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US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that negotiators are headed to Russia “right now” for talks on a possible ceasefire with Ukraine, after Kyiv agreed to a 30-day truce.Trump did not give further details, but the White House later said that his special envoy Steve Witkoff was going to Moscow later this week.”People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister.”And if we do, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”Ukraine gave the nod on Tuesday to a US-backed plan for a 30-day ceasefire at talks in Saudi Arabia — although President Volodymyr Zelensky says he still does not trust Russia.The Kremlin said earlier Wednesday that it was still waiting for Washington to inform it about the details of the proposal.Trump would not say when he would next speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but added that “I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire.” “It’s up to Russia now,” said Trump.”I’ve gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. This is a very serious situation, it could start World War Three.”Trump meanwhile said he could slap Moscow with “devastating” sanctions if it did not sign up to a ceasefire, but added that “I hope that’s not going to be necessary.””I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump added.Trump’s reluctance to pressure Russia stands in stark contrast to his recent approach toward Ukraine. The US president abruptly halted military aid to Kyiv on February 28 after an explosive argument with Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of television cameras.Washington resumed assistance on Tuesday after Kyiv agreed to the ceasefire plan in Jeddah, along with a deal giving the US preferential access to Ukraine’s natural resources.The crucial next step is for Washington to secure Russia’s agreement.Vice President JD Vance added that there were “conversations that are happening on the phone and in person” between US and Russian officials in the next two days.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said envoy Witkoff — a former property developer who has played a key role in talks to end both the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts — was “travelling to Moscow later this week.”US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had also spoken to his Russian counterpart on Wednesday, she said.”We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.”We are at the 10th yard line and the president expects the Russians to help us run this into the end zone,” she added, referring to the final stages of scoring in American football.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that envoys were headed to Moscow and expressed optimism for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war but officials said the United States wants Russia to agree an unconditional halt to the conflict.The Kremlin said it was awaiting details of a proposal agreed by Ukrainian and US officials this week, and gave no indication of its readiness to stop fighting that has left tens of thousands dead in the past three years.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country had shown it was ready to embrace a deal, adding that the United States had indicated it would issue a “strong” response if President Vladimir Putin refuses an accord.”People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Ireland’s prime minister Micheal Martin.The White House said that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, a mediator in the Gaza and Ukraine wars, would be in Moscow this week.Trump did not say whether he would speak with Putin, but added that there had been “positive messages” from Moscow. “I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire.”- ‘Horrible bloodbath’ -He said that if fighting could be suspended, “I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington wanted Moscow’s agreement with no strings attached. “That’s what we want to know — if they’re prepared to do it unconditionally,” Rubio said on a plane heading to a G7 meeting in Canada.”If the response is, ‘yes’, then we know we’ve made real progress, and there’s a real chance of peace. If their response is ‘no’, it would be highly unfortunate, and it’ll make their intentions clear,” he added.Rubio was to give an update on the initiative at the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada.While the Kremlin made no immediate comment on the US-Ukraine proposal — which was agreed at a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday — the Russian foreign ministry said earlier this month that a temporary ceasefire would be unacceptable.Trump said he could order “devastating” sanctions against Russia if it refused but added: “I hope that’s not going to be necessary.”- ‘None of us trust the Russians’ -“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump said.The development was the latest dramatic swing in diplomacy swirling around the conflict. It came less than two weeks after Trump kicked Zelensky out of the White House complaining about the Ukrainian leader’s attitude to US assistance.Trump halted military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv but that resumed after Ukraine agreed to the truce proposal on Tuesday.Trump said earlier he was ready to welcome Zelensky back to the White House and may speak to Putin this week.In Kyiv, Zelensky said the United States would pile pressure on Moscow if it did not accept the idea.”I understand that we can count on strong steps. I don’t know the details yet but we are talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters.”Everything depends on whether Russia wants a ceasefire and silence, or it wants to continue killing people,” the Ukrainian leader added.He said there was no faith among Ukrainians that a ceasefire would happen. “I have emphasized this many times, none of us trust the Russians.”Ukraine is increasingly suffering on the battlefield, losing ground in the east and south of the country, where officials said eight people were killed on Wednesday.Russia has also reclaimed territory in its western Kursk region, pushing back Ukrainian troops who staged a shock offensive last August.Putin on Wednesday visited troops involved in the Kursk counteroffensive and received a report on their progress, TV images showed.Ukraine this week unleashed its largest ever drone attack on Russia, killing three people near Moscow. Russia has also stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine.Even if Putin agrees a ceasefire, much remains uncertain in negotiations. Ukraine has pressed for security guarantees, but Trump has ruled out NATO membership.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he earlier assumed Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz would “inform” Moscow “on the negotiations that took place and the understandings reached.”Earlier, Russian news agencies reported that the heads of the CIA and Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency had held their first phone call in several years.burs-jc/tw/bgs/sms

