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US President Donald Trump lashed out Sunday at the leaders of both warring parties in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, expressing frustration as efforts to kick-start ceasefire talks remain deadlocked.Trump first criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin for questioning the credibility of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as a negotiating partner, saying he was “very angry, pissed off” with the Kremlin chief.But the US leader later softened his tone on Putin and instead turned his ire on Zelensky, warning him Ukraine would have “big, big problems” if he got cold feet over a deal to sign over mineral rights to the United States.Trump is trying to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and its Russian invader, and has been pushing Zelensky to sign an agreement to give US firms exclusive access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.Earlier Sunday, NBC News journalist Kristen Welker said Trump had called her to express his fury over Putin questioning Zelensky’s future — something Trump himself has done — and threatening secondary tariffs on firms dealing in Russian oil.Later, Trump spoke to reporters on his plane flying back to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and toned down some of his criticism.  – ‘Big problems’ -“I was disappointed in a certain way,” Trump said. “Some of the things that he said over the last day or two having to do with Zelensky because when he considers Zelensky not credible. He’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or you don’t like him.”So I wasn’t happy with that, but I think he’s going to be good and I certainly wouldn’t want to put secondary tariffs on Russia.”Trump then turned his fire on Zelensky, saying: “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that he’s got some problems. Big, big problems.”We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal. He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems.”The US president has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office, but his administration has failed to reach a breakthrough despite negotiations with both sides.Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian plan for a 30-day ceasefire, and on Friday suggested Zelensky be removed from office as part of the peace process.Warming ties between Washington and Moscow since Trump’s return to office and his threats to stop supporting Kyiv have bolstered Russia on the battlefield as it pursues its floundering invasion.Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out talks with no intention of halting its offensive, with fresh attacks on the northeastern border city of Kharkiv.Six strikes hit overnight Saturday into Sunday, wounding personnel undergoing treatment at a military hospital and killing at least two people in a residential building, according to Ukrainian officials.Russian forces also captured a village just seven kilometers (four miles) from the border of Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region in their latest advance, Moscow said Sunday.The Kremlin’s troops have not crossed the boundary of the region since their offensive began in 2022, but they have been grinding toward it for months in the hope of a breakthrough.- No ceasefire -Putin, in power for 25 years and repeatedly elected in votes with no competition, has often questioned Zelensky’s “legitimacy” as president, after the Ukrainian leader’s initial five-year mandate ended in May 2024.Under Ukrainian law, elections are suspended during times of major military conflict, and Zelensky’s domestic opponents have all said no ballots should be held until after the conflict.Trump has himself had rocky relations with Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” and clashing with him live on camera at the White House last month.Zelensky, in his evening address on Saturday, sought to rally his country’s allies against Putin.”For too long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an adequate response from Russia,” Zelensky said. “There could already be a ceasefire if there was real pressure on Russia.” 

Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his suggestion he might seek a third term as president, which would defy the two-term limit stipulated in the US Constitution.In a Sunday morning phone call with NBC News, Trump said “I’m not joking,” when asked to clarify a remark on seeking another term, adding: “There are methods which you could do it.”The 78-year-old billionaire has a long history of suggesting he might serve more than two terms, but Sunday’s remarks — followed by comments to reporters aboard Air Force One — were the most concrete in terms of referring to plans in place to achieve the goal.Trump has launched his second presidency with an unprecedented demonstration of executive power, using the world’s richest man Elon Musk to dismantle swaths of the government, and said his supporters want even more.”We have almost four years to go and that’s a long time but despite that so many people are saying you’ve got to run again. They love the job we’re doing,” Trump said Sunday aboard the presidential jet, apparently referring to his political allies and supporters.Trump appeared to wave off a reporter’s question about whether he is planning not to leave office on January 20, 2029, the next Inauguration Day, saying: “I’m not looking at that, but I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term.”Earlier in the day Trump told NBC he had been presented with plans that would allow him to seek reelection.When the network asked Trump of a possible scenario whereby Vice President JD Vance would run for president and then abdicate the role to Trump, the president said “that’s one” method.He added that “there are others,” but refused to share further details.Amending the US Constitution to allow a third presidential term would require a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, which Trump’s Republican Party does not have, or a constitutional convention called by two thirds of the states that would propose changes to the charter.Both routes appear to be unlikely, given the current number of states and Congressional seats under Republican control.Whether he goes through Congress or the states, he would then require ratification from three-quarters of all state legislatures.A constitutional convention has never been successfully called in the United States, where all 27 constitutional amendments have been passed by the congressional method.In January, days after Trump took office, Republican Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a House joint resolution to amend the constitution to allow presidents up to three terms.

