 agreed to resign or retire over the last few weeks as part of a government-wide plan to reduce headcount, overseen by billionaire businessman Elon Musk.A further 1,300 will be placed on administrative leave on March 21, although they will continue to be paid until June, a statement said, adding that no area would be spared the cuts.”All divisions within the Department are impacted by the reduction, with some divisions requiring significant reorganization to better serve students, parents, educators, and taxpayers,” a statement read.However, it said, statutory programs would continue unabated, such as student loans, Pell Grants and funding for students with special needs.Trump promised to decentralize education as he campaigned for a return to the White House, saying he would devolve the department’s powers to state governments.Traditionally, the federal government has had a limited role in education in the United States, with only about 13 percent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, the rest being funded by states and local communities. But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs. And the federal government has been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students. By law, the Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress.But Democrats and opponents of the plan see defunding it and firing staff as a way to neutralize it without the need to seek approval from the House and the Senate.Democratic Senator Patty Murray, a former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, accused Trump of demolishing the agency.”Families want help to get students’ math and reading scores up and ensure their kids can thrive. Instead, Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and robbing our students and teachers of the resources and support they need, so that Republicans can pay for more massive tax cuts for billionaires,” said a statement.   “Fewer teachers, less accountability, less resources for students, and more chaos — it’s the last thing students and schools need, but it’s exactly what Trump is delivering.”  

President Donald Trump sought to boost plummeting Tesla share prices Tuesday by briefly turning the White House into a showroom, announcing he was buying one of the electric cars made by close advisor Elon Musk and threatening anti-Musk protesters with “hell.”The unprecedented product endorsement by a sitting president came after Tesla shares cratered amid market fears spurred by Trump’s tariffs and backlash to Musk’s controversial role in slashing the US government.Despite his troubles, Musk still announced that he plans to double Tesla production in the United States in the next two years.”I said, ‘you know, Elon, I don’t like what’s happening to you, and Tesla’s a great company,'” Trump told reporters while stood alongside Musk, his top donor, in front of a red Tesla on the White House south portico.”He has never asked me for a thing, and he’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalized because he’s a patriot,” Trump continued.On returning to the White House in January, Trump gave Musk the task of slashing government spending and headcounts running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But DOGE’s cost-cutting has hit increasing resistance, including protests, court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers. The turmoil has tarnished the Tesla brand, with sales plummeting in Europe, its share price tumbling and multiple reports of cars being vandalized. Unhappy Tesla owners have even slapped bumper stickers on their vehicles saying they purchased them “before Elon went crazy.”Trump warned of a crackdown on protesters.Asked by a reporter if protesters should be “labeled domestic terrorists,” Trump said “I’ll do it.””You do it to Tesla and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you and you’re going to go through hell,” he said.Musk said that thanks to Trump’s “great policies” and “as an act of faith in America” that Tesla would double vehicle output in the United States within two years.Musk also said that production would start in Texas next year of a self-driving “cyber-cab” vehicle that will not have a steering wheel or pedals. “It’ll either self drive or not drive at all, but it’ll self drive,” he commented.Trump posted on his Truth Social platform earlier that he would buy a Tesla “as a show of confidence and support” for Musk.”To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!,” Trump wrote.He called the South African-born Musk “a truly great American”.Musk, the world’s richest person, responded on his X platform, thanking the president.- Tesla shares recover -While Musk enjoys Trump’s confidence, polling shows the multi-billionaire is deeply unpopular among ordinary Americans, and his government cuts have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents.Tesla has lost more than one-third of its market value since mid-December as Musk deepens his association with Trump.But the automaker’s share prices rallied Tuesday after closing more than 15 percent down on Monday, amid uncertainty over Trump’s import tariffs and threats.Tesla has also seen sales drop across Europe following Musk’s controversial support for far-right groups, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during Germany’s recent election campaign.Tesla sales in Germany — Europe’s biggest auto market — plunged more than 76 percent year-on-year in February, official data showed. Overall sales across the European Union almost halved, year-on, in January.In early March, a dozen Teslas were torched at a dealership in France in what authorities treated as an arson attack. The firm’s facilities have also been vandalized in the United States. Musk said his X platform was hit Monday by a major cyberattack.

The US House of Representatives approved a stopgap plan Tuesday to avert a government shutdown that would pile more pain on the economic chaos marring President Donald Trump’s early weeks in office.The Republican-led chamber agreed in a largely party-line vote to keep the government funded through September 30 — giving Trump the summer months to steer his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and boosted energy production through Congress.The drama now moves to the Republican-led Senate, which needs to provide its own rubber stamp before Friday night’s midnight shutdown deadline.But the bill needs Democratic votes and is on a knife edge.”Now it’s decision time for Senate Democrats: cast a vote to keep the government open or be responsible for shutting it down,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, laying down the gauntlet for the upper chamber minority.Passing the first hurdle marks a big win for Johnson, who had to sell the package to backbenchers skeptical of stopgaps — known as continuing resolutions (CRs) — which mostly freeze spending rather than making cuts.The threat of a weekend shutdown comes with Wall Street reeling from Trump’s trade war and radical cuts to federal spending that have seen tens of thousands of layoffs.Traders had initially reacted with optimism to the Republican billionaire’s election, but growing fears that his tariffs will reignite inflation and spark a recession have led to a three-week market sell-off. If the Senate fails to follow the House, there will be more economic misery as the government grinds to a halt, potentially leading to tens of thousands of public employees being furloughed as federal agencies shutter.Senate Democrats are mostly opposed to the 99-page CR, which would drop domestic spending by about $13 billion while increasing defense spending by about $6 billion.Republicans call it a “clean” CR, but critics counter that it is full of partisan ideological add-ons that make it a non-starter.Among the most contentious is a provision surrendering congressional authority to block any Trump tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers.  That authority allows any member to force a vote to terminate the levies. – ‘Slush fund’ -There are cuts totaling billions of dollars from a program for veterans exposed to Agent Orange and toxic burn pits, as well as from research into medical conditions from cancer and Alzheimer’s to heart disease. There are also economies running to hundreds of millions of dollars in nuclear non-proliferation programs, rural broadband, food inspections, rent subsidies and election security funding.The latest funding fight comes with Trump pushing unprecedented federal firings as he begins unilaterally shrinking or shuttering agencies from USAID to the Department of Education.   The drive is being spearheaded by Trump aide Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who has enraged much of the country and Congress — including Republican lawmakers — with his seemingly haphazard approach.While Musk enjoys Trump’s confidence, polling shows he is deeply unpopular with voters, and his cuts have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents at town halls.”House Republicans are not trying to responsibly fund the government,” said Patty Murray, the top Senate Democrat in the funding negotiations. “They are trying to turn it into a slush fund for Trump and Musk to wield as they see fit so they can shift their focus entirely to tax cuts for billionaires.”Congress needs a CR because it is so evenly split that it has been unable to approve the 12 separate bills that allocate full 2025 budgets for various federal agencies.In the Senate, Democrats are under pressure to offer strong opposition to Trump’s agenda but are wary of blocking the CR, fearing that they would be blamed for the resulting shutdown.Republicans have to clear anything the House passes by a 60-vote threshold, and one conservative has indicated he will be a no, meaning Majority Leader John Thune needs the support of at least eight Democrats.

The United States’ top transportation official expressed outrage Tuesday that aviation regulators had failed to notice a high risk of collisions at Washington’s airport prior to a deadly crash earlier this year.In that January 29 tragedy, a passenger plane preparing to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport, known as DCA, collided with a US Army helicopter flying along a designated air corridor.A total of 67 people died and there were no survivors in the worst US air disaster in two decades.”Does it piss me off? Yes,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a press conference. “The data was there, it wasn’t effectively analyzed. To see that we had this kind of risk at DCA makes me angry.”Duffy blamed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the disaster.”How did they not study the data to say, ‘Hey, this is a hot spot. We’re having near misses, and if we don’t change our way, we’re going to lose lives.’ That wasn’t done,” he added.His comments came shortly after the National Transportation Safety Board published a preliminary report on the accident.NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said helicopters should be barred from that corridor when planes are planning to use the runway, known as number 33, that the American Eagle Bombardier CRJ-700 jet was headed for that day.The plane and helicopter ended up colliding and plunging into the cold waters of the Potomac River.US authorities have already temporarily banned helicopter flights at the airport because of the accident. But the NTSB is now recommending that this be made permanent for part of that particular helicopter corridor, known as Route 4.Homendy told a news conference the two routes had a separation of just 76 feet (23 meters) and that was insufficient.Reagan National is located in the heart of metropolitan Washington, a few miles from the White House and just across the river in Virginia, and helicopter flights over the city are common.Homendy said the probe has determined that between October 2021 and December 2024 there were 85 recorded incidents near the airport in which a plane and a helicopter had a lateral separation of less than 1,500 feet (460 meters) and vertical separation of less than 200 feet (60 meters).The FAA, she said, “could have used that information any time to determine that we have a trend here and a problem here, and looked at that route.”Homendy added that despite repeated warnings in recent years, “that didn’t occur, which is why we’re taking action today.””It shouldn’t take tragedy to require immediate action,” Homendy said.The probe of the January collision remains ongoing and it could take a year for a final report to come back.So far it has determined that faulty instruments and communication problems may have caused the accident.

