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President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a three-day truce with Ukraine to coincide with Moscow’s World War II commemorations next month that his Ukrainian rival slammed as an “attempt at manipulation”.Before Putin’s announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held new talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, having declared that this will be a crucial week in a US decision on whether to halt its peace efforts.  The Kremlin said Putin had ordered a “ceasefire” for the 80th anniversary of Victory Day from May 8 to May 10. “All combat operations will be suspended during this period,” it said in a statement.The Kremlin said the halt to fighting would be for humanitarian reasons, as well as the anniversary, and that it expected Kyiv to issue a similar order.Putin also ordered a ceasefire for Easter, when each side accused the other of mass violations though it did lead to a temporary reduction in fighting.Ukraine has demanded an immediate ceasefire lasting at least 30 days and Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation: “Now there’s a new attempt at manipulation: for some reason, everyone has to wait until May 8.””If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8th?” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X.The White House said Monday that US President Donald Trump wants “a permanent ceasefire” and is becoming “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine.After a meeting with Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, Trump questioned whether the Russian leader was serious about peace.”There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” said Trump, who has also had clashes with Ukrainian leader.Rubio told the Russian foreign minister on Sunday that United States is committed to working to end the “senseless war”, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.She said Rubio spoke to Lavrov about “the next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the need to end the war now.”Trump has already said that the United States could abandon its peace efforts and Rubio indicated again on Sunday how US patience is wearing thin over the conflict. “This is going to be a very critical week,” he told NBC television, adding that Washington might prefer to focus on “other issues”. Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks on the fighting since the start of Moscow’s offensive. Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, has become the focus of efforts to bring the two sides together.Trump said Monday that he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea, though the Ukraine leader has ruled this out several times.– Macron’s ‘pressure’ –Russia said Monday that it was ready to negotiate directly with Ukraine but that recognition of its claims over Ukrainian regions including Crimea were “imperative” to resolving the conflict.”The ball is not in our court. So far, Kyiv has not demonstrated its ability to negotiate,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.Ukraine has denounced Russia’s annexations as an illegal land grab and says it will never recognise them. European officials have warned that accepting Moscow’s demands set a dangerous precedent that could lead to future Russian aggression.Zelensky said last week that Ukraine would “not legally recognise any temporarily occupied territories” and has previously called Moscow’s demand for Kyiv to demilitarise “incomprehensible”.France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that Western nations would “increase pressure on Russia” over the next 10 days and the next two weeks would be “crucial” in trying to start a ceasefire.Macron told Paris Match magazine he had urged Trump in recent discussions to be “tougher” with the Russian president. The French president added that he believed he had “convinced the Americans of the possibility of an escalation of threats, and potentially sanctions” against Moscow.Putin on Monday thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the help of North Korean forces in retaking territory from Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.

The White House announced Monday a crackdown on “sanctuary cities” that defy Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, as the president closes in on his first 100 days in office.Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the administration would name and shame cities accused of blocking efforts to protect “American communities from criminal aliens.”The Republican leader will sign an executive order later Monday directing officials to publish a list of “jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws,” she told reporters.The announcement came with Trump celebrating major progress in honoring his election campaign promises to stem illegal border crossings from Mexico.The figures soared to all-time highs under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and the Republican won the White House in part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed was an invasion of criminal migrants.But his popularity has since plunged, with more than 40 percent of Americans saying they “disapprove strongly” of him, according to a Washington Post-ABC opinion poll.Trump suggested pollsters and news organizations should be sued for fraud over the “fake news.”The president will this week be hailing his achievements in his first 100 days, claiming successes on the economy, foreign policy and government efficiency as well as on migration.Leavitt noted a 95 percent drop in encounters of undocumented migrants at the Mexico border — from 140,000 to 7,000 — in the 12 months from March 2024, when Biden was still in office.”America’s borders are now secure because of President Trump,” she said. “He has restored the rule of law, enforced our immigration laws and defended America’s sovereignty.”Trump’s election campaign rhetoric about taking on the alleged hordes of rapists and murderers resonated with voters concerned about illegal immigration.- Influx of migrants -As part of the drive to deliver on his pledges, Republicans in Congress are targeting “sanctuary cities,” which typically prohibit local officials from telling federal agents about undocumented immigrants if they are at risk of deportation.Lawmakers hauled the mayors of four such cities — Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York — over the coals at a hearing in March.And Republicans in the House of Representatives released a bill on Monday giving Trump powers to levy a host of onerous immigration charges — including a minimum $1,000 fee for asylum applications.In a sign of the emphasis the administration is placing on immigration, placards lined the White House lawn, each displaying the mugshot of someone the administration called an “illegal alien.”The word “arrested” was printed in capital letters above each photo and, below, the crime of which they were accused — from “first-degree murder” and “sexual abuse of a child” to “distribution of fentanyl.”An accompanying White House press release included a list of 100 individuals that it said were the “worst of the worst criminal illegal immigrants” arrested since Trump took office.Trump has also sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.But Trump has butted heads with judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has ignored constitutional rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing.Tom Homan, Trump’s point man on border security, told reporters Monday that “we have the most secure border in the history of this nation.”He was asked about deportation rates, which have lagged behind Biden’s numbers, despite Trump’s promised campaign of the largest mass removal campaign in US history.The government has not been releasing comprehensive data, but the Migration Policy Institute said it appeared on track to remove half a million people this year — fewer than the 685,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year 2024 under Biden. Homan argued that comparisons were bogus, since Biden’s deportation numbers included people removed at the border, and most of those people were now being stopped before getting in.