US President Donald Trump’s administration is set to eliminate environmental justice offices that address pollution in low-income and minority communities across the United States, including Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”The move, which will impact the agency’s 10 regional offices and headquarters, was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lee Zeldin on Wednesday.”The problem is that in the name of environmental justice, a fortune has been sent to left-wing activist groups,” Zeldin told reporters. “President Trump wants us to help usher in a golden age in America that is for all Americans, regardless of race, gender, background,” he added.Environmental groups reacted with anger.”President Trump and his allies have no regard for the well-being of people living in America and care only about protecting the profits of polluters,” said Chitra Kumar, of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “This abhorrent move will leave those living, working, studying, and playing near polluting industries, smog-forming traffic, and contaminated waterways and soil, with little support from the very agency they rely on to enforce protective law.”Former president Joe Biden made environmental justice a central pillar of his green agenda. His Justice40 initiative — since rolled back by Trump — aimed to direct 40 percent of federal investments in climate, clean energy, and affordable housing to historically marginalized communities.The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate law, allocated $3 billion to the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which was established under Republican former president George H.W. Bush in 1992.Zeldin’s EPA on Monday announced it was cutting 400 grants totaling $1.7 billion related to environmental justice initiatives. Last week, Trump’s Justice Department also announced it was dropping a lawsuit on behalf of the EPA against Denka Performance Elastomer concerning its neoprene manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. The plant is located in a stretch of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” which accounts for around a quarter of US petrochemical production and has among the highest cancer rates in the country.Zeldin’s EPA plans to cut 65 percent of its budget. “The total amount of spending that was made in 2024 totaled over $60 billion,” he said, referring to the amount appropriated to the agency by the The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “We don’t need that much money. We don’t want that much money. We can operate with less than 35 percent of that amount.”The former Republican congressman said there were a “few hundred” probationary employees that had already departed, and the remaining staff were being asked to justify their positions.”I want to know what every employee would define as their job description, what they believe their job to be, who they believe is their supervisor, what they believe their supervisor’s job is,” he said, adding these answers would help determine the next rounds of staffing cuts. 

A lawyer for disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein called Wednesday for him to be given a “fresh eye” when he is retried for rape and sexual assault.Weinstein, 72, looked frail as he appeared in a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing ahead of a retrial on legal grounds that follows the overturn of his 2020 convictions.The judge has set the date of his retrial for April 15 and previously declined to move proceedings.A lawyer for the former movie mogul, who is in poor health and underwent emergency heart surgery last year, said “you have to be looking at this with a fresh eye.”The judge in the case, Curtis Farber, said “everything is being done anew.” Weinstein, who did not speak at the hearing, is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted on separate rape charges in California.His New York conviction in 2020 was for the rape and sexual assault of an actress and for forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant.He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in that case.But the New York Court of Appeals overturned the conviction.Allegations against Weinstein helped launch the #MeToo movement in 2017, a watershed moment for women fighting sexual misconduct.More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.Weinstein claimed any sexual relations in question were consensual.Another lawyer for Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said Wednesday “what happened was consensual and therefore there is no victim.”Weinstein and his brother Bob co-founded Miramax Films.Their hits included 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” for which Weinstein shared a best picture Oscar.

Mobile games giant Scopely will pay $3.5 billion to acquire Niantic’s game unit including the studio behind Pokemon Go, the companies announced on Wednesday.The purchase will add Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now teams to a Scopely stable that includes popular mobile title Monopoly Go.”We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world,” Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said of Niantic.”We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership.”San Francisco-based Niantic plans to spin off its geospatial artificial intelligence business into a new company led by founder and chief executive John Hanke.Niantic is known for mobile games that combine real-world mapping and exploration with play by synching challenges or accomplishments with locations detected by smartphones.More than 100 million people play Niantic games, according to the company.”We spun out as a small team from Google with a bold vision: to use technology to overlay the world with rich digital experiences,” Niantic said of separating from the internet giant in late 2015.”Our goal: to inspire people to explore their surroundings and foster real-world connections, especially at a time when relationships were becoming increasingly digital.”Niantic sees the rapid advance of AI as an opportunity to put its geospatial technology to work in consumer and business applications along with games.The new company, called Niantic Spatial, is developing a model to enable people and machines to understand and navigate the real world.It will keep some of its augmented reality games including Ingress Prime, and Scopely will be an investor in the enterprise, according to Niantic.Scopely games include Monopoly Go, Marvel Strike Force, and Star Trek Fleet Command.Scopely said the deal, valued at $3.5 billion, will bring it Niantic’s entire team of game makers.