An election to choose a new supreme court judge in the northern US state of Wisconsin wouldn’t usually make much noise.But when the world’s richest man took an interest in the race, people began to notice, and protests on Sunday drew crowds.Tech baron and political provocateur Elon Musk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has poured money into the Tuesday election, hoping to secure a conservative win.The liberal candidate, 60-year-old Susan Crawford, was campaigning the old-fashioned way, addressing a crowd at an antiques shop meeting on a rainy Sunday morning.”So Elon Musk, folks, that guy, right? He has now spent more than $25 million, it goes up every day,” Crawford told the crowd.”He’s working as the unelected right-hand man to the president. He’s got an agenda.”If Crawford’s Republican-backed opponent, Brad Schimel, beats her, he will tip the balance on the Wisconsin court to the right.Once every four years Wisconsin — home to six million people and mainly known for beer and cheese production — becomes a vital swing state in a presidential election.- Straight-armed salute -And if the conduct or result of that poll are challenged, it is the Wisconsin Supreme Court that will have to rule on that.      Musk’s support for Schimel could, therefore, be a political game-changer.But at small-town rallies, the South African-born oligarch’s eruption into Wisconsin’s affairs seems to have provoked as much resistance as support. Rob Patterson, a 65-year-old retired electrical engineer, came to a rally in Crawford with a sign showing Musk giving a straight-armed salute. “Oi wanker, our Supreme Court is not for sale,” the sign read.Since buying himself a $277 million role in Trump’s presidential campaign last year, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has gained unprecedented power for an unelected official.Once Trump returned to the White House he invited his sponsor to head a new cost-cutting agency named after an internet meme: the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In just a few weeks Musk has already sacked or suspended tens of thousands of federal workers, gutted foreign aid and begun the job of dismantling several agencies. “It’s like a bull in a china shop. He has no idea what he’s doing,” complained Patterson.Outside a supermarket in Elkhorn, 70-year old retired elementary school teacher Linda Suskey says she plans to vote for Crawford to keep balance in the court.And she doesn’t have much time for Musk’s blandishments.”He uses his money to get what he wants, which is more money,” she told AFP.”I think he’s got too much power, and he doesn’t answer to anybody — and yeah, he’s just controlling things to help the rich get richer.”These views are not universal. Wisconsin is a swing state for a reason, and conservative voters like 60-year-old Matt Edler thinks Musk’s DOGE work is “excellent.””Elon Musk has been appointed… by the president to do it. If it wasn’t his name, it could be anybody else’s name, but the actions I think are warranted,” he said.- ‘Activist judges’ -But Edler’s not sure yet whether he will vote on Tuesday, and he said he wasn’t aware of what Musk has been doing to help Schimel defeat Crawford.Aside from campaign donations to the conservative, Musk has promised two prize checks of $1 million each to two voters who turn out in the court race.This mirrored his scheme during the presidential race to hand out $1 million a day to a voter who registered in a swing state vital to Trump’s victory.Through his political organization, Musk has also offered $100 each to voters who sign his petition against “activist judges” in Wisconsin.When he launched the petition, Crawford accused him of seeking to buy a seat on the state supreme court in order to swing judgements in favor of his companies.Tesla has launched a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s law banning car automakers from directly owning car dealerships. The case could well end up before the court. 