A multi-million-dollar US warplane fell off the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier into the Red Sea on Monday in an accident that injured one sailor, the Navy said.A tractor that was towing the fighter plane — a model that cost $67 million in 2021 — also slipped off the ship into the sea.”The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.”Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard,” it said. “All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury.”The carrier and its other planes remain in action and the incident is under investigation, the Navy added. No details of recovery work were released.It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in less than six months, after another was mistakenly shot down by the USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser late last year in incident that both pilots survived.The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East, where US forces have been hammering Yemen’s Huthi rebels with strikes since mid-March in an attempt to end the threat they pose to ships in the region.

Venezuela accused Washington Monday of “abduction” in the case of a two-year-old girl separated from her migrant parents, who were deported from the United States without her.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua drug gang.In a statement Monday, the foreign ministry in Caracas denounced “the abduction by US authorities of the young Venezuelan Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, aged two” and called for her “immediate” return to her parents.Under US President Donald Trump, the DHS has carried out a crackdown on immigration, deporting thousands of primarily Latin American migrants that it says are undocumented and cancelling the legal status of others.The administration has said that many of those it has deported are members of criminal gangs, including Tren de Aragua, but has provided limited evidence to back that claim. Lawyers and family members of many deportees deny the allegations.The DHS did not say where it deported the girl’s parents to, but Venezuela believes her father was among about 250 men sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison for the country’s most violent criminals.In a statement Saturday, the DHS claimed the father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua “lieutenant” who “oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house.”The girl’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, “oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution,” the DHS said.It said the girl was “taken off the deportation flight manifest for her safety and welfare. The child remains in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and is currently placed with a foster family.”The department branded both parents “criminal illegal aliens” and said their expulsion had been approved by a judge.Tren de Aragua has been designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the Trump administration, which has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up nearly 300 deported migrants it claims are criminals and gang members.At least one of them, Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was found to have been wrongly deported, but both Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele have washed their hands of his case.Last week, Venezuelan prosecutors said they were investigating the “forced disappearance” of a citizen detained in the United States in January, but whose whereabouts are now “unknown.”

A US warplane went overboard into the Red Sea as a result of a Monday accident on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the country’s Navy said.”The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.”All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury,” it said, adding that the carrier and its air wing remain mission capable and that the incident is under investigation.The F/A-18E reached initial operating capability in the early 2000s and had a unit cost of more than $67 million as of fiscal year 2021, according to a Navy fact sheet.The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers currently operating in the Middle East, where Washington’s forces have been hammering Yemen’s Huthi rebels with strikes since mid-March in an attempt to end the threat they pose to ships in the region.