A leader of US student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza slated for removal has been denied legal advice, a judge heard Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s conduct of the war, was arrested and taken to Louisiana over the weekend, sparking protests.The government has not accused Khalil of breaking any laws, suggesting instead that his permanent residency was being revoked over his involvement in the protests.His arrest has triggered outrage from critics of the Trump administration as well as free speech advocates, including some on the political right, who say such a move has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.Khalil had only spoken to lawyers on a monitored phone line from Louisiana and had not yet had a privileged conversation with them, his attorney Ramzi Kaseem told a federal court in New York Wednesday.He was “taken at night as he walked home with his wife and taken 1,000 miles away to Louisiana,” Kaseem told the court, noting Khalil’s wife, a US citizen, is eight months pregnant with their first child.Khalil was “detained and processed for deportation… because he was in advocacy of Palestinian rights.””Help us gain more regular access — we have not been able to confer — our access to our client is severely limited.”Judge Jesse Furman ordered that Khalil receive a daily call protected by client-attorney privilege, meaning the authorities cannot monitor its content. – ‘Prohibiting anti-Semitism’ –  There was no immediate decision on deportation, or on the legal question of where the case should be heard, with the government arguing it should be either New Jersey, where Khalil was processed, or Louisiana.Judge Furman set a deadline of Friday for the government to submit arguments to the court with a decision due on Monday.Outside the hearing, hundreds protested in support of Khalil, flying Palestinian flags and holding up banners, while actress Susan Sarandon was at court to back the detained man.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied Wednesday that the arrest was an attack on free speech.”Once you’re in this country on such a (student) visa, we will revoke it” for alleged support of Hamas, he said in Ireland on the way to a G7 meeting of foreign ministers. “And if you end up having a green card, not citizenship, but a green card as a result of that visa, while you’re here (doing) those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that,” he said.The Department of Homeland Security, in announcing Khalil’s arrest, said it had acted “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State.”On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said authorities had supplied a list of other Columbia students that officers were seeking to deport over their alleged participation in protests.The university — which has already seen $400 million in federal funding cut over accusations of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism — was not cooperating, she added.Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel counter-protesters.Trump and other Republicans have broadly accused the protesters of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the war.

US consumer inflation inched lower in February according to government data Wednesday, in the first full month of Donald Trump’s White House return — but concerns remain over stubborn price growth as jitters flare over the president’s trade policies.The consumer price index (CPI) came in at 2.8 percent last month from a year ago, down from 3.0 percent in January, said the Department of Labor. This was slightly better than a consensus forecast of analysts predicted.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the report showed “the economy is moving in the right direction under President Trump,” pointing to his plans for “massive deregulation and energy dominance” to push down costs.While easing inflation is a relief for policymakers, the latest reading is just the lowest since late-2024, signaling a longer road ahead to bringing price increases back to officials’ two percent target.The world’s biggest economy is also grappling with fears of a downturn — and near-term inflation — sparked by Trump’s expanding slate of tariffs.On Wednesday, Trump’s latest salvo of 25 percent levies on steel and aluminum imports kicked in, sparking vows of firm responses from the European Union and China.The European Commission said it would impose countermeasures from April 1 to counter Washington’s “unjustified trade restrictions.”Between January and February, the CPI picked up 0.2 percent, Labor Department data showed, also a cooldown from January’s 0.5 percent figure.Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the index was up 3.1 percent from a year prior, an improvement from before as well.Last month, a pick-up in shelter costs was partially offset by declines for airline fares and gasoline prices. The index for food also picked up for the month.The index for eggs jumped 10.4 percent, the report said.Egg prices — a hot political issue — have surged recently as the country contended with an avian flu outbreak.- Tariff impact coming? -Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China since taking office, providing only a partial rollback for the United States’ immediate neighbors.But the added 10 percent tariffs on China “don’t appear to have had a discernible impact” last month including for apparel, furniture and electronic prices, said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.The US president has since doubled the additional rate targeting the world’s second biggest economy to 20 percent.”Odds are that these tariffs and others that the Trump administration recently implemented will begin to lift US consumer prices over the next few months,” Sweet said.Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics added that recent manufacturing surveys pointed to “an imminent upturn in CPI core goods inflation.”- Fed on sideline -Sweet said the smaller-than-anticipated inflation hike is unlikely to change the Federal Reserve’s calculus.The central bank “will remain on the sideline until there is more clarity on tariffs, fiscal policy, and how the Trump administration’s immigration policies affect inflation and the economy,” he said.”I expect to see more risks going forward, particularly with the tariffs and the uncertainty around them,” said economist Dan North of Allianz Trade North America.”This level of uncertainty is, you might say, trailblazing,” he told AFP.Even though inflation came in a touch below a consensus forecast by analysts, North pointed out that downward progress remains sluggish.”We still have spending even though it’s slowing down, we still have a strong labor market,” North noted. “From the aspect of stimulating the economy, there’s no need for a cut.”Fed policymakers will be gathering next Tuesday and Wednesday to mull further adjustments to the benchmark lending rate, after chair Jerome Powell maintained last week that the bank need not rush toward changes.