Ukraine endorsed an American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in crunch talks in Jeddah on Tuesday after three years of grinding war.The positive response from Ukraine prompted President Donald Trump’s administration to lift a freeze on military aid and to predict the beginning to an end of the conflict.With Trump stunning allies by applying intense pressure on Kyiv and reaching out to Moscow, Ukrainian officials came to talks in Saudi Arabia eager to make up and had proposed a partial truce on air and sea attacks.Trump’s advisors pressed for more and said Ukraine agreed to their proposal for a full month-long ceasefire in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.”Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after around nine hours of talks in an ornate hotel in Jeddah.”We’ll take this offer now to the Russians and we hope they’ll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court.”If they say no then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here,” Rubio said of Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022.Rubio said the United States would immediately resume military assistance and intelligence sharing it had cut off to pressure its wartime partner following a disastrous February 28 meeting between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky.In Washington, Trump said he was ready to welcome Zelensky back to the White House and may speak to President Vladimir Putin this week.Asked by a reporter about the prospects of a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine, Trump answered: “Well, I hope it will be over the next few days, I’d like to see.”I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow and some great conversations hopefully will ensue.” In a joint statement, Ukraine and the United States said they would conclude “as soon as possible” a deal securing US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth, which Trump demanded as compensation for billions of dollars in US weapons under his predecessor Joe Biden.Zelensky was supposed to sign the deal at the White House before the dramatic on-camera showdown, in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance dressed down the wartime leader and accused him of ingratitude.Zelensky quickly thanked Trump over the “positive” ceasefire proposal made in Jeddah and said the United States must now work to persuade Russia.”The American side understands our arguments, perceives our proposals, and I want to thank President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams,” Zelensky said in his evening address.- Russia must respond ‘clearly’ -Since the US cutoff of aid and intelligence sharing, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and seized back land in Russia’s Kursk region which Ukrainian forces had infiltrated.Hours before the Jeddah talks, Ukraine staged a major direct attack on Moscow, with hundreds of drones slamming into the capital and other areas, leaving three people dead.Top Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak said in Jeddah that Ukraine had made clear that its desire is peace.”Russia needs to say, very clearly, they want peace or not, they want to end this war, which they started, or no,” Yermak told reporters.Trump’s abrupt shift on Ukraine following Biden’s strong support has rattled European allies, with France and Germany increasingly speaking of developing common European defence if the United States no longer offers its security guarantees through NATO.But Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, countered that the brash president has “literally moved the entire global conversation” in support of peace.”We’ve gone from if the war is going to end to how the war is going to end,” Waltz told reporters alongside Rubio.Waltz, who said he would speak in the coming days with his Russian counterpart, credited the Ukrainians with agreeing on the need to “end the killing, to end the tragic meat-grinder of people and national treasure”.- Allies cautious -Rubio will head on Wednesday to Canada — another country with which Trump is feuding — to meet fellow foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrial democracies.Rubio has said he will push the G7 to avoid “antagonistic” language about Russia for fear of scuttling diplomacy.French President Emmanuel Macron, who has mulled European forces in Ukraine as part of any deal, on Tuesday hailed the “progress” made in the Jeddah talks but insisted that Kyiv needs “robust” security guarantees in any ceasefire.Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the deal a “remarkable breakthrough” while Italy’s Giorgia Meloni said now the ceasefire “decision is up to Russia”.In Poland, a top supporter of Ukraine and where historical memories of Russia run deep, Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised the “important step towards peace” by the United States and Ukraine.Even if Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much remains uncertain in negotiations. Ukraine has pressed for security guarantees, but Trump, in another shift from Biden, has ruled out NATO membership.burs-sct/kir/bc/bfm