Ten suspects went on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewellery stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.Kardashian, 44, was traumatised and left Paris hours after the robbery on the night of October 2-3, 2016. She was not in court for the start of the trial but is due to testify on May 13 in a highly anticipated appearance.Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that recall the old-school French gangsters of 1960s and 1970s films noirs.The lawyer for one of the victims is eager to dispel the image of “kind old men” on trial.”We need to end this myth of friendly, Robin Hood-style pensioners,” said Henri de Beauregard, who represents the night receptionist forced to accompany the robbers.The nine men and one woman on trial, while charged in connection with the robbery, are not currently in custody.Kardashian, then 35, was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up. The theft was the biggest against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.The trial will also go into how the perpetrators received the information as to where Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week, and picked the very moment when her bodyguard was absent, accompanying her sister Kourtney to a night club.It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have facilitated the perpetrators’ actions. – Haul never recovered -The star was staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris favoured by celebrities when two armed and masked men stormed into her room at around 3:00 am after arriving at the establishment by bicycle.They shouted that they wanted the diamond engagement ring from her now ex-husband, the US rapper Kayne West.Kardashian had been showing it off on her social media channels — it alone was valued at $4 million (3.5 million euros).They made off with the ring among $10 million worth of jewels.The only item recovered was a diamond necklace dropped in the street while the thieves escaped.It all lasted just 10 minutes, with Kardashian’s bodyguard arriving to rescue his client after he was alerted.The suspects were arrested three months after the robbery, through DNA evidence.But the gold seized was apparently melted down and investigators, who took hundreds of thousands of euros from the suspects when they were arrested, believe that much of the stolen haul was sold in Belgium.- ‘Easy’ heist -Twelve suspects were charged, with 10 going on trial on Monday. One died in March this year and another is to be tried separately for health reasons.”It wasn’t a major armed robbery” but an “easy” heist, said the main suspect, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as “Old Omar”. His DNA from the scene helped investigators find him and the co-defendants.He admitted tying up Kardashian, but disputes investigators’ claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.He says he was approached by an unnamed “sponsor” who suggested the scheme on behalf of an “informant” very close to the star, who then gave them the green light.According to his lawyer, Khedache now has severe hearing and speaking problems and can only express himself in writing.Presiding judge David De Pas began the hearing by swearing in the stenographers who will transcribe the trial for his benefit.Another key suspect is Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes”, accused of being the second person who stormed into Kardashian’s room. He denies the charges.Yunice Abbas, 71, meanwhile stayed in the lobby while the two other men went up to her room, it is alleged.He controversially sought to capitalise on the crime by writing a book titled: “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”.Others on trial are accused of being facilitators and informants, including Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian’s long-serving Paris driver.He is accused of supplying information about her movements, which he denies.As the first day of the trial came to a close, most defendants denied the charges, with Aomar Ait Khedadche writing “NO” on a piece of paper.Yunice Abbas, however, admitted he “took part”.”But kidnapping and false imprisonment are not in my vocabulary. I don’t do that,” he said.The trial is due to last until May 23.

After delaying an earlier attempt due to bad weather, Amazon is preparing to launch its first batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites on Monday, stepping into direct competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink.The mission, called Kuiper Atlas 1, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:00 pm local time (2300 GMT), aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will carry 27 satellites into orbit. Weather conditions appeared 75 percent favorable.Project Kuiper, a subsidiary of the online retail giant founded by Jeff Bezos, is playing catch-up with Starlink — SpaceX’s sprawling network of internet satellites that has reshaped the sector and handed Musk significant geopolitical clout.The $10 billion initiative plans to deploy 3,200 satellites into low Earth orbit — the region of space up to 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) above the planet — with hopes of going live later this year.Pricing has not yet been revealed, but Amazon has pledged it will align with its reputation as a low-cost retailer.With Monday’s launch, Amazon will formally enter a crowded and fast-growing field that includes not just Starlink but other emerging players in the satellite internet race.SpaceX launched the first batch of Starlink satellites in 2019 and now boasts more than 6,750 operational units, serving over five million customers worldwide — by far the sector’s dominant force.Starlink has also provided crucial internet access in disaster and war zones, including Morocco after its devastating 2023 earthquake and on the frontlines in Ukraine’s war against Russia.Amazon plans to accelerate launches in the coming months and years, with more than 80 flights booked through United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture), France’s Arianespace, Bezos’s own Blue Origin, and even Musk’s SpaceX.Its satellites will gradually join the swelling ranks of low Earth orbit, alongside Starlink, Europe’s OneWeb, and China’s Guowang constellation.The increasing crowding of this orbital neighborhood has sparked concerns about congestion, potential collisions, and disruptions to astronomical observations.The expanding role of private companies in space has also raised thorny political questions, especially as Musk’s influence stretches beyond business into politics and diplomacy.Musk has sent mixed signals on Starlink’s future role in Ukraine, where it remains vital to Kyiv’s war effort — a conflict that Musk ally US President Donald Trump has vowed to bring to an end.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday he was not concerned “at present” about American stores potentially running out of items due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.The US president has introduced a 10 percent baseline tariff against most nations, and a far higher levy totaling 145 percent on goods coming from China.The White House also introduced several sector-specific tariffs of 25 percent, and has threatened to reimpose higher measures on dozens of trading partners if they do not reach a deal to lower trade barriers with the United States.Asked during an interview with “Fox and Friends” if he was concerned about reports of empty shelves due to the tariffs, Bessent replied: “Not at present.””We have some great retailers,” he said during the Fox News interview. “I assume they pre-ordered.””I think we’ll see some elasticities. I think we’ll see replacements, and then we will see how quickly the Chinese want to de-escalate.”Most countries chose not to respond to the Trump administration’s new tariffs, with the exception of China, which hit back with its own targeted measures against US goods.Beijing has announced reciprocal tariffs of up to 15 percent against US agriculture goods like soybeans, corn and beef, and an additional minimum 125 percent sweeping tariff on all US imports.”I think it’s unsustainable from the Chinese side, so maybe they’ll call me one day,” Bessent said.”In the history of trade negotiations or trade slowdowns, it is the surplus country that always loses the most,” he added. 