An American dog owner was shot by his pet after it jumped on his bed and set off a loaded gun, police said Wednesday.The man, from Memphis, Tennessee, was asleep beside his female partner when he was shot early Monday morning, escaping with a graze to his left thigh that was treated in hospital.The dog — a year-old pit bull named Oreo — “got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and ended up hitting the trigger,” a police incident report said.It did not specify the type of weapon fired, and recorded the incident as “accidental injury.”While gun violence is prolific in the United States, cases of animals shooting humans are rare.Two years ago, a German shepherd dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas after it stepped on a hunting rifle.In 2018, a 51-year-old man from Iowa was shot in the leg by his pit bull-Labrador mix. Local news station Fox 13 Memphis cited the Tennessee victim’s girlfriend, who was not named, as saying she was sleeping when the gun went off.”The dog is a playful dog, and he likes to jump around and stuff like that, and it just went off,” she reportedly said. Her lesson from the incident: “Keep the safety on or use a trigger lock.”

The arrest of a pro-Palestinian activist does not contradict the US administration’s stance on defending free speech, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.”This is not about free speech,” Rubio said when asked if the weekend arrest of Mahmoud Khalil clashed with President Donald Trump’s championing of the right to express opinions in the United States and in Europe.”This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with,” Rubio told reporters at Ireland’s Shannon Airport during a refuelling stop after a trip to Saudi Arabia.Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia and one of the most prominent faces of the university’s high-profile protests, was arrested by US immigration officials even though the university’s student union and his lawyer said he held a Green Card allowing permanent residency. Protesters in New York and rights groups have expressed outrage after Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the city’s Columbia University, was arrested over the weekend.Trump has said Khalil’s arrest is the first “of many to come”, accusing students across the country of being engaged in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” that his administration “will not tolerate”.”No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a Green Card, by the way,” said Rubio. “When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country -— on a visitor’s visa -— you are here as a visitor,” he said. “We can deny you that if you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa, I am a big supporter of Hamas,'” he added. The US Department of Homeland Security, confirming Khalil’s arrest, claimed that he had “led activities aligned to Hamas” and that the DHS action was taken “in coordination with the Department of State”.The protests at Columbia, launched last year in opposition to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, brought widespread media attention as tensions mounted on the campus and spread to other universities around the country.Some protests turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied, while students protesting Israel’s conduct were frequently pitted against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish.Trump and other Republicans have broadly accused the protesters of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the war.

China and the EU vowed Wednesday to strike back and defend their economic interests against sweeping new US steel and aluminium tariffs, moving Washington closer to an all-out trade war with two major partners.The levies took effect just after midnight on Wednesday “with no exceptions or exemptions”, as promised by the White House — despite countries’ efforts to avert them.The European Commission said 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 that “the countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate”.”As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth” the equivalent in euros, she said.And China, the world’s leading steel manufacturer — though not a major exporter of the product to the United States — vowed “all necessary measures” in response.”There are no winners in trade wars,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.Washington’s tariffs would “seriously damage the rules-based multilateral trading system”, she warned.US 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, experts say.”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.- Trade turmoil -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 neighbours while vowing fresh levies from April 2.The latest duties will again impact Canada heavily, with the country supplying about half of US aluminium 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 aluminium.Wednesday’s levies stack atop earlier ones. This means some Canada and Mexico steel and aluminium 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.Markets in Asia followed suit Wednesday, with Hong Kong and Shanghai both down.- ‘Massive uncertainty’ -Washington has framed the tariff moves as a bid to protect US steel and American workers as the sector declines and faces fierce overseas competition, especially from Asia.And it’s not the first time Trump has slapped tariffs on the metals.During his first presidency, he imposed duties on steel and aluminium exports in 2018 — forcing the EU to respond with its own higher duties that are frozen until the end of March.As part of the EU’s two-pronged approach to Trump’s actions, von der Leyen said Brussels will also allow those previous higher levies to be reinstated.The EU’s countermeasures would be fully in place by mid-April unless Trump reverses course.Even before the latest US tariffs took effect, manufacturers moved to find cost-effective domestic suppliers.The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute’s Packard, has allowed US steel and aluminium 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 aluminium levies go further than measures Trump imposed in 2018 — covering a range of finished products atop of raw steel and aluminium.There is also a higher rate on aluminium 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.Top Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday it was “regrettable” that it had not succeeded.And Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the tariffs were “entirely unjustified” but that his country would not retaliate.The UK government called the new US tariffs “disappointing”, but stopped short of retaliating as it seeks a wider economic agreement with Washington.burs-oho/sco