An enormous tree known as the Jackson Magnolia which has shaded the White House’s South Portico for the majority of US presidencies will be taken down this week, Donald Trump said Sunday.Arborists have struggled for years to keep alive the sickly southern magnolia, whose striking figure marks a focal point along the building’s southern facade.According to tradition, the tree was planted by former president Andrew Jackson to commemorate his wife who died just before his swearing-in in 1829. It was purportedly a sapling brought from his home in Tennessee.The tree is the oldest on the White House grounds, according to the National Park Service, which notes that starting in the 1870s most presidents began installing their own commemorative trees.”The bad news is that everything must come to an end,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, explaining that the magnolia was “in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed.”Trump said the historic magnolia would be replaced by “another, very beautiful tree” and that its wood would be preserved “and may be used for other high and noble purposes.”The White House gardens already made headlines earlier this year when Trump said he was planning to pave over the famed Rose Garden that the Oval Office overlooks, to give it the patio-like feel of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.”The grass just doesn’t work,” Trump told Fox News, adding that it gets “soaking wet.”During Trump’s first term, his wife Melania oversaw a renovation of the Rose Garden, controversially rearranging the fabled plot’s traditional design.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was “very angry, pissed off” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, NBC reported, marking a sharp change of tone as Washington seeks to end the war in Ukraine.NBC’s Kristen Welker said Trump had called her to express his fury over Putin questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s future as a leader — something that Trump himself has done.Welker, on her NBC show “Meet The Press” on Sunday, quoted directly from an early-morning telephone conversation with the president.”If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault… I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.Trump told Welker that he “was very angry, pissed off” over Putin’s recent comments about Zelensky’s credibility and talking about new leadership in Ukraine.The US president has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office, but his administration has failed to reach a breakthrough despite negotiations with both sides.Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian plan for a 30-day ceasefire, and on Friday suggested Zelensky be removed from office as part of the peace process.Trump told NBC that Putin knows he is angry, but said that he has “a very good relationship with him” and “the anger dissipates quickly… if he does the right thing.”- Russia bolstered -Warming ties between Washington and Moscow since Trump’s return to office and his threats to stop supporting Kyiv have bolstered Russia on the battlefield as it pursues its floundering invasion.Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out talks with no intention of halting its offensive, with fresh attacks on the northeastern border city of Kharkiv.Six strikes hit overnight Saturday into Sunday, wounding personnel undergoing treatment at a military hospital and killing at least two people in a residential building, according to Ukrainian officials.Russian forces also captured a village just seven kilometers (four miles) from the border of Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region in their latest advance, Moscow said Sunday.The Kremlin’s troops have not crossed the boundary of the region since their offensive began in 2022, but they have been grinding toward it for months in the hope of a breakthrough.- No ceasefire -Putin, in power for 25 years and repeatedly elected in votes with no competition, has often questioned Zelensky’s “legitimacy” as president, after the Ukrainian leader’s initial five-year mandate ended in May 2024.Under Ukrainian law, elections are suspended during times of major military conflict, and Zelensky’s domestic opponents have all said no ballots should be held until after the conflict.Trump has himself had rocky relations with Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” and clashing with him live on camera at the White House last month.Zelensky, in his evening address on Saturday, sought to rally his country’s allies against Putin.”For too long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an adequate response from Russia,” Zelensky said.”There could already be a ceasefire if there was real pressure on Russia,” he added, thanking those countries “who understand this” and have stepped up sanctions pressure on the Kremlin.Both Moscow and Kyiv agreed to the concept of a Black Sea truce following talks with US officials earlier this week, but Russia said the deal would not enter into force until Ukraine’s allies lifted certain sanctions.Explaining the secondary tariffs threat, Trump told NBC it would be that “if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States.””There will be a 25 percent tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50 point tariff on all oil,” he said, without giving further details.UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo told AFP that targeting buyers — as Trump has done with Venezuela’s oil — could mean China and India.”We need to see, however, what will be announced over the coming days,” he cautioned.

Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his suggestion that he might seek a third term as US president, NBC News reported, which would defy the two-term limit stipulated in the US constitution.In a Sunday-morning phone call with NBC News, Trump said “I’m not joking,” when asked to clarify a remark on seeking another term, adding: “There are methods which you could do it.”The 78-year-old billionaire has a history of suggesting he might serve more than two terms, but Sunday’s remarks were the most concrete in terms of referring to plans to achieve the goal.Trump has launched his second presidency with an unprecedented blitz of executive power, using the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, to dismantle swaths of the government, and said his supporters want even more.”A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told NBC News on Sunday. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”Amending the US constitution to allow a third presidential term would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, which Trump’s Republican Party does not have.Trump said it was “far too early to think about it,” but told NBC he had been presented with plans that would allow him to seek reelection.When NBC asked Trump of a possible scenario whereby Vice President JD Vance would run for president and then abdicate the role to Trump, the US president said “that’s one” method.He added that “there are others,” but refused to share further details.If Trump does not approach Congress for the constitutional amendment, he would need to get support from two-thirds of the country’s 50 states to call a constitutional convention that would propose changes to the charter.Whether he goes through Congress or the states, he would then require ratification from three-quarters of all states.Both routes appear to be unlikely, given the current number of states and Congressional seats under Republican control.A constitutional convention has never been successfully called in the United States, where all 27 constitutional amendments have been passed by the congressional method.In January, days after Trump took office, Republican Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a House joint resolution to amend the constitution to allow presidents up to three terms.

MGM’s new thriller “A Working Man,” with Jason Statham, emerged atop a flock of new films this weekend in North America, earning an estimated $15.2 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.The action film, from “Suicide Squad” director David Ayer, features Statham as a military veteran who comes out of retirement to seek the kidnappers of his boss’s daughter.It grabbed the top spot from Disney’s “Snow White” remake, which saw ticket sales plunge.The big-budget Disney film plummeted from last weekend’s $45 million opening to just $14.2 million despite showing in 4,200 theaters — the year’s lowest debut for a movie opening in at least 3,000 theaters, analysts said.For “Snow White,” “any hopes of a box office rebound evaporated with a very poor showing,” said Daniel Loria, a vice president at the Boxoffice Company. While it “should still cross the $100 million mark domestically, (it) stands out as the first major box office disappointment of 2025.”Three other new releases rounded out the weekend box office.”The Chosen: Last Supper Part I,” part of a Fathom Events series about the life and teachings of Jesus, scored an unexpectedly strong $11.5 million, placing third for the Friday-through-Sunday period.Universal’s psychological horror film “The Woman in the Yard,” about a widowed single mother who receives an ominous warning from a strange woman, placed fourth, at $9.5 million. Danielle Deadwyler stars.And A24’s comedy horror film “Death of a Unicorn,” with Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as a father and daughter who accidentally kill a young unicorn — drawing the wrath of its parents — scored $5.8 million in ticket sales.The year’s first quarter, Loria said, will be the worst such three-month stretch since 2022, “but we expect the market to begin its rebound in April before a strong summer season kicks off.”Rounding out the top 10 were:”Princess Mononoke 4K” ($4 million)”Captain America: Brave New World” ($2.8 million)”Black Bag” ($2.2 million)”Mickey 17″ ($1.9 million)”Novocaine” ($1.5 million)

The United States will ensure “robust, ready and credible deterrence” across the Taiwan Strait, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, calling China “aggressive and coercive”.Hegseth also stopped short of publicly calling on Tokyo to hike military spending, saying in Japan he trusted the close US ally to “make the correct determination of what capabilities are needed”.”America is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait,” Hegseth said, using Washington’s term for the Asia-Pacific region. Beijing has stepped up military pressure in recent years around Taiwan, including near-daily air incursions, and has not ruled out using force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.US President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach could mean weakening the US commitment for security in the region, analysts have warned.But Hegseth said the previous US administration had “created this vacuum, a perception that America was not strong, and wasn’t prepared to deter conflicts from starting”.”Our job now at this moment, here with our allies, is to say: We are re-establishing deterrence. Peace through strength, with America in the lead, is back,” the Pentagon chief told reporters.He said Washington would “build an alliance so robust that both the reality and the perception of deterrence is real and ongoing, so that the Communist Chinese don’t take the aggressive actions that some have contemplated they will”.- ‘Who makes these deals?’ -Hegseth, 44, a former infantryman and Fox News personality, hailed the “extraordinary strength of America’s alliance with Japan”.”President Trump has also made it very clear, and we reiterate, we are going to put America first. But America first does not mean America alone,” he said.”America and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive and coercive actions by the Communist Chinese.”There have also been expectations that, as he has done in Europe, Trump would press its allies in Asia to increase military spending and to do more to ensure their own defence.”We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us,” Trump said this month.”I actually ask, who makes these deals?”Japan’s government has also been reeling from Trump’s decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on auto imports from April 3.The United States has 54,000 US military personnel stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa, east of Taiwan.Hegseth said he “did not talk specific numbers” about defence spending in his talks with Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani on Sunday.”We’re confident that Japan will make the correct determination of what capabilities are needed inside our alliance to make sure we are standing shoulder to shoulder,” he said.”They have been a model ally and we have no doubt that will continue. But we also both recognise everybody needs to do more.”Nakatani said he told Hegseth that spending should be “implemented based on Japan’s own judgement and responsibility”. “I also explained Japan has continuously been working on a drastic strengthening of our defence capability… on which we received understanding from the US side,” he said.- Counterstrike -Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain “counterstrike” capabilities and doubling military spending to the NATO standard of two percent of GDP.Former US President Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister at the time, announced a “new era” in cooperation at a summit at the White House last year.This includes the creation of a new Japan-based US headquarters to take over operational oversight of US forces in Japan from US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.It will serve as a counterpart to Japan’s new Joint Operations Command for all its armed forces, making the two militaries more nimble in the case of a crisis over Taiwan or the Korean peninsula.”We will accelerate our efforts to improve inter-operability and conduct effective bilaterally joint activities across the spectrum from peacetime to contingency,” Nakatani said on Sunday.”Expansion of the Japan-US presence in (Japan’s) southwestern region is one of our alliance’s top priorities,” he said.

The White House Correspondents’ Association dropped the comedian who was to headline its annual dinner, the body said Saturday, amid tensions with US President Donald Trump, who has targeted multiple outlets over their coverage.The comedian, Amber Ruffin, has previously criticized Trump and joked that no one would want to attend next month’s dinner with him.A White House spokesman had criticized her and the WHCA over her appearance at the dinner, traditionally headlined by a comedian who makes fun of whoever is president at the time. WHCA president Eugene Daniels said in a Saturday email to members that the board unanimously decided that “we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year.””At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” Daniels said.He said he would give further details as the April 26 dinner nears. A White House spokesman called the decision “a cop out.”Trump’s team has clashed with the WHCA, an independent body representing journalists covering the White House, since his return to power in January.In February it stripped the WHCA of the nearly century-old power to decide which of them cover US presidential events, with Trump boasting that he was now “calling the shots” on media access. His administration said the WHCA would no longer have a “monopoly” on choosing members of the “press pool.”The press pool is a small group of reporters that covers the US president in often cramped spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, and shares their material with other news organizations.The WHCA — of which AFP is a member — said the decision “tears at the independence of the free press.” The White House has also banned reporters from the Associated Press news agency from the Oval Office and travelling on Air Force One since February.It did so because the AP continues to refer to the Gulf of Mexico, an international body of water, and not simply the “Gulf of America” as decreed by Trump.The AP has filed a suit against three White House officials arguing that the denial of access violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.

Has Apple, the biggest company in the world, bungled its generative artificial intelligence strategy?Doubts blew out into the open when one of the company’s closest observers, tech analyst John Gruber, earlier this month gave a blistering critique in a blog post titled “Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino,” which is home to Apple’s headquarters.The respected analyst and Apple enthusiast said he was furious for not being more skeptical when the company announced last June that its Siri chatbot would be getting a major generative AI (genAI) upgrade. The technology, to be released as part of the Apple Intelligence suite of iPhone software, was to catapult the much-derided voice assistant’s capabilities beyond just giving the weather or setting a timer.Investors hoped the upgrade would launch the iPhone on a much-needed super-cycle, in which a new feature on the smartphone proves so tantalizing that users rush to snap up the latest and most expensive models.Apple Intelligence and its promised Siri upgrade was very much supposed to fuel that demand, starting as soon as the release of the iPhone 16, which came out in September.Instead Apple quietly announced on March 7 that the highly personalized Siri would not be coming as early as hoped.Adding to the pressure, Amazon in February announced a new version of its Alexa voice assistant that is powered by genAI.”It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year,” Apple said.- Data privacy vs AI -Theories vary on why Apple is having trouble seizing the AI moment.For Marcus Collins, marketing professor at the University of Michigan, Apple’s struggles with genAI and Siri in particular may be more due to the importance the company gives to data privacy than any problem with innovating.For AI to be personalized, it needs to consume massive amounts of personal data.And “Apple hasn’t let up on the gas when it comes to privacy,” Collins told AFP.But at some point, “people’s information, creations, language… are all being exploited to help grow better AI,” and squaring that circle might be harder than bargained for by Apple.For tech analyst Avi Greengart, “The fact that Apple has advertised Apple Intelligence so heavily with the iPhone 16 is a bit of a black eye, because most of what was promised in Apple Intelligence is not in the iPhone 16.”But he cautions that even if Google’s Gemini AI features in its Android line of phones are way ahead of anything Apple has delivered, customers may not have noticed much.”Even the best implementation of AI on phones today doesn’t fundamentally change the way you use your phone yet,” he said.”No one has delivered on the full vision and that gives Apple time to catch up — but it certainly needs to catch up.”Still, Apple’s harshest critics complain that Apple rests too much on its laurels and the uber-popularity of its iPhone.Moreover, the stumbles on AI came swiftly after lackluster reception of Vision Pro, Apple’s expensive virtual reality headset that has failed to gain traction since its release in 2024.Despite the recent negative headlines for Apple and the fact that its share price is down 8 percent since the start of the year, it remains the world’s most valuable company and its stock is still up almost 30 percent from a year ago.And Apple reported a whopping $124.3 billion in revenue in the year-end holiday quarter, even if sales growth fell shy of market expectations.