Senior diplomats from the BRICS grouping of nations gathered Monday in Brazil to present a united front in the face of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies.The meeting comes at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund this week slashed growth forecasts over the impact of the American leader’s sweeping new tariffs.Foreign ministers from the ten-member trading bloc — which includes current-chair Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — will hold two days of talks in Rio de Janeiro, as a precursor to a July leaders summit.Ahead of the gathering, Brazil’s BRICS representative Mauricio Lyrio said diplomats were negotiating a joint declaration on “the centrality and importance of the multilateral trading system.”The BRICS grouping has expanded significantly since its 2009 inception, and now includes Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. It makes up nearly half of the global population and 39 percent of global GDP.Trump, since returning to the White House in January, has hit dozens of countries with a blanket 10 percent tariff, but China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products.Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.At a summit last year, BRICS members discussed boosting non-dollar transactions, eliciting a swift rebuke from Trump, who threatened them with 100 percent tariffs if they undercut the US currency.Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira will host this week’s meeting that will be attended by Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and China’s Wang Yi among others.Speaking to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, Lavrov said that BRICS nations planned to “increase the share of national currencies in transactions” between member states but said the talk of transitioning towards a unified BRICS currency was “premature.”- Russian ceasefire -The group is also likely to discuss the war in Ukraine, as Trump seeks to push Moscow and Kyiv toward a peace agreement.Russian President Vladimir Putin caused surprise on Monday by announcing a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10.The White House suggested however that the pause was not satisfactory, saying that Trump had “made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first.”Trump appeared to turn against Putin at the weekend after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral, saying he felt the Russian leader was “just tapping me along.”At the same time he has been pressuring Kyiv to give up hopes of reclaiming Russian-annexed Crimea.Climate change is also expected to feature high on Brazil’s agenda for the talks, which take place months before the major UN COP30 climate summit being hosted in the Amazon city of Belem.The BRICS will be joined for discussions on Tuesday by nine other “partner” countries, including several former Soviet states, as well as Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda and Nigeria.

Hip-hop pioneers Outkast and rock duo The White Stripes are among 2025’s class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, the organization announced late Sunday.Cyndi Lauper, Chubby Checker, Soundgarden, Bad Company and Joe Cocker round out the performer slate of artists nominated into the prestigious music pantheon.Hip hop icons Salt-N-Pepa along with rocker Warren Zevon will receive awards for musical influence, while the late record producer Thom Bell, pianist Nicky Hopkins and bassist Carol Kaye will receive the prizes for musical excellence.The Ahmet Ertegun Award, which goes to a non-performing industry notable, is this year bestowed on Lenny Waronker, whose resume includes heading Warner Bros. Records and signing Prince and R.E.M. The induction ceremony — which doubles as a star-studded concert gala rife with tributes to the honorees — will be held November 8 in Los Angeles.It will stream live on Disney+, and will air later on the network ABC.The inductees were announced live on ABC late Sunday on “American Idol,” during a special rock edition of the long-running music talent show.Eligible nominees into the Rock Hall must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years prior to being nominated.Outkast, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker and Bad Company were all first-time nominees.The 2024 class of inductees included Cher, Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne.